You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Film</strong> <strong>Calendar</strong><br />
May 6-June 30, 2016<br />
Tom Hiddleston in HIGH-RISE, starting May 13<br />
Chicago’s Year-Round <strong>Film</strong> Festival<br />
3733 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago<br />
www.musicboxtheatre.com 773.871.6607<br />
Mother’s Day<br />
with Mamma Mia<br />
MaY 8<br />
Page 5<br />
Norman Lear<br />
in person!<br />
MaY 16<br />
Page 6<br />
GrindHouse<br />
<strong>Film</strong> Fest<br />
JUNE 3-5<br />
Page 9<br />
Blue Velvet:<br />
30th Anniversary<br />
STARTs JUNE 10<br />
Page 10<br />
Cinema<br />
Slapdown<br />
Starts JUNE 15<br />
Page 30
exclusively available at Custom Eyes<br />
bartonperreira.com<br />
Welcome<br />
to the Music Box Theatre!<br />
Feature PRESENTATIONS<br />
4<br />
5<br />
8<br />
10<br />
11<br />
12<br />
13<br />
THE FAMILY FANG<br />
HIGH-RISE<br />
WEINER<br />
BLUE VELVET<br />
THE IDOL<br />
DE PALMA<br />
TICKLED<br />
STARTS MAY 6<br />
STARTS MAY 13<br />
STARTS MAY 27<br />
STARTS JUNE 10<br />
STARTS JUNE 10<br />
STARTS JUNE 17<br />
STARTS JUNE 24<br />
14-19<br />
COMMENTARY<br />
SINCE 2003<br />
The <strong>Film</strong> Studies Center presents<br />
3539 N. SOUTHPORT AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60657 | 773 871 2020<br />
www.customeyes2020.com<br />
PHILIPPE GRANDRIEUX’S<br />
ART OF SENSATIONS<br />
three Chicago premieres<br />
with Grandrieux in person<br />
21<br />
22<br />
23<br />
24<br />
26<br />
27<br />
28<br />
28<br />
29<br />
30<br />
4<br />
5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9<br />
10<br />
11<br />
12<br />
SERIES<br />
CLASSIC MATINEES<br />
MIDNIGHTS<br />
SILENT CINEMA<br />
STAGE TO SCREEN<br />
ANIME FILMS<br />
ART & ARCHITECTURE IN CINEMA<br />
CINEMA SCIENCE<br />
SOUND OPINIONS<br />
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS<br />
CINEMA SLAPDOWN<br />
SPECIAL EVENTS<br />
NOTFILM<br />
MOTHER’S DAY WITH MAMMA MIA<br />
NORMAN LEAR IN PERSON<br />
CHICAGO CRITICS FILM FESTIVAL<br />
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY PREMIERE FILM FESTIVAL<br />
GRINDHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL<br />
SILENT SHAKESPEARE<br />
IGGY POP: LIVE IN BASEL 2015<br />
BRIAN DE PALMA FILM FESTIVAL<br />
MAY 8<br />
MAY 8<br />
MAY 16<br />
MAY 20-26<br />
JUNE 3<br />
JUNE 3-5<br />
JUNE 6<br />
JUNE 16 & 18<br />
STARTS JUNE 17<br />
UN LAC<br />
WHITE EPILEPSY<br />
MALGRÉ LA NUIT<br />
MAY 13-14<br />
FREE ADMISSION<br />
Logan Center for the Arts<br />
University of Chicago<br />
filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu<br />
Brian Andreotti, Director of Programming<br />
Ryan Oestreich, General Manager<br />
Buck LePard, Senior Operations Manager<br />
Stephanie Berlin, Public Relations & Special Events Manager<br />
Claire Alden, Group Sales and Membership Manager<br />
Julian Antos, Technical Director<br />
VOLUME 33 ISSUE 137<br />
Copyright 2016 Southport Music Box Corp.<br />
MusicBoxTheatre.com<br />
Published by Newcity Custom Publishing<br />
Newcitynetwork.com<br />
For information, email advertising@newcity.com<br />
or call 312.243.8786<br />
Cover Image from the film HIGH-RISE,<br />
coming to Music Box Theatre MAY 13.<br />
See page 5 for more information.<br />
Music Box Theatre 3733 North Southport musicboxtheatre.com<br />
773-871-6604 showtimes 773-871-6607 office<br />
3
Features and Special Events<br />
Starts May 6<br />
May 8<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
Special<br />
Event<br />
The Family Fang<br />
DIRECTED BY: Jason Bateman<br />
STARRING: Jason Bateman, Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken<br />
105 minutes<br />
Sharp and affecting<br />
“ dysfunctional-family portrait”<br />
–Variety<br />
Adult siblings Baxter and Annie, scarred from an unconventional upbringing, return to their family home<br />
after an unlikely accident. When their parents— performance artists famous for elaborate public hoaxes—suddenly<br />
go missing under troubling circumstances, Baxter and Annie investigate. Unsure whether it’s<br />
foul play or just another elaborate ruse, nothing can prepare them for what they discover.<br />
Mother’s Day with Mamma Mia!<br />
Sunday, May 8 at 2pm<br />
This Mother’s Day celebrate with Meryl Streep and ABBA at the Music Box! Hosted by Dick O’Day,<br />
our interactive screening kicks off with a live pre-show 1970s fashion contest. Dress up in your best<br />
‘70s garb for your chance to win great prizes! Then play along with our audience participation guide<br />
