Tuesday, July 8, 2008 East Central Illinois

10th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival 2008

Ebertfest's star will be absent tonight

By: Melissa Merli
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Story Photo

Photo by: Heather Coit

The marquee of the Virginia Theatre shows the dates of this week's Ebertfest.

CHAMPAIGN – The 10th annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival opens this evening at the Virginia Theatre without the main man.

In his blog today, the Chicago Sun-Times movie reviewer and Urbana native wrote: "After consulting with my doctors, I have decided it may not be prudent to try to make the journey today with a fractured hip."

"My current plan is to take it easy, obey the doctor's orders and start writing reviews again," Ebert continued. "In the meantime, my heart will be in Urbana."

Ebert's wife, Chaz, who will act as the festival's emcee in his place, had said Monday that whether her husband was able to attend would be a day-by-day decision.

The critic injured his hip Thursday evening at the Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa in Florida, where he was undergoing physical therapy. On Friday he underwent surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. On Tuesday, Ebert was to transfer back to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

"That will be his first full day of formal rehab," Chaz Ebert said via e-mail. "His doctor said that a hip fracture causes excruciating pain and you don't want to exacerbate it. On the other hand, the doctor said that theoretically it could be possible for a person to go by the end of the week, but he can't say that for sure in Roger's case because each case is individual."

The festival, a special event of Ebert's alma mater, the University of Illinois College of Media, will feature 13 films and numerous guests.

"There are an awful lot of small, independent films, which I think is good, and we have an abnormally large number of directors," said Nate Kohn, festival director and, like Ebert, a native of Urbana and alumnus of the UI.

The directors include another UI alumnus, Oscar winner Ang Lee, and Paul Schrader, Bill Forsyth, Tom DiCillo, Tarsem Singh, Jeff Nichols, Barry Avrich, Taggart Siegel, Eran Kolirin and Joseph Greco.

"It was Schrader's line from his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's 'Raging Bull' that inspired my acceptance of my bandaged appearance: 'I ain't a pretty boy no more,'" Ebert wrote, referring to his decision to attend his festival last year even though a tracheostomy that followed cancer surgery left him without his speaking voice and his neck bandaged.

The actors planning to attend are Joey Pantoliano, who won an Emmy for his turn as Ralph Cifaretto in the hit HBO series "The Sopranos," with "Canvas," 8:30 p.m. Thursday; Christine Lahti with the Forsyth-directed drama "Housekeeping," 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and Aida Turturro, with "Romance & Cigarettes," which was directed by her brother, John Turturro, noon Sunday.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, individual tickets were sold out for "Romance & Cigarettes"; "Housekeeping"; Ang Lee's "Hulk," 11 a.m. Saturday; and "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," 7 p.m. Friday.

Appearing with that documentary will be Siegel, its director, and farmer John Peterson, who lives in northern Illinois but will come from New Zealand, the longest commute for this year's festival, according to Ebert.

The festival will open with Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet," a four-hour epic to be screened in 70mm, at 7 tonight, with actors Timothy Spall and Rufus Sewell onstage afterward, and end with "Romance & Cigarettes," in which characters at times segue into pop-music songs.

"It's really an interesting film," Kohn said. "It's sort of a musical but not quite a musical."

Kohn noted that another interesting film, Sally Potter's "Yes," to be shown at 4 p.m. Thursday, has dialogue written in iambic pentameter. Potter was to have attended the festival in person but is unable as she is directing a new film, Kohn said.

A poignant festival moment promises to be the 8:30 p.m. Thursday screening of the short "Citizen Cohl: The Untold Story," a tribute to the late Dusty Cohl, a perennial Ebertfest guest and founder of the Toronto and Floating film festivals.

With Ebert sidelined by injury, his friends will handle the Q&A following each movie. They include the critic's TV partner, Richard Roeper; his longtime friends, Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss and his wife, Mary, a film expert; Sony Pictures Classics president and frequent Ebertfest guest Michael Barker; and Sports Illustrated's Bill Nack, a UI alumnus.

As Ebert wrote at Ebertfest.com: "So that's the latest. I have been so moved by the messages I've received from so many of you. Thank you. Now let's go to the movies."

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