Roger Ebert Talks to the Wachowskis
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Celebrities and Controversy
Somehow I missed this on Thursday, but apparently so did everyone else, since I didn't see it linked anywhere. Roger Ebert was hanging out at a post-production studio in Chicago, watching the restored new print of The Godfather, when he was unexpectedly joined by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the famously inaccessible duo behind The Matrix, Speed Racer, and (people forget) Bound. Afterward, he got a chance to chat with them -- not in a conventional interview setting, complete with a hovering publicist (the brothers don't do that, remember?), but over a beer. Ebert was impressed with the "zillionaires": "Nice people. Friendly. No Hollywood attitude." He writes that "[t]he blogosphere paints them as mysterious recluses, which may add to the legend but doesn't match the reality." But their being nice and friendly doesn't make them any less mysterious and reclusive: I'd wager that Ebert only ran the piece because of their reputation for not giving interviews or talking to anyone in the press.
Anyway, it's really interesting to "hear" them speak, though they mostly talk about the difficulties of keeping a moving 35 mm shot in focus and the brilliance of Coppola's Godfather shot selection. It's funny how keeping silent for a while will make such brief, mundane snippets into objects of arcane fascination. (Though since I think the Wachowskis are pretty formidable visual artists themselves, I find their perspective on that sort of thing interesting in its own right.)
No photo, of course; all you get is that old shot of the two admiring a Matrix comic book.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-05-2008 @ 9:53PM
Jeff said...
Am I the only who sometimes think the Wachowski brothers (or siblings) are overrated?
Yes, the Matrix is a great movie. But I haven't seen any decent movies from these since the first Matrix. V for Vendetta? F***ing hated. Speed Racer? I didn't want to wasted some money and time.
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10-05-2008 @ 10:35PM
EatingPie said...
Pretty non-eventful interview.
However, I would bet Ebert has met tons of "Hollywood types" and would know the Hollywood attitude when he sees it. So it's not much of a reach to take him on faith when he says these guys didn't have said attitude.
And just in case this comes up in context, Larry is not -- and never was -- getting a sex change. That was a rumor started by his then-girlfriend's ex-husband... and you can bet he isn't the best source.
-Pie
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10-06-2008 @ 5:16AM
bongo123 said...
I must be the only person who loved the Matrix, sure the sequels werent upto the first one but then again the first one wouldve been impossible to beat seeing as it was pretty much the T2 of that era, but still, i thought they were both pretty class even if the multple smith fight looks like a cartoon but the freeway chase more than makes up for it
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11-30-2008 @ 2:10PM
KuroTsurugi said...
The Wachowski bros broke the mold and set the bar on cinema with the Matrix. They did not direct but wrote the adaptation to V for Vendetta, which was an awesome film. I always say this to people when they talk about the movie. If you didn't like V for Vendetta, then you are completely absent of social and political status in the US. Speed Racer was a great family movie that Critics destroyed. I still haven't read one review from any critic that made me think they actually even saw the movie. It was great. The most memorable thing is the fact that people were saying that they couldn't keep a kid sitting in the theater for 2 plus hours. There were tons of kids when i went, and it was the first time i didn't want to rip their heads off. You could see the imagination being triggered in their head. There were also things for grownups in the movie.
So jeff, If you saw the matrix and didn't see speed racer...those are the only two films the WACHOWSKI bros have actually done so far through and through (directing and writing). So your statement is completely silly. You may think they are overrated, and have every right to think so, but they have done something visually and storywise that people still try to top, and haven't!
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