Focus 580; Roger Ebert, Second Annual Overlooked Film Festival

Good morning welcome to focus 580. This is our telephone talk program My name's David Inge. Thanks very much for joining in Glad you're with us this morning. We're also very pleased to have with us here in studio as our guest Roger Ebert the Pulitzer Prize winning film critic of The Chicago Sun Times. He's here in Champaign Urbana to host his second annual Overlooked Film Festival. The films are being shown at the Virginia theater in champagne and then there are also several panels that are taking place at the aligned Union. The panels are open to the public. And so if you're interested in attending You can certainly do that and of course the films are there to be seen. You have to buy a ticket but I think that there are tickets available for all of them. And there are three three days worth of the festival yet to go. So we will talk of just a little bit about some of the movies there that you can see and talk about some other things as well and take whatever questions you have. In addition to writing for The Sun Times Roger Ebert has a syndicated television program. Roger Ebert and the movie he is the author of 15 books including the annual editions of Roger Ebert's movie. Your book and he's also done many other things

and in the way of writing and lecturing he's been a lecturer for a number of years on film at University of Chicago Film Critic WLS TV in Chicago and he is a graduate of the University of Illinois. That's right. I'm sworn in Abana and here for the better. It worked for the daily aligned eye in the US gives that. That's right. Before going on to The Sun-Times and if you have questions 3 3 3 W I L L toll free 800 1:58 W while I'm well thank you very much I know that you're busy for she is your coming over the way it's a pleasure it was fun to talk to you the last time I was in town. Would you like to take a minute or two and talk about some of the movies that will be shown. I like to begin by plugging something that's at 10:30 this morning and of course we're going to lose all of our listeners because of they're within walking distance or quick commuting distance of the English building they might want to go over there but I was going to talk about this it's a free screening at 10:30 today of as I see it which is a tribute to the great director Freds in Amman by his son Tim sentiment who's going to be there in person and of course Fred cinamon directed

Oklahoma which was showing on Sunday afternoon at the Virginia in 70 millimeter 30 frames per second Todd AOE vision and we can talk about that later but if you're interested in seeing this documentary about as in a man who made a man for all seasons the many other great films. It's a 10:30 in 160 multimedia classroom of the English building. So now that everybody is rushing away from their Rady house we can continue to talk. You know I was just talking in a cone who is the director of the festival and he was saying that last year's fest was very successful much more successful than we could have hoped and this year ticket sales are running way ahead. Of last year so it's a big success and we're really thrilled although we do it's a big theater I think there are fifteen hundred seats in the Virginia theater so we do have tickets available five bucks for everything that's still being held over the weekend in the schedule as that event fest dot com.

Either probably a lot of people who are listening who have never been in the Virginia theater. When I first came here to the town to live it was still a working theater and I saw a lot of movies there but since has been closed there been some stage shows there but for any anyone who has not been in that theater. At least you should go in and take in some movies just for the little bit of seeing it. It's certainly part of my my history as a child growing up in Champaign Urbana I went to the Virginia frequently and my father saw the Marx brothers on stage there. It was a vaudeville house. It was originally called the RKO Virginia and that stood for radio Keith Orpheum which was a vaudeville circuit out of Chicago and you would start as a vaudeville act in Chicago and go out to the RKO vaudeville wheel as it was called so through the Virginia theater pass not only the Marx Brothers but Al Jolson and WC Fields and all the great entertainers of the 900 twenties. Well we have. This is Paul Cox you haven't met Falk. We have a special guest at the

beach. One of the maybe again we should mention that as part of the festival in addition to showing movies you've invited people to come and directors actors be able to come and talk about the movies that are being shown Yes every screening is value added because not only do we show you the movie but we then have a discussion afterwards with the filmmaker or with producer writer director and you know it gives me a great deal of pleasure to have Paul Cox in my hometown because we have met. Everywhere else in the world we were in Calcutta in November when his latest film played at the Calcutta Film Festival and at 10 o'clock tonight at the Virginia we're going to be showing a woman's tale which Paul can tell us about but which I think is one of the most powerful films I've ever seen in my whole life. And to have a woman's tale with Paul Cox is personally for me a great achievement of this festival.

