CRUCIAL VIEWING
Agnès Varda’s THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS (Documentary)
Music Box – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
Agnès Varda looms over French cinema. She is the mother of the French New Wave, wife of and partner with the late Jacques Demy, and a powerful, challenging feminist filmmaker. No one else could do justice to her biography, so we are fortunate that Varda turned the camera inward to explore her own wrinkled hands. A genuine eccentric, Varda uses her charming quirks to tell her life story, from photographer in the early 1950s to filmmaker for over fifty years now. Her deepest emotions are explored in her examination of her romance with and subsequent loss of her husband, filmmaker Jacques Demy. Nearly 20 years after his death, reminiscing of their life together still brings Varda to tears. Though Demy was a significant part of her life it was certainly never defined by him, so it is not surprising that she does not dwell on him—in fact, she only obliquely mentions that his death was due to complications from AIDS, a detail that less-capable filmmakers would have focused for sympathy. Ultimately, Varda’s life is wrapped up in the history of French cinema. To watch her be so thoughtfully self-reflexive is evidence that she has become the embodiment of her national cinema. France is lucky to have such a charming ambassador. (2008, 109 min, 35mm) DM
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnnie To’s TRIANGLE (New Asian)
Facets Cinémathèque – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
Ringo Lam, Johnnie To and Tsui Hark decided to play a game of exquisite corpse. It's one of those great auteurist experiments. From a production standpoint, TRIANGLE is a "Johnnie To movie": made through his company, Milkyway Image, starring his regular actors (Simon Yam, Louis Koo, and Kelly Lin), shot by his cinematographer, Siu-keung Cheng, and cut together by his regular editor, David M. Richardson (those who believe the quality of a film's editing depends on the editor should look no further than Richardson's resume; the man who works on the brilliant editing of To's films is the same one who edits Uwe Boll's movies). The plan: Hark will begin a story—a heist gone wrong—which Lam and then To will continue. Hark's episode is full of clever conceits and twists; Lam jettisons the heist in favor of its results: the loot and fear, both equally dangerous. So if Hark imprisons the characters and Lam shows us how they imprison themselves, it's up to To, then, to set them free. For To, the essence of a person, maybe their soul, is visible in what they choose to do when compelled to do nothing, in the choice they make when they can just run away or betray. It's no surprise that, like James Gray's WE OWN THE NIGHT, it all ends in reeds and fog. It's the sort of emotional wilderness that brings To closer to André Téchiné than either of his two co-directors here. (2007, 93 min, 35mm) IV
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More info at www.facets.org.
Psycho-Sexual Animation (Animation/Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Psycho-Sexual?" If you think "Norman Bates loves his mama," then you're accidentally on the right track for this show. From 1970 to 1974 Victor Faccinto created a series of nightmarish and grotesque cut-out films starring his alter ego, Video Vic, a voyeuristic, neurotic figure dressed in a black leather jacket and executioner’s mask who is compelled by his own feelings of sexual inadequacy and perversion. Almost forty years after their creation, the films are still subversive and uncomfortable to sit through and their deliberately crude style are partly responsible. Perhaps the strangest of the series, the silent WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM? WHERE IS IT GOING?, establishes the themes of a sadistic God, an overt masculinity that is essentially impotent, a fusion of predators and genitalia and characters who gain pleasure from watching others suffer. In THE SECRETE OF LIFE the mumbled speech of the protagonist Chico and the sound effects are heavy on the reverb as he spies on and engages in often-violent sexual encounters. FILET OF SOUL expands the character base to include Vic and his counterculture companions. The sophistication of the production increases to include shots that collage animation with still images, mood music made with whistling and kazoos, and dialogue from multiple characters. In the final film, SHAMELESS, Faccinto's techniques become more complex and include manipulated found footage, stop-motion sequences with actors, and shots that feature both cut-out characters and real humans. Faccinto's films are honest and intensely personal, like a drunken secret that a new acquaintance has whispered in your ear: you didn't ask to hear it, but the outburst explains their personality in a way that only years of intimacy could. This show is billed as Adult Animation, and may not be suitable for all audiences. Also showing are three recent animated video works: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Joe Tucker, UK), A LETTER TO COLLEEN (Andy London and Carolyn London, US), CHAINSAW (Dennis Tupicoff, Australia). (1970-2008, 97 min total, 16mm and Video) JH
