To give our volunteers a holiday break, this issue of Cine-File covers the three-week period from December 19 to January 8. It will necessarily be incomplete, as some venues/series program and schedule films on a short lead-time. Be sure to check the various venue websites for more complete information, especially for the second two weeks. The Crucial Viewing and Also Recommended sections below include screenings from all three weeks, so note the dates those films are showing. The More Screenings section is split into three groupings, one for each week.
CRUCIAL VIEWING (Dec. 19 - Jan. 8)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's WINTER SLEEP (New Turkish)
Music Box Theatre - Opens Friday, January 2; Check Venue website for showtimes
Nuri Bilge Ceylan follows up his 2011 masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA with this impressive near-companion piece, a Chekhovian chamber drama that focuses on dialogue-driven interior scenes as much as the earlier movie did on its majestically filmed journey through the barren Turkish landscape at night. The central figure here is Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), a retired, middle-aged actor who runs a hotel in rural Anatolia with his pretty young wife, Nihal (Melisa Sözen), and his combative, recently divorced sister, Necla (Demet Akbag). The verbal sparring with which Aydin frequently engages both women serves to mask the disappointment he feels with himself over his inability to start his long-cherished dream project of writing a non-fiction account of the history of the Turkish theater. While some critics have complained that this year's Jane Campion-led Cannes jury was only recognizing the longest film and not the best by bestowing Ceylan with the Palme d'Or, this does a disservice to his achievement; WINTER SLEEP does indeed require each one of its three hours and 16 minutes in order to fully illustrate Aydin's predicament in both its tragedy and ridiculousness (the film is at times surprisingly funny), and no contemporary director has a better compositional eye than Ceylan, who was a professional photographer before he turned to filmmaking. Perhaps not as formally perfect as ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA, this is nonetheless a spellbinding experience--masterfully written, directed and performed. (2014, 196 min, DCP Digital) MGS
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Frank Capra's THE MIRACLE WOMAN (American Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Saturday and Sunday, January 3 and 4, 11:30am
Frank Capra's THE MIRACLE WOMAN was one of only two films of his from the 1930s to lose money, and though this fact was later attributed to the film's censorship in Britain by their Board of Film Classification, it could also have been due in part to its initial critical reception. Critics at the time praised star Barbara Stanwyck's fiery opening monologue, in which she, as "Sister" Florence Fallon, takes a congregation to task after her priest father dies penniless and having recently been terminated from his position, but the film was largely criticized for opening on such a strong note, thus causing the rest of the film to simmer in comparison. Following Florence's impassioned outburst, the rest of the film details her decision to join forces with a con man and "punish" religious hypocrisy by fleecing those who attend her evangelical road show. She then meets John, a blind man who was previously shown as having decided not to commit suicide after hearing one of Florence's sermons on the radio. They soon fall in love, and Florence seeks to extricate herself from the con. Though the film is never as surprising or exciting as its vehement opening credo, it is exceptionally well written, and at times even genuinely humorous. It's based on the play Bless You Sister by John Meehan and Robert Riskin, which was inspired by evangelical superstar Aimee Semple McPherson, or "Sister Aimee" as she was more popularly known. Adapted to the screen by longtime Capra collaborator Jo Swerling, it's said to largely retain the play's witty dialogue and fast-paced narrative. Capra did compromise, though, by inserting the con man character (Bob