Ray Pride

* = Recommended

Fri 9

Elvis: The '68 Comeback Special

(1968, USA) Directed by Steve Binder. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 7.

*Fight Club

(1999, USA) Directed by David Fincher. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

Monologue

(Monolog) (1972, USSR) Directed by Ilya Averbakh. "Over two decades, a cold man belatedly learns the hard lessons of passion." 100m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

*Office Space

(1999, USA) Directed by Mike Judge. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

*Rashomon

(1950, Japan) Directed by Akira Kurosawa. The first of Kurosawa's pictures to have an international impact, winner of that year's Best Foreign Film Oscar, "Rashomon" follows four different versions of the events surrounding a rape and murder. With Toshiro Mifune. 88m. 35mm. $6. Block Museum of Art(847)491-4900, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, 8.

Thunder in Guyana

(2003, USA) Directed by Suzanne Wasserman. In 1943, a Chicago woman married a Guyana she'd met at the University of Chicago; fifty-four years later, she was elected president of the country, the first American-born woman to lead a nation. 51m. BetaSP video. Wasserman will appear. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Sat 10

Alone

(Odna) (1931, USSR) Directed by Grigory Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg. Innovative early sound film about the travails of an about-to-be-wed schoolteacher who's sent to the wilds of remote Siberia because of bureaucratic incompetence. Score by Dmitri Shostakovich. 80m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5.

*The Bandwagon

(1953, USA) Directed by Vincente Minnelli. One of the best MGM musical comedies, with dancers Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse bumping heads while a Broadway producer tries to turn their latest vehicle into a dead-serious version of "Faust." There's also great dialogue, a beautifully choreographed ballet ("Girl Hunt") and wisenheimer Oscar Levant. 112m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

A Boy's Life

(2003, USA) Directed by Rory Kennedy. The sources of juvenile mental illness are explored through one boy in rural Mississippi. 77m. DigiBeta Video. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:30.

*Fight Club

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

The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy

(2002, Israel) Key players trace the twenty-five-year history of hip-hop. 97m. BetaSP video. Shown with Doug Lussenhopp's "Suburban Street Rockers," four minutes of Super-8 footage shot of the filmmaker by his father in 1983 in a suburban Burger King parking lot and edited and scored in 2003. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:15.

*Fury

(1936, USA) Directed by Fritz Lang. 16mm. Shown with Ladislaw Starevitch's 1912 animation, "The Cameraman's Revenge." $5. LaSalle Theater (312)904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.

*Office Space

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

Savage Attraction

(1983, USA) Directed by Frank Shields. "A hellish nightmare of rape, robbery and neo-Nazi horror." Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

*Turning Gate

(2002, South Korea) Directed by Hong Sang-soo. See Tip of the Week for "Cinema of the Seoul: The Films of Hong Sang-soo." 115m. $9. Facets (773)281-9075, 1517 W. Fullerton, 2:30.

*Two Weeks in Another Town

(1962, USA) Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Gaudy, delirious Italy-set Hollywood satire with Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Cyd Charisse. 106m. CinemaScope. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:15.

Winged Migration

(2002, France) Directed by Jacques Perrin. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

Z Film Festival

The fourth year of the experimental compilation, with nine of the thirteen films and videos coming from Chicago, displaying "the representation of sex and a aggression [and] almost ruthless self-reflection." Shorts include Marianna Beck and Jack Hafferkamp's "Orgasm!"; Paul Lloyd Sargent's "White Blight Manifesto"; Anna Hanavan's "powerful autoerotic self-portrait, "I Love Jesus"; Enid Baxter Blader's "Lucille"; Jennet Thomas' "Sharony!"; Dan Mohr and Matthew Pillishcher's "Daughter Complex"; Paul Lloyd Sargent's "Aggression"; Andrew Francisco's "Drew Getting Hit by a Cab"; Meg McCarville's "Je ne regrette rien" and the shot-on-35mm white-on-white-on-brown-on-red "Convulsion Expulsion," by festival organizers Usama and Kristie Alshaibi. 84m. With musical performances by Foamula, Insect Deli and Panicsville. $9. Heaven (312)927-5692, 1550 N. Milwaukee, Second floor, 9.

Sun 11

*An American in Paris

(1951, USA) Directed by Vincente Minnelli. 115m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

Godzilla vs: Space Godzilla

(1994, Japan) Directed by Kensho Yamashita. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

*How to Be Eccentric: The Films of Richard Massingham

(1933-50, England) Fifteen shorts from the recently restored work of an unjustly forgotten English filmmaker of ads, training films and public service work: bizarrely comic and deadpan surreal, they're a treat. 82m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3:15.

*Turning Gate

(2002, South Korea) Directed by Hong Sang-soo. See Tip of the Week for "Cinema of the Seoul: The Films of Hong Sang-soo." 115m. $9. Facets (773)281-9075, 1517 W. Fullerton, 2:30.

Winged Migration

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

Z Film Festival

See Jan 10. $9. Heaven (312)927-5692, 1550 N. Milwaukee, Second floor, 9.

Mon 12

Monologue

See Jan 9. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

Thunder in Guyana

See Jan 9. Wasserman will appear. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

Tue 13

Alone

See Jan 10. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

*The Bandwagon

See Jan 10. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.

Elvis `56

(1987, USA) Directed by Alfred Wertheimer. Doc on Presley's breakout year. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 7.

Wed 14

A Boy's Life

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

*How to Be Eccentric: The Films of Richard Massingham

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

IFP/Chicago Facets Monthly Sneak Preview

Call for title. $9. Facets (773)281-9075, 1517 W. Fullerton, 7.

Kuei-mei: A Woman

(1985, Taiwan) Directed by Chang Yi. A mother of five and her thirty-year struggle for survival. 16mm. $6. Block Museum of Art(847)491-4900, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, 8.

Thu 15

*Holiday

(1938, USA) Directed by George Cukor. 93m. 35mm. $6. Block Museum of Art(847)491-4900, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, 8.

*Robert Mugge's Personal Guide to the Blues (Part One)

(1984-2003, USA) Two films, plus shorts, by the veteran chronicler of American roots music: "A Night at Club Ebony" and "The Road Home: B. B. King in Indianola." Program 120m. Mugge will appear. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

*Two Weeks in Another Town

See Jan 10. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

(2004-01-06)

Also by Ray Pride

Uniform code
While I've read quibbles about the plot machinations of Vadim Perelman's debut feature, "House of Sand and Fog," no one's dared complain about the acting
(2003-12-30)

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2003-12-30)

Tip of the Week
Kurosawa drew from work both Eastern and Western throughout his career, and this tale, finding Toshiro Mifune as a vagabond samurai who sells his services to both sides of a battle in a small town, is utterly indebted to Dashiell Hammett
(2003-12-23)

Wind done gone
"Cold Mountain" is epic yet intimate, strange and shell-shocked
(2003-12-23)

Father figuring
(2003-12-23)

Short Runs
(2003-12-23)

Salud
(2003-12-16)

Tip of the Week
(2003-12-16)

Sirkis people
(2003-12-16)

Holiday Movies
(2003-12-16)

Short Runs
(2003-12-16)

Tip of the Week
(2003-12-10)

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