Awake in the dark : the best of Roger Ebert ; forty years of reviews, essays, and interviews / Roger Ebert ; foreword by David Bordwell.

Author: Ebert, Roger.

Publisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006.

ISBN: 0226182002 (cloth : alk. paper)
9780226182001 (cloth : alk. paper)
0226182010 (pbk.)
9780226182018 (pbk.)

Description: xxxvi, 476 p. ; 24 cm.

Subject: Motion pictures Reviews.
Motion pictures.

Notes: Includes index.

Contents: Prologue: Death of a dream palace -- Review of La dolce vita -- part 1. Interviews and profiles -- Warren Beatty -- James Stewart -- Robert Mitchum -- Mitch and Jimmy: some thoughts -- Lee Marvin -- Ingmar Bergman -- Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader -- Robert Altman -- Werner Herzog -- Meryl Streep -- Woody Allen -- Spike Lee -- Tom Hanks -- Errol Morris -- Steven Spielberg -- Part 2. The best -- Bonnie and Clyde -- The battle of Algiers -- Z -- Five easy pieces -- The last picture show -- The godfather -- Cries and whispers -- Scenes from a marriage -- Nashville -- Small change -- Women -- An unmarried woman -- Apocalypse now -- The black stallion -- My dinner with Andre -- Sophie's choice -- The right stuff -- Amadeus -- The color purple -- Platoon -- House of games -- Mississippi burning -- Do the right thing -- Goodfellas -- JFK -- Malcolm X -- Schindler's list -- Hoop dreams -- Leaving Las Vegas -- Fargo -- Eve's bayou -- Dark city -- Being John Malkovich -- Almost famous -- Monster's ball -- Minority report -- Monster -- Million dollar baby -- crash -- Part 3. Foreign films -- Tokyo story -- The music room -- Au Hasard Balthazar -- Belle de jour -- The wild child -- Claire's knee -- Last tango in Paris -- Fellini's Roma -- Stroszek -- The marriage of Maria Braun -- Wings of desire -- Raise the red lantern -- The scent of green papaya -- Spirited away -- City of God -- Part 4. Documentaries -- Woodstock -- Harlan County, U.S.A -- Gates of Heaven -- Say amen, somebody -- The "up" movies -- 28 Up -- 35 Up -- 42 Up -- Shoah -- Dear America: letters home from Vietnam -- Crumb -- Heidi Fleiss, Hollywood madam -- Microcosmos -- Part 5. Overlooked and Underrated -- Thieves like us -- Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia -- Saint Jack -- El Norte -- To live and die in L.A -- Trouble in mind -- Housekeeping -- The rapture -- A soldier's daughter never cries -- The saddest music in the World -- Part 6. Essays and Think Pieces -- That's the way it is: The color purple and the Oscars -- Legacy of Star Wars -- John Cassavetes: an appreciation -- Why I love black and white -- The case for an A rating -- Well, are movies better than ever -- A Pulitzer for the movies -- Celluloid vs. digital: the war for the soul of the cinema -- The most influential films of the century -- In memoriam: Pauline Kael -- Part 7. On film criticism -- Twenty-five years in the dark -- Symposium from Film Comment -- All thumbs, or, is there a future for film criticism? -- All Stars, or, is there a cure for criticism of film criticism? -- Then again -- Auteurism is alive and well and living in Argentina -- A memo to myself and certain other film critics -- Epilogue: Thoughts on the centennial of cinema -- Coda: on the meaning of life and movies -- Appendix: 10 best lists, 1967--2005.

Summary: The influential, Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic offers four decades of his personal insights, encounters, and experiences in the world of motion pictures.