Hornsby, played by Sam Hardy) and making Sister Florence appear to have been exploited rather than willfully complicit in the scheme. Perhaps decided upon in part because of objections raised by Harry Cohn, then head of Columbia Pictures, it eventually became Capra's greatest regret about the film that was largely forgotten until 1970, when it played in a retrospective sidebar at the New York Film Festival. According to Dr. James Robertson's book The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action 1913-1972, "some forty years after the event Capra was to admit that he had pulled his punches over the film by shifting the blame for religious confidence tricksterism onto an unscrupulous promoter and away from the disillusioned evangelist." The film's script is nonetheless estimable with its earnest ruminations and smart romantic dialogue, and the performances more than seal the deal. Capra once called Stanwyck a "primitive emotional," a characteristic that's evident in the pulpit and out. David Manners proficiently characterizes John, subtly transforming him from suicidal cynic to romantic jokester against Stanwyck's more outwardly emotive portrayal. Despite Capra's regret over his concession, there's still some moral ambiguity left in both the film and Stanwyck's performance. As he recounted in his autobiography, "[Hornsby] cons Fallon into it. He gets wealthy. She becomes his flamboyant stooge. Did she or did she not believe those 'inspiring' sermons delivered in diaphanous robes, with live lions at her side? I didn't know, Stanwyck didn't know, and neither did the audience." Though Capra is now remembered primarily for films such as MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which are more conventionally constructed, THE MIRACLE WOMAN is two third-acts sandwiching a second, and altogether a delightful insight into the early careers of Capra and company. (1931, 90 min, 35mm) KS
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Jennifer Kent's THE BABADOOK (New Australian)
Music Box Theatre - Opens Friday, December 19; Check Venue website for showtimes
The modern horror film, as a whole, seems to have been divided into two distinct groups. On one hand, there are the CGI driven, jump-scare saturated exploits that most movie studios pump out purely for cheap thrills and a quick buck, and on the other, and much more rarely, there are those that entrust in strong storytelling, a building of tension, and promoting a sense of dread until the audience can barely stand it anymore without peeking through their fingers. THE BABADOOK falls into the latter of these categories. "If it's in a look. Or in a book. You can't get rid of the Babadook." These are the beginning lines of the demonic children's storybook, Mister Babadook, presented in Jennifer Kent's horrifying film. As unsettling as David Lynch's MULHOLLAND DRIVE and as claustrophobic as Roman Polanski's REPULSION, Kent's directorial feature debut is a much needed adrenaline shot to the arm of the horror genre; a film that owes more to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Mario Bava, and Dario Argento than to the recent trend towards torture porn. Relying on a monochromatic color scheme that ranges from ashen white to ghastly black, Kent creates an ever present sense of terror as a widowed mother and her son are forced to confront and battle the malevolent and mysterious Babadook in a slow descent into psychological torment. (2014, 94 min, DCP Digital) KC
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
A Very Kubrick Christmas (Retrospective Series)
Music Box Theatre - Thursday, December 25-Saturday, January 3; Check Venue website for showtimes
Yes, we have pre-existing write-ups on most of these that we could re-run but, really, do we have to? You know what's what. This might be an increasingly rare opportunity to see a slate of a dozen Stanley Kubrick films all in 35mm. Screening are: EYES WIDE SHUT, THE SHINING, THE KILLING, LOLITA, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, PATHS OF GLORY, FULL METAL JACKET, KILLER'S KISS, DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, BARRY LYNDON, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, and SPARTACUS.
