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đ REELING: THE CHICAGO LGBTQ+ INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The 40th edition of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival continues. This weekâs in-person screenings take place at Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave.). In-person screenings, select reviews of which are listed first, end on Sunday; the virtual component of the festival will be hosted on the Eventive streaming platform through Thursday. Reviews of those films are listed in alphabetical order below the in-person screenings. Note that some films and programs have geo-restrictions, which will be indicated on the streaming site. More info on the festival here.
Rediscovering the Magic of Norm Bruns (Experimental/Retrospective)
Chicago Filmmakers â Saturday, 1pm; also available to rent virtually here
Writing for the Chicago Reader in 1981, former director of programming at the Gene Siskel Film Center Barbara Scharres observed about the Chicago-based Super 8 filmmaker Norm Bruns that his films evoke the likes of Jean Cocteau, Maya Deren, and Curtis Harrington, comparisons that become clear when viewing this largely unknown filmmakerâs work. It suggests to me, also, a mix of Georges MĂ©liĂšs and either Jack Smith or Andy Warhol, depending on the film; a few Iâd call documentary vignettes, but the dreamlike quality of Brunsâ outright experimental endeavors carries over, cohering the program as a whole. The story has it that Bruns, who passed away in 1990 from AIDS and whose films have gone unseen over the last 30-plus years, bought an 8mm camera at a garage sale in 1980 and went on to make 11 filmsâshooting all of them in grainy, high-contrast black and whiteâin less than a year. The result is a delightful hodgepodge that beguiles, astounds, and simply impresses. The program is bookended by the most audacious works: THEATRE OF THE HORSE AND MOON (13 min) and THE UNUSUAL BOOK (10 min). The former is one that reminded me of MĂ©liĂšs, with its simple but profoundly affecting special effects, such as a shadow puppet-like model of a ship being carried against well-lit backgrounds; Bruns renders the artlessness artful, and his modest ambitions exude the purity of early cinema. THE UNUSUAL BOOK is more thoughtfully stylized in its depiction of a living book featuring a womanâs face on and around which things happen, including delightfully crude animations utilizing paint, fabric and random oddities. More evocations of this style are evident in the shorter film THE POET AND THE POND (16 min), an amalgam of patterns and repetitions that also bring to mind both the disciplined litanies of Marcel Duchamp and the surreal dreamscapes of Salvador Dali. (Scharres indicated in her piece that Bruns âis largely unfamiliar with the tradition into which his work clearly falls,â making all our combined comparisons thought-provoking. How is it that an artist can so fully exude his own style that seems to be the product of certain influences but isnât?) SWIM (7 min) features a Warhol-like focus on a single body; here itâs a man, whoâs mimicking swimming, complete with goggles and to a vaguely sexual effect. In stark opposition to the rest of the program are the documentary-esque BINGO (6 min) and DUCK (3 min), the subjects of which are more or less represented by their titles. One film, FIGURE WITH 14 TRAINS (7 min), exists in a sort-of middle ground between documentary and experimentation. Around and superimposed through images of a man in bed are elegiac shots of Chicago trains, suggesting something almost erotic, much like SWIM, but unequivocal in its depiction of the transit system as a wondrous framework. My favorite of the program is BED DESERT (5 min). In this inventive little film, the ripples of bed sheets are juxtaposed with images of the desert (or are they?), the formal ruse playful and intriguing. This is a rather special screening for the festivalâs 40th anniversary; per the event description, âBrunâs work was first shown publicly at Chicago Filmmakers at an open screening in 1980, he was given a one-person show in 1981, and then a retrospective at the Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (later named Reeling) in 1989, the year before his death.â [Kat Sachs]
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Looking for Change (Shorts)
Chicago Filmmakers â Sunday, 4pm; also available to rent virtually here
The characters in this highly emotional and often funny program are all seeking to realize goals or come to terms with their identities, even if it means risking social and familial security. Sid, the protagonist of Naman Guptaâs COMING OUT WITH THE HELP OF A TIME MACHINE (2021, 15 min, Digital Projection), puts it all on the line when he attempts to come out to his conservative Indian parents. Although he has a watch that allows him to rewind time if anything goes wrong, the device canât soften the blow of the inevitable moment of truth. From its initial high-concept premise and madcap tenor, the film takes a turn for the sentimental as parents and son alike negotiate the messy emotional fallout from the disclosure. Suffice it to say, the tear ducts get a workout with this one. RubĂ©n Navarroâs MASARU (2022, 13 min, Digital Projection) similarly features a parent who has difficulty accepting his sonâs sexuality. Michael Sasaki stars as Danny, a professional Japanese baseball player who angers his father by shunning the sport for a career in traditional dance. Sasaki also wrote the apparently semi-autobiographical film, which is dedicated to his late parents. Baseball appears againâalbeit in a more irreverent fashionâin Jack McGrealâs LEATHERBOY (2021, 8 min, Digital Projection), about a Midwestern kid who discovers his fetish for leather when heâs seduced by the smell of his baseball mitt while on the field. McGrealâs college thesis project, itâs a stylish and proud love letter to the leather community. Two other titles in the program center on boys awakening to their nascent homosexuality. Harm van der Sandenâs BREATHE (2022, 5 min, Digital Projection) is a wordless tone poem that chronicles the evolving attraction between two classmates and friends, set to twinkling piano and structured by a rapturous visual leitmotif of flowing water. In Ryan Michaelâs THE LAST HUMAN PERSON ON EARTH (2022, 14 min, Digital Projection), an utterly adorable tribute to youthful imagination, a pair of preteens role-play a post-apocalyptic scenario in a garage. Decidedly more adult concerns ground Paco Ruizâs unsettling STANDARD DEVIATION (2022, 10 min, Digital Projection), which dramatizes the often uncomfortable reality queer people face in healthcare settings. Hypatia Sorunke and Cortiana Barnesâ DOOR THREE (2022, 10 min, Digital Projection) takes place entirely outdoors, but is likewise charged with a sense of foreboding. The program closes on a more uplifting note with Daniele Guerraâs HEAR MY VOICE (2021, 12 min, Digital Projection), which finds a romantically disillusioned British opera singer trying not to let down the hopes of his late grandmother. Itâs indicative of the increasingly sanguine direction of LGBTQ media representation that when he falls in love with a biracial male coffee shop employee, we see his grandmother watching on, smiling. [Jonathan Leithold-Patt]
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International Shorts
Available to rent virtually here
Curated by Cine-File Managing Editor emeritus Patrick Friel, this program spans three continents and a variety of aesthetic approaches in just five short films. The Swedish entry BEAR (2022, 15 min) is the most lighthearted of these. Itâs a comic narrative about a shy man in his 20s who turns to a childhood teddy bear for romantic and sexual companionship when he finds heâs too timid to enter the dating scene. Director Jimi Vall Peterson establishes a sweet, ingratiating tone, making it clear that weâre watching a sort-of fable and not a realistic story about arrested development. Shooting on black-and-white celluloid and favoring plainspoken static shots, Peterson invokes the deadpan comedy of early Jim Jarmusch films. Also concerned with an introverted manâs fantasy life is Dania Bdeirâs WARSHA (2022, 15 min), which mostly takes place in the cab of a construction-site crane. The hero, a Syrian immigrant working in Beirut, imagines himself performing in drag while he sits up in the sky. Bdeir creates sharp contrasts between images of confinement and liberation, resulting in an affecting, largely dialogue-free cinematic poem. The Peruvian selection THE DISTANCE OF TIME (2021, 19 min) is another work in a poetic register; itâs even less concerned with narrative progression than WARSHA. Writer-director Carlos Ormeño Palma looks at an androgynous Indigenous man caring for his male lover, who suffers from an unspecified fatal disease. The film develops its premise mostly obliquely; the emphasis is on landscapes and emotional states. One feels the protagonistâs condition without necessarily understanding his whole story, which is fine, given the beauty of the images. Rounding out the program are two works by Brazilian filmmaker Caio Scot, BURN (2022, 23 min) and ALL THE AWARDS I NEVER GAVE YOU (2022, 17 min), both of which concern the fall-out of romantic relationships after theyâve ended. In BURN, a man returns with his boyfriend to the home where he grew up before itâs demolished. On the trip, the two men encounter the heroâs childhood neighbor, with whom he was once sexually involved. Thereâs a pleasant loping quality to the storytelling that spotlights the main characterâs conflicted feelings about his past; his experience of reckoning is more important than whether he resolves anything. ALL THE AWARDS I NEVER GAVE YOU concerns the reunion of two filmmakers who used to be lovers backstage at an awards ceremony. Emotionally vibrant where BURN is muted, the film presents the messy side of nostalgia, as the two characters experience a range of emotions during the brief running time. [Ben Sachs]