Well I think we need to. There you go. We're Well we're pleased that you could come over spend a little time with us at least tell us about the film. Well it's nice and 10 years ago and it was made and recently I've made a similar sort of film to take it on from there it's a celebration of age and consequently is a celebration of life. And there's also a celebration of people and characters and that faith really celebrated in the cinema. So usually we have young people's funky young people and rich people and all these sort of characters but here we have a moon that's actually dying and sees the great protectionists and gives us a sense of life but it by the time she dies. She's played by an actress named Sheila Florence Florence who won the Academy Award in Australia. The great irony she was given eight weeks to live when we started to shoot so I had to be very fast then the insurance fell through and there was no money and then we lost another weekend she said well I won't make it and I said IF YOU DIE ON ME YOU'RE KILLING ME because we had to actually

borrow the money in a great hurry because you're supposed to in the middle of the film she almost died we had no insurance. It's one of those films you really have to make this was too too important. And at the end when we finished she lived for another three months four months and then got best actress of the year of course because of performance was absolutely stunning. You know it was real everything was real. Well how do you how do you direct someone in a role that they are not only playing but they're also living. Well it directs itself I mean I only see it as one of those films where I sit it's obvious gave the film to her this is your film. The other people around I was worked with similar to the people in terms of actors and crew but we have never been so emotional once making it we're not dealing with the real thing. And after all that that is the only reality left in this world you know everything

else seems become totally unreal or surreal as we go along. It was very potent for weeks that had to be done with a great story. One thing that I'd like to mention about the film which by the way I think I said is a 10 o'clock tonight right so I hope people do come over to the Virginia in fact we can get into the whole schedule for today but this is not a movie that takes place for two hours in a hospital bed. This woman is filled with life she lives more in the last days of her life the most of us are given to live in a whole lifetime and she is totally involved with the people of her neighborhood. With the conditions of her in her room where she lives with a prostitute who lives nearby who she becomes interested in. With the people who pass through she is engaged and she is very funny sometimes and very spunky and very filled with life this is not a

film about dying as a film about living. It's also extremely entertaining is just it is It's barmy even though my Legion death doesn't seem that people who say that send the payment this isn't for instance if you're trying to get money to go to somebody with money and say I want to make a film but as a woman who's got the other five or six weeks to live she's very funny and see it at the level of level to give us. They would say you're insane you know you just cannot do that sort of thing there is no mileage in death. But the irony of this film was as one of my most successful films has even had a release in America I don't know how far it went because you never hear after you've sold the film. But it was for instance terribly IX's successful in Japan. There is nobody in Japan actually things about what's going to happen when I'm 60 that used to look after one another and this is all changing. So in Japan they have this film still running in Japan very successful. So there was a film we made for very little money in a great hurry in the face of death and has become actually the

biggest money spinner. Not for me because I had to sell out everything but for the distributor which is the great irony of filmmaking you know and it's very interesting that you almost with a film like this it seems as if you you have to lure people in as if you can't quite maybe you're not sure you really want to because you somewhat yeah you don't you don't want to maybe don't want to tell them exactly what it's about because if you did that you think you know that's going to turn him off but you know if I can get people in to see the film they they will like it and afterwards they'll say well I'm really glad that I saw I can tell you I would never ever have made any films if I hadn't had great faith in you and in you in the individual in the audience as as as as an audience altogether I have no faith in that the public. They have been conditioned in such to such degree that if somebody says this is good they will go and believe you have respect for the individual in the audience.

There are those people I was rely on word of mouth. I never have a go and I don't have publicity people I don't do anything. It always happens. They would have month. I get so frustrated sometimes by my attempts to a convince people why they might like a movie that. Interprets description sounds like something you want to see I mean in Hollywood they have this phrase called High Concept. Well what is a high concept movie in my opinion it's a low concept high concept means a movie that can be described in one sentence such as Philadelphia street kid becomes a heavyweight champion of the world that would be rocky. Well most good movies cannot be described in one sentence if they can be described in one sentence they can be made in one shot. So what. When you look at a common thread for the titles in the Overlooked Film Festival frequently it's you could describe many of these films in the same way. Sounds like something you wouldn't want to see. But if we can grab you and get you into

