Roger Ebert Captions a New Yorker Cartoon (Finally)

Bob Mankoff on Roger Ebert's attempts to win the New Yorker caption contest, cites a post from Ebert's blog from 2009:

I have entered the New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption Contest almost weekly virtually since it began and have never even been a finalist. Mark Twain advised: “Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.” I have done more writing for free for the New Yorker in the last five years than for anybody in the previous 40 years.

Well, Ebert has finally won with this entry

Though I like this one, which didn't make it past censors

I've submitted what I thought were brilliancies to the contest a bunch of times to no avail.

Thumbs Up Mr. Ebert. Congrats.

Cinema Interruptus

Roger Ebert describes his "Shot at a Time" technique for watching movies. This is a method of stopping a movie at a random point and analyzing the frame in order to determine what the placement of objects or people, as well as the lighting, signifies and what effect this is meant to have on the viewer. About the above still from 'Notorious' he says:

Bergman on strong axis. Grant at left. Bergman lighter, Grant shadowed. Grant above, Bergman below. Movement toward lower right. The attention and pressure is on her.

In more general terms Ebert describes what the different parts of the frame means here:

Now what do I mean by "positive" or "negative?" I mean that these are tendencies within the composition. They are not absolutes. But in general terms, in a two-shot, the person on the right will "seem" dominant over the person on the left. Does this apply even to films from cultures that read right to left or top to bottom? From my treks through many Asian films, yes, it seems to.

A cool idea that I never thought of trying. I'm looking forward to trying this out with a DVD.

Ebert's New Digs

Check out Roger Ebert's new journal.

Ebert's View

Have you seen Roger Ebert's Top Ten list for 2007 yet? He gives 'Juno' the top spot, and 'No Country for Old Men' the second spot. Of 'Juno' Ebert says:

It is so hard to make a great comedy at all, and harder still to make one that is intelligent, quick, charming, moving and yes, very, very funny. Seeing “Juno” with an audience was to be reminded of unforgettable communal moviegoing experiences...

Sounds right to me. 'Juno' and 'No Country for Old Men' indeed seem to be the best of 2007.

Another picture I'm looking forward to seeing is 'El Orfanata' (The Orphanage). Of it, Ebert says:

Now here is an excellent example of why it is more frightening to await something than to experience it. "The Orphanage" has every opportunity to descend into routine shock and horror, or even into the pits with the slasher pictures, but it only pulls the trigger a couple of times. The rest is all waiting, anticipating, dreading. We need the genuine jolt that comes about midway, to let us see what the movie is capable of. The rest is fear.

My kind of creepshow.

Roger Ebert On Juno

The story of how the screenplay for 'Juno' came to be, and the movie's popularity, is a breath of fresh air. Here's Roger Ebert's write-up from TIFF.