EU FEST
EUROPEAN UNION FILM FESTIVAL
Gene Siskel Film Center
---
Bruno Dumont's LI'L QUINQUIN (New French)
Saturday, 3pm and Monday, 6:30pm
Li'l Quinquin is a little shit. He taunts his girlfriend with a dead mouse, harasses tourists, and plays at blowing up a house, the blast accompanied by a shout of "take that, ragheads." Unmoored by the summer holidays, Quinquin trails a pair of detectives on their blundering investigation of a series of bizarre murders. But the film is less a murder mystery than a grotesque portrait of contemporary rural life in the Boulonnais, and the murders themselves don't seem to arouse much fear or intrigue. The first is marked by a burlesque of a funeral; giggling priests play peek-a-boo before a congregation composed, in part, of a troupe of costumed baton twirlers and a balaclava-clad man. Much of the humor comes from director Bruno Dumont's brand of distorted naturalism. Here, as in most of his films, the cast is composed of local non-actors, chosen in no small part for the quality of their faces (Quinquin has the face of a veteran boxer, the bumbling Com mandant Van der Weyden is all bushy eyebrows and unexplained facial tics), which he exploits to the full with lingering close-ups. The landscape combines bucolic beauty with the marks of violence past and present. Quinquin's favored haunts are abandoned seaside bunkers, remnants of war prized for their hidden supply of grenades. Dumont so deftly mixes comedy with a sort of existential horror that perhaps what's most surprising are the moments of real tenderness and warmth--Quinquin's unhesitating defense of his mentally handicapped uncle, his loving relationship with his girlfriend, Eve. This is the film's greatest strength (and what keeps it engaging for all of it's three hours and seventeen minutes) --characters who are at once monstrous, ridiculous, and deeply touching. (2014, 197 min, DCP Digital) EJC
---
Ulrich Seidl's IN THE BASEMENT (Austria)
Saturday, 6:45pm and Wednesday, 6pm
You won't believe what everyday Austrians are doing in their basements behind closed doors. What's that you say? Bondage, taxidermy, and Nazi stuff? Well, never mind then. Despite scenes of graphic BDSM play, armchair Nazis waxing nostalgic, and multiple gun nuts holding forth on their warped world view, Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's 2014 documentary IN THE BASEMENT feels less shocking than it looks. Rendering the bizarre as banal seems entirely intentional on Seidel's part though. IN THE BASEMENT is full of meticulously composed medium shots, a Seidl trademark showcased in works such as DOG DAYS and the PARADISE trilogy, with subjects frequently situated in the dead center of the frame staring directly into the camera. Little to no background is given on the subjects outside of their subterranean pursuits, and the doc is most effective when it allows this lack of context to send our imaginations reeling. A few chosen characters--typically those with the most taboo inclinations--are given plenty of coverage and a platform to discuss the whys and wherefores of their ways. It's the occasional silent subjects, clearly coached by Seidl to remain affectless and allowed only a few moments of screen time, that really captivate: a cheerful guy in cutoff camo with a high caliber handgun on the table in front of him and bullets strewn about; two shirtless youths huddled in a staircase looking desperate and strung out; three women waiting for their laundry, arms stiff at their sides standing at attention. Throughout IN THE BASEMENT, Seidl artfully blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction filmmaking, and in doing so finds intrigue in both the taboo and the mundane. (2014, 81 min, DCP Digital Projection) JS
---
Jessica Hausner's AMOUR FOU (New German)
Sunday, 5pm and Monday, 6pm
Most period films try to convince us that the past was just like the present: that people in earlier eras had the same feelings, the same hopes and fears, the same ideas about romance and spirituality that we do today--only they expressed those things while wearing different-looking clothing amid different-looking settings. Austrian writer/director Jessica Hausner (LOURDES) takes the opposite approach in the thrilling AMOUR FOU, positing early-18th century Berlin as a landscape as unfamiliar as that of futuristic science fiction. The film centers on Heinrich Von Kleist (Christian Friedel), a young German poet and dramatist, and his quest to find a suitable woman to accompany him in a suicide pact. After being rebuffed by his cousin Marie (Sandra Huller), he turns his attentions to Henriette (Birte Schnoeink), a friend's wife who believes she is dying of a terminal illness. The real-life Kleist authored THE MARQUIS VON O, Eric Rohmer's film adaptation of which would appear to provide Hausner's primary cinematic model here: her camera is always static and the performers deliver their monotone lines reading while frequently remaining perfectly still. These tableaux-like shots, which feature broad planes of color and exquisite natural lighting, are astonishing in their painterly beauty, but it is ultimately the way Hausner's mise-en-scene combines with her sharp original screenplay that immerses viewers in her compelling vision of the Romantic Age: ancient political debates among aristocratic characters (about taxation for all, and the dangerous influence of French-style democracy on Germany) in the most meticulously art-directed interiors imaginable make this portrait of a vanished way of life feel both compelling as social commentary as well as wonderfully, aesthetically strange. (2014, 96 min, DCP Digital) MGS