that theater you're never going to forget this film and you're going to tell all your friends that they should see it. The festival started yesterday with a black and white silent film about a homeless person in New York film made in 1909. Now if I go out to the people who are lined up at the what's the name of the Savoy cinemas. OK they're all lined up to see movies about who's going to go to the prom. You know every week we get into an age movie involving who's going to go to the prom and I say Would you rather see a black and white silent film from 1989 about a homeless person and their answer is No I don't think I would. And this movie is so infinitely more entertaining more absorbing better than what they're going to pay eight bucks to see and how can you convince people that are grave of the Fireflies It's an animated film from Japan Well everybody wants to go see Pokemon which is you know this brain damaged Japanese animated film about brightly colored spheres zapping each other. How about a movie about my brother. Who tries to take care of his younger sister after they

become homeless after the fire bombing of Koby Well that doesn't sound like what anybody would like to see but or American movie last night's movie at 10 o'clock a documentary about a guy in Milwaukee who wants to make films. It was it got a standing ovation and a woman's tale 10 o'clock tonight. The same kind of film do you want to see a film about an old lady who has a few weeks to live. Well you might think you don't and yet you'll never. I've never forgotten this film. I was so happy that we were able to arrange to have it at the overlook Film Festival. It's one of the films that makes my life. So that it makes me think that my life has been wasted I mean what kind of a job is it for an adult to Paul to just go to the movies that's my job. My mother's friends I'm from Champaign Urbana. My mother's friends would ask her. And what about Roger is he still just going to the movies. But when you see a woman stay alone when you can share it with other people. A great filmmaker like Paul Cox then it makes your job worth doing

just little so incredible that a film that as the greatest gift to man. It is the most abused and misused medium on earth. If a film can enrich your life you go out a good film you never forget. I remember a film called Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors so that he is that years ago. It always lingers lingered and had a definite influence on what I did in my life. It made me actually decide to become a filmmaker. Now this films are all disappearing you really have to look very hard to find a film that actually penetrates the psyche and lingers within and travels with you. Film has the power to do this. So there's an enormous division between film and the industry. There are two totally different things because film is more or less like a product you buy in a supermarket nod's has really become something quite vulgar which is an enormous pity because film can actually you know look at the Goebbels in the second world war the Germans already had it well worked out that it had

enormous power. If Hitler or Goebbels had been able to go in they told Mike shows the Third Reich would probably still be marching I mean the power of film is extraordinary. And what is it being used for is actually to denigrate the human race it's actually patronizing people. I very rarely go to the cinema these days because I feel patronized. It's something that could enrich our lives in the most extraordinary way. You know my my life partner Gene Siskel. I would ask this question which later became solidified as to schools test. Is this movie more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch. And most movies do not pass that on. They are they are given characters to play and lines to say that are not as interesting as they could be on their own just sitting around. I should probably for anyone who might have tuned in the last little bit here introduce Again our guest here for this part of focus 580 film critic Roger Ebert writes for The Chicago Sun Times

and he is here in Champaign Urbana as the host of the second annual Overlooked Film Festival and also here in studio with us is Paul Cox he's film director from Australia and he is the director of a woman's tale one of the films that will be shown that in fact tonight at 10 o'clock. And the films are being shown at the Virginia theater in Champagne falls on a panel at 11 o'clock this morning to argue over what handle is that actually. Oh I don't know. And one of those panels one of the good women in film a foot well and running of the line of a women in films. It's all right here on the paper. You know it's an Australian evening at the Virginia because the seven o'clock movie is a comedy called The Castle about a family that a man's home is this castle and these people love their house even though it's located inches from a jumbo jet runway in Melbourne. And Paul since you're here. I said in my inner doctor remarks yesterday about the castle that if one only knew about Australia from Australian films one would

occasionally get a film like a woman's tale which is Shakespearean. But on the other hand most Australian films paint your home land as occupied exclusively by extremely strange people. I mean it's almost like the Australian film in general shows you as bonkers. Well they have this idea that films should be quirky So they create quirky characters in it and the Strait is the last country in the world where you would have quirky characters walking the streets it's a very normal sort of set up. It became very popular in the street to make films with quirky characters otherwise you couldn't get the money that would be came after we were told sweating and all those sort of films. Well let me try to get a trend here in Japan which is a fairly puritanical society. Pornographic comic books are a mass medium. Are you saying that in Australia which is a very straight laced society weird movies are

