📽️ CRUCIAL VIEWING
Carol Weaks Cassidy & Ruth Leitman's WILDWOOD, NJ (US)
Highs & Lows at the Music Box Theatre – Tuesday, 7pm
Most people love talking about themselves, but it takes a special skill in establishing rapport and building trust between interviewer and interviewee to make talking heads into compelling cinema. The thing that separates Cassidy and Leitman's travelogue to a long-gone working-class Jersey shore summer oasis is the ease with which their mostly youthful, female subjects share often unflattering anecdotes from their day-to-day and their sincere, world-weary, yet uncynical hopes for the future. The Eden they all describe looks shoddy and low-rent, but it's a Xanadu to them. These magical vacation memories feel necessary to sustain lives that seem workaday and lacking in joy otherwise. It's a nostalgia trip in the best sense of the term. Even the few women past their twenties return summer after summer to recapture whatever they discovered on that boardwalk so long ago. Though shot thirty years ago, the film feels eons old. I hope young people still have places like this to visit that will make memories to last a lifetime. (1994, 60 min, DCP Digital) [Dmitry Samarov]
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Screening as a double feature with Nima Nourizadeh’s 2012 film PROJECT X (88 min, DCP Digital) and followed by a post-WILDWOOD, NJ Q&A with Leitman. More info here.
Jennifer Reeder's THE PERPETRATOR (US)
Music Box Theatre – Thursday, 6:45pm
For her third collaboration with Shudder, Jennifer Reeder expands the possibilities for stories in the horror genre with THE PERPETRATOR. The story follows rambunctious teen Jonny Bapiste (Kiah McKirnan), who gets sent to live with her estranged aunt (Alicia Silverstone). She informs the heroine of a supernatural gift passed down through the women in her family and activated upon their eighteenth birthday. While Jonny grows comfortable with her new abilities, the girls at her school face the threat of abduction as classmates go missing. Using her new talent, Jonny must find the culprit. Reeder has stated this is a significant moment for women working in genre filmmaking, a chance to redefine norms set long ago. Borrowing from femme horror queens of the past, PERPETRATOR calls back to JENNIFER'S BODY (2009) and HEATHERS (1988), to name a few; the presence of Silverstone reminds one of teen-centered thrillers such as THE CRUSH (1993). Casting the '90s heartthrob as the cold mother figure opposite high school rebels highlights a unique moment in the forty-six-year-old actor’s career. Silverstone now has the opportunity to play more idiosyncratic roles, having aged out of teen roles; it's comparable to Paul Schrader casting Ethan Hawke in FIRST REFORMED (2017). There’s a yearning in Reeder’s work. Like Silverstone, the writer-director came of age in the late '80s and early '90s; PERPETRATOR’s juvenile characters reflect that time in their mannerisms and behaviors, yet they live with a contemporary American anxiety (mistrust of law enforcement, mistrust of masculine figures, and school shootings). That's not to say that POC, women, and queer folks weren’t previously facing these problems; they simply weren’t addressed in genre film as much before now. The mixture of classic and contemporary gives the work its surrealist tone, a fitting atmosphere for Reeder, whose previous work takes inspiration from Lynch. Kosovan director of photography Sevdije Kastrati creates color temperatures that make the image uncomfortable in all the right ways—a good collaborator for a director who likes to experiment. Chicago premiere; Reeder, cast and crew in person. (2023, 100 min, DCP Digital) [Ray Ebarb]
Nagisa Ôshima’s IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (Japan/France)
Leather Archives & Museum (6418 N. Greenview Ave.) – Saturday, 7pm
The notorious life and extraordinary crime of Sada Abe, a prostitute from Tokyo who strangled her lover in 1936 and carried his severed penis and testicles around with her for days, has been chronicled exhaustively in books, documentaries, and feature films in Japan and abroad—but none more stunningly than in Nagisa Ôshima’s IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. Japan’s first pornographic film, which reportedly has never been seen in its entirety in that country, was a sensation at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, where demand to see it was so high that it was shown 13 times. Filming in Kyoto was allowed to take place in secrecy because the funding by French producer Anatole Dauman made it a “French” production, and the exposed film was sent to Paris every three days to be printed to avoid obscenity charges in Japan. I saw it in 1977 at the now demolished Devon Theatre and preserved only one clear memory of it—the lead actress literally laying an egg her lover inserted into her vagina. Revisiting the film in 2023 was more than a refresher and a reminder of just how many pornographic films were showing all over Chicago in the 1970s—it gave me a chance to admire two incredible performances and learn about how nonconformity expressed itself in ’70s Japan. Eiko Matsuda, an actor then working in Japan’s fringe theater (the scorpion she had tattooed on her earlobe should gain admiring imitation today), plays Sada. She is serving as a maid in a geisha house when she first sees Kichizo Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji) having sex with his wife (Aoi Nakajima). Soon, Kichizo comes on to her, and the two begin an affair that becomes