Roger Ebert

[MacGuffin]

Ebert plans 'return to action' after surgery
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert said he plans a "return to action" at his upcoming Overlooked Film Festival in Illinois later this month as he continues recovering from cancer surgery.

"I'll watch from the audience," he said in a posting on Tuesday on his Web site, rogerebert.com.

"I think of the festival as the first step on my return to action. Because I will be under scrutiny there, I'll tell you what to expect: a sick guy, getting better, who still loves the movies and the festival," Ebert added.

Ebert, 64, posted the statement dated April 2, to mark the 40th anniversary of his being named film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. He said roughly nine months have passed since his latest surgery for salivary cancer, and his recovery "has been a long and unexpected ordeal."

"I plan to gradually increase my duties in the months to come. I still love writing about the movies. Forty years is not enough," he said.

Last June, Ebert underwent surgery for salivary gland cancer, but about two weeks later, an artery burst in his jaw and kept him hospitalized. It was the start of a series of issues that has prolonged the noted film critic's recovery.

Ebert said he was in bed so long that he "experienced serious deconditioning" for which he underwent physical therapy.

"Because of a tracheostomy, my speaking voice is on hold until my upcoming completion surgery. I am feeling better every day, and my wife Chaz says we can see the light at the end of the tunnel," Ebert said.

In recent months, Ebert has written some reviews for the Sun-Times, held an Oscar contest and contributed to a local Chicago TV station. Meanwhile, his seat on the weekly film review show, "Ebert & Roeper" has been filled by various guest critics.

His Overlooked Film Festival is in its ninth year, and Ebert is the programr and host of the event that takes place April 25-29 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, south of Chicago.

[john]

That does my heart good to hear.

I dig Ebert.

In high school, I was a pretentious dick who didn't like Ebert purely on principle. I don't know what that principle was, though, so I guess it didn't hold weight.

Same way I avoided films like East of Eden and Casablanca and the Maltese Falcon and anything else staid old folks would come into the video store I worked at to rent. "None of that nostalgic American bullshit for me, no sir, give me some Godard goddammit. And Ebert? Fuck him. Dude gave a good review to the silly haunted house film with Lily Taylor just because he liked the HOUSE? Pssshhh!"

Now I like Ebert and fucking love East of Eden and realized I snubbed my nose at a lot of real, real good stuff.

Still can't understand how the house saved that film, though.

[Pubrick]

i'm no doctor and i hate to say it, but i think this is a losing battle.

[MacGuffin]

'I ain't a pretty boy no more'
BY ROGER EBERT Film Critic

My Ninth Annual Overlooked Film Festival opens Wednesday night at the University of Illinois at Urbana, and Chaz and I will be in attendance.

This year I won't be speaking, however, as I await another surgery.

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. As a journalist I can take it as well as dish it out.

So let's talk turkey. What will I look like? To paraphrase a line from "Raging Bull," I ain't a pretty boy no more. (Not that I ever was. The original appeal of "Siskel & Ebert" was that we didn't look like we belonged on TV.)

What happened was, cancer of the salivary gland spread to my right lower jaw. A segment of the mandible was removed. Two operations to replace the missing segment were unsuccessful, both leading to unanticipated bleeding.

A tracheostomy was necessary so, for the time being, I cannot speak. I make do with written notes and a lot of hand waving and eye-rolling. The doctors now plan an approach that does not involve the risk of unplanned bleeding. If all goes well, my speech will be restored.

So when I turn up in Urbana, I will be wearing a gauze bandage around my neck, and my mouth will be seen to droop. So it goes.

Won't be hiding illness

I was told photos of me in this condition would attract the gossip papers. So what?

I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks. I still have my brain and my typing fingers. 

Although months in bed after the bleeding episodes caused a lack of strength and coordination, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago restored my ability to walk on my own, climb stairs, etc.

I no longer use a walker much and the wheelchair is more for occasional speed and comfort than need. Just today we went for a long stroll in Lincoln Park.

We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I'm not going to miss my festival.

Comfiest seat in the house

Why do I want to go? Above all, to see the movies. Then to meet old friends and great directors and personally thank all the loyal audience members who continue to support the festival.

