This week, we take a peek into the world of Robert M. Rubin, a New York–based collector of film scripts. An architectural and art historian by trade, Bob began buying rare and historical significant screenplays seriously in the 1990s, and has now amassed an archive of what he calls “exformation”—that is, the ephemera that was often discarded in the process of moviemaking, but now reveals hidden and forgotten histories. 

Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish sat down with Bob and bibliographer Erin McGuirl, who manages the collection, to leaf through some of these treasures. These include variant copies of classics like Citizen Kane and Notorious, editor Louis Lombardo’s working scripts for Robert Altman’s films, Ben Gazzara’s personal copies of the script for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and much more. They delved into the ways in which this material—with its pictures, notations, and scribbles—challenges our understanding of auteurism and sheds light on the crucial roles played by script supervisors, secretaries, and writers in Hollywood.

Stay tuned for supplementary photos of the collection, included in this week’s edition of The Film Comment Letter. Subscribe here: https://www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/