It is hard to pinpoint when Chaz Ebert first experienced Life Itself, Steve James’s documentary about her late husband and legendary film critic, Roger Ebert. Initially conceived as a multi-year project to capture Roger’s vibrant life and career, the film also documented what would become the final weeks of Roger’s life. Film icons like Werner Herzog, Ava Duvernay, and Martin Scorsese illustrate the ways in which Roger’s work inspired them individually and impacted culture on a broad scale. Tracing Roger’s journey from cub reporter to cultural icon and devoted family man, the film is a testament to his ardently populist sensibility, larger-than-life personality, fierce love of movies, and the vigor with which he met every day even as he endured life with cancer and its effects.
In conversation with Cooper and Tabitha, Chaz reveals the one movie review Roger acknowledged he got wrong, her reluctance to continue filming as Roger’s health deteriorated, what it meant to experience the film’s premiere with an audience at Sundance, and how their shared concern for humanity continues to inspire her work today.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
TFTBMM Presents: Filmspotting - Top 5 Movies That Siskel and Ebert Got Wrong with Matt Singer
John Cameron Mitchell on Nashville
Steve Buscemi on Fat City
Chai Vasarhelyi on In This World
Ethan Hawke on Reds
Ira Sachs on Taxi Zum Klo
Jinkx Monsoon on All About Eve
Jared Hess on Rad
Willem Dafoe on Onibaba
Kirsten Johnson on All That Jazz
Patricia Clarkson on A Woman Under the Influence
Michael Showalter on Crossing Delancey
Eva Longoria on Casino
Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Encanto
Sterlin Harjo on The Long Goodbye
Bridget Everett on The Sound of Music
Ryan Coogler on Un Prophéte
Jon Hamm on Cinema Paradiso
Molly Shannon on The Wizard of Oz
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Sackhoff Show
Toon’d In! with Jim Cummings
Team Deakins
You Can’t Make This Up
Script Apart