CRUCIAL VIEWING
Tsai Ming-liang's GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (Contemporary Revival)
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Friday, 9pm
Block Cinema's brilliant "Silence in Film" series ends on an inspired note, with Tsai Ming-liang's gorgeous, heartbreaking, strangely exhilarating GOODBYE, DRAGON INN. Set in a condemned Taipei movie palace, on the occasion of its sparsely attended, last-ever film screening, GOODBYE is a bizarre drama of fleeting passions and empty spaces, which meditates on the slow death of the traditional moviegoing experience even as it formulates audacious cinematic poetry that relies on its viewers' participation in that same moribund ritual. Along with contemporaries like Bela Tarr, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Gus Van Sant, Tsai makes profound use not only of silence, but also slowness and extreme long takes, reinventing the concept of Bazinian realism with topical potency. It is cinema that, when experienced in the proper setting, engulfs completely, proving that there are tricks other than cgi and accelerated montage that filmmakers can use to dazzle modern audiences. The proper setting is, of course, a movie theater. Though nothing can take away from the richness (and strangeness) of Tsai's characters or the beauty of his mise-en-scène, the pure magic of his tone and pacing is largely dispelled by small screens and remote controls. Take advantage of this opportunity to experience GOODBYE, DRAGON INN on a scale that matches its artistic achievement. DW
- - -
Full details at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
xx
Dark Corners: Film Noir from the Fox Archive (Classic Revival Series)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Showtimes noted below
There are precious few clunkers on the bill of this series of 1945–1953 thrillers, all churned out by a studio that explored both ends of the noir continuum—that is, both expressionist phantasmagoria and location-heavy realism—with impressive flair (and often in the same film); but the opening week's line-up is particularly choice. Staggered by the disgust with which American critics greeted it on its initial release, NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947, 111 min, 35mm; Friday, 6pm & Monday, 8pm) had until very recently been nothing more substantial for the home-video generation than a much-drooled-over blurb in film-noir texts ("the one about the carnival geek?"). It finally made it to DVD in 2005, but this stately and occasionally unhinged investigation of corruption—and one of Tyrone Power's more successful bids to be taken seriously as an actor by his contemporaries—deserves to be seen writ large. This is one of the few post-Code, pre-'60s films that are likely to make present-day audiences feel a little dirty. Chances are, however, that most of the other films on this "dirty list" were directed by Mr. Samuel Fuller; and the sweaty comic-book assault that is PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953, 80 min, 35mm; Saturday, 3pm & Wednesday, 8pm), despite its more palatable subject matter (pickpockets, easy dames, lowlifes, bug-eyed commies) is no exception. PICKUP is notable too in this series for inaugurating a sub-rosa memorial to the great Richard Widmark (who Jules Dassin, another recent loss, wanted to see playing Hamlet rather than psychopaths and club-touts)—not to mention a miniature primer on how best to photograph perspiration. Both agendas continue in future-HUAC-stoolie Elia Kazan's remarkable PANIC IN THE STREETS (1950, 93 min, 35mm; Saturday, 4:45pm & Thursday, 6pm). The Siskel's publicity material wisely cites PANIC as Kazan's best early film: toothsome performances by Jack Palance, Zero Mostel, and Widmark himself (as a well-heeled good guy, for once), combined with excellent New Orleans location work, make this a gripping (if finally sanitized) exercise in slow-burning dread. JD
- - -
More info at www.siskelflimcenter.org.
xx
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Midwest Radical Culture Corridor: Continental Drift
Mess Hall – Friday 6pm / Backstory Cafe – Sunday, 7pm (FREE)
As part of an eleven-day tour of activist and artist programming throughout Illinois and Wisconsin, two video screenings on the North and South sides of Chicago reflect on both historical and contemporary politics with pragmatic intent. Showing at Friday at 6pm at the Mess Hall is King Vidor's socialist/Christian Depression-era polemic OUR DAILY BREAD (1934, 80 min), with its inspiring, Eisensteinian montages of providential irrigation; this is followed by recent French doc THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO (2008, 108 min), providing a Continental perspective on the East St. Louis chemical and agricultural business titan. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own homemade bread to share. Down in Hyde Park on Sunday at 7pm at Backstory Cafe, author and producer Sam Greenlee will introduce a showing of his cult satire THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973, 102 min). Shot in part in Chicago (without city permits) and in nearby Gary, Indiana, the film critiques multiple strata of racist and corrupt political organizations with its portrayal of a radicalized black CIA ringer who tries to take the revolution into his own hands. The screening is free, but guests may contribute to a potluck dinner. MC
- - -
More info at www.radicalmidwest.blogspot.com.