---
Kornél Mundruczó's WHITE GOD (New Hungarian)
Wednesday, 7:45pm
Alfred Hitchcock once said, "Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms." These words must have been ringing in Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó's ears during the production of WHITE GOD. This dramatic tale begins simply enough: A young teenager, Lili (Zsófia Psotta), is forced to abandon her beloved mutt, Hagen, on the street by her father who deems the dog to be unfit to keep as a pet. As Hagen adapts to his harsh new life without a loving home, Lili sets out to find him, and the film takes a sharp turn into horror and the macabre. Featuring 274 mixed breed dogs, much of the story is void of dialogue and focuses predominantly on its animal actors. Mundruczó's mise-en-scene relies heavily on the juxtaposition of man's best friend set against the dichotomously picturesque and crumbling streets of Budapest. Lingering shots of the dogs' eyes, ears, faces, and tails help elicit more emotion and tangible feelings than some of Hollywood's most seasoned are capable of. Many of the shots are beautifully composed, as Mundruczó takes complete advantage of the frame's entire space. On the horror side, the film is very reminiscent of Hitchcock's THE BIRDS as Hagen and the city's stray dogs band together to form an uprising and terrorize Budapest's denizens. With this uprising, Mundruczó's draws comparisons to 2011's "We Are The 99%"/"Occupy movement," but on a more Darwinian level. Very rarely does an animal trainer from a film merit mentioning, but in this instance Árpád Halász deserves high praise for the work he has done here. As Hitchcock once said, "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it"; however, WHITE GOD shows that a woof can be just as effective. (2014, 121 min, DCP Digital) KC
---
Complete schedule and more info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
CRUCIAL VIEWING
D.W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE (Silent American Revival)
South Side Projections at the Logan Center for the Arts (University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th St.) - Saturday, 7pm
South Side Projections' presentation of D.W. Griffith's famed epic is given added luster as it will be accompanied by world-renowned composer and conductor (and writer) Somtow Sucharitkul, for whom first seeing the film was a life-changing event. According to South Side Projections' website, "The turning point in [Sucharitkul's] life came as a teenager when his English teacher took his class to see INTOLERANCE with a live pianist in London at the British Film Institute"; per Sucharitkul's own Facebook page, this is a chance to fulfill his "lifelong dream...to improvise an accompaniment to [the film]." (Currently the artistic director of the Bangkok Opera, his past achievements are too long to list here--but it's certainly worth the Google search) Speaking of improvisation, Griffith did just that when making INTOLERANCE, which contains four separate but parallel storylines, ranging from one set in ancient Babylonia to one set at the time when the film was made. Famous for its groundbreaking use of intercutting that's as fast as the train barreling down at the climax, the film was in fact born of the latter storyline, later referred to as the "modern" story, which was conceptualized before Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION and originally called THE MOTHER AND THE LAW. As Richard Schickel states in his book D.W. Griffith: An American Life, "studio workers at [a lower] level were under the impression that the stories that were eventually melded with it in INTOLERANCE were separate projects; indeed, they were given separate production numbers." He continues: "Thus INTOLERANCE was a mighty improvisation, an attempt to salvage what would have been, pre-BIRTH, a more-than-acceptable little picture, turning it eventually into the story of spectacle that he--and the public--expected of America's premier director." The version and exhibition format to be shown is unclear as of this writing; regardless, this film's restoration history is one of the more interesting I've come across, as it's as long and varied as Sucharitkul's CV. And that's saying something. (1916, 210 min OR 171 min, Archival 35mm Print OR DCP Digital*) KS
---
*As of press time, SSP is uncertain whether they will be able to show the previously announced 1989 35mm restoration print from the Library of Congress (due to unexpected technical issues with the projectors) or will need to substitute the 2013 DCP digital restoration from Cohen Media. Check the SSP website for updated information.
