Weeklong Runs
First Chicago run!
HEARTBEAT DETECTOR
(LA QUESTION HUMAINE)
2007, Nicolas Klotz, France, 141 min.
With Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale
“It’s an unapologetic film of ideas--perhaps the headiest of its kind to arrive on these shores since Godard’s NOTRE MUSIQUE.”--Scott Foundas, Village Voice.
“Amazing...If you’re a fan of Hitchcock, of Kubrick, of the kind of thriller that has the implacable mystery of great sculpture or great architecture, of movies that create their own visual, aural and symbolic universe and suck you bodily into them--well, you’ve simply got to see this.”--Andrew O’Hehir, salon.com.
Nicolas Klotz’s ambitious, audacious fifth feature stars Mathieu Amalric (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) as a psychologist in the Parisian branch of a German petrochemical company. A buttoned-down corporate lackey by day, he undoes the buttons at all-night raves where he dances and drugs himself into oblivion. The company’s deputy chief gives him a secret assignment: to examine the deteriorating mental health of the CEO (Lonsdale). Starting out as an absorbing corporate conspiracy thriller, HEARTBEAT DETECTOR takes a breathtaking leap into a wider dimension, uncovering a deeper and more disturbing past that lurks behind the one Simon is investigating. In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
July 4--10
Fri. at 3:00 pm and 5:45 pm;
Sat. at 3:15 pm and 7:30 pm;
Sun. at 2:45 pm and 5:15 pm;
Mon-Wed. at 6:30 pm only;
Thu. at 6:00 pm and 8:45 pm
Chicago premiere!
John Jeffcoat in person!
OUTSOURCED
2007, John Jeffcoat, USA, 103 min.
With Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker
“Vivid and surprising.”--David Chute, LA Weekly
“A film bursting with affection for its characters and for India…it has a fundamental sweetness and innocence.”--Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Cross-cultural romance and offshore job-outsourcing have never experienced so unlikely a meeting nor cohabited so happily as in OUTSOURCED, a feel-good movie without a trace of attitude or cynicism. A Seattle company peddling patriotic novelties gives manager Todd (Hamilton) an ultimatum: set up their new call center in India or quit. Western efficiency is ready for its makeover once this uptight yuppie is doused in the sensuality of a land where time is measured in aeons. By the time the anarchic feast of Holi rolls around, Todd just might be ripe for friendship with his new star employee Asha (Dharker), a beauty not adverse to a little adventure before her arranged marriage. 35mm. (BS)
Director John Jeffcoat will be present for audience discussion at the 5:15 Sunday show.
July 11--17
Fri. and Mon.-Thu. at 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm;
Sat. at 3:15 pm, 5:15 pm, and 7:45 pm;
Sun. at 3:15 pm and 5:15 pm
Chicago premiere!
KENNY
2006, Clayton Jacobson, Australia, 99 min.
With Shane Jacobson, Eve von Bibra
“Forget your BORATs, forget your SPINAL TAPs, KENNY blows them all out of the water.”--Richard James, InTheNews.co.uk
“Funny enough to give scatology a good name.”--Richard Kuipers, Variety
“Good shit!” declared one review, and, as unlikely as it sounds, the concrete manifestation of that four-letter word plays a huge role in this rollicking Australian mockumentary about a port-a-potty plumber. Kenny (Jacobson), a sweet-tempered lug in a smelly business, meets life head-on, a quality that doesn’t always serve him well. Opportunity knocks uninvited in the form of a waste-haulers’ convention in Nashville, a drunken Japanese businessman, and a lonely airline stewardess, but Kenny can’t stop cleaning up other peoples’ messes. Outrageously earthy humor, hilarious situations, and downright lovable characters make this the guilty-pleasure comedy of the summer. (BS)
July 18 - 24
Fri. and Mon.-Thu. at 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm;
Sat. at 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm, and 8:00 pm;
Sun. at 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm
Chicago premiere!
Filmmakers in person!
A JIHAD FOR LOVE
2007, Parvez Sharma, USA/UK/France/Germany/Australia, 81 min.
“Rich with compelling, often heartbreaking stories.”--Phil Hall, FilmThreat.com
Devotion and angst play equal roles in the lives of gay Muslims who struggle to remain devout members of a faith that decrees them deserving of being stoned to death. A JIHAD FOR LOVE chronicles the personal jihad, i.e. spiritual struggle, of gays and lesbians desperate to remain true to the faith they love yet forced to remain in the closet or emigrate from homelands including Egypt, India, and Iran, where they are hunted and imprisoned. The heart of the tragic dilemma is exposed in the film’s stark contrast between interviews with subjects including a gay South African imam, a Parisian lesbian couple, and gay Iranian men persecuted for attending a gay wedding, and the harsh dogmatic pronouncements by conservative clerics. In English, Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Urdu, and French with English subtitles. DigiBeta video. (BS)
Director Parvez Sharma will appear for audience discussion on Friday at 8:00 pm, on Saturday at 8:15 pm, and on Sunday at 5:00 pm. Producer Sandi Dubowski will appear at 5:00 pm Sunday and at 8:00 pm Monday.
July 25--31
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 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm
Chicago premiere!
LOST IN BEIJING
(PING GUO)
2007, Yu Li, China, 112 min.
With Tony Leung Ka-fai, Fan Bingbing, Tong Da-wei
“Money (and maybe a little bit of love) makes the world go around…an involving, highly accessible portrait of an emotional ménage a quatre in the modern-day Chinese capital.”--Derek Elley, Variety
“A sturdy morality tale about innocence and corruption, wealth and want, sex and power.”--A.O. Scott, The New York Times
While passed out drunk one afternoon, perky Beijing massage parlor hostess Ping is raped by her boorish boss. As fate would have it, her money-mad window-washer husband is peering in from his scaffolding. Whether Ping’s subsequent pregnancy is the result of rape or of a rough-and-tumble session with hubby is the question at the center of this sharply satirical comedy involving sex, bribery, sex, suspect motives, and more sex. Two couples bond uneasily over a lucrative adoption arrangement that hinges on the all-important DNA test. The film’s underlying message that just about anything is for sale in today’s China, landed the director in plenty of hot water with government censors. In Mandarin with English subtitles. 35mm. (BS)