Cine-File continues to cover streaming and other online offerings during this time of covidity. We will list/highlight physical screenings at the top of the list for theaters and venues that have reopened, and list streaming/online screenings below. Cine-File takes no position on whether theaters should be reopening, nor on whether individuals should be attending in-person. Check the venues’ websites for information on safety protocols and other procedures put in place.
CINE-FILE CONTRIBUTORS' BEST OF 2020 LISTS
Many of our contributors have compiled “Best Of” or other lists based on their film viewing in 2020. A wide array of parameters and choices—perfect for finding some overlooked gems to watch. They’re all on our blog.
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – New Reviews
Julien Temple's CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MACGOWAN (UK/Documentary)
Available to rent through the Gene Siskel Film Center here
As the subtitle of Julien Temple's portrait of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan suggests, this basically consists of a series of informal hangout sessions with the unique Irish genius and witty raconteur who stands as one of the great singer/songwriters of the post-punk era. In a series of conversations—with former Sinn Féin leader and admirer Gerry Adams, wife and journalist Victoria Clarke, friend Johnny Depp (who also serves as producer and, unfortunately, appears to speak with a slight Irish brogue during his brief screen time) and others—MacGowan tells the story of his raucous life and times. Like a lot of modern documentaries, this feels more like an audiobook than a movie: MacGowan's words and songs are superficially illustrated by an overly busy, and overly literal, image track consisting of archival footage, animation, an ironic interpolation of educational film excerpts, etc. But in spite of Temple's futile attempts at imposing a "cinematic" veneer, this is essential viewing any way. The chance to hear the larger-than-life MacGowan talk about his groundbreaking fusion of punk rock and traditional Irish folk music makes it unmissable for longtime Pogues fans and a good introduction to his work for the uninitiated. Also, this is one new quarantine movie that will undoubtedly work better when viewed from your couch, where you can freely imbibe along with the interview subjects. (2020, 124 min) [Michael Glover Smith]
Mario Monicelli’s THE PASSIONATE THIEF (Italy)
Available to rent through the Music Box Theatre here
If, like me, you had a subdued New Year’s Eve, I highly recommend a do-over by watching the energetic celebration captured in the gorgeously-restored black-and-white comedy THE PASSIONATE THIEF. Italian director Mario Monicelli is a master of mixing hijinks, low crime, and melodrama. For example, his superlative BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958) critiques the lot of the Italian working class within the farcical framework he constructs around a conventional crime caper. THE ORGANIZER (1963), which takes up the topic of labor unionization with considerably more gravity, still finds room for the absurd in the romantic misadventures of the penniless union organizer at its center. THE PASSIONATE THIEF goes very easy on its social message; in fact, it casts a doubting eye on the root-cause school of criminality as it assays the story of three people who largely unwillingly spend New Year’s Eve together bumbling from party to party through the streets of Rome. A vivacious Anna Magnani gets a chance to stretch her comedic muscles as a middle-age actress without a date for the evening who is invited to join a group that wants to avoid having an unlucky number of guests. An always-broke vaudevillian and friend of Magnani’s (Totò) is coerced into working with a pickpocket (Ben Gazzara) on this most lucrative of nights. Eventually, the three fall in together as the pickpocket continually tries to set up scores while being thwarted accidentally by Magnani and intentionally by Totò. Magnani isn’t afraid to look ridiculous and vain, swinging a hideous white fox stole around her out-of-date dress, fishing for compliments, and trying to play the sophisticate when they are invited into a mansion as recompense for having the stole singed by fireworks the well-heeled partygoers threw off a balcony. Totò’s performance is a comic masterpiece, mixing a bit of Buster Keaton deadpan with mild chicanery and sincere concern for his fairly clueless friend. Gazzara is charming, threatening, and exasperated in just the right measure. Fred Clark provides some unexpectedly rich gags as a drunk American whose desire to wade into the Trevi Fountain like Anita Ekberg has Magnani scream, “I hate the movies.” The teeming mise-en-scène, whether in a ballroom filled to the gills with revelers or on an empty street filled with old household objects the Romans have jettisoned from their homes to welcome the new year, is expertly handled by Monicelli and cinematographer Leonida Barboni. THE PASSIONATE THIEF is not only a terrific visualization of the Eternal City, but also a generous examination of the passionate people who make it tick. (1960, 106 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Juan José Campanella’s THE WEASELS’ TALE (Argentina)
Available to rent through the Gene Siskel Film Center here
