CRUCIAL VIEWING

Chris Marker's LEVEL 5 (French Experimental Revival)
Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.) – Friday and Saturday, 8 pm; Columbia College Chicago - Hokin Hall (623 S. Wabash, Room 109) – Wednesday, 6:30pm
Chris Marker’s LEVEL 5 is, partly, a film in which a French woman describes a video game she is making about the Battle of Okinawa. It is also, partly, a documentary about Okinawa, the battle and the city itself, and the way its citizens understand their past. Weaving between these two is a narrative of interest and loss; conspicuously disembodied, the voice of the French woman's partner leads us through the Okinawa of the mid-90s, propelling us backward and forward through time, from pop culture to intense tragedy in seconds. Within the film the physicality of memory is presented repeatedly: can ideas be made corporeal and be interacted with physically? Does the presence of a physical object (say, a bunker) retain or contain a cultural memory? Structured rather like a CD-Rom, with abrupt returns to a user menu, and prominent video effects, LEVEL 5 refuses to be comfortably viewed, but comfort is overrated. Note: also includes interview with and footage shot by cinema provocateur Nagisa Oshima, who is the subject of a retrospective series at the Film Center next month. (1996, 106 min, Blu-Ray Projection) CAM
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More info at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.

Howard Hawks' A GIRL IN EVERY PORT (American Silent Revival) 
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Friday, 7pm
One of the first of many rough and ready buddy movies—or, as more than one critic has put it, "a love story between two men"—directed by the great Howard Hawks, master of the Western (RED RIVER, RIO BRAVO), the adventure film (THE BIG SKY, THE THING) and the screwball comedy (HIS GIRL FRIDAY, MONKEY BUSINESS). In this late-period silent, two sailors' ongoing competition (to see who can pick up more women) gives way to deeper bonds of camaraderie. Expect a lot of brusque movement, clean framing, and good-natured innuendo. It's an interesting twist of film history that the most unpretentious of filmmakers has become most beloved by auteurists and film scholars, but that seems to be the case with Hawks these days. While one can marvel at how brilliantly these films streamline popular genres for personal ends, just as integral to the Hawks legend is how purely entertaining they are. A GIRL IN EVERY PORT, which utilizes the star power of Victor McLaglen (John Ford's comic relief of choice) and Louise Brooks, should be no exception. (1928, 72 min, Archival 35mm Print) BS
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Georges Méliès' A TRIP TO THE MOON (Restored Color Version) 
The fantasy film against which all fantasy films are measured, Georges Méliès' most famous work is fleet, fanciful, funny—and fifteen minutes long. Méliès—a stage magician who took up filmmaking in middle age and in the process invented cinema as we know it—approached the then-new medium with a playfulness that hasn't been matched since; every filmmaker owes him everything (and most of 'em could learn a thing or two or five from his work). (1902, 15 min, Restored 35mm Print)
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Live musical accompaniment for both films by David Drazin.
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More info at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.

Carlos Motta's THE NEFANDUS TRILOGY (New Experimental Essay/Documentary)
Conversations at the Edge at the Gene Siskel Film Center - Thursday, 6pm
Carlos Motta's THE NEFANDUS TRILOGY is activism in a whisper. Quiet, serene, and peppered with long takes of natural environments, Motta's trilogy re-imagines lost, queer histories of the brutal religious colonial rule in South America. Using historical texts and re-enactment, he constructs poetic essay pieces about systemic oppression and violence. The peaceful palate in THE NEFANDUS TRILOGY clears any obstacles between Motta and his viewer, leaving an empathetic space to imagine the lives of his characters. The trilogy includes NEFANDUS, in which two men paddle down the Don Diego River in the Colombian Caribbean, looking for evidence of pre-colonial life. NAUFRAGIOS (SHIPWRECK) follows the exile of a Portuguese man, Luiz Delgado. LA VISION LOS VENCIDOS (THE DEFEATED) chronicles a massacre communicated through the generations via oral transmission. Because the source text for each piece is different, Motta's work also asks questions about how history is transmitted and represented. Motta will also present work from two recent multi-modal documentaries, WE WHO FEEL DIFFERENTLY (2011) and GENDER TALENTS (in-progress). Motta in person. (2011-14, approx. 60 min total, Multiple Formats) CL
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More info at http://blogs.saic.edu/cate/fall-2014-season.

