Bishop, Lowell, Sure, but Also Mingus, Hawking, Jung, And

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DAVID O’CONNELL INFLUENCE Bishop, Lowell, sure, but also Mingus, Hawking, Jung, and then, too, I heard Woody Allen this morning confess to this interior debate he’s had for years about two types of films and which is more satisfying: movies that tackle existential questions— God: where? Suffering: why? —or those pure escapist flicks (Everyone Says I Love You, maybe, or certainly Bananas), and Allen says the former, because they are, in the critical eye, respectable, are often a serious temptation— his word—which I, half listening, daydream-hitched to Eve and the apple and thought how language molds us in its image. Not that I’ve read much Derrida, though I confess to stamping his imprimatur on a few earnest rants ten years back when, like Foucault’s, his name was ubiquitous as patchouli and, like patchouli, was almost 74 Influence always misused. Think Comedy is tragedy plus time, Allen Alda’s suspect line from Crimes and Misdemeanors, the masterpiece of Woody Allen’s mid-career. There, when Martin Landau’s ophthalmologist-killer stares into the fire (by way of Raskalnikov and Cain), don’t we sense what hangs in the balance is what remains unsayable, what waits? Small wonder most cling to the B-plot: Allen’s humbly bumbling documentarian losing Mia Farrow to big wig Alda’s unctuous charm. A manageable grief. Funny, even. And this morning, eighteen years on, Allen said he’s come to see that comedy may serve the greater good, if only since—his words—like air conditioning, it gives us all a break before we face it. 75.

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Roger Ebert's
The College of Media at Illinois presents Roger19thAnnual Ebert’s Film Festival2017 April 19-23, 2017 The Virginia Theatre Chaz Ebert: Co-Founder and Producer 203 W. Park, Champaign, IL Nate Kohn: Festival Director 2017 Roger Ebert’s Film Festival The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The College of Media at Illinois Presents... Roger Ebert’s Film Festival 2017 April 19–23, 2017 Chaz Ebert, Co-Founder, Producer, and Host Nate Kohn, Festival Director Casey Ludwig, Assistant Director More information about the festival can be found at www.ebertfest.com Mission Founded by the late Roger Ebert, University of Illinois Journalism graduate and a Pulitzer Prize- winning film critic, Roger Ebert’s Film Festival takes place in Urbana-Champaign each April for a week, hosted by Chaz Ebert. The festival presents 12 films representing a cross-section of important cinematic works overlooked by audiences, critics and distributors. The films are screened in the 1,500-seat Virginia Theatre, a restored movie palace built in the 1920s. A portion of the festival’s income goes toward on-going renovations at the theatre. The festival brings together the films’ producers, writers, actors and directors to help showcase their work. A film- maker or scholar introduces each film, and each screening is followed by a substantive on-stage Q&A discussion among filmmakers, critics and the audience. In addition to the screenings, the festival hosts a number of academic panel discussions featuring filmmaker guests, scholars and students. The mission of Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is to praise films, genres and formats that have been overlooked.
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