Jonathan Rosenbaum's Blog: jonathanrosenbaum.com, page 26

Restoration Heaven: Il Cinema Ritrovato [2011]

Written for Sight and Sound’s blog in July 2011. — J.R.

Not exactly a film festival or a conference in the usual sense, Il Cinema Ritrovato has many of the benefits of each without their professional drawbacks -– namely the frantic boom-or-bust atmosphere promulgated by the entertainment press at Cannes, and the relative dullness and institutional [...]

Bard College Film Schedule (Fall 1964)

From the Bard Observer (September 9, 1964). I ran the Friday night film series during most of my time at Bard College, and in many cases, I was booking these films in order to see them for the first time (although, as I recall, not in the cases of North by Northwest, Zazie, Jules and [...]

Backwaters [SHOWER]

From the Chicago Reader (July 28, 2000). — J.R.

Shower
Rating ** Worth seeing
Directed by Zhang Yang
Written by Liu Fen Dou, Yang, Huo Xin, Diao Yi Nan, and Cai Xiang Jun
With Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin, Jiang Wu, He Zheng, Zhang Jin Hao, Lao Lin, and Lao Wu.

In these pages last week I wondered whether adapting Marcel [...]

Improving Mr. Welles

From Sight and Sound (October 1992). –- J.R.



Most of the American press has been all too happy to declare the new version of Orson Welles’ Othello as “expertly restored”, as Vincent Canby put it in the New York Times. But restored from what and to what? Even rudimentary information about the film’s original form is [...]

THE CRIMINAL CODE (1984 review)

From Monthly Film Bulletin, October 1984 (Vol. 51, No.
609). This was published long after I left the MFB staff
in early 1977, and by this time, over seven years later,
the magazine had finally abandoned its highly dubious
practice of restricting all its reviews to single
paragraphs. –- J.R.



The Criminal Code


U.S.A.,1930 Director: Howard Hawks




Cert–A. dist—Filmfinders. [...]

Kiss Me, Stupid

From the Chicago Reader (January 1, 2000). — J.R.

This vulgar Billy Wilder comedy scandalized the Legion of Decency and large segments of the American public when it came out in 1964. At the time Wilder pointed out that the film is about human dignity and the sanctity of marriage, but its undisguised contempt for the [...]

DOGS’ DIALOGUE (1984 review)

From Monthly Film Bulletin, December 1984 (Vol. 51,
No. 611). In retrospect, I’m rather proud of the synopsis
here, which must have been a bitch to put together. -– J.R.




Colloque de chiens (Dogs’ Dialogue)


France, 1977 Director: Râúl Ruiz





Cert–AA. dist–BFI. p.c–Filmoblic/L’Office de la Création
Cinématographique. p–Hubert Niogret. asst. d–Michel
Such. sc–Nicole Muchnik, Raul Ruiz. ph—Denis Lenoir,
Patrice Millet. [...]

Hollywood Radical [MALCOLM X]

From the Chicago Reader (December 11, 1992); also reprinted in Movies as Politics. — J.R.

MALCOLM X
** (Worth seeing)
Directed by Spike Lee
Written by Arnold Perl and Spike Lee
With Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman Jr., Delroy Lindo, and Spike Lee.

“At the top of 1968, over the vehement protests of my family and my friends, [...]

A Fuller Understanding: Revisiting the Life of Sam Fuller

From Cinema Scope (Spring 2003). — J.R.

A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking by Samuel Fuller. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Thank God for Beethoven’s music. Ludwig got me though a lot of rough times. He said, “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” Holy cow, was he right! [...]

Burden Of Truth [SLING BLADE]

From the Chicago Reader (April 25, 1997). — J.R.

Sling Blade
Rating *** A must see
Directed and written by Billy Bob Thornton
With Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, John Ritter, J.T. Walsh, Natalie Canerday, Lucas Black, James Hampton, Rick Dial, and Robert Duvall.

There is no point in rendering something realistically unless it is to make it more meaningful in an [...]