At least, not being able to speak, I am spared the need to explain why every film is "overlooked," or why I wrote "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls."

Being sick is no fun. But you can have fun while you're sick. I wouldn't miss the festival for anything!

P.S. to gossip rags: I have some back pain, and to make it easier for me to sit through screenings, the festival has installed my very own La-Z-Boy chair.

Photos of me in the chair should be captioned "La-Z-Critic."

[Derek237]

Good, I'm glad for Ebert. Clearly he has more affection for movies than any self-conciousness about his appearance. Ebert should just come back to Ebert & Roeper right now and just jot things down on a notebook and show it to the screen. It would still be better than most of the guest critics they've had for the past almost-year. It's hard to believe it's been so damn long.

PS

Anyone else think Roeper is just getting all these mediocre, young, attractive female film critics on the show 'cause he's hoping to get laid?

[polkablues]

Anyone else think Roeper is just getting all these mediocre, young, attractive female film critics on the show 'cause he's hoping to get laid? stop watching the show entirely now that the main critic is Richard fucking Roeper?

Totally.



But wait... female, you say?  Young and attractive, you say?  Mediocre, you say?  Could be worth it....

[The Red Vine]

It would still be better than most of the guest critics they've had for the past almost-year.

Absolutely. This past weekend they had John Mellencamp. What the fuck?

Anyone else think Roeper is just getting all these mediocre, young, attractive female film critics on the show 'cause he's hoping to get laid?

I have no respect for him if he didn't bang Kim Morgan.

[MacGuffin]

It would still be better than most of the guest critics they've had for the past almost-year.

Absolutely. This past weekend they had John Mellencamp. What the fuck?

I didn't mind Mellencamp. He was very smart with his reviews; even picked Grey Gardens for his DVD recommendation.


What I can't stand is when they get some third rate, z-"actress" from Ghost Whisperer to guest...

"From the title, I was expecting a film about mentally challenged kids going to school. Instead, it was a film by a mentally challenged filmmaker who should have gone to film school" -- Aisha Tyler on Shortbus

[bonanzataz]

"it was a film by a mentally challenged filmmaker who should have gone to film school" -- Aisha Tyler on Shortbus

yeah, but can you really disagree with her?

[Fernando]

Ebert, Siskel, and Roeper's Reviews Go Online

Some 5,000 movie reviews by film critics Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper and the late Gene Siskel will be available on the Internet beginning Thursday at http://www.atthemoviestv.com. Ebert, who is currently unable to speak following a tracheostomy two years ago, issued a statement on Tuesday saying, "For years, this was a dream. ... Now I am exhilarated that it is a reality, thanks to the enormous effort of digitizing something like 1,000 programs." The site will also feature recent reviews from guest critics who have filled in for Ebert since his recent operations.


FMJ isn't there yet, but it's the 90's special with Ebert and Scorsese, not complete but they talk about EWS, Goodfellas and other xixax favourites.

[The Red Vine]

Awesome.

[MacGuffin]

FMJ isn't there yet

It is now:

http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/index2.html?sec=1&subsec=1119

[MacGuffin]

Ebert: No Thumbs, Up or Down, on TV Show
Film Critic Roger Ebert, Negotiating New TV Show Contract, Bans Thumb Reviews for Now
Source: ABC News

Roger Ebert has turned thumbs down on thumb reviews for "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper."

Ebert, who is negotiating a new contract with the syndicated TV show's distributor, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, is a copyright holder on the signature "thumbs up-thumbs down" judgment that's part of each film review.

He has "exercised his right to withhold use of the `thumbs' until a new contract is signed," the Walt Disney Co.-owned company said in a statement released Friday to The Associated Press.

Health problems have kept Ebert from appearing on the show for more than a year, with guest hosts filling in. In the new season starting this weekend, co-host Richard Roeper will be joined for the first few months by movie critic Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer.

Two episodes have been filmed so far without the catchy thumb assessment, which has become a staple of movie marketing and, in turn, a big part of the show's influence.

Major releases including "Superbad" and "The Bourne Ultimatum" boast in newspaper ads published Friday of receiving "two big thumbs up" from the show, and at least five other films cite their favorable thumb treatment.

