CRUCIAL VIEWING

Michael Snow's LA RÉGION CENTRALE (Classic Experimental)
Conversations at the Edge / Gene Siskel Film Center – Saturday, 2pm
Filmed on a Quebec mountaintop with a unique mechanism designed by the artist that allowed the camera to move in all directions via electronic controls, LA REGION CENTRALE exemplifies the fusion of simplicity and structural analysis that is typical of Snow's film work. Posing a radical challenge to the fixed, stable perspective of traditional landscape images, this three-hour endurance test also questions notions of technological transparency and human agency in cinema. (1971, Canada, 190 min, 16mm). More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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Jodorowsky's EL TOPO (Cult Revival)
Music Box – Friday & Saturday, midnight
A quintessential midnight movie, Jodorowsky's highly stylized and (ostensibly) allegorical Western is mishmash of religious and mythological themes that's as violent, misogynistic, and laughably ridiculous as it is beautiful, mystifying, and endearingly bizarre. "I ask of cinema what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs," the director famously said; it's not hard to understand why the film attracted devoted late-night audiences in New York for months in the early 1970s and gained fans like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. (1971, 125 min). More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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Jacques Tati's PLAYTIME (Classic Revival)
Music Box – Saturday & Sunday, 11:30am
The Music Box continues its Janus Films series with Jacques Tati's most ambitious and astounding masterpiece. Although it does feature Tati's famous Monsieur Hulot character, the film's real star is the enormous, futuristic set (a modernist Paris, nicknamed "Tativille") in which the director's gorgeously filmed and meticulously choreographed comic scenario unfolds. Although it is showing in 35mm, rather than the original 70mm, the film that critic Dave Kehr has called "the most visually inventive film of the 1960s" truly deserves to be seen on the big screen. (1960, 87 min). More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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V.O. by William Jones, plus Two Films by Luther Price (Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers - Sunday, 8pm
Los Angeles filmmaker William Jones' new film, V.O. (2006, 59 min, video), pulls non-explicit scenes from 70's and 80's gay porn films out of both their narrative and sexual contexts to form a haunting tapestry of gestures, glances, meetings, and longing. Jones combines this work by gay adult "auteurs" Fred Halsted, Joe Gage, Tom De Simone, etc. with soundtrack excerpts from works by masters of the European art film (Manoel de Oliveira, Jean Renoir, Luis Bunuel, Werner Schroeter, and others), in an uneasy meeting between highbrow and lowbrow. Showing with two recent (and somewhat more explicit) 16mm films by Boston filmmaker Luther Price, Ribbon Candy (2004) and Silk (2006). Full program description and additional info at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
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Oscar Micheaux's GOD’S STEP CHILDREN (Classic Revival, with Lecture)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Tuesday, 6pm
The Film Center continues its excellent African American Auteurs series with GOD'S STEP CHILDREN (1938, 65 min, 16mm), Micheaux's heart-breaking remake of John Stahl's IMITATION OF LIFE (1934) (also remade by Douglas Sirk in 1959). The film's story revolves around a mixed-race woman ashamed of her black heritage and was enormously controversial within the black community--picketers forced Micheaux to withdraw the film soon after its Harlem premiere. This rare screening will include a lecture by film scholar Jacqueline Stewart from Northwestern University. More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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CZECH MODERNISM: THE 1920'S TO THE 1940's (Classic Revival)
Facets Cinematheque – Screening Daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
The period covered in this twelve-film series was, until the fall of Communism in 1990, the only era in which Czechs were free from foreign rule; not surprisingly, the nation's already sophisticated artistic culture flourished. Diverse and formally complex, Czech filmmaking from this time helped lay the groundwork for the much-acclaimed Czech New Wave of the 1960s. Highlights include: Vladislav Vancura's ON THE SUNNY SIDE (1933), an inventive and experimental social allegory that weaves a loose narrative around a home for orphans; HEAVE HO! (1934), a comedy starring cabaret duo Jirí Voskovec and Jan Werich, who are still legendary amongst Czechs for their combination of Dadaist humor and social commentary; CRISIS (1938), a political documentary about the Nazi threat to Czechoslovakia, co-directed by Alexander Hackenschmied (a.k.a. Sasha Hammid, future husband of Maya Deren); and Alfred Radok's haunting and expressionist THE DISTANT JOURNEY (1949), the first narrative feature concerning the Holocaust. Full program, showtimes, and additional info at www.facets.org.