performing the same function otherwise it is nothing is changing Emma there was definitely a trend but the council stands out from all this because it was done by a very funny man who was actually a very fine comic who never made a movie. That's what I think visually they should have had at least a proper GOP to shoot the film because it gives way and often did that which is of course marvelous. But the film is amazingly successful in the straight as one of the hits of the straight in cinema and it's actually a very poorly shot film but it's very funny and it hits the thing right on the head it's exactly what is what the filmstrip industry is about and what the heart of a straight is about you know it's always the little battle back in the end the dog in principle but they have nobody does it. How would you like to maybe talk to some people who are listening. Sure you didn't look at the only difference and we just take a second to talk about the other two films Oh you sure people want to go over to the Virginia theater one o'clock we're showing a documentary called Legacy

which played in the Sundance Festival in January and it's about. A welfare family from Chicago African-American welfare a family that is struck was tragedy about five years ago when one of its most promising members a kid who has a scholarship to go to college is shot dead in the street. And this is a catalyst for the family to pull themselves together and it's an extraordinary story of how that family changes in five years and that's legacy at one o'clock on a four o'clock hour showing the terrorists by Santhosh Yvonne a young Indian director. It's about a young woman of 17 who volunteers to become a living bomb to strap explosives around her middle and walk up to a politician and blow them both up it's based on. An assassination in India but no country is named or no person is named. It's about the last four days before her rendezvous with destiny and the actress Aisha to car has come all the way from Bombay and is going to be on

stage after that film along with his producer Mark Burton from New York minute seven o'clock the castle which we were just talking about at 10 o'clock of Paul Cox's film a woman's tale and people come all day you just see them walking. We have a little street fair going on over there we have q and pizza available in they've blocked off a block of the street so it's like a taste of champagne Urbana you can leave the movie grab a quick barbecue chicken sandwich and race back inside and people are coming all day long seeing three movies four movies in a row. Well we can see what's on the minds of the people who are listening it OK if you would if you would grab a pair of headphones and put them on that way you can hear the callers. Well start with someone here locally. The line number one. Well good morning. Yes. Well thank you for bringing your Overlooked Film Festival to earth and I went to last year and when they get me here of course. I have but one question. What are your dates for next year.

That's a question I don't have the answer to I don't think we've decided there's some problem with trying to keep out of the way of other problem of other deadlines such as final exams and things like that. Nancy Casey of the College of Communications who is the producer of the festival is right on top of that and she's probably looking at her calendar as we speak. OK. Well it would be very nice. One you get those states if you might you know flash them to the public so that we can put that aside for next year. We will flash it at Ybor fest dot com which is the Web site be maintained by the university. Great. Thank you. My other question is. How do you increase the theater and the film festival it's only a block away and they show wonderful films all year long and I think you've done lovely things for the Arts Theatre. So I'm hoping that they could be included next year perhaps you know I'm going to look into that because I grew up at the art theater that's where I saw my first film where I saw Citizen Kane. That's

where I saw the first films that I saw by Bergman and Fellini and the English angry young men. Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner my first Cassavetes films will be our theater is like a shrine to me. And you may remember that I did participate in the benefit to try to get them some seats. Paul Paul let me tell you what happened at the AI theater because I know that you and I are both amused by exhibition experience as we were just sharing. A memory of a movie that we attended in Calcutta that was not shown under ideal circumstances. I'm sad to say it was you. The art theatre had some seeds that were really pretty rundown I mean in the spring for coming through and tearing your pass. And they bought some new seats and they are theatre doesn't have a lot of money and they bought some new seats. And unfortunately what was not realized until the seats were installed is that the seats were designed for a floor that was raked differently than the other theaters floor so that the problem became at the art that when you set in the sea you kept sliding

forward out of your seat onto the floor and everybody had to watch the movie while bracing themselves against the seat in front of them with their feet. And so obviously we had to start all over again with new seats and they had a benefit. And now it's a wonderful place to see movies and I'm going to take that very seriously I know that the Virginia. It is our home for a number of reasons including the fact that the festival's been instrumental in getting the theater renovated and. And made into part of the champagne park district and preserved. But it seems to me that some kind of side bar or second run situation maybe we could show the movies a second time at the art for like $2 or something is that a $5 but you don't get to meet the director or maybe that wouldn't be right either I'm thinking off the top of my head. But that's a very good suggestion. And here in Champaign Urbana where the princes which later became the cinema is gone the coed theaters have just been torn down the Orpheum is gone the reality show is gone. The Thunderbird is gone and you if you're on

