Frasi di Roger Ebert (303 frasi) | Citazioni e frasi celebri

Roger Ebert: 303 frasi 4 Mi piace

Roger Ebert frasi celebri

“È "macho-porn" — il sex movie verso cui Hollywood ha puntato per anni, in cui l'erotismo tra i due sessi è rimpiazzato da combattimenti da spogliatoio tra maschi. Le donne, che hanno avuto a che fare con gli atteggiamenti dei maschietti da una vita, lo capiranno istintivamente; gli uomini se lo godranno per via della botta di testosterone. Il fatto che è molto ben realizzato e ha un ottimo primo atto certamente offusca la questione.”

Roger Ebert

“16 Blocks è più di uno studio del personaggio, è un film con due diversi protagonisti, basato su come Jack sia da molto tempo stufo del dipartimento, e sulla dolce, sciocca natura di Eddie capace di inclinare l'equilibrio. […] Il film è stato diretto da Richard Donner, uno specialista nel combinare azione, scene di inseguimenti e umorismo (vedi Arma letale, ecc.). Qui inizia con tre buone prestazioni: Willis, stanco del mondo e tuttavia con una scintilla di ribellione; Mos Def, il cui ruolo è parlare più o meno lo stesso tempo di esecuzione del film; e David Morse, il male e la burocrazia in egual misura.”

Roger Ebert

“Un milione di uomini inizia a ubriacarsi per diventare un grande scrittore, e uno ce la fa. Probabilmente ora un altro milione di uomini si sta ubriacando nel tentativo di capire come ci sia riuscito Bukowski. Lui non è un sopravvissuto. Lui è un'aberrazione statistica.”

Roger Ebert

“Johnny Guitar (1954) di Nicholas Ray è sicuramente uno dei melodrammi psicosessuali più sfacciati che si siano mascherati nel più ampio dei generi, il western.”

Roger Ebert

“Ecco un suggerimento per gli sceneggiatori di thriller: non potete sbagliare se tutti i personaggi del vostro film sono intelligenti quanto la maggior parte degli appartenenti al vostro pubblico.”

Roger Ebert

Here's a suggestion for thrillermakers: You can't go wrong if all of the characters in your movie are at least as intelligent as most of the characters in your audience.

“Senza l'ispettore capo e tutto ciò che rappresenta, Trappola di cristallo sarebbe stato un thriller più che discreto. Con lui è un pasticcio ed è un peccato, perché il film ha superbi effetti speciali, impressionanti scene con stuntman e una buona recitazione, specialmente quella di Alan Rickman nel ruolo del terrorista.”

Roger Ebert

Without the deputy chief and all that he represents, "Die Hard" would have been a more than passable thriller. With him, it's a mess, and that's a shame, because the film does contain superior special effects, impressive stunt work and good performances, especially by Rickman as the terrorist.

Frasi sulla vita di Roger Ebert

“Mi chiederò: qual è il mio film preferito? Oppure stravolgerò leggermente la domanda: qual è il film che rivedrei con più piacere adesso? La risposta non sarebbe "Quarto potere". […] Adesso, in questo momento, la prima risposta che mi verrebbe in mente è "La dolce vita" di Fellini. L'avrò visto venticinque volte, forse di più. Per me non invecchia mai. Mai fuori moda, l'età non ha appassito la sua infinita varietà. Mi sono eccitato a tal punto scrivendo questo paragrafo che vorrei inserire il DVD e guardarlo subito. Qualche anno fa mi chiesero perché lo avessi incluso nel mio annuale Ebertfest, perché, a loro avviso, non era stato poi così "trascurato", mentre il festival mette in vetrina film che meriterebbero maggiore attenzione. Dissi che era improbabile che più di qualche decina tra i 1600 spettatori del teatro l'avessero mai visto sul grande schermo da una pellicola 35 mm. Nei momenti più tristi, mi sono chiesto quanti tra gli spettatori non l'avrebbero mai visto altrimenti.”

Roger Ebert

“[Su V per Vendetta] Ci sono idee in questo film. La più acuta è la convinzione di V: "I popoli non dovrebbero avere paura dei propri governi, sono i governi che dovrebbero aver paura dei popoli." Non sono sicuro che V abbia ragione; sicuramente l'ideale sarebbe che i governi statali e la loro gente debbano esistere felicemente insieme. La paura in entrambe le direzioni conduce inevitabilmente alla violenza. Ma V ha uno stato totalitario di rovesciare, e solo un anno per farlo, e noi guardiamo come lui improvvisa una rivoluzione.”

Roger Ebert

“Il personaggio di V e la sua relazione con Evey (Natalie Portman) ci ricorda inevitabilmente il Fantasma dell'Opera. V e il fantasma sono entrambi mascherati, si muovono attraverso spazi sotterranei, controllano gli altri attraverso la leva della loro immaginazione e hanno un conto in sospeso. Una differenza, una importante differenza, è che il travestimento del viso di V non si muove (a differenza, ad esempio, dei volti di un cattivo di Batman), ma è una maschera che ha sempre la stessa espressione sorridente. Dietro alla maschera c'è l'attore Hugo Weaving, che ha usato la voce e il linguaggio del corpo per creare un personaggio, ma mi sono ricordato del mio problema con il trenino Thomas: Se qualcosa parla, le sue labbra devono muoversi.”