all-consuming. Sada’s violent nature is apparent early on, when she tries to knife a coworker who says to her, “Once a prostitute, always a prostitute.” Beyond that, she completely flaunts social norms by having sex with Kichizo wherever and whenever she wants, alone or in front of others, and holds onto his penis even while they’re walking. While she comes to dominate him, Kichizo’s sadism is exemplified when he rapes a servant in their love-nest inn and nearly kills a 68-year-old woman Sada encourages him to have sex with while she watches voraciously. The film seems to share much in common with Japanese ghost stories, such as those in KWAIDAN (1964), where men are in thrall to dead spirits, and the hunger with which Sada consumes Kichizo reminded me of The Vampire (Theda Bara) in A FOOL THERE WAS (1915) who seemed to suck the life force out of her lovers. Indeed, both Fuji and Matsuda lost weight during the filming as their characters’ lack of any appetite other than sexual is noted throughout the film. IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES, far from being truly erotic or titillating, is a difficult, sometimes monotonous film to watch, and be warned that there is a scene of child sexual abuse in it. While the Japanese public at the time of the real Abe’s capture and trial sympathized with her because Ishida was willing to die for love—a sentiment that seems almost peculiarly Japanese in its de-emphasis on the ultimate importance of life—Japan’s censors saw in their story a dangerous defiance of conformity. This political sentiment can be seen in one scene Fuji considered especially important to his character in which Ishida moves down a street, wrapped in his own thoughts, in the opposite direction of a parade of military troops as Japan prepared to make war on the world. Obscenity is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Screening as part of the Fetish Film Forum. (1976, 109 min, Digital Projection) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Sarah Kernochan’s ALL I WANNA DO (aka STRIKE!) (US)
Alamo Drafthouse (3519 N. Clark St.) – Saturday, 11am
I discovered ALL I WANNA DO on cable in the late '90s or early '00s. It was probably the only way I could have possibly unearthed it, as the film was buried in its initial run by Harvey Weinstein and given a very limited theatrical release. Its original title, THE HAIRY BIRD (slang for male genitalia), was also considered too offensive for audiences by US distributor Miramax, and thus the multiple English names for the film left it further adrift. Twenty-five years later, it’s wonderful that this gem of a film is finding an audience. I’ve often thought of this era as a heyday for oddball teen comedies, and ALL I WANNA DO is a unique example featuring a familiar cast. Set in 1963, the film is based on director Sarah Kernochan’s own experience at an all-girls boarding school. After her plan to have sex with her boyfriend is discovered by her parents, Odie (Gaby Hoffman) is sent to Miss Godard’s Preparatory School for Girls in New England. There she falls into a group of intelligent, resourceful students (Kirsten Dunst, Monica Keena, Merrit Weaver, and Heather Matarazzo). These girls are part of a secret club dedicated to helping each other achieve their long-term career goals (doctors, a journalist, etc.), which are generally more ambitious than their finishing school peers. Though politically minded, Odie’s only ambition is to sleep with her boyfriend, and despite being a relatively small goal, the team is equally determined to help, even as school tattletale Abby (Rachel Leigh Cook) tries to thwart them. All their plans are interrupted when they find out the board of trustees is planning to turn the school coed due to financial troubles. While the idea of going coed is appealing to some at first, the students all soon realize how devastating this change would be to the exceptional space, run by the strict but supportive Miss McVane (an empathetic Lynn Redgrave); they are, in fact, determined to push back. It’s a teen comedy that doesn’t disregard sex obsession, but rather cleverly resituates as not any more or less important than friendship, education, self-discovery, and career ambition. While a comedy, it also seriously explores issues like sexual assault and eating disorders; Kernochan’s balances these shifting tones with complete effortlessness and understanding of the struggles faced by teen girls. ALL I WANNA DO’s charm is perhaps most sincerely felt in the relationships between the main group, who all are wholly compassionate and understanding, knowing that their ambitions can best be achieved with support from each other. Having myself attended a women’s college, I can say that ALL I WANNA DO truly captures the comradery and magic of these educational spaces. Kernochan’s presents Miss Godard’s as distinctive, with its own language and traditions, not fully cut off from the outside world but a kind of sanctuary nonetheless, and worth fighting for. (1998, 97 min, DCP Digital) [Megan Fariello]
📽️ ALSO RECOMMENDED
Wu Yonggang’s THE GODDESS (China/Silent) [NOTE: THIS SCREENING HAS BEEN CANCELED]
Comfort Film at Comfort Station (2579 N. Milwaukee Ave.) – Wednesday, 8pm