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David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE (New Release - Extended Run)
Music Box – Screening Daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
The Music Box has extended its run of Lynch's latest for yet another week, providing more opportunities to catch one of the most interesting releases of 2006. Using video for the first time in his career, Lynch probes the dark corners of the Hollywood (via Poland!) for pockets of enlightenment, and in the process, creates his most sophisticated exploration of human consciousness yet. Jonathan Rosenbaum's long review in the Reader is an excellent endorsement. (2005, 179 min, video on 35mm). More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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ALSO RECOMMENDED

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ANIMATION SCREENING SERIES
Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Friday, 7:30pm / 9pm
In anticipation of the CMS Graduate Student Conference on Animation in March 2007, U of C's Film Studies Center presents two programs of acclaimed contemporary animated shorts that are rarely screened outside the festival circuit.
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"It's A Punk World" - 7:30pm - This "spunky and disturbing" lineup includes J.J. Villard's interpretation of Charles Bukowski's SON OF SATAN, plus pieces by Martha Colburn, Scott Robert, Signe Baumane, Shelley Dodson, Matt Marsden, PES and more (various formats).
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"Short Works - Epic Tales" - Friday, 9pm - From hand drawn 2-d puppetry to CGI, this screening features short narrative works with stunning visual effects. Highlights include Ruth Lingford's powerful and masterful film PLEASURES OF WAR, and Chicago's own Jim Trainor with his recent film HARMONY, in which a lineup of animals confess their unseemly deeds from philandering to murder. Also includes movies by Daniel Sousa, Igor Kovalyov, Run Wrake, Lily Carré and more (various formats).
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More info at filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu.
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Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT (Classic Revival)
Block Cinema – Friday, 8pm
Block Cinema continues its survey of Lang's post-war noir period with THE BIG HEAT (1953, 89 min, 35mm). The film boasts an exceptional cast (including Lee Marvin in his first great villain role), but it may be best remembered for its blunt violence. Equally impressive, however, are Lang's deft tracking shots, which give this lurid police drama an almost musical sense of grace. Screening accompanied by a lecture from U of C's Tom Gunning. More info at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
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HEAVEN GALLERY WINTER SCREENING (Independent / Local)
Heaven Gallery - Saturday, installation opens at 5pm, movies at 8pm
The harsh Canadian winter isolated young Guy Maddin in his hometown of Winnipeg and is perhaps the biggest influence on his work, which draws on the visual aesthetics of silent and early sound cinema to explore stories of individuals often trapped in surreally insular communities. A selection of Maddin's most recent shorts will be screened as part of Heaven Gallery's third annual WINTER SCREENING, which seeks to emphasize the kinder side of the coldest season. The show also features work by similarly retro-minded Chicago filmmaker Chris Hefner and numerous others, in addition to a video installation and a performance by local violinist Anni Rossi. More info at www.heavengallery.com.
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Frank Borzages' A MAN'S CASTLE (Classic Revival)
LaSalle Bank Cinema – Saturday, 8pm
What remains impressive about A MAN'S CASTLE (1933, 75 min, 35mm) is not its anger about homelessness or its frank pre-code subplot about out-of-birth wedlock, but rather that Borzage manages to incorporate these issues into a melodrama that stands impervious to cynicism. Rightly called a masterpiece by critic Dave Kehr, the film locates the real-life roots of melodrama – in this case, trying to affirm one's humanity amidst poverty – and seriously depicts the emotions they inspire. Spencer Tracy stars as a homeless man in love, and he makes an ideal Borzagean hero, capable of conveying optimism without seeming sentimental. Check out Dave Kehr's capsule review in the Reader. Venue Information.
