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:: Friday, OCT. 16 - Thursday, OCT. 22 ::

CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2009

The Chicago International Film Festival continues through October 22. Cine-File will be blogging on the festival and will be including links to coverage by our contributors on other sites.

Check the Cine-File blog daily for updates!

CRUCIAL VIEWING

Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON (Classic Revival)
Music Box – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
So where does RASHOMON stand today? Almost sixty years after the "opening of the West" to Japanese cinema, and after the publication of innumerable treatises and interpretations as to the meaning of this film, it seems almost as if RASHOMON has become some kind of be-all exemplar of "international cinema." This is what we know: a priest, a woodcutter, and a foul-mouthed wanderer take shelter from a punishing rainstorm in the ruins of an ancient temple—Rashomon—and try to find some truth in the vagaries and apocryphal testimonies of a petty murder trial they have just witnessed. Despite the undeniable sentimentality of the closing scenes—the same sentimentality that makes other Kurosawa films of the period (namely IKIRU) almost unwatchable—RASHOMON’s images (the woodcutter in the forest, Toshiro Mifune snarling and flailing as the bandit Tojomaru, the severe mysteries and rites of the medium who speaks for the murdered husband, and the rain at Rashomon Temple) have become iconic and the film has become, for better or worse, an ingrained masterpiece—even for those who have not seen it. (1950, 88 min, new 35mm print) LN
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.

Films by Joyce Wieland (Experimental)
Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Friday and Saturday, 7pm
Yes, the multiple Hollis Frampton screenings over the next couple of months in Chicago are exciting. So exciting, you may think you’ve got your experimental-film dance-card full. But, for the love of God, don’t miss out on the celluloid joys of Joyce Wieland, which will be on display this Friday and Saturday at the Film Studies Center. Even our man Hollis knew where the action is at: "The thought of some Purgatory wherein I might be deprived of seeing Joyce Wieland’s films makes me regret my every sin and dereliction." Some of her films can be placed in the Structural Film genre, but that description might not give you a sense of the joy and playfulness in her work. Some of her films are clearly from a feminist and 60s leftist political stance, but that description might not give you a sense of the enduring and universal qualities of her work. She’s one of the greatest filmmakers of the avant-garde. The shorts program (1964-1969, 88 min total, 16mm; Friday, 7pm) features the dazzling WATER SARK (1965), the rigorous and peaceful DRIPPING WATER (1969), the Vietnam-era allegory RAT LIFE AND DIET IN NORTH AMERICA (1968), and the Structural classics 1933 (1968) and SAILBOAT (1968), plus several others. On the next day you can see Wieland’s probable masterpiece REASON OVER PASSION (1969, 80 min, 16mm; Saturday, 7pm).  It’s a film that seems like a logical summation of all her other works—it’s as political, as personal, as playful, and as intense as each of the shorts, while still maintaining its own integrity. Simply put, Joyce Wieland’s work is supremely active, passionate, and open—it’s brilliant—and should be met with an open heart and eyes. JM
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More info at filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu.

Daniel Barrow’s WINNIPEG BABYSITTER (Live Performance/Special Event)
The Nightingale – Saturday, 8pm
When cable television came on the scene in the late 70s not only did it increase the number of channels available, but in many communities it also created Public Access TV. Funded and equipped by the corporations that reaped the profits, Public Access provided a platform for hobby enthusiasts, amateur actors, wannabe talk-show hosts, political junkies, and artists of all kinds to take over your boob tube each week. On the eastern edge of the Canadian prairies, the citizens of Winnipeg exploited this new format to it's fullest, with people such as performance artist Glen Meadmore and a young Guy Maddin creating masterworks of the medium. When SHAW cable took over the local system in the late 80's, rumors circulated that they had destroyed the archives, and Winnipeg illustrator, collector, animator, and overhead-projector performer Daniel Barrow took action. He began researching and collecting the programs that had been part of this creative explosion, many times needing to track down VHS copies of shows from the producers and viewers. In the Chicago edition of his ongoing project he will present a selection of his favorite finds, side by side with his handcrafted liner notes for each program. Part performance, part archival presentation, this show promises to be a funny and nostalgic look back at an era when technology and economics combined to give anyone with a little initiative a chance to be a star for 30 minutes—or just a larger platform to subvert the dominant paradigm. (1982-1999, approx. 90 min, video and overhead projection) JH
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More info at www.nightingaletheatre.org.

