Ray Pride

* = recommended

Fri 10

Bronx barbes

(2000, France) Directed by Eliane de Latour. The director, writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres, "also a noted anthropologist, weds street realism with humor and vibrant contemporary African music for a fictional look at gang life." 110m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

*Enter the Dragon

(1973, Hong Kong-USA) Directed by Robert Clouse. Bruce Lee tries to stop opium smugglers in schlock story with hokey camerawork, embalming Lee's martial arts talents. With John Saxon. Panavision. 97m. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

*L'Afrance

(As a Man) (2001, Senegal-France) Directed by Alain Gomis. A young Senegalese finds his exile in Paris crashing down after a visa mix-up. Haunting and deeply sad exploration of displaced identity. 90m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

*Monty Python and the Holy Grail

(1974, England) Directed by Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam. Very funny send-up of the traditional myths of the Knights of the Round Table, as well as the Knights Who Say "Nee!" Beyond the Python gags, it's also fascinating to see the early stages of Terry Gilliam's development as a director. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

*One Hour Photo

(2002, USA) Directed by Mark Romanek. 96m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 6:45, 9, 11:15.

Sat 11

*Design for Living

(1933, USA) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. "Two Americans in Paris--playwright Fredric March and painter Gary Cooper--fall in love with the same free-spirited bohemian (Miriam Hopkins)" in free adaptation of Noel Coward's play. 90m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 4.

*Duel in the Sun

(1946, USA) Directed by King Vidor. Producer David Selznick lavishes the "Gone With the Wind" approach on a neurotic, sexualized Western: the Cain and Abel plot is only the beginning. Lush, lurid and tasty. With Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten. 135m. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

*Enter the Dragon

See Jan 10. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much

(La ragazza che sapeva troppo; aka The Evil Eye) (1963, Italy) Directed by Mario Bava. Writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres, this item "launched the Italian 'giallo' genre, movies based on pulp fiction, which accounts for the provocative Nancy Drew-meets-Barbie aspect... a suspense story full of wonderful twist, sinister encounters and a bit of humor. " With Leticia Román, John Saxon. 86m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

*Igby Goes Down

(2002, USA) Directed by Burr Steers. Writer-director Steers demonstrates a savage verbal wit in this jaw-droppingly mean Salingeresque black comedy of Swiftian bad manners among uppercrust Georgetown and Manhattan. Kieran Culkin is a star. Culkin plays Igby Slocumb, a sarcastic 17-year-old who hates the old-money world he was born into, especially his distant, selfish mother, played with spite by Susan Sarandon, who notes "His creation was an act of animosity, why should his life not be?" Happy to flunk out of yet another school, Igby goes on the lam, hiding out at godfather Jeff Goldblum's Manhattan loft, which he keeps for smoke-blowing mistress Amanda Peet. Steers understands wicked dysfunction, as well as emblematic behavior, such as having Goldblum goofy-grinning, literally caught with his pants around his ankles, and Peet watched by a boy and a boy-man as, bare-chested, she shaves her underarms. Then there's Clare Danes' pissy turn as older-woman Sookie "I am not a JAP" Saperstein, who provides Igby with drugs, sex and attitude. (He shrugs that's he's just "Pavlov's pothead.") Culkin seethes with conflict and confusion, and best of all, Steers does not bother to illuminate hilariously arcane references, or flinch from the word "Bitch!" being answered by "Cunt-face!" He's utterly unsentimental about any number of ticklish issues, including assisted suicide. Nor does he apologize for a character taunting Igby from hiding with the chant, "Anne Frank, Anne Frank, the soldiers are gone, come out and play." While reminiscent of "Where's Poppa" and other sad, sorrowful black comedies, "Igby" is a clear-eyed original. "You're a furious boy," Sookie tells him after taking up with "fascist" older bro Ryan Phillippe, "and someday you won't be a boy anymore and it will eat you alive." For the moment, Igby lives. Nice song score, too, collated by KCRW Santa Monica's Nic Harcourt. 110m. Widescreen. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 6:45, 9, 11:15.

*L'Afrance See Jan 10. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:30.