Roger Ebert

The character of V and his relationship with Evey (Natalie Portman) inescapably reminds us of the Phantom of the Opera. V and the Phantom are both masked, move through subterranean spaces, control others through the leverage of their imaginations and have a score to settle. One difference, and it is an important one, is that V's facial disguise does not move (unlike, say, the faces of a Batman villain) but is a mask that always has the same smiling expression. Behind it is the actor Hugo Weaving, using his voice and body language to create a character, but I was reminded of my problem with Thomas the Tank Engine: If something talks, its lips should move.

“[Su La dolce vita] Poiché il film ha avuto per me significati sempre differenti nelle diverse fasi della mia vita, eppure ha sempre avuto un significato, e poiché evidentemente anche per Fellini è avvenuto qualcosa del genere, credo che vorrò sempre vedere questo film un'altra volta. Non diventerà mai stantio perché io non ho ancora finito di cambiare.”

Roger Ebert

Because the movie has meant different things to me at different stages in my life, but has always meant something, and because it clearly did for Fellini too, I think I will always want to see it again. It won't grow stale, because I haven't finished changing.

Roger Ebert Frasi e Citazioni

“[Sull'interpretazione in American Psycho] Christian Bale è eroico per come permette al personaggio di saltare allegramente nel disprezzo; non c'è l'istinto di auto-conservazione qui, e questo è merito di un buon attore.”

Roger Ebert

“[Sull'interpretazione in Equilibrium] Christian Bale nel ruolo del cleric John Preston è molto esigente nei confronti del suo partner Partridge. Nessuno può guardarti negli occhi con la stessa, oltraggiosa provocazione meglio di lui.”

Roger Ebert

Sui libri

“Entrapment" è la vera incarnazione di una macchina da star: un film con una trama assurda, luoghi esotici, sequenze d'azione assurde, e tanta chimica tra gli attori interessanti di cui non ci importa. I protagonisti Sean Connery e Catherine Zeta-Jones mi hanno ricordato di "Caccia al ladro", "Charade", "Topkapi" e le sequenze stunt di Bond.”

Roger Ebert

Macchine

“Non ho letto l'opera originale, non so cosa sia stato cambiato o tagliato, ma ho trovato un'audace confusione di idee in "V per Vendetta" e ho apprezzato la loro disorganizzazione maniacale. Realizzare una parabola sul terrorismo e totalitarismo che sia pertinente e leggibile è probabilmente impossibile, potrebbe essere pericoloso e probabilmente non sarebbe nemmeno da botteghino.”

Roger Ebert

Sulle leggi , Vendetta

“V per Vendetta" è stato scritto e co-prodotto dai fratelli Wachowski, Andy e Lana, creatori della trilogia "Matrix". Tra l'altro, anche i film di questa trilogia parlavano della resistenza di alcuni ribelli contro un sistema di controllo planetario. Questo film tuttavia è più letterario e meno dominato da effetti speciali (comunque ce n'è un sacco), ed è pieno di idee che sono ancora più intriganti perché non siamo in grado di definire con precisione il messaggio. Questo film è una parabola sul 2006, un ammonimento o una pura fantasia? Può essere letto in diversi modi, come certamente avrò modo di capire dalle infinite e-mail.”

Roger Ebert

fratelli , Modo , Vendetta

“[Su La dolce vita] Quando vidi il film poco dopo la morte di Mastroianni, pensai che Fellini e Marcello avessero preso un attimo di scoperta e lo avessero reso immortale.”

Roger Ebert

When I saw the movie right after Mastroianni died, I thought that Fellini and Marcello had taken a moment of discovery and made it immortal.

Sulla morte

“Ultimamente i film sembrano insoddisfatti a meno che non aggiungano scene finali che ridefiniscano la realtà di tutto ciò che hanno raccontato prima; chiamiamola la sindrome di Keyser Soze.”

Roger Ebert

A lot of recent films seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that redefine the reality of everything that has gone before; call it the Keyser Soze syndrome.

Realtà

“Penn esprime rabbia attraverso piccoli, contenuti dettagli. È uno dei nostri grandi attori, capace di investire di importanza personaggi insignificanti”

Roger Ebert

...

Rabbia

“A mio parere [il personaggio di Tyler Durden] non ha verità utili. È un bullo […] Nessuno dei membri diventa più forte o più libero per via della loro appartenenza al Fight Club; sono ridotti a patetici cultisti. Di conseguenza indossano camicie nere e si arruolano come fossero skinhead.”

