Travels in the Cities of Cinema

Jonathan Rosenbaum stands as one of the most eminent film critics in the English-speaking world. After working for Sight and Sound and Monthly Film Bulletin in London in the 1970s, he served for two decades as chief film critic for the Chicago Reader. Hailed as "one of the best" by Jean-Luc Godard, who compared him to James Agee and André Bazin, Rosenbaum is known for his incisive, thought-provoking polemics, which have inspired generations of writers while reshaping how we think about cinema.

Distinguished by his equal investment in both contemporary cinema and film history, his work offers a rich dialogue between the past and present of moving images. In this wide-ranging conversation with film scholar Ehsan Khoshbakht, Rosenbaum reminisces about his childhood in Florence, Alabama, where his family ran a chain of cinemas, and follows that journey to New York, Paris, London and Chicago. Each city marks a chapter in his evolution as a critic, filled with encounters and experiences that together reveal the life of an indefatigable cinephile and cultural commentator.

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.