Whoever said “Nobody likes a critic” never met Roger Ebert. From his early days writing reviews for the Chicago Sun Times and moonlighting screenplays for Russ Meyer, to the inimitable (so proven since his departure) At The Movies, Roger Ebert has boldly walked to places other critics wouldn’t have dreamt possible if Roger hadn’t done it first. He also sets the bar high for the rest of us – a Pulitzer Prize for criticism? Someday…
As a personal inspirator, I was thrilled to learn that Roger had been selected to receive the Mel Novikoff award at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival. Flying into town just days after the end of his own Ebertfest in Chicago, Roger and his wife Chaz tempted exhaustion in joining a troupe of Ebert-lovers and big-time movie makers at the historic Castro Theatre.
The recent victim of thyroid cancer, Roger has lost his ability to speak but the constraints of silence have made the man only more animated. As he and Chaz were remembered on stage by directors who have been blessed personally by his enthusiasm for film, Roger played class clown, literally poking fun at the acclaimed directors as they spoke from a podium facing the audience and colluding with the audience with his permanent smile.
(L to R) Terry Zwigoff, Jason Reitman, Roger Ebert, Phillip Kaufman, Errol Morris. Photo by @popcornreel, via Roger’s Twitter
Terry Zwigoff led the charge and embodied his films’ tendencies to revolve around an “oddball outcast” as he flashed back to the time he forged the audience cards for a pre-screening of his 1994 film Crumb. Both Zwigoff and next speaker, documentarian Errol Morris, spoke openly and from the heart about Roger’s championing of small films, while Jason Reitman delivered a pre-written speech that displayed his own talent as a writer. As one of the more recent benefactors of Roger’s promotion, with the indie success Juno just three years back, Reitman was by far the youngest filmmaker on the stage but his humor and energy ingratiated him to the lively audience.
Last speaker of the night, director and local San Franciscan Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, 1983) chose to sit at Roger’s level and tell him face-to-face what an enormous inspiration his enthusiasm had meant to Philip’s life and work and the moments he shared with his late wife Rose Kaufman. As Kaufman grew visibly choked-up, I was struck by the reach of Roger’s words on the world, the lives that he has touched merely by delivering engaging film commentary. Following his speech, Kaufman also delivered the night’s biggest surprise: Mayor Gavin Newsom’s signed plaque proclaiming May 1st, 2010 as San Francisco’s Roger Ebert Day.
Prior to the the film accompaniment of the evening, Roger broke his silence with a statement delivered via his Macbook’s text-to-speech application, thanking the presenters for doing him the honor of joining him on stage and saying, as he tweeted later “My life would be less without them.” Roger’s signature humor was everywhere in that speech, as he railed on the rise of 3-D, the decline of the theatre experience and finally inviting us to stay and enjoy the film he had selected, last year’s overlooked Julia.
Starring the chameleon that is Tilda Swinton, Julia is exactly the type of film that needs an Ebert. The story of an alcoholic (Swinton) who agrees to kidnap the son of a mentally-unstable woman she meets at Alcoholics Anonymous, Julia is not a film that screams Hollywood or family values. Violent, gritty and marked by left-field moments of lightheartedness, there were indeed more than a few walkouts over the course of the film. But Julia needs championing – someone has to expose it to the audience it deserves and it’s lucky enough to have found a fan in Roger Ebert, the friend who just won’t shut up until you see a film he likes. I’m glad that I stayed, and Julia immediately became my favorite film of last year.
Staying to watch the film with us, Roger proved once again that he is not above the audiences he writes for. If there’s any audience that can embody Roger’s dream of becoming a “collective personality” I believe that the one at the Castro is it, and I hope we made him proud last Saturday night.