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
ALSO RECOMMENDED (Dec. 19 - Jan. 8)
Daniel Ribeiro's THE WAY HE LOOKS (New Brazilian)
Music Box Theatre - Opens Friday, January 2; Check Venue website for showtimes
THE WAY HE LOOKS is a winning debut feature from Brazilian writer/director Daniel Ribeiro adapted from his own short film of the same title. In the opening scene of this Sao Paolo-set romance, the 15-year-old protagonist, Leonardo (Ghilherme Lobo), and his best friend, Giovana (Tess Amorim), commiserate poolside over the fact that neither of them has ever been kissed. Think you know where this is going? Think again: Ribeiro puts an original spin on the tried-and-true coming-of-age genre by having Leonardo be both a literally blind and closeted gay kid who is only gradually brought out of his shell after the arrival at his high school of another gay kid, the more confident Gabriel (Fabio Audi). Ribeiro wisely refuses to portray either Leonardo's disability or his insecurity over his sexuality as heavy drama--as would have unquestionably been the case in a Hollywood production. He adopts instead an assured tone that is at once low-key, whimsical and realistic. (2014, 96 min, DCP Digital) MGS
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Jean-Luc Godard's LE PETIT SOLDAT (French Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center - Saturday, January 3, 5:15pm and Tuesday, January 6, 6pm
Immediately following the production of his 1960 film BREATHLESS, Jean-Luc Godard went to work on both LE PETIT SOLDAT and A WOMAN IS A WOMAN; though LE PETIT SOLDAT is technically Godard's second film, he had published a preliminary six-page treatment of A WOMAN IS A WOMAN in the August 1959 issue of Cahiers du cinema. Philippe de Broca had already made his version of actress Genevieve Cluny's story, THE GAMES OF LOVE, so Godard documented that in Cahiers as a preemptive measure, and then temporarily shelved it while he worked on LE PETIT SOLDAT. "Having made BREATHLESS, which exemplified existential engagement minus the politics that Sartre considered constitutive of it," critic Richard Brody said in his book Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, "[he] would now make a film on the subject of political engagement itself--and would contrast it negatively to a more subjective, personal form of engagement." The political engagement in question centers around the Algerian War; the main character, Bruno Forestier, is a Frenchman who fled to Geneva with the assistance of the Organisation of the Secret Army (OAS) in order to escape the draft, and is required to assassinate an Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) sympathizer to prove he's not a spy. While in Geneva, he falls in love a young woman named Veronica Dreyer (played by famous Godard muse Anna Karina), who is later revealed to have once helped the FLN. Both are tortured by their opposing faction, depictions of which caused the film to be banned for three years in France until the end of the war. (Ironically, Godard was criticized by leftist intellectuals for only depicting Bruno's torture at the hands of Algerian revolutionaries and not Veronica's torture by the French, while the French government, claiming to not want to condone torture in any capacity, censored the film specifically because of Bruno's torture scenes.) Despite the specificity of the film's setting, Godard never intended for it to be unequivocal commentary; as Brody states in his book, "[I]n taking on the question and nature of freedom, he was approaching the existential question par excellence." But Godard did intend for the film to be deeply autobiographical, a fact echoed in literally every scene. It was filmed without direct sound, thus allowing him to speak the dialogue directly to the actors and then dub their voices in post-production. He intentionally had the sound designed to seem separate from the film, further adding to its personal nature--though the actors themselves are talking, Godard seemingly inserts himself into the disconnect between the visual and the sound, hinting to the audience that what they're hearing doesn't belong to the film, per se, but to its author. And just as Godard famously referenced other films in BREATHLESS, he references many types of literature in LE PETIT SOLDAT. (He also references other films in the latter, most obviously Orson Welles' THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, but here the literary allusions speak more to Godard's overall vision.) Per Brody's research, a poignant monologue near the film's end contains references to both left- and right-wing authors, and Bruno Forestier is named after a character from the Jacques Cocteau novel La Grand Ecart, in which the similarly named character "dreamt of a pure far-right, meeting up with the far-left to the point of being a part of it, but in which he could act alone." As the film was decried by opposing parties for essentially the same reason, Godard's politics within the context of this film are clearly ambiguous; it's the "acting alone" that embodies his autobiographical motivations. (The film also contains that famous quote, "Photography is truth, and the cinema is truth twenty-four times a second," a fact worth noting for those unaware of its origin.) (1960, 88 min, 35mm) KS
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More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
Ramon Zürcher's THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT (New German)
Facets Cinémathèque - Friday-Wednesday, December 26-31; Check Venue website for showtimes
Minus credits, THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT clocks in at just over an hour. A slender film, but by no means slight, this economical portrait of an unnamed middle-class Berlin household has the assured pacing of a film typically three times its length. Over the course of an afternoon, as varied extended family members reunite, we are treated to the mundanities of a lazy Sunday: prepping food, fixing the washing machine, and letting grandma have her nap. This is cinema at the pace of life lived, and these small moments are deftly portrayed, sharing with us just enough to produce a feeling of warm familiarity. Though you may have just barely warmed your seat, you will have spent a decade sitting at the family's kitchen table. (2013, 72 min, Unconfirmed Format) DM
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More info at www.facets.org.