while you watch the Broadway smash on the big screen.<br />
Special Mother’s Day Mimosas will be served in the Music Box Lounge!<br />
Hosted by<br />
Dick O’Day!<br />
May 8<br />
Special<br />
Event<br />
Starts May 13<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
Director<br />
Ross Lipman<br />
in person<br />
NOTFILM<br />
Sunday, May 8 at Noon<br />
Directed by: Ross Lipman<br />
Featuring: Buster Keaton, Samuel Beckett; 128 minutes<br />
Completely fascinating! For<br />
“ moviegoers who care about film,<br />
NOTFILM can be unreservedly<br />
recommended.”<br />
–Kenneth Turan, LA Times<br />
In 1964 writer Samuel Beckett set out on one of the strangest ventures in cinematic history: a collaboration<br />
with silent era genius Buster Keaton to create a short, avant-garde film titled FILM. Beckett<br />
was nearing the peak of his fame, which would culminate in a Nobel Prize five years later. Keaton, in<br />
his waning years, never lived to see Beckett’s canonization. The film they made has been the subject of<br />
praise, consternation, and controversy for decades. NOTFILM is the film essay on the making of Beckett<br />
and Keaton’s film and its philosophical implications. <strong>Film</strong>maker Ross Lipman has incorporated long-lost<br />
outtakes and audio recordings into a portrait of the astonishing collaboration of two of the twentieth<br />
century’s most extraordinary men.<br />
HIGH-RISE<br />
read RAY PRIDE’s<br />
commentary on page 14<br />
DIRECTED BY: Ben Wheatley<br />
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss<br />
119 minutes<br />
Official<br />
Selection Toronto<br />
International <strong>Film</strong><br />
Festival 2015<br />
Dr. Robert Laing is the newest resident of a luxurious apartment in a high-tech concrete skyscraper<br />
whose lofty location places him amongst the upper class. Laing quickly settles into high society life and<br />
meets the building’s eccentric tenants: Charlotte, his upstairs neighbor and bohemian single mother;<br />
Wilder, a charismatic documentarian who lives with his pregnant wife Helen; and Mr. Royal, the enigmatic<br />
architect who designed the building. Life seems like paradise to the solitude-seeking Laing. But as<br />
power outages become more frequent and building flaws emerge, particularly on the lower floors, the<br />
regimented social strata begins to crumble and the building becomes a battlefield in a literal class war.<br />
4 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 Features and Special Events 5
Features and Special Events<br />
May 16<br />
®<br />
Special<br />
Event<br />
Norman<br />
Lear<br />
in person!<br />
NORMAN LEAR:<br />
JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU!<br />
May 16 at 7pm<br />
DIRECTED BY: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; 92 minutes<br />
One Night<br />
Only!<br />
Tickets and full festival passes are on sale now<br />
www.musicboxtheatre.com/festivals/CCFF2016<br />
Now in its fourth year, the only film festival<br />
created and curated by a film critics association returns!<br />
Check out a few of this year’s Chicago premieres:<br />
Arguably the most influential creator, writer, and producer in the history of television, Norman Lear<br />
brought primetime into step with the times. Using comedy and indelible characters, his legendary 1970s<br />
shows such as All In the Family, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons, boldly cracked open dialogue<br />
and shifted the national consciousness, injecting enlightened humanism into sociopolitical debates on<br />
race, class, creed and feminism. NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU! is the definitive<br />
chronicle Visit: of www.BTDChicago.com<br />
Mr. Lear’s life, work and achievements, but it is so much more than Expires an arm’s-length, 1-31-15 pasttense<br />
biopic; at 93, Mr. Lear is as vital and engaged as he ever was.<br />
American Fable<br />
Another Evil<br />
Dark Night<br />
Demon<br />
Disorder<br />
First Girl I Loved<br />
The Fits<br />
Goat<br />
In a Valley of Violence<br />
Life, Animated<br />
Little Men<br />
Operator<br />
The Other Half<br />
Trash Fire<br />
Under the Shadow<br />
The Music Box Theatre<br />
now sells beer and wine!<br />
Enjoy our rotating<br />
selection of craft beers<br />
and fine wines with a film.<br />
All titles, screening dates, times and guest appearances are subject to change.<br />
6 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016
Features and Special Events<br />
Starts May 27<br />
June 3-5<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