From Oscar-winning director Juan José Campanella, THE WEASELS’ TALE is a biting meta-homage to film in general, but particularly mid-century Argentine cinema in its casting of well-known stars—it is also a remake of José A. Martínez Suárez’s YESTERDAY’S GUYS USED NO ARSENIC from 1976. The film immediately brings to mind SUNSET BOULEVARD, opening with actress Mara Ordaz, herself played by famous Argentine star Graciela Borges, wistfully watching films from the heyday of her career. She lives in a country mansion with her husband, Pedro (Luis Brandoni), another former actor, and their two friends, director Norberto (Oscar Martínez) and screenwriter Martín (Marcos Mundstock). The four collaborated on projects together in their youth though are now prone to bickering and resentful about the past, with the men especially exhausted by Mara’s unwavering star persona. Their living situation is threatened, however, by a scheming young couple (Clara Lago and Nicholás Francella) who convince Mara it’s time to get back to her career and sell the house. The couple think they’ve found easy targets, but the seniors are more than capable of keeping up, constructing a real-life cinematic thriller on their own terms. Watching Martínez and Mundstock as Norberto and Martín humorously plot using their directing and writing backgrounds is great fun, though Borges as Mara is the undisputed stand-out; adorned with furs and turbans—the costuming is wonderful throughout—she carries her Norma Desmond-esque performance with equal parts comedy and melancholy. THE WEASELS’ TALE’s long run-time encumbers the twisting plot at points, but the colorful and detailed production design—especially of the mansion—keeps things visually interesting; this dark comedy is at its best in its self-referential moments, focusing the convergence of the main characters’ past cinematic careers and the current real-life crime thriller in which they’ve found themselves. (2019, 129 min) [Megan Fariello]
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – Held Over/Still Screening/Return Engagements (Selected)
Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (Denmark)
Available to rent through the Gene Siskel Film Center here and the Music Box Theatre here
Reuniting with leading man Mads Mikkelsen, Danish writer and director Thomas Vinterberg’s (THE HUNT) newest film, ANOTHER ROUND, reaches for a full bottle of vodka and lands in a drunken state of elation, depression, and mid-life difficulty. Denmark’s submission to the 2021 Oscars for Best International Feature Film, ANOTHER ROUND finds Mikkelsen in an acting showcase, surrounded by other steady and solid counterparts in Magnus Millang, Thomas Bo Larsen, and Lars Ranthe, playing four high school teachers that enter into an odd experiment: keeping themselves at a blood alcohol content of .05 at all times. Vinterberg directs the film like a drunken night on the town, from the joy of dancing on tables with great friends to waking up disoriented, broken, and desperate to either never see alcohol again or grab the nearest bottle and take a swig. ANOTHER ROUND’s tonal shifts work, mostly with ease, due to Mikkelsen’s performance, one in which every look, smirk, and curling of his lips is measured and intentional. It’s not a film filled with speeches or fights that last longer than a couple of minutes. ANOTHER ROUND becomes a snapshot into life at its most middling, in which characters reexamine their place in the world, and the oft overwhelming dreams they feel they haven’t accomplished. Though the structure of the film, especially its third act, falters in finishing this wild idea (and experiment), ANOTHER ROUND should satisfy one’s thirst for high-quality acting, careful and considerate storytelling, and a chance to remember, forget, or attempt to capture the supposed “good ole days.” (2020, 117 min) [Michael Frank]
Orlando Lippert’s THE EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK (US/Sponsored Short)
Streams free on the Chicago Film Society’s Vimeo page here
Ever since I saw THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954), a crazy piece of fiction sponsored by a division of the National Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association that extols the virtues of a fresh coat of paint in helping homes withstand a nuclear blast, I’ve been a fan of sponsored films. These films, which can mainly be classified as self-serving public service pieces, reveal and reinforce a lot about society’s mores. In the case of THE EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK, the value of an independent press is the ostensible purpose of the somewhat dubious material Chicago Daily News Publisher John S. Knight and his management team of white men saw fit to print. The premise of the film is that Knight is writing one of his “The Editor’s Notebook” columns, recounting all of the good work the newspaper has done exposing social problems, tending to ladies’ concerns about fashion, and entertaining Junior with the comics, while complimenting the City of Chicago on its attention to its senior citizens with human interest stories. Of course, there are shots of the muscular web presses printing the daily paper, but it’s also interesting to see how copy goes from typewriter, to pneumatic tube, to linotype composition and plate making. We also learn about some of the famous writers who reported and wrote columns for this afternoon daily, including Carl Sandburg, Ben Hecht, and a favorite of mine who has vanished from memory, Finley Peter Dunne, who wrote in Irish dialect. We get re-enactments