campus you have to get it. You have to go five to 10 miles in order to see a movie within the city limits of Champaign-Urbana you've got the art theater and that's it. And I'm glad they have one movie theater could survive it is the art theatre because it's showing great films that recently showed princes Munna gnocchi the great animated film from Japan. So it's a shrine is a shrine to what's best in the cinema rather than what's cheap and easy and tawdry. I don't know. You give him my full share you now got the $6 right and you know I think there are so many good movies to go around that you could probably get what you pay for No I think I recognise your voice are you on the recording machine from the art theatre. The answering machine. I'm just joking that some you know sometimes I do call and ask what the movies are OK. Well I agree with you and I'm going to talk to my advisors about that Nancy and they too really do run the festival

great. OK thanks for the call. Great idea. OK let's talk with someone else here in Mahomet. Lie number two. Hello hello. Yeah I like your idea of second run over at the art I've been telling people about grave of the Fireflies. I would like to short my family for them. Seeing it our priest was a wonderful movie I'm glad you brought it. You mentioned in a previous radio interview that your father had seen the Marx Brothers at the Virginia. So he told me are you going to tell me that he was lying. He wrote brochure wrote an autobiography called about you and me. Aha. In there he claims that the Marx Brothers formed the act that we all know and love and champagne is one of the local theatres he doesn't mention which theater but he talks about how they had a boy singer and they had a rather run of the mill vaudeville act and the boy singer suddenly said I want you to double my salary. And they said go to hell you're fired. And he said in champagne

the frat boys are known if they didn't like the act they would rip up the seats control them at the act on stage. So the Divell. This really bizarre one person was playing the piano the other Marx Brothers got into a fight knocked the piano player off and someone else replaced him without missing a beat and that turned into what we now see in the movies. Well you know if they were performing in vaudeville in Champaign it would have had to be at either the Virginia or the Orpheum. That's what I figured. And your fame was also an RKO theater they were both vaudeville houses. And try and find that and Xerox it off and show it to you if I see you in the next couple. My dad remembered that it was the Virginian on the other hand the first movie I was ever taken to see was a day at the races with the Marx Brothers and that we saw at the Orpheum I remember that day as if it were yesterday. If you're interested I'll try and find it in the show as well. OK so now thanks for the call. Well there was a brief time here when the Orpheus was the place where you could go see good. I know I who runs and foreign

films and I actually I saw. Which was the one where Groucho is the the dean of the college. PROFESSOR Well whatever it was I don't I sue I ffs I saw I saw that I saw the big sleep. I'd never say I'd also be seen as movies on television never on a big screen. It's so it was more than to see it with a big screen in the good sound and with the community of the audience there seen it. With a group of people home video is terrific and it makes it possible for people to see movies they couldn't see otherwise but a real movie theater with a real audience is a real movie. Well let's talk to someone here in Milwaukee gets the award for the furthest away call here on line number for Heller Kharkiv. Shoot me for bringing up more creative commercial film for just a minute. I'm wondering if Roger Uber has any opinion about the possibility that Warner Brothers is not on the handling of family Coover

film and what it had in mind was of course the white show. It's being released DVD and VHS with professional fiction of it censored and there's no warning on the box for it doesn't say warning for the film the film for it. But beyond that I'm I'm also wondering about other drones that are releasing of Coober troops or metal jacket which I think the first section of it is one of the best films ever made. Even have a letterbox so I'm wondering everyone. Let me address that. Yeah OK let's get to the letterboxing first. That's really a complicated issue. And Paul it's a good thing that we have Paul Cox here to help us explain it. Kubrick personally did not like letterboxing. Now it's an item of faith with me and with a lot of people that

you want letterboxing because you want to see the same aspect ratio that the film was shot for bicubic would look through the viewfinder and frame for both full screen and frame full within full screen. A wider screen and then what you get when you see a video of one of his films is the fool with. That you would have seen in the theater plus additional head and foot room. So the full screen is filled. That's a hard concept to visualize but you're not. Oddly enough with Pan a scan usually they're taking away some of what you originally saw but Kubrick's approach gives you more than what you saw in the theater isn't that. Well that's how it should be I think used to be right. Fay often when they have the big Penna vision films you see them on television the next business missing the many shots of people as well got to frame me. You think one of the badly framed because a film usually finishes up on television you've got to keep that in mind it's got to be shoved to the

