RIP Roger Ebert

[PennLady]

Roger Ebert died today. My favorite critic, and I enjoyed his memoir too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...d60-11e2-9219-51eb8387e8f1_story.html?hpid=z1

 

[lovecraft68]

I think you should have put one of those Thumb's up icons on the title of the thread! It would have been very fitting.

 

[PennLady]

I think you should have put one of those Thumb's up icons on the title of the thread! It would have been very fitting.

LOL It would have indeed. I'll blame it on my cold. I'm too tired and fuzzy in the head for such things.

 

[slyc_willie]

I'll add my own thumb's up as well.

RIP, Rog.

 

[R. Richard]

Known for bringing smaller films onto a global stage simply by praising them, the late Roger Ebert was also candid when it came to films he reviled.

There's one such confection of celluloid Ebert so infamously hated it became known simply due to the reviewer's vitriolic prose.

"The Brown Bunny," written, directed, and starring Vincent Gallo, was that film.

When Ebert first screened the 2003 film, also starring Chloë Sevigny, at Cannes, he told reporters it was the worst movie ever shown at the famed annual festival in France. He also wrote a scathing review.

Gallo fought back, insulting Ebert for being overweight and even, strangely, put a curse on his colon.

Ebert adeptly responded, "It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of 'The Brown Bunny.'"

 

[PennLady]

I have long wanted copies of his books with the bad reviews, like "Your Movie Sucked." He was as good at breaking them down as he was building them up.

A good bad review: Freddie got Fingered

I think it's just that he loved movies so much, in an entertainment way as well as artistic, and anything else, and he was able to communicate that enthusiasm. I loved reading his reviews of just about any movie, even those I knew I likely wouldn't see. And of course, I've seen more than a few because I found a review on his site.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Loved his reviews, I'm going to go to his site to check new reviews, and there wont be any.

 

[jehoram]

There's one such confection of celluloid Ebert so infamously hated it became known simply due to the reviewer's vitriolic prose.

"The Brown Bunny," written, directed, and starring Vincent Gallo, was that film.

What isn't well known is that he saw a differently edited version of that film later on and found it much better, and said so. So he didn't hold a grudge.

I'm sure gonna miss him.

 

[Lemonweaseleye]

A great light has gone out

 

[Athalia]

Roger Ebert died today. My favorite critic, and I enjoyed his memoir too.

What hasn't been commented on, surprisingly for this forum, is that he was truly a writer's writer. His reviews, and indeed all of his writing, are models of clarity and conciseness. There's scarcely a word that is unnecessary. I remember seeing his editor saying, in one of the "in memoriam" videos, that he could produce this sort of prose almost on demand, with the deadline less than an hour away, in response to the passing of one actor or another. And almost no further editing was required.

He was funny and witty and serious and brutally honest about himself and his art. Nobody could match him. He will be remembered as one of the great critics of his generation.

 

[RjThoughts]

 

[NekoParks]

What hasn't been commented on, surprisingly for this forum, is that he was truly a writer's writer. His reviews, and indeed all of his writing, are models of clarity and conciseness. There's scarcely a word that is unnecessary. I remember seeing his editor saying, in one of the "in memoriam" videos, that he could produce this sort of prose almost on demand, with the deadline less than an hour away, in response to the passing of one actor or another. And almost no further editing was required.

He was funny and witty and serious and brutally honest about himself and his art. Nobody could match him. He will be remembered as one of the great critics of his generation.

I agree, and you said it so eloquently...

In college, I studied some of his reviews in a film criticism class. He and Pauline Kael are brilliant writers. I still miss Gene Siskel too. Their PBS movie review show remains a classic.

 

[PennLady]

What hasn't been commented on, surprisingly for this forum, is that he was truly a writer's writer. His reviews, and indeed all of his writing, are models of clarity and conciseness. There's scarcely a word that is unnecessary. I remember seeing his editor saying, in one of the "in memoriam" videos, that he could produce this sort of prose almost on demand, with the deadline less than an hour away, in response to the passing of one actor or another. And almost no further editing was required.

He was funny and witty and serious and brutally honest about himself and his art. Nobody could match him. He will be remembered as one of the great critics of his generation.

I always thought his writing was so precise, yet not condescending or cold. He was honest and warm, and funny even when he was shredding a movie. There was just something so conversational about the way he wrote, but he was never talking down to anyone. I keep imagining he spoke the way he talked.