Kristin here: I don’t know about you, but back on January 16 about the last thing on my mind was the release, still six weeks away, of Jack the Giant Slayer. It wasn’t a film I was planning to see. Not many people were, as it predictably...

Today we have a guest entry by our friend and colleague Jeff Smith. Jeff teaches here at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Film Studies area. He’s an expert on cinema sound, particularly music. His book The Sounds of...

A fan’s tattoo, from Dear Mr. Watterson (2013). DB here: Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, was probably the best cartoon draftsman since Carl Barks and Walt Kelly. His versatile line could be thick or thin, fluent or ja...

A Star Is Born (1954). DB here: Cripes! It’s video-lecture fever! Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Still, we do have something new for you. A video analysis of constructive editing showed up last fall, and a rather long one called  “H...

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Rear Window (1954); illuminated transparency used to create the lens reflection. Note: This entry was nearly finished when Roger Ebert died on 4 April. I had intended to send it to him in advance. I think he would want me to post it as I...

We owe Roger an enormous debt. Since we met in 1999 at the Arts Club of Chicago, Roger has been the most generous and eloquent supporter our work has had. In our visits to their festival, Roger and Chaz welcomed us into their community a...

Room 237 (2012). DB here: Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 gathers the thoughts of five people concerning the deeper, or wider, or just awesomer meanings evoked by Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Those thoughts will strike many viewers as fairly ...

Roger Ebert at 4 Star Video Heaven, Madison, Wisconsin, 2003. Kristin and David: Roger died today. We can’t do him justice in such short compass, but we do want to acknowledge him and his life. He was an unstinting friend to us, an...