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Bryan Darling and Jesse Finley Reedâs ALL MAN: THE INTERNATIONAL MALE STORY (US/Documentary)
Available to rent virtually here
Fashion is so often a channel for exploring everyday fantasies and desires; it allows one to dress up in everyday life, exploring facets of identity, including gender and sexuality. ALL MAN: THE INTERNATIONAL MALE STORY examines this phenomenon through the history of the catalog/magazine. International Male, founded in the 1970s by former Air Force member Gene Burkard who built the company alongside eventual Vice President and Head Buyer, Gloria Tomita, was considered âVictoriaâs Secret for men.â Bryan Darling and Jesse Finley Reedâs documentary does an excellent job of presenting the evolution of male fashion in the 20th century and its relationship to gay culture and the history of sex in America. It begins with Burkardâs own experiences in gay barsâincluding a raid at Chicagoâs own Windup Loungeâand continues through gay and sexual liberation in the '70s and then the AIDS crisis, which resulted in devasting personal losses for the company and its clients. The documentary tracks the evolution of male fashion from the very uniform postwar style to the more varied colors and styles that showed up in the '60s, including in underwear; Burkard influenced this development with his invention of the Jock Sock and continued to emphasize underwear in the catalog. As one interviewee notes, straight and gay men âboth fetishize masculinity,â and thus International Male presented not just specific clothing but a fantasy lifestyle for allâincluding women who wanted their male partners to dress a certain way. Interviewees in the documentary include Burkard himself (who passed away in 2020), International Male employees, models, and people whose identities were shaped and influenced by the catalog. Some of the more interesting conversations concern the models, who often struggled with the dichotomy between their traditionally masculine bodies and the feminine clothes they wore. The film also notes that the magazine featured very little diversity. In the end, the importance of the magazine is in its cultural effect on all representations of masculinity, and ALL MAN: THE INTERNATIONAL MALE STORY illuminates how fashion can be a site of disruption and change. (2022, 83 min, DCP Digital) [Megan Fariello]
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Lyle Kashâs DEATH AND BOWLING (US)
Available to rent virtually here
When it comes to trans and queer representation in film, death and rebirth are consistent factors. Depictions of queer ârebirthâ often come in the form of transition in one way or another, but our deaths are often not given the full range of emotional transformation. Itâs tragic, itâs âgone too soon.â We are inundated with stories like these because they are real parts of our history, but death has always been a compelling and complicated vehicle for understanding ourselves. The dreamlike, tangled DEATH AND BOWLING understands these contradictions and refuses to shy away from them. When trans actor X (Will Krisanda) loses his queer maternal figure (the captain of his cherished lesbian bowling league), he struggles to find his sense of self. DEATH AND BOWLING is beautifully self-referential and acts as a metacritique, breaking down thoughts about transmasculinity and representation, both in life and in performance. Who am I when I am fixated on how I will be perceived in a film? Who am I when I instead allow myself to revel in community? The same person, sure, but itâs the burden of representationânot just being seen, but who sees him and whyâthat confounds this dynamic. But DEATH AND BOWLING is compelling outside of its questions of representation. By casting that idea aside through fractured storytelling, the film allows the rich emotions and relationships at the heart of this film to flourish. X is begging to have a happy ending, both in his work and in his life, but the true marker of his peace is cherishing his people so that he can move on from his grief and the intrusive questions in his own head. (2021, 64 min, DCP Digital) [Cody Corrall]
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Kamil Krawczyckiâs ELEPHANT (Poland)
Available to rent virtually here
In a secluded rural area of Poland, Bartek runs the family horse farm while caring for his depressed mother. At night he goes into town to bartend for the villageâs mostly elderly populace. Itâs a relatively mundane, uneventful existence until the arrival of musician Dawid, whoâs returned home for the funeral of his estranged father. As some of the youngest people in the area, Bartek and Dawid hit it off, sharing stories of their respective broken families and their dreams of a better life in Iceland. Their friendship eventually blossoms into a romance that puts Bartekâs future on the farm into jeopardy. ELEPHANT was shot in one of Polandâs notorious âLGBT-free zones,â and while homophobia unavoidably plays a role in the film, itâs not the central conflict. Instead, the film hinges on a similarly familiar but no less poignant theme: the decision to stay at home or leave for greater freedom and possibilities elsewhere. ELEPHANT doesnât make this choice easy for its protagonist; despite the parochial attitudes of his village, Bartek maintains strong connections to the land and is wary of repeating the actions of his father and sister by abandoning his mother. Krawczycki shoots the hilly landscape around the farm in rich autumnal shades, with his camera especially coming alive in the scenes of Bartek riding his cherished horse, wind in his hair. This calm reverence for nature gives ELEPHANT a placid, wistful tone, echoed in the tender chemistry between actors Jan Hrynkiewicz and Pawel Tomaszewski. The film may not have the heft of the titular pachyderm, but it does share its quiet gentleness and sturdy resolve. (2022, 105 min, DCP Digital) [Jonathan Leithold-Patt]
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International Shorts
Available to rent virtually here
Curated by Cine-File Managing Editor emeritus Patrick Friel, this program spans three continents and a variety of aesthetic approaches in just five short films. The Swedish entry BEAR (2022, 15 min) is the most lighthearted of these. Itâs a comic narrative about a shy man in his 20s who turns to a childhood teddy bear for romantic and sexual companionship when he finds heâs too timid to enter the dating scene. Director Jimi Vall Peterson establishes a sweet, ingratiating tone, making it clear that weâre watching a sort-of fable and not a realistic story about arrested development. Shooting on black-and-white celluloid and favoring plainspoken static shots, Peterson invokes the deadpan comedy of early Jim Jarmusch films. Also concerned with an introverted manâs fantasy life is Dania Bdeirâs WARSHA (2022, 15 min), which mostly takes place in the cab of a construction-site crane. The hero, a Syrian immigrant working in Beirut, imagines himself performing in drag while he sits up in the sky. Bdeir creates sharp contrasts between images of confinement and liberation, resulting in an affecting, largely dialogue-free cinematic poem. The Peruvian selection THE DISTANCE OF TIME (2021, 19 min) is another work in a poetic register; itâs even less concerned with narrative progression than WARSHA. Writer-director Carlos Ormeño Palma looks at an androgynous Indigenous man caring for his male lover, who suffers from an unspecified fatal disease. The film develops its premise mostly obliquely; the emphasis is on landscapes and emotional states. One feels the protagonistâs condition without necessarily understanding his whole story, which is fine, given the beauty of the images. Rounding out the program are two works by Brazilian filmmaker Caio Scot, BURN (2022, 23 min) and ALL THE AWARDS I NEVER GAVE YOU (2022, 17 min), both of which concern the fall-out of romantic relationships after theyâve ended. In BURN, a man returns with his boyfriend to the home where he grew up before itâs demolished. On the trip, the two men encounter the heroâs childhood neighbor, with whom he was once sexually involved. Thereâs a pleasant loping quality to the storytelling that spotlights the main characterâs conflicted feelings about his past; his experience of reckoning is more important than whether he resolves anything. ALL THE AWARDS I NEVER GAVE YOU concerns the reunion of two filmmakers who used to be lovers backstage at an awards ceremony. Emotionally vibrant where BURN is muted, the film presents the messy side of nostalgia, as the two characters experience a range of emotions during the brief running time. [Ben Sachs]
