Jonathan Rosenbaum Travels in the Cities of Cinema

Writers on Film

Buy Travels in the Cities of Cinema: Conversations with Ehsan Khoshbakht here.

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.

“An engaging history of the esteemed critic’s career and a survey of the cinephilic landscape. Rosenbaum proves a frank, expansive interviewee, telling curator Ehsan Khoshbakht about his childhood in Alabama and his work as a critic in Paris, New York, London, Chicago and elsewhere.” — Pamela Hutchinson, Sight and Sound

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