CRUCIAL VIEWING
MIDDLE EAST BY MIDDLE EAST (Foreign Shorts)
Busker Chicago - Friday, 8pm
A remarkable program of shorts curated by two SAIC students, MIDDLE EAST BY MIDDLE EAST: Interpretation, Conflict, Culture is a diverse compilation of short works by Iraqi, Iranian, and Palestinian film and video makers: “From recognizable names such as Shirin Neshat and Samira Makhmalbaf, to a wide range of emerging artists in the-scenes of Chicago and Tehran, this selection of works aims to explore different ways of dealing with and representing conflict.” The program boasts rare perspectives—both critical and observational, distinct though interrelated—articulated in a variety of artistic forms including documentary, narrative, experimental, and intersections thereof; as well as rare glimpses of mass- and private media subjected to artistic appropriation. (2001-2006, 90 min, various formats). Screens Friday, 4/27, at Pilsen artspace BUSKER. More striking stills here. More info at www.buskerchicago.com.
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Ken Jacobs' TWO WRENCHING DEPARTURES (Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
"Experimental film great Ken Jacobs continues his prolific digital onslaught with this moving and amusing portrait of two friends—the avant-garde's amazing enfant terrible Jack Smith (FLAMING CREATURES) and fellow filmmaker Bob Fleischner. TWO WRENCHING DEPARTURES was originally a live Nervous System performance work from 1989, made on the occasion of the deaths (within a week of each other) of Jacobs' longtime but estranged friends Smith and Fleischner. Jacobs' new digital iteration of his original performance piece is a both an emotional elegy and a joyous, affirming celebration of their life and spirit." Text from Chi Filmmakers program. (2006, 90 min). More info at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
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Orson Welles' THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (Classic Revival)
LaSalle Bank Cinema – Saturday, 8pm
As in CITIZEN KANE, Welles incorporated every medium he’d studied into his second feature, which documents the downfall of a venerable family with the passing of the 19th century. Most striking are the radio-inspired experiments: much of the dialogue was recorded before filming, thereby freeing the camera to create languorous, balletic shots reminiscent of German silent cinema. Then there is Welles’ voice-over narration, one of the most moving performances of his career. While unabashedly literary, it gives life to the psychology of late-19th century novels in a way few movie adaptations have. It's impossible not to lament RKO Studios’ desecration of the film’s final act, eliminating an hour of footage and tacking on an innocuous ending. But even this adds to the richness of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS as we know it today. The disruption of Welles’ dream-like pacing provides another dimension to his tragedy of lost illusions—the spirit of an era is trampled as mercilessly as the spirit of a great artist—palpably extending the anguish of its enraptured audience. (1942, 88 min, 35mm).Venue Information.
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Two by Verhoeven: BLACK BOOK + STARSHIP TROOPERS
Music Box – Screening Daily & Friday, midnight, respectively; check showtimes
“I’d like to make a film critiquing the United States’ military-industrial complex, but I realize I already did that in STARSHIP TROOPERS,” Paul Verhoeven quipped not long after September 11, 2001, virtually ensuring his exile from American filmmaking. It’s a loss to Hollywood, however, that Verhoeven (ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL, SHOWGIRLS) has returned to his native Netherlands; he is simply one of the most intelligent and entertaining filmmakers alive. Though critical of conventional morality and all forms of hegemony—his current WWII thriller BLACK BOOK dares to condemn Holland’s resistance fighters as fervently as it does the Nazis—he is also a master of popular storytelling technique. His acute deployment of sex, violence and intrigue is forever watchable, and enables him to dissect mechanics of popular culture from within. BLACK BOOK may be enjoying a more positive critical reception than Verhoeven’s subversive masterpieces of the 90s because it plays on generic/political tropes more than 60 years old. But like Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (with which it shares rich verisimilitude and a pornographic imagination), it boldly depicts 1945 as the start of everything frightening in the world today. More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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STILL SHOWING:
Jafar Panahi's OFFSIDE (New Foreign)
Music Box – Screening Daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
Jafar Panahi returns with his popular and critical success OFFSIDE, a fictional account of a group of girls who pose as boys in an attempt to enter Tehran's Azadi Stadium and watch Iran's 2006 World Cup-qualifying match against Bahrain, since Iranian women are forbidden by law to attend sporting events. Utilizing a documentary framework, the film explores the vicissitudes of gender and youth culture in modern Iran while refusing to schematize or stereotype. The sports stadium functions as a microcosm to discuss tradition and change while contributing to a carnivalesque atmosphere that allows quotidian reality to be confronted and contested. Banned in Iran and using entirely non-professional actors in superb performances, the film maintains a critical edge despite its sentimentality and utopianism. (2006, 93 min, 35mm). More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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ALSO RECOMMENDED
SAMAD FILM FESTIVAL (Special Event)
Columbia College – Friday, 6pm
Iran’s national cinema—at least the part of it that makes its way to Western screens—is consistently one of the best in the world, with a tradition of strong, original filmmakers dating back to the 1960s; in fact, it often seems that for all of its perceived isolation, the filmmakers of Iran seem more in tune with their society (and its problems) than most of their American counterparts are with Western culture. But for every Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf, there are hundreds of filmmakers whose films receive neither funding nor distribution; this 90-minute program presents a selection of short films by Iranian experimental and underground filmmakers. Screening will take place at Hokin Hall, 623 S Wabash.
