Tag: Roger Ebert (1-10 of 13)

Apr 12 2013 09:03 AM ET

Chicago celebs gather to honor Roger Ebert

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Image Credit: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

Hollywood came to Chicago on Thursday as actors, directors, film critics and studio presidents honored late movie reviewer Roger Ebert in his hometown.

All of those who shared memories at the Chicago Theatre cheered Ebert as a champion of movies and a critic who used his influence to help filmmakers find audiences. He died last week at age 70 after a years-long battle with cancer.

“He was always supportive of artists. He always gave you a fair shake,” said Chicago native John Cusack, who appeared with his sister and fellow actor, Joan Cusack.

Ebert worked at the Chicago Sun-Times for more than 40 years. The day before his April 4 death, he wrote in a post on his blog that he was taking a break from his schedule of almost-daily movie reviewing because the cancer had recurred.

“He was simply one of the finest men I ever met,” Chaz Ebert said of her late husband during Thursday night’s memorial. READ FULL STORY »

Apr 5 2013 09:54 PM ET

Richard Roeper on his colleague and friend Roger Ebert: 'He was a true fan of the movies.'

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Image Credit: Fred Jewell/AP

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert, who died Thursday at age 70, was known for his Chicago Sun-Times reviews he wrote solo, but many movie fans were introduced to him in his collaborative projects, when he and another critic supplied audiences with entertaining and thought-provoking discourse about film on his multiple TV shows. He brought his discussions about the movies to television with the late Chicago Tribune writer Gene Siskel at his side, first on Coming Soon to a Theater Near You and later on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies. Beginning in 2000, his movie talks featured fellow Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper.

When EW spoke to Roeper today, he said that though Ebert’s death was somewhat expected following his long battle with thyroid cancer, “it still came as a shock, and when the moment comes, it still comes far too soon, and I feel it first and foremost as a loss of my friend, a wonderful friend and family man.”

Roeper told EW it has been “remarkable” seeing the “outpouring of sympathy, the attention” on Ebert’s career in the past day since the Chicago Sun-Times first reported his death on Thursday. While notable filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and even President Barack Obama released statements in memoriam of the celebrated film critic, Roeper has also heard from “15-year-olds who say they want to become movie critics or they want to become filmmakers in great part because they were such great fans of Roger’s work on television and his writing as well.”
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Apr 4 2013 09:14 PM ET

Werner Herzog on Roger Ebert, 'the good soldier of cinema' -- EXCLUSIVE

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Image Credit: Buena Vista Television/AP

During over four decades of writing film reviews, Roger Ebert, who died at age 70 on Thursday, had a continually keen eye for blossoming talent, picking out directors like Martin Scorsese as ones to watch from their very first films, and he found plenty of filmmakers worthy of “two thumbs up” throughout his career. But one filmmaker whose work he championed with particular enthusiasm over the years was Werner Herzog.

The German director’s work — exotic films that blend the surreal with the real, fiction with non-fiction — includes the acclaimed documentaries Grizzly Man and Little Dieter Needs to Fly and the features Aguirre: the Wrath of God and Rescue Dawn.

More than once, Ebert expressed admiration for Herzog’s determination to make films on his own terms without any consistent source of funding. The independent filmmaker has made over 50 films since he released his first short in 1962. In a 2007 letter to Herzog, Ebert wrote, “You and your work are unique and invaluable, and you ennoble the cinema when so many debase it.”

When EW spoke with Herzog on the phone Thursday, the Munich-born filmmaker recounted their mutual admiration for each other’s work and reciprocated Ebert’s praise with similar reflections on Ebert’s own steadfastness amid the changing cultural views of entertainment . READ FULL STORY »

Apr 4 2013 08:09 PM ET

More than just a great critic, Roger Ebert redefined movie criticism for the blockbuster age