of investigative reporters working the skid row on West Madison St. to create an award-winning series aimed at cleaning up the district. (Despite the series, conditions wouldn’t change appreciably until a developer came in and destroyed the district to create Presidential Towers in 1986.) THE EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK reflects a time of conformity, orderliness, and defined gender roles, but it does offer an important reminder that the varied functions of news organizations are of vital importance to social cohesion. This film was preserved by the Chicago Film Society with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation and provides an interesting look at mid-century Chicago and one of its most iconic industries. (1950, 29 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Jindřich Polák’s IKARIE XB 1 (Czech Republic)
Available to rent through the Music Box Theatre here
Unmistakably an influence on the consequently influential—and more familiar—films of the late 60s and 70s (namely 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY), IKARIE XB 1 is a stunning landmark in the science-fiction genre. Loosely based on a book by Solaris author Stanisław Lem, this is a restored version; the film was previously widely known through a botched international reedit. Set aboard a spacecraft, IKARIE XB 1 cold-opens with a scene of concern over the well-being of panicked shipmate, Michael (Otto Lackovič), who eventually screams ominously, “The earth is gone; the earth never existed.” The film then flashes back to the early days of the voyage, aboard the “space town,” Ikarie XB 1. The year is 2163 and forty travelers are on a fifteen-year mission to discover life on other planets. Though there are some personal concerns about the journey, the residents of Ikarie XB 1 are fairly comfortable: they’re working out, finding romance, and teasing each other about the sentimental objects from Earth they took with them, including an “antique” robot named Patrick. Things take a darker turn when their on-board fun is interrupted by the discovery of a spacecraft; they learn it is from the 1980s and filled with dead bodies and dangerous weapons. As they continue to move further away from Earth, they must face the perils and wonders of traveling into the unknown. Director Jindřich Polák uses smooth, steady camera movements to take the audience throughout the immense ship, allowing for exploration of the graphic space alight with striking circular and linear shapes. Shot in black and white, the imaginative design, both visually and in the use of sound, is at once unembellished and surreal—this is especially evident in the film’s impressive opening credit sequence. While the hairstyles perhaps give the production away, IKARIE XB 1 rarely feels like a markedly 60s science-fiction film; Patrick, in his clunky Lost in Space robotic-style, is purposefully placed to distinguish between “ancient” ideas of technology with this more advanced, sleeker design. It is, however, a distinctly Cold War science-fiction, coming out of the Eastern Bloc. As with the most affective films of the genre, IKARIE XB 1 focuses not only on conceptions of the far future, but on anxieties about the present and what’s looming on the horizon; as Commander Abayev (Zdeněk Štěphánek) profoundly notes after finding the ship from the 1980s in 2163, “We’ve discovered the 20th century.” (1963, 81 min) [Megan Fariello]
David Osit’s MAYOR (US/UK/Documentary)
Available for rent at Facets Cinémathèque here
Many people might disagree with me, but I think that MAYOR, a well-made documentary about Ramallah Mayor Musa Hadid, is a perfect movie for Christmas. True, the film contains scenes of the mayor fielding complaints about sewage runoff from Israeli settlements that are contaminating grazing fields, fires set to protest the 2018 move of the U.S. embassy headquarters in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and Israeli soldiers blasting teargas right in front of city hall and beating someone in a nearby restaurant with the situationally ironic name of Café de la Paix. Nevertheless, spending time with Musa, as he is known familiarly by the many residents of Ramallah who greet him warmly as he walks and drives through the streets, is to be bathed in the light of goodness. Musa is the kind of public servant the humble and powerless need to have in their corner. We see him in a school apparently painted with Pepto-Bismol inspecting its physical condition and promising to replace its broken doors. In another school, he objects to a window design that makes the school look like a prison. He travels to the United States and England to press for more support for Palestine’s nationhood. A Christian who plans spectacular Christmas celebrations for the entire city, he nonetheless rejects U.S. Vice President Pence’s promise to make Palestine safe for Christians by responding that it should be safe for everyone. He’s a loving husband and father who enjoys spending time at home but can’t stop thinking about the problems Ramallah faces. He simply wants the resources, and more importantly, the right to provide Ramallah’s citizens with the things they need to thrive—a right Israel will not grant. Finally, in a conversation he has with a German delegation trying to broker some kind of détente between Palestinians and Israelis, Musa makes his simplest and most profound statement—a Christmas message, if you will—about every person’s right to be treated as a full human with dignity before any understanding can begin. Watching this important and empathetic film would be a great gift for anyone who hopes that the new year will be the start of a more peaceful, just era for our country and our world. (2020, 89 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Graham Kolbeins’ QUEER JAPAN (US/Documentary)