Louder Than Bombs

(2002, Poland) Directed by Przemyslaw Wojcieszek. A 21-year-old in southern Poland finds his life turned upside down when his father dies and his girlfriend announces she's leaving for America to go to school. 92m. Beta SP video. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 1.

*Monty Python and the Holy Grail

See Jan 10. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

*One Hour With You

(1932, USA) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor. Writes the Film Center's Martin Rubin, "Lubitsch, busy with other projects, intended only to supervise... Unhappy with early rushes, he relegated Cukor to the sidelines; the results are vintage Lubitsch... A remake of Lubitsch's 1924 hit `The Marriage Circle,' but its approach is strikingly different. A risqué operetta in the vein of `The Love Parade' and `The Smiling Lieutenant,' the remake is more comedic and less realistic." With Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald. 80m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:45.

Them!

(1954, USA) Directed by Gordon Douglas. Killer ants! 73m. 90m. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

Winners of the Wilderness

(1927, USA) Directed by W. S. van Dyke. Writes LaSalle's Matthew Hoffman, "Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy, the heroic Man of Destiny was a former Army officer whose military bearing never left him... Colonel Tim had been an Indian agent and he knew more about the West and Native Americans than anyone in Hollywood [and became a] star of prestigious MGM productions about our frontier history." This one's set in pre-Revolutionary colonial America in the days when the Canadian French threatened the Ohio River. With Joan Crawford. 70m. Shown with "America Beware," Chapter One of the 1942 serial "Spy Smasher." 16mm. $5. LaSalle Theater (312)904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.

*Ziegfeld Follies

(1945, USA) Directed by various directors, including George Sidney and Vincente Minnelli. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

Sun 12

Blue Hawaii

(1961, USA) Directed by Norman Taurog. Elvis mediocrity. Angela Lansbury is the ex-G.I.'s pushy mom. 101m. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

*Cry, the Beloved Country

(1951, England) Directed by Zoltan Korda, "A dashing young Sidney Poitier as Reverend Msimangu. Msimangu is a missionary-schooled, black South African priest, whose asexuality, gradualist politics, and cool-headed sophistication became part of Sidney Poitier's trademark unreality. Poitier's appearance in this once-controversial film also demonstrates the actor's larger concerns with mining literary material for African-American performance and addressing social problems through films," DOC's commentator notes. 103m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.

*Duel in the Sun See Jan 11. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

*Igby Goes Down See Jan 11. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 2.

Knives of the Avenger

(I coltelli del vendicatore) (1965, Italy) Directed by Mario Bava. Writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres of this "sword-and-sandals epic," "Call it Viking-vengeance-meets-spaghetti western." With Cameron Mitchell, Elissa Pichelli. 85m. 35mm Techniscope. English-dubbed. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 4.

Louder Than Bombs

See Jan 11. 92m. Beta SP video. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 1.

Remember Marvin Gaye

(2002, Belgium) Directed by Richard Olivier. A portrait of the "visionary R&B artist" during his 1981-83 tax exile in Belgium, during which time he recorded "In Our Lifetime" and "Midnight Love." 60m. Beta SP video. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:45.

*Trouble in Paradise

See Jan 4. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3:15.

*Ziegfield Follies

See Jan 11. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

Mon 13

Bronx barbes

See Jan 10. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Michelangelo: Restoration of the Fresco The Creation of Man

(1988, Italy) Directed by Anna Zanoli. Two docs: "Michelangelo: Restoration of the Fresco `The Creation of Man'" and 1998's "Leonardo's 500-Year-Old Last Supper, 1498-1998: Restoration notes." Program 45m. A reception follows. Zanoli will appear. Free. Chicago Historical Society and Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 500 N. Michigan, Suite 1450, 6.

One Hour With You

See Jan 11. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

*Time Out

(2001, France) Directed by Laurent Cantet. 132m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.

