{"id":365,"date":"2008-12-31T22:44:17","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T04:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=365"},"modified":"2014-09-06T14:58:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T20:58:21","slug":"article-du-c-u-ebertfest-x-pt1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=365","title":{"rendered":"Article du C-U: Ebertfest X, pt.1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Big Ten\u201d<\/strong>
\nRoger Ebert’s Film Festival reaches the end of a decade \u2013 but without its founder and host<\/p>\n

by Anthony Zoubek<\/em><\/p>\n

~~~~~<\/p>\n

Dateline \u2013 Champaign, Illinois
\nWednesday, April 23, 2008<\/em><\/p>\n

THE MOST RENOWNED FILM FESTIVALS<\/strong> are conceived as movie trade markets. Soon-to-be-released, potential award nominees are screened for cinephiles and big-name critics, generating clamor and glamour for magazines, newspapers, Weblogs, and industry publications. Entry-fee-paying producers of smaller and independently-financed features seek to create similar buzz for their unknown projects, hoping good press may equate to wider distribution.<\/p>\n

What, then, in the face of every Telluride<\/strong> and Cannes<\/strong>, makes the Midwest\u2019s annual \u201cEbertfest<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 in 2008, home to 13 previously released, often maligned films, many of them readily available for home theater viewing \u2013 one of the largest and most popular festivals in the country?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Inadvertently, the answer was provided by film scholar David Bordwell<\/strong> during his introductory remarks at the 10th annual Roger Ebert\u2019s Film Festival<\/a><\/strong> (previously known as the Overlooked Film Festival<\/strong>), hosted at the historic Virginia Theatre<\/a><\/strong> in Champaign, Illinois<\/strong> \u2013 twin city to Ebert\u2019s native Urbana<\/strong> \u2013 from Wednesday, April 23<\/strong>, through Sunday, April 27, 2008<\/strong>. Standing at the podium, Bordwell addressed the near sellout crowd of approximately 1,600 festival-goers prior to the opening night\u2019s presentation of Kenneth Branagh<\/strong>\u2019s HAMLET<\/strong> (1996), originally filmed and screened in the wide, high-resolution, far-too-infrequently used 70mm celluloid format.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bordwell \u2013 a retired teacher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison<\/strong>, author of several books on cinema aesthetics, and, by Ebert\u2019s admission, one of academia\u2019s greatest film scholars \u2013 explained HAMLET<\/strong>\u2019s place in film history as the last notable movie made in 70mm. (Ebertfest traditionally opens with a 70mm screening.) HAMLET<\/strong> also marked the end of commercial 70mm exhibition, although variations of the format are still used in IMAX<\/strong> theaters and 70mm stock is employed for filming special effects sequences in action movies, \u201ceven at the cusp of what looked like the format\u2019s revival,\u201d said Bordwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cBranagh wanted to use 70mm for its unbridled clarity and precise depth,\u201d Bordwell explained, \u201crichness only 70mm can yield.\u201d The presenter called HAMLET<\/strong> a \u201cthrilling movie\u201d made more thrilling by the fact that the version screened at Ebertfest was not widely seen 12 years ago \u201cbecause of its format.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a rarity in film history,\u201d Bordwell continued, \u201cto see it in this, its intended format. The Virginia Theatre is one of the last places in the Midwest \u2013 and one of the few places left in the country, period \u2013 to see 70mm movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t tell me about [DVD<\/strong> and Blu-Ray<\/strong>],\u201d the scholar added, smiling amid a few snickers regarding any overstatement of the superiority of 70mm above other film screening methods. \u201cWith DV, you see pixels. With 70mm, we\u2019re screening molecules<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

~~~~~<\/p>\n

BORDWELL’S CONCLUSION ALLUDES<\/strong> to the appeal of attending Ebertfest, even in an era where first-run movies are readily available for viewing on iPods<\/strong> and cell phone screens; where regular trips to homegrown video stores (and the suggested picks by the high-school-dropout-turned-motion-picture-encyclopedia working the register) are replaced by short walks to the mailbox and the delivery of titles from a NetFlix<\/strong> queue; where the price of a $10 box office ticket seems expensive compared to the ever-decreasing costs of building home theaters and providing them with DVD viewing material.<\/p>\n

