Posted on 04/05/2013 5:19:43 AM PDT by Rummyfan
...Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls was his great claim to fame....
&&&
Ah, to be remembered for such a piece of trashy writing and for giving the world Oprah. Fitting.
Perfectly said.
**
Agreed.
Lyons is occasionally a guest on Curtis Sliwa’s terrible morning radio show here in NYC. Another bad critic!
That is so perfectly apt it can't be improved upon.
Ebert was a nasty bitter man who unfortunately died a nasty bitter death.
To my reading he wasn't a "critic" at all. He phoned in shallow left-leaning book reports for, as Mark Steyn more or less admits, a public looking for 20-second synopses.
Borges--I'd love to hear your rationale for elevating this sad old spinster to "renaissance" status.
What? No Gene Shallit references?
I know people who knew him and not a single person recalls him as being the least bit bitter or nasty. I’ll post this here since it’s in topic...Do you know anything about him other than the TV show? His blog was a wide ranging document dealing with many topics not related to cinema (or politics). His memoirs are one of the best written in recent decades. He was fully integrated into the local Arts and Humanities scene without ignoring local issues. He was one of the best writers in America period. A modern day Erasmus.
Yes it is when taken with his write up. “He's regretful that October Baby wasn't better at being the Christian film...” ...and you believe he was really regretful. Actually it was the film it was supposed to be and more people should have gone to the theatres and seen it. Ebert did his review to make the film unappealing to all including conservatives. OCTOBER BABY must have been painful for Ebert to watch even for the 15 minutes that he reportedly gave to another film he wrote a full review of.
Oh, yes, Borges! I’ve thrown away my memoirs of Casanova after I read Ebert! What more was there to say about Life and “Jackass 3”?
By the way, to mention another critic who I think writes beautifully about movies: Camille Paglia. I love her book on “The Birds”.
Here is the last paragraph of his review. It has nothing to do with the political/theological ideas at play nor is he trashing it.
‘”October Baby” is being promoted as a Christian film, and it could have been an effective one. Rachel Hendrix is surprisingly capable in her first feature role, and Jasmine Guy is superb in her scene. Unfortunately, the film as a whole is amateurish and ungainly, can’t find a consistent tone, is too long, is overladen with music that tries to paraphrase the story and is photographed with too many beauty shots that slow the progress.’
October Baby is on Netflix Instant Streaming right now.
I like Paglia too.
Erasmus.
You have got to be kidding.
What does that make Gene Shalit? Mendelssohn?
Look, I’m pleased that you and your dinner set thought he was so swell.
To me he was a sh!+ on the tube and he was a sh!+ in print. No, I didn’t read his “blog” but I don’t read Oprah’s blog, or Siskel’s for that matter, and-—after this-—I won’t be looking up yours either.
“...the film as a whole is amateurish and ungainly, can’t find a consistent tone, is too long, is overladen with music that tries to paraphrase the story and is photographed with too many beauty shots that slow the progress....”
That is what Ebert says and it is not true so it is indeed trashing the film.
St. A's Confessions went out in today's trash. Right on top of the Proust, that stiff.
haha!
Obviously he thought it was true. That’s the thing about aesthetics. People often disagree.
Well you’ve got me there. His aren’t as good as Casanova’s or Augustine’s.
Siskel wasn't a pretentious horse's ass either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.