Award

Winmner

Best

Documentary

Feature,

1950

60 Minutes, Black & White

Robert Snyder's The Titan: Story of Michelangelo opened in 1951, and rightly earned that year's Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Adapted in part from Curt Oertel's Michelangelo: Life of a Titan, with a musical score by the noted German conductor Alois Melichar, Snyder's film was as powerful a tribute in its own time as was his Michelagniolo: Self Portrait of nearly four decades later. Again, we feel the swirl of violent events surrounding the artist's own struggles; the symbolic smashing of the great David sculpture becomes an allegory for its tragic times. The film bears the name, as sponsor, of the legendary documentarian Robert Flaherty; no greater tribute could be imagined...

"The Titan is more than merely a relic of its times. Even in black and white, it set a new standard for bringing the essence of a sovereign artist to the screen. Robert Snyder's own passion for exploring the nature of artistic creativity is as evident here as in his later masterpiece. The critic James Agee described it as "a new and exciting way to see some of the greatest work ever done. It still is."

- Alan Rich, Los Angeles Daily News