Electric Shadow

Daily Grab 120: A Month Hasn't Gone By

One of Roger Ebert's favorite parts of Citizen Kane is this scene with Mr. Bernstein, according to a joint interview he did with Gene Siskel in 1996. The short monologue that is so memorable to so many:

"A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl."


Daily Grab 119: Are They Standing for Me?

Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), in Citizen Kane:

"Are they standing for me?"

"Ask them to sit down, will you please?"

This sentiment, expressed by the better man C.F. Kane was in his youth, sums up everything I've heard about the man-of-the-people nobility of Roger Ebert, in work and life otherwise.


Roger Ebert: 1942-2013

After commenting briefly on his "leave of presence" just two days ago, Roger Ebert is gone.

One of my bits of work for the day was to compose something a bit more substantive about just how much Roger's work has meant to me for most of my life. I didn't think that I would find myself composing it under these circumstances. You always want to think that there is more time.

The candor of his last column sounded hopeful, but there was an undercurrent of a General putting on his boots to charge toward the final battle with the vigor he had left.

I had always wanted to meet Roger, whether by attending his Overlooked Film Festival, or somewhere else. I don't feel that I missed out, or that I regret not making a concerted effort to see him though. I knew him from his appearing on my TV in the same way I knew other childhood heroes, from Mr. Rogers to Jim Henson. I knew his spirit and passion from the ink he spilled on the page, whether paper or digital. What Ebert managed to sculpt in a combination of the written word and televised discussion completely transformed the notion of the acceptable forms that film criticism could take.

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Sight & Sound 2012: Ozu & Murnau (and Vigo), Vertov & Wong

The Sight & Sound "greatest films" poll is conducted once every ten years, and has been going strong for eight decades, with Citizen Kane sitting atop the list for 50 years. That changed today, but yet other changes in the list were radically more exciting and interesting to me.


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