Jean-Luc Godard's BREATHLESS (French Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center - Saturday, January 3, 3pm & Thursday, January 8, 6pm*
The cinematic equivalent of "Like a Rolling Stone," Jean-Luc Godard's first feature was a near-unprecedented marriage of pop culture and intellectual sensibilities, breaking numerous rules of the form and paving the way for a good deal of art in the 1960s. The film's stylistic breakthroughs have been so influential as to seem familiar now--particularly the newsreel-like cinematography and randomly employed jump-cuts (which Jonathan Rosenbaum has compared to "a needle skipping gaily across a record"). But beneath the carefree attitude is a rich poetic sensibility, arguably the one consistent trait throughout Godard's varied body of work. In BREATHLESS' justly celebrated centerpiece--an extended lovers' interlude between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg--Godard mixes literary quotations and frank sexual dialogue across a romantic depiction of time being gloriously wasted. All three elements were revolutionary in 1960, though the explicit use of citation may have attracted the most attention at the time. This was, after all, the film that marked the explosion of the French New Wave, the first filmmaking movement presided over by film critics. And from the opening title card (a dedication to B-movie studio Monogram Pictures) to the climactic shoot-out, BREATHLESS is fascinated by the cinema's influence over real life. Belmondo's petty thief tries to act like Humphrey Bogart, and Seberg was cast, according to Godard, as a continuation of her role in Otto Preminger's BONJOUR TRISTESSE. Five years after the film was released, Godard would make the famous proclamation that a director must put everything into a film; but BREATHLESS--which combined storytelling, criticism, autobiography and formal experimentation more boldly than any narrative film before it--was the first glimpse of what this may look like. (1960, 90 min, 35mm) BS
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*Will also be screening the following week on January 10
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More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
Frank Capra's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (American Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Saturday and Sunday, December 27 and 28, 11:30am
During the production of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, Claudette Colbert purportedly referred to Capra's slapstick opus as the worst picture in the world, a criticism she'd repeat until the film was lauded with all five major Academy Awards. It's a messy work, and it's easy to see how Colbert could have objected, but the intricacies of Capra's earnest patchwork (Thanks, Columbia) give the film its merit. Colbert and Clark Gable seem humbled but lovably obstinate, as their mild trepidations about the script bleed into the film itself (as do various inconsistencies in editing and continuity). But IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT never feels like a film that doesn't want to be made and seen. Capra moves in quick, broad strokes, so that small details get picked up by happenstance and only make themselves apparent on repeated viewings. Stepping back, the film's personality is almost perfectly crafted, and there isn't anything about it that doesn't come across as genuine. The same could be said of nearly all of Capra's work, but his surefooted pacing renders this his most immediately likable. (1934, 101 min, DCP Digital) JA
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Hiroshi Teshigahara's ANTONIO GAUDI (Documentary Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center -- December 20-30 (six screenings total), Check Venue website for showtimes
By now nearly a timeworn tradition, the Siskel's late-December run of Hiroshi Teshigahara's meditative and enigmatic ANTONIO GAUDI annually attracts a respectable and respectful crowd, with its fair share of SAIC architecture students done with finals and therefore blazed. In this film--devoid as it is of narration until the very end--every visual texture possesses its own subtle, droning sound: a particular class of curvature will produce an otherworldly gong-like shimmering; a long shot of Barcelona is accompanied by a low rumble. Anything involving intricate metalwork is, sonically, inexplicably menacing. Unless one is already ultra-familiar with Gaudi's oeuvre the viewer generally has no idea what they are looking at, where it is, or when it was constructed, and are thus transported to experiencing the cryptic persuasiveness of man-made structures before an age of writing and reading: to a time in which there may not have ostensibly been an explanatory narrative (or even a subtitle) for every surface. (1985, 72 min, 35mm) MC