Roger Ebert

In my opinion, he has no useful truths. He's a bully [...] None of the Fight Club members grows stronger or freer because of their membership; they're reduced to pathetic cultists. Issue them black shirts and sign them up as skinheads.

Forte , Sulla verità

“Quando vedi dei bravi attori in un progetto come questo ti viene da chiederti se hanno firmato il contratto come un'alternativa all'andare in canoa.”

Roger Ebert

When you see good actors in a project like this, you wonder if they signed up as an alternative to canyoneering.
Origine: Citato in Brutte recensioni di film bellissimi http://www.ilpost.it/2016/02/06/recensioni-brutte-film-belli/recensioni-negative-di-film-bellissimi/, il Post, 2 febbraio 2016.

“Fight Club è una montagna russa mascherata da filosofia — il tipo di montagna russa in cui alcuni finiscono per vomitare mentre altri non vedono l'ora di salirci di nuovo.”

Roger Ebert

Fight Club is a thrill ride masquerading as philosophy--the kind of ride where some people puke and others can't wait to get on again.

Montagna , Tipo

“Scent of a Woman di Martin Brest prende Charlie e il colonnello e li inserisce in una combinazione di due generi affidabili. C'è la formula del raggiungimento della maturità, in cui un uomo più anziano insegna a quello più giovane come comportarsi. Qui è incrociata con la ricetta del film scolastico, da A Separate Peace a Se…, Taps - Squilli di rivolta, L'attimo fuggente e I corridoi del potere, che coinvolge sempre un disadattato che impara a lottare per ciò in cui crede. I due generi si adattano bene a "Profumo di donna", forse perché l'unica cosa di cui Charlie ha bisogno a scuola è un modello, e l'unica cosa che il colonnello ha sempre saputo fare è fornire uno.”

Roger Ebert

Sulla scuola , Sui giovani

“Ogni film vale solo quanto il suo cattivo. Dato che gli eroi e gli espedienti tendono a ripetersi di pellicola in pellicola, solo un grande cattivo può trasformare una buona prova in un trionfo.”

Roger Ebert

“[Alien 3 è] uno dei "film brutti" più belli che abbia mai visto […].”

Roger Ebert

[...] one of the best-looking bad movies I have ever seen [...].

“[Su La dolce vita] Potrei aggiungere che si tratta di uno dei film visivamente più fluidi mai realizzato, un film che si avvicina alla musica nella sua impetuosa passione, non solo perché la partitura di Nino Rota è tra le migliori che siano mai state realizzate, ma perché i personaggi sembrano muoversi con la musica dentro di loro (gioiosa, lussuriosa, eccitante, dubbiosa, triste). Fellini ha lavorato in Italia in un'epoca di dialoghi doppiati, e qualche volta ha inserito musica ad alto volume mentre filmava le scene. Questo è il motivo per cui sembra che i personaggi seguano ritmi non udibili.”

Roger Ebert

I might add that it is one of the most visually fluid movies ever made, a movie that approaches music in its rushing passion, not simply because Nino Rota's score is one of the best ever recorded, but because the characters seem to move with music within them (joyful, lustful, exciting, doubtful, sad). Fellini worked in Italy at a time of dubbed dialogue, and he sometimes played music loudly as he filmed a scene. That's why the characters often seem to be moving to unheard rhythms.

Sulla musica , Passione

“Leslie Nielsen, l'Olivier della parodia.”

Roger Ebert

“"Quarto potere" è probabilmente il film più importante, per due motivi: ha consolidato quello che era stato il linguaggio cinematografico fino al 1941 e ha aperto nuovi orizzonti per ciò che concerne la profondità di campo, il suono complesso e la struttura narrativa. L'altro motivo è che ha dimostrato la "teoria francese dell'autore" 25 anni prima che fosse definita (ovviamente la suddetta teoria si stava già dimostrando silenziosamente). Era "un film alla Orson Welles". Ha dimostrato che l'autore di un film, soprattutto se si tratta di un grande film, è spesso il suo regista, non la sua casa cinematografica, i suoi produttori, scrittori o sostenitori finanziari. Uno studio cinematografico, disse Welles, è il miglior treno a giocattolo che un ragazzo potrebbe mai sognare.”

Roger Ebert

Studia , Ragazza , Casa

“Patch Adams mi ha fatto venire voglia di spruzzare lo schermo con del Lysol. Questo film è vergognoso. Non è un tentativo di strappalacrime, estrae le lacrime singolarmente con la liposuzione, senza anestetico.”

Roger Ebert

Lacrima

“Il titolo del film è Trappola di cristallo e mostra Bruce Willis in un altro di quei ruoli d'azione di Hollywood in cui la camicia dell'eroe è stappata fin dalla prima scena, così puoi vedere quanto tempo ha passato in palestra.”

Roger Ebert

The name of the movie is "Die Hard," and it stars Bruce Willis in another one of those Hollywood action roles where the hero's shirt is ripped off in the first reel so you can see how much time he has been spending at the gym.