Special<br />
Event<br />
GRINDHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL<br />
Presented by Dan Halsted<br />
All films<br />
presented in<br />
35 mm!<br />
WEINER<br />
DIRECTED BY: Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg<br />
96 minutes<br />
read steve prokopy’s<br />
commentary on page16<br />
Anthony Weiner was a young congressman on the cusp of higher office<br />
when a sexting scandal forced a humiliating resignation. Just two<br />
2016<br />
SUNDANCE FILM<br />
FESTIVAL – WINNER<br />
U.S. Grand Jury Prize:<br />
Documentary<br />
WEINER has drama, laughs and<br />
“ surprises. It’s the full package.”<br />
–New York Post<br />
A rollicking and never-dull insider’s<br />
“ view of a political campaign.”<br />
–Variety<br />
years later, he ran for mayor of New York City, betting that his ideas would trump his indiscretions.<br />
He was wrong. With unprecedented access to Weiner, his family and his campaign team, WEINER is<br />
a thrilling look inside a political comeback-turned-meltdown. What begins as an unexpected surge<br />
to the top of the polls takes a sharp turn once Weiner is forced to admit to new sexting allegations.<br />
As the media descends and dissects his every move, Weiner desperately tries to forge ahead, but the<br />
increasing pressure and crippling 24-hour news coverage halt his political aspirations.<br />
Climb aboard the exploitation starship as we travel to the outer reaches of cinematic insanity! In<br />
the 1970s and ‘80s, distributors trying to creatively sell strange movies in over-saturated markets<br />
unwittingly created some of the most mind-blowing pieces of cinema to ever rip through a film<br />
projector. Buckle up for the insanity!<br />
Friday, June 3<br />
GRINDHOUSE TRAILERS<br />
This is a compilation of some of the best grindhouse trailers of<br />
all time. We’ll see Italian horror, blaxploitation, sexploitation,<br />
hicksploitation, revenge films, kung fu obscurities. All the wildest<br />
scenes, strangest taglines, and oddball promotional gimmicks<br />
packed into two-minute cinematic roller coaster rides.<br />
Saturday, June 4<br />
OLD SCHOOL KUNG FU DOUBLE FEATURE<br />
THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING (1979) The original<br />
Ghostface Killer is on the loose! A vicious villain with an unstoppable<br />
five element technique, Ghostface is killing off all his old rivals.<br />
SHAOLIN VS. WU TANG (1981) An evil lord murders a Wu<br />
Tang master in an attempt to turn the Shaolin and Wu Tang<br />
against each other. The two schools each begin training to<br />
prepare for a showdown while the villainous lord attempts to<br />
combine the two styles to become the supreme kung fu master.<br />
Sunday, June 5<br />
EXPLOITATION DOUBLE FEATURE<br />
GATES OF HELL (1980) A surreal Italian gutmuncher from<br />
gore-maestro Lucio Fulci! A priest commits suicide and unwittingly<br />
opens the gateway to hell. The rotting dead rise from their<br />
graves to feed on the living in gruesome fashion, while a psychic<br />
and a journalist attempt to stop the rancid carnage.<br />
SECRET SCREENING An extremely rare 35mm print of one<br />
of the greatest exploitation films ever made! Not to be missed in<br />
this incredibly scarce big screen appearance.<br />
Dan Halsted is the head film programmer<br />
at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland<br />
OR. He’s an avid film collector, with<br />
a passion for Hong Kong cinema, and in<br />
2009, he unearthed a massive collection<br />
of extremely rare 35mm kung fu films.<br />
8 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 Features and Special Events 9
Features and Special Events<br />
June 6<br />
Starts June 10<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
Special<br />
Event<br />
From<br />
the two-time<br />
Academy Awardnominated<br />
director<br />
of PARADISE NOW<br />
and OMAR<br />
Silent Shakespeare<br />
Part of<br />
Shakespeare<br />
400 Chicago!<br />
Presented by Chicago Humanities Festival & Chicago Shakespeare Theater<br />
Monday, June 6 at 7pm<br />
Featuring rare clips from silent films, lively commentary, Chicago actors and the audience gathered at<br />
the Music Box Theatre, Judith Buchanan, a world expert on silent films and Shakespeare, transports<br />
you back one hundred years, when Shakespeare’s beloved works first found themselves translated<br />
into the new medium of moving pictures. Join us for what will certainly be a unique evening of<br />
imagery and acting.<br />
THE IDOL<br />
DIRECTED BY: Hany Abu-Assad<br />