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More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
Isao Takahata's THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA (New Japanese Animation) and Hideki Ono, Keiko Nakazono, and Yoko Terakoshi's ISAO TAKAHATA AND HIS TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA (New Documentary)
Gene Siskel Film Center - Continuing; Check Venue website for showtimes*
Making-of documentaries are typically informative, but rarely are they considered crucial to one's overall appreciation of the film in question. Several such documentaries, including BURDEN OF DREAMS (about the production of Werner Herzog's 1982 film FITZCARRALDO) and HEART OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE, are cinematic achievements in their own right, but these successes don't negate the fact that much "privileged" behind-the-scenes footage is mere DVD bonus fodder. And while ISAO TAKAHATA AND HIS TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA (2014, 82 min, DCP Digital) isn't necessarily a work on par with that of Les Blank or Eleanor Coppola, it does provide great insight into Takahata's creative process and also into his role at the famed Studio Ghibli. (Contrary to most write-ups about him, Takahata doesn't draw and therefore isn't an animator in the traditional sense.) THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA (2013, 137 min, DCP Digital) undoubtedly speaks for itself, its beauty so ethereal that it's almost as otherworldly as its title character, but its delicate line drawings and impressionistic backgrounds come even more to life when informed by the tacit dedication that went into every stroke. As the documentary tells us, THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA is based on a 10th-century Japanese folktale called "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," which holds the distinction of being Japan's first novel. It's also a work of proto-science fiction, elements of which were made more conspicuous in Kon Ichikawa's 1987 adaptation, PRINCESS FROM THE MOON. Studio Ghibli is no stranger to the blurred lines of magical realism or the outright fantasticality that's inherent within the science fiction genre; THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA exists somewhere between these extremes, though its aesthetic is singular to Takahata's vision. The documentary details the eight-year process, from producers having to convince Takahata to make another film after the disruption caused by his 1999 film MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS, to numerous production delays caused in part by Takahata's perfectionist tendencies. But throughout it all, Takahata maintains a guileless composure that further infuses the viewing experience with his charming earnestness. In one particularly poignant scene, Takahata reconvenes with friend and Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki after a press conference announcing this year's Ghibli releases (the other being Miyazaki's masterpiece THE WIND RISES) and Miyazaki's retirement. Another scene depicts Takahata's and his crew's reaction to the film's completion, the emotional release in which is similar to the scene from Mark Levinson's PARTICLE FEVER where physicist David Kaplan and his colleagues celebrate the successful identification of the Higgs boson after decades of research. The film's score, composed by Joe Hisaishi, further cements the impact. Studio Ghibli announced this past August that it would be temporarily halting production following Miyazaki's retirement. Regret is a shared theme among this and THE WIND RISES, and they both provide for an appropriate finale should this really be the end. KS
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*Note that THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA is showing in both English-dubbed and subtitled Japanese versions. It concludes a four-week run on Tuesday, December 30; the documentary has only two remaining screenings: Saturday, December 27 (5:30pm) and Sunday, December 28 (5:30pm).