Tue 14

*Design for Living

See Jan 11. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

*The Shop Around the Corner

(1940, USA) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Just another damn masterpiece. Screenwriter Samson Raphaelson, known for his brilliantly structured scripts, surpasses himself with this gentle, elegant romantic comedy about coworkers (James Stewart at his best, the ineffable Margaret Sullivan) in a Budapest luggage shop who despise each other, but discover they've been carrying on an anonymous epistolary romance for some time. Funny, sexy, ultimately deeply moving, it's the kind of perfect movie that it's sheer idiocy to try to remake. Oh yeah, it was remade: as 1998's "You've Got Mail." 97m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

*The Thin Man

(1934, USA) Directed by W.S. Van Dyke. The great portrait of connubial bliss, courtesy of the dashing, darling, dishy William Powell and Myrna Loy, as well as one of the great, unwitting portraits of high-functioning alcoholism. Plus Asta, that darling little shit-eater. 93m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.

Wed 15

*Eraserhead

(1977, USA) Directed by David Lynch. A man who understands the fear of fatherhood, would you not say? With Jack Nance's hair, Jack Nance, and the Lady in the Radiator. 90m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much See Jan 11. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Knives of the Avenger See Jan 12. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

Thu 16

*Aimée and Jaguar

(1999, Germany) Directed by Max Färberböck. 125m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.

A Clockwork Orange

(1971, England-USA) Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Sleek, nasty adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novel of one young "droog"'s amoral sociopathy seems ever more callous and ever more plausible with the passing years. Time Out London's critic wrote, "Kubrick's film exploited the then-current debate on the validity of aversion therapy in the context of a working lad's freedom to choose violence as his form of self-expression... Fun to watch but superficial to think about." With Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, John Clive. 136m. Free. Bad Boys/Bad Girls: Youth in Trouble Festival, Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University School of Law, Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago, 7.

Kindas Productions Films by Sarah Baptist, Erica Burkhart, Lynn Lu, David Merit, Xenia Shin and others. A raffle is promised. $8. Hot House, 31 E. Balbo, 8.

*Mark of the Vampire (1935, USA) Directed by Todd Browning. 60m. Shown with the inscrutably gaga "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (Ed Wood, Jr., 1959). 79m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 9:30.

*Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

(1996, USA) Directed by Bruce Sinofsky, Joe Berlinger. Free. Bad Boys/Bad Girls: Youth in Trouble Festival, Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University School of Law, Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago, 3.

*The Shop Around The Corner See Jan 14. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

*Rebel Without a Cause

(1955, USA) Directed by Nicholas Ray. Forget the commonplace J.D. story: remember Ray's superb, off-kilter CinemaScope compositions, brash color contrasts, James Dean's spluttering adolescent confusion, Sal Mineo's homoerotic adoration of Dean, Natalie Wood's brittle girlishness, Jim Backus in an apron, the Griffith Observatory as the locus of fifties LA and the center of the universe. The last shot: dawn, the Observatory, a man with a hat and briefcase strides to work, a new day begins, Nick Ray himself. As Jean-Luc Godard wrote, "Here is something which exists only in the cinema, which would be nothing in a novel... or anywhere else, but which becomes fantastically beautiful on screen." CinemaScope. 111m. Free. Bad Boys/Bad Girls: Youth in Trouble Festival, Children and Family Justice Center of Northwestern University School of Law, Thorne Auditorium, 375 E. Chicago, 5.

Remember Marvin Gaye

See Jan 12. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5, 8:15.

(2003-01-10)

Also by Ray Pride

Tip of the Week
All of a sudden, English documentary daredevil Nick Broomfield is all grown up.
(2003-01-08)

Good cop, better cop
32-year-old Joe Carnahan's first feature with a budget brings a dank greasy grunge to a cop morality tale that seeps into the soul and chills it.
(2003-01-08)

DVD Tip of the Week
For those who missed Ernst Lubitsch's pretty much perfect romantic comedy at the Siskel Film Center last week, "Trouble In Paradise" is now out in a shimmering transfer on a dual-layer Criterion DVD.
(2003-01-08)

Tuman show
It's the last call of the last night of the last weekend of a prime dive. "We're at Tuman's, off Chicago and Leavitt.
(2003-01-08)

DVD Tip of the Week
(2003-01-02)

Playing by fear
(2003-01-02)

Tip of the Week
(2002-12-26)

Fun and gangs
(2002-12-26)

Bringing out the dead
(2002-12-18)

The Six Days of Christmas
(2002-12-18)

Tip of the Week
(2002-12-12)

The J-Lo Show
(2002-12-12)

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