widest frame possible begin Vache the last film we shot them Super 35 and is of cause a totally different ballgame to actually frame the film and yet at the same time you know that most people will see it on television so you've got to keep the ball rolling by keeping it round you know almost. One film that is definitely letterboxes 2001 which could not which is in fact a widescreen movie period. And but about the Eyes Wide Shut I agree with you. There's an orgy scene in it where they created animated figures to stand in front of crucial parts of the orgy so that you can't see them in order to get the R rating rather than the NC 17 rating and everybody of course expected. The Austin Powers version is what I call it. That when it came out on video there would be a director's cut that would be the way they were film was originally made and I

saw it the way it was originally made and you do see sexual acts going on but in long shot and not graphically. And they did not do that they still have their ridiculous since are little animated figures walking around and in addition there is one other thing they did on the video and here I want to ask Paul. For a judgment from from an artist people who saw the movie in a theater in the theater were able to observe during a scene in the bathroom. A moment when the camera and members of the crew are reflected in some chrome and on the home video the VD that has been scrubbed out digitally so you can't see that reflection anymore. Of course one justification would be it's a mistake and we fixed it the other would be the DVD buyer is not getting the film that he saw in the theater What do you think about that. It's obviously not something Kubrick wanted to have in there but it isn't there I think it's the same like if you make a painting and you sell it somewhere and if somebody

sets a budget of painting a change the frame or take things off because it doesn't fit the mental peace. That's a similar sort of mortal sin as fiddling with your film. You've made this film it has been accepted it has been screened that way that is how it should travel. Anybody who temples with it should be shot. Bottom is you hang. On for a narrative. You're sure the rest of the world is saying yes that's how absurd it is yet the rest of the world sees the way to do so yeah I've been fighting to get the rating system for as long as I can remember the United States is the only country in the civilized world with no functioning adult rating. Either movie can be shown to people under 17 with the legendary adult guardian or cannot be shown at all in this country. NC 17 is a rating that is the kiss of death for exhibition in America and it's all because Jacqueline he

and his henchmen at the MPAA are tortured by nightmares that any. Person even one person would be turned away with $8 in their hot little hands because they weren't of the right age rather than miss one ticket sale. They will emasculate the entire American film industry. Well there was one point an attempt was there not to create a rating that said This movie has adult content and trying to get away though from the old. That was my recommendation that was my recommendation. You know the only thing that it's the total insanity of anything anybody can be shot raped and whatever as long as it's no sex I mean is insane I read recently that somebody went to a hospital in New York. The little boy screaming because he'd been shot in the leg and he couldn't understand white hood. This sums up the whole madness of allowing this to become part of the national psyche everybody's being shot and carries around guns. Well it's a little bit of sex is certainly bad for the population and. It's

basically is very hypocritical. See I hope the cold will forgive me for kind of jumping on here because we just have about 15 minutes left and I have some other folks good questions we'd like to yeah appreciate the comments of the of the call it's the talk with somebody else let's see. Next we'll go to Champagne line number two. Hello hello. Yes I can manage that that you're having women in film at eleven twelve thirty. Yes true. Paul is going to leave for that you know in 10 minutes. And where will it be. I don't know I think it's going to be on the second floor of the ally now union on the Green Street side and it's free. OK thanks and you have a 90 minutes to get there. All right thank you for that go to our urban ally number three for someone else Hello. I really really enjoyed the first two movies last night. I can look good too long. Anyway I was wondering if you knew whether Dance me to my. Song which was in last year's film is available on video on

I believe it is available on. I think it may be available on video I don't think it's been released commercially in America. I'll tell you what real dotcom with whom I have no commercial Association this is not a plug. Real dot com sells and rents videos over the web and they have a page devoted to the Overlooked Film Festival with links for every single film that is available on video. You can find out of it's available there I would also recommend however that you might consider supporting your local video store and going over there to get it I know that. What's the name of the great video store here in town that's renter tainment that's renter tainment has made a special effort to get their hands on as many of these videos as they can and in an age of mass market video stores that don't have real good selections I think that's for entertainment deserves your support that is a plug. Yes but if you go to real dotcom you'll be able to find out of any of these

films which ones are available on video. OK I was really impressed with it. I had chance to see last year and I was impressed at the courage in that shot and that was another Australian film it was written by a woman named Heather Rose who also starred in it and who is a very brave woman who is. Lives in a wheelchair and communicates by voice synthesizer and Paul when she came out on the stage after Dance me to my song. There was a very emotional moment noted that you mentioned the word courage that was really you got to have courage in movies people is so scary that this is a very courageous movie it's a great movie but it's not for the squeamish. But why is it not for people who say but it's not for an average audience why not an average audience should see this film who I think they should but there are people who could not deal with nudity for you know people who are unable to control their