Available to rent through Facets Cinémathèque here
Made over the course of four years, QUEER JAPAN is a joyous, neon trip through various subcultures in Japan’s LGBTQ community. Taking less of a historical, essayist approach at filmmaking, director Graham Kolbeins instead puts us in the hands of individuals who then take us through their personal life, and the micro-community they inhabit. From drag queens, to trans activists, to women’s only events, to post-gender performance artists, to beefcake bear erotic manga artists, QUEER JAPAN stitches together a gorgeous patchwork of hyper-specific scenes, shows their unique beauty, and presents them as a unit more beautiful together than apart. Each guide has their own world, and we’re invited in. It’s a lovely impressionistic view of Japanese queer culture that I would love to see in documentaries of other countries’ queer communities. I’m of the age where as a little questioning queer boy in nowhere suburbia I would grab at anything queer I could put my hands on, from Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For, to Pansy Division records, to HIGH ART, to Windy City Times and clutch it hard against my chest—it was all the same to me as a ‘90s teen. Queer. Nowadays there seems to be so much digital infighting in queer circles, with identity politics not so much as salvation but as a cudgel—so a film like QUEER JAPAN is a mainline injection of elated delight. Seeing how the film’s chosen queer subjects come together and discuss their community’s differences in theory, praxis, and (very importantly) partying makes me remember when you basically saw everyone in the American queer ecosystem with a Silence = Death patch. Queers being queer together because queers need to support queers. Full stop. Maybe this makes me sound cranky-old-man-yells-at-clouds, but my reply to that is simply, watch QUEER JAPAN. Differences can, and do, exist even in queer circles—but that doesn’t mean they should be the sole means of self-definition and identity. QUEER JAPAN is a jubilant reminder as to how multi-faceted, and global, queer culture is. Enjoy it and celebrate it. (2019, 99 min) [Raphael Jose Martinez]
Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and Anonymous’ 76 DAYS (US/Documentary)
Available to rent through the Music Box Theatre here
It has been a little more than a year since the first case of COVID-19 was recorded, in Wuhan, China. We didn’t know then what it meant, but slowly we came to understand that an apocalypse was building, moving inexorably toward us like the nuclear fallout coming to claim the last people on earth in Stanley Kramer’s ON THE BEACH (1959). Even now, pandemic fatigue, magical thinking, and personal entitlement have many ignoring the danger to themselves—and especially to others—as they eat, drink, and make merry. It is these people who should be made to watch 76 DAYS, an incredible record of this modern plague from the first day of Wuhan’s lockdown in January to the lifting of restrictions 76 days later. Filming mainly inside four Wuhan hospitals, Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and an anonymous third director show what actual pandemic fatigue looks like. Healthcare providers work past exhaustion tending to an ICU full of COVID-infected patients while swathed in layers of protective gear so all-encompassing that they must write their names on their jumpsuits just to tell each other apart. Throngs of sick people press in panic against a door trying to gain admission into one hospital on a bitterly cold night as a beleaguered nurse tries to convince them that everyone will get in eventually. Shots taken on the streets of the city reveal an eerie emptiness, broken only by ambulances and vans carrying the dead. 76 DAYS is made in the mold of Frederick Wiseman’s NEAR DEATH (1989), though it’s clear that the Chinese government may have influenced the directors to paint a brighter picture of their plague than actually existed. One couple comes into the hospital together; when the husband’s condition starts to deteriorate, their story is abandoned in favor of patients who survived. Nevertheless, the directors are careful to document the devastation, opening the film with the uncontrollable grief of a daughter whose father has died and closing with the citywide blasting of sirens at the end of the lockdown as residents mourn the dead. The bravery and dedication of the healthcare workers come through most strongly for me in one beautifully captured image of an elderly man who is being discharged placing his hand over the heart decal he received from his medical team, treasuring his reclaimed life and those who saved it. Highly recommended. (2020, 93 min) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
WONG KAR-WAI RETROSPECTIVE
Music Box Theatre – Virtual Screenings (Begins Friday, Dec. 18)
Films available for rent here
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The Music Box presents this “touring” package from Janus Films of seven films by Hong Kong master Wong Kar-wai, presented in new 4K restorations.