ALSO RECOMMENDED

Errol Morris' FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL (Documentary Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Thursday, 7pm
Former MIT robotics expert Rodney Brooks makes a seemingly off the cuff comment in Errol Morris' oddball showcase, FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL, that's lingered in my mind for years. Brooks notes how easily humans can be fooled into misinterpreting the complex mechanical processes that drive robots as agency or intent. Our hearts break every time that dumb Honda robot tumbles down a staircase. Poor ASIMO. Humans also generally accept that most simple organisms are governed by basic impulses interacting in a complex way. Ants move around haphazardly but somehow manage to collectively accomplish tasks well beyond their constituent intents. Brooks can't help but wonder though: What if that's all there is for us as well? "After all," he says, "humans have evolved from simpler systems over time. When I think about it, I can almost see myself as being made up of thousands and thousands of little agents doing stuff almost independently. But at the same time, I fall back into believing the things about humans that we all believe about humans and living life that way, otherwise I think if you analyze it too much life becomes almost meaningless." So goes Morris' film. It's a chaotic patchwork of eccentrics—a lion tamer, a master topiary designer, a hairless mole rat expert, and Brooks—each telling their own stories independently. The editing sustains a mood of free association as Morris bounces around from person to person, interspersing flashes of stock footage, extreme close-ups, and moody black-and-white tableaus. No individual talking head intends to complement the others' train of thought, but as the film progresses a convoluted narrative starts to emerge. It's difficult to peg down in writing what exactly that narrative might be, as the film has its own unique vocabulary and advances in a manner befitting its title; there are plenty of false starts, dead ends, and sudden flashes of genuine insight. Is there a grand unified theory buried amongst the disorder? Perhaps not, but FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL isn't a film about pat conclusions. After all, as Brooks mentions, analyze it too much and it might all become meaningless. (1997, 80 min, 35mm) JS
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More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.

François Truffaut's SMALL CHANGE (French Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Monday, 7pm
It ain't TWO ENGLISH GIRLS or THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, but SMALL CHANGE, Truffaut's 1976 Kuleshov Effect showcase, is still the most underrated of the director's most popular films. Even Dave Kehr called this a feature-length version of Kids Say the Darnedest Things, but while gloomy François was less nuanced or wise than his champions would have you believe, he was also more complicated (and frankly better) that his detractors would like you to think. Essentially an episodic comedy of inferences, albeit one structured around a one-dimensional tragedy, with no credits for dialogue but with five for editing, SMALL CHANGE cuts a large cast of charismatic child performers into danger, lasciviousness, irony, sexual inadequacy, and all sorts of other situations obvious only to its grown-up audience. Though he cameos in the opening scene as a silent parent, Truffaut's (inevitable) alter ego in the movie appears to be a Richet (Jean-François Stévenin), the school teacher who delivers an autobiographical (for the director) monologue about his miserable childhood to the students at the end of the film. The kids probably won't remember a word of it after summer vacation, but that doesn't really matter; the speech, like the improvisatory funny business that precedes it, is addressed to adult viewers. That the Nouvelle Vague's "sentimental favorite" also happened to be its resident misanthrope doesn't help to clear things up, but the movie's sincere even in its shortcomings. The camerawork, appropriate for an underrated film, is by the immensely underrated Pierre-William Glenn (OUT 1, LOULOU); like his best cinematography, the images of SMALL CHANGE are paradoxically both drab and colorful. (1976, 104 min, 35mm) IV
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More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.

W.S. Van Dyke's THE THIN MAN (American Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Tuesday, 7pm
"The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking," Nick tells the bartenders. "Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time. A dry martini you always shake to waltz time." THE THIN MAN was released in the spring of 1934; Prohibition had been repealed less than six months earlier. It was nothing less than the first major post-Prohibition movie to unashamedly feature drinking at its core, offering a portrait of a sophisticated married couple whose wholesale devotion to tippling presents no impediment whatsoever to solving crimes and generally looking glamorous. When Nick and Nora (William Powell and Myrna Loy) aren't (almost half-heartedly) trying to solve a series of murders, they're throwing wild parties in their hotel suite and hobnobbing with assorted lowlifes from Nick's past. THE THIN MAN is also highly underappreciated as a holiday movie. During a memorable scene on Christmas morning, Nora lounges around in pajamas and fur coat, while Nick tests out his new BB gun on some Christmas tree ornaments. Isn't that the kind of Christmas morning we've all fantasized about? (1934, 91 min, 35mm) RC
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More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.

MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS

The Northwest Chicago Film Society and Block Cinema (University of Chicago) present David Bradley’s 1950 independent Evanston-shot film JULIUS CAESAR (106 min, 35mm), starring a young Charlton Heston, on Thursday at 7pm. It’s at Block Cinema.

The Black Cinema House presents Dick Fontaine Jazz Shorts on Saturday at 2pm at the Logan Center for the Arts
 (915 E. 60th St., University of Chicago). The program, introduced by Michael J. Phillips, Executive Director of South Side Projections, is screening as part of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Included are WHO’S CRAZY? (1966, 27 min), WHO IS SONNY ROLLINS? (1968, 30 min), and SOUND!? (1967, 27 min). Unconfirmed Formats. Free Admission. www.blackcinemahouse.org.

The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.) presents Cinema Babylon: Experiments in Narrative on Friday at 8pm, with curators Christine Kolozvary and Michael Bucuzzo in person. Screening are EUDORA (Michael Bucuzzo), HEX AND THE CITY (Stephen Quinlan), A CATECHISM OF FAMILIAR THINGS (Gina Marie Napolitan), SPECIES (Cate Giordano), SPACEBOY (Mike Olenick), ASTRONAUT AND THE STAR (Christina Kolozsvary), CHANCES! (Lindsay Denniberg),
and LOLCATS (Rachel Maclean). (Years not listed, approx. 102 min total, Digital Projection); and on Saturday at 7pm, Not So Static: Lorenzo Gattorna and Close Company, with filmmaker and curator Lorenzo Gattorna in person. Gattorna will screen a selection of his own films, along with work that has shared concerns. Included are MARSHY PLACE ACROSS (2012), THE ENCHANTED FOREST (2011), JONES FALLS (2014), and AT REST (2012) by Gattorna, and A DISTANT HORIZON (Ryan Marino, 2012, 16mm), MOUNT SONG (Shambhavi Kaul, 2013), ELEVEN FORTY SEVEN (Marika Borgeson, 2013), and THEORIA (Josh Weissbach, 2014, 16mm). (2011-14, approx. 60 min total, Digital Projection except where noted above)

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (600 S. Michigan Ave.) presents Video Playlist: The Old Spaghetti Factory on Wednesday at 6pm. Curated and introduced by artist Karthik Pandian, the program includes Rose Lowder’s BOUQUETS 1-10 (1995, 16mm), Richard Serra’s HAND CATCHING LEAD (1968, 16mm), Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn’s WHACKER (2005), Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson’s SWAMP (1971), Ramyar Vala’s MY GOPRO (2013), Barry Johnston’s UNTITLED (2006), Stephen G. Rhodes’ INSTRUCTIONS FOR A 16 SIDED BARN: YOUR SHIT IS IN MY MOUTH (2001), Jennifer West’s #50 NIRVANA ALCHEMY FILM (2007), Diana Thater’s SHILO (1995), Sophia Rhee’s VICTOR (2012, 16mm), Nick Bastis’ SURVIVORS BLOSSOM (2013), Basim Magdy’s TIME LAUGHS BACK AT YOU LIKE A SUNKEN SHIP (2012), and Mariah Garnett’s SIGNAL (2012, 16mm). Approx. 91 min total; DVD and Digital Projection, except where noted. Free admission.

Gallery 400 (400 S. Peoria, UIC) presents the Art 21 Access '14 Film Series this fall. On Wednesday at 6pm it’s Episode 1: Investigation, which features the artists Thomas Hirschhorn, Graciela Iturbide, and Leonardo Drew. Free admission.

At the Gene Siskel Film Center this week: Lav Diaz’s 2013 Filipino film NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (250 min, DCP Digital) is on Saturday at 3pm; Roy Del Ruth’s 1931 comedy BLONDE CRAZY (79 min, 35mm) is on Friday and Tuesday at 6pm, with a lecture by Jonathan Rosenbaum at the Tuesday screening; Phil Grabsky’s 2014 documentary IN SEARCH OF CHOPIN (112 min, DCP Digital) concludes its two-week run; Signe Baumane’s 2014 animated feature ROCKS IN MY POCKETS (88 min, DCP Digital) plays for a week, with Baumane and co-producer Sturgis Warner in person at the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday screenings; and Keith Farrell’s 2014 Irish film A TERRIBLE BEAUTY (93 min, DCP Digital) is on Friday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm, with Producer Dave Farrell and actor Colin Farrell in person at both shows.