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Peter McDowellâs JIMMY IN SAIGON (US)
Available to rent virtually here
Grief can be hard not only on the individual, but on the whole family. JIMMY IN SAIGON documents director Peter McDowellâs journey to recontextualize the death of his older brother Jimmy for himself, his brothers, sisters, and parents. The endeavor proves to be one that isnât solvable in just one night: Peter was 5 years old in 1972 when his brother passed, and his documentary, years in the making, started production in 2010. The earliest footage is indicative of a filmmaker finding their footing, but there's some charm in watching McDowellâs capabilities evolve alongside his growing passion to answer the burning questions about Jimmyâs life. Jimmy lived in Vietnam following his service in the War, and despite a fair number of correspondences with family, some questions linger regarding not only his death, but also his lifestyle. In circumstances like these, even asking these questions can be painful, yet McDowell sees the potential for healing. Through archival footage, interviews, voice-overs, animation, and on-the-ground location footage, the film paints a portrait of a lovely young man whose life was tragically cut short. By the end, an understanding of Jimmy is found, yet it proves to be subjective to each individual or group that knew him. As a living work of art, JIMMY IN SAIGON will only add to that remarkable and ever-growing collage. (2022, 89 min, DCP Digital) [Drew Van Weelden]
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Broderick Foxâs MANSCAPING (US/Documentary)
Available to rent virtually here
If there is one place that is a hub for masculinity, itâs a barbershop. Itâs a space for real men who know exactly what they want, down to the specific beard oil. But because of its reputation, the barbershop can often feel like an isolating or unwelcoming place for those who do not fit the very specific mold it's created. MANSCAPING shifts the lens of the barbershop to the queer men navigating and transforming the space around the worldâand on their own terms. In Canada, a trans manâs barbershop is not only a safe space for everyone to get a haircut, but itâs also a communal resource for transition-related products like binders and packers. In Philadelphia, an artist uses their past experiences with barbers refusing to cut their hair along with queer stigma theyâve faced in the Black community to reimagine what an Afrofuturist inspired barbershop would look like. In Sydney, a fetish barber flips the expectation of a haircut and instead fosters an environment built on trust, vulnerability, and self-expression. With MANSCAPING, Broderick Fox acknowledges the narrowness of the traditional barbershop and challenges viewers to think more broadly of what masculinity means, who it serves, and who is left on the sidelines. Because, in the end, everyone just wants a good haircut. (2022, 62 min, DCP Digital) [Cody Corrall]
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Magnus Gerttenâs NELLY & NADINE (Sweden/Belgium/Norway/Documentary)
Available to rent virtually here
The cynic in me often wonders if great love stories exist only in fiction. Then I see something like Swedish filmmaker Magnus Gerttenâs NELLY & NADINEâhis third documentary generated from archival footage of the Malmö harbor where liberated concentration camp prisoners had been taken in Swedenâand Iâm reminded that my cynicism is easily disproved. Nelly, a Belgian opera singer, and Nadine, daughter of the Chinese ambassador to Spain, were both interred in the RavensbrĂŒck concentration camp during World War II. Nelly, also known as Claire, was a heroic participant of the French resistance, and though itâs not confirmed, she later claimed that Nadine had been imprisoned for helping people escape into Spain by way of the Pyrenees. The two women had little in common besides their bravery when, on Christmas eve in the camp, Nadine requested that Nelly sing an aria from Pucciniâs Madama Butterfly. âHer black hair, her ivory skin, her tilted eyes,â Nelly wrote in her diary that night. âNadine.â As a voiceover narrator reads this passage, Nellyâs granddaughter sits in her kitchen looking at the original document. She appears surprisedânot disproving, but shocked at this information among her grandmotherâs ephemera (which her mother, Nellyâs daughter, had kept hidden away during her lifetime). The granddaughterâs discovery of her grandmotherâs relationship with Nadine, with whom Nelly later lived in Venezuela (the granddaughter and her sister visited them quite frequently), propels this beautifully crafted documentary about the womenâs lifelong love affair after their first encounter in RavensbrĂŒck. Gerttenâs depiction of their relationship comprises many nuances, from revelations about the sexualities of Nelly, Nadine, and some of their friends to details about the society they all inhabited. The film is upraised by its ethereal cinematography and sober usage of archival materials, the latter device effective on an emotional level in how it conveys elements that couldnât be succinctly put into words. (When words do come into play, the film relies on Nellyâs diary entries, which she and Nadine later worked to transform into a memoir that they had hoped to publish). I appreciate how the filmmaker connects Nellyâs granddaughter to literary historian Joan Schenkar, who provides information on Nadineâs past (she had been associated with a famous Paris literary salon led by and intended only for women, many of whom were lesbians); she also expands upon the circumstances in which Nelly and Nadineâs relationship flourished, or, in public spheres, didnât. âNothing is real, socially, until itâs expressed,â she says. Thankfully Gertten brings us along on the journey, allowing us to experience a genuine love story that was born in abject terror, fostered in plain-sight furtiveness, and now committed to posterity through cinema. (2022, 92 min, DCP Digital) [Kat Sachs]
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Debra Chasnoff and Kate Stilley Steinerâs PROGNOSIS: NOTES ON LIVING (US/Documentary)
Available to rent virtually here
In 2015, documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Chasnoff had been the target of rightwing vitriol for ITâS ELEMENTARY: TALKING ABOUT GAY ISSUES IN SCHOOL (1996), a film born from the worry she felt about how her two sons would be treated when their teachers and classmates learned they had two mothers. Now, she had a much different challenge on her hands. Like many crusading truthtellers, Chasnoff decided to chronicle her own fight against a powerful disease in hopes that it might help others in similar circumstances. Chasnoff and her wife, Nancy Otto, refused to hear the prognosis. They hoped they could continue to just live their lives and fit cancer into it. This optimistic attitude, however, collapsed pretty quickly once the initial stages of treatment gave way to the desperate struggle to survive. Chasnoff largely turned the camera over to others, including her frequent co-director Kate Stilley Steiner, to record everything from Chasnoffâs medical appointments and diagnostic tests to hiking, traveling, and meditation practice at a qi gong retreat. PROGNOSIS spares little in the way of Chasnoffâs emotional despair, and we see her hair loss (a shot of her chemo-eroded hair going down a drain is unexpectedly shocking), cognitive impairment, and physical enfeeblement. At the last, we sit with her as she dies at home, surrounded by loved ones, and view a close-up of her motionless, waxy face. As someone who saw her mother through her cancer illness and death, I can tell you that even these sobering moments donât tell the whole story of the messiness of dying. Yet the lingering feeling left by PROGNOSIS is how fortunate Chasnoff was to have such loving relationships with her wife, grown sons, friends, and professional collaborators and how grateful she was that she had the financial and social supports she needed to really live while dying. Her film may help others understand the progression of a fatal illness, but itâs not likely to provide much comfort to anyone not as well-situated as she was. (2021, 79 min, DCP Digital) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