bodies because of a progressive disease like most of us. I cannot necessarily always go around being dressed in a you know in a way to please my middle class values this is a woman who is desperately sick fighting a battle with life every single day she has to deal with bodily functions. She has to deal with bathing with. I mean we all go to the bathroom so why shouldn't we occasionally see it on the screen not in terms of some perverse image but in terms of this brave woman trying to live her life as closely as she can on her own terms. I fully agree and I also have relatives who refused to go to the movie just because they might hear for it were they really feel like they are missing out on some really important ideas. Well you know life will pass them by and it has more a will to live was a four letter word.

That's true. We have just about 10 minutes in this part of focus 580 talking with film critic Roger Ebert and director Paul Cox. Roger Ebert is here in Champaign Urbana to host the second annual Overlooked Film Festival one of the films that will be shown is a woman's tale. You can see that tonight at 10:00 at the Virginia theater and Paul Cox is the director of that film. Questions welcome 3 3 3 W I L L toll free 800 1:58. Can I get in a free plug for tomorrow. Yeah a plug for a free show on tomorrow. There's a free family man they want to talk tomorrow. Bring the kids. Virginia's theater is called Children of Heaven it's a story about a brother and his younger sister. Through no fault of his own he loses her shoes. They now have one pair of shoes between them they have to go to school in shifts because they're afraid to tell their parents. It's a film from Iran it has subtitles and we're showing it deliberately to show kids that if you're old enough to read you're old enough to read subtitles. And we're going to allow older brothers and sisters to read them or parents to read you know talking will be allowed

during this film to read the subtitles but it's a free movie at one o'clock tomorrow. OK. And at 4 o'clock we have the silent films with a live orchestra from BN Harbor St. Joe Michigan concrete. They were a big hit last year with Potemkin and they're back this year with the last laugh and the surrealist film by Salvador Dali and louis been well called and Shion on the new. Everyone should see that film at least once at least once or compulsory for the relatives of the previous caller Well OK they might not like it. Let's talk with caller here in Taylorville. Number four and hello. My mother's hometown. Yeah. Yeah I wonder if they vote are traitors. So we're used to be back in the mid 60s which in less time I would say it hasn't moved a lot I went past it today and it's still there. Yeah. About the security and a majority thing you know Nick Greiner I think it ought to be possible not. Not that. It drives so much as 50 miles not to have to drive more than maybe 10 miles to see a decent foreign movie Silent

Movie art movie etc. I had a number of suggestions for your next festival and I think you'll probably agree with most of them if not all. Plus I have one of the funniest Hollywood anecdotes I ever came across recently because with we only have seven or eight minutes I'd rather badly and I go alright yeah but doesn't take more than two two and a half minutes here. I really think more people should see a poems like. Eating raw. Which I think is one of the funniest dark comedies of the last a generation. We cam to get our film hard. I had something to say about silent film I'm kind of crazy about I don't exist. Needless to say in another time and space for example a kiss. And a silent movie is altogether or anything in that that sound gave us and I'm thinking also in terms of emotional impact.

I really prefer. Signed on thumbs up for it. Well things like that the snowball fight in Nepal and yeah right. The great parting scene yeah where ever and I were a party I think you may never see her lover again on the big parade. And oh yeah that there was yeah the Odessa steps saying and that quote you know that was last year we showed put in. When are you going to come in see last laugh tomorrow. That's something older German silent thing this is something I this is the old German silent thing. Yeah yeah I don't like but I'm I'm kind of hamstrung and transportation wise might I recommend it I'll bet there must be somebody in Taylor who recognizes your voice and is going to call you up and offer to drive you over and I'm going to buy popcorn for that person when I walk in through the door with you. Yeah. I was thinking of the films of Norman McLaren to the shore Yes like I

that wonderful thing called neighbors where at least two people beat themselves to death and I remember that he beat each other to death excuse me and for an animated short like. I remember the amazing Polish film called gangs of angels which is about a memory of the concentration camps and you know I am so encouraged to hear you talking like this because this is the way I mean you obviously have a very wide range of curiosity and taste about a great film and so many people just allow themselves to march down the primrose path toward this week's disposable piece of multiplex sausage. And I'm so encouraged by your by your enthusiasm. Maybe if you if you said you had a good Hollywood anecdote share it with us. Yeah. All right this is Raymond channelers favorite perhaps the favorite. There was a Hollywood producer talking about

