RESEARCH General Arts

TWO THUMBS UP
'Ebertfest' champions overlooked films, old and new

Craig Chamberlain, News Editor
(217) 333-2894; cdchambe@uiuc.edu

3/1/03

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It had "The Right Stuff" for an Oscar nomination, but was a "puzzling flop" at the box office, says film critic Roger Ebert. The 1983 film about the original Mercury astronauts didn’t get the audience it deserved.

So on its 20th anniversary, and in the aftermath of the recent shuttle tragedy, "The Right Stuff" will open the fifth annual Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival, coming April 23-27 to Central Illinois. Closing the festival will be "Singin’ in the Rain," a 1952 box-office hit and Ebert’s pick for the greatest Hollywood musical – but a film that originally got little critical acclaim.

Fourteen films will be shown over five days at the Virginia Theater, a 1920s-era Champaign movie palace, with other events at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The festival is a special event of the university’s College of Communications.

Filmmakers, actors and producers connected with the films are invited to "Ebertfest," and many appear on stage with the film critic for informal discussions after the screenings.
In making his selections for the festival, Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, looks for films he feels have been overlooked by critics, distributors or audiences, and therefore deserve a second look. A 1964 Illinois journalism graduate and adjunct professor, Ebert also
co-hosts "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies," a weekly televised movie-review program.

Included among the other 12 films is a Japanese film about a man drawn to ballroom dancing, a gritty French film about the Paris drug trade, a film about Thanksgiving in four ethnic households, and a documentary/detective story about the filmmaker’s search to find the author of a treasured book.

Silent films are getting special attention, with three on the schedule: a 1926 pirate film shot in color, starring Douglas Fairbanks, to be accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra of Cambridge, Mass.; a 1932 Japanese film, to be accompanied by a renowned Japanese "benshi," or movie storyteller; and a collection of shorts by silent comedy masters for the Saturday children’s matinee.

This year’s complete list of films, subject to change: "13 Conversations About One Thing" (U.S., 2002); "The Black Pirate" (U.S., 1926); "Blood and Wine" (U.S., 1997); "Charlotte Sometimes" (U.S., 2002); "I Was Born, But …" (Japan, 1932); "L.627" (France, 1992); "Medium Cool" (U.S., 1969); "The Silent Picture Show" (comedy shorts by Chaplin, Keaton and others); "Stone Reader" (U.S., 2002); "The Right Stuff" (U.S., 1983); "Shall We Dance" (Japan, 1996); "Singin’ in the Rain" (U.S., 1952); "Your Friends and Neighbors" (U.S., 1998); "What’s Cooking?" (U.S., 2000).

Festival passes are $60 and on sale now, through the theater box office, (217) 356-9053, or through the Web site. Tickets for individual films are $7 and will go on sale soon.

For updates on the film schedule and additional information, visit the Web site or contact Mary Susan Britt, the festival’s assistant director, at marsue@uiuc.edu or (217) 244-0552.