CRUCIAL VIEWING
Robert Bresson's A MAN ESCAPED (Classic Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Friday, 6pm & Wednesday, 6pm w/ lecture
The films of Robert Bresson are proof of the limitations of conventional language--they leave us tongue-tied and dumbfounded. And although surely their greatest qualities are incommunicable, Jonathan Rosenbaum will be exploring the philosophical weight of his favorite Bresson--the 1956 prison drama A MAN ESCAPED--in this weeks's installment his Great Transition series at the Film Center. "The best of all prison-escape movies," describes Rosenbaum, "it reconstructs the very notion of freedom through offscreen sounds and defines salvation in terms of painstakingly patient and meticulous effort. Bresson himself spent part of the war in an internment camp and subsequently lived through the German occupation of France, experiences that inform his magisterial grasp of what the concentrated use of sound and image can reveal about souls in hiding." If the previous presentations are any indicator, Wednesday's lecture will likely include the screening of additional related materials and go late into the evening. IV
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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THE FALSE ADVERTISING SHOW (Experimental)
Gallery 400 (UIC) – Wednesday, 7pm
Experimental cinema programmer at large, Ben Russell, brings us The False Advertising Show, an invigorating collection of film and video work that kidnaps clips and flickers from mainstream media transmissions and turns them against their corporate masters. The show, presented alongside Gallery 400's current exhibition of still art by Chicagoan adbuster Carol Jackson, brings together moving images by such "celluloid luminaries" as Stan Brakhage, Peter Kubelka, and Martha Colburn, videomakers like Ximena Cuevas, Les LeVeque, and Richard Serra, and many more avant-garde media pirates. The synopsis of Colburn's WHAT'S ON? (1997) should get you in the mood: "An over-the-top tumble in a TV mindscape in which there are attacking baboons, a mutating Michael Jackson, gameshows based on body parts and more. Also: Oprah Winfrey gets punched in the head." Mr. Russell's complete program notes available here. (1972-2006, 75 min TRT, various formats). DW
Venue Information here. Full program details here.
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Michael Robinson: NOTHING COMPARES 2 U (Experimental)
Conversations at the Edge / Film Center – Thursday, 6pm
The second great (and thematically similar) experimental event of the week comes from Conversations at the Edge, who will present a selection of film and video work by emerging Chicago-based artist, Michael Robinson. In the last seven years (some spent in UIC's master's film program), Robinson has created an impressive body of work, appearing in nearly every recent and upcoming experimental film festival and garnering many awards and accolades. CATE programmer Amy Beste describes it as such: "The films and videos of Michael Robinson are a deft mix of stunning beauty and nervy wit. He combines lush, often optically printed imagery with the electric fuzz of video-games, old movie footage, and dusty magazine layouts in pop-song scored cine-ballads that are at once cynical and sincere." Highlights of the program include YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS (2005, 16mm), a piece that gorgeously reconceives some colorful National Geographic centerfolds, and the recent LIGHT IS WAITING (2007), a kaleidescopic video joyride wherein "the sitcom-perfect world of Full House devours itself." The artist will be on hand to answer questions following the screening. (2001-2007, 75 mins, various formats). DW
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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Ousmane Sembene's BLACK GIRL and BOROM SERRET (Classic Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Thursday, 7pm
This Thursday, DOC Films begins a weekly series devoted to the films of Ousmane Sembene, who died this past June at the age of 84. Frequently cited as the greatest African filmmaker, Sembene was also a strike leader and novelist before working in cinema. His decision to begin making films grew out of his progressive politics, as he felt he could reach a larger audience with movies than with literature, especially in his native Senegal. Sembene's style was fittingly accessible, sometimes to the point of transparency: he often depicted controversial social issues in terms of everyday life, taking pleasure in human behavior and allowing larger themes to emerge organically from the characters' experiences. This is certainly true of his first feature, BLACK GIRL (LA NOIRE DE...), which broaches the subject of African labor in Europe by regarding the servant girl of the title as she accompanies her employers on a European vacation. The film is based on one of Sembene's early stories; it exemplifies the concentration and eye for detail best associated with short fiction. Also on the program is an early Sembene short, BOROM SERRET, reputedly the first-ever indigenous black African film. (Both 1966, 80 min & 20 min, 16mm). BS
Screening details at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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ALSO RECOMMENDED
Hollis Frampton's NOSTALGIA + Interview (Classic Experimental)
Eye and Ear Clinic – Friday, 4:30pm
SAIC's student-run screening group presents a projection and discussion of an important landmark in experimental cinema, introduced by CINE-FILE's own Ethan White. From the E+E program notes: "This classic stucturalist film from 1973 by legendary experimental filmmaker Frampton explores the relationship between photographs, moving images, narrative, and memory. Accompanied by a fascinating 1978 interview from the Video Data Bank." Frampton has this to say about the film: "[NOSTALGIA] is mostly about words and the kind of relationship words can have to images. I began probably as a kind of non-poet, as a kid, and my first interest in images probably had something to do with what clouds of words could rise out of them...I think there is kind of a shift between what is now memory and what was once conjecture and prophecy and so forth." (36 min, 16mm).