Passato , Tempo

“Thriller come questo necessitano di essere macchine ben lubrificate, senza neppure un momento sprecato. Interruzioni inadeguate e sbagliate rivelano la fragile natura della trama e le impediscono di funzionare.”

Roger Ebert

Thrillers like this need to be well-oiled machines, with not a single wasted moment. Inappropriate and wrongheaded interruptions reveal the fragile nature of the plot and prevent it from working.

Macchine , Natura

“Adoro quando un film prende il controllo, spazza via i miei dubbi e le mie obiezioni, e mi costringe a ridere. Sto avendo una reazione fisica, e non una intellettuale. C'è veramente libertà nel ridere così forte. Mi sento rinato.”

Roger Ebert

I love it when a movie takes control, sweeps away my doubts and objections, and compels me to laugh. I'm having a physical reaction, not an intellectual one. There's such freedom in laughing so loudly. I feel cleansed.

Forte , La libertà

“Il portiere di notte è un'opera sgradevole quanto lubrica, un esecrabile intento di titillarci, servendosi delle memorie di persecuzione e sofferenza. È (so quanto suoni osceno) nazi-chic. […] è una soap opera così superficiale che ne avremmo riso, se non fosse così inquietante.”

Roger Ebert

Sofferenza , Memoria , Notte

“Dopo mesi e mesi di commedie che non mi hanno fatto ridere, eccone infine una che c'è riuscita.”

Roger Ebert

After months and months of comedies that did not make me laugh, here at last is one that did.

“Riguardo a un livello tecnico, ci sarebbe molto da dire su Trappola di cristallo. È quando arriviamo ad alcune delle inutili aggiunte della sceneggiatura che il film si dà il colpo di grazia.”

Roger Ebert

Dire bugie

“Che benedetto sollievo è la risata. [Il film] se ne frega delle buone maniere, dei valori, della correttezza politica e del decoro. Ci espone per quello che siamo, l'unico animale con il senso dell'umorismo.”

Roger Ebert

What a blessed relief is laughter. It flies in the face of manners, values, political correctness and decorum. It exposes us for what we are, the only animal with a sense of humor.

Risata , Animali , Senso

“Mi sono fermato qua alla tastiera, cercando di decidere come descriverti (a) in un giornale per famiglie e (b) senza tuttavia anticipare il divertimento. Non posso. Osserverò semplicemente che, subito dopo che la scena è "esplosa" per incredibili e prolungate risate, i Farrelly trovano un modo per accecarci con una conseguenza completamente inaspettata che ci fa nuovamente scatenare.”

Roger Ebert

I have paused here at the keyboard for many minutes, trying to decide how to describe them (a) in a family newspaper, and (b) without spoiling the fun. I cannot. I will simply observe in admiration that after the scene explodes in disbelieving, prolonged laughter, the Farrellys find a way to blindside us with a completely unanticipated consequence that sets us off all over again.

Risata , Sulla famiglia , Modo

“Per quanto posso dire, l'ispettore capo c'è nel film solo per un motivo: sbagliare costantemente in ogni azione e fornire un falso contrappeso ai progressi di Willis. Il personaggio è così volutamente inutile, così stupido, che sembra il risultato della 'Sindrome di trama idiota', e che da solo riesce a pregiudicare l'ultima parte del film.”

Roger Ebert

As nearly as I can tell, the deputy chief is in the movie for only one purpose: to be consistently wrong at every step of the way and to provide a phony counterpoint to Willis' progress. The character is so willfully useless, so dumb, so much a product of the Idiot Plot Syndrome, that all by himself he successfully undermines the last half of the movie.

Dire bugie

“Riguardo a un livello tecnico, ci sarebbe molto da dire su Trappola di cristallo.”

Roger Ebert

È quando arriviamo ad alcune delle inutili aggiunte della sceneggiatura che il film si dà il colpo di grazia.
On a technical level, there's a lot to be said for "Die Hard." It's when we get to some of the unnecessary adornments of the script that the movie shoots itself in the foot.

Dire bugie

“Ecco un film che ha il coraggio di essere sudicio. I draghi vivono in tane maleodoranti sotto le profondità di montagne sgretolanti, e per raggiungerli bisogna attraversare laghi di fuoco e cercare in qualche modo di evitare di essere divorato vivo da draghetti cuccioli.”

Roger Ebert

Here is a movie with the courage to be grungy. Dragons live in smelly lairs deep beneath crumbling mountains, and to reach them you have to cross lakes of fire and somehow avoid being eaten alive by little baby dragons.

Modo , Coraggio , Montagna

Roger Ebert: Frasi in inglese

“I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/north-1994 of North (22 July 1994)
Reviews, Zero star reviews

“Most people choose movies that provide exactly what they expect, and tell them things they already know. Others are more curious. We are put on this planet only once, and to limit ourselves to the familiar is a crime against our minds.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-isle-2003 of The Isle (31 January 2003)
Reviews, Three star reviews

“No matter what they're charging to get in, it's worth more to get out.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/armageddon-1998 of Armageddon (1 July 1998)
Reviews, One-star reviews
Contesto: Here it is at last, the first 150-minute trailer. Armageddon is cut together like its own highlights. Take almost any 30 seconds at random, and you'd have a TV ad. The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense, and the human desire to be entertained. No matter what they're charging to get in, it's worth more to get out.

