Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by TA (A) on November 24, 2002 at 20:15:29

In Reply to: Re: avenging angel; barry lyndon posted by Victor Khomenko on November 24, 2002 at 06:16:38:

point taken on diluting the true greats.

ebert's feature is not so much a strict "best of" list as an ongoing series that covers whatever he happens to be checking out at the time. (for me, there's only so much to be said for creating a "definitive" list - what's more interesting is seeing how other people think differently about something you love or hate.)

often his choices coincide with dvd releases, theatrical revivals or recent remakes, or the passing of a certain actor or director - he's got an audience to write for.

it's also an exercise in reexamining or reconsidering films years later, like a second chance to review the film. sometimes he realizes that a movie's not as good as he remembered it being; other times new things strike him in light of changing times, new movies or his age. His comments on La Dolce Vita:

"When I saw 'La Dolce Vita' in 1960, I was an adolescent for whom 'the sweet life' represented everything I dreamed of: sin, exotic European glamour, the weary romance of the cynical newspaperman. When I saw it again, around 1970, I was living in a version of Marcello's world; Chicago's North Avenue was not the Via Veneto, but at 3 a.m. the denizens were just as colorful, and I was about Marcello's age.

"When I saw the movie around 1980, Marcello was the same age, but I was 10 years older, had stopped drinking, and saw him not as a role model but as a victim, condemned to an endless search for happiness that could never be found, not that way. By 1991, when I analyzed the film a frame at a time at the University of Colorado, Marcello seemed younger still, and while I had once admired and then criticized him, now I pitied and loved him. And when I saw the movie right after Mastroianni died, I thought that Fellini and Marcello had taken a moment of discovery and made it immortal. There may be no such thing as the sweet life. But it is necessary to find that out for yourself."

also of interest is the linked list of siskel and ebert's annual top ten lists dating back to 1969.

• siskel and ebert