---
More info at http://southsideprojections.org.
David Cronenberg's MAPS TO THE STARS (New Canadian)
Music Box Theatre - Check Venue website for showtimes
The latest effort from David Cronenberg is a bit of a departure for the septuagenarian Canadian auteur, a perverse Hollywood roast in the tradition of SUNSET BOULEVARD, THE PLAYER, and MULLHOLLAND DRIVE. MAPS TO THE STARS is a consistently surprising, meticulously observed film, poignant at times, often hilarious. The subject of MAPS is the American empire, its century old symbiotic relationship with the movies, and the strange and damaged people (celebrities) through which this bond is maintained. In the film the collective denial that we perpetuate through our entertainment industry parallels the lies that we tell ourselves as individuals. Both mask grim reality in a mirage of constant progress and imminent redemption. Julianne Moore is terrifying as the Gloria Swanson aging starlet. Evan Bird is brilliantly cast as a Bieberesque pre-adolescent power player. It's not a perfect film. Missteps include an abundance of extraneous ghost sightings and a Greek tragic structure that is either not fleshed out enough or completely unnecessary. But overall, another important work from one of the greats. (2014, 111 min, DCP Digital) ML
---
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
Andrzej Zulawski's POSSESSION (International Revival)
Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) at the Logan Center for the Arts (915 E. 60th St.) - Friday, 7pm (Free Admission)
Originally hacked down for American release to a schlocky--and downright absurd--ninety-minutes, POSSESSION has been restored to Zulawski's original cut. The added footage doesn't necessarily make the infamous tentacled-monster sex thing any less nuts, because it still is a shocking sight to behold. But its purpose is more nuanced and creepy when the film really goes off the rails. Drawing from his own divorce, Zulawski's film follows the collapse of Mark and Anna's marriage and the impossibility of Mark ever fully knowing, or possessing, his wife in love. Largely set in an apartment near the Berlin Wall, Mark is confronted with divorce and descends into severe depression. He emerges in a near-psychotic state intending to reclaim Anna and their son. He soon becomes aware of Anna's lover, but after confronting him, both men realize Anna is seeing someone--or something--else. Zulawski keeps the camera in almost constant motion, pushing in and pulling back during confrontations between Mark and Anna as their fights escalate to bloody moments that are somehow both expected and completely terrifying. In one scene, Anna grinds meat as Mark maniacally berates her. The noise of the kitchen rises with the tension and Anna, tired of the diatribe, takes an electric knife to her neck. Paired with scenes of their individual genuine tenderness toward their son, POSSESSION is filled with mirrors. Mark meets his son's schoolteacher, a benevolent doppelganger for his wife, and a double of Mark appears with Anna at the end. Even the setting is exploited for an otherworldly nothingness and an exactness in East and West Germany, itself perversely mirrored. The unrestrained acting--Anna thrashing hysterically could describe many scenes--adds to a heightened reality where Anna's possession is not demonic, but love can be. Preceded by two short films: HAND MOVIE (Yvonne Rainer, 1966, 5 min, Digital Projection) and PULLING MOUTH (Bruce Nauman, 1969, 8 min, DVD Projection). (1981, 123 min, 35mm) BW
---
More info at www.filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu.
