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 Short Runs * = recommended
Fri 17
*Goodfellas
(1990, USA). Directed by Martin Scorsese. The last goodfilm from
Scorsese. 146m. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
Good News
(1990, Austria) Directed by Ulrich Seidel. Seidl's first feature
examines the life of newsstands manned by immigrants. It's described as
a look at "newspaper vendors, dead dogs and other Viennese." 125m.
35mm. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 6:30.
In Shifting Sands: The Truth about UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq
(2001, USA) Directed by Scott Ridder. A "balanced, objective
accounting" of the work of UN arms inspector. Ridder, a former UNSCOM
inspector, brings his firsthand experience to bear. 92m. Video. $7.
Chicago Filmmakers (773)293-1447, 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, 7.
*Models
(1998, Austria) Directed by Ulrich Seidel. Seidl's "unvarnished,
unflinching look at three blonde models, their sexual relationships and
personal habits" is harsh, but telling. 125m. 35mm. Facets
(773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 8:45.
*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.
*100 Days
(2001, England-Rwanda) Directed by Nick Hughes. The first film to
attempt a dramatic depiction of the horror of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
96m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph,
8:15.
*Punch-Drunk Love
(2002, USA) Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. See Main film listings.
94m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th
St., 6:45, 9, 11:15.
*Shadow of a Doubt
(1943, USA) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. One of Hitchcock's best:
Thornton Wilder helped weave the satire of small town life. With Joseph
Cotton. 108m. 6. Block Museum (847) 491-4000, 40 Arts Circle Dr., 8.
*To Be Or Not To Be
(1942, USA). Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Hilarious dark satire about
the resistance activities of a troupe of Polish actors during the Nazi
bombing of Warsaw. Carole Lombard (who died in a plane crash before the
film's release) and Jack Benny are superb as the husband and wife who
lead the troupe; with Robert Stack as a young soldier Benny suspects of
visiting his wife during his "To be or not to be..." soliloquy. Critic
Parker Tyler in 1942: "To make a list, 'To Be...' is all of a
Lubitsch sex comedy, a Hitchcock spy melodrama, an act of
'Hellzapoppin,' and a play about character ambiguity by Pirandello, as
the whole might have been written by Clifford Odets in an immoral
moment." 99m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6:15. Sat 18
*After Hours
(1985, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's comeback after
bottoming out at the box-office, among other places. Linda Fiorentino
was so cute. Don't know about that Griffin Dunne. 97m. Music Box
(773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
Charlie Ahearn: Artist Portrait Videos
A recent portrait of artist Leon Golub is among the attractions.
Ahearn will appear. Free. Claudia Cassidy Theatre, Chicago Cultural
Center, 78 E. Washington, 1.
*Animal Love
(1995, Austria) Directed by Ulrich Seidel. Let's leave this look at
"a group of desperately lonely people who turn to their pets for
emotional love and physical affection" to Werner Herzog, who said, "I
have never looked so directly into hell in the cinema." 114m. 35mm.
Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 6:.
*The Barkleys of Broadway
(1949, USA) Directed by Charles Walters. 109m. Music Box
(773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.
Dog Days
(2001, Austria) Directed by Ulrich Seidel. Seidl's deeply annoying
fiction feature, using nonactors to depict a lurid vision of suburban
Austria, has a cruel and staged character that's alternately transfixing
and revolting. 121m. 35mm. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton,
8:45.
Independent Exposure
Video and filmmakers from around the world, including Brett Simon,
Lily Prillinger, Steven Scott, Britta Johnson, Mark O'Connell, Victoria
Gamburg. Michele Beck, Jorge Calvo, Brett Simon. Jason Britski,
Stephanie Bolt, Eric Lesdema, Kirk Hostetter, Evan Mather, Pierre-Yves
Cruaud, Wes Kim, Patrick Cannon, John Benson, Ward Evans, Marcus J.
Carney, Sarah Klein, Jeff Drew, Yoo Jung Lee, Jim Haverkamp, Brett
Ingram, Bärbel Neubauer, Gary Evans, Karl Fodor, Kristina Szabo, Yuri
A., Daniel Cavey, Phillip Donnello and Kota Ezawa. Patrick Kwiatkowski
speaks after the first show (at 10:30). A reception follows the 11pm.