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Wong Kar-wai’s AS TEARS GO BY (Hong Kong)
Wong Kar-wai’s directorial debut is often compared to Martin Scorsese’s MEAN STREETS; while there are indeed similarities between the two films, Wong’s mentor, Hong Kong director and editor Patrick Tam, noted that Wong also had in mind Jim Jarmusch’s auspicious 1984 debut, STRANGER THAN PARADISE, specifically with regards to the plotline involving the protagonist’s second cousin, Ngor (frequent Wong collaborator Maggie Cheung, effervescent as always), who briefly comes to stay with him—as Eszter Balint's character did with her cousin in Jarmusch’s film—and later emerges as the love interest. Though it doesn’t explicitly embody the art-house differentia that defines Wong’s output, AS TEARS GOES BY does display a merging of technique that seems to split the difference between those two influences—on the one hand, a straightforward action-romance centered on the social framework of a Hong Kong triad gang; on the other a comparatively stylized drama with elegant flourishes and an abundance of pathos. Wah, played by Cantopop heartthrob Andy Lau, is a debt collector for a local gang and “big brother” to Fly (Jacky Cheung), a young, hot-headed wannabe-bigshot who’s eager to prove himself. Much of the skillfully-wrought action revolves around Wah helping Fly out of various scrapes; concurrently Ngor comes to stay with him, and the two fall in love. Desperate to save face in light of various humiliations, Fly takes on the task of assassinating an informant at a police station, which takes Wah away from his newfound bliss with Ngor. The ending elevates TEARS above other films of its kind; it’s near Shakespearean in its amalgamation of ‘family’ loyalty and star-crossed romance. (Wong would describe his 1994 wuxia epic ASHES OF TIME as “Shakespeare meets Sergio Leone,” which isn’t precisely applicable to TEARS but represents Wong’s propensity for merging genres.) Throughout are hints of what’s to come in Wong’s career: glinting neon, passages of ethereal beauty, and a ravishing sequence set to an exhilarating Cantopop version of Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” which results in the coming-together of Wah and Ngor. It takes place midway through the film and signals a shift from the familiar to the sublime. Wong made the film as part of a new production company, In-Gear, for which he had previously scripted Tam’s FINAL VICTORY and Joe Cheung’s FLAMING BROTHERS, both from 1987 and thematically similar to TEARS, eager to prove himself, much like the gangsters in his film; thankfully what came after was far from despairing. (1988, 102 min) [Kathleen Sachs]
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Wong Kar-wai’s DAYS OF BEING WILD (Hong Kong)
DAYS OF BEING WILD is not just the movie where Wong Kar-wai came into his own as a filmmaker; it introduces themes, motifs, and even music cues that would appear in most of his subsequent films. Wong’s distinctive, poetic style is fully realized here, and it’s so rapturous that the film sustains its hypnotic effect even when little is happening onscreen. Befitting a movie about early adulthood, DAYS OF BEING WILD is brimming with a sense of possibility: Wong’s seductive camera movements, vibrant color combinations, and jazzy shifts in place and time reveal a director at play with the elements of cinema (not for nothing did his 90s work inspire comparisons with the French New Wave), and his good cheer is infectious. At the same time, the film is infused with melancholy, communicating the irretrievability of the past and longings for love and home. Set in Hong Kong in 1960, the movie begins with the promise of a love story between Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung), a ticket seller at a downtown stadium, and a Lothario called York (Leslie Cheung). They meet cute, and he seduces her with moony talk about the nature of time. Yet York quickly grows tired of Li-zhen and takes up with a showgirl named Mimi (Carina Lau); sometime later Li-zhen captures the romantic attention of a lonely young police officer played by Andy Lau. The plot splinters between all four characters, each of whom gets a chance to narrate the action, yet the bittersweet mood carries across each of the narrative strands. Everyone pines for someone who won’t reciprocate his or her feelings—even the callous York, who longs to connect with the biological mother who abandoned him as a baby. (York was brought up by a prostitute, and his thorny relationship with her feels like something out of a Tennessee Williams play.) DAYS OF BEING WILD is overwhelming in how it conveys so many conflicting emotions at once (romance and lovesickness, loneliness and connection, nostalgia and a heightened sense of the present), but the filmmaking is always fluid and enticing. (1990, 94 min) [Ben Sachs]
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Wong Kar-wai’s CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Hong Kong)