Starring: Qais Atallah, Hiba Atallah, Abd-Elkarim Abu-Barakeh,<br />
Teya Hussein, Tawfeek Barhom, Dima Awawdeh<br />
Palestine; Arabic with English subtitles; 95 minutes<br />
Thoroughly captivating,”<br />
“–Justin Chang, Variety<br />
Irrepressibly optimistic.”<br />
“–Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter<br />
Based on an incredible true story! Gaza. Synonymous to so many with conflict, destruction and despair<br />
but to Mohammed Assaf and his sister Nour, Gaza is their home and their playground. It’s where they,<br />
along with their best friends Ahmad and Omar, play music and football and dare to dream big. Their<br />
band might play on secondhand, beaten-up instruments, but their ambitions are sky high. For Mohammed<br />
and Nour, nothing less than playing the world-famous Cairo Opera Hall will do. It might take them<br />
a lifetime to get there but, as Mohammed will find out, some dreams are worth living for.<br />
STARTS June 10<br />
June 16 & 18<br />
Special<br />
Event<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
BLUE VELVET<br />
DIRECTED BY: David Lynch<br />
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper,<br />
Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern; 120 minutes<br />
read pat mcgavin’s<br />
commentary on page 18<br />
30th<br />
Anniversary<br />
DCP<br />
Restoration<br />
A sensual mystery thriller about strange happenings in a small all-American town. A college student<br />
stumbles across a bizarre mystery and wants to know more, perhaps too much more. The oblique<br />
world he’s found lurking beneath his hometown’s picture-postcard veneer is about to become<br />
violently stranger.<br />
IGGY POP: LIVE IN BASEL 2015<br />
Thursday, June 16 & Saturday, June 18 at 9:45pm<br />
There‘s a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the godfather of punk—every single punk band of the past<br />
and present has either knowingly or unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop and his late-‘60s/<br />
early-‘70s band, the Stooges, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.<br />
Iggy Pop, an outstanding artist known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, sings at the<br />
Baloise Session in Basel, Switzerland, where he was honored with a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.<br />
This fantastic performance features all of Iggy Pop’s top hits, including “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “The Passenger,”<br />
“Lust for Life” and many more.<br />
Recorded October 24, 2015<br />
10 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 Features and Special Events 11
Features and Special Events<br />
Starts June 17<br />
Starts June 24<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
feature<br />
presentation<br />
De Palma<br />
DIRECTED BY: Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow<br />
Starring: Brian De Palma; 111 minutes<br />
A must-see for all cinephiles”<br />
“–The Playlist<br />
A delightful, illuminating career<br />
“ reflection”<br />
–Variety<br />
One of the most talented, influential and iconoclastic filmmakers<br />
of all time, Brian De Palma’s career started in the ‘60s and has<br />
included such acclaimed and diverse films as CARRIE, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT, SCARFACE, THE<br />
UNTOUCHABLES, CARLITO’S WAY and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. In this lively, illuminating and unexpectedly<br />
moving documentary, directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow engage in a personal and<br />
candid discussion with De Palma, exploring not only his life and work but also his singular approach<br />
to the craft of filmmaking and his remarkable experiences navigating the film business, from his early<br />
days as the bad boy of New Hollywood to his more recent years as a respected veteran of the field.<br />
TICKLED<br />
DIRECTED BY: David Farrier and Dylan Reeve<br />
92 minutes<br />
After stumbling upon a bizarre “competitive endurance tickling” video<br />
online, wherein young men are paid to be tied up and tickled, reporter<br />
Captivating and Jaw Dropping”<br />
“–The Hollywood Reporter<br />
A humorously titillating entry<br />
“ hook that soon gives way to an<br />
engrossing conspiracy-thriller.”<br />
–Variety<br />
David Farrier reaches out to request a story from the company. But the reply he receives is shocking—the<br />
sender mocks Farrier’s sexual orientation and threatens extreme legal action should he dig any deeper.<br />