Ever since Samuel Goldwyn became so infatuated with STELLA DALLAS that he made it twice (his son rebooted it a third time), the figure of the fallen woman who becomes a self-sacrificing mother has been a well-internalized archetype in American society. Golden Age Chinese films were strongly influenced by Hollywood, so it is no surprise that director Wu Yonggang chose just such a story for his directorial debut, THE GODDESS. To emphasize their universality, Wu gave the characters in THE GODDESS no names. The protagonist, a prostitute and mother played by Lingyu Ruan, prepares for her evening stroll by getting a thermos of warm milk ready for the neighbor to feed to her infant son when he wakes up. After straightening up her home a bit and applying some lipstick, she hits the streets of Shanghai to try to drum up some business. One night, while evading the police, she hides in the home of a gangster (Zhizhi Zhang), who accepts her “gratitude” and muscles into her life for several years. Hoping to keep her son on the straight and narrow, she hides her money from the gangster and uses it to pay for her son’s education. But gossip about her profession and the paternity of her now school-age son (Keng Li) lead to disappointment and tragedy. THE GODDESS is a straightforward melodrama with a bit of cinematic innovation, such as its depiction of the bright lights of the city as well as a shorthanded scene of “the goddess” picking up a trick. More advanced for its time are the questions it poses about the root causes of prostitution and the cruelty of blaming a child for its parents’ defects. Shockingly, it also holds a good deal of relevance for today’s backward-looking moral outrage, particularly in our schools. Lingyu Ruan’s heartfelt and charismatic performance made her a star overnight, and Wu was launched into his successful career. Screening as part of the Silent Films on the Lawn Series, with a live musical score by Bill Harris/Adam Shead duo. (1934, 85 min, Digital Projection) [Marilyn Ferdinand]
Ira Sachs’ PASSAGES (France)
Music Box Theatre – See Venue website for showtimes
Befitting the film’s plot—something of a love triangle between two men, husbands Tomas (Franz Rogowski) and Martin (Ben Whishaw), and a young woman, Agethe (Adèle Exarchopoulos)—the compositions in Ira Sachs’ PASSAGES are angular, the characters’ bodies individual lines that connect and disconnect seemingly at random. Much like Jacques Tati elicits comedy from architecture, Sachs, in collaboration with cinematographer Josée Deshaies, here evokes love and all its contours from the relationship between these bodies and their surroundings (which, like Tati’s film, are also in Paris). The film’s opening scene shows Tomas at work as a director; it’s the last day of shooting, and he’s directing a scene during which an actor descends from some stairs into a crowd of people in a bar. The set is almost Fassbinder-ian, with dark red lighting, arched entryways and decadent detailing. (As we’ll later see, this isn’t the only element of the film that recalls the great, iconoclastic German director. In general Sachs’ films are infused with his own rapt cinephilia.) Tomas gives direction to an actor on how to walk down the stairwell, instructing him how to use his body within that particular space. When I spoke with Sachs, he noted how he and Deschaies aspired to make each sequence seem almost like a diorama, with the actors situated purposefully so that the arrangements and movement within them conveyed the characters’ emotions as much as the dialogue. The lines become tangled when the cast and crew go to celebrate at the end of the shoot; when his husband, Martin, declines to dance with him at the bar, Tomas instead dances with the beautiful, young school teacher Agathe. They converge first through dance, then through sex, and eventually through love, with Tomas’ marriage to Martin falling completely by the wayside. Tomas leaves Martin and moves in with Agathe, who’s soon pregnant; he becomes bored with this newfound domesticity and also jealous of Martin’s relationship with a handsome writer, sucking his ex-husband back into his orbit as a result. The three attempt a quasi-polyamorous relationship, the outcome of which I won’t reveal here but leaves not everyone satisfied. (DESIGN FOR LIVING, this is not. Rather, as Sachs tells me, it’s more akin to Pialat’s LOULOU.) That’s because Tomas is a classic enfant terrible, the embodiment of an artist completely absorbed in his own pathos. Rogowski is vibrant as usual but also kind of treacherous; Whishaw again plays a delicate martyr, quietly absorbing his husband’s emotional brutality. Exarchopoulos, meanwhile, conveys a quiet strength that mirrors the vigor of her desire. But, even though the film’s marketing hinges on just that quality, it isn’t so much sexy as it is sexual, depicting moments of passion in a realistic manner. A lengthy sex scene between Tomas and Martin is the cause of the film’s controversial NC-17 rating (though Sachs and the film’s distributor, Mubi, eventually decided to release it unrated), for which there’s truly no justification—I’ve seen more graphic sex scenes on television. And the most interesting thing about that scene isn’t the sex itself, but the way it’s shot, entirely from behind with no access granted to the actors’ (and thus the characters’) faces during this intimate, complicated moment. It recalls another, earlier scene where the two have a difficult conversation at their country house, with Tomas in the foreground almost completely obscuring Martin who sits behind him on the bed. The composition gives meaning to their respective sequences in a way that either complements or supersedes the dialogue (or lack thereof). Another appreciable visual element of the film is the characters’ clothing, which reflect the personality of the person who’s wearing it. Thus, Tomas’ clothes are particularly flamboyant, as seen when he wears a sheer crop top to dinner with Agathe’s parents—a conveyance of both his general nonconformity and the disrespect he feels toward their bourgeois attitudes. The characterizing impact of everything outside what the actors are saying adds a certain dynamism that elevates the rather simple concept (give or take a few subversions regarding sexuality, which is never explicitly broached) of who’s sleeping with whom to why they’re doing so and who they’re becoming in the process. Sex is the triangle, but love is the void, a mystery among absolutes; a passage into which we enter. (2023, 91 min, DCP Digital) [Kat Sachs]