Also at Doc Films (University of Chicago) this week: Akira Kurosawa’s 1948 film DRUNKEN ANGEL (98 min, 35mm) is on Wednesday at 7 and 9:15pm; and D.A. Pennebaker’s 1973 concert film ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (90 min, 35mm) is on Thursday at 9pm.

At the Music Box Theatre this week: John Ridley’s 2013 film JIMI: ALL IS BY MY SIDE (118 min) opens; Terry Gilliam’s 2013 film THE ZERO THEOREM (107 min) continues; Ryan McGarry's 2013 documentary CODE BLACK (78 min) continues for two shows only on Friday and Saturday at 2:30pm; Jayson Thiessen and Ishi Rudell’s 2014 animated film MY LITTLE PONY EQUESTRIA GIRLS - RAINBOW ROCKS (75 min) is on Saturday and Sunday at 11:30am and Wednesday at 7pm; Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr.’s 1982 animated film THE LAST UNICORN (92 min; New Digital Restoration) is on Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm, with novelist Peter S. Beagle in person; One9’s 2014 documentary NAS: TIME IS ILLMATIC (Unconfirmed Running Time) is on Thursday at 7:30 and 9:45pm; the New York Film Critics Series presentation of David Fincher’s 2014 film GONE GIRL (145 min) is on Thursday at 7:30pm (note the change of day); Josef von Sternberg’s 1931 Marlene Dietrich film DISHONORED (91 min, 35mm) is on Saturday and Sunday at 11:30am; and Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s 2013 Belgian film THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY’S TEARS (102 min) and Nicholas McCarthy’s 2014 film AT THE DEVIL’S DOOR (91 min) are on Friday and Saturday at Midnight. Unconfirmed Formats except where noted.

At Facets Cinémathèque this week: Lola Bessis and Ruben Amar’s 2013 film SWIM LITTLE FISH SWIM (95 min, Unconfirmed Format) plays for a week; and on Tuesday at 7pm (6pm reception) the Chicago Latino Reel Film Club presents Riccardo Gabrielli R.’s 2012 Columbian film THE READER (95 min, Unconfirmed Format). Special admission applies.

The Logan Theatre screens Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (115 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format) on Friday, Saturday, and Monday at 10:30pm; and Edgar Wright’s 2004 film SHAUN OF THE DEAD (99 min, Video Projection – Unconfirmed Format) on Thursday at 10:30pm.

The Logan Square International Film Series at Comfort Station in Logan Square (2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.), in collaboration with Daily Grindhouse present Richard W. Haines’ 1989 film (ALIEN) SPACE AVENGER (80 min, DVD Projection) on Wednesday at 7:30pm. Free admission.

The Whistler (2421 N. Milwaukee Ave.) presents the Odd Obsession Foreign Film Series and Dance Party Ting on Saturday at 7pm (film) and 9pm (DJ). The film screening (Video Projection) is not listed.

ONGOING FILM/VIDEO INSTALLATIONS

The exhibition Edit Road Movie, curated by Kate Bowen, open on Sunday and runs through September 29 at ACRE Projects (1913 W 17th St.). The show includes video installation work by Daniel Luedtke, and Nick Lally and additional work by Katie Hargrave.

Washington Park Arts Incubator (301 E. Garfield) continues the exhibition How To Make A Hood through October 10. Included is "The Hood We Live In," a sculpted 3 channel video installation by Amir George. More info at www.htmah.com.

SAIC’s Sullivan Galleries (33 S. State St., 7th Floor) continues the show Surface Tension through October 4. Included is Kevin B. Lee’s 3-D version of his video TRANSFORMERS: THE PREMAKE.

glitChicago: An Exhibition of Chicago Glitch Art continues at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (2320 W. Chicago Ave.) through September 28. Work from 24 artists explores glitch across a variety of media.

Bruce Nauman’s 1987 four channel video installation Clown Torture (60 min loop) is on view at the Art Institute of Chicago through September 28.

UPDATES/CLOSURES

The Northbrook Public Library film series is on hiatus during renovations at the library. Expected completion is Spring 2015.

The Portage Theatre has resumed occasional screenings (from Blu-Ray/DVD only we believe).

As of July 2014 the Patio Theater is up for sale.

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.