Nicholas Ray’s BIGGER THAN LIFE (Classic Revival)
Music Box – Saturday and Sunday, 11:30am
While Douglas Sirk was busy picking at the veneer 1950s American society—finding trouble in paradise via his biting melodramas and his darkening of Rock Hudson’s romantic image—Nicholas Ray attacked the decade’s complacency and social ills more directly. BIGGER THAN LIFE feels like it should be included among the mad rush of anxiety-ridden science fiction films of the time. Just as overblown and beautiful as Ray’s perverse western JOHNNY GUITAR, BIGGER THAN LIFE is it’s own kind of perversion—it’s what would happen if The Dick Van Dyke Show had been left to rot. James Mason plays an overworked schoolteacher on his way from nausea to Middle American insanity. Given an experimental drug intended to cure his irregular blackouts, Mason's Middle American mores are set on overdrive (mass consumerism, wife hating, and hyper-enthusiasm for sports). This was Ray's third film shot in 'Scope and it's here that he masters the art of telling two stories at once. The film's characters and its contrived society close in and give way at the same time, balancing a world of cartoons with a world of people, and emulating the dizzy feelings of its leading man. (1956, 96 min, 35mm) JA
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.

ALSO RECOMMENDED

Shalizeh Arefpour's HEIRAN and Varouzh Karim-Massihi's THE DOUBT
(New Iranian)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Showtimes noted below
After last week's run of the new Majid Majidi film, the Film Center's Annual Festival of Films from Iran turns the spotlight on two up-and-coming directors. HEIRAN (2009, 88 min, 35mm; Saturday, 6pm and Sunday, 3pm) is the narrative feature debut of Shalizeh Arefpour, the second female filmmaker to be featured in this year's series. (Given the overwhelming difficulties women face in most areas of Iranian public life, any work by a female Iranian filmmaker constitutes something of an event.) This is a romantic melodrama about an independent-minded student who falls in love with the undocumented Afghani worker of the title. Despite her parents' misgivings, she follows Heiran to Tehran to attempt a life with him, only to find hardship in place of joy. Also playing this week is THE DOUBT (2009, 120 min, 35mm; Saturday, 8pm and Sunday, 5pm), the second feature directed by veteran film editor Varouzh Karim-Massihi. The film is an acknowledged update of Hamlet, with the heir of a wealthy family growing suspicious of his uncle after the sudden death of his father. The Siskel Center gazette describes "madcap humor" as well as melodrama, which, from Iran, promises to be something different at the very least. BS
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More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.

Ondi Timoner’s WE LIVE IN PUBLIC (Documentary)
Music Box – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
For your entertainment! Director Ondi Timoner has crafted a talking-heads documentary out of the work of artist and Internet pioneer Joshua Harris. Comparisons to "Big Brother" abound when talking about Harris: an early dot-com millionaire, Harris devoted his resources to what he considered the ultimate realization of the internet—an underground artificial terrarium where human beings were always subject to constant surveillance, all broadcast live on the internet. After that project was destroyed by FEMA (heckuva job, Brownie), Harris rebounded with the next step—his own life, his own apartment, on display 24/7. Drawing from thousands of hours of Harris' own footage, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC uncomfortably documents the ever-increasing symbiosis between human identity and the Internet. Director Timoner in person at the 7:30 screening on Friday. LN
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.

François Truffaut’s FAHRENHEIT 451 (Classic Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Wednesday, 7 and 9:30pm
What is it about French directors in the 60's that made them visualize the future as looking pretty much the same, but with a few fancy gadgets and streamlined clothing? And what was it about Ray Bradbury that makes his dystopian futures less frightening than Philip K. Dick's? François Truffaut can share credit for both of these phenomena. In his first color film, and only English language film, Bradbury's 1951 novel of the same name is adapted to become an anti-censorship, pro-intellectual statement. In a future where all books and written language are banned, Oskar Werner plays the book burning "fireman," an up-and-coming fascist about to get promoted who has a crisis of conscience. Julie Christie plays the dual roles of Linda, his sedative and TV addicted wife, and Clarisse, the young schoolteacher who seduces his mind. Beginning with the opening credits, which are spoken by a narrator while we see two-toned shots of antennae, Truffaut forefronts his visual acumen. Though the dialogue is sometimes lacking in terms of rhythm and delivery, the art direction is sublime. The reds, oranges, and yellows of burning paper dominate Christie's wardrobe and home, and only a handful of cool colors are dripped throughout the film. The film uses some quick zooms, which feel dated today, but sheds many of the cinematic flourishes that populate much of Truffaut's earlier work. Though technically sci-fi, it's light on the science, and heavy on the (literary) fiction. (1966, 112 min, 35mm) JH
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Usama Alshaibi's NICE BOMBS (Documentary)
Portage Theater – Friday, 8pm and 10pm
Like a Studs Terkel book (and this comparison is apt—Terkel executive produced this movie), Usama Alshaibi's NICE BOMBS explores a subject by complicating rather than simplifying it: contradictory statements and video images—assembled from a 2004 return trip to his Alshaibi's native Iraq—create a vision of post-Hussein Baghdad that is as honest and compelling as it is difficult to grasp. What separates NICE BOMBS from the scores of other documentaries made about the war in the last five years, especially the American ones, is that it never plays dumb. If those movies exist to explain "Iraq" (and we no longer even have to say "the war in"—for when we talk about Iraq in the US, what we mean is a conflict and not a country), Alshaibi's exists to document it: this is a situation that’s very hard to explain, and instead of having an explanation, Alshaibi goes out, records something and brings it back for us to watch so that we might draw a conclusion. Both screenings are free. (2006, 76 min, DigiBeta Video). IV
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More info at www.portagetheater.org.