$6. Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee, 9, 11.
In Shifting Sands: The Truth about UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq
See Jan 18. $7. Chicago Filmmakers (773)293-1447, 5243 N. Clark St.,
2nd Floor, 7.
*Kill, Baby...Kill!
(Operazione Paura) (1966, Italy). Directed by Mario Bava. "The
bizarre finale has an hallucinogenic, down-the-rabbit-hole quality,"
writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres "that both evokes and
transcends the spirit of the 1960s." 83m. English dubbed. 35mm. $8.
Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.
*The Lords of Flatbush
(1974, USA) Directed by Stephen Verona, Martin Davidson. 84m. $6.
Block Museum . (847) 491-4000, 40 Arts Circle Dr., 8.
*Manhunter
(1986, USA). Directed by Michael Mann. 121m. $8. Siskel Film Center
(312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.
*The Merry Widow
(1934, USA) Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Lubitsch's last musical,
teaming Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette Macdonald for the last time.
99m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 4.
Mothra
(1961, USA) Directed by Inoshiro Honda, Lee Kresel. 101m. Video.
Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.
*Mother India
(1957, India) Directed by Mehboob Khan. 172m. $4. DOC Films (773)
702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 2.
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail
See Jan 10. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
*The Smiling Lieutenant
(1931, USA). Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Writes the Film Center's
Martin Rubin, "this rarest of Lubitsch's talkies is a saucy pre-Code
delight. The numbers include 'Spice Up Your Lingerie." 88m. 35mm. $8.
Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.
*Star Witness
(1931, USA) Directed by William Wellman. Expressionist gangster
melodrama from the director of "The Public Enemy." 68m. Shown with
Wellman's 1933 "College Coach." 75m. Also "Human Targets," Chapter
Two of the 1942 serial "Spy Smasher." 16mm. $5. LaSalle Theater
(312)904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.
*Taxi Driver
(1976, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Hell. Hell, as eagerly
embraced by three angry young intellects, none yet 30. "Taxi Driver"
is a young man's movie, a yelp of nihilism, seething with
conflicts--racial, religious, sexual--and not one wrapped up with a tidy
kiss of sentiment at story's end. It's New York City seen through the
eyes of a speed-popping, mind-racing, insomniac madman as he cruises
through the pulp-novel wet-dream in his head. He doesn't know Paul
Schrader's thrown him together with scraps from Dostoevsky's "Notes
from Underground," the films of Robert Bresson, and the diaries of
George Wallace's failed assassin Arthur Bremer. "Taxi Driver" is the
kind of illustrious conceit that comes from bravado, bravura,
braggadocio, a swaggering film drawn from a script by a porn-loving,
gun-toting, hard-drinking man who left behind Calvinist doctrine and
film criticism's dogma (Paul Schrader); directed by a sawed-off,
speed-talking, Italian-American failed seminarian; starring an actor
(DeNiro) who would work through every paranoid tic in his repertoire in
a single role, becoming more rigid in the two decades to come; and a
producer (Julia Phillips) whose memoirs claim the rapid-fire
forty-day-shoot was rife with cocaine use. And, it's one of the last
films to be made under the tax-shelter law that made a great chunk of
the much-revered Hollywood renaissance of the 1970s possible, where the
code phrase in a movie's credits, "production services," meant a
wealth of breaks for the already-wealthy. Steeped in dread, lush with
blood, scored to 75-year-old misanthrope Bernard Herrmann's last score,
like a heartbeat trying to leap from inside your chest or from under the
immense hood of the now-disappeared herds of yellow Checker taxis. The
trio reunited for "Raging Bull," an equally obstinate film, more about
a sociopath than a psychopath. (What further refinement of mania could a
third collaboration bring a further decade along?) Nowadays, DeNiro
rises only to the occasional challenge, Scorsese is into frantic
overkill, Schrader, the least compromised of the three talents, is
reduced to jumping from one country to another in search of European
finance for his features. Schrader lifted the phrase "God's lonely
man" from Thomas Wolfe, but it's become the myth of the movie and the
myth of all three of the principals' pedigrees. Watching the gorgeously
lit and framed movie on a big screen, as the painstaking Scorsese wants
it to be seen, the bounty of anger and hate that pours from the screen
is all the more appalling; what appalls even more is the bounty of
talent, fusing in that one never-to-be-repeated, white-hot moment. What
was once fever dream is now archeology as well. The urban squalor of New
York City, the squalid state of contemporary filmmaking, the careers of
everyone involved--it's all changed. "Taxi Driver"'s soundtrack is
also more than Hermann's strange, dark score: now in stereo, the
selection of urban noises is a discordant symphony of urban irritation,
recorded in a time before car alarms and boom boxes and drive-by
shootings, but still just as hateful as any part of the filmmakers'