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Alfred Hitchcock's ROPE (American Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Friday, 7, 8:45, and 10:30pm and Sunday, 1:30pm
While maybe not Hitchcock's best film, ROPE is certainly one of his most curious. Based on an English play entitled Rope's End in which two elitist university students murder an acquaintance and hold a cocktail party over his hidden corpse, Hitchcock's 1948 film sanitizes it for American audiences. The play, ostensibly about the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, purports a homosexual relationship between the two male leads, and a supposed affair with their former professor--the inspiration for the murder--who also sniffs out the crime at the party. Hitchcock's film, by removing the offending gay cues and suggestive Britishisms--"my boy!"--leaves us mostly with elephants in the room. According to screenwriter Arthur Laurents, Warner Bros. purportedly never used the word homosexuality or its variants, preferring to use "it," and never acknowledged its basis on Leopold and Loeb. It is only fitting that Hitchcock's ROPE, often described as an experiment, would strike such tension with Hollywood filmmaking: dialogue-driven, single location, long takes, etc. Even its unique editing construction--long shots that attempt to hide cuts by disguise through clever camera movements--is interesting considering the Hollywood style of "invisible" editing. ROPE isn't exactly subversive, but it doesn't play by the rules either--a distinctive feature for much of Hitchcock's work. (1948, 80 min, 35mm) BW
---
More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
Leo McCarey's DUCK SOUP (American Revival)
Music Box Theatre - Saturday and Sunday, 11:30am
Working, for once, with a decent director in Leo McCarey (make that a great one, actually), The Marx Brothers turned in their magnum opus with DUCK SOUP (1933), ditching love interests and instrumental numbers in favor of nonstop madcap bliss. While not the brothers' first film to be written expressly for the screen, this is certainly their first (and last) to be paced for it, breathlessly motormouthing in a way that anticipates the gag-a-second comedies of a less heralded set of brothers, the Zuckers. But the primary reason DUCK SOUP transcends the rest of the Marx's' output is its target--Groucho's Escher-like language contortions never found a better foil than governmental bureaucracy, and the hall-of-mirrors conversations dominating this war spoof rank alongside Heller and Vonnegut. For all their good intentions, contemporary antiwar filmmakers might do well to take a page from this, which, in its gleeful skewering, reminds us what about humanity might be worth saving. (1933, 68 min, 35mm) MK
---
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
V?ra Chytilová's DAISIES (Czech Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Sunday, 7pm
V?ra Chytilová's films have earned her acolytes and enemies at an equal rate--particularly DAISIES, an anarchic, poetic, visually exhilarating film lacking in any affirmation whatsoever. In more recent years, it has cemented Chytilová's stature as an avant-garde genius, a feminist icon, and a major influence behind films such as CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING and MULHOLLAND DRIVE. In the period immediately following its release, Chytilová was marked as both a dangerous dissident (by the Czechoslovak government, who unofficially blacklisted her) and a political traitor to the Left (by Godard, who made her the central figure of his anti-Soviet/Czechoslovak documentary PRAVDA). During one of the first screenings of her work in France, audience members walked out, complaining that "they shouldn't make that kind of film. It undermines people's faith in socialism. If that is the way it really is, then none of it is worth it at all." DAISIES leads with exactly this kind of "objectionable" nihilism, opening with the two protagonists deciding that "the world is spoiled; we'll be spoiled, too." These two teenage girls, both named Marie, spend the rest of the film on a hedonistic rampage of consumption and destruction, in no particular order, culminating in a banquet scene that merges both tendencies to an apocalyptic conclusion. Marie and Marie do everything that decent women shouldn't (cheat, steal, make messes, advertise casual sex without following through, overeat, etc)--and care about precisely nothing. They speak in nonsensical, non sequitur dialogue that seems like it could have been randomly generated ("Why say 'I love you?' Why not just 'an egg?'"), but was actually carefully curated by Chytilová to serve as "the guardian of meaning" for her "philosophical documentary." During production, the only thing that she insisted remained untouched was the original script; everything else was up for grabs. Her production team took full advantage of this freedom in depicting the Maries' nihilistic spree, resulting in a surreal and stunning display of meaningless excess at every turn. Most notably, Jaroslav Kucera, the film's cinematographer (and Chytilová's husband), shot the film as one of his famous "colour experiments," and Ester Krumbachová, the film's costumer, styled the Maries in trendy mod bikinis and minidresses as often as elaborate sculptural outfits made from newspaper and loose wires. The screening will be introduced by Steve Vogel, the son of the legendary author and film programmer Amos Vogel, whose seminal book Film as a Subversive Art is the basis for the series this screening is part of. (1966, 74 min, 35mm) AO
---