Home Movie Day (Special Event)
Chicago Cultural Center – Saturday, 3-6pm (Film Inspection); 6-9pm (Screening)
This yearly, worldwide celebration of home movies (the local edition is presented by the Chicago Film Archives) is absolutely essential viewing for anyone who cares a whit about motion picture art, history, sociology, ethnography, science, or technology. Anyone who loves the sound of a projector. Anyone who loves deep, luscious Kodachrome II stock that is as gorgeous as the day it was shot. Anyone who loves dated, faded, scratched and bruised film—every emulsion scar a sacred glyph created by your grandfather's careless handling 60 years ago. Anyone who wants to revel in the performance of the primping and strutting families readying for their close-up. Anyone who wants to see what the neighborhood looked like before you got there. So find your 100 foot reels of 16mm you just had processed from your sister's Quinceañera or your grandfather's thousands of feet of Super 8mm of your uncle's Bar Mitzvah in 1976 or that 8mm your great aunt shot from Dealey Plaza in 1963 and come out for Home Movie Day. Walk in or call (312) 243-1808 to reserve time for the Chicago Film Archives’ experts to inspect your home movies that day! JM
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More info at www.chicagofilmarchives.org.

Carlos Cuaron’s RUDO Y CURSI (New Mexican)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Saturday, 7 and 9:15pm; Sunday, 1pm
RUDO Y CURSI is the sort of movie that gets unenthusiastically praised for its naturalism while its hidden virtues—in this case, a charismatic cast, a fable-like structure, and an unassuming cynicism in its depiction of national identity—go largely unnoticed. Designed by writer-director Carlos Cuaron as an inversion of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (which he also wrote) and starring that movie's leads, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, the film follows two young men from poverty to wealth in a journey that doubles as a portrait of contemporary Mexico. The title characters are brothers, workers on a banana plantation, whose natural talents at soccer find them scooped up by the major leagues. The subject here is not so much the corrupting influence of fame as it is the precarious position of Mexico's elite, a population so exclusive as to seem unreal. Unlike his brother Alfonso, Carlos Cuaron is no grand stylist. The film's satirical points accumulate largely through observation of character—a strategy reminiscent of the Czech New Wave comedies of the 1960s. And with the star power of Bernal and Luna, the characters are often a joy to observe, recognizably human no matter how selfish or shortsighted their actions. (2008, 103 min, 35mm) BS
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More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.

Mike Judge’s OFFICE SPACE (Contemporary Revival)
Music Box – Friday and Saturday, Midnight
1999 was a banner year for movies that criticized pursuing the American Dream as a soul-sucking, monotonous, and crushing defeat. These films all told us that the only way to achieve happiness in your modern life is to get up out of your cubicle, give your boss an emphatic middle finger and drop the hell out! But while FIGHT CLUB wrapped itself up in CGI and a philosophy of violence, and AMERICAN BEAUTY sought to regain it's youth with a Lolita and some reefer, OFFICE SPACE gives us the chance to do nothing. And how sweet nothing can be. Introducing the world to the phrases "pieces of flair" and "O-face," and with a plot device shamelessly stolen from SUPERMAN III, the film attempts to deny that it's a sophisticated satire. However, in the hands of writer-director Mike Judge (who was best know for BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD before this film), astute social commentary always gets mixed up with fart jokes. Corporate underling Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) plays the straight man to a cadre of ridiculous co-workers, neighbors, and waiters. With ten years of history between now and the film's release, it's basic setup of a code-monkey working on the Y2K problem may seem dated, but the office stereotypes it creates are timeless. (1999, 89 min, 35mm) JH
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.