how much fun. It was actually he didn't think it was fun at all being a producer I think as an emissary took him and he was fagged kalau fake out on the job. For example I got the starlet. I've got a problem with her career I've got to find video calls for her that that will advance her up the ladder to stardom all the time how trying to prevent myself getting right. And there was a rather simple naive of you from the office and he said Are you sure you don't mean she's a nymphomaniac. And he scratches it for a minute or two looks out the window and then crawls along slowly. Well she might be she might be if I could calm her down a little. Well I don't know what to say about that and

other than thanks very much for the comment I have a couple minutes here left. Let's talk with someone else in Urbana. Why number two. Well you know I just want one to make one suggestion. Not long ago a couple years ago as an adult my dad and I found I was a college student 19 or so I chose to take a class. I don't even remember the title of the class or the fight yeah you history professor it was wonderful you know about how to view film critically how how to get past the Hollywood junk that's out there and really really view film and my suggestion would be if you could do that for the adults of the community. Granted to people that go to your festival already probably do this but there are so many people that I miss so much because they don't know how to view a film critically and I think if you could add that to a festival as a precursor would be just a tremendous advantage for everyone.

But well you know I don't know what I. I don't know what the answer is how do you vill view a film critic like Pauline Kael said that when she went into a movie she just took in everything that had ever happened to her and everything she knew and she watched the movie and then she tried to see what changed. Most movies of course don't change at all they just diminish you. But others can can enhance your life. If I may slip in something here I think. If somebody teaches you how to look at a film are you already in the wrong seat. You should go there was a totally open mind. People are so conditioned to actually be entertained. Go to film and gifted to screen even if it's for 10 minutes because then he's that receiving yards are very simple because the actual idea of people just don't get the chance to see good films and that's a simple is that good films not being promoted to people standing between the filmmaker and the screen and the

exposure to the distributors and the exhibitors and most of them. Are you in the business of selling sausages they want bums on seats they're not looking for fellow dreamers. So those people actually prevent others from seeing films that can change their lives. And it's I'll always feel I'm in some sort of a holy war trying to go because I do never do any PR nothing I just go and believe and have faith that some strange religion that sort of keeps me going. But those who believe that once you get to the people there's an enormous rapport and enormous things happen. It is our function to actually in the end of this ever you thinking feeling struggling person in the audience to actually pass on the message. That's how the ripple effect can happen. And that's the only defense you have against people that throw in millions and millions of dollars to have their film screened. You know when you make a film for a million dollars you don't have $10 left to actually go and find somebody to promote it for you. And that's the big problem that's our function to pass on the message.

Quite so I don't know how people ask me Will what are your you know a checklist of things you look for when you go to a movie and I say no I don't. Dr. MacDonald was of film critic for Esquire magazine when I was in high school a long time ago and he kind of was the first serious film critic I'd ever read this would have been in the 50s and he brought out a book called on movies his collected film criticism in the introduction to it he said that when he started reviewing films he was still in the silent period and he made a list of 10 things to look for when going to a movie. And he reprints that list and he goes through the list pointing out how each one of those 10 things he was looking for is utterly invalid. For example one of his points was Are the characters believable. And he realized that most of the movies that he liked the characters were not believable. Is it well photographed. What does that have to do with most of the movies I don't like are very well photographed and so he threw his list away and he just said the movie starts.

And I watch it and when it's over I've seen it. And if I don't. And then I try to deal with what I saw and what I think about it. And I think that's kind of the approach that I have I'm not I don't have an ideological checklist of things to look for although of course the more food movies you see the more good movies you see good movies teach you what good movies can be. We're I'm sorry to say going to have to stop because we've come to the end of the time we want to say the very much thanks to Roger Ebert for being here. Film critic Chicago Sun-Times host of the second annual Overlooked Film Festival. And Paul Cox his film A woman's tale will be shown as part of the festival at the Virginia theatre tonight at 10 o'clock. And there will also will be a full schedule movies today tomorrow and then Oklahoma. Sunday at 1:00 o'clock. Even if you've seen it you should go and you should see every single shot in this movie on Sunday will be different in every single shot the previous time is Oklahoma. All right. Well thank you. Thank you both very much.