CRUCIAL VIEWING
The Films of PERE PORTABELLA (Special Event)
Gene Siskel Film Center / Instituto Cervantes – Showtimes noted below
For the most part, it was the Film Center's retrospective last November--and the accompanying lectures by Jonathan Rosenbaum--that introduced Pere Portabella's name (the exact pronunciation of which is hotly debated) to Chicago. Now we're presented with an opportunity to see him for ourselves, maybe to prove that he isn't just a figment of Rosenbaum's imagination. A producer for Saura, Buñuel and others, the Catalan Portabella scurried around just out of Franco's view, putting together subversive processions of sounds and images (occasionally related) that analyzed and reflected upon not only Spanish politics, but Spanish cinema as well. This weekend, the Film Center will present his newest film, THE SILENCE BEFORE BACH (2007, 102 min, 35mm; screening Saturday, 8pm), along with the Franco-era works NOCTURNO 29 (1968, 83 min, 35mm) and EL SOPRAR (1974, 35 min, BetaSP; both screening Sunday, 8pm). SILENCE is his first film in 17 years and only his third since the collapse of Franco's regime. But that's not to say that he only flourishes under oppression--rather, Franco's disappearance freed Portabella to pursue forms of self-expression other than underground cinema (there are rumors that he even took up politics for a while). The filmmaker will be present for audience discussion following both screenings, with Saturday's discussion moderated by Jonathan Rosenbaum. (Synopses and full details at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.) In addition, for those who missed last year's retrospective, the Instituto Cervantes will be reviving several of the otherwise-unavailable highlights on DVD throughout the week, including CUADECUC-VAMPIR (1970) and WARSAW BRIDGE (1990). We recommend reading Rosenbaum's coverage in the Reader for further insights and all the details. IV
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Ingmar Bergman's THE MAGICIAN (Classic Revival w/ Lecture)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Wednesday, 6pm
Jonathan Rosenbaum will introduce this Ingmar Bergman title as part of his ongoing series about new cinematic forms in the 1950s. One of the director's period pieces, THE MAGICIAN culminates Bergman's fascination with nineteenth-century theater and social customs that extends from SAWDUST AND TINSEL (which Rosenbaum introduced last month for Chicago Cinema Forum's Bergman tribute) to SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT and WILD STRAWBERRIES. Telling the story of a traveling magic troupe and their all-night encounter with a noble family, the film becomes a quintessential Bergman meditation about artists versus working people, faith versus skepticism, and morality versus lust. As with the other films listed above, the philosophizing is tempered with good deal of levity, including some earthy flirtation scenes that show the influence of Jean Renoir. Along with fine performances by Bergman regulars Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, and Erland Josephson, THE MAGICIAN also features striking camerawork by his first main cinematographer, Gunnar Fischer (in one of his last collaborations with Bergman). The film has an almost storybook aesthetic with heavy shadows and a sentimental revival of period architecture, making the film something of a cozy rumination (1958, 100 min, 35mm). BS
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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Charlie Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR (Classic Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
One of the most courageous of all films, Chaplin's satire attacked Adolph Hitler while the US government was still officially neutral towards Nazi Germany, but it's even more remarkable for recognizing the complex relationship between Fascism and popular culture. Chaplin famously quipped that he had a vendetta against Hitler because he stole the Tramp's mustache, and he portrays his Hitler caricature Adenoid Hynkel as a version of his beloved Tramp turned inside out by the evils of the twentieth century. The clownish, neurotic dictator is of course motivated by delusions of grandeur (which Chaplin displays, gorgeously, in a ballet sequence where he dances with a balloon globe) but he's equally dependent on mass acceptance. Chaplin also represents the people persecuted by dictatorship, in his second role as a Jewish barber even more reminiscent of the Tramp. The scenes depicting the barber's social life in the ghetto are so deeply felt in their sympathy for European Jewish humor that THE GREAT DICTATOR could be ranked justifiably with the great Jewish films. Given his worldwide popularity, Chaplin's decision to ally his screen image so closely with the Jews had deeply radical implications, but that's no match for the openly Leftist monologue at the film's end. Following a series of tragic/farcical complications, the plot breaks away and Chaplin addresses the camera for a three-minute unbroken shot. What begins as an outcry against Fascism turns into a plea for human brotherhood, and it's audacious in how fully it manipulates the communicative nature of cinema. Writing about this scene in 1974, Jonathan Rosenbaum was rightly hyperbolic: "Seen with historical hindsight, there are few moments in film as raw and convulsive as this desperate coda. Being foolish enough to believe that he can save the world, Chaplin winds up breaking our hearts in a way that no mere artist ever could." (1940, 124 min, new 35mm print). BS
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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ALSO RECOMMENDED
Josef von Sternberg's THE TOWN (Classic Revival)
LaSalle Bank Cinema – Saturday, 8pm
Josef von Sternberg's career had been floundering for nearly a decade when he was commissioned by the Office of War Information for this propaganda documentary short, a perplexing assignment for a director best known for luxuriating in narrative ambiguity and meticulous visual design (imagine Guy Maddin crafting Go Army spots for a contemporary parallel). Idly cataloging the melting pot of Anytown, USA (Madison, Indiana in this case--a town otherwise familiar to cinephiles from Vincente Minnelli's SOME CAME RUNNING) before an 11th hour paean to the war effort, one might never have expected von Sternberg capable of the aesthetic anonymity demonstrated here. Those inclined to reach for a link to his narrative oeuvre may note his habitual insistence on designating a specific location only to ignore any distinguishing characteristics beyond its name's potential for poetic incantation. (1943, 11 min, 16mm) This rarity precedes the feature DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS, Michael Curtiz and John Garfield's sort-of-sequel to the previous year's FOUR DAUGHTERS. MK
Venue Information here.
