Sittin' in the front row | Roger Ebert

But wait. I am adamant about hating to make lists. Why do I go out on a limb and name the world's best film blog, when I would never name the world's best film? It's because there's no competition. If you know a better blog, please tell me. I'll start reading it.

Kristin and Bordwell are the authors, together and separately, of countless wonderful books. They are revered academics at the University of Wisconsin, even though they write in English and can be read by any intelligent person. If you took any kind of film class in college, the odds are excellent that they wrote the textbook.

But I stray. Where do they sit? At Ebertfest every year, I walk on stage and look straight down before me, and there they can be found, usually in the second row, more toward the side of the stage the podium is on. This is in keeping with their preference for the front, and Kristin's policy at a lecture to sit as close to the speaker as possible. She does this even more carefully when it's a Q&A with a film director, because, she writes, "you get a good chance at an autograph."

Let that sink in. She is one of the most respected of all film scholars, she's been doing this for years, and she's still such a fan she collects autographs. That reveals a love of movies that is essential for any professional critic. Some critics write like they're chewing on anchovies. A movie is guilty until proven innocent. They feel weak when they fall for one.

David and Kristin sit up front because they like to. "DB," as he signs himself, doesn't go into deep theory, preferring to share memories of times he sat up front in Paris, the Virgin Islands, Bologna, the Sundance cinemas in Madison, the Cinematheque Francais, and no doubt Hong Kong, since he is the leading authority on HK films.

I know other good critics I can always find in the front row. The Lake Street Screening Room, where Chicago critics see most of our movies, has only about 60 seats, and no seat is all that far back. But up there in front you can unfailingly find Jonathan Rosenbaum, Michael Wilmington, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and Peter Sobszynsky. I was amused that David ran a photo on his blog showing Kristin in the front row at Bologna and, yep, right there in the same row was Jonathan.