Love is a beautiful thing. Film is a beautiful thing. To create something that celebrates not only love but also film requires the craftsmanship of a master and none are better equipped for this than Wong Kar-wai, as demonstrated in CHUNGKING EXPRESS. Centered on two separate tales of two different, lovelorn Hong Kong policemen, the movie explores what heartache and love can mean on a person-to-person basis. Is it about physical proximity, as in the case of the young policeman who tries nightly to reclaim his ex-girlfriend by phone while simultaneously trying to find a new lover, only to come “0.01 cm apart”—the closest he will get? Or perhaps it’s about the older policeman whose daily trip to a food stand and his subsequent flirtations with the young woman who works the counter; can this form the basis for a different kind of relationship? Beyond Wong’s thematic concerns, what truly makes CHUNGKING EXPRESS stand out is the aesthetic juxtaposition of the two storylines; the first story takes on a French New Wave vibe, both in its cinematography and its pacing, while the other has a more calculated pace, with patient shot composition and deliberate camera movement. The biggest question Wong asks is whether intimacy is defined as physical proximity in space to another or is it sharing of the same space while not in proximity? While the two plots are distinctly separate from one another, eagle-eyed viewers will appreciate the minute crossovers that can occasionally be seen in the background, à la THE RULES OF THE GAME. The film’s dreamy shot composition and well-curated soundtrack allows one to bask in the movie’s marvels and float downstream in tandem with its characters. A masterfully poetic musing on love, loss, memory, and the many forms they can take, CHUNGKING EXPRESS is the perfect entry point to the esteemed auteur’s filmography. (1994, 102 min) [Kyle Cubr]
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Wong Kar-wai’s FALLEN ANGELS (Hong Kong)
Released on the heels of his international breakthrough, CHUNGKING EXPRESS, Wong Kar-wai’s FALLEN ANGELS was initially envisioned as a section of the earlier film. Expanded into its own exploration of loneliness and longing in the neon-colored and noir-inspired cityscape of Hong Kong, FALLEN ANGELS follows two intersecting stories of chance encounters. The first concerns a detached hitman (Leon Lai), who’s ready to quit killing for good, and his associate (Michelle Reis). They’ve never met, but she cleans for him and sends him his next assignments—she’s also completely infatuated with him, fantasizing about this mysterious partner as they exchange secret messages. The second story has a lighter and more comedic tone and features the partner’s cheerful neighbor (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a mute delinquent who still lives with his father. He roams the city at night breaking into various businesses, pretending to be the proprietor to unwitting customers in order to make money. He ends up helping—and falling for—Charlie (Charlie Yeung), who he meets after her boyfriend dumps her for another woman, leaving her heartbroken and out for revenge. The two stories spiral around each other as characters intersect in the neon-lit nightscape. Wong uses kinetic camera movements and canted wide-angled close-up shots to drive emotion and intensity—in one scene, blood drips down the lens. The camera traps the audience in the visual maze of the city while still whimsically expressing the characters’ sense of isolation and aching for connection. It is clear how the film is both an extension of CHUNGKING EXPRESS while still standing on its own as a noirish, melodramatic departure; the world of FALLEN ANGELS is simultaneously dark yet sweet, cool yet funny, where it’s always night and everything—including love—has an expiration date, though that doesn’t mean it is without significance. (1995, 99 min) [Megan Fariello]
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Wong Kar-wai’s HAPPY TOGETHER (Hong Kong)
Many of Wong Kar-wai’s films are preoccupied with the cultural anxieties surrounding the British handover of Hong Kong, from CHUNGKING EXPRESS’s expiration date-obsessed cop to the titular year of 2046, which marks the period before the city’s self-regulation ends. Released in 1997, the year of the handover, HAPPY TOGETHER filters these anxieties and longings—as well as the possibilities of what a new, globalized Hong Kong might mean—through the prism of a tumultuous gay romance. The partners are the assertive Ho Po-Wing (Leslie Cheung) and more mild-mannered Lai Yiu-Fai (Tony Leung), who have come to Buenos Aires looking to recharge their floundering relationship, and to see Iguazu Falls, their symbolically elusive destination. We understand this is not the first time they have tried an implausible romantic gambit: Fai instructs us via voiceover of Po-Wing’s constant refrain after each so-called breakup, “Let’s start over.” Start over, and over, they do. After a split in Argentina, and without money to fly back home, the two reluctantly get back together when Fai spots Po-Wing cruising at the tango club where the former has taken a job. Wong proves that, indeed, it takes two to tango, as the lovers push and pull in a torrid dance, quarreling over money and their cramped apartment at one moment, and then, in Wong’s impressionistic montage, tenderly swaying in one another’s arms in