x
CLUB MIDNIGHT (Avant Garde)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Saturday, 8pm
Avant-gardist Amy Greenfield, who counted Stan Brakhage among her many admirers, will be in town this weekend to present the Chicago premiere of her newest piece, CLUB MIDNIGHT, a "multimedia cabaret composed of a series of seductive, mood-drenched erotic film-dances that imbue poetry and performance art with sensuality in a cerebral dimension." The piece has been making its way around the globe, attracting attention and praise at every stop. Flavorpill.net: "The six films that make up CLUB MIDNIGHT are challenging and exhilaratingly sensual, all inspired by the empowerment and expressiveness of erotic dance . . . CLUB MIDNIGHT is a postmodern romp through a neo-feminist party." Alongside performances by a trio of modern dancers, the films feature music by Philip Glass, Einsturzende Neubauten, and Lee Hazlewood, as well as a reading by Dennis Hopper of the Charles Simic poem from which the work derives its title. Dancer Selene Savarie will join Greenfield on stage Saturday, to take part in a Q&A following the show. (2007, 90 min, various formats). DW
- - -
More info at www.siskelflimcenter.org.
xx
CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (Classic Revival)
Bank of America Cinema – Saturday, 8pm
This realist noir based on the true story of an unsolved murder that happened here in Chicago in 1932 is probably most interesting to audiences of today for its use of real locations. As Arnie Bernstein notes in his book Hollywood on Lake Michigan: 100 Years of Chicago and the Movies, the killing happened 6 months before the "Century of Progress" World's Fair was to take place, so mayor Anton Cermak wanted the mess to be cleaned up without delay and by any means necessary. Two guys of dubious guilt were quickly caught, tried, and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. This 1948 dramatization was shot all over Chicagoland, featuring many spots on the south side; downtown at a police station, the Chicago River, and the Wrigley Building; at the actual delicatessen where the murder took place, 4312 S Ashland Ave; in one of the participants’ actual apartments at 725 S Honore; Stateville Correction Center in Joliet, IL (made famous by the prison scenes in NATURAL BORN KILLERS); the old State Capitol Building in Springfield; and at 3501 S Lowe Ave, the police station where the main character—a reporter played by Jimmy Stewart—holds his investigation. Filmed in stark black and white, and with a documentary feel by cinematographer Joseph MacDonald (BIGGER THAN LIFE, WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?) and director Henry Hathaway (whose, "quiet, functional camera style suggests some of the classic simplicity of Hawks," according to Dave Kehr), CALL NORTHSIDE 777 is one of the definitive Chicago movies, using the city just as well as three of the city’s best native products—John Hughes's FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, Michael Mann's THIEF, and Andrew Davis's ABOVE THE LAW. Keep an eye out for the man who operates the lie detector, Leonarde Keeler: the actual inventor of the polygraph device. (1948, 111 min, 35mm) KH
- - -
Venue Info: Bank of America Cinema.
x
Heather's Short Shorts: A Blast from the Past
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
Former Ravenswood novelty record emporium owners and Berwyn country music variety-show programmers Heather McAdams and Chris Ligon make a
return appearance at Chicago Filmmakers with "Heather's Short Shorts: A
Blast from the Past," a presentation of McAdams's meticulously curated
collection of rare 16mm prints of vintage television commercials,
focusing on the toy, doll, and cigarette genres. The occasionally-forgotten semiotic bond between the dusty esoterica of suburban swap
meets and surrealist camp of the highest order will be re-established
with the successive, large-scale decontextualized presentation of such
ephemeral artifacts as "Rudy the Robot," "Close 'N Play," "Big Burger
Grill," "Sea Wees," "Amsco's Magic Bottle," and more. MC
- - -
More info at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
xx Finest Hour: Films by Humphrey Jennings (Classic Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Sunday 3pm, Tuesday 6pm
In the classical era, British movies were always more illustrative than expressive. Directing was a game of adapting a clever screenplay into appropriate images and sounds. This cleverness—this "writtenness"—is what endears a lot of British cinema to certain viewers while alienating those that feel that a movie should be something more than "smart," or that a shot should do something more than express an idea that can be written down.