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More info at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD / Mihalka's MY BLOODY VALENTINE /
Dougherty's TRICK 'R TREAT (Cult Revival/New Horror)
Terror in the Aisles Fest at the Portage Theater – Saturday, showtimes noted below
The Movieside Film Festival’s “Terror in the Aisles 2” offer a triple bill featuring two of the most influential American "splatter" films of the early 80s. First, in Sam Raimi's acclaimed debut feature, and now cult-classic, THE EVIL DEAD (1981, 85 min, 35mm; 7:30pm), a group of campers unwittingly unleash a group of demons after chanting spells from The Necronomicon. Although technically primitive compared to its 1987 sequel and 1992 Hollywood produced capstone, ARMY OF DARKNESS, Raimi's 1981 original remains the most engaging of the three films, if not the most sincere work of his career. Thanks in part to its 16mm origins and film school aesthetic, it was clearly a labor of love as much as a work of genre film indulgence. The real showstopper of the evening is presented next: George Mihalka's rarely revived 1981 Canadian slasher MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981, 93 min, DVD Projection; 9:30pm); the victim of an unfortunate shot-on-video 3D remake earlier this year. Although Paramount released this as a quick cash-in on Sean Cunningham's FRIDAY THE 13TH, VALENTINE remains one of the finest gore/slasher films ever made. Twenty years ago, on Valentine's Day, miner Harry Warden went on a killing spree in the small town in which he lived. He then disappeared, though not before forbidding the town to ever celebrate the much loved greeting card holiday again, or else. When the townspeople decide to break their anti-Valentine tradition, they soon find themselves faced with a gas mask wearing, pick-axe wielding killer who places his victim's hearts in boxes of chocolate! Is it Harry back for revenge, or is something more sinister afoot? Beneath its slasher exterior, VALENTINE is a brilliant mixture of over-the-top gore, black comedy, and giallo-esque narrative stylings, topped off by perhaps the cheesiest theme song in all of horror film history. At the director's request, a DVD will be screened because an uncut print could not be obtained in time for the screening. Capping the night is Michael Dougherty's 2007 horror anthology, TRICK 'R TREAT (2007, 95 min, HDCam Video; Midnight), which has mysteriously been sitting in distribution limbo for two years, despite much enthusiasm at its few festival screenings. EVIL DEAD Special Effects guru Tom Sullivan, VALENTINE director Mihalka, and TREAT director Dougherty will all be present at their screenings. Also, selected horror themed short films will be screened. Single admission for the night. JR
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More info at www.myspace.com/moviesidefilmfestival.
Park Chan-wook's THIRST (New Korean)
Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
THIRST is l'amour fou taken to its grotesque extreme, the two lovers ripping out each other's throats, breaking necks, biting into each other's veins. Childhood acquaintances brought together by chance: he (Song Kang-ho) is a likeable Catholic priest, Belmondo's Leon Morin without a sense of purpose, turned into a vampire by a blood transfusion; she (Kim Ok-vin) works in her mother-in-law's dress shop and wants nothing more than to murder her infirm husband. The plot, as has been pointed out numerous times, is from Zola's Thérèse Raquin, with the writer's preface (which assigns the lover the sanguine temperament) taken literally. She is guiltless; he has only his guilt to give the world. He blasphemes; she simply acts. Across gray hospitals, empty streets, and dull apartments, they fuck, plot, fight, and finally kill, over and over again, until the white floor of their apartment is covered in blood. There's an innocence to their sin. (2009, 134 min, 35mm) IV
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More info here.