“The film's coda provides a vision of an afterlife, a desolate landscape on which quiet people solemnly recognize and greet one another, and all is understood in the fullness of time.”

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Roger Ebert

Review of The Tree of Life (2 June 2011) http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110602/REVIEWS/110609998
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is a film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives. The only other film I've seen with this boldness of vision is Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it lacked Malick's fierce evocation of human feeling. … I don't know when a film has connected more immediately with my own personal experience. In uncanny ways, the central events of The Tree of Life reflect a time and place I lived in, and the boys in it are me. If I set out to make an autobiographical film, and if I had Malick's gift, it would look so much like this. … There is a father who maintains discipline and a mother who exudes forgiveness, and long summer days of play and idleness and urgent unsaid questions about the meaning of things. … The film's portrait of everyday life, inspired by Malick's memories of his hometown of Waco, Texas, is bounded by two immensities, one of space and time, and the other of spirituality. The Tree of Life has awe-inspiring visuals suggesting the birth and expansion of the universe, the appearance of life on a microscopic level and the evolution of species. This process leads to the present moment, and to all of us. We were created in the Big Bang and over untold millions of years, molecules formed themselves into, well, you and me.
And what comes after? In whispered words near the beginning, "nature" and "grace" are heard. … The film's coda provides a vision of an afterlife, a desolate landscape on which quiet people solemnly recognize and greet one another, and all is understood in the fullness of time.

“Magnolia is the kind of film I instinctively respond to. Leave logic at the door. Do not expect subdued taste and restraint, but instead a kind of operatic ecstasy.”

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Roger Ebert

Review of Magnolia in Chicago Sun-Times (7 January 2000) http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/magnolia-2000
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Magnolia is operatic in its ambition, a great, joyous leap into melodrama and coincidence, with ragged emotions, crimes and punishments, deathbed scenes, romantic dreams, generational turmoil and celestial intervention, all scored to insistent music. It is not a timid film. … The movie is an interlocking series of episodes that take place during one day in Los Angeles, sometimes even at the same moment. Its characters are linked by blood, coincidence and by the way their lives seem parallel. Themes emerge: the deaths of fathers, the resentments of children, the failure of early promise, the way all plans and ambitions can be undermined by sudden and astonishing events. … All of these threads converge, in one way or another, upon an event there is no way for the audience to anticipate. This event is not "cheating," as some critics have argued, because the prologue fully prepares the way for it, as do some subtle references to Exodus. It works like the hand of God, reminding us of the absurdity of daring to plan. And yet plan we must, because we are human, and because sometimes our plans work out.
Magnolia is the kind of film I instinctively respond to. Leave logic at the door. Do not expect subdued taste and restraint, but instead a kind of operatic ecstasy. At three hours it is even operatic in length, as its themes unfold, its characters strive against the dying of the light, and the great wheel of chance rolls on toward them.

“It's so rare to find a movie that doesn't take sides.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/house-of-sand-and-fog-2003 of House of Sand and Fog (26 December 2003)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: It's so rare to find a movie that doesn't take sides. Conflict is said to be the basis of popular fiction, and yet here is a film that seizes us with its first scene and never lets go, and we feel sympathy all the way through for everyone in it. To be sure, they sometimes do bad things, but the movie understands them and their flaws. Like great fiction, House of Sand and Fog sees into the hearts of its characters, and loves and pities them. … "House of Sand and Fog" relates not a plot with its contrived ups and downs but a story. A plot is about things that happen. A story is about people who behave.
To admire a story you must be willing to listen to the people and observe them, and at the end of House of Sand and Fog, we have seen good people with good intentions who have their lives destroyed because they had the bad luck to come across a weak person with shabby desires.

“Kids are not stupid. They are among the sharpest, cleverest, most eagle-eyed creatures on God's Earth, and very little escapes their notice.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-1971 of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1 January 1971)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Kids are not stupid. They are among the sharpest, cleverest, most eagle-eyed creatures on God's Earth, and very little escapes their notice. You may not have observed that your neighbor is still using his snow tires in mid-July, but every four-year-old on the block has, and kids pay the same attention to detail when they go to the movies. They don't miss a thing, and they have an instinctive contempt for shoddy and shabby work. I make this observation because nine out of ten children's movies are stupid, witless, and display contempt for their audiences, and that's why kids hate them. Is that all parents want from kids' movies? That they not have anything bad in them? Shouldn't they have something good in them — some life, imagination, fantasy, inventiveness, something to tickle the imagination? If a movie isn't going to do your kids any good, why let them watch it? Just to kill a Saturday afternoon? That shows a subtle kind of contempt for a child's mind, I think. All of this is preface to a simple statement: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is probably the best film of its sort since "The Wizard of Oz." It is everything that family movies usually claim to be, but aren't: Delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and, most of all, a genuine work of imagination. Willy Wonka is such a surely and wonderfully spun fantasy that it works on all kinds of minds, and it is fascinating because, like all classic fantasy, it is fascinated with itself.