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Travis Fineâs TWO EYES (US)
Available to rent virtually here
TWO EYES is ambitious in its narrative form: it alternates between stories that take place in the mid-19th century, the late 1970s, and the present, considering what queer identity meant or means in each of these eras, particularly for people in rural, western US communities. Writer-director Travis Fine explains only at the end how the three narratives are connected, though he elicits some compelling rhymes between them throughout. The film centers on the theme of acceptance of transgender people (a worthy theme, given the dismaying prevalence of transphobia in media); the present-day narrative, about a young trans man who discovers self-respect at a live-in therapy center in Wyoming, provides the lens through which the other stories unfold. The title derives from a bit of Indigenous philosophy that an elderly Native American man passes down to a married, male painter grappling with his sexual identity in the 19th-century story: some people see the world with two eyes, one of them a male the other female. In this elderâs tribe, people with two eyes are considered unique and respected as such; Fine argues that the contemporary world could still benefit from this age-old wisdom. (2020, 95 min, DCP Digital) [Ben Sachs]
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Juliana Curiâs UĂRA - THE RISING FOREST (Brazil/Documentary)
Available to rent virtually here
Pioneering species recognize each other. This is a title card from UĂRA: THE RISING FOREST, an intriguing look at indigenous trans people from Brazilâs Amazon rainforest as they attempt to reclaim their culture and fight for the environment that the documentary graphically demonstrates is being despoiled by a horrifyingly greedy and careless Western ethos. At the center of the film is UĂœra, who works with other trans indigenous adults and indigenous youth to rediscover their connection to the land and each other as a form of resistance. At one point, what these people do is called drag, but it is a most exquisitely organic and purposeful drag in which the performers transform themselves into plants and native animals to allow the forest to speak through them to others who have a stake in Brazilâs future. What dialogue there is comes mainly from UĂœra, whose simple and profound words left me quite breathless with admiration. (2022, 72 min, DCP Digital) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
đœïž CRUCIAL VIEWING
Tsai Ming-Liang's JOURNEY TO THE WEST (Taiwan/France)
Block Cinema (at Northwestern University) â Friday, 6:30pm
Tsai Ming-liang's fascinating "Walker" series, which began with 2012's WALKER, was inspired by the life of Xuanzang, a 7th-century Buddhist monk who became famous for making a 17-year pilgrimage from China to India by foot. Dispensing with narrative and dialogue altogether, the aptly titled JOURNEY TO THE WEST consists of just a few shots, done in Tsai's customary long-take style, of a red-robed monk (Lee Kang-Sheng) walking about as slow as humanly possible around densely populated areas of contemporary Marseilles, France. Eventually, he is joined by a man in Western clothing (Denis Lavant) who walks behind him at the same snail's pace. Tsai has memorably worked in France before--in 2001's WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?--but the pairing here of his inevitable leading man Lee with Leos Carax's favorite leading man Lavant was a genuine masterstroke; they are arguably the two best physical actors working today, known for the kind of expressive body language reminiscent of silent-film acting rather than the traditional facial/vocal emoting that has been popular in cinema since the early sound era. Different viewers will likely take away different things from this experiment; I personally see it as a complex statement about how ancient Eastern religions seem "out of step" with the fast pace of modern Western life, and how there are elements of contemporary Western civilization that, for this very reason, feel irresistibly drawn towards Eastern philosophy. Regardless of how one interprets it, what's not in dispute is the film's extreme formal beauty (the shot of the monk, surrounded by what looks like a red halo created by his robe, walking down a flight of subway stairs is astonishing), as well as its unexpected, ineffable sense of humor. (2014, 56 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Glover Smith]
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Screening with Tsai Ming-liangâs 2015 film NO NO SLEEP (34 min, DCP Digital), with Tsai and star Lee Kang-Sheng in-person for a post-screening discussion with Dr. Jean Ma, professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. Block anticipates a full-capacity event. On Saturday, Doc Films at the University of Chicago screens Tsaiâs 2018 films LIGHT (18 min, DCP Digital) and YOUR FACE (76 min, DCP Digital) at 6pm, also with Tsai and Lee in person for a post-screening discussion and Q&A moderated by University of Chicago Professor Paola Iovene. Online tickets have sold out; Doc will be selling a select number at the cinema starting one hour before the screening at 5pm. Finally, rounding out a month-long series of his films, Tsai will appear in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center to give an artist lecture followed by an audience Q&A on Monday at 6pm. Free for all; tickets must be obtained in person at the box office one hour prior to start time. More info on all events here.
Roger Cormanâs THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (US/UK)
Chicago Film Society at the Music Box Theatre â Sunday, 7pm
This screening of the new 35mm restoration of THE MASQUE OF THE DEATH marks a special event, and not just because it allows us to see several scenes that were cut from the original release version. A new print of this Edgar Allan Poe adaptation (generally considered the best of director-producer Roger Cormanâs multi-film Poe cycle of the early 1960s) is sure to heighten the splendor of Nicolas Roegâs already sumptuous cinematography, which ranks among Roegâs finest contributions to cinema. The film is almost overwhelming visually, with stuffed widescreen compositions, seductive shadows, and color schemes loud enough to rival any Frank Tashlin ever came up with. Yet it would be unfair to attribute the filmâs success as either a horror film or a secret art film to Roeg alone. THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH is one of those movie miraclesâlike THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962), BLADE RUNNER (1982), or JACOBâS LADDER (1990)âin which a group of minor talents come together and make something greater than the sum of their parts. Working with one of the biggest budgets heâd ever had (and some of the sets left over from BECKET, made earlier that year), Corman creates a scene of satanic decadence that is opulent and genuinely terrifying. The sadomasochism on display is shocking, but itâs the measured, deliberate nature of it that gets under your skin. Corman has always had a taste for fine art, despite being best known as a producer of exploitation movies; case in point, he distributed films by Fellini, Truffaut, Kurosawa, and Bergman. When Corman was first offered to direct an adaptation of âThe Masque of the Red Deathâ in 1960, he turned it down, saying the story reminded him too much of THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957). The film he ended up making feels more like a nightmare version of Bergmanâs THE MAGICIAN (1958), with the cloistered settings now evoking an encroaching hell rather than sensuality and mystery. Vincent Price, in the first of many horror films he made in England, delivers a performance for the ages as the satanist Prince Prospero; heâs larger than life, yet thereâs a fineness to his mannerisms, which reflects how his vision is in lockstep with Cormanâs. Then thereâs Charles Beaumont, who cowrote the script. Beaumont was a regular contributor to The Twilight Zone, and the film also conveys what made that show great. It has a quirky, literary air, which befits a Poe story, and the horror sneaks up on you as it did in the best episodes of the series. Preceded by the 1931 Fleischer Studios short BIMBOâS INITIATION (7 min, 16mm). Screening as part of the Music Box of Horrors: Scared Stupid series. (1964, 90 min, New 35mm Restoration) [Ben Sachs]
Pier Paolo Pasoliniâs ARABIAN NIGHTS (Italy/France)
Gene Siskel Film Center â Wednesday, 7:30pm
