Author Spotlight

Jonathan Romney

Jonathan Romney writes a weekly review column for Filmcomment.com. He also writes on film for the Observer, Sight & Sound, and Screen Daily and is program adviser on French cinema for the London Film Festival.

4 Results
Insomnia: Unbearable Lightness

Erik Skjoldbjærg’s sun-drenched noir follows a detective trying to conceal his amoral actions amid unforgiving daylight.

By Jonathan Romney

The Double Life of Véronique:
Through the Looking Glass

When Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Double Life of Véronique was first screened at Cannes, in 1991, the critical reception was rapturous. Georgia Brown declared in the Village Voice, “Anything I say about [the film] is merely a labored minuet dance…

By Jonathan Romney

Trafic: Watching the Wheels

The usual French term for traffic—meaning the movement of motor vehicles—is la circulation. The word trafic can be a synonym for it, but its primary meaning is traffic in the sense of commerce, the exchange of goods. Jacques Tati’s use of the w

By Jonathan Romney

La Jetée: Unchained Melody
However you define Chris Marker's 1963 short La Jetée—philosophical fiction, genre exercise, treatise on cinematic time—one fact is unavoidable: it resembles few other films. In fact, La Jetée does not define itself as a film at all—its credi…

By Jonathan Romney