For more than 30 years, Roger Ebert has led a theater full of people in a group analysis of movies at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado in (the People's Republic of) Boulder. The film is shown in its entirety on Monday, the first day of the Conference (this is called the Uninterruptus), and then Roger goes over it with the audience -- shot by shot, as it were -- for two hours a day, Tuesday through Friday. This is called the Cinema Interruptus. Anyone can shout out "Stop!" to make an observation or ask a question or back up (slightly) at any time, and it's amazing what people come up with. As Roger always says: "Someone in this room has the answer to any question you can come up with." Or, if they don't, they will have it the next day.
Over the last few years -- at the CWA and on the Floating Film Festival -- I've seen Roger go through "Citizen Kane," "The Third Man," "La Dolce Vita," "The Long Goodbye," "Adaptation." (there's a period in the title) and others. Other films he's presented and analyzed with the audience in Boulder include "Amarcord," "Taxi Driver," "Casablanca," "Raging Bull," "3 Women," "Out of the Past," "The Silence of the Lambs," "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," "JFK," "Pulp Fiction," "Fargo," "Fight Club," "Vertigo," "Mulholland Drive," "Floating Weeds," "Dark City" and "The Rules of the Game."
It's a priceless experience to really watch a movie this way -- and it increases (sometimes exponentially) your appreciation of the film, because even if you've seen the movie before, there's always something you've never noticed, or some dots you hadn't previously connected.
Although it's hard for me to imagine the CWA without Roger, he won't be able to attend this year. So, I'm filling in, and will be guiding the Interruptus through one of my favorite films, Roman Polanski's "Chinatown", -- among the all-time great movie masterpieces and the ultimate Los Angeles film noir, in sun-baked Panavision color (and no less sinister for it). So, if you happen to be near Boulder, Colorado in a few weeks (April 9 - 13, 2007), come by Macky Auditorium on campus at 4 p.m. and join us to sit in the dark and talk about detective movies, noir, the history of LA, the Department of Water and Power, William Mulholland and the St. Frances Dam catastrophe, Johnny LaRue, eyes, doors and windows, venetian blinds, orange groves, fish, monstrous evil, kitty-cats, and the nose on your face. (And that's just for starters.) It's free, and, as they say, so much fun it's a wonder it's still legal.
"..."Adaptation." (there's a period in the title)..."
THANK YOU! I'm one of those people who's anal when it comes to movie titles, even the ones I dislike (It's "300" dammit, there's no "the" in the friggin' title!).
I wish I could make it out there, but between school and, well, about 1,500 miles of distance, it's kind of out of the way. One day, though, one day...
If it's open to video recorders, I hope to see it and you on YouTube shortly afterwards.
It's surprising to see you pick one of your favorite pictures. Some might fear losing interest in a favorite movie after being subjected to a shot-by-shot analysis of it. Psycho (1998) must seem nearly identical to Psycho (1960) on a frame-by-frame basis; someone who's adamant on viewing films as a whole, just as they were originally presented and not in any other time frame, might reasonably refuse to see any film on a top-10 list this way. I'm curious if anyone during the Dark City showing drew any parallels to the movie.
I want to be there so bad I ache.
Alas, maybe next year...
I'm going to make every effort to be there -- but I have a question. I've watched Chinatown within the last couple weeks, is it worthwhile attending the first run-through to get a feel for the format or is it just an unadorned showing?
I can only think that, since you're doing this with great movies in order to point out all the things that make them great, it would only increase your appreciation for a certain film. I can't make it to Colorado--I wonder if I could get a group of like-minded folks together to try this on our own? Or, wishfully thinking, maybe you could take this on the road...
I've been going to the Cinema Interruptus for the last 5 or 6 years or so, with the occasional interruption, and I've greatly enjoyed it each time. I've learned to appreciate some of the greats that I hadn't seen and appreciate more those that I have. However, I haven't had the chance to see how more recent films stand up to the intense scrutiny of this format as of yet. Roger used to pick films released within the last year, but the last such was Fight Club I believe, (which I missed). Every year I keep hoping for a recent film to subject to the torture of Cinema Interruptus, but you all keep choosing these silly classics!
JE: I'd love to do this with "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" or "Brokeback Mountain" or "The Descent" -- or even "Borat" -- sometime, to mention a few films I think would stand up under close scrutiny. On the other hand there are so many classics that have already shown themselves to be timeless!
I found out about this whole thing just a couple of weeks ago. And "Chinatown"? It's my favorite! I ought to attend. But I won't be there. Damn shame.
Let me put in a request that you blog the hell out of this thing so we slackers may still get a taste. Thanks in advance.
BTW - nice Polish poster. You need to get it signed by Polanski to couple with your Nicholson-signed American.