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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

A reason to be cheerful
Posted by Jill | 4:10 AM
OK, so I lied about not blogging.

In the past, when I've headed to North Carolina the first Wednesday in April, it's to go to Full Frame Fest in Durham. Since I'm no longer reviewing movies on anything resembling a regular basis, and in fact rarely even going to the movies anymore, it seemed pointless to either buy an event pass or accept a press pass this year.

It's not that the world of movie reviewing misses me all that much, and I see far more daylight than I used to. But today there's a reason for moviegoers to celebrate: Roger Ebert is coming back!

Among cinephiles, "real" film criticism is the province of guys like Jonathan Rosenbaum and J. Hoberman, who wouldn't deign to give a good review to anything not made in the Czech Republic. I exaggerate, of course, except that for me, Roger Ebert is a titan of a magnitude I didn't realize until he was gone for the scene and twits like Christy Lemire took over his spot in my local paper.

Aside from an unfortunate obsession with Angelina Jolie's chest that has often colored his view of her work, Ebert is a reviewer for ordinary people. He's able to evaluate a movie based on what it's trying to do within its genre, not just in relation to how it compares to, say, Knife in the Water. And in doing so, he makes his reviews fun to read on their own.

And now, after a long absence due to a recurrence of cancer, he's coming back -- at least to the printed page:

In a letter published in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times, the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic and co-host of TV's "Ebert & Roeper" said surgery in January ended in complications, and his ability to speak was not restored. He said the return of speech would require another surgery.

"But I still have all my other abilities, including the love of viewing movies and writing about them," Ebert said.

Ebert, 65, said he's looking forward to his annual film festival starting April 23.

"I will resume writing movie reviews shortly thereafter," he said.

Ebert, famous for his "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" critiques, had surgery in 2006 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. He also had emergency surgery that year after a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation.

He had undergone cancer surgery three times before the 2006 operation — once in 2002 to remove a malignant tumor on his thyroid gland and twice on his salivary gland the following year.

Ebert said he remains cancer-free, and is not ready to think about more surgery.

"I should be content with the abundance I have," he said.


I know I am.

Welcome back, Rog. We missed you.

(h/t: Melissa)

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