More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
Rithy Panh's THE MISSING PICTURE (New Cambodian Documentary)
Gene Siskel Film Center - Tuesday, 6pm
Without pictures, audio, or any other kind of recordings, one man must rely on his own personal memory to tell a tale that a majority of the Western world has no knowledge of. Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh re-enacts the Khmer Rouge takeover of his country during his youth through the use of clay figures. The political takeover, reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the sixties, included the 're-education' of children born to intellectuals and artists and calls for an entirely self-sufficient country. Panh's personal experiences are shown to the audience only as far as the hundreds of hand-carved clay dolls will allow. The filmmaker never appears, only his voice is heard narrating his memories. Interspersed with the figurines is the limited existing news and documentary footage of the time, which gives a broader sense of Cambodia during this three-year period. Propaganda from Pol Pot's regime put forward a tale of a well-fed, educated nation, but the director's own story paints a far different story, one similar to accounts of atrocities from Holocaust victims. The use of hundreds of dolls to detail the plights of famine, torture, and grief is perhaps odd, but it isn't that different in practice from using human performers to portray a historical scene: both are distanced from the actual event, and it's the director's handling of the figures or the actors that allows for engagement with the subject. And yet, with the inanimate clay dolls cut away and painted to represent a mostly forgotten time, a haunting image is produced that may create a longer-lasting impression than more conventional documentary strategies. With a lecture by SAIC professor Daniel Eisenberg. (2013, 92 min, DCP Digital) SW
---
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
John Coney's SPACE IS THE PLACE (American Revival)
Black Cinema House (7200 S. Kimbark Ave.) - Friday, 7pm (Free Admission*)
SPACE IS THE PLACE is a very odd film, written by and starring the brilliant composer slash prophet from space Sun Ra. The main plot is basically that of Sun Ra's own reinvention as an interstellar prophet: he plays Sun Ra, who finds enlightenment on another planet and returns to Earth to save his African American brethren from a supernatural pimp-overlord, using his music to spread his message. Ra intended it as a lighthearted homage to cheap 1950s science fiction, but a lengthy subplot involving pimps and prostitutes clashed with Ra's scenes and placed it firmly in the Blacksploitation genre. Ra decided that these elements were unnecessary pandering that detracted from his message (and he was right), and for decades the film was available only in a shortened 63-minute version that stuck more closely to his vision. The suppressed footage was eventually restored for the 2003 DVD release. Genre digressions aside, SPACE IS THE PLACE is a unique creation, a foggy window into one of the most creative minds of the twentieth century: equal parts maddening and enlightening, off-putting in its sometimes-amateurish construction but hypnotizing nonetheless. (1974, 85 min, DVD Projection) MWP
---
Also showing is John Akomfrah's terrific 1996 essay film THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY (45 min, DVD Projection), which explores issues related to the Pan-African experience through a lens of futurism and science fiction.
---
*Free admission but limited seating; RSVP & more info at blackcinemahouse.org.
Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi's WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (New New Zealand/American)
Music Box Theatre - Check Venue website for showtimes
Once upon a full moon, vampires were considered to be pure horror. With Bram Stoker's original Dracula, Bela Lugosi's 1930s and 40s Universal films, the iconic German expressionist film NOSFERATU, and Carl Theodor Dreyer's VAMPYR, their gothic mythology was firmly rooted in the collective conscious. These immortal creatures of the night relied on charm, sexuality, and dark magic to enchant and lure their victims. Over time, filmic (and other popular culture) representations of vampires strayed from the original formula, delving into comedy, romance, science fiction, and more. All of these varieties inevitably led to the ill-conceived TWILIGHT and its unavoidable sequels. The vampire film had reached a point of stagnation. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS breaks free of this vampire-moribundity, and is also one of the most original and refreshing comedies in recent memory. This mockumentary combination of The Office meets LET THE RIGHT ONE IN meets The Real World satirizes what life would be like for a vampire living today, dealing with the mundane aspects of contemporary urban life. SHADOWS dares to asks such questions as who's going to clean the dishes, what clothes should vampires wear to the club, and is a human an appropriate plus one to bring to an undead masquerade ball. The answers play out in droll, hilarious fashion, aided by FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS' Jermaine Clement and Rhys Darby, who dazzle as two of the bloodsucking flatmates. Bram Stoker may be rolling over in his grave seeing what has transpired since his vaunted masterpiece, but for the viewers, SHADOWS rewardingly proves that there is still blood left in the veins of the vampire movie. (2015, 86 min, DCP Digital) KC
---
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.org.