concerted, disconcerting vision. 113m. 35mm. Music Box (773)871-6604,
3733 N. Southport, Call for times.
*Who's That Knocking At My Door?
(1968, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Slapdash but intermittently
electric first feature by Scorsese, with a younnnnng Harvey Keitel. 90m.
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am. Sun 19
*The Barkleys of Broadway
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.
Black Sabbath
(1963, Italy) Directed by Mario Bava. Video. Free. Delilah's
(773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.
*Monsoon Wedding
(2001) Directed by Mira Nair. 114m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max
Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 4:15.
*Intruder in the Dust
(1949, USA) Directed by Clarence Brown. 87m. Shown with Sidney
Meyers' "The Quiet One." (65m) $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max
Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.
*Raging Bull
(1980, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Brutal, hyper, relentlessly
stylized and self-analytical, Scorsese's biopic of middleweight boxing
champ Jake LaMotta is an impressive look at the petty existence of a
very small man (no reflection on DeNiro's stunt of gaining weight for
the film). With Joe Pesci. 128m. 35mm. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N.
Southport, Call for showtimes.
*Nina Simone, Love Sorceress
(1998, France) Directed by Rene Letzgus. A 1976 concert is the
backdrop of this portrait of the protean singer. 75m. BetaSP. Some
French dialogue is unsubtitled. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600,
164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.
*Punch-Drunk Love
(2002, USA) Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. 94 m. $4. DOC Films
(773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 2.
*Who's That Knocking At My Door?
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am. Mon 20
The Bosom Friend
(1997, Austria) Directed by Ulrich Seidel. Documentary about a
physics teacher who lives with his elderly mother who is obsessed with
female bosoms. 60m. BetaSP video. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W.
Fullerton, 8:45.
*Kill, Baby...Kill!
See Jan 18. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6.
*Losses to be Expected
(1992, Austria) Directed by Ulrich Seidel. Documentary portrait of
two villages on opposite sites of the Austrian-Czech border. 118m. 35mm.
Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 6:30.
*Lumumba
(2000)Directed by Raoul Peck. 115m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max
Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.
*Mean Streets
(1973, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's slice of a
now-mostly extinguished street life in Little Italy is one of the few
movies I've seen umpty-hundred times that I can anticipate most every
word, each burst of the inventive, bravura camera and editing style, the
futile gestures of the characters, the half-dozen shots where you can
hear the whine and whir of the camera. A writer I know describes
searching the corners of a well-trodden film scene as being "like
taking a walk along a familiar nature trail." Perhaps. I know
repetition becomes fanatical ritual to moviegoers who know every
purloined fuck and shit in "Reservoir Dogs," or god forbid, can match
Ferris Bueller snark-for-snark. Yet while Scorsese, movie-mad as anyone
in cinema's century, refers endlessly to other films, he manages to
integrate it into other forms of heritage as well. Scorsese's eye is
omnivorous, at once a fan's and yet the most developed of critical
analysis. He can discourse until dawn on the meaning, the sensation, the
lineage and wealth of reference in any series of shots in his own movies
as well as those of others. How does he sleep, quell the chatter of this
hard-won pop mentality? One can imagine him taking ages to still that
voice, to quiet the chatter of erudition in his fast-talking mid. (His
heart must beat as fast as a songbird's.) One of the great "Doh!"
