Ray Pride

* = recommended

Fri 10

*Down by Law

(1986, USA) Directed by Jim Jarmusch. 106m. 35mm. $6. Block Cinema (847)491-4000, 40 Arts Circle, Evanston, 8.

*Edge of the City

(1957, USA) Directed by Martin Ritt. 85m. 35mm. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:15.

Golden Swallow

(Jin yanzi) (AKA The Girl With the Thunderbolt Kick) (1968, Hong Kong) Directed by Zhang Che. "Graceful but steely beauty," writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres. 108m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.

Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

(2003, USA) Directed by Denis Mueller, Deb Ellis. A preview of a new documentary about the life and times of the historian and activist. Mueller will appear. Chicago Filmmakers at Columbia College, 600 S. Michigan, 8.

*Spellbound

(2003, USA) Directed by Jeffrey Blitz. T-H-R-I-L-L-I-N-G. 95m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7, 9, 11.

*Stop Making Sense

(1984, USA) Directed by Jonathan Demme. 88m. 35mm. $6. Block Cinema (847)491-4000, 40 Arts Circle, Evanston, 11.

Sat 11

Buck Benny Rides Again

(1940, USA) Directed by Mark Sandrich. Jack Benny in Western comedy; nostalgist Chuck Schaden will appear. 82m. Shown with the 1931 Benny short, "Taxi Tangle." $5. LaSalle Theater (312)904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.

Deep Breath

(Nafas-E Amigh) (2003, Iran) Directed by Parviz Shahbazi. "Taut, beautiful imagery... casual nihilism," writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres. 85m. 35mm. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

(2003, USA) Directed by Denis Mueller, Deb Ellis. A preview of a new documentary about the life and times of the historian and activist. Mueller will appear. $7. Chicago Filmmakers (773)293-1447, 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, 8.

The Ladies'

(Zananeh) (2003, Iran) Directed by Malmaz Afzali. Documentary about a women's washroom in a Tehran park. 55m. Shown with Bahman Kiarostami's "The Mourners." "What first appears to be an inquiry into the training and work of men hired as professional mourners becomes a study in obsession and eccentricity channeled into ritualized fervor," writes the Film Center's Barbara Scharres. 27m. BetaSP video. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

*Platoon

(1986, USA) Directed by Oliver Stone. "Saving Private Stone"? Stone's parable of his fierce competitive drive in contemporary Hollywood. With Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Johnny Depp. 120m. Panavision. DVD video. Free. Washington Library (312) 747-4300, 400 S. State, 1.

Return of the Blind Dead

(1973, Italy) Directed by Amando Ossori. 90m. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

Vengeance!

(Baochyou) (1970, Hong Kong) Directed by Zhang Che. "103m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 4.

*X2: X-Men United

(2003, USA) Directed by Bryan Singer. 133m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 6:15, 9, 11:45.

Sun 12

Anchortronic 5.1 Surround Project

Over the course of two years, musicians, sound and video artists composed pieces specifically for the 5.1 surround sound system. Digital video. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:30.

Deep Breath

Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

*Ivan the Terrible: Part 1-2

(1946, USSR) Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Rarely shown Eisenstein epic, ravishingly photographed, and featuring a Prokofiev score, emphasizes Ivan's grandiose, larger-than-life qualities. In his battles against the nobility, Ivan is depicted as the embodiment of the Russian people. With its story of Ivan's absolute rule of a burgeoning nation-state, Part Two was banned until 1958, and contains a color sequence, made with a small quantity of color negative captured from the Germans. Program 186m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

The Ladies'

$8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:30.

Shock Waves

(1976, Italy) Directed by Ken Wiederhorn. Zombie Nazi soldiers off the coast of Florida. With Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams. 90m. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

*X2: X-Men United

$3. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 2.

Mon 13

*Frenzy

(1972, England-USA) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Elegant, shocking late Hitchcock, with all the sex and violence he couldn't show before. 116m. 35mm. Biographer Patrick McGilligan will appear; he'll also sell books in the café. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6:30.