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Michaelangelo Antonioni's ZABRISKIE POINT (Classic Revival)
Music Box – Saturday & Sunday, 11:30am
For those who missed it at the Film Center's Antonioni retrospective, here's another rare opportunity to see the director's most divisive work, his only one in CinemaScope. (It's unavailable on region 1 DVD and the extant VHS is a badly faded, pan-and-scan print.) A response to the US counterculture of the late 60s, ZABRISKIE POINT is something far different--and more elusive--than the anti-American screed detractors have made it out to be. Like a number of European artists ranging from Franz Kafka in Amerika to Bruno Dumont in TWENTYNINE PALMS (2003), Antonioni regards the United States as something like a poetic construct. Its spirit of debate and varied topography (particularly the Arizona mountain range of the title) elicit sincere awe, while Antonioni reserves his characteristic dread for police and consumer culture. But even this last subject becomes a source of arresting compositions: Early on, there's an eerie montage of billboard ads that's equal parts Pop Art and experimental film; it sets the stage for the final sequence, a series of slow-motion explosions that had the Film Center dead silent in July. As in L'ECLISSE, Antonioni is contemplating a world taken over by consumer goods, though there are moments of refuge here--namely, the dialogue of student radicals (directed with cinema verité excitement) and blissful communal lovemaking. (1970, 110 min, 35mm widescreen). BS
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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INDESTRUCTABLE (Local Showcase)
Landmark Century Centre - Tuesday, 6pm
The Midwestern Film Festival, a monthly film series that highlights work by local filmmakers, continues into October with the heart-wrenching doc INDESTRUCTABLE: "When 31 year-old Ben Byer is diagnosed with ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, he begins documenting his life on camera. What begins as a series of video diaries grows into a three-year journey that takes him around the world looking for answers, and maybe even a cure." The filmmaker/subject, along with various collaborators, will be on hand to answer questions following the screening.
More info at www.midwestfilm.com.
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Lockhart & Friends: THE DEVIL LIVES IN HOLLYWOOD (Experimental)
Conversations at the Edge / Film Center – Thursday, 6pm
This week, CATE brings us a show of SAIC artist in residence Amy Lockhart's animated and live action work. The animations are bright, intensely imaginative little fists of color and movement whose subjects include rounded figures with elongated legs whipping through space, scary R. Crumb-reminiscent baby doll figures licking anything within reach, and eyes crying into other eyes. The program's namesake, THE DEVIL LIVES IN HOLLYWOOD (1999) is probably the highlight of Lockhart's work--a musical collage of 80s and 90s pop culture detritus. The live action material consists of two bawdy, loose, goofy videos staring Miss Edmonton Teenburger 1983, and her unicorn-riding, costume-wearing, temporary-cake-eating, hockey-player-beating friends. Also on the program are complimentary animations chosen by Lockhart, including the highly recommended THOUGHT CITY (Stefan Gruber, 2000) and TUNNEL OF LOVE (Helen Hill, 1996). Lockhart will be in attendance. (1996-2006, various formats). JM
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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4 Films by ALFRED HITCHCOCK (Classic Revival)
Block Cinema – Showtimes noted below
Block continues an exhaustive retrospective of Hitchcock films with some infrequently revived but noteworthy works from the middle section of the director's career: a Friday night double feature of LIFEBOAT (1944, 96 min; screening 7pm), a tense nautical drama set entirely on small boat, playing with I CONFESS (1953, 96 min; screening 9pm), a film much beloved by the original Cahiers du Cinema crowd (as led by the great Catholic film writer, Andre Bazin), which finds Monty Clift taking a star turn as a priest who's in way over his head with a murder investigation; a Wednesday double feature of some of his best British sound films, with the light-hearted but clever murder mix-up YOUNG AND INNOCENT (1937, 83 min; screening at 7pm) and
stylish Nazi spy thriller THE LADY VANISHES (1938, 95 min; screening 9pm), perhaps the best conceived of this week's offerings; finally, Thursday brings Hitchcock's lengthy, haunting first American film, REBECCA (1940, 130 min; screening 8pm), which the director fought doggedly with heavy-handed producer David O. Selznick to gain control over. (all 35mm). DW
Synopses and more info at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