“What Charlize Theron achieves in Patty Jenkins' Monster isn't a performance but an embodiment.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/monster-2003 of Monster (1 January 2004)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: What Charlize Theron achieves in Patty Jenkins' Monster isn't a performance but an embodiment. With courage, art and charity, she empathizes with Aileen Wuornos, a damaged woman who committed seven murders. She does not excuse the murders. She simply asks that we witness the woman's final desperate attempt to be a better person than her fate intended.

“Magnolia is a film of sadness and loss, of lifelong bitterness, of children harmed and adults destroying themselves.”

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Roger Ebert

Review of Magnolia (1999), in review for Great Movies (27 November 2008) http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-magnolia-1999
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Magnolia is a film of sadness and loss, of lifelong bitterness, of children harmed and adults destroying themselves. As the narrator tells us near the end, "We may be through with the past, but the past is never through with us." In this wreckage of lifetimes, there are two figures, a policeman and a nurse, who do what they can to offer help, hope and love. … The central theme is cruelty to children, and its lasting effect. This is closely linked to a loathing or fear of behaving as we are told, or think, that we should. … As an act of filmmaking, it draws us in and doesn't let go. It begins deceptively, with a little documentary about amazing coincidences (including the scuba diver scooped by a fire-fighting plane and dumped on a forest fire) … coincidences and strange events do happen, and they are as real as everything else. If you could stand back far enough, in fact, everything would be revealed as a coincidence. What we call "coincidences" are limited to the ones we happen to notice. … In one beautiful sequence, Anderson cuts between most of the major characters all simultaneously singing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNmKghTvj0E Aimee Mann's "It's Not Going to Stop." A directorial flourish? You know what? I think it's a coincidence. Unlike many other "hypertext movies" with interlinking plots, Magnolia seems to be using the device in a deeper, more philosophical way. Anderson sees these people joined at a level below any possible knowledge, down where fate and destiny lie. They have been joined by their actions and their choices.
And all leads to the remarkable, famous, sequence near the film's end when it rains frogs. Yes. Countless frogs, still alive, all over Los Angeles, falling from the sky. That this device has sometimes been joked about puzzles me. I find it a way to elevate the whole story into a larger realm of inexplicable but real behavior. We need something beyond the human to add another dimension. Frogs have rained from the sky eight times this century, but never mind the facts. Attend instead to Exodus 8:2, which is cited on a placard in the film: "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs." Let who go? In this case, I believe, it refers not to people, but to fears, shames, sins.
Magnolia is one of those rare films that works in two entirely different ways. In one sense, it tells absorbing stories, filled with detail, told with precision and not a little humor. On another sense, it is a parable. The message of the parable, as with all good parables, is expressed not in words but in emotions. After we have felt the pain of these people, and felt the love of the policeman and the nurse, we have been taught something intangible, but necessary to know.

“In one sense, it tells absorbing stories, filled with detail, told with precision and not a little humor. On another sense, it is a parable. The message of the parable, as with all good parables, is expressed not in words but in emotions. After we have felt the pain of these people, and felt the love of the policeman and the nurse, we have been taught something intangible, but necessary to know.”

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Roger Ebert

“I find it a way to elevate the whole story into a larger realm of inexplicable but real behavior. We need something beyond the human to add another dimension.”

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Roger Ebert

“I said this is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/batman-begins-2005 of Batman Begins (13 June 2005)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: I said this is the Batman movie I've been waiting for; more correctly, this is the movie I did not realize I was waiting for, because I didn't realize that more emphasis on story and character and less emphasis on high-tech action was just what was needed. The movie works dramatically in addition to being an entertainment. There's something to it.

“Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/deuce-bigalow-european-gigolo-2005 of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Reviews, Zero star reviews
Contesto: Deuce Bigalow is aggressively bad, as if it wants to cause suffering to the audience. The best thing about it is that it runs for only 75 minutes. … Does this sound like a movie you want to see? It sounds to me like a movie that Columbia Pictures and the film's producers … should be discussing in long, sad conversations with their inner child.
The movie created a spot of controversy... Rob Schneider took offense when Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times listed [2004's] Best Picture nominees and wrote that they were "ignored, unloved, and turned down flat by most of the same studios that … bankroll hundreds of sequels, including a follow-up to Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a film that was sadly overlooked at Oscar time because apparently nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic."
Schneider retaliated by attacking Goldstein in full-page ads in Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. In an open letter to Goldstein, Schneider wrote: "Well, Mr. Goldstein, I decided to do some research to find out what awards you have won. I went online and found that you have won nothing. Absolutely nothing. No journalistic awards of any kind. … Maybe you didn't win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven't invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who's Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers..." As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks."