Wrote Colin MacCabe for the Criterion Collection in 2012: âIn turning to The Thousand and One Nights⊠Pasolini was going further into the past and more deliberately into the present [than in the other two films of the Trilogy of Life]⊠Pasoliniâs aim was to find a contemporary world that promised a common past. He would now search for his vision of a pre-commodified culture not in the beginnings of modern Europe and the present-day lumpen proletariat but in more distant times and places and in the contemporary third world, creating his most exultant vision of simple sex outside of commodity exchange.â ARABIAN NIGHTS is surely the most sensuous film in Pasoliniâs Trilogy; itâs also the most homoerotic. It contains a surfeit of male nudity (comparable to the amount of female nudity in the other two films) and plenty of dialogue concerning male anatomy. Just as the eroticism of the filmâs predecessors stemmed from Pasoliniâs rejection of the modern world on spiritual and political terms, the eroticism here stems in part from Pasoliniâs anger toward the Catholic Church and the Italian Communist Party, both of which renounced him for being gay. Religion frequently comes into play in THE DECAMERON (1971) and THE CANTERBURY TALES (1972), but the world of ARABIAN NIGHTS is notably religion-free. Some viewers may object to Pasoliniâs vision of a Middle East without Islam (and thereâs much more to argue with here, as was always the case with this world-class provocateur), but then utopia is by definition not real, and this is a highly personal idea of utopia at that. The filmâs intensely autobiographical nature is exemplified by its central episode, in which a young man betrays his bride-to-be with another woman and is later castrated for his transgression. The young man is played by Ninetto Davoli, who had lived with Pasolini for a decade and appeared in about a half-dozen of his films; before the making of ARABIAN NIGHTS, he told Pasolini that he would be leaving him to marry a woman. Davoliâs comeuppance in the film speaks to cinemaâs capacity to act as a repository for a directorâs every fantasy, no matter how selfish. At the same time, ARABIAN NIGHTS isnât so hermetic as to deny the audience any fun. The film drifts from tale to tale (and sometimes back around to earlier ones) like a long, free-flowing dream. Screening as part of the Pier Paolo Pasolini series. (1974, 130 min, 35mm) [Ben Sachs]
Jacques Rivetteâs THE NUN (France)
Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) â Sunday, 5pm
French philosopher and author Denis Diderotâs posthumously published novel La Religieuse (1792) was conceived as an epistolary ruse to lure one of his friends back to Paris to rescue a nonexistent young woman from a horrible life inside a convent. In the spirit of this elaborate prank, director Jacques Rivette chose to adapt this book for his second film, THE NUN, as less a critique of the extremely limited options open to women during the 18th century than as a sly melodrama that occasionally tips into nunsploitation (mightily aided by the dirge notes of Jean-Claude Eloyâs spare score). Anna Karina plays 19-year-old Suzanne Simonin, the youngest and prettiest daughter of an attorney and his wife. The film opens as Suzanne is about to take her vows as a nun. She attests to her deep religious faith but, at the last minute, refuses to become a bride of Christ. Returned to her home, she is locked in her room for three months and only agrees to enter religious life after her mother reveals the reason she has been so disfavored in the family. From that point on, Suzanne is treated like the donkey in AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966) as she comes under the control of three different mother superiorsâone kind and maternal, one severe and sadistic, and one a hedonistic lesbian who sexually harasses Suzanne. Through it all, Suzanne maintains her desire to be free to do something else with her life, though she doesnât know what exactlyâno surprise, since women werenât expected to be anything other than menials, wives, and mothers. Her perils might induce laughter if not for Karinaâs absolutely sincere portrayal of Suzanne as devout, principled, and innocent. Karina is what gives this film its gravitas and drive. Rivette seems to have contented himself with setting the scene with an explanatory title card about how mother superiors were chosen and making the most of the confining interiors that dominate the film. However, his personal approach to the material presages his mature style in which individuals act as relatable proxies for the troubles of society. Screening as part of Docâs Sunday series, âJacques Rivette, New Wave Master.â (1966, 140 min, DCP Digital) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Thailand)
Gene Siskel Film Center â Monday, 8:30pm
A hushed and floating aureole of a film, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's UNCLE BOONMEE captivates and holds us firm in some timeless stupor. The northern Thai jungle throbs patientlyâwith past lives and past events, monkey ghosts and etherealityâwhile Boonmee comes full circle, or doesn't. The film centers on an elderly Thai farmer, Uncle Boonmee, who is dying of kidney disease. Fading in his farm home, his son and wife appear as spirits (in easily one of the most affecting family dinner scenes on film) to ease Boonmee into non-being. As in SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY and TROPICAL MALADY, Weerasethakul's Buddhism informs the fluidity of time and body, though here he forgoes the formal duality of those films for something like a drifting continuum. Boonmee laments his karma, having killed in the past either too many communists or bugs on his tamarind farm, and later dreams of a stunted future where images of one's past are projected until they arrive. Are we some Baudrillard-like copy of a copy, reborn and born againâor perhaps a continual permutation of events and memories? As in his past work, Weerasethakul lets us linger just long enough in dense but controlled compositions. The distance of his subjects in the frame methodically draws us deeper into his hypnotic world where the sound of our breathing heightens anticipation. It amplifies the pulse and hum of the darkened, textured jungle on screen. But the frame here is also Weerasethakul's most purposeful one, leading us gently into fabled recollection, and cunningly deep inside a haunting cave-womb. History and spirit have a composite curiosity that envelops both Boonmee and the viewer. It offers as much as one is willing to ask. Screening as part of 50/50, the Siskelâs year-long series including a film from each year the theater has been open. (2010, 114 min, 35mm) [Brian Welesko]
Frank Capra's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (US)
Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) â Monday, 7pm
During the production of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, Claudette Colbert purportedly referred to Capra's slapstick opus as the worst picture in the world, a criticism she'd repeat until the film was lauded with all five major Academy Awards. It's a messy work, and it's easy to see how Colbert could have objected, but the intricacies of Capra's earnest patchwork (Thanks, Columbia) give the film its merit. Colbert and Clark Gable seem humbled but lovably obstinate, as their mild trepidations about the script bleed into the film itself (as do various inconsistencies in editing and continuity). But IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT never feels like a film that doesn't want to be made and seen. Capra moves in quick, broad strokes, so that small details get picked up by happenstance and only make themselves apparent on repeated viewings. Stepping back, the film's personality is almost perfectly crafted, and there isn't anything about it that doesn't come across as genuine. The same could be said of nearly all of Capra's work, but his surefooted pacing renders this his most immediately likable. Screening as part of Docâs Monday series, âWonderfully Loathsome: Screwball Romance Through the Ages.â (1934, 101 min, 35mm) [Julian Antos]
Sierra Pettengill's RIOTSVILLE, USA (US/Documentary)
Gene Siskel Film Center â See Venue website for showtimes
