Jonathan Rosenbaum's Blog: jonathanrosenbaum.com, page 54

Problems of Classification: A Few Traits in Four Films by Ermanno Olmi

Written for an Italian publication about Olmi and published there earlier this month. — J.R.


For me, the cinema is a state of mind and a process of analysis from a series of detailed observations.
– Ermanno Olmi, from a 1988 interview (1)





1


Ermanno Olmi first became well known as a filmmaker during the period in [...]

Bravery in Hiding [on LUMIÈRE D’ÉTÉ and LE CIEL EST À VOUS]

Jean Grémillon remains one of the major French filmmakers whose films are most egregiously unavailable on DVD, especially when it comes to versions with English subtitles — although I’m delighted to report that Criterion’s Eclipse is bringing out three of his greatest ones shortly, all made during the Occupation, including the two that are [...]

Half-Caste Agit-Prop [THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH]

From The Soho News (September 3, 1980). –- J.R.






The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

Written and directed by Fred Schepisi

Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally




For a good 80 percent or so of its running time, the experience of seeing The


Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith affords a salutary, beautiful [...]

War Is Swell [HOPE AND GLORY]

From the Chicago Reader (November 13, 1987). — J.R.

HOPE AND GLORY
*** (A must-see)
Directed and written by John Boorman
With Sebastian Rice Edwards, Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Derrick O’Connor, Susan Wooldridge, Sammi Davis, and Ian Bannen.

Disasters sometimes take on a certain nostalgic coziness when seen through the filter of public memory. Southerners’ recollections of the Civil [...]

Never Too Late [on a Carl Dreyer retrospective]

Posted on Artforum’s web site (March 12, 2009). — J.R.

One reason why it never seems like an inappropriate time to have a Carl Theodor Dreyer retrospective is that most of his films haven’t dated, even though reactions to his works have fluctuated quite a bit over the years. Based on my own [...]

Survey Of A Sadist [Films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder]

From the Chicago Reader (May 2, 1997). — J.R.

Films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
I’m still trying to figure out what I think of Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), the German whiz kid who’s the focus of a nearly complete retrospective showing at the Film Center, Facets Multimedia Center, and the Fine Arts over the next couple of [...]

THE AMERICAN CINEMA Revisited [on Andrew Sarris]

I’m saddened that Andrew Sarris (1928-2012) didn’t live longer than 83, even though he had a very rich and rewarding career as a film critic.

This book review appeared in the sixth issue of Cinema Scope (Winter 2001) and is reprinted in my most recent collection. — J.R.

The American Cinema Revisited



Citizen Sarris, American Film Critic:
Essays in [...]

Black-And-White World [BLACK GIRL]

From the Chicago Reader, April 21, 1995. It’s lamentable that, although Black Girl is now available on DVD from New Yorker, the color sequence in it appears in black and white. (In fact, I only saw this sequence in color for the first time when I showed this film in a course on world cinema [...]

Washington Paranoia from the Left and Right: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL & MY SON JOHN

Written in July 2008. If memory serves, this was for an issue of Stop Smiling devoted to Washington, D.C. — J.R.




To get the full measure of what Cold War paranoia was doing
to the American soul, two of the best Hollywood A-pictures
of the early 50s, each of which pivots around its Washington,
D.C. locations – [...]

The Way We Weren’t [REBEL HIGHWAY]

From the Chicago Reader (November 18, 1994). — J.R.




You can figure out a lot about the differences between our culture and French culture by comparing two current series of low-budget TV features about teenagers. The French series, Tous les garcons et les filles de leur age (”All the Boys and Girls of Their Age”), [...]