Jonathan Rosenbaum's Blog: jonathanrosenbaum.com, page 13

Judex (1964)

From the Chicago Reader (January 1, 1993). — J.R.

There’s a world of difference between the natural, “found” surrealism of Louis Feuillade’s lighthearted French serial (1914) and the darker, studied surrealism and campy piety of this 1964 remake by Georges Franju. Yet in Franju’s hands the material has its own magic (and [...]

PHASE IV (1974 review)

From Monthly Film Bulletin, October 1974 (Vol. 41, No. 489). -– J.R.



Phase IV

Great Britain, 1973 Director: Saul Bass





Ernest Hubbs, a research scientist, sets up an experimental dome in the Arizona of the
resident ant population: the various species have united and are collectively destroying
all their natural enemies. With the help of James [...]

Dream Stuff [on MACAO, OR BEYOND THE SEA]

From the July 14, 1989 Chicago Reader. –J.R.


MACAO, OR BEYOND THE SEA
*** (A must-see)
Directed by Clemens Klopfenstein
Written by Klopfenstein, Wolfram Groddeck, and Felix Tissi
With Max Ruedlinger, Christine Lauterburg, Hans-Dieter Jendreyko, Shirley Wong, and Che Tin Hong.

1. Some part of me feels an enormous gratitude for movies that I don’t fully understand. The compulsive legibility [...]

ROLLERBALL (1975 review)

From Monthly Film Bulletin, October 1975. — J.R.

Rollerball
U.S.A., 1975                                        Director: Norman Jewison

A classic demonstration of how several millions of dollars can be
unenjoyably wasted, Rollerball postulates an unlikely future society
from which war, poverty, illness and individual initiative have all
magically vanished, but then resolutely refuses to show it, reserving
all its heavy hardware for [...]

May the Formula Be With You

From the June 10, 1988 Chicago Reader. — J.R.

WILLOW
* (Has redeeming facet)
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Bob Dolman and George Lucas
With Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis, Billy Barty, Gavan O’Herlihy, Jean Marsh, Pat Roach, and Patricia Hayes.

As one of those spoilsports who actively disliked Star Wars when it burst on the scene 11 [...]

ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY

From Sight and Sound (Spring 1990). -– J.R.


ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY



‘Although I did not have the privilege of going through the Hitler holocaust, Isaac Bashevis Singer ironically begins his Author’s Note, ‘I have lived for years in New York with refugees from this ordeal. I therefore hasten to say that this novel is by no [...]

The Preminger Enigma

From the Chicago Reader (February 17, 1995). — J.R.

One of the strangest things about the elusive career of Otto Preminger (1905-1986) is that it remains elusive not because of the man’s invisibility but because of his relative omnipresence in the public eye. Though never as familiar as Alfred Hitchcock, he cut an imposing figure in [...]

FRAMED (1975 review)

From Monthly Film Bulletin, December 1975 (Vol. 42, No. 503). — J.R.

Framed
U.S.A., 1974                                              Director: Phil Karlson

In films as diverse as 99 River Street and The Phenix City Story,
Phil Karlson has shown a striking aptitude for the dynamics of
seedy crime melodramas — particularly those which deal, in
Andrew Sarris’s phrase, “with the phenomenon of violence in a [...]

Alone in a Crowd [on YI YI]

From the March 2, 2001 Chicago Reader. –J.R.

Yi Yi
****
Directed and written by Edward Yang
With Wu Nien-jen, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Issey Ogata, and Ke Suyun.

“Happy families are all alike,” begins Anna Karenina. “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The way in which the Jians, the central family in Edward [...]

On ORSON WELLES AND ROGER HILL: A FRIENDSHIP IN THREE ACTS

Almost seven years have passed since I quoted from the manuscript of this wonderful book in the Introduction to my own Discovering Orson Welles. At that point the subtitle of Todd Tarbox’s book was A Friendship in Four Acts, but if anything, the book has only grown since then, both physically and in terms of [...]