Ray Pride

* = recommended

Fri 16

El Movimento

(2003, USA) Directed by Peter Thompson. The director describes his ten-year study of an anthropologist and a Yucatan shaman's aging as "a cinematic essay that explores the line between ethnography and engagement, the visible and the invisible and what can and cannot be known." 90m. DV-Cam video. Thompson will appear. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.

*Fight Club

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

*Ikiru

(1952, Japan) Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Shimura, a lonely, low-level bureaucrat, dying of cancer, examines his life. Somber without becoming morbid, "Ikiru" ("To Live") is a gripping piece of work. One unforgettable image has Shimura alone in a playground, seated in a child's swing, just past dusk, watching the first snowflakes of nightfall. 143m. 35mm. $6. Block Museum of Art (847)491-4900, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, 8.

*Run Lola Run

(1998, USA) Directed by Tom Tykwer. Bubble-gum Mobius strip. 81m. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, Midnight.

Seven Courageous

(Semero Smelykh) (1936, USSR) Directed by Sergei Gerasimov. Seven technicians explore Inuit culture. 92m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

*Thirteen

(2003, USA) Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. 100m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 6:30, 9, 11:30.

Sat 17

*The Day a Pig Fell Into The Well

(2002, South Korea) Directed by Hong Sang-soo. Stunning contemplation of the overlap of young urban lives in contemporary Seoul, funny, offhanded, touching, ultimately shocking, and the title is never explained. Hong's great. 115m. $9. Facets (773)281-9075, 1517 W. Fullerton, 12:30.

*Fight Club

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

*Flag Wars

(2003, USA) Directed by Linda Goode Bryant, Laura Poitras. The battle between two groups in a ghetto area turned historical district: working-class American Africans are pitted against gay homesteaders. Strong interviews. 87m. BetaSP video. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:45. *Home From the Hill

(1960, USA) Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Rarely shown Texas-set melodrama with Robert Mitchum, George Peppard and Eleanor Parker that the Siskel Film Center's Martin Rubin calls "one of the American cinema's most underrated masterpieces." 150m. Imported 35mm archival print. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

Jack The Ripper

(1976, Italy-Germany) Directed by Jess Franco. Klaus Kinski's the man. 88m. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

A Long Happy Life

(Dolgaya Schastlivaya Zhizn') (1966, USSR) Directed by Gennady Shpalikov. Only feature directed by the 1960s "poet-screenwriter-prodigy." 90m. 35mm. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.

*Lost in Translation

(2003, USA) Directed by Sofia Coppola. 102m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 6:30, 9, 11:30.

*Run Lola Run

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

*Russian Ark

(2002, Russia) Directed by Aleksandr Sokurov. Music Box (773)871-6604, 3733 N. Southport, 11:30am.

*Swamp Water

(1941, USA) Directed by Jean Renoir. 86m. 35mm. Shown with Chuck Jones' 1949 Pepe le Pew cartoon, "For Scent-imental Reasons." $5. LaSalle Theater (312)904-9442, 4901 W. Irving Park, 8.

Sun 18

*The Day a Pig Fell Into The Well

See Jan 17. $9. Facets (773)281-9075, 1517 W. Fullerton, 12:30.

Destroy All Monsters

(1968, Japan) Directed by Ishiro Honda. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 6.

Gigi

(1958, USA) Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Colette's tale of a young girl's training to become a courtesan goes all cuddly and gets a basketful of Oscars. "Sank heffun for leetul gorls," indeed. 116m. Widescreen. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

*Lost in Translation

$4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 2.

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

(1984-2003, USA) A collection of performances from Mississippi blues artists as documented by Mississippi public broadcasting over the past three decades. 120m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5:`15.

*Russian Ark

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

*The Shop on Main Street

(1965, Czechoslovakia) Directed by Jan Kadar, Elmar Klos. 128m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

Mon 19

El Movimento

See Jan 16. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.