Eye & Ear Clinic is located at SAIC, 112 S. Michigan Ave, room 1307 (13th floor). Be sure to tell security you're there for a public screening. EW
Full fall schedule at www.myspace.com/eyeandearclinic.
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Chicago Film Archives: PORTRAITS FROM THE MARGINS (Special Event)
LaSalle Bank Cinema – Friday, 7pm
The Chicago Film Archives' website spells out exactly what to expect from this week's show at LaSalle: "A reprise of this spring's Out of the Vault program (with a few new surprises!) Chicago, My Town: Portraits From The Margins provides a delightful glimpse into Chicago Film Archives' holdings of unique and often overlooked films, each poking around Chicago's corners with a slightly skewed lens. These extraordinary 16mm films explore lives we lived in our town from the 60s, 70s and 80s." The highlights are Chuck Olin's 8 FLAGS FOR 99 CENTS and Jeff Kreines's RATAMATA. Both are simple, observational films contrasting the shabby outward appearances of their subjects (flag waving patriots in the former and hapless teenagers in the latter) with their far more striking personal personal philosophies that come out when a sympathetic cameraman is in their midst. Also on the program are some mildly interesting industrials and some uneven arty docs from the 60s. JM
Venue Information here.
Program information at www.chicagofilmarchives.org.
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PETERSBURG & RookieTV (Local / Independent)
Chicago Filmmakers – Friday, 8:30pm / Saturday, 8pm
Chicago Filmmakers kicks off its fall calendar with a pair of local showcases. Friday (8:30pm), they'll be screening the latest from local production collective Split Pillow: political suspense drama PETERSBURG. (Full details and movie trailer here.) Saturday's show (8pm) is Chicago's Own: The Best of RookieTV, a compilation of amazing and ridiculous clips from the South Side's most infamous community access television program. Check out RTV's website for a preview.
Full program details at www.chicagofilmmakers.org.
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BROTHER ORCHID (Classic Revival)
LaSalle Bank Cinema – Saturday, 8pm
It didn't take long for Hollywood to recognize the humor inherent in the macho posturing of gangster movies - a mere two years after giving the genre one of its most iconic villains in LITTLE CAESER (1931), Edward G. Robinson was mocking his own tough-guy image in THE LITTLE GIANT (1933), with barely any change to his acting style. By the end of the 1930s, spoof gangster movies had become as ubiquitous as their straight-arrow counterparts, though only a footnote to them today. BROTHER ORCHID finds Robinson quitting the racket to become a monk/florist; Humphrey Bogart (still second fiddle back then) is his hardboiled competition. Granted, a comedic premise based on tough guys liking flowers doesn't exactly bode for an exploration of gangster masculinity on the level of EASTERN PROMISES (2007), but with this cast it should be enjoyable nonetheless. (1940, 88 min, 16mm). MK
Venue Information here.
x Ingmar Bergman's PERSONA (Classic Revival)
Music Box – Saturday & Sunday, 11:30am
Ever since it exploded onto the international art film scene in the mid-60s, PERSONA has continued to keep audiences guessing and discussing. Both a simple story about an emotionally traumatized actress and her nurse and a complex meditation on the nature of cinema, Bergman himself cited it as the work where he went "as far as he could go" as a film artist. After a stunning avant-garde prologue, the film moves fluidly between realistic and dream-like passages, culminating in some space where the two converge. For all the different cinematic forms on display, its most memorable sequences are arguably two highly theatrical monologues delivered by the nurse (Bibi Andersson, in her greatest performance)--frank considerations of sex and psychology that marked a new triumph over film censorship. Readers who aren't familiar with the legacy of criticism devoted to this hallmark work are encouraged to check out Susan Sontag's essay, anthologized in her collection Styles of Radical Will. (1966, 83 min, 35mm). BS
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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Hitchcock's FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT & 39 STEPS (Classic Revival)
Block Cinema – Wednesday / Thursday, 8pm
Despite the best efforts of the auteurists, cinema remains a deeply collaborative art; opening September 28 at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art, "Casting a Shadow: Creating the Alfred Hitchcock Film" dispels the myth of the “A Film By” credit, suggesting that even one of auteur theory’s most cherished figures relied on the talents of many. Delving behind the scenes, the exhibit includes storyboards and production documents that illuminate the collaborative aspects of Hitchcock’s creative process. Accompanying it is Block Cinema’s behemoth film retrospective, covering 29 features and some 37 years, plus episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and WWII propaganda. It gets underway on Wednesday with FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940, 120 min, 35mm), Hitchcock’s second American film and one of his most overtly political, designed to rally American involvement in WWII. Joel McCrea stars as an American reporter in Britain who uncovers a Nazi spy ring, leading to
several of the director’s classic suspense setpieces. As noted on Block's website, the film presciently features the bombing of London despite opening three weeks before the Nazis began air raids. Showing on Thursday, THE 39 STEPS (1935, 86 min, 35mm) catapulted Hitchcock onto the international stage with his signature "wrong man" setup. MK
Synopses and more info at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu.