the next. The two might seem like polarities, echoing the antipode status of Buenos Aries and Hong Kong, but really they are sides of the same coin, lonely and displaced, even if their desires manifest differently. Wong conveys their underlying reversibility through sleight-of-hand doublings and substitutions, using mirrors and jump cuts to make the men assume each other’s places. It doesn’t take much parsing to read their relationship as a metaphor for Hong Kong’s uncertain future with China, while a third character introduced later, Chang (Chang Chen), represents a similarly unmoored Taiwan. But HAPPY TOGETHER can also just be enjoyed as a ravishing, emotionally plangent song from the heart, saturated with all of Wong’s dreamy stylistic flourishes and musical grace notes. Few shots in his filmography are so simply, shatteringly poignant as Tony Leung sobbing into a tape recorder, or the protracted aerial footage of Iguazu Falls pouring its contents with both the majesty and implacable flux of nature. (1997, 96 min) [Jonathan
Leithold-Patt]
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Wong Kar-wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Hong Kong)
Taking place in 1960s Hong Kong or in the memory of 1960s Hong Kong—that city deemed too modern, many of the film's exteriors were shot in Bangkok, after all—Wong Kar-wai's film is a beautiful rumination on its title. Much has been made of IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE's restraint, and there is that: a couple, married to other people who are themselves having affairs, become intimate in every way but physical—save for slight, loaded gestures and tight spaces. The film is pregnant with the overwhelming feeling of infatuation, executed in a lusciousness that recalls something from a dream. But for every restraint there is a counterpoint in excess: Maggie Cheung's many gorgeous dresses are as flamboyant as they are confining; the musical score is both pitch-perfect and overwhelming, familiar and foreign; the cinematography is so rich and meticulous that its multitude of color is evocative of Douglas Sirk's melodramas. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE has hit upon such acclaim because of its local particularity—a commemoration of sorts for Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty that had not yet happened—as well as its thematic universality as a transnational melodrama. As characters move through Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia, and the film shifts forward and backward in time, we are reminded of the fluidity of borders, time, and memory. The moment is paramount, and Wong Kar-wai gives us a series of beautiful, sumptuous moments that we can live in forever. (2000, 98 min) [Brian Welesko]
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Wong Kar-wai’s THE HAND [Extended Cut] (Hong Kong)
Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 was the official sequel to his IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, but the featurette THE HAND (originally released as part of the omnibus film EROS) is just as much of a follow-up, expanding on the earlier feature’s fetishistic approach to the 1960s and its theme of unrequited longing. Containing few characters and locations, (though spanning a number of years in its narrative), it’s a chamber drama in which every gesture carries great weight. The story charts the relationship between Zhang (Chang Chen), a timid tailor’s apprentice, and Ms. Hua (Gong Li), a confident, high-class courtesan. Zhang idolizes the courtesan from the moment he sees her, though she mocks him on their first encounter, making a joke of his sexual desire. Over time, however, she comes to rely on him—first for fancy dresses, then ultimately for companionship when she falls from her social station. Their second and final sexual encounter is a bittersweet facsimile of the first, with the power dynamics between the two having been upended. This moment occurs after what feels like hours of pining; Wong stretches out every minute so that the film feels much longer than its 56 minutes, often presenting the action in rapturous slow motion. Working again with production designer William Chang and the great cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Wong builds a complex past environment where even the effect of fluorescent light on a grease-stained wall exudes a mysterious power. (2004, 56 min) [Ben Sachs]
LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS – Also Screening/Streaming
Chicago Filmmakers
Local filmmaker Jon Silver’s 2020 film THE SCARLET PIRATE (75 min) continues through Sunday. More info here.
Video Data Bank
The Video Data Bank presents “Holiday with the Kuchars,” a program of two works by George Kuchar: XMAS 1986 (1986, 37 min) and SOLSTICE (2009, 4 min). No ending date listed. Viewable here.
Facets Cinémathèque
David Perrault’s 2019 French/Canadian/Belgian film SAVAGE STAGE (118 min) is available for streaming beginning this week. Check the Facets website for hold-over titles.
Gene Siskel Film Center
Anne Fontaine’s 2020 French film NIGHT SHIFT (98 min) is available for streaming beginning this week. Check the Siskel website for hold-over titles.
