Henry Jaglom Biography

Henry Jaglom has been one of the most independent of independent filmmakers since the 1970s, the maker of improvised dramas and romantic comedies that are predictably self-referential — a quality that his fans love and his critics hate. Jaglom got his start in the business as an actor, emerging from the Actors’ Studio in the 1960s to join new Hollywood rebels like Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper. Jaglom’s first film as a director came with 1971’s A Safe Place. It was the first of many of his films featuring a female protagonist, a quality that has led to Jaglom being described as a feminist filmmaker. But most of his films are pseudo-documentaries about his own life, with a heavy dose of what it’s like to be involved in the theater. As a result, his films are considered adventurous and edgy by actors and fans of live theater, while being dismissed as self-absorbed and boring by fans of cinema. Despite Jaglom’s chronically idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking, he’s been productive for more than four decades. His films include Sitting Ducks (1980); Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983, starring Karen Black); Someone to Love (1987, with Jaglom’s friend, Orson Welles); Venice/Venice (1992); Babyfever (1994); Deja Vu (1998); Irene in Time (2009); Queen of the Lot (2010); and Just 45 Minutes from Broadway (2012).