
Michael Roemer, maker of acclaimed but little-seen films, dies at 97
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
'Cortile Cascino' depicted a Sicilian life so grim that NBC executives balked at putting it on the air. It did not reappear until it was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993.
Advertisement
Long delay also befell 'Nothing but a Man,' directed by Mr. Roemer and written by him and Young, a frequent collaborator. With Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln in central roles, it tells the story of a Black railroad worker who is married to a preacher's daughter and who struggles to maintain his dignity in the segregated Alabama of the early 1960s.
Advertisement
Mr. Roemer and Young traveled through the South interviewing dozens of Black people about segregation's impact. For the actual shooting, however, they used locations in New Jersey, fearing hostility from Alabama authorities.
The movie had a brief theatrical run when it was released in 1964. Many distributors, Mr. Roemer said in a 2024 interview for this obituary, refused to book it in theaters with principally Black audiences.
Soon enough, 'Nothing but a Man' was gone. It wasn't until 1993 that it was rereleased, this time to wide acclaim. A year later, it was added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
Julius Harris (left) and Ivan Dixon in "Nothing But a Man" (1964), directed by Mr. Roemer.
Boston Globe Photo Archive
In 1969, Mr. Roemer wrote and directed 'The Plot Against Harry,' a comedy about a small-time numbers racketeer (played by Martin Priest) who goes to prison and eventually decides to change his ways and become an upstanding fellow. The only problem with the film was that audiences at private screenings did not laugh.
Two decades later, Mr. Roemer decided to make videotape copies of the film for his children. This time, a technician working on the transfer to tape kept laughing as he watched, and the director decided that maybe he had something after all.
'The Plot Against Harry' enjoyed a new life, a theater run and praise. It was nominated for six Independent Spirit Awards. In 1990, New York Times film critic Janet Maslin called it 'a funny, sharply drawn and appealingly modest film.'
Film critic J. Hoberman described Mr. Roemer in a 2024 interview as 'an empathetic director of actors and an unsentimental humanist, one of the few American filmmakers who shares those qualities with Jean Renoir.'
Advertisement
Other works by Mr. Roemer included 'Faces of Israel,' a short 1967 documentary; 'Dying,' a 1976 documentary about people near the end of life; and 'Vengeance Is Mine' (1984), a scripted film about mothers and daughters, originally titled 'Haunted,' starring Brooke Adams and Trish Van Devere. In 2022, Wesley Morris of the Times called 'Vengeance Is Mine' 'a masterpiece of direction, nothing too flashy but everything true.'
Despite being routinely praised by film critics and scholars, Mr. Roemer was well aware that appreciation by a much broader audience eluded him.
'I spent the last 40 years of my life writing scripts not made into movies,' he said in 2024, with a laugh. 'After a while, you kind of take a certain pride in not having been a success. I'm simply not a commercial filmmaker.'
Indeed, he said, his most successful work in terms of dollars was 'A Touch of the Times,' an hourlong silent film he made at Harvard. A fantasy about kite-flying, it ran at a movie house in Cambridge and earned well more in ticket sales than the $2,300 he had spent making it.
'If I could have made popular films, I would have,' Mr. Roemer told British newspaper The Guardian in 2023. 'But I believe in something. If I betray it, then I destroy myself.'
Michael Roemer was born in Berlin on Jan. 1, 1928, into a family whose shoe business provided a comfortable life. His parents, Gerhardt and Paula (Ettinger) Roemer, divorced when he was an infant, leaving him to be reared mostly by a governess (whom he said he found terrifying). Early on, he said, he came to appreciate life's 'unpredictability.'
Advertisement
After moving to England with his younger sister, Marion, in the rescue effort known in German as the Kindertransport, he attended a school whose students were mainly Jewish refugees like him. Once in the United States, he went to Harvard on a scholarship, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in English.
Six years after coming to America, he was reunited with his mother, and a few years after that, he met his father, who had begun a new life in England.
In 1953, the young filmmaker married Barbara Balze, a teacher. She died in 2007. In addition to his daughter, he leaves two sons -- Dr. David Roemer and Jonathan Roemer -- and two grandsons.
Soon after college, Mr. Roemer began an eight-year turn as a film editor and production manager for various companies. He then wrote and directed dozens of educational films for the Ford Foundation. Starting in 1966, he taught film theory and practice at Yale University, a professorship that lasted until he retired in 2017. 'I was 89 then,' he said. 'I don't think they realized how old I was.'
In a sense, he said in 2024, 'nothing happened in my life the way it was supposed to.' His films, though praised, were not slam-bang successes. But failure, he said, reveals character.
'The truth is, failure can be a very honorable thing,' he told The Washington Post in 1990. 'It's not that you have a failure. It's what you do with it.'
This article originally appeared in
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Popular 'Chicago Fire' Star Teases Return to the Show
Popular 'Chicago Fire' Star Teases Return to the Show originally appeared on Parade. Chicago Fire star Daniel Kyri is teasing that his character Darren Ritter will appear in the NBC series' upcoming 14th season. Collider reported that on August 4, Kyri uploaded an Instagram Story that showed him posing with Chicago Fire stars Jocelyn Hudon, who plays Lizzy Novak, and Hanako Greensmith, who plays Violet Mikami. The three actors wore their characters' Chicago Fire Department shirts. Kyri suggested he will be briefly returning to play Darren in Season 14 in the caption of the post. "Back! For a limited time only," read the caption. In April 2025, Deadline reported that Kyri, who began starring on Chicago Fire in 2018, was leaving the series following its 13th season. Kyri spoke about his time starring in Chicago Fire during a November 2024 interview with Quintessential Gentleman. He said he appreciated that past characters often come back to the show. "The great thing about our writers room and the show that we have is we keep finding ways to bring people back in new and interesting dynamics within the firehouse," said the actor. He also said the show's lack of stagnancy has allowed characters to have fresh and interesting dynamics with each other. In addition, Kyri shared his thoughts about his character being "a fan favorite" among viewers. "It feels really amazing. It feels really great. When your work is received in a positive way by anyone, I think that really is just a testament to the amount of time that you spent honing in your craft or your skills. So that in itself feels really validating," said Kyri during the interview. He also said playing the Chicago firefighter is "a really fun job." "I get to have fun at work. I get to have fun in my work. And I'm really happy that the people watching are responding to that," said Kyri. Popular 'Chicago Fire' Star Teases Return to the Show first appeared on Parade on Aug 4, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 4, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword


New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Jayden Daniels' mom criticized by ex-ESPNer after Commanders training camp interview
One ex-ESPN sportscaster thinks Jayden Daniels' mom needs to take a step back. 'She needs a hobby,' former 'SportsCenter' and 'Golic and Wingo' co-host host Trey Wingo posted on X Monday after the Commanders quarterback's mother, Regina Jackson, made a cameo in her son's NFL Network interview at training camp Saturday. Jackson is Daniels' money manager, although not his agent, and the two have an extremely close relationship. 'She's a mom first, and she's always going to be there to uplift me but if I'm doing wrong, she's gonna let me know,' Daniels said in the NFL Network interview with Jackson standing behind him. 'Even though I'm 24 years old, I'm still a grown man but I still gotta listen to my mom at some point.' Jackson went on to say: 'I'm very proud of him. The athlete, the man you guys see and you always need your mommas around, so.' When asked if she's at Commanders training camp each day, Jackson said she wasn't, quipping: 'Trust me, they'll tell you when I'm here.' 3 Jayden Daniels' mother, Regina Jackson, with her son in an interview on NFL Network. @nflnetwork/X That exchange was enough to elicit the post from Wingo, which received 29,000 likes but plenty of pushback. 'I promise this is not what you want, Trey,' said one user on X in a response that received 953 likes. 3 Former ESPN co-host Trey Wingo on April 24, 2019. AP 'The sports world heavily documents when young Black athletes become successful and get in trouble & criticize them for extended spans of time,' wrote another. 'But when one has a clear image, great reputation and has a close relationship with a parent, suddenly we don't want that. Odd isn't it?' 'Seems like a mother and her son get along,' posted a third. 'What's wrong with that?' 3 Jayden Daniels at Commanders training camp on July 23. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect Daniels is coming off a tremendous rookie season, in which he earned a Pro Bowl nod and won AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. The LSU product led the Commanders to a 12-5 record and NFC Championship game appearance, passing for 3,568 yards and 25 touchdowns.


USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
New Mexico football, Jason Eck parody 'The Office' to promote free kids' tickets
New Mexico football and Jason Eck have taken a page out of "The Office" and Michael Scott's playbook. In what was a recreation of an episode from NBC's "The Office," Eck and New Mexico Vice President and Director of Athletics Fernando Lovo announced that, instead of free tuition, kids under the age of 12 can get into a Lobos home game this season for free with a purchase of single-game ticket in the North End Zone. Eck's portrayal of Scott is pretty good, and the idea to make a parody of the "Scott's Tots" episode of the popular sitcom to promote the latest rollout of their "fan-first efforts" is well ...creative. It's not tuition or laptop batteries... it's 𝙁𝙍𝙀𝙀 football tickets for kids! #CoachEcksTots #GoLobos📰 REQUIRED READING: Ohio State football vs Texas in Week 1 to be 'Game of the Century' There are, of course, some restrictions to this deal. Noted in New Mexico's release, on top of the two-ticket maximum for the North End Zone, the ticket promo deal is eligible for five of the Lobos' six home games, with the only ineligible game being the Rio Grande Rivalry vs. New Mexico State on Sept. 27, and has a maximum of two tickets. "We want to create a great home field advantage for Lobo Football, and the best way to do that is to have our stands full," Lovo said in a statement. "But we also recognize that families are making tough decisions with their discretionary income, and this feels like a win-win. It provides affordable access to a great product and a memorable experience for kids and parents alike." Coming off a 5-7 campaign under former head coach Bronco Mendenhall, the Lobos added 45 players through the transfer portal this offseason according to 247Sports and were picked to finish second-to-last in the Mountain West preseason poll. Eck is now tasked with rebuilding the Lobos program, which includes eight consecutive seasons of not having a winning record and not appearing in a bowl game. New Mexico is set to kick the season off on the road at The Big House in Ann Arbor against Michigan at 8:30 p.m. ET. The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.