Tommy Wiseau's THE ROOM (Cult)
Music Box - Saturday, Midnight
A woman announces, "Well, the results came back - I definitely have breast cancer," and that's the last we ever hear of it. A group of men don tuxedos for no apparent reason and then toss around a football. A drug dealer threatens to kill someone and then disappears for the rest of the movie. Upon awaking, a man picks up a rose from his night table, smells it, and throws it on top of his sleeping girlfriend. A recurring rooftop "exterior" is obviously a studio set, with a backdrop of the San Francisco skyline digitally composited behind the action. Accidental surrealism can be even more potent than the conscious kind, and THE ROOM is some kind of zenith of its type, the equal to anything Ed Wood committed to celluloid. Although what's on screen looks like it cost about $14.99, the actual budget was upwards of $6 million, in part because actor/producer/writer/director Wiseau shot simultaneously in 35mm and HD (supposedly he didn't understand the differences between the two formats). Now the film has become a worthy successor to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, with enthusiastic fans performing a series of rituals at each screening. Ross Morin, assistant professor of film studies at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, calls it "one of the most important films of the past decade. Through the complete excess in every area of production, THE ROOM reveals to us just how empty, preposterous and silly the films and television programs we've watched over the past couple of decades have been." (2003, 99 min, 35mm) RC
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com. 

MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS:

At Block Cinema (Northwestern University) this week: the 1975 Indian film KABHI KABHIE shows in the Bachchan series on Friday; Mike Hoolboom’s PUBLIC LIGHTING is a special screening on Wednesday, with Hoolboom in person; and on Thursday there is a Mulblecore Panel Discussion with filmmakers Joe Swanberg, Aaron Katz, Frank V. Ross, and Barry Jenkins.

Chicago Filmmakers screens the health care documentary DO NO HARM Friday (8pm). The film is followed by a panel discussion featuring director Rebecca Shanberg, editor Susanne Suffredin, and Todd Main, health care activist and senior advisor to Gov. Pat Quinn.

Also at Doc Films (University of Chicago) this week: the recent documentary FOOD, INC. plays Friday night and Sunday afternoon; Frank Capra’s 1931 film DIRIGIBLE screens Sunday; Laurie Anderson’s concert film HOME OF THE BRAVE plays on Monday; Alexander Korda’s 1933 film THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VII shows in the Charles Laughton series on Thursday (7pm) and L.Q. Jones’ cult classic A BOY & HIS DOG is in the Apocalypse series on Thursday (9:15).

This week at Facets Cinémathèque: Petra Seeger’s new documentary on an acclaimed neuroscientist, IN SEARCH OF MEMORY, has a week long run; Facets’ Night School series presents ROSEMARY’S BABY (Friday, midnight), with a talk by Cary Jones Elza, and THE HITCHER (Saturday, midnight), with a talk by Amy J. Boyd (both DVD projection).

Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: F.W. Murnau’s classic NOSFERATU screens Friday and Tuesday in the “Art of the Remake” series. David Drazin provides live piano accompaniment at both shows and Sara Hall lectures at the Tuesday screening; Mike Hoolboom’s experimental documentary MARK shows in the Conversations at the Edge screening on Thursday, with Hoolboom in person; the documentaries IN SEARCH OF MOZART and IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN return for multiple screenings each; the Italian mob movie GOMORRAH shows on Friday, Saturday, and Monday; and the fashion documentary VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR returns for five screenings beginning on Thursday.
Also at the Music Box this week: On Thursday (7pm) author Evan I. Schwartz will discuss his book Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story preceding the screening of THE WIZARD OF OZ; On Sunday (3:30pm) and Tuesday (7:30pm) director Ron Pajak presents his documentary on Chicago gay history QUEARBORN & PERVERSION; David Cronenberg’s THE BROOD is one of the midnight films (Friday only); and BIG FAN is held over as a Saturday and Sunday matinee (11:30am).

At the Portage Theater this week: On Tuesday (7:45pm) the Silent Film Society of Chicago presents Roland West’s 1926 film THE BAT, with live organ; accompaniment by Jay Warren; the Wednesday matinee series (1:30pm) has the 1951 David Niven musical HAPPY GO LOVELY; and on Thursday (8pm) it’s the Fractured Lens Video Festival, featuring local independent, amateur, and home-made works. 

The Bank of America Cinema screens Frank Capra’s 1934 film IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT on Saturday at 8pm.

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CINE-LIST: October 16 – October 22, 2009

MANAGING EDITOR / Patrick Friel

CONTRIBUTORS / Julian Antos, Rob Christopher, Jason Halprin, Christy LeMaster, Josh Mabe, Liam Neff, Ben Sachs, Ignatius Vishnevetsky, Darnell Witt

> Editorial Statement -> Contact