*Ishtar

(1987, USA) Directed by Elaine May. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman are too old for their roles as two failed New York song-slingers, but there are some epic laughs in May's unjustly reviled movie (which, contrary to some reports, actually did better than break even). Too bad it probably detonated her directing career. With Isabelle Adjani. 107m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

Seven Courageous

See Jan 16. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

Tue 20

Elvis on Tour

(1972, USA) Directed by Pierre Adidge, Robert Abel. Video. Free. Delilah's (773)472-2771, 2771 N. Lincoln, 7.

*Girls Can't Swim

(1999, France) Directed by Anne-Sophie Birot. 101m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

*Home From the Hill

See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 3.

*The 39 Steps

(1934, England) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 86m. Columbia instructor Ron Falzone will explain. Part of International Dinner and a Movie; at 7pm, dinner is $22, (312) 742-TIXS for tickets. Movie at 8 is free. Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 8.

Wed 21

*Dust in the Wind

(1986, Taiwan) Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. Rarely shown--and not on video--"Dust in the Wind" is a heartbreaking bit of neorealism in contemporary Taipei from the Taiwanese master. 110m. 16mm. $6. Block Museum of Art(847)491-4900, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, 8.

*Flag Wars

See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 5.

*Funny Face

(1957, USA) Directed by Stanley Donen. 103m. VistaVision. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

Gigi

See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 7:45.

Thu 22

*Careful

(1992, Canada) Directed by Guy Maddin. In the mythical Alpine village of Tolzbad, where avalanches can be triggered by a sound as slight as a mink's sneeze, a delirious blond boy takes strict instruction at the esteemed Butler Gymnasium, lusts after his mother and reveres the memory of his twice-blinded swan-feeder father. "Careful" is arch almost beyond belief, the stuff of an astonishing short. There are laugh-out-loud scenes throughout, but at feature length, its calculated camp is like having your head stuffed with crates of cotton wadding. Maddin's rarefied specialty is unhinged kitsch, a jumble of creative anachronism drawn from half-remembered folktales, early sound horror movies, and fever-dreamt operetta. His studio-bound worlds are assembled from the chintziest of props, with mountaintops conjured by shadows and a few papier-mâché boulders. His soundtracks are especially rich, with bad music, "poor" recording of strange dialogue, and pops and hisses to suggest the quality of an aged print. Like his other work, Maddin's Oedipus-in-the-Alps is a pinnacle of funny-peculiar (as opposed to funny-ha-ha). Two choice selections from Maddin's bargain-basement delirium: two men's bizarre preparations for a stylized knife duel that includes frantic fondling of each other's torsos; and a mother who reminds her son, "Wear your sweater at the crevasse," but evades hard questions by claiming, "I have a hairball in my throat." 100m. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 9:15.

*Claudine

(1974, USA) Directed by John Berry. 92m. 35mm. $4. DOC Films (773)702-8575, 1212 E. 59th, 7.

Keeping Time

(2002, USA) Directed by David G. Berger, Holly Maxson, Kate Hirson. The photography of Chicago jazz great Milt Hinton. 60m. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 8.

A Long Happy Life

See Jan 17. $8. Siskel Film Center (312)846-2600, 164 N. State at Randolph, 6.

*The Philadelphia Story

(1940, USA) Directed by George Cukor. 112m. 35mm. $6. Block Museum of Art(847)491-4900, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, 8.

(2004-01-13)

Also by Ray Pride

Tip of the Week
An increasingly rare pleasure, at film festivals and cinematheques, is to discover a cinematic sensibility you never expected
(2004-01-06)

Charlize's Angles
Charlize Theron's ferocious, rage-filled but deeply caricatured, intensely aggravating performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkin's debut feature "Monster" has been identified by a handful of reviewers as one of the best performances ever put on celluloid
(2004-01-06)

Off camera
If you think spending 2003 watching a movie a week at the Lake Street Screening Room is baffling, wait until you've watched seven or eight a week for ten years
(2004-01-06)

Short Runs
This week's limited screenings
(2004-01-06)

Cold stare
(2004-01-06)

Uniform code
(2003-12-30)

Short Runs
(2003-12-30)

Tip of the Week
(2003-12-23)

Wind done gone
(2003-12-23)

Father figuring
(2003-12-23)

Short Runs
(2003-12-23)

Salud
(2003-12-16)

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