insights of adulthood is to recognize the reservoir of knowledge of
those who came before you, both spiritual and secular. Power rests in
that awareness, but its heavy weight can stifle the act of creation. It
can also hold back the gutter-level strivers like Scorsese's 27-year-old
Charlie, embodied by a kid-faced Harvey Keitel, inner voiceover courtesy
of Scorsese. He thinks he's doing the work of Francis of Assisi, but as
his lover Teresa tells him, "St. Francis didn't run numbers!" Look at
the swim of "Mean Streets," autobiographical, steeped in Catholic
conflict, routines between the guys absurd as vaudeville, dense with
family lore and the geography of a few teeming blocks south of Houston,
east of Broadway. I wonder what this movie looked like at the New York
Film Festival in 1973--so many movies since made by filmmakers who
greedily drank it up. (Twenty-five years on, "Mean Streets" is also a
gem of urban archeology. New York doesn't look this way anymore. Even
the dinginess of the Little Italy delis seems sanctified from this
remove.) When I first saw a 16mm print at my college film society, I did
not see how personal the snatches of Godard were alongside the too-young
Robert DeNiro saying, Beckett-flat loony-tunes, "I'm sad about my
hat," alongside the late George Memmoli threatening, "Come back here
and you'll find out what's gonna happen to you!" We did not see that
the fever went beyond the dark of the screening room. We were not old
enough to know, yes, he did mean "streets"--both the narrow passages
we course in sifting our own histories to fiction, as well as the broad
road of opportunity if only we would go that way, see the avenues of
chance, the boulevards of our most idiosyncratic personal fears,
fascinations, and dare we even venture, visions. The rest is bullshit;
now we know it. 110m. Shown with several of his early, very student
shorts. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Call for times.
*100 Days
See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6. Tue 21
Boxcar Bertha
(1972, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. For completists only. 88m.
Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
*Models
See Jan 17. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 6:30.
*The Moon's Our Home
(1936, USA) Directed by William A. Seiter. 80m. Shown with Mitchell
Leisen's lively 1937 "Easy Living." 88m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)
702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.
*New York, New York
(1977, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Look, he was in love
with Liza, okay. Giveaguyabreakforchrissakes. Boy does DeNiro give her a
beatdown. 164m. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Call for
showtimes.
*To Be Or Not To Be
See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6:15.
*The Smiling Lieutenant
See Jan 18. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6:15.
Wed 22
*Animal Love
See Jan 18. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 6:.
*The Elephant Man
(1980, USA) Directed by David Lynch. 124m. Panavision. 35mm. $4. DOC
Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 7.
*The Last Temptation of Christ
(1988, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. A labor of love too
long-labored over, Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader's adaptation
of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel is a chore. 164m. 35mm. Shown with
"American Boy" (55m) Scorsese's vivid portrait of his friend, hopped
up self-mythologist and drug addict Steven Prince (who played the gun
dealer in "Taxi Driver.") Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport,
Midnight.
*Losses to be Expected
See Jan 20. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 8:45.
*Manhunter
See Jan 18. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6.
*The Merry Widow
See Jan 18. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 8:15.
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 23
*Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
(1983, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. 113m. Music Box
(773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.
*Black Sunday
(1960) Directed by Mario Bava. 87m. $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max
Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 9:45.
The Bosom Friend
See Jan 20. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 8:45.
*Caught
(1949, USA) Directed by Max Ophuls. 88m. $6. Block Museum . (847)
491-4000, 40 Arts Circle Dr, 8.
*The Eyes of Tammy Faye
(2000, USA) Directed by Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato. Shown with
"Scout's Honor." $4. DOC Films (773) 702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema,
1212 E. 59th St., 7
Good News See Jan 17. Facets (773)281-4114, 1517 W. Fullerton, 6:30.
*King of Comedy
(1983, USA) Directed by Martin Scorsese. Perhaps the purest and most
unsettling of Scorsese's films. 109m. Shown with "Alice Doesn't Live
Here Anymore" (Scorsese, 113m). Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N.
Southport, Midnight.
*Nina Simone, Love Sorceress
See Jan 18. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 8:15.
*The Optimists
(2000, USA) Directed by Jacky Comforty. 83m. $4. DOC Films (773)
702-8574, Max Palevsky Cinema, 1212 E. 59th St., 3:30.
*To Be Or Not To Be
See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at
Randolph, 6:15.
Also by Ray Pride Short Runs
Tip of the Week
Good cop, better cop
DVD Tip of the Week
Tuman show
DVD Tip of the Week
Playing by fear
Tip of the Week
Fun and gangs
Bringing out the dead
The Six Days of Christmas
Tip of the Week
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