Movies

‘Life Itself’ recounts the strength of Roger and Chaz Ebert

Roger Ebert, the world’s most famous film critic, is forever linked with Gene Siskel and their “thumbs up/thumbs down” rulings — started and made famous on their TV show “At the Movies.”

But Ebert had a more important partnership: his relationship with his wife, Chaz Ebert.

It’s highlighted in “Life Itself,” out Friday, a new documentary about Ebert, who died in April 2013.

In the film, Chaz is shown in the hospital with her husband, who lost most of his jaw to cancer and, with it, his ability to speak. But his illness never stopped them from sharing the things they loved.

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, front, in a screening room for a photo shoot for People Weekly in 1984.Kevin Horan/Magnolia Pictures

“When Roger went into the hospital in 2006 for surgery, he had loaded over a thousand songs onto his iPod,” Ebert says. “I had always liked Frank Sinatra — and Roger would say, ‘I don’t quite get him.’

“He started listening to Sinatra: ‘But now the days grow short, I’m in the autumn of the year,’” she sings, “‘and now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs.’ We were holding hands, and we were both crying.

And he said, ‘Now I get Sinatra. I thought before that he was too sentimental, but now I get it.’”

Later, she says, they found surprising ways to communicate. At one Christmas party, she says, “Roger was on the second floor, and he looked down at me…I laughed and said, ‘OK, I’ll go get it.’

A guest pointed out, ‘He didn’t say anything — he just looked at you!’ And it hit me, that would happen a lot.”

When she saw the film, Ebert says, “I never realized how sick he must have appeared. He didn’t look sick to me — as lively as he is, the twinkle in his eye.”

True to her husband’s reputation for straight talk, she says “Life Itself” showcases the reality of his last year. “We hide from the brutality of what it’s like to die,” she says.

“And Roger rips off that veneer. He wanted to make sure people saw you can look squarely in the eye at the path toward death and still have all the gusto for life — and even embrace dying as a part of that. I think it’s so beautiful. It’s such a gift.”