Richard Bolles: A Career of Filmgoing
By Chris Wiggum

Unemployed? Tired of sitting around at home searching for jobs all day? Go see a movie, but don’t expect to get much help finding a job from the big screen, says Richard Bolles, job-hunting guru, author of the hugely successful What Color Is Your Parachute? and San Francisco Film Society member for the past eight years.

Bolles feels that movies portray job searching in an unrealistic way. The best thing that job seekers can get from the movies is a means to relax in what can be a stressful endeavor, he says. "Movies make people laugh. They’re entertaining. Just laughing will probably help more than anything."

This is good advice from someone who has made a career of giving career advice. An ordained Episcopal priest (he went to every screening of Kieslowski’s religious-themed The Decalogue when the Festival showed it in 1990), Bolles wrote Parachute in 1970 after losing his job as canon pastor at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Noticing fellow ministers that were also doubtful about the stability of their positions, he crafted a 168- page treatise on job switching and procurement. Although the book contained no discourse on film, he maintains that movies have always been crucial in forming his perceptions of the world. He views films as metaphors for everyday life, and from them culls necessary lessons regarding human interaction. Bolles puts it plainly: "My other language is movies."

Bolles says that seeing Errol Flynn in Michael Curtiz’ The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938 was such a powerful moviegoing experience that it instilled in him an early fascination with film. Indeed, his childlike awe of the cinematic experience continued, and he collected, like so many film buffs do, vivid recollections of the indelible images he came across. He recalls seeing Raoul Walsh’s Objective, Burma! in 1945 (another Errol Flynn vehicle) on his 18th birthday. "I can tell you exactly where I sat: the balcony!" he exclaimed. "I can tell you exactly what was on the screen at the time we walked in: It was a terrible storm!"

I asked what films in today’s stormy economy he would offer up as recommended viewing for the unemployed. Bolles, who loves foreign movies, named a couple of recent imports: Amélie, from France, and Sweden’s Under the Sun. "Go see movies that are entertaining," he added. "There’s nothing wrong with fluff."

Bolles has tried to see two or three films a week since he was 18, the kind of prodigious moviegoing in which one is sure to run across much more than just fluff. "I prefer movies that exhibit a little intelligence," he says, citing two Davids, Mamet and Lynch, as directors that he particularly admires, although the ability to tackle a diverse range of subjects in film is something he finds important. "I’ve seen [Mamet’s] State and Main probably seven times. I like it because he’s not up to his usual tricks. It shows he can do something different."

I assumed that over the course of his long and distinguished career, Bolles had probably had a few first-hand encounters with some of his favorite directors or actors. To my surprise, he said he hadn’t. "I did stand two feet from Sophia Loren once," he said. "I couldn’t believe how small she looked."