Features

Thumbnails 6/3/2013

Words, images and videos worth knowing about.

They had faces then: Mike Leigh’s “Life is Sweet”

Max Winter

With its partly improvised dialogue and eruptions of argument, Mike Leigh’s “Life is Sweet,” now on Criterion DVD, gave viewers was insight into where the director had been, artistically. It also hinted at where he was going: into territory with far more visual and verbal polish. 

Book Excerpt: Guillermo Del Toro talks about the Best FIlm You’ve Never Seen

Robert K. Elder made a splash a few years ago with his book “The Film That Changed My Life,” a collection of interviews with directors about a single film that influenced their career. Now he’s back with “The Best Film You’ve Never Seen,” (published by the Independent Publishers Group) in which directors advocate for under-appreciated and critically maligned movies. Roger said of the book, “How necessary this book is! And how well judged and written! Some of the best films ever made, as Robert K. Elder proves, are lamentably all but unknown.” Here’s Elder’s interview with Guillermo Del Toro, who sings the praises of “Arcane Sorceror,” which Edgar Wright memorably described as “the ‘Barry Lyndon’ of horror films.”

Vulcan survivor’s guilt: Why J.J. Abrams should make Mr. Spock the hero of the new “Star Trek” franchise

Ali Arikan

The destruction of Vulcan, one of the most crucial planets in the “Star Trek” universe, should be at the core of J.J. Abrams’ “Trek” movies. It is the single development that most distinguishes the original series from Abrams’ reboot, an event so boldly imagined that it marks the filmmakers’ new, blank canvas with a hideous dark stain. 

Roger Ebert was an inspiration for disabled people

Scott Jordan Harris

Roger was a titan in the film community, but he was also a beacon for the seriously disabled.

Public Edition #4

Roger Ebert

This free Newsletter is a sample of what members receive weekly.For Roger’s invitation to the Club, go HERE
Marie writes: some of you may recall seeing a custom-built “steampunk” microphone stand made for the group Three Days Grace, by sculptor Christopher Conte; there were pictures of it inside the #14 Newsletter.Born in Norway, Christopher Conte was raised and educated in New York, where he currently lives. After earning a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art, he began working in the prosthetics field making artificial limbs for amputees; which he did for 16 years as a Certified Prosthetist. At the same time, he worked in obscurity creating sculptures which reflected his love for biomechanics, anatomy and robotics. In June 2008, he left the field to begin his career as a full-time artist. And you can now view his work portfolio online…

The Sculpture of Christopher Conte

Entry in 369th NYorker cartoon caption contest

Roger Ebert

Click here to enter this week’s contest.

A group of my losing entries, plus my one Winner, and the entry the cartoon editor said online that he liked but it didn’t quite clear the bar on New Yorker’s taste standards.

“Freezer Burn” (2007), or, “I’ll wait right here for you to catch up with me”

Roger Ebert

I’m working on a blog entry about the Old Town Ale House (“Chicago’s Best Dive Bar”–Tribune), its owner Tobi Mitchell, her husband Bruce Cameron Elliott, and their daughter Grace Littlefeather Elliott. I looked up to see my caregiver, Flora Doronila, uncommonly wrapped up in something she was watching on her iPad. “He is in love with a very young girl, Mr. Ebert. He freezes himself until she can grow older.”

SnagFilms.com descibes this film by Charles Hood: “Virgil is a thirty-year-old scientist developing technology to permanently preserve human organs for transplant. However, his obsession with his work takes a toll on his marriage. Virgil’s only distraction is Emma, a fourteen-year-old student in his wife’s high school art class. His sanity hangs in the balance as he struggles to suppress his taboo attraction to the girl. Virgil decides to use his experimental technology to freeze himself in order to align his age with the young girl’s. But his plan doesn’t turn out the way he’d hoped resulting in unexpected consequences for all involved. A fantastic sci-fi comedy, a perfect hybrid between Tom Hanks “Big” and Kevin Spacey’s “American Beauty.”

Go here for SnagFilms.

✔ “Two thumbs up” — Doronila.

var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};
a2a_config.linkname = “Roger Ebert’s Journal”;
a2a_config.linkurl = “http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/”;
a2a_config.num_services = 8;

Zuppke of Illinois: A football coach

Roger Ebert

Bob Zuppke
7/02/1879 – 12/22/1957
University of Illinois football coach, 1913 – 1941
National titles 1914, 1919, 1923 and 1927
Big Ten Championships 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1921, 1923, 1927 and 1928
Inventor of the huddle
Inventor of the flea flicker
Coach of George Halas
Coach of Red Grange
“Freshmen, my advice is, don’t drink the linement.”

var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};
a2a_config.linkname = “Roger Ebert’s Journal”;
a2a_config.linkurl = “http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/”;
a2a_config.num_services = 8;

var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};
a2a_config.linkname = “Roger Ebert’s Journal”;
a2a_config.linkurl = “http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/”;
a2a_config.num_services = 8;

“The Perfect High,” by Shel Silverstein

Roger Ebert

Bob Gibson loved to do this.

NRA battles ban on gun sales for those currently committing mass murder

Roger Ebert

NRA Fights Legislation That Would Ban Gun Sales To Those Currently On Killing Sprees