Ebert, 65, holds the copyright to the critique with the estate of Gene Siskel, his original co-host. Ebert, a film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and Siskel, who was at the rival Chicago Tribune, launched the show in 1975. Siskel died in 1999.

A request for comment from Ebert was made Friday through a publicist for the show and by e-mail. He did not immediately respond.

The Pulitzer Prize winner has co-hosted the show with fellow Sun-Times columnist Roeper since 2000. Although he has continued to write reviews and books, his health problems have raised questions about his future on TV.

Ebert underwent a series of cancer surgeries, most recently in June 2006 when he had a growth on his salivary gland and part of his right jaw removed. Two weeks later, he had emergency surgery after a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation.

A tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, left him unable to speak, a condition he's said would have to be remedied by further surgery. But he is cancer-free, he told the AP earlier this month.

"We remain hopeful that Roger will return to the show," the Disney company statement said. "We have kept his `seat in the balcony' open for the past 14 months and will continue to do so, utilizing guest critics who have appeared with Richard Roeper."

Ebert wrapped each episode by announcing "the balcony is closed."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ebert Gives a Big 'Thumbs Down' to Disney's Statement
Source: Cinematical

Here's an interesting kerfuffle to kick off your weekend. Yesterday, Disney released a statement, published by the Associated Press, stating that film critic Roger Ebert has exercised his contractual right to withhold use of the famous "THUMBS UP/THUMBS DOWN" which has been a part of the critic's television program (distributed by Disney-ABC Television) since way back when it was Gene Siskel sitting opposite Ebert on the balcony.

In response to Disney's statement, Ebert this morning sent out the following email, which I'm reprinting here in its entirety, so that Ebert can have his say in his own eloquent words:


I am discussing with Disney my association with the show that Gene Siskel and I started more than 30 years ago. In addition to my personal involvement, we are discussing the continued use of our THUMBS trademarks, owned by myself and the Siskel family.

Contrary to Disney's press release, I did not demand the removal of the THUMBS. They made a first offer on Friday which I considered offensively low. I responded with a counter-offer. They did not reply to this, and on Monday ordered the THUMBS removed from the show. This is not something I expected after an association of over 22 years. I had made it clear the THUMBS could remain during good-faith negotiations.

During my absence from the balcony, I have been excited to participate in the show in ways other than being on the set. I love the show and I love the THUMBS and I hope we will all be reunited soon.

Ebert further notes, for the record, that he was "not contacted by a Disney publicist or by email." We at Cinematical have followed Ebert's long illness and his recent return to writing about film on his website, and we look forward to the day when he will return -- THUMBS and all -- to his place on the balcony.

[grand theft sparrow]

I think we've lost him forever. No Blood but Across the Universe?


The year's ten best films and other shenanigans

by Roger Ebert

It was a time of wonders, an autumn of miracles, one of the best years in recent movie history. One great film after another opened, and movie lovers found there were two or three, sometimes more, must-see films opening on a weekend. I gave up rationing my four-star ratings and went with the flow. The best films of 2007:

1. "Juno": How can I choose this warm-hearted comedy about a pregnant teenager, when the year was rich with serious drama? First, because of all the year's films I responded to it most strongly. I tried out other titles in the No. 1 position, but my heart told me I had to be honest: This was my true love, and I could not be unfaithful. It is so hard to make a great comedy at all, and harder still to make one that is intelligent, quick, charming, moving and yes, very, very funny. Seeing "Juno" with an audience was to be reminded of unforgettable communal moviegoing experiences, when strangers are united in delight. It was light on its feet, involving the audience in love and care for its characters. The first-time screenplay by Diablo Cody is Oscar-worthy. So is Ellen Page's performance in the title role, which is like tightrope-walking: There were so many ways for her to go wrong, and she never did.

2. "No Country for Old Men": A perfect movie, I wrote after the premiere at Toronto. And so it is. The Coen brothers supply not a wrong scene or even a wrong moment. A story bleak and merciless, played out by characters who are capable of almost anything except withstanding the relentless evil of its serial killer. Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, it builds on his eye and ear to create a world in which ordinary assumptions go astray, and logic is useless. With spare, wounded performances by Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and many others, and Javier Bardem as not a man so much as a force of destruction.