Still a generator of billion-dollar commerce, movie producers are not exactly finding dust bunnies in their wallets. But the act of going<\/em> to the movies \u2013 the feeling that light streaming through a celluloid image has \u201cevent status\u201d incomparable to sitting on a living room couch \u2013 is frighteningly becoming more of a means of advertising the eventual release of a movie to home video or as a digital download. The ever-shrinking scope of movie screens, as they conform from the grandeur of thousand-seat movie palaces like the Virginia to the shoebox echo chambers provided by theater chains in shopping malls, doesn\u2019t help the cause.<\/p>\n

Ebertfest manages to make events out of the exhibition of previously or soon-to-be released movies. The festival\u2019s format was derived by Ebert, the Pulitzer Prize<\/strong>-winning film critic who grew up in Urbana and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<\/a><\/strong> (UIUC), and the late Dusty Cohl<\/strong>, to whom this year\u2019s event was dedicated. Cohl, also the founder of the Floating Film Festival<\/strong> and co-founder of the prestigious Toronto Film Festival<\/strong>, worked with Ebert after their screening of Stanley Kubrick<\/strong>\u2019s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY<\/strong><\/a> (1968) at the Virginia Theatre in 1997, which engendered community interest in a five-day filmic extravaganza.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Two years and one month later, the Overlooked Film Festival made its debut, geared towards the exhibition of movies initially overlooked by critics or mass audiences. Eight thousand people ventured to the Virginia to watch 10 films of various \u201coverlookedness\u201d in terms of critical reception, box office receipts, subgenres, and formats. That tradition continued as the festival expanded the number of films, incorporated filmmaker visits and celebrity guests, moderated panel discussions in the UIUC Illini Union<\/strong>, and became an annual experience for more and more filmgoers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, I am asked what makes a movie \u2018overlooked,\u2019\u201d Ebert later said during his opening remarks at the seventh Ebertfest. \u201cOver the years, our definition of the word \u2018overlooked\u2019 has bent and twisted to the point where we can pretty much make any film fit the bill. If I love a film enough, I can devise some reason as to why it was “overlooked.” (In 2005, the festival featured the documentary MURDERBALL<\/strong> prior to that movie\u2019s release in commercial theaters. \u201cNow we have a film that hasn\u2019t even opened yet,\u201d Ebert explained at the time. \u201cI guess we\u2019ll call it \u2018pre-overlooked.\u2019\u201d In terms of Oscar<\/strong> recognition, his prediction was actually dead-on.)<\/p>\n

Ten years later, these festivities bring as many patrons to central Illinois as Robert Redford<\/strong>\u2019s Sundance<\/strong> draws to the ski slopes of Park City, Utah<\/strong>. In fact, 25,000 patrons were expected to make the 2008 pilgrimage to the Virginia. Contemporary culture\u2019s esteem for previously overlooked fare such as documentaries, foreign films, silent movies with live musical accompaniment, and other special-interest motion picture genus broadens the \u201coverlookedness\u201d moniker enough to where it no longer applies to Ebertfest. Hence, the 2008 festival was, in name, \u201cOverlooked\u201d no longer.<\/p>\n

As Ebert wrote in the welcome address appearing in the festival\u2019s official program, 10 years of defining the unifying idea of his cinema schedule \u201ccomes down to this: 1,600 people assemble in a beautiful old movie palace and enjoy good and surprising movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

~~~~~<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Continue to \u201cThe Big Ten\u201d pt.2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Big Ten\u201d pt. 1 \u00a9 2008 Anthony Zoubek. Used with permission.<\/p>\n

CUBlog edit \u00a9 2008 Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n

HAMLET photograph \u00a9 2007 Warner Home Video<\/a>,
\nprogram courtesy Roger Ebert’s Film Festival<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back to the fore, MacDuff\u2026<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Visit the Article Index<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Return to Home Page<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Zoubek finally explains it all for the C-U Blogfidential readership. In this first entry, the 10th “Ebertfest” begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,137,13,30],"tags":[136,72],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-area-festivals","category-article-du-c-u","category-public-events","category-roger-ebert","tag-hamlet","tag-roger-eberts-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}