Ebert breaks hip, but show will go on
By: Melissa Merli
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Photo by:
Ebert
CHAMPAIGN – Roger Ebert says his 10th annual film festival, opening Wednesday at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, must go on, even in the event he is unable to attend.
On Friday, his wife, Chaz Ebert, said her husband is recovering at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago from surgery to repair a minor hip injury.
She said he tripped and fell at the Pritikin Center in Florida, where he had gone to continue physical therapy in preparation for the five-day Roger Ebert's Film Festival, a special event of his alma mater, the University of Illinois College of Media.
"The staff at Pritikin was very helpful in their quick response to the incident," Chaz Ebert said in an e-mail. "Please keep those thumbs up in the hopes that Roger will be there to celebrate the 10th year of his film festival. He has an indomitable spirit."
"The show must go on," the critic said via e-mail. "I am doing fine and if the doctors clear me, I will be there to welcome our guests, including Ang Lee, Paul Schrader, Richard Roeper, Richard Corliss, Sally Potter, Christine Lahti, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Spall, Michael Barker and many others. But whether or not I am there, the audience will see some amazing films."
The 65-year-old Urbana native, the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for film criticism, in 1975, has had a streak of bad luck in recent years regarding his health. He has had three surgeries for salivary gland cancer, and an earlier one this year failed to restore his speaking voice, lost due to complications after surgery last year.
"I took a real whammy with this third surgery but am again in full possession of such necessities as walking, smiling, thinking, reviewing movies and giving 'thumbs up,'" he said last week.
The critic recently resumed writing reviews but will not return to his weekly television movie-review show having not yet regained his speaking voice.
His friends, among them Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss, will handle the Q&A after each screening at his festival.
Tickets are sold out to two of the 13 movies, "Hulk" and "Housekeeping."
Lee, a 1980 alumnus of the UI Department of Theatre and an Academy Award-winning director, will appear with "Hulk," at 11 a.m. Saturday. Actress Christine Lahti and Scottish director Bill Forsyth will appear with "Housekeeping" at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
As of Friday afternoon, other Ebertfest movies close to being sold out were "Hamlet," which opens the festival at 7 p.m. Wednesday, with actors Timothy Spall and Rufus Sewell; "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," a documentary on a northern Illinois family farm that went organic, with guests Taggart Siegel, director, and John Peterson, the farmer, at 7 p.m. Friday; and "Romance and Cigarettes," a quasi-musical directed by John Turturro, at noon next Sunday, with guests Aida Turturro, actress, and Tricia Brouk, choreographer.
Tickets are $10 each, with a $2 discount for students. Call 356-9063 for information or visit online www.ebertfest.com.
Other festival stories
- Famed director to attend this year's Ebertfest
- Veteran British actor to appear at Ebertfest
- Film critics join lineup for annual film festival event
- Die-hard Ebertfest fans not deterred by obstacles for tickets
- How to get tickets
- Ebert celebrates his film festival's 10th year
- Ebertfest panel discussions planned
- Oscar-winner Ang Lee says he's still learning with every movie
- 'Housekeeping' Forsyth proud of picture – but done directing
- 'Canvas,' a film on coping with mental illness, to be at Ebertfest
- Ebert might not attend show
- Ebertfest's star will be absent tonight
- To see, or not to see
- Couple's love of film led them to romance
- British actors feel right at home at C-U fest
- Writer-director dedicates screening of 'Delirious' to absent film critic
- Moving film took writer-director home – and audience with him
- Actor says 'Canvas' first step to taking apart social stigma of mental illness
- Farmer's doc reaps event's first standing ovation
- Academy Award winning director, UI grad returns to town
- Director, distributor 'bask' in warm Virginia Theatre reception
- They don't make 'em like that any more
- Biopic rooted in writer-director's notion of suicidal glory
- 'Romance & Cigarettes' wins praise for filming outside box
- 'Housekeeping' star recalls script as best she ever saw
- Ebertfest: That's a wrap