3. "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead": It was a year for the great character actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, so different and so good in this film, "The Savages" and "Charlie Wilson's War." In "Devil," he and Ethan Hawke play brothers, unlike except in their urgent need for cash, who plan a "victimless" hold-up of their family's jewelry store. Everything goes wrong, they feel anguish and panic in the pits of their stomachs, and in the eyes of their father (Albert Finney), the hurt is almost unbearable. They lie and deceive first others and then themselves, and it all turns to ashes. Another masterpiece by Sidney Lumet, who is 83 and at the top of his form.

4. "Atonement": The momentary misunderstanding of a child destroys all possibility of happiness in three lives. Saoirse Ronan plays a young adolescent in a wealthy English family, who sees her older sister (Keira Knightley) and the family groundskeeper (James McAvoy) in a confrontation she misunderstands, which later leads her to telling an unforgivable lie. Against the canvas of World War II, the love of the two older characters is prevented from realizing itself, in a stunning period picture that centers on a tracking shot at Dunkirk that is one of he most elaborate ever staged. Directed by Joe Wright, based on an Ian McEwan novel that saves a final ironic insight until the end.

5. "The Kite Runner": The beloved best-seller by Khaled Hosseini about two boys in peaceful pre-war Kabul, before the Russians, the Taliban, the Americans and the anarchy destroyed Afghanistan. The boys and their parents are seen in tender detail, then revisited years later after devastation has overthrown their lives. Homayoun Ershadi, who plays the father, has such expressive eyes he makes many of the film's points without speaking. Director Marc Forster, filming in local languages in Afghanistan and the United States, interlaces the fabric of these lives with a heartbreaking story that leads to a powerfully uplifting ending.

6. "Away From Her": The Canadian actress Sarah Polley makes her directing debut with a heartbreaking story of the destruction of Alzheimer's. Julie Christie, in one of the year's best performances, plays a woman whose memories are inexorably slipping away. Gordon Pinsent plays her loving husband, who cannot comprehend how he could so quickly come to mean so little to her. Based on a story by Alice Munro, the film sees through his eyes the disappearance of love, history, life itself, as he lives on in loneliness.

7. "Across the Universe": Possibly the year's most divisive film; you loved it or hated it. Julie Taymor brings all of her gifts of visual invention to a story centering on a group of friends living in Greenwich Village and expressing their lives through the Beatles songbook. They encounter people not unlike those in famous Beatles songs or albums, and the music sheds light on their experiences — sometimes unexpectedly, as when "I Want to Hold Your Hand" tenderly expresses the deepest feelings of a lovelorn lesbian cheerleader. The movie captures the best of what the Beatles represented. I want to see it two or three more times, experiencing it like a favorite CD.

8. La Vie en Rose : A virtuoso performance by Marion Cotillard as the beloved "Little Sparrow," the legendary singer closest to the hearts of the French. Raised in a brothel and then the "property" of a gangster, she was only 4'8" tall, but had a voice that filled the city. Cotillard portrays her rising from the gutters to international stardom, and then dying of an overdose at 47. The title refers to her most famous song, about life through rose-colored glasses. The film ends with "Non, je ne regrette rien" ("No, I regret nothing"). The period is vividly re-created by director Olivier Dahan. One of the greatest of musical biopics.

9. "The Great Debaters": Denzel Washington's spellbinding film based on the true story set in 1935 about a debate team from Wiley College, an obscure black institution in Texas that defeated Harvard for the national championship. Washington plays their coach, who demands the highest standards, but the film is not another story about an underdog championship, but a searing reminder of the racist society the team lived in. On a night journey, Washington and his students happen upon a lynching; the horror and danger are overwhelming. With Nate Parker touching as the team researcher who becomes a last-minute substitute, Denzel Whitaker as debater and future CORE founder James Farmer Jr., Jurnee Smollett as a debater who calls on her deepest feelings, and Forest Whitaker as a local preacher who becomes galvanized. It's a deep emotional experience.

10. "Into the Wild": Sean Penn's bleak but sympathetic drama is based on the real story of Christopher McCandless, an idealistic loner who trekked into the Alaskan wilderness and died there. The movie shows him meeting mentors along the way, who are concerned about him, especially a rugged individualist (Hal Holbrook) and a spirited hippie (Catherine Keener). Emile Hirsch plays the role to within an inch of his life, somehow expressing without seeming to try how his tunnel vision leads him through his dreams to his disaster. Could have been dreary, but Penn's screenplay and direction are compelling.

