Obligatory Film Blog Entry Post-Life Itself

I remember the first time I actually cried reading a book. There are some good works of fiction out there right? Stuff that moves us, stuff that changes us. But up until that point I hadn't been hit as such.

It was actually for a work of non-fiction. Most would might consider it journalism? Maybe academia? I'm not too sure. But it was at the end of the intro of my very first book penned by Roger Ebert: The Great Movies. Here it is for your reading pleasure:

       "What happens when you see a lot of good movies is that directorial voices and styles begin to emerge. You see that some movies are made by individuals, and others by committees. Some movies are simply about the personalities they capture (the Marx Brothers and Astaire and Rogers). Others are about the mastery of genre, from Star Wars, which attempts to transcend swashbuckling, to Detour, which attempts to hide in the shadows of noir. Most good movies are about the style, tone, and vision of their makers. A director will strike a chord in your imagination, and you will be compelled to seek out the other works. Directors become like friends. Buñuel is delighted by the shamelessness of human nature. Scorsese is charged by the lurid possibilities of Catholic guilt. Kurosawa celebrates individuals in a country that suspects them. Wilder is astonished by the things some people will do to be happy. Keaton is about the struggle of man's spirit against the physical facts of the world. Hitchcock creates images that have the quality of guilty dreams. Sooner or later every lover of the film arrives at Ozu, and understands that the movies are not about movie, but about whether to move."

ROGER EBERT

Yes, that little passage right there struck me to the very core of my film fanaticism. Yasujiro Ozu had been a director that I was already a fan of and Ebert talks about his a bit in the full intro, citing that often times in our education we leave out the foreign films.

I mean, it held true when I attended Florida State College at Jacksonville and Florida State University. Which is strange right? A lot of great directors often cite foreign films as their favorites. 

People love French New Wave and all that jazz.

Which is not to say American cinema is inferior. Citizen Kane is what American cinema could be right? aka the best the world has ever seen, which Ebert agrees with.

Rather, it was an acknowledgement that I was right to appreciate this cinema and that I was right to want to show it to others.

But it wasn't just that, although if you know me I do love to self-indulge.

It's more so that he had some things to say about films that either 

1) I couldn't have said it better.

2) I hadn't seen or felt before.

You know the adage a person with talent hits a target that no one else could hit and a person who's a genius hits a target no one else can see?

That applies here. Ebert was a genius at viewing films as an audience member. It wasn't that it was purely the correct way to view. Rather it was the way he saw it and the way he conveyed it to others that either hadn't seen it or had seen it and were looking for new insight.

As I write this I keep realizing more and more how much I miss him.

Remember that time I thought Tree of Life was only okay, but then you compared it to a prayer and it evoked a feeling inside that I hadn't realize just upon my first viewing?

Remember when the very first quote I put up on my Facebook quotes section was:

 "Many films diminish us. They cheapen us, masturbate our senses, hammer us with shabby thrills, diminish the value of life. Some few films evoke the wonderment of life’s experience, and those I consider a form of prayer. Not prayer “to” anyone or anything, but prayer “about” everyone and everything. I believe prayer that makes requests is pointless. What will be, will be. But I value the kind of prayer when you stand at the edge of the sea, or beneath a tree, or smell a flower, or love someone, or do a good thing. Those prayers validate existence and snatch it away from meaningless routine."

Remember that time when I showed my friends Chungking Express and Copie Conforme, partially because I'm still thinking about that statement you made about the film student and Yasujiro Ozu?

No, you don't.

And you never will.

It was a dream of mine that one day, when I become that feature film director, you would watch my films and you would criticize me.

And I mean it in the sense that criticize should be portrayed. God, criticism is such a nasty word in our society today.

Critical thinking. That's what it is. I could only hope that you would have critically thought about my films, that my films would be worth a critical thought.

Unfortunately I'll never know.

But what I do know is that you have had a profound experience on Asher's life (Itself).

So…

Cheers

RIP ROGER EBERT.