Sierra Pettengillâs newest feat of archival filmmaking, RIOTSVILLE, USA, details the small fake towns set up by the American military in the 1960s in the response to growing civil unrest. Using soldiers to pose as rioters, the military would model demonstrations after real examples of recent major conflicts (the Watts riots are mentioned specifically) to prepare local police units for the assumed upcoming protests against racial injustice and the War. Understandably, this direct militarization of police did not keep anyone safe. As seen in the film, the riots during the 1968 Republican National Convention were largely instigated by militarized cops, who killed multiple civilians due to a bogus presumed threat of sniper fire. The film uses all archival materials, warping and obscuring some but leaving most tricks to the montage, juxtaposing footage of real demonstrations with the fake exercises. The clips of news coverage keep their beginnings and ends too, with punditsâ disfluencies and smirks allowing their rehearsals of popular narrative to line up nicely with the policeâs. Pettengill has made a film thatâs as bleak as it is rigorous and stimulating, and its relevance in our current year is without question. RIOTSVILLE inspires comparison to numerous critiques of state violence, but it also bears a certain resemblance to Nathan Fielderâs TV series The Rehearsal. Itâs an inverse of sorts to Fielderâs aspirational coaching, showing how rehearsing for something like riot policing is a great way to isolate peopleâs worst and most unfounded fears, running enough simulations until they metastasize into real-life violence. Similar to contemporary cops whoâve gone through Warrior Mindset training, RIOTSVILLE's police are under the impression that what theyâre doing is 100% necessary to maintain public safety. Over-training is impossible when the threat is always that bad. Since the âthreatsâ that Pettengill shows are often nonviolent protesters or people in their homes, she highlights that racist violence continues in part because of fantasies of existing violence. You probably wonât see a more politically vital film this year. (2022, 91 min, DCP Digital) [Maxwell Courtright]
Michael Glover Smithâs RELATIVE (US)
The New 400 Theaters â Sunday, 3pm
In his writing on movies, both here at Cine-File and elsewhere, Michael Glover Smith has advanced an acute understanding of how the framing of performers in narrative cinema can underscore the emotions they express and how camera movement (or, put another way, the re-framing of performers in time) can develop viewersâ relationships to onscreen characters. Smithâs features as writer-director seem to grow directly out of his insights in this areaâdeceptively âdialogue-driven,â they express their greatest eloquence not with words but with mise-en-scĂšne. It matters in RELATIVE whether the principal characters are together in the same shot or whether theyâve been individuated by close ups; it matters whether we can distinguish whoâs in the background of a shot or whether those characters have been obscured. These things matter because the film is ultimately about the competing forces of community and individuality that shape our identities in 21st-century life and how we navigate between them almost constantly. The action in RELATIVE covers a few days before, during, and after a young manâs college graduation party on Chicagoâs far north side, a celebration that draws his two older sisters from out of state and his older brother (a divorced Iraq War veteran whoâs been slowly self-destructing for the past four years) out of seclusion in their parentsâ basement. Smith gracefully interweaves the lives of all four siblings, their liberal Baby Boomer parents, and a handful of other characters as they come together amiably and unhurriedly, employing the time-honored scenario of the big family gathering to consider how many of us live at the dawn of the 2020s. Not surprisingly, the internet factors into things (though thankfully not too much); so too do food co-ops, queer-straight alliances, and the social normalization of weed. Yet Smith has more on his mind than enumerating aspects of the zeitgeist; RELATIVE is also concerned with the legacy of the Baby Boom generation and, more generally, how each generation honors the previous one while taking a seemingly opposite approach to life. Yasujiro Ozu is an obvious reference point for this sort of laidback family portrait, though I was reminded more of critic-turned-filmmaker Bertrand Tavernierâs A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY (1984) in the low-key sociological thrust of the drama and of the first episode of Rainer Werner Fassbinderâs recently rediscovered miniseries EIGHT HOURS DONâT MAKE A DAY (1972-â73) in the polyphony of the extended graduation party sequence. For all its international flavor, however, RELATIVE is a local production first and foremost, reflecting its makerâs deep affection for the neighborhoods he calls home. Followed by a Q&A with Smith and cast members Wendy Robie, Keith Gallagher, Elizabeth Stam and Heather Chrisler. At 5pm, Smith will lead interested audience members on an (optional) walking tour of some of the film's most prominent Rogers Park locations. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society! (2022, 97 min, DCP Digital) [Ben Sachs]
Wong Kar-wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Hong Kong)
Music Box Theatre â Friday, 2pm and Saturday & Sunday, 11:30am
Taking place in 1960s Hong Kong or in the memory of 1960s Hong Kongâthat city deemed too modern, many of the film's exteriors were shot in Bangkok, after allâWong 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 physicalâsave 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 particularityâa commemoration of sorts for Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty that had not yet happenedâas 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. Screening as part of the Music Box Staff Picks! series. (2000, 98 min, 35mm) [Brian Welesko]
đœïž ALSO RECOMMENDED
Bob Dolganâs THE MAGIC STUMP (US/Documentary Short)
Uncommon Ground (1401 W. Devon Ave.) â Sunday, 6pm
Longtime Chicago-area birders can remember when the now world-famous Montrose Point Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary was nothing but a strip of bushes perpendicular to Lake Michigan called the Magic Hedge. Cleverly, filmmaker and birder Bob Dolgan, creator of MONTY AND ROSE (2019), about Chicagoâs celebrity piping plovers, has purloined the hedgeâs nickname for his new birding short, THE MAGIC STUMP. This film focuses on three friends and their decade-long relationship with an astonishing variety of raptors that frequent the stump of an Osage orange tree located in a farmerâs field in downstate Coles County, Illinois. Raptor enthusiast Tyler Funk first identified a prairie falcon on a cemetery pole, questioning his discovery because these birds are endemic to the western part of North America and rarely venture further east. He and his friends Ron Bradley and David Mott soon discovered that the Magic Stump was an epicenter for raptor activity. Video and trail cam footage captured images of two prairie falcons, a short-eared owl, a snowy owl, northern harriers, and merlins, with some furry nocturnal critters thrown in for fun. Dolgan does a great job of capturing the excitement birders feel when they encounter something unexpected, as well as the camaraderie and wonder we feel when we gather together to share that excitement. If you canât travel to the Magic Stump, Dolganâs beautifully edited film is the next best thing. Preceded by an introduction from the director, who will also present two other recent birding-related videos. (2022, 20 min, Digital Projection) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Akira Kurosawa's RAN (Japan)
Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) â Thursday, 7pm
RAN is a film of exileâconceived in it, consumed by it. After the critical and box office failure of DODES'KA'DEN (which is, in fairness, a candy-colored slog hopelessly attuned to its director's worst instincts), Kurosawa found his already-shaky position in the Japanese film industry collapse completely. Supplanted by younger, more radical directors, he had to turn to Mosfilm to underwrite DERSU UZALA and leaned upon grown-fanboys Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas to sponsor KAGEMUSHA. All the while Kurosawa was quietly planning RANâborrowing elements from King Lear and the life of sixteenth-century warlord Mori Motonari for the script and painting storyboards for a film that he feared might never be shot. When French producer Serge Silberman came through with financing, RAN became the most expensive film in the history of the Japanese film industry, to the apparent indifference of Kurosawa's countrymen. Most every critic of RAN has noted a parallel between the 75-year-old Kurosawa and the aging warlord Hidetoro, and indeed, both preside over kingdoms teetering on the flaming brink. Legacies can be extinguished in an instant, but respect must be paid. RAN certainly has a homicidal stateliness about it; the film feels exquisitely brooded over, drained of all spontaneity, as if even the gray clouds had no choice in the matter. It plays closer to the operatic insularity of Tarkovsky's THE SACRIFICE than the CGI epics that would follow in its wake. It's definitely the last of its species. Screening as part of Docâs Thursday I series, âShakespeare Remixed.â (1985, 162 min, DCP Digital) [K.A. Westphal]
Eiichi Yamamoto's BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (Japanese Animation Revival)
Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) â Thursday, 10pm