Special Jury Prize

John Carney's "Once": At film festivals, the jury sometimes singles out a film for special qualities that especially impressed them. As a jury of one, my award this year goes to the charming, low-key, quietly appealing "Once," starring Glen Hansard as a Dublin street musician and Markéta Irglová as a Czech immigrant who meet and slowly grow closer while, yes, making beautiful music together. Very little dialogue, but the music and their eyes and silences say it all, in a bittersweet and aching love story.

The Tie for 11th Place

In a way, it's silly to rank films in numerical order. I do a Top 10 because tradition requires it. But here are 10 more films for which I have equal affection. Alphabetically: David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises," with Maria Bello, who becomes the protector of an orphaned child, and Viggo Mortensen as a driver for the Russian mafia in London, whose values are challenged by his assignment; Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," using six actors to represent aspects of the elusive Bob Dylan (Cate Blanchett is the best); Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah," with another powerful performance by Tommy Lee Jones, as a father not satisfied with the official explanation of his son's death in Iraq; Tony Gilroy's "Michael Clayton," with George Clooney as a fixer for a law firm who gets mired in the messiness of truth and conscience; Gavin Hood's "Rendition," starring Reese Witherspoon as a wife whose Egyptian-American husband "disappears" on a flight from Cape Town, and Jake Gyllenhaall as the CIA temporary station chief who is shocked by discoveries he makes about the outsourcing of torture.

Also, John Turturro's bold, unconventional musical "Romance & Cigarettes," starring James Gandolfini and Susan Sarandon as a couple at war in Queens, and Kate Winslet as his fiery mistress. The characters sing along with their favorite songs, in a story that starts out rambunctious and grows serious; Andrew Wagner's "Starting Out in the Evening," with Frank Langella as a 70-year-old great novelist, and Lauren Ambrose as the young student who wants to know why he hasn't published a novel long in progress; Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," a blood-soaked musical starring Johnny Depp as a cutthroat barber and Helena Bonham Carter as the meat-pie baker who recycles his clients; Kasi Lemmons' "Talk to Me," with its virtuoso performance by Don Cheadle as Petey Greene, who brought an authentic voice to radio in Washington, D.C., at a crucial time, and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," with Daniel Day- Lewis as a single-minded oil well wildcatter who runs roughshod over everyone in his way.

The Best Foreign Films

Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," inspired by the extraordinary achievement of French editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), paralyzed except for his left eye, which he used to blink out a memoir; Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," about a Romanian girl's attempts to help her friend find an illegal abortion; Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution," about a passionate sex affair between a spy and her quarry during the Second World II; Juan Antonio Bayona's "The Orphanage," about a woman who returns to the orphanage where she ws raised, and finds it haunted, and Rajnesh Domalpalli's "Vanaja," abour a lower-caste Indian girl who is befriended by a rich woman and learns to be a gifted dancer, only to find caste barriers in the way of her heart.

The Best Animated Films

Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf," using motion-capture animation to create a vast scale warrior-and-monsters epic from the dark ages, with a rich subtext of humor; Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," about an Iranian girl who rebels against the rise of the mullahs, and Brad Bird's high-spirited, riotous "Ratatouille," about rats taking over a kitchen with excellent results!).

The Best Documentaries

David Sington's "In the Shadow of the Moon," revisiting many of the surviving astronauts to talk about their great Apollo adventures and re-create their triumphs; Seth Gordon's "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," about an epic struggle between two competitors for the title of champion of an almost-forgotten arcade game; Tony Kaye's "Lake of Fire," filmed over a period of 17 years, about the battle over abortion in America; Charles Ferguson's "No End in Sight," using first-person testimony from government and military eyewitnesses to document the mismanagement of the Iraq invasion; Jim Brown's "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song," about the long and productive life of America's folk troubadour, and Michael Moore's "Sicko," contrasting America's health-care system with the way it's done elsewhere.

[cine]

I think we've lost him forever. No Blood but Across the Universe?

i'm convinced he hasn't seen it.