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Lynn Hershman Leeson: STRANGE CULTURE (Special Event)
Museum of Contemporary Art – Friday, 9pm
Photographer, filmmaker, and new media artist Lynn Hershman Leeson will attend and present MCA’s free screening of her new film STRANGE CULTURE, which premiered simultaneously at Sundance and online in virtual world of Second Life last year. The nightmarish true story of Steve Kurtz, an internationally recognized artist who was detained as a bio-terrorist by the FBI after his wife’s sudden death by cardiac arrest. The “suspicious” art that police found in his home that night led to a sweeping federal investigation wherein Kurtz’s computers and manuscripts, his cat, and his wife’s body were confiscated and scrutinized. Currently, Kurtz along with one of his collaborators are awaiting trial. Leeson’s film boasts a remarkable cast of indie actors, led by Tilda Swinton, and contemporary artists, including SAIC's Gregg Bordowitz. More info at www.mcachicago.org.
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THE GHOST (Cult / Special Event)
Sonotheque - Saturday, 7:30pm
Dance club Sonotheque hosts the Chicago Psychotronic Film Society’s next manic offering in its ASIAN EXTREME series: THE GHOST, a stylized scarefest that has the honor of being the latest Asian horror megahit green-lighted for Hollywood remaking. Come for the creep show; stay for the dancing. (dir. Kim Tae-kyeong, 2004, DVD). More info.
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Fritz Lang's CLASH BY NIGHT (Classic Revival)
Music Box – Saturday & Sunday, 11:30am
It’s hard to believe that RANCHO NOTORIOUS, one of the Fritz Lang’s most stylized American films was made the same year as CLASH BY NIGHT (1952), a shockingly "realist" adultery-centered noir. Waves, which figure heavily in the film and even serve as the background for its opening credits, seem like the best metaphor: the cast (including Barbara Stanwyck and a young Marilyn Monroe) seem to be giving it their all, crashing against each other, often recklessly. (105 min, 35mm). More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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NIGHT OF TRUTH (New Foreign)
Facets Cinematheque – Saturday & Sunday, 2pm
Facets continues its presentation of the TRAVELING AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL with THE NIGHT OF TRUTH (LA NUIT DE LA VÉRITÉ), a bold political feature that has received widespread critical acclaim. From the Facets website: “Mirroring the political strife and genocide in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, this film opens as preparations are being made to end a decade of civil war in a fictitious country. A peace agreement is about to be signed and celebrated in a night of reconciliation with a ‘laying down of arms.’ As the powerful drumming begins, both rebels and government forces gather, bringing with them years of rage, grief, hope, suspicion, and bitterness.” (dir. Fanta Régina Nacro and Burkina Faso, 2004, 100 min, 35mm, Dioula, French, and more with English subtitles). More info at www.facets.org.
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BATTLE OF THE CITIES (Special Event)
Ice Capades (526 N Ashland) – Friday - Monday, various times
A study in artistic differences tied to culture and geography, Ice Capades’ ambitious BATTLE OF THE CITIES FILM FESTIVAL invites eight North American city-centric cinema collectives to submit short (30-50 min) programs of their best recent work. This week pits Providence’s Magic Lantern against Los Angeles’ Echo Park Film Center (Friday, 8pm), Indie Memphis against Anne Haydock and Charlotte Taylor of Iowa City (Saturday, 7pm), and Roger Beebe of Gainesville against Philadelphia’s Small Change (Saturday, 9pm).