Originally released only in Japan and parts of Europe, Eiichi Yamamoto's 1973 animated feature BELLADONNA OF SADNESS is finally seeing its first U.S. theatrical run in a new digital restoration, allowing audiences beyond its small but passionate cult following to experience this important work. The film is set in Medieval Japan where two struggling farmers, Jean and Jeanne, are looking to pay their debts to their feudal lord anyway that they can. Jeanne strikes a deal with the devil to give her more power and the means to support herself and her beau. This leads to her becoming a witch, whose power ultimately surpasses the overbearing lord. BELLADONNA's most striking feature is its art direction. Like an ever-turning kaleidoscope, it blends psychedelic cacophonies of color in some scenes with a more watercolor-like style that is surely inspired by French Impressionism paintings in others. The dichotomy of static images that are often larger than the frame and panned or tilted upon versus a more traditional animation approach creates an interesting juxtaposition. This forces the viewer to scrutinize the minutia of available sensory options, be it the sound design or the color palette of the particular scene. The static shots are reminiscent of stained-glass windows, complementing the religious iconography in the film. Thematically, the BELLADONNA examines sexuality and its influences on power or control. Those willing to give into carnal urges are rewarded with their deepest desires, but frequently face consequences for their promiscuity, becoming indentured to authority figures. The sexual motif is the film's backbone and runs a spectrum from passionate to violent to depraved. Before HEAVY METAL and THE WALL, there was BELLADONNA OF SADNESSâan hour and a half acid trip that is as subjective as a Rorschach test and one that explores both sides of the misogyny and feminism coin. Screening as part of Docâs Thursday II series, âMyths, Legends, and Folk Tales: A Brief History of Animation.â (1973, 89 min, DCP Digital) [Kyle Cubr]
Satoshi Kon's PERFECT BLUE (Japan/Animation)
Doc Films (at the University of Chicago) â Friday, 7pm
Many consider PERFECT BLUE to be Satoshi Kon's magnum opusâand for good reason. The filmâs impact on culture reaches far beyond that of most other anime films, arguably rivaling the work of contemporaries like Hayao Miyazaki and AKIRA creator Katsuhiro Otomo. Those filmmakers regularly utilize the format to explore new, colorful worlds of fantasy and science fiction, which was also true of Kon. However, his work in the late '90s and early 2000s was more grounded in reality, exploring a dreamy aesthetic instead through his charactersâ psychoses and fractured senses of self; Kon's approach led him to adapt Yoshikazu Takuchiâs novel of the same name, its story acting as a vehicle through which he could explore these themes. The film introduces us to Mima Kirigoe, a pop singer who leaves her idol group to become an actress. Between disappointed fanboys, mysterious deaths in her agencyâs circle, and an acting role that increasingly mirrors her struggle to self-identify, Mima begins to lose herself in the horrors around her. This film would not be the last time Kon used cinema to tackle a characterâs identity; he further explored the concept in his next original screenplay, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, which he penned with frequent collaborator and PERFECT BLUE screenwriter Sadyuki Murai. Where that film uses cinema as a positive additive, heightening a tale of lost love and legacy to dramatic peaks, PERFECT BLUE hones in on the anxiety of performance, depicting an actress who loses herself both on camera and in the public eye. To categorize this film as a great work in anime is to do it a disservice; it's a masterclass in psychological horror that holds its own in one of the latter genreâs most memorable decades. Screening as part of Docâs Friday series, âProgrammersâ Picks.â (1997, 81 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Bates]
Ana Lily Amirpour's A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (US)
Music Box Theatre â Monday, 9:30pm
Distributor Kino/Lorber has cannily but misleadingly marketed A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT as the "first Iranian vampire western." The film's writer/director, Ana Lily Amirpour, was born in London to Iranian parents and raised in America; it was shot in Bakersfield, California (standing in for a fictional Iranian ghost town named "Bad City"); the cast consists almost entirely of Persian-American actors speaking Farsi; and, aside from a stray spaghetti-western-inflected song or two on the diegetic-heavy soundtrack, the movie bears almost no relationship whatsoever to the western genre. It would be more accurate to describe this stylishly crafted, auspicious debut feature as an adult version of LET THE RIGHT ONE INâa poignant love story about the coming together of two lonely souls, one of whom just happens to be a vampire. The fact that the titular bloodsucker is a hijab-wearing young woman (the excellent Sheila Vand) who only preys on "bad men" has drawn both political and feminist allegorical readings from critics, although this is arguably giving too much credit to a film whose substance is primarily to be found in its surface pleasures. Still, what a surface. Amirpour and director of photography Lyle Vincent weave a potent alchemical magic with their high-contrast black-and-white cinematographyâAmirpour's almost exclusive focus on nighttime exteriors in weird industrial locations (i.e., Bakersfield's oil refineries, factories, and railroad yards) recalls the nightmarish atmosphere of her hero David Lynch's ERASERHEAD but, combined with her impeccable taste in pop-music cues, creates a dreamy/druggy vibe that is both entrancing and wholly her own. It's probably too early to tell whether the movie's weaker second half is the result of Amirpour's failure to build narrative momentum or a byproduct of the fact that her true talents may lie outside the realm of traditional storytelling altogether; A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT's single best moment is a non-sequitur involving a drag-queen dancing with a balloon. In this startling non-narrative sequence, the charm of the choreography between performer and balloon is almost perfectly matched by the charm of the choreography between camera and performer. Screening as part of the Music Box of Horrors: Scared Stupid series. (2014, 99 min, DCP Digital) [Michael Glover Smith]
Takashi Miike's ICHI THE KILLER (Japan)
Facets Cinema â Thursday, 7pm
ICHI THE KILLER isnât the best of the seven movies Takshi Miike directed in 2001âthat would be either the yakuza saga AGITATOR or the family comedy-cum-zombie-musical THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS. Nor is it the most tastelessâthat would be VISITOR Q, a movie that opens with a discomfitingly comic depiction of incest and steadily ups the ante from there. ICHIâs distinction is that itâs the one that gained the most attention in the West, its popularity confirming Miikeâs reputation here as a cult figure and shockmeister. The underground success of ICHI THE KILLER (which built on that of AUDITION and the first DEAD OR ALIVE, both made two years earlier) proved to be a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it generated enough interest in Miike to create a DVD market for his many other films, which range from childrenâs fare to serious crime dramas to art house movies; on the other hand, it overshadowed his less brazen work to the extent that relatively few US critics acknowledged it until the mid-to-late 2000s. Like PINK FLAMINGOS or SALĂ, ICHI THE KILLER is an all-time shocker, a movie that presents such extreme contentâand so much of itâthat youâre likely to watch it with mouth agape. Miike indulges in graphic scenes of torture and mutilation, and the settings are so garish and sleazy that they make the violence seem more disgusting than it actually is. (Itâs worth noting that the filmâs most brutal acts take place offscreen.) At the same time, the filmâs tone is so giddy as to seem practically innocentâMiike, adapting a manga by Hideo Yamamoto, maintains a sense of cartoonish escapism that emphasizes the imaginative quality of the gore. You watch the film much like you read the Marquis de Sadeâs fictionâto find out just how far the perverse imagination can reach. Essential to the filmâs comic/grotesque tone is Tadanobu Asano, who gives one of the great lead performances in a Miike movie. He plays Kakihara, a yakuza enforcer searching for his missing boss. The character aspires to the be ultimate sadomasochist, devising elaborate methods of torture to punish his enemies and taking delight in experiencing pain. (In what may the filmâs most unforgettable set piece, Kakihara cuts out his own tongue to ask forgiveness of a rival crime boss.) Running parallel to Kakiharaâs story is that of the title character, an assassin who kills his victims while under hypnosis. Ichi takes no delight from killing; in fact, when he realizes what heâs done he sobs like a baby. The most surprising thing about ICHI THE KILLERâapart from its surface naturalism, which Miike maintains through a rigorous long-take styleâis the sensitivity with which the filmmakers characterize the antihero. Ichi is always weirdly pathetic; his attacks of conscience offset the extreme violence, making the movie especially uncomfortable to watch. The film culminates in one of the most brilliant sequences in Miikeâs career, as the two narratives merge and the disparate themes (of pain and pleasure, self-definition versus self-negation) come together and reach fruition. Miike has always been a more sophisticated filmmaker than he lets on, as the symphonic structure of ICHI THE KILLER demonstrates. Though he would top this film many times over, it still stands as one of his most potent. (2001, 129 min, Digital Projection) [Ben Sachs]