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Listen to Cine-File co-managing editor Kat Sachs’ interview with filmmaker Ira Sachs here.
Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMER (US)
Music Box Theatre, AMC River East 21 and ShowPlace ICON Theatre, et al. – See Venue website for showtimes
Christopher Nolan’s mid-career masterpiece OPPENHEIMER embodies not just a welcome return to form but new possibilities for the filmmaker. After an unceremonious divorce from Warner Bros., Nolan's first picture with Universal Studios leapfrogs through various settings in 20th-century history as he traces the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of Los Alamos Laboratory and chief scientist of the Manhattan Project. Frequent Nolan collaborators Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman (in a surprise appearance) return with an entourage of A-list talent too long to list (but standouts include Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey, Jr.). Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, fresh off Jordan Peele’s NOPE (2022), returns for his fourth Nolan collaboration and finds himself at home among grand vistas of the American Southwest, the idyllic campuses of Princeton and Berkeley, and claustrophobic Washington Senate hearings. Ludwig Göransson recorded the film’s score in a mere and frankly unbelievable five days. If there’s one reason to see OPPENHEIMER in 70mm, the score is reason enough. Nolan, for his part, turns in a career-best film that leans heavily on the style that has made him such a prominent contemporary filmmaker. To say he’s has always been obsessed with time and nonlinear narrative would be to understate the matter; even in OPPENHEIMER, based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s exhaustive biography, Nolan manages to shed the trappings of linear narrative in favor of an achronological structure that maintains tension throughout the film’s three-hour runtime. And tense it is. We all know what happens when the Trinity test goes off, but it’s this scene that’s perhaps the film’s most nerve-racking. Nolan follows Oppenheimer from young adulthood to his twilight years, highlighting some of the more well-known events of his life as well as events that have gone under the radar in pop culture. You know the “destroyer of worlds” line had to be in the film, but you’ll be hard-pressed to guess where it makes its first appearance, and you might even have a chuckle. As miasmic as the film is, it’s lit up with moments of levity, sometimes unexpected, which often come as a welcome respite—the film rarely leaves the chance to breathe or catch up until the credits roll. Nolan brings justice to the story of “the most important man who ever lived,” in his own words. The only question now is, where does he go from here? (2023, 180 min, 70mm [through Sunday at the Music Box Theatre] and DCP Digital [at the Logan Theatre]) [George Iskander]
John Hughes' FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (US)
Music Box Theatre – Monday, 7pm
John Hughes' FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF is a picaresque tale about a confident young man doing what he can to postpone adulthood. In a performance that made him a bona fide leading man at the age of 23, Matthew Broderick creates a character so clever and charming that you can't help but root for him. Beginning with a little white lie about a serious illness to get a final day off before going to college, Ferris schemes to cheer up his best friend Cameron with a VIP tour of the city. Wrigley Field, the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue, and the Sears Tower ("I think I see my dad") are the backdrop for the greatest senior ditch day ever put on film. Its enduring appeal lies in the subplot, however, in which the evil dean of students, Edward Rooney (Jeffery Jones), vows to catch Ferris in the act and force him to repeat his senior year. In the film that not only taught countless youngsters how to properly play sick, but also showcased our city as the playground for Broderick's under-stimulated Northshore slacker, there are moments of cinematic greatness. Co-presented by the Second City Film School. (1986, 103 min, DCP Digital) [Jason Halprin]
🎞️ PHYSICAL SCREENINGS/EVENTS –
ALSO SCREENING
âš« Chicago Film Archives
The Chicago Transit Authority, in partnership with the Chicago Film Archives (CFA), presents a new, one-of-a-kind temporary art installation now playing at the Cicero Green Line station (4800 W. Lake St.). The installation, called we love, is a filmic exhibition of home movies and amateur films selected from collections housed and preserved at CFA. The video, which has a runtime of approximately 48 minutes, will be projected onto a wall in the mezzanine area of the station. The video will run day and night through mid-March next year. More info here.
