Roger Ebert

2013-04-05T00:58:57Z

Kind of a mess right now. Roger Ebert was a huge, huge influence on my writing as a film critic and he was just a generally decent person to boot. And now he's gone. Two days ago he posted that he was doing something new in his life and only reviewing the films that he wanted to review. I cracked to my mother on the phone this morning, "I guess he only wanted to review Ingmar Bergman's new works."

Ebert intersected my life twice. The first time he, unknowingly, put me back on the right course after I detoured. The second time, he helped me clarify my convictions.

( 2002: A Film Critic's Odyssey )

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( The Discreet Charm of the Dead Teenager Movie )

That got really long. I apparently have a lot of feelings pent up on various things. Ahem.

Anyway. I'll miss you, Roger. The way you communicated your feelings on movies was unparalleled. When you loved a movie, it was sublime. When you hated a movie, the flames of enmity burned through your words. But where you really were different was when a film bored you. There you were able to riff on movies in general and the expectations we hold for them and any number of other subjects, all loosely tied to the film under the glass -- and somehow all of that divergence from the movie communicated exactly your feelings on it.

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Roger Ebert's take on James Lipton

2010-01-02T21:03:06Z

I mentioned this to some folks at the New Year's Eve party, so I felt I should link to it.

Back in 2007, it was revealed that James Lipton, host of "Inside the Actors Studio," had spent some time as a pimp in Paris, France. Roger Ebert, clearly having fun, decided to run with it.

I've been around this business a long time, and I've never seen your equal. You have that rare ability to transform an ordinary performance into a work of art. And your empathy is extraordinary! I was just observing your session with Fifi. Well, her birth name is Margaret, born in Des Moines, I believe, family with the Red Cross, but Fifi is her professional name, so to speak, and she's the kind of performer who really opens up when she feels the kind of rapport you bring into the room.

Jimmy the Pimp: "You Don't Know How Good You Are!"

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Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert's take on James Lipton