In Memoriam 1942 – 2013 “Roger Ebert loved movies.”

RogerEbert.com

Other Reviews
Review Archives
✖
Thumb xbepftvyieurxopaxyzgtgtkwgw

Ballad of Narayama

"The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens…

Other Reviews
Great Movie Archives
✖
Other Articles
Chaz's Journal Archives
✖
Other Articles
Blog Archives
✖
Other Articles
Far Flunger Archives
✖
Other Articles
Channel Archives
✖

Cast and Crew

* This filmography is not intended to be a comprehensive list of this artist’s work. Instead it reflects the films this person has been involved with that have been reviewed on this site.

#310 September 5, 2017

by Matt Fagerholm  |    | 

Matt writes: Werner Herzog celebrates his 75th birthday today, and we are pleased to announce that the latest Roger Ebert book will focus exclusively on the late critic's work about the revered filmmaker. Herzog by Ebert is being released this month by the University of Chicago Press. It contains Ebert's reviews of 15 Herzog films (along with two documentaries about the director), as well as six Great Movies essays, six interviews and an essential, rarely read conversation between the two men at Facet's Multimedia in 1979. Make sure to click here for a sneak peek at its comprehensive content.

Continue reading →

Django Unchain my heart (and set me free)

by Jim Emerson  |    | 

Primary djangobar thumb 510x211 56898

Quentin Tarantino has found his actor in Christoph Waltz -- someone who can speak Tarantinian fluently and still make it his own. When Waltz uses a self-consciously ostentatious word like "ascertain" (as in, "I was simply trying to ascertain..." -- the kind of verbiage QT is as likely to put in the mouth of a lowlife crook as a German dentist, or a Francophile plantation slavemaster, for that matter), it sounds right. As someone to whom Tarantino's dialog often sounds cliche-ridden and cutesy, it's a pleasure to hear Waltz saying the words in character rather than simply as a mouthpiece for the writer-director.

Oh, stop. This isn't sounding the way I want it to.

Continue reading →

The great movies (almost) nobody voted for

by Jim Emerson  |    | 

Primary carrieblood thumb 510x273 51391

OK, this is where it really gets interesting. Forget the consensus Top 50 Greatest Movies of All Time; let's get personal. Sight & Sound has now published the top 250 titles in its 2012 international critics poll, the full list of more than 2,000 movies mentioned, and all the individual lists of the 845 participating critics, academics, archivists and programmers, along with any accompanying remarks they submitted. I find this to be the most captivating aspect of the survey, because it reminds us of so many terrific movies we may have forgotten about, or never even heard of. If you want to seek out surprising, rewarding movies, this is a terrific place to start looking. For the past few days I've been taking various slices at the "data" trying to find statistical patterns, and to glean from the wealth of titles some treasures I'd like to heartily recommend -- and either re-watch or catch up with myself.

I know we're supposed to consider the S&S poll a feature film "canon" -- a historically influential decennial event since 1952, but just one of many. I don't disagree with Greg Ferrara at TCM's Movie Morlocks ("Ranking the Greats: Please Make it Stop") when he says that limiting ballots to ten all-time "best" (or "favorite," "significant," "influential" titles is incredibly limiting. That's why I think perusing at the critics' personal lists, the Top 250 (cited by seven critics or more) and the full list of 2,045 films mentioned is more enjoyable pastime.

It's wise to remember that, although the top of the poll may at first glance look relatively conservative or traditional, there's a tremendous diversity in the individual lists. Even the top vote-getter, "Vertigo," was chosen by less than one quarter of the participants.

Continue reading →