So British film history is anomalous, great more for its numerous exceptions than its movements. An argument can made that while French, Italian, or German cinema blossomed in periods of recovery or prosperity, Britain produced several of its greatest filmmakers during the bleak Thatcher years and helped Humphrey Jennings—one part Robert Flaherty and one part Jean Epstein—flourish during the shortages and night raids of World War II. The first of two Jennings programs at the Siskel this month, FINEST HOUR, collects four astounding short films produced for the British government, made with a feeling for cinema that wouldn't be repeated in British filmmaking until the arrivals of Derek Jarman and Terence Davies.
(1939-1943, 80 min, 35mm) IV
- - -
More info at www.siskelflimcenter.org.
Read Fred Camper's endorsement in this week's Reader here.
xx HOLLY (Contemporary Independent)
Facets Cinematheque – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
Shot on location in Cambodia—with some scenes filmed in actual brothels—HOLLY is one of three films sponsored by the K11 Project, an international movement that aims to raise awareness about child prostitution in east Asia. Standing in for the (presumably uneducated) audience, Ron Livingston plays an American who discovers the awful reality of human trafficking while on business in Phnom Penh. The impressive cast also includes the late Chris Penn, Virginie Ledoyen (a veteran of Olivier Assayas’s films), and—in a piece of inevitable casting—Udo Kier as an unrepentant brothel owner. Adi Ezroni, a major force behind the K11 Project, and both a co-producer and actor in the film, will be present at two screenings this weekend for post-film discussions: Friday at 8:45, and Saturday at 6:30. (2006, 114 min, 35mm) BS
- - -
More info at www.facets.org.
x
Romanian Cinema Rising (Foreign Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Showtimes noted below
In its second month, the Siskel Center’s crash course in Romanian film turns to more recent accomplishments in the national cinema. ADELA (1985, 100 min, 35mm; Friday, 8:15pm & Monday, 6pm) is a key work in the career of director Mircea Veroiu, who came to prominence in 1970s with social dramas and westerns (!) before turning to opulent literary adaptations. This film—a chaste romance set in the late nineteenth century—marked the beginning of his later period, a visually lush body of work compared by some critics to the films of Luchino Visconti. A story about the failed courtship of a young divorcee by a shy middle-aged doctor, the film is said to balance exquisite historical detail with psychological observation. Also playing is DON’T LEAN OUT THE WINDOW (1994, 104 min, 35mm; Sunday, 5pm & Wednesday, 6pm), a comedy about romantic longing in a small town. According to the programmers at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, this film “bridge[s] the gap between pre-1989 and today’s Romanian cinema” with its striking formal ambition: Director Nae Caranfil tells the story through conflicting flashbacks narrated by each of his three protagonists, shrewdly complicating the familiar final-days-of-Communism political context. BS
- - -
Venue info at www.siskelflimcenter.org.
x
MORE SCREENINGS & EVENTS:
The Film Center presents the Chicago premiere of the much-discussed new American indie SHOTGUN STORIES: "An award-winning festival hit, SHOTGUN STORIES conjures up the mesmerizing saga of a family poisoned by the very blood they share." Their other run of the week is 'TIS AUTUMN: THE SEARCH FOR JACKIE PARIS, a romantic reevaluation of the tumultuous career of an extremely noteworthy, if largely forgotten, American jazz singer. Both films screen all week–check Reader Movies for showtimes.
Doc Films's Spring calendar comes to an end with welcome revivals of one of the year's most critically-lauded features, Best Foreign Language Film honoree THE COUNTERFIETERS (Friday, 6:45, 9pm, 11:15pm & Sunday, 1pm), and one of the most interesting, Wong Kar-wai's vibrant North American roadtrip MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS (Saturday, 6:30pm, 9pm, 11:30pm & Sunday, 3:30pm). Be sure to check out Doc's amazing summer calendar, now online. Tuesday and Thursday at 8pm, the Film Center premiere's independent filmmaker Jennifer Mattox's ALL JACKED UP, a food science exposé focusing on the harrowing stories of kids that, "are being fatally shortchanged by food they have unwittingly been programmed to crave." Mattox and producer/co-writer Doug Clemons will be present for audience discussion at both screenings. |