Tomm Moore's SONG OF THE SEA (New Animation)
Music Box Theatre - Check Venue website for showtimes
Since the release of Walt Disney's 1937 masterpiece SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS as one of the first animated feature length films, animation has come a long way. From cut-outs to cel shading to stop motion to CGI, the medium has evolved greatly. In this current era, traditional animation techniques are now eschewed for CGI due to its stylistic appearance, rapid production, and overall flexibility. Tomm Moore's SONG OF THE SEA is a throwback to the hand drawn Golden Age of Animation of Disney and others. An Irish folk tale that has a timeless feel and would fit well in any era, it is one of the most visually stunning animated films ever made. To be frank, gorgeous is an understatement for how breathtaking this movie is to behold. Every cel is a labor of love. Full of eye-popping spiral, circular, and fractal images, Moore's film is one to be experienced on the big screen in order to completely absorb his intoxicating efforts. Hayao Miyazaki, famous for MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO and SPIRITED AWAY among many others, is indisputably the greatest living master of hand drawn animation, and his influences are on full display in Moore's film with a couple slight nods to boot. After his previous 2009 work, THE SECRET OF KELLS, Moore has improved upon his skills in every way, from his refined characters to his rich and vibrant storytelling to his graceful art design. Moore is staking a claim as the next great animation auteur with SONG. If and when Miyazaki decides to retire for good and actually means it, audiences can rest assured that the torch is being passed into capable hands. One can only hope that his career is just as long and prosperous. (2014, 93 min, DCP Digital) KC
---
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.org.
MORE SCREENINGS AND EVENTS
The Conversations at the Edge series at the Gene Siskel Film Center presents Encounters: Experimental Film and Animation from Croatia on Thursday at 6pm. The program, which features films from the 1960s to the present was curated and will be introduced by local filmmaker and Eyeworks festival organizer Alexander Stewart.
Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.) hosts an Open Screening on Saturday at 8pm. Bring work to screen (DVD only; 20 min maximum) or go to watch. Free admission.
Kristen Whissel (University of California, Berkeley) will give a lecture entitled "Parallax Effects: Knowledge, Affect and the 'Optical Uncanny' of Post-War 3D Cinema" on Friday at 3:30pm at Annie May Swift Hall at Northwestern University. Free admission.
David Weinberg Photography (300 W. Superior St., Suite 203) screens Tirtza Even's 2014 documentary NATURAL LIFE (78 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Thursday at 6pm. Showing in conjunction with the exhibition Try Youth As Youth (see "Installations" below). Free admission.
Also at the Black Cinema House (7200 S. Kimbark Ave.) this week: Reuben Atlas's 2013 documentary BROTHERS HYPNOTIC (87 min, DVD Projection) is on Sunday at 4pm. Free admission, but limited seating; RSVP and more info at www.blackcinemahouse.org.
The One Earth Film Festival, organized by the sustainability-focused organization Green Community Connections, takes place Friday-Sunday at multiple venues in Chicago and surrounding cities. Full schedule at www.greencommunityconnections.org/one-earth-film-fest.
Silent Funny (4106 W. Chicago Ave.) screens Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (114 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Sunday at 5pm, with live score by Tarnation.
The Chicago Irish Film Festival continues through Saturday, March 7 at the Music Box Theatre and other locations. Full schedule at www.chicagoirishfilmfestival.com.
