I'll be blogging and reporting from Ebertfest in Champaign-Urbana this week. The fest runs Wednesday through Sunday and the schedule can be found here. Panels, film introductions and post-film discussions will be live-streamed here. And it's an all-star line-up: Eberts! Bordwell! Cohl! Seitz! Arikan! Morgan! Odienator! Phillips! Britt! Kohn! Barker! Pierson! Rosman! Poland! Voynar! And those are just some of the organizers and attendees. The roster of films and filmmakers is impressive, too. Give it a look.
Off to Ebertfest
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epigraphs
"I don't think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away." -- Tom Noonan
"Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out." -- Martin Scorsese
“An idea does not exist apart from the words that express it. Style is not an envelope enclosing a message; the envelope is the message.” -- Dwight Macdonald
"There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear." -- Daniel Dennett
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selected articles
- Plumbing in the Cinema
- Buster Keaton
- TwinPeaks
- Barry Lyndon
- 'Birth' of a Buñuelian Notion
- Donnie Darko
- Fight Club
- War of the Worlds
- Mind Games & Head Trips
- Politics & Movies
- Miller's Crossing
- Sansho the Bailiff
- The Coen Bros.
- Million Dollar Baby
- The Big Lie
- When Bad Movies Happen to Good People
- Munich
- Jeeem's Pantheon
- 120Favorite Movies
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- Directors & direction (150)
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- The Dark Knight (19)
- The Descent (4)
- The Social Network (8)
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Trapped in the Closet (6)
- VIFF 2009 (7)
- VIFF 2011 (4)
- Video essay (21)
- Writing (8)

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recent entries
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May 2012
critics
- Roger Ebert
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- Tales of OdieNary Madness
- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
- Vinyl Is Heavy
- Undercurrent (FIPRESCI)
- when canses were classeled...
5 Comments
"Pink Floyd: The Wall" - the only decent film Alan Parker ever made.
The Roy Andersson film is odd but amazing.
Munyurangabo - Lee Isaac Chung's best film.
A film I haven't seen from the guy who made "The Rapture."
Coppola's best film - of which, I'd assume, NO ONE adores the ending 'ceptin me.
Yojiro Takita's "Departures" - would love to hear about this one. If it's good I'll have to netflix it.
Dziga Vertov's touchstone 1929 film, "Man With the Movie Camera" - though "Sherlock Jr." is probably the first metafilmic exploration of the cinema, Vertov's is that and more: machine art, Soviet futurist-constructivist-communist avant-garde, kaleidoscope art... and, as Jim Hoberman posits in his 1995 review (appreciation) of the film: "the most densely edited film ever."
The film that Mr. Ebert hails as the greatest of the aughts - "Synecdoche, New York." And, might I add, an interesting coupling/double feature when paired with the Vertov masterpiece.
Never seen "I Capture the Castle" or "Vincet: A Life of Color."
Michelle Monaghan is gorgeous, and her film has received high praise, so I can't wait to see "Trucker."
"Barfly" is one of my favorite Mickey Rourke performances.
AND never seen "Song Sung Blue."
Looking to be an excellent Ebertfest!
Wish I could be there.
Hey Jim,
If you happen to meet Michael Tolkin please ask him if there are any plans to bring his excellent film THE NEW AGE to dvd. I've just about worn out my slowly-rotting New Line laserdisc.
Thanks!
I'm working on it.
Watched the live stream of the panel discussion this morning about getting independent films made/distributed with Elvis Mitchell, Charlie Kaufmann and others. Very cool of the folks at Ebertfest to set that up for those not able to attend. Looking forward to the film students/classic movies discussion tomorrow.
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