Roger Ebert has discovered the Macmillan Reader's Edition of
The Great Gatsby and he hates it:
"This is an obscenity." Macmillan Reader's Editions are
geared to ESL students. Ebert thinks that's a really bad idea: "Why not have ESL learners begin with Young Adult novels? Why not write books with a simplified vocabulary? Why eviscerate Fitzgerald?"
[more inside]
posted by CCBC
on Jul 8, 2011 -
247 comments
For Roger Ebert,
it's a prayer that made him "more alert to the awe of existence." For Rober Koehler,
it's a kitschy New Age con. For Richard Brody, it perfectly captures the essence of a generation by depicting a character thinking
"back to the musings and fantasies of childhood, which are the product of a wondrous and fantastic view of science formed by popular-science books for children and by the commercial artists whose illustrations adorned them." For Stephanie Zacharek, it's
"a gargantuan work of pretension." For Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, it's
"a creation myth in the guise of a crypto-autobiography" that invents a universe of its own only to destroy it. For J. Hoberman, it's lifeless and dull,
"essentially a religious work and, as such, may please the director's devotees, cultists, and apologists." It spent thirty years in development,
three in editing and, yes,
it contains dinosaurs.
The Tree of Life, written and directed by
famously reclusive Zoolander fan and
"JD Salinger of American movies" Terrence Malick , won the
Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Tomorrow,
it comes out in the United States.
[more inside]
posted by alexoscar
on May 26, 2011 -
64 comments
When film critic Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw to cancer, he lost the ability to eat and speak. But he did not lose his voice. In a moving talk from TED2011, Ebert and his wife, Chaz, with friends Dean Ornish and John Hunter, come together to tell his remarkable story. [Ted Talk video - 20minutes]
posted by hippybear
on Apr 21, 2011 -
10 comments
All your art are belong to us. Previously, Rogert Ebert said that video games can never be art.
And previously, some
disagreed. In a recent opinion piece, game developer
Brian Moriarty discusses the debate, and fires a
fresh salvo.
The piece is long winded, examining art, medium, games, and industry. He seems to conclude that games are not Art, but lengthily addresses what may be the more important question: Could they be?
posted by Stagger Lee
on Mar 16, 2011 -
133 comments
Film editor and sound designer extraordinaire Walter Murch
writes to Roger Ebert regarding a fundamental conundrum of current 3D technology: "It is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time."
posted by oulipian
on Jan 24, 2011 -
84 comments
Roger Ebert: "In the last year or two, the world's cinema has become even more available. This instant, sitting right here, I can choose to watch virtually any film you can think of via
Netflix,
Amazon,
Hulu,
MUBI, the
Asia/Pacific Film Archive,
Google Video or
Vimeo. At
Europa Film Treasures, I can watch films none of us has heard of." Ebert on how the accessibility of film online is making for more and better film criticism from around the world "..by their early 20s, Wael Khairy of Cairo and Seongyong Cho of Seoul had seen every significant film ever made." "The best single film criticism site is arguably
davidbordwell.net".
[more inside]
posted by stbalbach
on Jan 23, 2011 -
24 comments
"In Japan, animation is not seen as the exclusive realm of children's and family films, but is often used for adult, science fiction and action stories, where it allows a kind of freedom impossible in real life. Some Hollywood films strain so desperately against the constraints of the possible that you wish they'd just caved in and gone with animation." --
Roger Ebert on anime, with this excerpt being related to
Tokyo Godfathers. Ebert has been a fan of anime for a while, especially the works of
Hayao Miyazaki. Ebert has reviewed 6 of the 18
Studio Ghibli films released to date, and
even interviewed Miyazaki with a bit of fanboy glee.
More reviews and videos inside. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 30, 2010 -
92 comments
"'Fucking huge,' said McLaren. He told us what sort of a film he had in mind. His ideas didn't involve a plot or a story line. As I recall, his only concern was that it star the Sex Pistols. Russ proposed 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' meets 'A Hard Day's Night.'" Roger Ebert reflects on the Sex Pistols film that never came to be, "I wrote one scene which I particularly liked, involving Johnny Rotten encountering a storefront Church of Scientography, and being persuaded to be "clocked" on something called an H-Meter. This was a device hooked to a steering wheel and an accelerator, which somehow..."
posted by geoff.
on Apr 12, 2010 -
25 comments
Nil by Mouth is Roger Ebert's article about what life is like now that he doesn't eat or drink anymore, but is nourished by tube. And interesting reflection on what life can be like after thyroid cancer, and not as sad as you might think.
