Herzog by Ebert

At the time of his death in 2013, Roger Ebert was arguably the most influential writer about movies in the United States. He had been film critic for the "Chicago Sun-Times" for over 45 years, reviewing more movies than any other critic active during that time and pioneering in both television reporting and reviewing. In 1975 he was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Among the film directors who started working at about the same time Ebert started writing for the "Sun-Times," two inspired a particularly intense devotion. One was Martin Scorsese, the subject of "Scorsese by Ebert" (published in 2008). The other was Werner Herzog--Ebert first saw one of his films at the New York Film Festival in 1968. This volume gathers together all Ebert's reviews of individual films (as well as longer pieces he wrote for "The Great Movies" series), free-wheeling interviews, and essays in which he discusses various aspects of Herzog's achievement. It also includes a longer interview/discussion with Herzog at Facet's Multimedia in 1979 ("Images at the Horizon"), which offers fascinating details about Herzog's early career. Herzog himself has contributed a Foreword in which he discusses their long relationship. As one of the readers of the manuscript noted, "'Herzog by Ebert' documents a unique and productive relationship between a filmmaker and a film critic. Anyone who watches Herzog's films will surely benefit from Ebert's insights." It will be an essential book for all who admire Herzog's (and Ebert's) work.