Roger Ebert and His Voice

Esquire has a moving article, "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man," on Ebert's life since losing his lower jaw and ability to speak. Among many other things, it chronicles the technology that restores his voice in a way, and the writing that's kept his voice alive. (Hat tip to Drioxbie.)

I don't always agree with Ebert's tastes, but he's a good writer and typically offers thoughtful, honest reviews. He's also long been a champion of foreign films, documentaries and hidden gems. If there's some little known film you discover and love, there's a decent chance Ebert liked it, too, and may have included it in his film festival. It's nice to visit his site to read his old reviews of the classics, and when he's on, he's on.

I'm not surprised he liked Broken Embraces, which is a lovely little film that centers on a filmmaker who has lost his sight. Ebert's capsule review is:

Broken Embraces. Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces" is a voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. Involves a blind man who lost his great love in a car crash and years later learns the truth of her death, and how another man destroyed his last film. Penelope Cruz, Almodovar's constant Muse for over a decade, plays a prostitute who was with the blind man's producer when she fell in love with him-true love, and doomed. Dripping with primary colors, especially red, this is the year's most sumptuous film.

Still, my favorite line of the actual article is:

When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.