The Great Movies
By Roger Ebert
Broadway, $27.50
ISBN 076791032X

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INTERVIEW BY JULIE HALE

A revered reviewer who's as famous as many of the stars he critiques, Roger Ebert has made the rare leap from critic to cultural icon. For decades, in print and on television, he has shaped America's taste in movies, and -- celebrity status aside -- he remains the only film critic to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Now he has assembled The Great Movies, a collection of essays originally written for his Chicago Sun-Times column of the same name, in which he takes a fresh look at some of the classic films of the past. Spanning a century of cinema, this tribute to celluloid masterpieces like Casablanca and The Bicycle Thief looks at 100 unforgettable flicks (60 of which are, interestingly enough, in black and white). Rather than presenting a definitive list of greatest hits, Ebert says, the book offers a sampling of the high points in cinema history. Complementing his text are stills chosen by Mary Corliss, film curator at the Museum of Modern Art. Foreign and domestic, contemporary and vintage, all the movies here are timeless and -- thanks to the author's clear-eyed analysis -- ripe for the renting. BookPage recently queried the critic about his new book, the state of the movies today and, of course, the impending Oscars.

Your new book covers the first century of cinema. What's changed about movies over the years? What's stayed the same?
Movies have grown more sophisticated and more versatile in style, but most of them still want to be mass entertainments. Certainly, American movies do a better job than in decades past of showing a wider spectrum of our lives. And animation, which was scarcely a blip on the horizon for the first third of a century, has come of age both artistically and commercially. Science fiction in all of its manifestations, once a fringe taste, now dominates the box office.

You've rounded up the usual suspects -- Citizen Kane, The 400 Blows, The Third Man -- and included contemporary fare like Pulp Fiction and E. T. How did you decide what movies to put in the book?
To quote a friend, some of these are films I could not bear the thought of not seeing again. Others are important for historical or stylistic reasons. And right at the beginning, I vowed not to make a list of the 100 greatest films, but simply to explore many different kinds of great movies, in no order, with no ranking.

Most of these films pre-date the 1980s and '90s. Does this reflect the attitude you express in the book's introduction -- that movies today are at "a low ebb"?
Perhaps. Young directors who once wanted to make the great American movie now want to make the all-time box office hit, and distribution penalizes films not aimed at the teenage action market. But more likely I was drawn back to masterpieces I had never written about, and I was not in a hurry to grant "great" status to recent films. Those I have included, like Raging Bull, Pulp Fiction, Hoop Dreams, Silence of the Lambs, Do the Right Thing and The Decalogue, I am pretty sure about.

What keeps us going to the movies? How do you account for their timeless appeal?
We love to be told stories, and the movies tell a story better than any other medium.

What's your favorite place to watch a movie?
The Auditorium Lumiere of the Palais du Festivals at Cannes. With a gigantic screen, perfect sound and 3,500 seats filled with knowledgeable filmgoers, it can provide a superb experience.

What directors working today do you most admire?
Scorsese and Altman are the giants. If I made the list any longer, I would have to include dozens of names.

What's your earliest movie memory?
My father took me to see the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races, and Harpo seemed to be looking directly out of the screen at me.

What's your favorite movie?
Citizen Kane is the usual answer. Also Raging Bull, Singin' in the Rain, Vertigo, something by Buster Keaton, La Dolce Vita, The Third Man, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Kieslowski's Decalogue and his Red, White and Blue Trilogy. A Hard Day's Night, Pinocchio, the Apu Trilogy, Mr. Hulot's Holiday . . .

What was the best movie you saw last year?
Monster's Ball.

Any Oscar predictions you'd like to share with our readers?
Lord of the Rings is the sort of mega-production the Academy voters are easily impressed by, and God knows it's better than Gladiator.