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- “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- “Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy
- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
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- Lyrie on “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- Maddy on “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
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- Lyrie on “I just love telling stories. That’s what we do and it’s a good business to be in, especially if you know you have talent.” –Jensen Ackles
- Kendra Williams on Josh White, singer of “the fighting blues”
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- sheila on “Listen, I never meant to make money. I never wanted it. I’m a singer, man.” — Gene Vincent
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- Jincy Willett on “There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
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What a genuinely lovely, touching letter.
“You have the audacity to believe that if you make a film about anything that interests you, it will interest us as well. And you have proven it.”
I love that line.
Wow. I need to see EVERY one of those 55 films. Have you seen his Loch Ness monster movie? Lord. It is hilarious and scary and weird and annoying. And ‘Grizzly Man’ is beyond belief.
Bren – Aguirre is a freak-fest with Klaus Kinski as a total madman (surprise surprise) and Fitzcarraldo has to be seen to be believed – I think they’d blow your mind!
I have such fond memories of watching Grizzly Man with you and Alex! That was such a fun night!
Ah, I love Werner Herzog. Now I need to devote myself to seeing more of his movies.
And that picture of him with Roger Ebert choked me up. I love him, too, and I just miss him. It was a tradition around here to watch his reviews on the weekends. It’s just not the same on that show without him.
Tracey, I know what you mean, but that show lost its mojo for me when Gene Siskel passed away. I loved the arguments they’d get in over the minuteae, or when they were simply at odds. I remember one episode where they got into it over some children’s film, and it was so funny. It went something like this.
Gene: “Ugh, it’s just not any good. Very disappointing.”
Roger: “Wait a minute, it’s a KIDS’ movie. You’re being ridiculous.”
Gene: “So that means it’s ok for it to be bad?”
Roger: “No, I’m saying that for kids, it’s not a bad film at all. It’s a nice little picture.”
Gene (disgusted, dismissive): “You’re wrong. Come on.”
I loved those kinds of arguments.
Oddly, I had, for the longest time, only ever thought of Ebert as that TV guy. The joy is inreading him, because he’s not just a super critic, he’s a great writer. The kind you can learn a lot from just through reading him.
This Herzog letter is fantastic. But So is Roger, so how could it be anything but?
Ebert is such a wonderful writer!! he wrote a piece about Saturday Night Fever that was basically a tribute to Siskel – who always said it was his favorite movie (whoda thunk). Wait – let me see if I can find it – it makes me cry to read it.
I have an anniversary version of Casabalanca – a 2 disc extravaganza – and Ebert’s commentary track is seriously not to be missed. he’s encyclopedic about that film but even better: he is still capable of getting totally MOVED. So many critics lose that, they become cynical. He is still moved to emotion during the “dueling anthems” scene in Casablanca – even after seeing it 100 times – and that, to me, is one of the marks of a truly great critic.
he’s the reason I got into Werner Herzog – because of how he wrote about him!
Thank you, dear web! A quick search on his site:
Here’s the piece he wrote about Saturday Night Fever. Gulp.
You know, I have that version of Casablanca and haven’t watched it yet. Maybe I’ll have to sit and watch it with the commentary over the long weekend. Casablanca is so awesome, I Tivo’d it even though i have the DVD. You know, for spontaneous watching in case of a TV-suck emergency. Sometimes you see a name on that Tivo list and just have to hit play. (I’ve been doing this with Frankenheimer’s Ronin, lately. I think I’ve watched it 3 times in the last 10 days.)
Ebert’s dissection of SNF as it relates to Gene makes me want to sit down and BS with him about movies for hours on end.
Isn’t it wonderful??
It’s excellent.