Ray Pride

Commentary by Ray Pride

Prizewinners in the 72 Hour Feature Project will be shown this weekend at the Siskel Film Center. For more information, go to www.siskelfilmcenter.org

Fri 27

Hip Hop Documentary Video Festival

Fifty "youth produced" shorts; poetry by Kuumba Lynx; graffiti art; rooftop screenings. Buddy, 1542 N. Milwaukee, 8.

*The Lady from Shanghai

(1948, USA) Directed by Orson Welles. Thrillingly weird, baroquely funny. Virtually unfathomable plot finds Welles a sailor caught between the variously suicidal and homicidal fantasies of a crippled lawyer and his frustrated young wife. Despite front-office-mandated reshoots, Welles' first studio picture after "The Magnificent Ambersons" is cheerily, deliriously incoherent; Welles' dense Irish brogue is as thick as his character's head; love interest Rita Hayworth, Columbia's biggest star and Welles' then-wife, made famous by her flowing red hair, waltzes through in a perverse blonde bob that, with her icy performance, makes her even more forbidding; supremely strange Glenn Anders and Everett Sloane cackle through insane machinations. There's a wealth of bravura filmmaking, including the justly celebrated shootout finale in an amusement park's hall of mirrors. 86m. Music Box (773) 871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

My Brother Silk Road

(Altyn Kyrghol)(2001, Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan) Directed by Marat Sarulu. A parable of "the transition from the old to the new in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan." 80m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation

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

Sat 28

*The Fall of Otrar

(Gibel Otrara) (1990, Kazakhstan) Directed by Ardak Amirkulov. A Martin Scorsese "presentation," Amirkulov's historical epic about Genghis Khan's systematic destruction is said to be a stunner. 165m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

*The Road Warrior (1981, Australia) Directed by George Miller. Zoom. Kinetic action filmmaking, a quantum leap above the already-impressive "Mad Max." With Mel Gibson. Panavision. 94m. Shown with Frank Tashlin's 1937 cartoon, "Porky's Road Race." $5. LaSalle Theater (312) 904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.

Modesty Blaise

(1966, England) Directed by Joseph Losey. 119m. Video. Free. Delilah's (773) 472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

My Brother Silk Road

See Jun 27. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

Open Screening

Everything welcome; drop off work or call ahead with up to fifteen minutes of your work in 16mm, Super 8, 1/2" video and MiniDV. Free. Chicago Filmmakers (773) 293-1447, 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, 8.

Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation

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

*Strangers on a Train

(1951, USA) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Theoretical murders are swapped by strangers Robert Walker and Farley Granger, with Walker intent on putting words into action. Critic David Thomson: "Hitchcock's most profound subject and achievement is the juxtaposition of sanity and insanity, of bourgeois ordinariness and criminal outrage. The criss-cross motif, derived from thriller fiction, is itself a map of the way audiences... are sucked into films. Charming Walker and boring Granger make a trap for our need to identify." With Ruth Roman, Patricia Hitchcock. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

Sun 29

Four Flies on Gray Velvet

(Quattro Mosche di Velluto Grigio) (1971, Italy) Directed by Dario Argento. Michael Brandon as a rock drummer blackmailed in Rome. Video. Free. Delilah's (773) 472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

The Howlin' Wolf Story

(2003, USA) Directed by Don McGlynn. World premiere of a new doc about the Chicago musician. 90m. BetaSP video. McGlynn, the producers and "many surprise guests" will appear. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5, 7:30.

*Strangers on a Train

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

Mon 30

Love is Strange

Comic shorts about "love, lust and obsession without regard to gender, race or creed." Work by Benjamin Meyer, Erma Elzy-Jones, Larry Lafond, T. Arthur Cottam, Scott Popjes, Michelle Cutler and Keir Serrie. 92m. Formats vary. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

Straight Outta Hunters Point

(2002, USA) Directed by Kevin Epps. A digital video portrait of San Francisco's notorious projects, with its overwhelmingly African American population. Epps grew up and still lives there. Buddy, 1542 N. Milwaukee, 8.

Tue 1

*The Fall of Otrar

See June 28. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:30.

The Daughter-in-Law

See June 21. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

*Never on Sunday

See June 20. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Thu 3

The Howlin' Wolf Story

See June 29. $8. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Love is Strange

See June 30. Siskel Film Center (312) 846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

(2003-06-25)

Also by Ray Pride

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2003-06-18)

Fille fatale
There's a certain kind of precociousness that just makes you want to smack a child actor
(2003-06-18)

Meta fear
Behold "The Eye," a supernatural kiss from the other side, an eerie Asian sibling to "The Others."
(2003-06-18)

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2003-06-11)

Comedy killer
(2003-06-11)

Coming up for air
(2003-06-11)

Tip of the Week
(2003-06-04)

Short Runs
(2003-06-04)

The day the clown cried
(2003-06-04)

Renaissance mannerism
(2003-06-04)

Tip of the Week
(2003-05-28)

Short Runs
(2003-05-28)

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