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THIS WEEK AT DOC FILMS
With all due respect to their ongoing vanguard series showcasing hard-to-find films of Ousmane Sembene, Margaret Sullivan, and Mormon culture, the most exciting program at DOC this week may be a last hurrah screening of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's GRINDHOUSE (2007, 191 min, 35mm; Saturday, 7 & 10:30pm), a film whose pleasures will surely diminish as home viewing. A piece of revisionist film criticism on par with the most provocative writings of Robin Wood, these two faux-schlock features defend cheap horror and sexploitation films as making significant contributions to moviegoing history. A major theme of GRINDHOUSE is the potential of these genres, operating under the radar of mainstream culture, to subvert racial stereotypes (more apparent in the Rodriguez half) and conventional storytelling methods (the Tarantino half), all while going down as crass entertainment. The Sembene, Sullivan and Mormon films are, respectively: TAUW and MANDABI, an early short-and-feature double bill (Thursday, 7pm); ONLY YESTERDAY (Tuesday, 7pm), an early version of the novella that would be remade as Max Ophul's Letter From an Unknown Woman; and A MORMON MAID, an early (1917) feature-length film that would inspire the British "Mormonsploitation" films of the 1920s (Thursday, 9:30pm). Also playing: the popular comedy KNOCKED UP (Friday, 6:15, 9, 11:45pm; Sunday, 3pm); another early (1916) feature, the Western HELL'S HINGES (Sunday, 7pm); the Ealing Studios' KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, one of the greatest of all comedies (Monday, 7pm); and Akira Kurosawa's DRUKEN ANGEL (Wednesday, 7 & 9:15pm). BS
Full details at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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MANDA BALA (New Documentary)
Piper's Alley - Screening daily, check Reader Movies for showtimes
Winner of the Grand Jury and Cinematography prizes at Sundance, this debut by Errol Morris protégé Jason Kohn takes a top-down view of Brazil's myriad corruption profiteers; the interviewees include a large-scale embezzler/frog farmer, district attorney, kidnapper, and a plastic surgeon whose practice is devoted to repairing kidnapping victims' injuries. The formally inventive Kohn has inherited his mentor's knack for weaving disparate narrative strands with poetic imagery as well as his propensity for shaking up the conventional interview dynamic; many interviews are conducted with onscreen interpreters, whose nonverbal cues frequently amount to an embedded reaction shot, adding a subtle layer of criticism to certain testimonials. Despite its dismal outlook, MANDA BALA has been disparaged in some circles for apparently not being enough of a downer; breathtaking CinemaScope vistas and a soundtrack stuffed (perhaps overstuffed) with tropicalia & MPB gems provide both a euphoric counterpoint to the sober subject matter and a welcome reminder that Brazil isn't all power, corruption and lies. (2007, 85 min, 35mm). MK
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BLAME IT ON FIDEL (New Foreign)
Music Box – Weeklong run, check Reader Movies for showtimes
This debut feature by Julie Gavras (daughter of Z director Costa-Gavras) explores the intersection of political activism and family life. Told from the perspective of a daughter whose bougeois parents abruptly refute their former lifestyle to become radical leftists in 1970s France, BLAME IT ON FIDEL has been widely praised for tackling political issues without resorting to flag-waving or losing sight of its intimate familial focus. (2006, 99 min, 35mm). MK
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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ALSO PLAYING AT THE FILM CENTER
In addition to the many crucial programs mentioned above, the Film Center is also weighing in this week Raul Ruiz's TIME REGAINED (1999, 165 min, 35mm; screening Saturday, 3pm and Monday, 6:30pm), one of the narrative experimenter's best films (a fascinating attempt to represent the "unfilmable" prose of Marcel Proust cinematically), and the final week of their focus on the films of the Polish director Lech Majewski. The final two features in their complete retrospective are WOJACZEK (1999, 89 min, 35mm; screening Saturday, 6pm and Thursday, 8:15pm), the dark, absurdist biopic of a legendary Polish poet, and the erotic drama GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS (2004, 103 min, 35mm), a film praised by Andrea Gronvall in this week's Reader. Majewski himself will be attending all the screenings this week to answer questions from the audience.
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES
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