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For anyone who grew up in the late ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s watching Roger Ebert spar on television with his partner-in-thumbship, Gene Siskel, the rudely boisterous and antic sound of two grown men not just talking about movies but arguing about them came to seem as essential a part of the American movie landscape as popcorn or starships. If you’re a movie buff, it’s hard to imagine that both these men are gone now; their shows, and our memories of them, remain so alive. Back when Ebert and Siskel were major TV stars, I was often asked, especially if I was talking to a class of high school or college students, what I thought of their show — I always dug it — and also what I thought of the whole thumbs-up/thumbs down system. On that score, I confessed, I was more ambivalent. It was a useful system, to be sure; it was catchy and fun and, in its way, defining. But I had a few problems with it (which I’ll get to in a bit). READ FULL STORY »

Apr 4 2013 07:11 PM ET

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Harvey Weinstein, Barack Obama reflect on the career and life of Roger Ebert

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Image Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage

Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert has written many words of praise over the years for celebrated, prolific filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Harvey Weinstein. Now, following the news of Ebert’s death on Thursday, these three filmmakers have their own words of admiration for Ebert.

Spielberg — whom Ebert praised for his enduring “talent and flexibility” in an ever-changing industry — said in a statement that the Chicago Sun-Times critic “wrote with passion through a real knowledge of film and film history.” Read his full statement below, which also highlights the success of the multiple television programs Ebert hosted for 23 years (including At the Movies, which Ebert co-hosted with Gene Siskel, who is pictured above): READ FULL STORY »

Apr 4 2013 03:41 PM ET

Film critic Roger Ebert dies at 70

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Image Credit: Art Shay

Roger Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic whose famous thumbs-up or thumbs-down verdict helped make him the most famous reviewer in America, died Thursday of complications from cancer, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, where he wrote for 46 years. He was 70.

Ebert had been battling thyroid cancer since 2002, but never gave up his aisle-seat post or his love of cinema, publishing more than 300 reviews last year alone despite his inability to speak without the help of a voice machine due to an operation that removed his lower jaw. On Wednesday, he announced that his cancer had returned and that he would be taking “a leave of presence”. Readers hoped that it was merely another temporary set-back and that Ebert would return to share his trusted opinions. Sadly, it was not to be.
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Apr 3 2013 09:25 AM ET

Roger Ebert to take a 'leave of presence' due to cancer's return

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Image Credit: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

Veteran film critic Roger Ebert revealed last night that the cancer he’s been fighting for over a decade has returned — and as a result, he will be taking a “leave of presence” from the Chicago Sun-Times.

What’s a “leave of presence”? Here’s Ebert’s own clarification, from his Sun-Times blog: “It means I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me. What’s more, I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review.”

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Sep 20 2012 01:31 PM ET

Sundance to pay tribute to Roger Ebert

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Roger Ebert will be honored by the Sundance Institute with a Vanguard Leadership Award recognizing his contributions to independent filmmaking, it was announced today.

The award-winning movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, prolific author and blogger, and co-host of the long-running At the Movies television program has been a vocal advocate for and a constant presence at the Sundance Film Festival. “Among the many things I admire about Roger Ebert is how he has long supported freedom of artistic expression,” said Sundance’s president Robert Redford, in a statement. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 7 2012 04:18 PM ET

Roger Ebert's memoir 'Life Itself' heading for the big screen

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Image Credit: Art Shay

Here’s some news that gets a definite thumbs up: Film critic Roger Ebert announced via Twitter today that his 2011 memoir, Life Itself, is going to become the basis for a documentary.

The project is bringing together a trio heavy-hitters: director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List) optioned the book, and Martin Scorsese is on board as executive producer. Ebert’s memoir chronicles his more than 40-year career as one of the nation’s best-known movie critics, his struggle with alcoholism, and his battle with thyroid cancer, which has left the 70-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winner unable to speak, eat, or drink.

Jan 4 2011 09:46 AM ET

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky joins Roger Ebert's 'At the Movies'

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Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, film critic for the Chicago Reader, will co-host Roger Ebert’s upcoming movie-review television show, according to the Associated Press. The 24-year old, Russian-born Vishnevetsky, who also writes for the film website, Mubi, steps into the spot originally intended for Elvis Mitchell, who parted ways soon after being announced. He’ll join Christy Lemire, the AP’s film critic, in the balcony when Ebert Presents At the Movies premieres on Jan. 21.

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