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More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
Jean Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION (French Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Thursday, January 8, 7pm
In the spring of 1937, master director Jean Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION premiered in his country to general acclaim. However, when the Nazis invaded only three years later, Joseph Goebbels declared the film to be "Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1." He seized the original negative, which finally resurfaced over fifty years later in a pile of boxes that traveled from Moscow to the Cinematheque de Toulouse. Renoir adapted GRAND ILLUSION from his friend Major Pinsard's reminiscences as a pilot during World War I. In the beginning of the film, Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) captures Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and his lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) and transfers them to a prisoner of war camp. At the camp, Boeldieu, Marechal, and their friends while away the time by gardening, playing cards, and performing theater. They also dig a tunnel to escape and return to the front. But, before succeeding, the Germans transfer them to von Rauffenstein's fortress, where they devise a new plan for escape. Although the rules are strict within the camps, the soldiers treat the prisoners quite well and, amazingly, a true camaraderie develops between them. This French filmmaker depicts the German soldiers--especially von Rauffenstein--and citizens as humane. It begs the question: Why did Renoir create this image of the German people in the face of Nazism? Why did he make this film? In watching GRAND ILLUSION, the viewer reflects on its title and the any number of things to which it alludes. The film remains known today for its expression of man's humanity, but is such possible in war? For me, the grand illusion is our humanity, which we have yet to realize. (1937, 114 min, 35mm) CW
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More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
John McTiernan's DIE HARD (American Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Monday, December 22, 6:15pm
Non-aficionados of narrative overanalysis are basically going to have to step off in the case of DIE HARD, which is inarguably a modern masterpiece of both structuralist and psychoanalytic semiosis. As an n-dimensional mythological lattice posing as an unpretentious, violent movie, DIE HARD simultaneously pits East Coast vs. West Coast, Eastern capitalism vs. Western capitalism, work vs. family, local vs. global, working class vs. upper class, white vs. black ad infinitum, all entirely immersed in the sacred moment of the pagan Winter Solstice. How, indeed, will John McClane (Bruce Willis) reassert values of patriarchy and Anglo supremacy during this longer-term period of acute economic and multicultural transformation? The answer is by defeating a band of indeterminately Euro monsters who erupt from his unconscious on Christmas Eve as he attempts to renegotiate the terms of his marriage in a building played by--in one of Hollywood's premier self-reflexive architectural cameos--20th Century Fox's brand new office tower. Additionally, the film is creatively suffused in a wide variety of explicit and implicit Christmas-related symbolism (our red-footed hero frequently sends explosive "presents" to lower floors, bond certificates float through the air like snow, etc.) However, the present-day evidence of the film's DVD commentary track suggests that director John McTiernan is almost completely unaware of what he has done, remaining entirely concerned with the implementation of shrill, irrelevant action set pieces. Showing as a double-bill with Chris Columbus' 1990 film HOME ALONE. (1988, 131 min, DCP Digital) MC
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (American Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Friday-Wednesday, December 19-24 (no show Dec. 22); Check Venue website for showtimes
Like Steven Spielberg today, Frank Capra was associated more with reassuring, patriotic sentiment than with actually making movies; but just beneath the Americana, his films contain a near-schizophrenic mix of idealism and resentment. In this quality, as well as his tendency to drag charismatic heroes through grueling tests of faith, it wouldn't be a stretch to compare Capra with Lars von Trier. There's plenty to merit the comparison in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE alone: The film is a two-hour tour of an honest man's failure and bottled-up resentment, softened only intermittently by scenes of domestic contentment. Even before the nightmarish Pottersville episode (shot in foreboding shadows more reminiscent of film noir than Americana), Bedford Falls is shown as vulnerable to the plagues of recession, family dysfunction, and alcoholism. All of these weigh heavy on the soul of George Bailey, a small-town Everyman given tragic complexity by James Stewart, who considered the performance his best. Drawing on the unacknowledged rage within ordinary people he would later exploit for Alfred Hitchcock, Stewart renders Bailey as complicated as Capra himself--a child and ultimate victim of the American Dream. Ironically, it's because the film's despair feels so authentic that its iconic ending feels as cathartic as it does: After being saved from his suicide attempt (which frames the entire film, it should be noted), Stewart is returned to the simple pleasures of family and friends, made to seem a warm oasis in a great metaphysical void. Showing as a double-bill with Michael Curtiz's 1954 film WHITE CHRISTMAS. Tickets available individually or as a double feature. (1946, 130 min, DCP Digital) BS
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More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS: December 19-25
The Nightingale at Sector 2337 (2337 N. Milwaukee Ave.) presents The New (New) Corpse on Friday, December 19 at 7pm. Screening are: Dara Greenwald's BOUNCING IN THE CORNER #36DDD (1999, 3 min), Poussy Draama and Fannie Sosa's BABY! LOVE YOUR BODY: EPISODE 1 (ENGLISH) (2014, 7 min), Blair Bogin and Danya Gross' AFFECTION (2014, 1 min), Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet's CUT (2013, 13 min), Basma Alsharif's DEEP SLEEP (2014, 13 min), Pawel Wojtasik's NINE GATES (2012, 12 min), and Hermine Freed's TWO FACES (1972, 6 min). Digital and Video Projection. Free Admission
Comfort Station (2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.) hosts a presentation of barely there cinema on Friday, December 19 at 8pm. Here's Your Present! will include work by Fern Silva, Blair Bogin, Ian Curry, Jesse Malmed, Alee Peoples, Alison Kobayashi, and The Goodnight Ladies (Ashley Thompson, Cody "Coco" Wallace, Eve Rydberg), plus miscellaneous porn and holiday films. (Approx. 70 min, Unconfirmed Formats). Free admission.
Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Hossein Amini's 2014 film THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY (98 min, DCP Digital) concludes a two-week run; Stefan Haupt's 2012 documentary SAGRADA: THE MYSTERY OF CREATION (89 min, DCP Digital) continues with screenings on Saturday and Sunday, December 20 and 21, at 4:30pm; and Paola di Florio and Lisa Leeman's 2014 documentary AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA (87 min, DCP Digital) begins a short run with screenings on Friday, December 19, Saturday, December 20, and Tuesday, December 23.
Also at the Music Box Theatre this week: Ruben Östlund's 2014 film FORCE MAJEURE (118 min) is on Saturday and Sunday, December 20 and 21, at 12:45pm; Michael Curtiz's 1954 musical WHITE CHRISTMAS (120 min) continues as a double feature with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (see above) on through Wednesday, December 24; and Chris Columbus' 1990 film HOME ALONE (103 min) is on Monday, December 22 at 8:30pm as part of a double feature with DIE HARD (see above). All DCP Digital.
Facets Cinémathèque plays Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross's 2013 Georgian/German/French film IN BLOOM (102 min, Unconfirmed Format) for a week's run.
Mitchell Kezin's 2013 documentary JINGLE BELL ROCKS! (94 min, Digital Projection - Unconfirmed Format) opens at the Brew & View at the Vic (3145 N. Sheffield Ave.).
The DuSable Museum screens Tariq Nasheed's 2014 documentary HIDDEN COLORS 3: THE RULES OF RACISM (Unconfirmed Running Time, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Sunday, December 21 at 2pm.
Check the websites for the Logan Theatre, the Patio Theater, and the Portage Theater for films showing this week.
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MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS: December 26 - January 1
Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Ann Hui's 2014 Taiwanese film THE GOLDEN ERA (178 min, DCP Digital) has four screenings between Friday, December 26 and Tuesday, December 30; Stefan Haupt's 2012 documentary SAGRADA: THE MYSTERY OF CREATION (89 min, DCP Digital) concludes its run with screenings on Saturday, December 27 at 4:30pm and Monday, December 29 at 6pm; and Paola di Florio and Lisa Leeman's 2014 documentary AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA (87 min, DCP Digital) concludes its run with screenings on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, December 27-29.
Also at the Music Box Theatre this week: Talya Lavie's 2014 Israeli film ZERO MOTIVATION (100 min, DCP Digital) opens on Friday, December 26; Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film MOULIN ROUGE! (127 min, DCP Digital) screens on Wednesday, December 31 at 9pm; and John Waters' 1981 film POLYESTER (82 min, DCP Digital) is on Friday and Saturday, December 26 and 27, at Midnight.
The Whistler (2421 N. Milwaukee Ave.) presents the Odd Obsession Foreign Films Series on Saturday, December 27 at 7pm, followed by a Dance Party Ting at 9pm. The film screening is local filmmaker Jake Myers' 2014 independent feature WHITE COP (82 min, Digital Projection - Unconfirmed Format).