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do.”

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Roger Ebert

Origine: Life Itself : A Memoir (2011), Ch. 55 : Go Gently
Contesto: "Kindness" covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

“Buster survives tornados, waterfalls, avalanches of boulders, and falls from great heights, and never pauses to take a bow: He has his eye on his goal. And his movies, seen as a group, are like a sustained act of optimism in the face of adversity”

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Roger Ebert

The Great Movies II (2005), p. 94
Contesto: It's said that Chaplin wanted you to like him, but Keaton didn't care. I think he cared, but was too proud to ask. His films avoid the pathos and sentiment of the Chaplin pictures, and usually feature a jaunty young man who sees an objective and goes for it in the face of the most daunting obstacles. Buster survives tornados, waterfalls, avalanches of boulders, and falls from great heights, and never pauses to take a bow: He has his eye on his goal. And his movies, seen as a group, are like a sustained act of optimism in the face of adversity; surprising, how without asking, he earns our admiration and tenderness.
Because he was funny, because he wore a porkpie had, Keaton's physical skills are often undervalued … no silent star did more dangerous stunts than Buster Keaton. Instead of using doubles, he himself doubled for his actors, doing their stunts as well as his own.

“Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/avatar-2009 of Avatar (11 December 2009)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his Titanic was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely.

“Many moviegoers and video viewers say they do not "like" black and white films. In my opinion, they are cutting themselves off from much of the mystery and beauty of the movies.
Black and white is an artistic choice, a medium that has strengths and traditions, especially in its use of light and shadow.”

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First published in the "Movie Answer Man" column (25 July 2004) http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040725/ANSWERMAN/407250305
Contesto: Many moviegoers and video viewers say they do not "like" black and white films. In my opinion, they are cutting themselves off from much of the mystery and beauty of the movies.
Black and white is an artistic choice, a medium that has strengths and traditions, especially in its use of light and shadow. Moviegoers of course have the right to dislike b&w, but it is not something they should be proud of. It reveals them, frankly, as cinematically illiterate.
I have been described as a snob on this issue. But snobs exclude; they do not include. To exclude b&w from your choices is an admission that you have a closed mind, a limited imagination, or are lacking in taste.

“This is precisely the same construction used by many serial killers and heads of state, who use language to separate themselves from the consequences of their actions.”

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Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-doom-generation-1995 of The Doom Generation (10 November 1995)
Reviews, Zero star reviews
Contesto: The movie opens as the drifter "inadvertently" (Araki's word, in the press kit) blows off the head of a Korean convenience store owner... It continues as the "enigmatic Xavier" (I am again quoting from the wonderfully revealing press kit) "has such rotten karma that every time they stop the car for fries and Diet Cokes, someone ends up dying in one gruesome way or another." Wait, there's more: "As the youthful band of outsiders continues their travels through the wasteland of America, Amy finds herself (having sex with) both Jordan and Xavier, forging a triangle of love, sex and desperation too pure for this world." Now let's deconstruct that. (1) The correct word is "its," not "their." (2) "Band of outsiders" is an insider reference to A Band Apart," the name of Quentin Tarantino's production company, which itself is a pun on the title of a film by Godard. (3) Is it remotely possible that America is a "wasteland" because Amy, Jordan and Xavier kill someone every time they stop for fries and a soda? That wouldn't have occurred to this movie. (4) The clause "someone ends up dying" is a passive way to avoid saying that the three characters kill them. This is precisely the same construction used by many serial killers and heads of state, who use language to separate themselves from the consequences of their actions.

“Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film.”

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“The elements in The Wizard of Oz powerfully fill a void that exists inside many children.”

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Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-wizard-of-oz-1939 of The Wizard of Oz (22 December 1996)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: The elements in The Wizard of Oz powerfully fill a void that exists inside many children. For kids of a certain age, home is everything, the center of the world. But over the rainbow, dimly guessed at, is the wide earth, fascinating and terrifying. There is a deep fundamental fear that events might conspire to transport the child from the safety of home and strand him far away in a strange land. And what would he hope to find there? Why, new friends, to advise and protect him. And Toto, of course, because children have such a strong symbiotic relationship with their pets that they assume they would get lost together.

“The day may never come when it is seen as funny.”

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Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/freddy-got-fingered-2001 of Freddy Got Fingered (20 April 2001)
Reviews, Zero star reviews
Contesto: This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels... The day may come when "Freddy Got Fingered" is seen as a milestone of neo-surrealism. The day may never come when it is seen as funny.

