The Cinematheque

“A great movie about New York in the 1970s, a great tragicomedy of need and deception and resignation and, above all, ceaseless and vigorous argument.”

Geoffrey O’Brien, Frederick Wiseman

Often cited as the masterwork of Frederick Wiseman’s early period, Welfare stands as the director’s purest feat of structural precision, a closed loop that might contain a single day, or all the bureaucratic-inflicted suffering in the world. ​“You haven’t answered my question,” asserts one of the film’s early speakers, and what Wiseman’s impeccable ear for banter, argument, rant, and story captures over the nearly three hours that follow is seemingly every way the English language can be used to enact Kafkaesque refusal. ​“Welfare,” as Wiseman knows, is one of the most abused and caricatured words in the political lexicon. By training his attention on those trapped within (or outside) its strict definition, a rush of overwhelming detail sweeps in: impassioned voices rising above keyboard clatter and ringing phones, and cinematographer William Brayne’s finest photographic portrait, of people frozen out, aggravated, and refining their protest until it might become unforgettable.

“Complaining that Wiseman is unfair to the welfare system is like complaining that Charles Dickens was unfair to prisons in Little Dorrit … This latest work is his best … Wiseman’s great gift as a filmmaker is his patience—he lets a scene go on and on to the edge of boredom, and then over into revelation.”

James Wolcott, Village Voice

“Having created a quasi-fictional world that exists on its own terms, Wiseman has also succeeded, as never before, in making a film that speaks to larger social issues.”

Joe Morgenstern, The New York Times