I feel loyal to Sight and Sound because it’s the journal that published my first film essay, “Blow-up: Antonioni in Transit” (Download) (Summer 1967), which was soon anthologized both in Italy and the USA. This was the piece that launched my career as an international film critic. It even elicited a fan letter from Maurice Yacowar, who was then a graduate student in London.
In their Spring 1969 issue, Sight and Sound also published two more of my essays: “Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point” (Download) an interview with Antonioni which he tried to get them to kill but which their Editor Penelope Houston insisted on publishing; and Rosemary’s Baby, a review co-written with Beverle Houston (no relation to Penelope), which was our first collaborative piece to appear in print.
After finishing our first book, Close-up: A Critical Perspective on Film (1972), Beverle and I published another essay in Sight and Sound’s Autumn 1973 issue, “Bertolucci and The Dance of Danger.” We were proud that this piece was later reprinted in their anthology, Sight and Sound: A Fiftieth Anniversary Selection, edited by David Wilson (BFI, 1982).