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Straub / Huillet's CLASS RELATIONS (Underground)
NWesternAve - Thursday, 8:30pm
Husband and wife Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, who emerged from the same Parisian cinephile environment as the members of the French New Wave, are the greatest directing duo in the history of cinema. Active from the 1960's until Huillet's death last year, they produced an uncompromising and rigorous body of work that explored the legacy of Western culture. CLASS RELATIONS (1984), their adaptation of Franz Kafka's first novel, Amerika, or The Man Who Disappeared, is the only film to accurately reflect the author's literary style in its aesthetic; photographed in Europe (Kafka himself never visited America), its stunningly simple compositions and arrhythmic editing reflect a jagged and jarring view of society. (127 min, DVD). More info at NWesternAve.com.
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THIS WEEK AT DOC FILMS (University of Chicago)
Noteworthy revivals from Doc this week: sentimental favorite CASABLANCA (1942, screening Friday and Sunday); an archival print of Maurice Tourneur's COUNTY FAIR (1920, screening Sunday); Marcel Pagnol's HARVEST (1937, screening Monday), which was a critical success upon release but is now remembered as the epitome of the Nouvelle Vague's despised "tradition of quality"; Howard Hawk's brilliant RED RIVER (1948, screening Tuesday); Hitchcock's masterpiece VERTIGO (1958, screening Wednesday); and perhaps most notably, IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1954, screening Thursday), a satire of celebrity culture from George Cukor’s underrated 1950s period starring the equally underrated Judy Holliday. More info at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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Nuri Bilge Ceylan's CLIMATES (New Foreign)
Music Box – Screening Daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
After the success of 2003's UZAK (DISTANT), Ceylan returns to direct and star alongside his real-life wife in this beautifully photographed account of a relationship in decline. Moving from the beaches of eastern Turkey to the snowy north, CLIMATES (2006, Turkey / France, 101 min) takes up considerations of modernization and masculinity in crisis through the lens of the personal, subtly interjecting astute commentary on contemporary Turkish society into its moving portrait of a fading romance. More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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THE LIVES OF OTHERS (New Foreign)
Landmark Century Centre – Screening Daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
A thriller about the workings of East Germany’s secret police near the end of the Cold War, this debut feature from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck swept the German Film Awards last year, and in the vein of THE EDUKATORS and SLUMMING, marks yet another offering from the developing subgenre of highly watchable, socially perceptive dramas made by young East German directors. (2006, 137 min). The film is also Jonathan Rosenbaum's Critics Choice movie of this week.
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FEBRUARY RETROSPECTIVES AT THE FILM CENTER
Gene Siskel Film Center – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
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- - - CINEMA CROATIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This week's selection, TWO PLAYERS FROM THE BENCH (2006, 112 min, 35mm), is an exercise in the genre Eastern Europe does best: black comedy. Considering that the story concerns a Croatian soldier accused of war atrocities, this could be as relevant as it is daring. MORE INFO
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- - - FILMS BY JOHNNIE TO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This year's HONG KONG! festival celebrates Hong Kong action director Johnnie To, whose films are reference-filled explorations of the genre. This week sees the Chicago early premiere of To's newest film, EXILED (2006), which is set in Macau and explores themes of brotherhood, chivalry and shared personal histories. Also showing is RUNNING ON KARMA (2003), which mixes comedy, cynicism and Buddhist enlightenment as only Hong Kong cinema can. MORE INFO
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- - - WERNER HERZOG: VISIONARY AT LARGE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This week, the Film Center screens a selection of Herzog's essay films, which are equally concerned with mysticism and new modes of storytelling. Films include: WHEEL OF TIME (1992, 80 min, 35mm), which explores Tibetan Buddhism and will be accompanied by the short LA SOUFRIÈRE (1977, 30 min, 16mm), in which Herzog climbs a volcano that is about to explode; the controversial LESSONS OF DARKNESS (1992, 50 min, 35mm), which turns the devastation of postwar Kuwait into abstract spectacle, and the Chicago premiere of the director's latest, THE WILD BLUE YONDER (2005, 81 min, 35mm), "an alternate history of the universe" that won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. MORE INFO x
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- - - MATTHEW BARNEY: CREMASTER AND BEYOND - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Film Center continues its retrospective of film and video by art star Matthew Barney with his latest, DRAWING RESTRAINT 9--a symbolic exploration of resistance and creativity set on a Japanese whaling ship, co-starring and scored by his partner, Björk. MORE INFO
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