Screen Grab.1 (New Media/Experimental)
The Nightingale – Friday, 8pm
Curated by local new media mavericks Nicholas O’Brien and jonCates, this program features a selection of work that is normally housed on the Internet. Tonight, these www-based projects will be screened outside of a computer space to begin a dialogue between new media explorations and the historical avant-garde cinema. The artists included utilize a variety of computer and digital applications (message boards, webcams, online communities, Wi-Fi) and are shown to share similar concerns with many different experimental film sub-genres. Themes are universal; tools and methods change. Included in the program are Petra Cortright, Dennis Knopf, Oliver Laric, Guthrie Lonergan, Travess Smalley, and Rick Silva. Screen Grab.1 is a benefit for Expressive Media Express, an upcoming October-weekend of workshops, screenings, and installations, which aims to introduce and provide hardware and software tools to youth. O’Brien and Cates will be in person. PF
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More info at www.nightingaletheatre.org.
Alfred Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES (Classic Revival)
Music Box - Saturday and Sunday, 11:30am
Although film schools all teach a semester-long course on Alfred Hitchcock, they might as well just show 1938's THE LADY VANISHES on the first day of freshman year and tell the students he never got it quite as right again. In the director's penultimate UK feature, the plot is tight and the action is full of suspense, but it is the characters that keep us entertained throughout. Margaret Atwood's heroine and Michael Redgrave's unlikely academic hero lead the cast in this tale of international espionage (on a train, of course), but the supporting duo of Caldicott & Charters (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) steal their scenes as a pair of dry humored Brits only interested in a cricket match back home. With an overt critique of Britain's pre-war non-intervention policy woven in, the sometimes slapstick, sometimes understated humor of Hitchcock charms us throughout the film in a way that only resurfaced occasionally in his US work. Francois Truffaut, who claimed to have seen the film twice a week at some points, told Hitchcock "Since I know it by heart, I tell myself each time that I’m going to ignore the plot (and study the technique and effect). But each time, I become so absorbed by the characters and the story that I’ve yet to figure out the mechanics of the film.” (1938, 97 min, 35mm) JH
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
THROW DOWN YOUR HEART (Documentary)
Music Box – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
A man, his banjo, another continent. This is the basic premise for Sascha Paladino’s 2008 documentary THROW DOWN YOUR HEART, which follows Grammy-winning banjo demigod Béla Fleck on a five-week musical journey through Uganda, Tanzania, the Gambia, and Mali. Intent on exploring the origins of the West African-descended banjo, Fleck interacts with the local musicians he encounters on his way, from blind village musicians to international sensations like Oumou Sangare, dueling and, in his own words, creating "some of the most meaningful music of my career." If you like roots music and heartfelt travel documentaries, this one is for you. Fleck will appear at the 8pm screening on Saturday: performing a short set, answering questions, and signing copies of the soundtrack CD—a special ticket price applies. (2008, 97 min, HDCam Video) LN
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
John Ford’s YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (Classic Revival)
Chicago Outdoor Film Festival (Grant Park) – Tuesday, Dusk
Given John Ford's stature in world cinema, it's easy to forget that the first twenty-one years of his career were undistinguished by the standards of his later films. Certainly there were great films during that period (particularly his Will Rogers films), but it wasn't until 1939, with a trio of early masterpieces, that the core of what would define his style and thematic complexity would emerge. STAGECOACH, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, and, especially, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN would see the synthesis of elements that had appeared scattershot in his previous films: a sense of epic and history; an Americana tinged as much by darkness as it was by nostalgia; a growing sense of moral ambiguity; and a visual style that sets his heroes apart from those around them. Ford's characters are often dominated by space—usually in the vast expanses of the West—but even in YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, which feels more like a backwoods and courtroom chamber piece, Henry Fonda's Abe Lincoln is frequently cut off from others, through lighting, through camera movement, and through Fonda's studied posing which works to create mini-tableaux within the shot. Ford is walking a thin line between heavy-handed mythologizing and punctuating a sense of historical foreshadowing and inevitability. Of course, he succeeds and creates a tension that falls between a near-parody of the Lincoln myth and a grandeur that hints at the larger historical events to come that dwarf even Lincoln. Ford had reached a union of style and vision which itself foreshadowed things to come. (1939, 100 min, 35mm) PF
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More info here.
