February 18, 2005

Roger and Me

I was planning last night to attend a screening of “Constantine,” the subpar-looking Keanu Reeves vampiredemon-hunter movie that appeared to have very little going for it aside from the presence of Rachel Weisz. At least, through that blogger mailing list I got onto, it was going to be free.

But on my way there I happened to pass the Barnes & Noble a block from the theater and saw that none other than Roger Ebert had a book signing scheduled there for that very night, in about a half hour. I figured two hours of movie talk with America’s only Pulitzer-winning critic was vastly preferable to the same amount of time with Keanu, so I decided to ditch the movie and go to the signing.

Now I know this blog’s readership is somewhat divided on his veracity as a critic, but I’ve been watching Ebert on TV since I was 3 or 4 years old, and I’ve read his online review of every film I’ve seen for as long as I’ve had internet access. In addition, I’ve e-mailed a bit with him over the years- he gave me a quote for my senior thesis, and I had a question in his “Movie Answer Man” column a few months ago.

Ebert –like Bob Costas, Christopher Hitchens, and Andrew Sullivan- is one of those people who I could just sit and listen to for 10 hours if I had the time. He was there to promote his newest collection of “The Great Movies” essays, although I’ve always been vastly more entertained by his negative reviews.

He started with a discussion of how while repertory theaters and university film societies are dying out, but the upshot is that with the advent of DVD, more classic films are available in better prints than ever before. He spoke of the days when Harvard students would go to the Brattle Theater, see every Bogart film, and mouth along the words, whereas now the only one they know is “Casablanca.” I drove by the Brattle last Sunday, and I used to go to every "Casablanca" showing there.

Roger then went into a long analysis of “Million Dollar Baby,” his favorite movie of 2004, while bashing critic Michael Medved for going on numerous TV shows and giving away the film’s ending. Medved's politically-driven campaign against that film has been like nothing since Frank Rich's year-long jihad against "The Passion of the Christ"- it's gotten so over-the-top that it makes me want to see the film just to spite him.

I was expecting the Q&A session to be all-Bush, all-the-time- as it tends to work that way with this Upper West Side signings, regardless of the subject matter of the book. Suprisingly, nobody went there, although the first question was from a man in the front row who stood up and, in all seriousness, called Ebert out for writing the “misogynistic and violent” script for “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.” This guy had probably held that in for at least 30 years; then again, if I ever meet Michael Bay I’ll probably tell him off too. Roger laughed it off, before segueing into a few stories about celebrity interviews of old- back before publicists controlled everything- and he even tossed in impressions of John Wayne and Lee Marvin.

Someone asked the same question I asked Roger when I first e-mailed him in 1997 or so: “how do you get a job as a film critic?” His response was to quote producer Jon Avnet, who joked at a recent American Film Institute graduation that “No parent has ever said to their child, ‘you’re going to film school and that’s that!’” Among the parents who laughed at that graduation was John Kerry. His other advice? Follow the example of online film reviewer James Berardinelli.

Afterwards I went up to Roger and had him sign my book. I told him I’d been in his column a few months ago and our argument about Kermit and Piggy continued. “It’s been a topic of much debate,” he said. Wonderful to meet him, although I still don't regret not heeding my mother's advice that I apply for the job to be his co-host after Gene Siskel died (she had seen Harry Knowles subbing, and figured I could do better).

Posted by Stephen Silver at February 18, 2005 07:36 AM
Comments

I can certainly understand your choice, but it would have been nice to have seen you at this screening--I think I was the only Jew in the whole theater.

My review is here, in case you're interested.
http://myurbankvetch.blogspot.com/2005/02/constantine.html

Posted by: Esther at February 18, 2005 11:47 AM

i, too, used to attend every screening of Casablanca at the Brattle. Now I own the special edition DVD and I can watch it any time I want, at home. But it's not the same.

Posted by: LilB at February 18, 2005 02:23 PM

No matter what people say about Ebert, i still like him a whole lot (just for standing up against the ratings is enough to have a thumbs up in my book). And Steve you a certainly a better movie critic than the Roeper guy. I can't stand listening to him. I love the Brattle (and the Coolidge), it's my number one destination for films. (Fun Fact you proabbly know already: the Brattle made Casablanca the classic it is today. When it was released it was a minor hit. Brattle promoted the heck out of it).

Posted by: Petitedov at February 18, 2005 02:36 PM

Actually it was your father's advice, and it was good advice.

Posted by: Alan Silver at February 22, 2005 12:29 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?