Lewis Klahrâs FALSE AGING (US/Experimental Short)
Corbett vs. Dempsey (2156 W. Fulton St.) â Tuesday through Saturday, 10am â 5pm
Combining whimsy and wistfulness, prolific experimental filmmaker Lewis Klahr tackles the experience of aging in FALSE AGING, a short film in three parts that combines animation and collage. Artist/filmmaker Joseph Cornell could have been an inspiration for Klahr, but the latter skews much more pessimistic than the sunny Cornell. Part one focuses on leaving the nest, exemplified by homey wallpaper and the recurring images of migratory birds as Dionne Warwick sings â(Theme From) VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.â The theme, hailing from a tragic film about young women assuming adult responsibilities and finding all is not as they dreamed it would be, might as well be screaming âgo back!â Another sad entry into adulthood is narrated by Grace Slickâs intense rendering of âLather,â a case of arrested development imagined by Klahr as the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The final part takes place in the Big City, as John Cale recites Andy Warholâs aggrieved diary entry âA Dreamâ from his and Lou Reedâs album Songs for Drella. Klahr uses an alarm clock on which a round object rotates like a second hand to segue between the filmâs segments. Amusingly, when Slick sings that Lather draws mountains that look like bumps, a tiny, plastic woman with well-formed breasts emerges from a slit in the background paper. Klahr reclaims the past with the recurring image of an obsolete points programâa redemption book filled with stamps earned from purchases. Warholâs final lament from his diary that no one invites him out or comes to see him anymore is a warning that old age and infirmity know no friends. The naĂŻvetĂ© and immaturity of each of the sung and spoken narratives suggest that the concept of aging truly is false to our understanding of ourselves. Screening in the Vault through October 8. (2008, 15 min, Digital Projection) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
John Patton Ford's EMILY THE CRIMINAL (US)
Facets Cinema â See Venue website for showtimes
Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is a transplant to Los Angeles, an art school graduate carrying $70,000 in tuition debt, a hothead with a DUI and a criminal assault conviction on her record, and virtually no prospects for landing a decent job in her chosen field. Welcome to American capitalism in the 21st century and the devaluation of the arts, higher education, and people who work for a living. In his feature film debut as director and screenwriter, John Patton Ford has taken the contemporary social landscape in the United States and used its inequities to turn out a boots-on-the-ground crime thriller that does an admirable job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. We understand Emilyâs righteous indignation at being sandbagged by job interviewers, her contracting employer at a food catering company who denies her the rights of a full-time employee, and a friend who has âmade itâ and dangles prospects of a job in front of her without being able to deliver. No wonder she gets involved in credit card fraudâitâs a better living than the straight world will ever offer her. Plaza is incredibly good as she climbs carefully, then recklessly down the stairs to the underworld. But then who wouldnât follow the handsome, charismatic leader of this criminal enterprise, Youcef (Theo Rossi), who praises her and mentors her for the advantages her young, pretty, white face can offer. Emily may have thought she was an artist when she started out, but thereâs no question that her real lifeâs work is as a criminal. If you start rooting for her because you can relate to her story, remember that little fact. (2022, 93 min, DCP Digital) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
đïž PHYSICAL SCREENINGS/EVENTS â ALSO SCREENING
â« Asian Pop-Up Cinema
The extensive Asian Pop-Up Cinema series continues its fifteenth season. Their in-person and virtual offerings are too many to list. Visit here for more information.
â« Chicago Film Society
Michael Roemerâs little-seen 1984 film VENGEANCE IS MINE (118 min, 35mm) screens on Wednesday, 7:30pm, at Northeastern Illinois University (The Auditorium, Building E, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.). Preceding short is still TBD. More info here.
â« Comfort Film at Comfort Station (2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.)
âLive-Action Forgotten Horror Shorts,â programmed by Paul Freitag-Fey, screen on Wednesday, 8pm. Free admission. More info here.
â« Doc Films (at the University of Chicago)
Wu Jingâs 2017 Chinese film WOLF WARRIOR 2 (123 min, DCP Digital) screens on Tuesday at 7pm as part of Docâs âAfter the 5th: China and the 21st Centuryâ series.
Jackie Chanâs 1988 Hong Kong action film POLICE STORY 2 (100 min, DCP Digital) screens on Wednesday at 7pm as part of Docâs âCenter Stage: The Films of Maggie Cheungâ series. More info on all screenings here.
â« Gene Siskel Film Center
Martine Symsâ 2022 film THE AFRICAN DESPERATE (100 min, DCP Digital) opens. See Venue website for showtimes.
On Sunday at 3:45pm, Chicago International Film Festival founder Michael Kutza will appear in person to discuss his new memoir, Starstruck. The book will be available to purchase, with a signing to follow.
Rounding out a month-long series of his films, Tsai Ming-liang appears in person to give an artist lecture followed by an audience Q&A on Monday at 6pm. Free for all; tickets must be obtained in person at the box office one hour prior to start time.
As part of the Midwest Film Festivalâs First Tuesdays events, Advertising Community Night takes place on Tuesday, commencing with a 7pm social hour, a shorts program screening at 8pm, followed by a Q&A with the members of the production teams moderated by Craig Duncan, and an after-party at Emerald Loop Bar & Grill. More info on all screenings here.
â« Music Box Theatre
Ti Westâs 2022 horror film PEARL (102 min, DCP Digital) and Brett Morgenâs 2022 documentary about David Bowie, MOONAGE DAYDREAM (135 min, DCP Digital) continue. See Venue website for showtimes.
Bryan Spicerâs 1995 film MIGHTY MORPHINâ POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE (95 min, DCP Digital) screens on Friday at midnight as part of the Music Box Staff Picks! series.
All five FINAL DESTINATION films (435 min) screen on 35mm starting at 9:30pm on Saturday; Joseph and Vanessa Winterâs 2022 horror-comedy DEADSTREAM (87 min, DCP Digital) screens on Tuesday at 9:30pm; the Windy City Double Feature Picture Show podcast presents a double feature of Terence Fisherâs DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (90 min, DCP Digital) and John Gillingâs THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (90 min, DCP Digital), both from 1966, on Wednesday at 7:30pm; and Chris LaMartinaâs 2013 film WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (82 min, DCP Digital) screens on Thursday at 9:30pm, co-presented by Terror Vision and with special video introduction by the film's director. All films screen as part of the Music Box of Horrors: Scared Stupid series. More info on all screenings here.
đïž LOCAL ONLINE SCREENINGS â
ALSO SCREENING/STREAMING
â« Video Data Bank
ââMake Believe, Itâs Just like the Truth Clings to Itâ: In Conversation with the Work of Cecilia Dougherty,â curated by Amanda Mendelsohn, is available to stream for free on VDB TV. The program includes Doughertyâs THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD (1992, 6 min); MY FAILURE TO ASSIMILATE (1995, 20 min); THE DREAM AND THE WAKING (1997, 15 min); and GONE (2001, 36 min). More info here.
CINE-LIST: September 30 - OCTOBER 6, 2022
MANAGING EDITORS // Ben and Kat Sachs
CONTRIBUTORS // Julian Antos, Michael Bates, Cody Corrall, Maxwell Courtright, Kyle Cubr, Megan Fariello, Marilyn Ferdinand, Jonathan Leithold-Patt, Michael Glover Smith, Drew Van Weelden, Brian Welesko, K.A. Westphal