Check the websites for the Logan Theatre, the Patio Theater, and the
Portage Theater for films showing this week.
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MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS: January 2-8
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and The Chicago 8 Small Gauge Film Festival co-present a program of Super-8mm films by the San Francisco collective Silt on Tuesday, January 6 at 6pm. Screening are: SHADOW OF THE SUN (1996, 7 min), GRAPEFRUITFILM (1992, 4 min), HOME SIC (1996, 23 min), and KUCH NAI (1992, 38 min). Silt member Keith Evans In person.
The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.) presents Return to the Moon Hotel: Videos by Jessie Stead, a program of solo and collaborative video work by the experimental filmmaker, on Saturday, January 3 at 8pm; and Beguiled Cinema presents Jim Jarmusch's 1980 film PERMENANT VACATION (75 min, 16mm) on Wednesday, January 7 at 7pm. Preceded by Buster Keaton & Edward Cline's 1921 short THE HIGH SIGN (20 min, Unconfirmed Format).
Black World Cinema screens Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly's 2013 film THE HOMESTRETCH (119 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Thursday, January 8 at 7pm at the Chatham 14 Theaters (210 W. 87th St.). http://blackworldcinema.net/blog/
The Goethe-Institut Chicago (150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 200) presents "Soirée Allemande": A Crush on German Short Films (Approx. 97 min total, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format), a program of nine short films made in 2012-13, on Thursday, January 8 at 6pm. Free admission, but RSVP required.
Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Ana Lily Amirpour's 2014 film A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (99 min, DCP Digital) opens on Friday, January 2 for a two-week run; Christopher Nolan's 2014 film INTERSTELLAR (169 min, 35mm) opens Friday, January 2 for a week; and Roberto Andò's 2013 Italian film VIVA LA LIBERTA (94 min, DCP Digital) has five showings beginning Friday, January 2.
Also at Doc Films (University of Chicago) this week: Jacques Doillon's 1996 film PONETTE (97 min, 35mm) is on Monday, January 5 at 7pm; John Landis' 1978 film NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE (109 min, 35mm) is on Tuesday, January 6 at 7pm; Federico Fellini's 1952 film THE WHITE SHEIK (83 min, 35mm) is on Wednesday, January 7 at 7pm; and Noribumi Suzuki's 1974 film SCHOOL OF THE HOLY BEAST (91 min, 35mm) is on Thursday, January 8 at 9pm.
Also at the Music Box Theatre this week: Judy Irving's 2014 documentary PELICAN DREAMS (80 min, DCP Digital) opens on Friday, January 2.
Facets Cinémathèque opens Jeff Preiss' 2014 American independent film LOW DOWN (114 min, Unconfirmed Format) on Friday, January 2 for a week's run.
Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film THE SHINING (144 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) screens at the Art Institute of Chicago (Price Auditorium) on Thursday, January 8 at 6pm. Free admission.
Check the websites for the Logan Theatre, the Patio Theater, and the Portage Theater for films showing this week.
ONGOING FILM/VIDEO INSTALLATIONS
The Renaissance Society presents Mathias Polenda's 35mm film installation Substance (7 min loop) through February 8.
Anri Sala's 2003 digital video installation Mixed Behavior (8 min loop) runs through March 1 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Art Institute of Chicago presents Lucy McKenzie and Richard Kern's 2014 single channel video The Girl Who Followed Marple (10 min loop) through January 18.
UPDATES/CLOSURES
Chicago Public Library screenings: Due to the frequency of late-additions (past our deadlines) and to their frequent inability (do to licensing restrictions) of publicly listing the titles of films they are screening, we will no longer be listing specific CPL screenings. Check their website for any films that may be showing.
The Northbrook Public Library film series is on hiatus during renovations at the library. Expected completion is Spring 2015.
The Northwest Chicago Film Society is again on hiatus for their weekly series, with the closing of the Patio Theater. They plan to do occasional screenings as opportunities arise.