*Tom, Tom, the Pipers Son

(1969, USA) Directed by Ken Jacobs. Jacobs repeatedly re-photographs a ten-minute comic short from 1905, with hypnotic results. 115m. 16mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

War and Peace

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

Tue 14

*Apu Sansar

(1959, India) Directed by Satyajit Ray. New 35mm print. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

*Edge of the City

Sergio Mims lectures on the film. See Oct 10. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7.

*Eight Men Out

(1988, USA) Directed by John Sayles. 120m. 35mm. $6. Block Cinema (847)491-4000, 40 Arts Circle, Evanston, 8.

Santo and Blue Demon vs. el Dr. Frankenstein

(1974, Mexico) Directed by Miguel M. Delgado. Santo gets down as part of the "Gay Eros in the Land of Machos" lecture series. Action figures to the first 100 customers. Free. Museum of Contemporary Art (312)344-7812, 220 E. Chicago, 6.

Wed 15

Anchortronic 5.1 Surround Project

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

Golden Swallow

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

*The Tall T

(1957, USA) Directed by Budd Boetticher. "Working in limited and confining locations, Boetticher concentrates on detail in a way which gives each new scene an amazing intensity," says the Film Center's notes. Boetticher's mix of comedy and tragedy is always compelling. With Randolph Scott, Richard Boone. 77m. CinemaScope. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

Thu 16

*Blackmail

(1929, England) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 86m. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

*Children of Paradise

(1945, France) Directed by Marcel Carné. A rare chance to see Carné's swoonderful love song to the life of the theater in a theater; it looks great on the Criterion DVD, but it was made for the big screen. 190m. 35mm. $6. Block Cinema (847)491-4000, 40 Arts Circle, Evanston, 8.

*Eat Drink Man Woman

(1994, Taiwan-USA) Directed by Ang Lee. Food as drama replaced sex in the art-houses for a while: In the year "Eat Drink" was released, "Like Water for Chocolate" and "The Scent of Green Papaya" tweaked the audience's galvanic responses with the carnivorous as much as with the carnal. Lee's follow-up to "The Wedding Banquet" fit the toothsome trend, but with more on its tables than in its coolly dispassionate story. The succession of fabulous spreads of food (prepared by several on-set chefs) serves as little more than delectable decoration for Lee's becalmed storytelling. In following a repressed Taiwanese father, "Taipei's greatest chef," and his three daughters--spurned schoolteacher, stressed-out executive, neglected baby--through their romantic misunderstandings and outrageously elaborate dinner-table rituals, Lee composes an enjoyable slice of soap opera (with distant echoes of "King Lear") while never quite mustering the simmer of either the gustatory muse or the intense passion of fantasy life a movie should be able to capture. But the glimpses of shops, streets and living rooms in Taipei--a window into the everyday life of another culture--freshen even the most predictably "unpredictable" turns in the script. 123m. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 9:30.

Vengeance!

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

(Very) Short Films by Kevin Everson

"The relentlessness of everyday life," writes curator Jim Trainor, "as well as its beauty, are the subjects of Everson's twenty-odd... brief, intense works [about] working-class African-Americans.. mimic[king] documentary in their naturalism." Program 70m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

(2003-10-08)

Also by Ray Pride

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2003-10-02)

Chicago International Film Festival
Newcity's guide to the annual cinema fest
(2003-10-02)

Back in Black
"I've never done a movie someone wrote for me before," Black says...
(2003-10-02)

World and enough time
What does the Chicago International Film Festival, now in its thirty-ninth edition offer?
(2003-10-02)

Moaning Lisa
(2003-10-02)

Tip of the Week
(2003-10-01)

Tip of the Week
(2003-09-25)

Short Runs
(2003-09-25)

Throw Mama from the brownstone
(2003-09-25)

Gloom service
(2003-09-25)

Short Runs
(2003-09-17)

This is the modern world
(2003-09-17)

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