Music Box Theatre
Jerry Rothwell’s 2020 UK documentary THE REASON I JUMP (82 min) is available for streaming beginning this week. Check the Music Box website for hold-over titles.
ADDITIONAL ONLINE SCREENINGS
Kulap Vilaysack’s ORIGIN STORY (US/Documentary)
Streaming for free on Amazon Prime (with subscription), PlutoTV, and Tubi
ORIGIN STORY, as the title suggests, uses the superhero’s journey as a metaphor for addressing childhood trauma and grappling with the past in order to move forward into the future. Comic book-style images are used throughout to illustrate what director Kulap Vilaysack narrates as a defining moment of her life: at fourteen, she witnessed an argument between her parents which resulted in her mother angrily revealing the man that raised her was not actually her biological father. As Vilaysack finds success in her adulthood—she’s a comedian and podcaster, who created the television series Bajillion Dollar Propertie$—and considers motherhood, she finds herself struggling to move forward without an understanding of her own history. In an attempt to reconcile her past, present, and future, she documents her journey to discover how this situation came about by interviewing those who raised her, focusing on her turbulent relationship with her mother, and searching for her biological dad. The story is also one that speaks directly to the refugee experience and intergenerational trauma, as Vilaysack’s parents fled from Laos and settled in the United States. As director, she deftly layers personal and family storytelling with political history but is also heartbreakingly honest about the difficulty of not fully understanding her own existence and feeling out of place in her family. Vilaysack mentions early on that despite struggling throughout her adulthood with the trauma of her past, she created her own supportive family through friendships; ORIGIN STORY includes Vilaysack’s funny yet sweet and earnest conversations with comedian friends who clearly adore her, most significantly with her husband, Scott Aukerman (of Comedy Bang! Bang! fame). There are no easy answers to be found, but Vilaysack’s strength and grace in navigating her story while on screen is illuminating and powerful. (2018, 106 min) [Megan Fariello]
SUPPORT LOCAL THEATERS AND SERIES
As we wait for conditions to improve to allow theaters to reopen, consider various ways that you can help support independent film exhibitors in Chicago weather this difficult time. Memberships, gift cards, and/or merchandise are available from the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, and Facets. Donations can be made to non-profit venues and organizations like Chicago Filmmakers, the Chicago Film Society, South Side Projections, and many of the film festivals. Online streaming partnerships with distributors are making films available through the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, and Facets; and Facets also has a subscription-based streaming service, FacetsEdge, that includes many exclusive titles.
COVID-19 UPDATES
Most independent, alternative, arthouse, grassroots, DIY, and university-based venues and several festivals continue to have suspended operations, are closed, or have cancelled/postponed events until further notice. Below is the most recent information we have, which we will update as new information becomes available.
Note that venues/series marked with an asterisk (*) are currently presenting or plan to do regular or occasional “virtual” online screenings.
CLOSED/POSTPONED/HIATUS:
Beverly Arts Center – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Closed until further notice (see above for “virtual” online screenings)*
Chicago Film Society – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice*
Chicago Filmmakers – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice*
Comfort Film (at Comfort Station) – Programming cancelled until further notice
Conversations at the Edge (at the Gene Siskel Film Center) – The Fall 2020 online season has ended; plans for Spring 2021 not yet available
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Screenings cancelled until further notice
Facets Cinémathèque – Closed until further notice (see above for “virtual” online screenings)*
Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice*
filmfront – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
Gallery 400 (UIC)*
Gene Siskel Film Center – Closed until further notice (see above for “virtual” online screenings)*
Music Box Theatre – The Music Box has again suspended in-person screenings; it continues to present online-only screenings*
The Nightingale – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
The Park Ridge Classic Film Series (at the Park Ridge Public Library) – Events cancelled/postponed until further notice
FESTIVALS:
Postponed with no announced plans yet:
The Cinepocalypse film festival (June) – Postponed with plans to reschedule at a future time
The Windy City Horrorama festival (April 24 - 26) – Cancelled; will possibly be rescheduled or reconfigured at a future date
The Chicago Critics Film Festival (May 1 - 7) – Postponed until further notice
CINE-LIST: January 8 - January 14, 2021
MANAGING EDITOR // Patrick Friel
ASSOCIATE EDITOR // Ben Sachs, Kat Sachs
CONTRIBUTORS // Kyle Cubr, Megan Fariello, Marilyn Ferdinand, Michael Frank, Jonathan Leithold-Patt, Raphael Jose Martinez, Brian Welesko