âš« Chicago Filmmakers
“...LIKE CLOCKWORK (Time Ba$ed),” featuring work made by filmmakers who’ve been on the Chicago Filmmakers’ …Like Clockwork podcast, screens Saturday at 7pm. Featuring the work of previous …Like Clockwork guests Paige Taul, Fernando Saldivia Yañez, Lynne Sachs, Sonnie Wooden, Jason Halprin, Edgar Jorge-Baralt, Ji Stribling, Daniel Watkins and Christina Santa Cruz, Michael Mersereau and M. Woods; followed by a post-screening discussion with Paige Taul, Edgar Jorge-Baralt, Ji Stribling, Sonnie Wooden and M. Woods, moderated by Grace K. Schuler. More info here.
âš« Chicago Film Society at the Music Box Theatre
James Cameron’s 1997 masterpiece TITANIC (194 min, 35mm) screens Wednesday, 7pm, at the Music Box Theatre. Preceded by Joyce Weiland’s 1967 short film SAILBOAT (3 min, 16mm). More info here.
âš« Cinema/Chicago
The “City, Living: Chicago Stories” short film program, featuring work by Andre Muir, Jennifer Boles, Ian Bertorelli, Jason Park, Jens Ericson, Danny Laboy Valdez and Akanksha Chawla, screens Wednesday, 6:30pm, at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St.). Free admission, though rush tickets only. More info here.
âš« Gene Siskel Film Center
Dustin Guy Defa’s 2023 film THE ADULTS (91 min, DCP Digital) and Morrisa Maltz’s 2023 film THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY (85 min, DCP Digital) begin this week. See Venue website for showtimes.
The National Theatre Live production of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s one-woman play FLEABAG (80 min, Digital Projection), directed by Vicky Jones, screens Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.
NIGHTINGALE PROJECTS: THE ROOT AND THE HARVEST (LA RAIZ Y LA COSECHA) screens Monday at 6pm. Programmed for Nightingale Projects by Raul Benitez and Tzutzu Matzin; followed by a discussion with select filmmakers to be announced. More info on all screenings here.
âš« Music Box Theatre
It’s officially Music Box Garden Movies season! See Venue website for films and showtimes.
Park Chan-wook’s 2003 South Korean film OLDBOY (119 min, New 4K DCP Digital Restoration) screens Friday and Saturday at midnight and Sunday and Monday at 9:30pm for its 20th anniversary. Followed by a post-screening, pre-recorded 12-minute conversation between director Park Chan-Wook and Nicolas Winding Refn.
Tom Hooper’s 2019 film CATS (110 min, DCP Digital) screens Thursday at 9:45pm. Hosted by Ramona Slick. More info on all screenings and events here.
⚫ Instituto Cervantes of Chicago’s Reel Film Club
Jabi Elortegi’s 2022 comedy DEAR GRANDMA (100 min, Digital Projection) screens Thursday at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago (31 W. Ohio St.). A reception with food and a glass of wine starts at 6pm and the film screens at 7pm followed by a post-screening discussion. More info here.
âš« Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
Martine Syms’ 2022 film THE AFRICAN DESPERATE (97 min, Digital Projection) screens Sunday, 1pm, as part of the Screening Freedom: Film + Discussion Series. Followed by a catered discussion. More info here.
âš« Sideshow Gelato (4819 N. Western Ave.)
The Sideshow Gelato shop presents Sideshow Sinema!, during which they will screen films connected to the shop theme, every Thursday. More info here.
âš« Sweet Void Cinema (3036 W. Chicago Ave.)
Find information on the Humboldt Park microcinema, including its screening and workshop schedule, here.
CINE-LIST: August 18 - August 24, 2023
MANAGING EDITORS // Ben and Kat Sachs
CONTRIBUTORS // Ray Ebarb, Megan Fariello, Marilyn Ferdinand, Jason Halprin, George Iskander, Dmitry Samarov