IN THE LOOP (New British)
Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
"War is terrible. It's something you never want to see again unless you absolutely have to. (Pause.) It's like France." James Gandolfini's General says this at a rare contemplative moment in IN THE LOOP, but the line is characteristic of the movie on the whole, which couches humanist insight in acrid, breathlessly delivered punchlines. Like Neil LaBute's IN THE COMPANY OF MEN or David Mamet's HOMICIDE, this is very much a writer's movie, with the mise-en-scene and performance style given shape by the intricacies of the dialogue. Director Armando Iannucci and his writers (all veterans of BBC comedy) have taken as their subject-targets the shallow bureaucrats who orchestrated the current occupation of Iraq. The observations are more often social than political, but the feeling for the nouveau-riche milieu runs deep enough to suggest several directions of subtext. Glenn Kenny recently compared this to Sidney Lumet's NETWORK in its bitterness and classical dramatic structure; it also shares with that film an urgent sense of outrage. IN THE LOOP is refreshingly blatant in its contempt for British politicians who followed the Bush Administration's half-baked military schemes in the hope it would advance their career, portraying this sell-out as a disgrace to political credibility. (At times, it plays like a Screwball remake of FAHRENHEIT 9/11.) If this anger ultimately limits the film from achieving a more timeless satire, it also gives IN THE LOOP a relevance that makes it a must-see. Iannucci's visual style is of the hand-held, pseudo-documentary style made familiar by recent American television, but he has the sense to edit his images along the complex rhythms of the script; as a result, he's created the most successful Dogme 95 knock-off since the BBC version of THE OFFICE, where the uncomfortable proximity of the camera still implies a moral standpoint. The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly former child-star Anna Chlumsky as an idealistic State Department aide. (2009, 106 min, 35mm) BS
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More info here.
MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS:
The Silent Film Society of Chicago’s summer film festival continues at the Portage Theater on Friday (8pm) with the acclaimed 1929 British film PICCADILLY by E.A. Dupont. Featuring Anna May Wong. Live organ accompaniment by Michael Jacklin.
Also at The Nightingale this week, on Saturday, is a DVD release screening of the documentary BEHIND THE FANGS – DOCUMENT OF THE UNDEAD, which was shot at the threewalls fundraiser event “You Outta Be in Fangs” earlier this year. “Fangs” was designed and directed by Death by Design and they will have copies of the DVD available for sale. Also on hand will be some of the performers from the event. Screenings scheduled for 7:30, 9:30, and 10:30pm.
On Saturday (8pm), Bank of America Cinema screens William Wellman’s 1943 mystery LADY OF BURLESQUE, starring Barbara Stanwyck.
The Gene Siskel Film Center’s Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video continues this week. Among the highlights are Scott Sanders’ Blaxsploitation parody BLACK DYMAMITE and PIRATE PRIDE, a documentary on the history of the basketball program at Proviso East High School in Maywood. Many of the filmmakers will be in attendance at various screenings. Also this week is AMERICAN CASINO, Leslie Cockburn’s documentary on the financial industry crisis. Writer Andrew Cockburn will appear at the Friday 7:45pm and Saturday 8:15pm screenings.
Facets Cinémathèque’s “Night School” series presents Terry Zwigoff’s documentary CRUMB on Saturday at midnight (DVD projection). Speaking on the film is Jenny Grist.
Also at the Music Box this week: DEAD SNOW continues at the midnight film Friday and Saturday; and REVANCHE is held-over in the 11:30am matinee slot on Saturday and Sunday.
The Chicago International Film Festival’s Wednesday series at the Chicago Cultural Center continues this week with the 2007 Austrian film 42 PLUS at 6:30pm (DVD projection).
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