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THIS WEEK AT DOC FILMS
DOC kicks off its new semester with a characteristically diverse set of series. The most notable of these is a complete Ousmane Sembene retrospective (see above listing), but no less commendable are blocks devoted to Ealing Studio comedies, Akira Kurosawa, and overlooked Hollywood starlet Margaret Sullivan. The first of these series is represented this week by PASSPORT TO PIMLICO (1949, 84 min, 35mm; Monday, 7pm), the first major Ealing comedy, which satirizes then-touchy issues of territorial disputes; the film features a roster of ace character actors. Also screening are Ernst Lubitsch's classic romance THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940, 99 min, 35mm; screening Tuesday, 7pm); Kurosawa's enduring SEVEN SAMURAI (1954, 207 min, 35mm; Wednesday, 7pm); and, beginning an inexplicable series of films produced by the Church of Latter-Day Saints, THE BOOK OF MORMON MOVIE (2003, 120 min, 35mm; screening Thursday, 9pm). BS
Full details at www.docfilms.uchicago.edu.
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THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK (New Documentary)
Music Box – Weeklong run, check Reader Movies for showtimes
This documentary about the ongoing genocide in Darfur should be highly informative--and deeply upsetting--viewing for those who have only read about it in the papers. Directors Ricki Stern and Anna Sundberg, who also made the exceptional TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT (2006), chose as their subject Brian Stiedle, a former US marine who went to Darfur as a military observer and ended up profiling the genocide as a photographer and reporter. The film is split between Stiedle's observations and his unsuccessful efforts to lobby foreign governments to intervene in the crisis. Reviews have been largely positive about this timely and impassioned work: Here's hoping it's seen by the right audiences. (2007, 85 min, 35mm). BS
More info at www.musicboxtheatre.com.
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CZECH DREAMS (Special Event)
Facets Cinémathèque – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
Finally enjoying a wider stateside release since its critically-acclaimed debut on the festival circuit in '05, CZECH DREAM is what Reality TV would be were it well-made, humorous and insightful. Variety's Eddie Cockrell sums up this unclassifiable doc nicely: "An original, cheeky treatise on capitalism, with more than a whiff of exploitation, CZECH DREAM follows two film students who used a state grant to promote the opening of an entirely fictitious big-box mega-market in a Prague field. The resulting scandal, alternately hilarious and discomfiting, illuminates the waking nightmare of consumerism in a country still adjusting to the strengths and pitfalls of the concept." CZECH DREAM conducts an incisive exploration of the human drive for consumption while also providing some of that mean spirited edge we seem to crave. In 2003, when directors Filip Remunda and Vit Klusák decided to reinvent the 1997 stunt of Czech performance artist Petr Lorenc, the country was still deliberating the political and economic ramifications of joining the EU, providing an intense and sometimes heartbreaking backdrop for the film. While the store itself was a utter fraud, the process of marketing the Target-esque 'hyper-mart' proved very convincing. The directors hired a professional marketing firm to run focus groups and create an aggressive campaign complete with inviting graphics and a catchy jingle promising unbelieveably low prices, which attracted thousands of bargain-hunters to the grand "opening." While the somewhat arrogant young filmmakers are often brutally insensitive to the plights of their subjects, they don't shy away from exposing the shameless tactics of the marketing professionals they employ, the anger of the unsuspecting consumers they bamboozle, or their own complicity within the whole scam. American audiences are sure to recognize more than a little of themselves in this funny and penetrating look at our emotional connection to the things we buy. (2004, 87 min, 35mm). CL
Full details at www.facets.org.