Also at Doc Films (University of Chicago) this week: Alejandro González Ińárritu's 2014 film BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) (119 min, DCP Digital) is on Saturday at 7 and 9:30pm and Sunday at 3:30pm; Jacques Doillon's 2013 film LOVE BATTLES (99 min, DCP Digital; Free admission) is on Monday at 7pm, with Doillon in person; Paul Feig's 2011 film BRIDESMAIDS (125 min, 35mm) is on Tuesday at 7pm; Federico Fellini's 1987 film INTERVISTA (105 min, 35mm) is on Wednesday at 7 and 9:15pm; U of C student filmmaking group Fire Escape Films has a screening on Thursday at 5pm; Peter Lord and Nick Park's 2000 animated feature CHICKEN RUN (84 min, DCP Digital) is on Thursday at 7pm; and Emile Ardolino's 1992 film SISTER ACT (100 min, 35mm) is on Thursday at 9pm.
Also at the Music Box Theatre this week: Robin Blotnick and Rachel Lears' 2014 documentary THE HAND THAT FEEDS (85 min) is on Tuesday at 7:30pm; and Amy Heckerling's 1995 film CLUELESS (97 min) and Tsuneo Kobayashi's 2013 Japanese animation THE LAST: NARUTO THE MOVIE (112 min) are on Friday and Saturday at Midnight.
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) screens Brent Huffman's 2014 documentary SAVING MES AYNAK (60 min, DCP Digital) on Friday at 7pm, with Huffman in person. Free admission.
Facets Cinémathčque plays Jaret Belliveau and Matthew Bauckman's 2013 documentary KUNG FU ELLIOT (88 min, Unconfirmed Format) for a week's run.
The Chicago Cultural Center screens local filmmaker Paula Froehle's 2012 documentary THE SHOW MUST GO ON: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF THE FLYING WALLENDAS (60 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Friday at 2pm. Free admission.
The Italian Cultural Institute (500 N. Michigan Ave.) screens Paolo Virzi's 2012 film EVERY BLESSED DAY (102 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Tuesday at 6pm. Free admission.
The Goethe-Institut Chicago (150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 200) screens the omnibus film BRIDGES OF SARAJEVO (114 min, Video Projection - Unconfirmed Format) on Monday at 6pm. Directors include: Aida Begi?, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Jean-Luc Godard, Kamen Kalev, Isild Le Besco, Sergei Loznitsa, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Peri?i?, Cristi Puiu, Angela Schanelec, Marc Recha, and Teresa Villaverde. Free admission, but RSVP required: email info@chicago.goethe.org or call (312) 263-0472.
ONGOING FILM/VIDEO INSTALLATIONS
Chicago Artists Coalition (217 N. Carpenter St.) opens the exhibit Extraordinary Effort, Spectacular Failure on Friday (opening reception 6-9pm). The show runs through March 26. Included are Lori Felker's 2015 installation (with video) A Trip to Always Falls and her 2015 collaborative video Pylons (with the duo Sebura&Gartlemann), along with work by Liz Gadelha, Wolfie E. Rawk, Nora Renick Rinehart, Jesse Seay, Sebura&Gartelman, and Erin Toale (curator).
Blanc Gallery (4445 Martin L. King Dr.) continues the exhibition Nacelle, a show of video work by Marco G. Ferrari, through May 1.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents German artist Clemens von Wedemeyer's HD video installation Muster (Rushes) (2012). On view February 21 to July 26.
David Weinberg Photography (300 W. Superior St., Suite 203) continues the exhibition Try Youth As Youth, which includes an installation version of Tirtza Even's NATURAL LIFE, plus work by Steve Davis, Steve Liss, and Richard Ross. Runs through May 8.
Threewalls (119 N. Peoria St., Suite 2C) continues Jaime Davidovich: Outreach 1974-1984 through March 21. The exhibition, which features video and television work by the Argentinean artist, is comprised of three programs of work, which will rotate over the course of the show; check http://three-walls.org for the schedule.
Melika Bass' solo exhibition The Latest Sun Is Sinking Fast, an immersive multi-channel video and sound installation, continues through April 19 at the Hyde Park Art Center.
Gallery 400 (400 S. Peoria, UIC) continues the exhibition Visibility Machines: Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen through March 14.
UPDATES/CLOSURES
Chicago Public Library screenings: Due to the frequency of late-additions (past our deadlines) and to their frequent inability (due 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 Patio Theater and the Portage Theater calendars have been confusing and constantly shifting--adding and removing events with little notice--and reportedly have been unexpectedly closed for scheduled events. We will no longer attempt to list any screenings there.
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.