A final screening of the Battle’s best along with various DJ sets will take place at Monday, 9pm, at the Empty Bottle. More info at www.theicecapades.com.
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THIS WEEK AT DOC
FILMS
The highlight this week is a rare screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s A HEN IN THE WIND (1948), one of the Japanese master’s darkest films and one of the few of his postwar period to eschew ironic distancing devices. Contemplating the harsh realities of the era, Ozu crafted this story of a working-class soldier’s wife forced to sacrifice her dignity in order to support her ill son. Also playing: Edward Dmytryk’s CROSSFIRE (1947), a somewhat dated noir parable about bigotry starring the still-impressive Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum, and Gloria Grahame; a free screening of Joel and Ethan Coen’s O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000); THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932), part of Chicago’s extended rediscovery of James Whale, playing (perhaps perversely) on a double bill with Robert Bresson’s annihilating MOUCHETTE (1966). Full
schedule and details at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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THIS WEEK AT BLOCK
CINEMA
Block continues its CHILDHOOD Series with MURMUR OF THE HEART (1971, 118 min, 35mm), one of the prolific Louis Malle’s best-known films—a coming of age story culminating in shocking climax that seems taboo even by today’s standards. Their biology-themed series moves along with an engrossing and beautiful examination of the otherworldly habits of insects, MICROCOSMOS (1996, 80 min, 35mm), from famous French nature documentors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou (WINGED MIGRATION). Synopses
and more info at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
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DISAPPEARENCES (New Release)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Screening daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
The reviews have been uniformly tepid, but Jay Craven’s DISAPPEARANCES remains a worthy specimen: a piece of regional American filmmaking. Shooting in Cinemascope in the wilderness of Vermont, Craven takes as his inspiration Depression-era bootlegging around the US-Canadian border. The cast includes Kris Kristofferson, Genvieve Bujold, Luis Guzman, and Gary Farmer, and the poster promises “whiskey-running adventure.” How bad could it be? (2006, 118 min, 35mm widescreen). More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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OSCAR DOCS + STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS (New Documentary)
Gene
Siskel Film Center – Check Reader
Movies for showtimes
This week, the Film Center offers opportunities to view rarely screened Academy Award honorees and hopefuls. Their OSCAR DOCS program includes four of the films nominated for Best Documentary Short in this year’s ceremony: big winner THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT (39 min), exploring the plight of Chinese children orphaned by AIDS; RECYCLED LIFE (38 min), telling the story of families who live off of the Guatemala City garbage dump; REHEARSING THE DREAM (39 min), about a Miami workshop for talented high-school arts students; and TWO HANDS (17 min), the portrait of a one-handed pianist. (2006, 140 min). Screens Friday, 8:15pm, Sunday, 3pm, and Wednesday, 6pm. Monday’s program shows off the regional finalists that will go onto Los Angeles to compete in the 34th ANNUAL STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS, in narrative, documentary, animated, and alternative categories (2006-2007, 180 min). Screens Monday, 6:30pm, preceeded by a public (catered) reception. Full details
at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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CREMASTER
RETURNS (Avant
Garde)
Gene
Siskel Film Center – Check Reader
Movies for showtimes
By popular demand, the Film Center resurrects its run of films by New York art star Matthew Barney. The highlights are Barney's epic allegories, CREMASTER 3 (2002, 182 min) and DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 (2005, 135 min). The former, aptly summarized by Slant Magazine as a "three-hour tour through Barney's Art Deco cock," draws heavily on Celtic, Masonic, and American mythology, employing rigid Kubrick-esque cinematography in a display of modern masculinity in all its tumescent glory--Barney's most spectacular and accomplished work, if perhaps his most overblown. The latter, DR9, is a symbolic exploration of resistance and creativity set on a Japanese whaling ship, co-starring and scored by his partner, Björk. Also screening this week: CREMASTER 1 &2 and 4 & 5, as well as Alison Chernick's Barney documentary NO RESTRAINT. More
info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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ALSO
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