Jonathan Rosenbaum's Blog: jonathanrosenbaum.com, page 18

Introduction: Some Noises from an Unquiet American

This is my Introduction to The Unquiet American: Transgressive Comedies from the U.S., a catalogue/ collection put together to accompany a film series at the Austrian Filmmuseum and the Viennale in Autumn 2009. — J.R.


I cannot tell a lie: the initial concept and impulse
behind this retrospective weren’t my own. More
precisely, they grew out of a [...]

MONKEY BUSINESS (1952) & GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953)

Written for The Unquiet American: Transgressive Comedies from the U.S., a catalogue/ collection put together to accompany a film series at the Austrian Filmmuseum and the Viennale in Autumn 2009. — J.R.


MONKEY BUSINESS (1952)
Although technically a fantasy, this characteristically
grim Howard Hawks comedy about the fear of aging
and the worship of youth is arguably [...]

How to Capture an Artist [SYLVIA & IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN]

From the Chicago Reader (October 31, 2003). — J.R.



Sylvia
** (Worth seeing)
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Written by John Brownlow
With Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Amira Casar, Andrew Havill, Lucy Davenport, Blythe Danner, and Michael Gambon.
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
**** (Masterpiece)
Directed by Martina Kudlacek


Greasing the bodies of adulterers
Like Hiroshima ash and eating in.
The sin. The sin.
– [...]

Preface to the Korean Edition of GOODBYE CINEMA, HELLO CINEPHILIA

Written in October 2012 for the first (and, so far, only) translated edition of my most recent collection. In retrospect, I’m sorry that I didn’t find some way of mentioning Lee Chang-dong’s extraordinary Poetry (2010), my favorite Korean film [see all the stills below] — and one that, incidentally, helps to explain the reason for [...]

Around the World in 1,085 Pages

From the Chicago Reader (December 1, 2006). — J.R.

Against the Day | Thomas Pynchon (Penguin Press)
Thomas Pynchon’s 1,085-page Against the Day does a lot of things. Some it does well, some it does badly — and some are impossible to judge this early, though scores of people are trying, in the press and on [...]

Letter from London (1977)

From American Film (April 1977). I got this assignment because I had just left two and a half years of London employment at the British Film Institute when I wrote it, so that I had been directly involved in some of the events described, having prepared the U.K. pressbook for Celine and Julie Go Boating, [...]

Out of the Mush [The Best Movies of 1990]

From the Chicago Reader (January 4, 1991). — J.R.��


Looking over a list of all the new movies I saw in 1990, I was shocked to discover how forgettable many of them were — so much so that it took considerable effort in many cases for me to remember much more than their titles. Crazy People, [...]

Eastern Promise

From Movies of the Fifties, edited by Ann Lloyd (London: Orbis Publishing, 1982). Prior to this, it was published in one of the “chapters” of The Movie in 1981 or 1982, but I’m no longer clear about which one. — J.R.





For two centuries, Japan chose to isolate itself from the rest of the world. Then, [...]

The Color of Paradise

From the Chicago Reader (January 16, 1998). It’s too bad that, thanks (apparently) to Miramax’s continuing indifference, this version of Jour de fête remains unavailable on Blu-Ray or DVD in the U.S., although it’s easily obtainable at a modest cost in the U.K. — J.R.

Jour de fête
Rating **** Masterpiece
Directed by Jacques Tati
Written by Tati, Henri [...]

Discovering MARGARET

Written for FIPRESCI’s web site (fipresci.org)  on November 7, 2012. — J.R.

The potential everyday glibness of journalism is surely one of the key factors that distinguishes film reviewing from film criticism. This was painfully brought home to me shortly after reseeing at the Viennale the 150-minute version of Kenneth Lonergan’s remarkable Margaret, the winner of [...]