Jonathan Rosenbaum's Blog: jonathanrosenbaum.com, page 55

Lisl Ponger’s Cinema: The Lessons of Ignorance

I believe that this essay was completed in spring 2010 — for a rather formidable book about Austrian experimental film edited by Peter Tscherkassky that was recently published, Film Unframed: A History of Austrian Avant-Garde Cinema, available here and here and here.  (The third link and source appear to be the least expensive, at least [...]

Lost in Translation [THE LOST CITY]

From the Chicago Reader (May 19, 2006). — J.R.

The Lost City
* (Has redeeming facet)
Directed by Andy Garcia
Written by G. Cabrera Infante
With Garcia, Steven Bauer, Richard Bradford, Nestor Carbonell, Lorena Feijoo, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Tomas Milan, and William Marquez

An intellectual initially associated with Castro’s revolution, G. Cabrera Infante (1929-2005) founded the Cuban Cinematheque and was [...]

On Books and Literary Matters (an index of sorts)

Here is a chronological list of all (or almost all) of the book reviews and longer pieces on literary subjects found on this web site (capsule reviews of films are omitted):

Review of THE CRYING OF LOT 49 (Bard Observer, May 1966)

“I Missed It at the Movies: Objections to ‘Raising KANE’” (Film Comment, Spring [...]

Getting Personal in Milwaukee

From American Film (September 1979). A footnote worth reporting: Noël Burch’s long-unavailable Noviciat (1964), cited in this article, is available now on YouTube. –- J.R.








Academic film conferences in the United States seem to be growing more plentiful every year. But there’s only one that can properly be called a theory conference, where theorists congregate, report [...]

The Player [EL MARIACHI]

From the Chicago Reader (April 16, 1993). — J.R.

EL MARIACHI
*** (A must-see)
Directed and written by Robert Rodriguez
With Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo Gomez, Peter Marquardt, Jaime De Hoyos, and Reinol Martinez.

I was several weeks late catching up with El mariachi, a fine little action picture in Spanish that’s been playing at the Water Tower (and opens [...]

Medium Cool: Wrestling with Video Art (Whatever That Means)

From Moving Image Source (May 18, 2009). — J.R.

I wouldn’t say that video art per se makes me break out in hives. I even like some examples of it, including work by Thom Andersen, Gregg Bordowitz, Joan Braderman, Pedro Costa, Adam Curtis, Steve Fagin, Jean-Luc Godard (for me, his best work over [...]

Three From Vietnam

From the Chicago Reader (May 13, 1994). I’m delighted that stills from these and other Vietnamese films have finally become available on the Internet — which didn’t appear to be the case in October 2010, when I participated in a panel related to the first of these films in Washington, D.C. — J.R.





*** THE LITTLE [...]

HEARTS OF THE WEST (1976 review)

From Monthly Film Bulletin, June 1976 (Vol. 43, No. 509). — J.R.




Hollywood Cowboy

U.S.A., 1975 Director: Howard Zieff


Cert–A. dist–ClC. p.c–MGM. A Bill/Zieff production. p–Tony Bill.
p. manager–Clark L. Paylow. asst. d–Jack B. Bernstein, Alan Brimfleld.
sc–Rob Thompson. ph–Mario Tosi. col–Metrocolor. ed–Edward
Warschilka. a.d–Robert Luthardt. set dec–Charles R. Pierce. m-Ken
Lauber. m. sup–Harry V. Lojewski. special musical artists–Nick [...]

License to Feel (DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES)

From the August 18, 1989 Chicago Reader; this piece is also reprinted in my collection Essential Cinema. — J.R.


DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES
**** (Masterpiece)
Directed and written by Terence Davies
With Freda Dowie, Pete Postlethwaite, Angela Walsh, Dean Williams, Lorraine Ashbourne, Debi Jones, Michael Starke, and Vincent Maguire.

An autobiographical film about growing up in a Catholic working-class [...]

THE BRAIN [1982 article]

Published in Omni circa 1982. I owe this assignment and all my others at this magazine to the late Kathleen Stein, my editor there — a former classmate at Bard College and flatmate in New York during one summer. — J.R.


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Jonathan Rosenbaum



How far can the human braln go in delvlng into its own [...]