Camera Movements That Confound Us

Jonathan Rosenbaum is one of the world's most important English-language writers on film. The film critic for THE CHICAGO READER from 1987 to 2008, he was born in Alabama in 1943, the son and grandson of movie exhibitors, and grew up in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. While living in Paris (1969-1974), he worked as an extra for Robert Bresson and as a script consultant for Jacques Tati, before working as assistant editor for Monthly Film Bulletin and staff writer for Sight and Sound in London (1974-1977). His books include MOVING PLACES: A LIFE AT THE MOVIES (1980), MIDNIGHT MOVIES (with J. Hoberman, 1983), THIS IS ORSON WELLES by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich (edited, 1992), PLACING MOVIES: THE PRACTICE OF FILM CRITICISM (1995), ABBAS KIAROSTAMI (with Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, 2003, expanded second edition 2018), MOVIE MUTATIONS: THE CHANGING FACE OF WORLD CINEPHILIA (coedited with Adrian Martin, 2003), ESSENTIAL CINEMA: ON THE NECESSITY OF FILM CANONS (2004) and IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES: A JONATHAN ROSENBAUM READER (2024). His website is www.jonathanrosenbaum.net.