“Yes, we have more problems. But also more solutions, more opportunities and more freedom.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pleasantville-1998 of Pleasantville (1 October 1998)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: In the twilight of the 20th century, here is a comedy to reassure us that there is hope — that the world we see around us represents progress, not decay. Pleasantville, which is one of the year's best and most original films, sneaks up on us. It begins by kidding those old black-and-white sitcoms like "Father Knows Best," it continues by pretending to be a sitcom itself, and it ends as a social commentary of surprising power.
…
The film observes that sometimes pleasant people are pleasant simply because they have never, ever been challenged. That it's scary and dangerous to learn new ways. The movie is like the defeat of the body snatchers: The people in color are like former pod people now freed to move on into the future. We observe that nothing creates fascists like the threat of freedom.
Pleasantville is the kind of parable that encourages us to re-evaluate the good old days and take a fresh look at the new world we so easily dismiss as decadent. Yes, we have more problems. But also more solutions, more opportunities and more freedom. I grew up in the '50s. It was a lot more like the world of Pleasantville than you might imagine. Yes, my house had a picket fence, and dinner was always on the table at a quarter to six, but things were wrong that I didn't even know the words for.

“Milk was the right person in the right place at the right time, and he rose to the occasion.”

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Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/milk-2008 of Milk (24 November 2008)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Sean Penn never tries to show Harvey Milk as a hero, and never needs to. He shows him as an ordinary man, kind, funny, flawed, shrewd, idealistic, yearning for a better world. He shows what such an ordinary man can achieve. Milk was the right person in the right place at the right time, and he rose to the occasion. So was Rosa Parks. Sometimes, at a precise moment in history, all it takes is for one person to stand up. Or sit down.

“We are connected with some people and never meet others, but it could easily have happened otherwise.”

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Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/red-1994 of Three Colors: Red (2 December 1994)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: We are connected with some people and never meet others, but it could easily have happened otherwise. Looking back over a lifetime, we describe what happened as if it had a plan. To fully understand how accidental and random life is — how vast the odds are against any single event taking place — would be humbling. … This is the kind of film that makes you feel intensely alive while you're watching it, and sends you out into the streets afterwards eager to talk deeply and urgently, to the person you are with. Whoever that happens to be.

“Anderson sees these people joined at a level below any possible knowledge, down where fate and destiny lie. They have been joined by their actions and their choices.”

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“Sophie's Choice is a fine, absorbing, wonderfully acted, heartbreaking movie. It is about three people who are faced with a series of choices, some frivolous, some tragic. As they flounder in the bewilderment of being human in an age of madness, they become our friends, and we love them.”

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Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sophies-choice-1982 of Sophie's Choice (1 January 1982)
Reviews, Four star reviews
Contesto: Sometimes when you've read the novel, it gets in the way of the images on the screen. You keep remembering how you imagined things. That didn't happen with me during Sophie's Choice, because the movie is so perfectly cast and well-imagined that it just takes over and happens to you. It's quite an experience. … The movie becomes an act of discovery, as the naive young American, his mind filled with notions of love, death, and honor, becomes the friend of a woman who has seen so much hate, death, and dishonor that the only way she can continue is by blotting out the past, and drinking and loving her way into temporary oblivion. … Sophie's Choice is a fine, absorbing, wonderfully acted, heartbreaking movie. It is about three people who are faced with a series of choices, some frivolous, some tragic. As they flounder in the bewilderment of being human in an age of madness, they become our friends, and we love them.

“At last we see what a four-hour erection looks like.”

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The Fall of the Revengers, discussing the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen "Roger Ebert's Journal" http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/06/the_fall_of_the_revengers.html (24 June 2009)
Contesto: I didn't have a stop watch, but it seemed to me the elephantine action scenes were pretty much spaced out evenly through the movie. There was no starting out slow and building up to a big climax. The movie is pretty much all climax. The Autobots® and Decepticons® must not have read the warning label on their Viagra. At last we see what a four-hour erection looks like.

“To be sure, they sometimes do bad things, but the movie understands them and their flaws. Like great fiction, House of Sand and Fog sees into the hearts of its characters, and loves and pities them.”

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“I walked away in elation and disbelief, yet hardly suspected that this day would set the course for the rest of my life.”

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Roger Ebert

Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (2006)
Contesto: I began my work as a film critic in 1967. I had not thought to be a film critic, and indeed had few firm career plans apart from vague notions that I might someday be a political columnist or a professor of English.
Robert Zonka, who was named the paper's feature editor the same day I was hired at the Chicago Sun-Times, became one of the best friends of a lifetime. One day in March 1967, he called me into a conference room, told me that Eleanor Keen, the paper's movie critic, was retiring, and that I was the new critic. I walked away in elation and disbelief, yet hardly suspected that this day would set the course for the rest of my life.

“Herzog by his example gave me a model for the film artist: fearless, driven by his subjects, indifferent to commercial considerations, trusting his audience to follow him anywhere.”

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Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (2006)
Contesto: Herzog by his example gave me a model for the film artist: fearless, driven by his subjects, indifferent to commercial considerations, trusting his audience to follow him anywhere. In the 38 years since I saw my first Herzog film, after an outpouring of some 50 features and documentaries, he has never created a single film that is compromised, shameful, made for pragmatic reasons or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular.