“Whatever else they may be, movies are stories people tell us; and a review is a conversation the critic has with both the filmmaker and the audience about the power and plausibility of the tale. No one has done as much as Roger Ebert to connect the creators of movies with their consumers. He has immense power, and he’s used it for good, as an apostle of cinema. Reading his work, or listening to him parse the shots of some notable film, the movie lover is also engaged with an alert mind constantly discovering things — discovering them to share them.” –from a Time tribute piece by Richard Corliss.

Shortly before Strangers on a Train was released, Farley Granger (i.e., Guy Haines) ran into Robert Walker (i.e., Bruno Antony) at a party in Hollywood. “He said, ‘Farley, we have to get together…I miss you…We should not let the friendship slip away,'” Granger tells L.A. Times staffer Susan Granger. “I took his number and he took mine, and the next thing I knew he died.”
On Wednesday, 6.27, Granger will be signing copies of his co-written autobiography, “Include Me Out: My Life From Goldwyn to Broadway” at the Santa Monica branch of Every Picture Tells a Story (at 1311 Montana) , and will then do a q & a after a screening of Strangers on a Train at the Aero.

At 64, Werner Herzog is our filmmaking god of dark adventure, a willful but adventuresome artist whose characters — both in his features and documentaries — test the boundaries of human madness and quixotic folly.” — from Patrick Goldstein‘s 6.24.07 L.A. Times profile, titled “Werner Herzog’s Night Vision.”

Arnold Jones, brother of the late Anderson Jones, informs that a memorial is being planned for Saturday, 6.30.07 at 1 pm at a small church all the way the fuck down in Long Beach (location yet to be disclosed). Flowers and condolences can be sent to Andy’s parents, Anna and Arnold L. Jones, at 1471 E. Fairifield Ct. Ontario, CA 91761.

The Straight Time gang — Dustin Hoffman, director Ulu Grosbard, Theresa Russell (looking pretty hot for having just turned 50), Harry Dean Stanton, cinematographer Owen Roizman — took the stage last night at the Billy Wilder theatre, following a 6:30 pm screening of the 1978 noir classic.

(l. to. r.) Theresa Russell, Ulu Grosbard, Dustin Hoffman, Harry Dean Stanton and producer Tim Zinneman — Saturday, 6.23.07, 8:55 pm; Grosbard, Hoffman, Stanton; best wide shot

L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas asked the questions, but he didn’t have to work very hard at keeping the ball in the air. Hoffman and Grosbard, in particular, just let it roll and roll and roll. Here’s an mp3 of a portion of what was said (i.e., a recording of a videotape that I took that was way too big to upload — 1.6 gigs). You’ll hear Grosbard first, and then Stanton and Russell (or the other way around) and then Hoffman comes in with a longish riff about his research, including an interesting observation about how criminals and actors aren’t all that dissimilar.

As expected, Evan Almighty was flat on Saturday. Sequels don’t usually increase business from Friday to Saturday, and this one’s coping with mixed word-of-mouth so the adjusted projection is now $32,112,000. 1408 was down also (horror peaks on Friday night with the young), but the projection went up — it’s now expected to hit just over $20 million. The John Cusack-er may even overtake Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer for the #2 slot…maybe.