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LADY CHATTERLY (New Foreign)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
LADY CHATTERLY, the film that swept last year's César awards in France, is in every way more substantial than the mediocre contrivances that typically pass for "Best Film" in this country. And now, the Film Center is bringing it back to Chicago after its first weeklong run at the Music Box. Based on an open-ended, class-conscious sex drama by D.H. Lawrence (quite the scandal in its day), director Pascale Ferran's film remains stirringly provocative despite the extreme restraint and sophistication with which it was adapted. Although the story and characters are ultimately forgettable, the sexual controversies are rather boring by today's standards, and the style is in every way understated, the film nevertheless carries immense emotional weight. All 168 minutes are suffused with a beautiful, palpable, refined eroticism that resides as much in the brooding hour that precedes Lady Chatterley's first sexual encounter with her husband's gamekeeper, as in their occasional meetings, and the tension-filled gaps in between. What's most rare is Ferran's insistence that sex in the cinema can be something other than spectacle or mere provocation, as well as her camera's tendency to regard the nude male physique almost as unflinchingly as it does the female. While accepting her Césars, the director gave an eloquent speech wherein she decried the cowardice of big studios in their consistent failure to support filmmaking that pushes artistic boundaries. Though Pascale Ferran's cinema is not particularly iconoclastic, it is bold and refreshing in its insistence that there are tangible nuances of human experience left to explore via classical modes of cinematic representation. (2006, 35mm). DW
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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ALSO PLAYING AT THE FILM CENTER
An exhilarating masterpiece of 60s Russian cinema, Sergei Paradjanov's SHADOWS OF OUR FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS (1964, 100 min, 35mm) is perhaps only rivaled by the work of Andrei Tarkovsky in terms of its poetic use of film language and sheer, sumptuous impact. The plot tells a rather conventional tale of star-crossed lovers, but as Jonathan Rosenbaum notes in his glowing recommendation, this framework "serves Paradjanov mainly as an armature to support the exhilarating rush of his lyrical camera movements (executed by master cinematographer Yuri Illyenko), his innovative use of nature and interiors, his deft juggling of folklore and fancy in relation to pagan and Christian rituals, and his astonishing handling of color and music." In a similar, if slightly less successful vein, the Film Center's Lech Majewski retrospective continues with the Polish director's first feature, THE KNIGHT (1980, 80 min, 35mm), the medieval tale of a young knight who undertakes a "mystical quest"; the film marks both Majewski's introduction to US audiences as well as an early indicator of his more striking and less narrative-focused works. The second film screening this week is one of Majewski's most recent efforts, GLASS LIPS (2007, 99 min, 35mm), a single-channel adaptation of an installation piece originally shown at the Museum of Modern Art. The piece was originally titled after Jean Cocteau's BLOOD OF A POET, and features a similarly dream-like and surreal exploration of the psychological effects of an upbringing heavily influenced by Catholicism. Finally, the immensely popular documentary HELVETICA returns for an encore presentation after breaking Film Center box-office records earlier this summer; taking the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Helvetica typeface as a jumping-off point, director Gary Hustwit sets out to investigate the broader issues of "typography, graphic design and global visual culture," interviewing a plethora of international designers who alternately celebrate and criticize what is perhaps the world's most widely used typeface [for the record, CINE-FILE uses the Microsoft-ordained Helvetica rip-off, Arial]. With its form appropriately following its function, this film is truly the helvetica of documentary cinema--pleasant, well crafted, and easy to follow, if ultimately a bit innocuous. EW
Check Reader Movies for showtimes.
More info at www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
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STILL PLAYING:
David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES (New Release)
AMC River East – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
The first great film of the fall season emerges with David Cronenberg's breathlessly precise, multi-layered and profoundly tragic EASTERN PROMISES. J. Hoberman of The Village Voice has aptly labeled it "deceptively generic"--each word, shot and movement leads us down a somewhat familiar and yet unsettlingly strange and uncharted cinematic path. At 88 minutes, the film is an economical condensation of genre archetypes, commercial rhythms and conventional plot structures, complicated substantially by the bizarre narrative codes that typify Cronenberg's work. Individual spectators will look at EASTERN PROMISES through different lenses and seize upon different aspects, but here as in all Cronenberg, narrative reality is secondary to the imagistic and mythological considerations at the heart of this film, whose nuances will only begin to unravel upon repeat viewings. It's still too early to say, but this may be Cronenberg's greatest work to date. (2007, 35mm). GK
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