CRUCIAL VIEWING

RE-DEFINING VIDEO: Work by Kyle Canterbury (Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers - Saturday, 8pm
Short works by an emerging, 17 year-old video artist. Fred Camper writes: "In his hands, after less than a year of work, this medium, which so many have found severely limited, has become as supple, as pliable, as sensuous, and as rhythmically various, as film was for Brakhage." Jonathan Rosenbaum's take: "...he does some things with rhythm and texture I haven’t seen before in film or video." Rosenbaum's full review here. Camper's complete thoughts and additional stills here. More info at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
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Oscar Micheaux's SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED (Classic Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center - Tuesday, 6pm
The Film Center kicks off its excellent African American Auteurs series with a rare archival print of this Oscar Micheaux silent masterwork--his response to D.W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION. The film was long considered lost until the recent discovery and restoration of a nearly complete print. (1920, 60 min, live piano accompaniment by David Drazi). More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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Michael Snow: WAVELENGTH & (BACK AND FORTH) (Experimental)
Conversations at the Edge / Gene Siskel Film Center - Thursday, 6pm
Avant-garde legend Michael Snow will be appearing in person for this screening of his classic structural exploration of the zoom lens, WAVELENGTH (1966-7), alongside his perpetual motion film (BACK AND FORTH) (1968-9). He is also appearing the following evening (same place and time) to present his latest video piece, REVERBERLIN (2006), with a survey of his sound recordings, compositions, sculptures, and installations (1950-2006). More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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SECRET THINGS (Choses secrètes) (Contemporary)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Thursday, 9pm
In this underscreened and largely overlooked recent work from Jean-Claude Brisseau, taboo sexual themes are elements to be rearranged in infinite combinations. Following two young French women who enter the world of manipulative sex in order to both please themselves as well as get by in a society dominated by men, Brisseau explores the pet themes of his heroes Fritz Lang and Eric Rohmer-- "absolute" evil and the falsehoods society forces us to perpetuate, respectively. Selected by Cahiers du Cinema as the best film of 2002. (2002, 115 min, 35mm). More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE (New Release - Final Week!)
Music Box - Screening Daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
Using video for the first time in his career, Lynch probes the dark corners of the Hollywood (via Poland!) for pockets of enlightenment, and in the process, creates his most sophisticated exploration of human consciousness yet. Jonathan Rosenbaum's long review in the Reader is an excellent endorsement. (2005, 179 min, video on 35mm). More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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ALSO RECOMMENDED

THE CAPTIVITY SHOW (Experimental)
Gallery 400 (UIC) - Wednesday, 7pm
Seasoned moviemaker and programmer Ben Russell presents a compelling program of experimental film & video in conjuction with Gallery 400's "Captive Audience" exhibition. Featuring: THREE LEGGED by John Wood & John Harrison (3:00, video, 2001), DIPPING SAUCE by Luther Price (10:00, 16mm, 2005), HILLBILLY HOUSE-GOW feat. Tom Emerson (3:00, 16mm), THE MAGIC KINGDOM by Jim Trainor (7:00, 16mm, 2004), TRAUMA VICTIM by Rob Todd (17:00, 16mm, 2003), EVERYDAY BAD DREAM by Fred Worden (6:00, DV, 2006), BLOCK by Emily Richardson (11:00, 16mm, 2006), MEXICAN JAIL FOOTAGE by Gordon Ball (18:00, 16mm, 1980), EXERCISE #3 by Eva Dransholt (3:10, DV, 2005). Synopses and stills at www.dimeshow.com/captivity.htm.
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THIS WEEK AT BLOCK CINEMA (Northwestern University)
Nicholas Ray's gorgeous, expressionist technicolor Western, JOHNNY GUITAR (1954 / Wed, 7pm), starring a black-clad and sexually domineering Joan Crawford, is as outlandish and essential as classic Hollywood cinema gets. Also showing are Fritz Lang's Freudian noir thriller SECRET BEYOND THE DOOR (1948 / Friday, 8pm), and TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP (1926 / Thursday, 7pm), a silent comedy starring stone-faced comedian Harry Langdon, presented with an original score performed live by Robbie Fulks and Danny Barnes. Synopses and more info at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
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ALSO SHOWING AT DOC FILMS (University of Chicago)
More rare and exciting film revivals from Doc this week: Barbara Kopple's seminal documentary HARLAN COUNTY, USA (1976), a restored print of the legendary French sex comedy CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS (1935), the screen debut of Mary Pickford in Maurice Tourneur's POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (1917), and Hitchcock's fascinating remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1956).
Showtimes, synopses, and more info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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FEBRUARY RETROSPECTIVES AT THE FILM CENTER
Gene Siskel Film Center - Check Reader Movies for showtimes
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- - - FILMS BY JOHNNIE TO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This year's HONG KONG! festival celebrates under-appreciated Hong Kong action director Johnnie To, in whose hands the themes of comradeship, honor, traditionalist masculinity and heterosexual competition become as exciting as romantic love. To's action films are reference-filled explorations of the genre—the relationships between his characters are not as much relationships between real people as between characters in action films. This week's features include recent hits 49 DAYS (2006), ELECTION (2005) , and TRIAD ELECTION (2006). MORE INFO
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- - - WERNER HERZOG: VISIONARY AT LARGE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Werner Herzog is notorious for shooting in difficult locations, picking impossible tasks, and working with difficult actors. The two films shown this week as part of the Film Center's retrospective highlight the latter: THE MYSTERY OF KASPER HAUSER (1974), starring former mental patient Bruno S., and the anti-humanist Herzog's paradoxically humanist vampire film NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979), starring Herzog's most infamous collaborator, megalomaniac Klaus Kinski. MORE INFO
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- - - MATTHEW BARNEY: CREMASTER AND BEYOND - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Allison Chernick's new documentary about art star Mathew Barney, NO RESTRAINT, has its Chicago premiere this week, screening alongside programs of parts 1 & 2 or 4 & 5 of Barney's notorious CREMASTER cycle. MORE INFO
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ALSO PLAYING