What Roger Ebert (June 18, 1942 - April 4, 2013) has to say goes
a long way beyond films and the people who make them. His thoughts possess a
much greater reverberance when applied to the larger theatre of the comic-drama
that is Life. One unwavering yardstick for me (for the last 3 years atleast) when I set out to see a film is to
check what Roger Ebert has to say about it. This does not mean that my own
thoughts have been in exact consonance with whatever he said. It is safe for me
to say however without the least reserve, that he is able to delve deeper and unearth
greater meaning from films that I had thought possible, accustomed as I was, to
look at the medium of movies as basically a carrier of entertainment.
Beyond the loud (and silent) tears,
the raucousness of strident laughter, the silky manipulations of work and society,
the remonstrance of failed romances, and the tentative and ill-at-ease
expressions (and triumphantly evocative demonstrations) of all the colours of
moviedom, what films essentially seek to draw forth are the myriad hues of life
itself. And with some effort, a little study and nudged by the knowing words of
a great critic such as Ebert, films acquire a more realistic dimension – like a
parable, they enable us to draw our own conclusions of what happened. In inexplicable
ways, I have also found occasions where I have been able to apply some of these
learnings to my own existence.
Ebert’s critiques of films as
published in his website and in his books are wonderful pieces to read. They
are peppered with unique observations, bits of humour and embellished at times
with the rarest of rare truths, which are more likely to find their way into
great spiritual books and discourses. Thank you, Ebert.
“For me, the film is like music or a landscape: It clears a space in my
mind, and in that space I can consider questions.”
- what Ebert says in his review of Wender’s ‘Wings of Desire'
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