posted by kaszeta
on Jan 7, 2010 -
50 comments
Death To Film Critics! Hail The CelebCult! "A newspaper film critic is like a canary in a coal mine. When one croaks, get the hell out. The lengthening toll of former film critics acts as a poster child for the self-destruction of American newspapers, which once hoped to be more like the New York Times and now yearn to become more like the National Enquirer. We used to be the town crier. Now we are the neighborhood gossip."
posted by An Infinity Of Monkeys
on Nov 29, 2008 -
37 comments
It is acceptable, but rarely, to join in a general audience uproar, as at the first Cannes press screening of "The Brown Bunny." Even then, no cupping your hand under your armpit and producing fart noises. Roger Ebert's little rule book.
posted by Knappster
on Nov 2, 2008 -
39 comments
Roger Ebert to return to writing movie reviews. Love him, hate him, disagree with him, worship him, whatever, but Pulitzer Prize winning movie critic Roger Ebert, after several operations that have left him without the power of speech, will return to writing movie reviews shortly after his 10th Annual movie festival, Ebertfest.
Me, personally, I'm happy as heck about this.
posted by willmize
on Apr 2, 2008 -
56 comments
I never saw
Simon Birch but I found
this interview Roger Ebert did with Ian Michael Smith really amazing. I don't know if it was how comfortable Ian is with sci-fi-ing up his body, how the two of them used technology to overcome their current physical conditions, the discussions of "disability blogospheres" or just how happy Roger seems to be in this conversation but the whole thing made me smile...and
something made me think MeFi would agree.
posted by Brainy
on Aug 31, 2007 -
15 comments
The American Film Institute decided the need for
more money an update to their
1998 list of the 100 Greatest Movies was so pressing that they
made a new list. Ebert (and friends) ask
where's Fargo?. The IHT wonders why the past decade has only spawned
four new, worthy movies. And, generally, no one seems super excited about it.
(some links go to wikipedia to avoid registration on AFI's site).
posted by ztdavis
on Jun 21, 2007 -
88 comments
Get Well Roger Flickr Group. Roger Ebert, still recovering from an arterial burst following surgery to remove cancer near his jaw, could use a little love. Show some, and be a gigantic nerd, by taking a picture of yourself giving a "thumbs up" and uploading it to this Flickr Group. They'll be
sending the whole spiel to the good sir himself after they have enough pictures uploaded.
Previously.
posted by Sticherbeast
on Sep 19, 2006 -
13 comments
In
30 years of going to Cannes, Roger Ebert has witnessed Francis Ford Coppola suffering from post-Apocolypse insanity and learned Jerry Lewis's secret for preventing riots--but the most interesting character he ever met there was a loudmouthed, fast-talking Texan named Silver Dollar Baxter with an uncanny gift for bluffing...
posted by yankeefog
on May 9, 2005 -
5 comments
On the meaning of life... and movies: The radiation made it difficult for me to handle solid food, and I existed on a product named Ensure, which kept everything humming along. Very early on the first morning in Cannes I woke early, as I always do, and wandered, as I always do, down to the all-night cafe by the port, and ordered, as I always do, a croissant and cafe au lait. I dunked the croissant into the coffee, as I always do, and ate it, and that was the beginning of real food again.Roger Ebert describes his battles with cancer--and his love of movies--in the introduction to his 2005
Movie Yearbook.
posted by Faint of Butt
on Dec 2, 2004 -
25 comments
"I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class. I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment, don't understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out....When I write a political column for the Chicago Sun-Times, when liberals disagree with me, they send in long, logical e-mails explaining all my errors. I hardly ever get well-reasoned articles from the right. People just tell me to shut up. That's the message: 'Shut up. Don't write anymore about this. Who do you think you are?'" Roger Ebert chats about dissent, celebrities, the power of film to effect change, and Moore.
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Apr 24, 2003 -
114 comments
I had a really cool site on Wednesday to post, but stopped myself due the (prime time) start of the War, out of respect for MeFi users that have loved ones on either side of the line. It wasn't apprpriate. One of the things I have noticed on this site since last Wednesday is a very strong bifurcation of posts - those who are staunchly anti IraqFilter - who post as if nothing is going on, and those who can't seem to focus on anything else.
This seems to be a struggle going on in other circles as well, as seen in this column by
Roger Ebert, who discusses the appropriateness of tonights Oscars.
The show must go on,
right?
posted by Quartermass
on Mar 23, 2003 -
21 comments
Roger Ebert salutes Buster Keaton in an article in which he says the Great Stone Face is "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies." High praise indeed! Any other Keaton fans out there? (This is from the Chicago Sun-times--I don't believe registration is required.) And if you want to see Buster smiling--sort of--here's a picture of him with one-time movie partner
Fatty Arbuckle.
posted by Man-Thing
on Nov 13, 2002 -
19 comments
