Weeklong Runs
Chicago premiere!
KINGS
2007, Tom Collins, Ireland/UK, 88 min.
With Colm Meaney, Donal O’Kelly
The first major motion picture shot largely in Irish Gaelic, KINGS is adapted from Jimmy Murphy’s play The Kings of Kilburn Road. Five long-estranged boyhood friends meet in a London pub for a boozy tribute to a sixth, Jackie, recently dead. Bonded through blood and friendship when they left Ireland in the 70s, all have failed in life except for Joe (Meaney), whose success is built on betrayal. Tour-de-force performances by a remarkable crew of actors fluidly alternating Gaelic and English make this a gripping and eloquent look at the aftermath of dreams. In Irish Gaelic and English with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)
April 4--10
Fri. and Mon.-Thu. at 6:15 pm and 8:00 pm;
Sat. at 3:00 pm, 4:45 pm, 6:30 pm, and 8:15 pm;
Sun. at 3:15 pm and 5:00 pm
Chicago premiere!
Jim Sikora in person!
THE EARL
2008, Jim Sikora, USA, 72 min.
With Danny Goldring, John Moran, Steve Schine, Noah Simon
A young man cautiously enters a deserted factory, where he is stalked by two guys and hit over the head with a crowbar. The two guys happen to be his brothers, and it’s all part of an ongoing game with elaborate and arbitrary rules that always seem to end up with somebody getting bashed with a crowbar. The stakes are raised when a macho movie star in the Eastwood-Palance tradition enters the game as a wild card known as “The Earl.” Chicago-based filmmaker Jim Sikora, whose BULLET ON A WIRE had its first run at the Film Center in 2001, fashions a visceral and angry adaptation of Brett Neveu’s cult one-act play, described by critics as “FIGHT CLUB meets the Three Stooges.” DigiBeta video. (MR)
Director Jim Sikora will be present for audience discussion at all screenings.
April 4--10
Fri. at 8:30 pm; Sat. at 8:00 pm; Mon. at 7:45 pm; Tue. at 8:00 pm; Thu. at 8:30
Back by popular demand!
Ben Niles in person!
NOTE BY NOTE: THE MAKING OF STEINWAY L1037
2007, Ben Niles, USA, 80 min.
“Niles and cinematographer Ben Wolf scrutinize each step as if it were RIFIFI’s climactic heist, offering moments of fixated strangeness and wonder.”--Jim Ridley, Village Voice
The unlikely subject of the building of a piano becomes a gripping and even soaring story of craftsmanship and artistry taken to an obsessive level of perfection that is oddly moving in this age of computer-generated everything. The filmmakers spend a year in Steinway’s Queens, New York, factory, following the wondrous process of creating the glossy, black, 9-foot-long concert-grand that will come alive under the hands of Hèléne Grimaud. Testimony to the unique personality of each handmade instrument is demonstrated with attitudes ranging from persnickety consternation to crazy joy when artists as diverse as Pierre Laurent Aimard, Harry Connick Jr., Lang Lang, and Hank Jones audition prospective pianos. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Director Ben Niles will be present for audience discussion at the Friday screenings.
April 11--17
Fri. at 6:00 pm and 8:15 pm;
Sat. at 3:00 pm, 4:45 pm, 6:30 pm, and 8:15 pm;
Sun. at 3:00 pm and 4:45 pm;
Mon., Wed., and Thu. at 6:00 pm and 7:45 pm
Chicago premiere!
SUMMER PALACE
(YIHE YUAN)
2006, Lou Ye, China/France, 140 min.
With Hao Lei, Guo Xiaodong
“Beautiful and passionate…remarkable for its candor about politics and sex. SUMMER PALACE moves with the swiftness and syncopation of a pop song.”--A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“I’ve never seen so much lovemaking in an aboveground film, but the revelation, and great triumph, of Lou’s work is that these scenes are never pornographic--that is, never separated from emotion.”--David Denby, The New Yorker
A small-town girl loses her virginity on the eve of her departure for Beijing University and quickly kicks over the traces of her old life in a milieu of political upheaval and chaotic dorm life. The events of Tiananmen Square bear down on heroine Yu Hong and her friends, but director Lou (PURPLE BUTTERFLY) flies in the face of expectations with a story rooted in a decade of self-absorption that begins with a youthful quest for freedom between the sheets. The film’s revolutionary emphasis on sexual mores, complete with full-frontal nudity, resulted in Lou being banned from filmmaking for five years by the Chinese government. In Mandarin and German with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)
April 18--24
Fri. at 6:00 pm and 8:30 pm;
Sat. at 2:45 pm, 5:15 pm, and 8:00 pm;
Sun. at 2:45 pm and 5:15 pm;
Mon. and Tue. at 6:30 pm only;
Wed. and Thu. at 6:00 pm and 8:30
Chicago premiere!
WOMAN ON THE BEACH
(HAEBYONUI YOIN)
2006, Hong Sang-soo, South Korean, 127 min.
With Kim Seung-woo, Go Hyun-jung
“A wicked comedy of manners... [Hong’s] most coherent and emotionally accessible film yet.”--A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“Hong’s brightest and funniest film to date.”--Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly
WOMAN ON THE BEACH is that rarity, a genuinely fresh romantic comedy that slyly and subversively spins the conventions of the genre in new, unpredictable directions. Suffering from writer’s block, filmmaker Joong-rae spends a weekend at the beach, where he bungles a romance with his assistant’s vivacious girlfriend, Moon-sook. As in Korean New Wave notable (and School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumnus) Hong’s previous films (TURNING GATE, WOMAN IS THE FUTURE OF MAN), the narrative splits into two halves that mirror each other in a playful pattern of rhymes and variations, as Joong-rae returns to the coastal resort and attempts to recreate the original romance with a woman who resembles Moon-sook. In Korean with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)