So, like any good journalist confronted by a bully, he does just the opposite: he travels to the hidden<br />
tickling facilities in Los Angeles and uncovers a vast empire, known for harassing and harming the lives of<br />
those who protest their involvement in these films.<br />
PLUS…<br />
a Brian De Palma<br />
<strong>Film</strong> Festival!<br />
<strong>Film</strong>s include:<br />
THE PHANTOM OF PARADISE<br />
(1974, 92m)<br />
THE UNTOUCHABLES<br />
(1987, 119m)<br />
DRESSED TO KILL<br />
(1980, 105m)<br />
BODY DOUBLE<br />
(1984, 114m)<br />
…and many more!<br />
12 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016
Calculated Chaos<br />
The Fully-Constructed World of HIGH-RISE<br />
By Ray Pride<br />
“Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing<br />
reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this<br />
huge apartment building during the previous three months.”<br />
high-rise STARTS may 13.<br />
SEE PAGE 5 FOR DETAILS.<br />
From that deft setting, J. G. Ballard’s slim 1975 novelcum-provocation<br />
about the potential wages of indolence<br />
and the easily snarled bonds of social decorum,<br />
HIGH-RISE, slides into calculated chaos. Ben Wheatley<br />
and Amy Jump’s adaptation announces itself with a<br />
gambit, dropping us into destruction in media res,<br />
with assured narration and a luxury apartment in teeming disarray, and glimpses of things to come, or that<br />
have happened already, not limited to a bloodied electric carving knife and a shank turning on a spit with a<br />
suspiciously fluffy paw on it.<br />
SMALL BATCH<br />
• OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK •<br />
ESTATE WINERY<br />
Wheatley has the Kubrickian cajones to attempt a fully-constructed world, rife with invented elements, to<br />
approach the seething sensibility of Ballard. Plus, the American poster even dares make a cocky nod to the key<br />
art for Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. .<br />
In the present tense of a “community of the future,” the humans that scamper and snoop and snipe and banter<br />
and soon battle in stylized play of class conflict include the surgeon Dr. Laing (Tom Hiddleston, on television<br />
with “The Night Manager” and more Marvel movies), Sienna Miller, and as the creator of this terror town, a<br />
weary-voiced but sanguinary-tilting Jeremy Irons. Irons makes the most of lines like, “Of course, I’m a modernist<br />
by trade” and purring about a terrible act being “for the good of the building.”<br />
The building is Brutalist architecture, asserting itself against dusky sky, one of several towers in some sort of<br />
outlands, a city and thin distant clouds on the horizon, a dream that seems farther away than the nightmare<br />
the film readily descends into. It’s a wholly constructed world, which filmmakers seldom make the strenuous<br />
effort to fabricate, a world not our own. Each detail is calculated and sinister, down to a uniform set of fonts<br />
for all the conveniences and appurtenances of the exclusive apartments-cum-barracks-cum-bunkers, spaces<br />
William S. Burroughs might have savored for hard, heavy presence.<br />
Raucous shambles await in this drunken bloody nightmare. Moments of brief pastoral prettiness have their<br />
flipside: if there is a moon above, there will be candlelight and screams below. Ripe with sordid beauty even in<br />
its tumults of violence, HIGH-RISE functions in a future, futuristic setting firmly demarcated by the 1970s, the<br />
time in which Ballard’s novel was set, yet it is not our world, and yet it is intended to be wholly ours, a place of<br />
privilege and brutality where idle hands form fists or readily take up weaponry or utter such offhand incitements<br />
as “I should have married someone like you, stoic and perfectly breasted. You know, I’d ideally like to<br />
get between those thighs of yours one of these days.”<br />
“It looks like the unconscious diagram of some kind of psychic event,” Dr. Laing says of one of the mad, fantasticated<br />
drawings of Irons’ creator. Wholly plotted out and supremely self-conscious, Wheatley’s construction<br />
world gets between the pages and into the headspace of Ballard with perverse joy.<br />
Ray Pride is longtime film critic of Newcity, news editor of MovieCityNews.com and a contributing editor of<br />
<strong>Film</strong>maker magazine. His photos and other work are linked at muckrack.com/ray-pride<br />
14 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016<br />
DABLON<br />
VINEYARDS<br />
Winery & Tasting Room
THE NAKED TRUTH<br />
A View of the Modern Political<br />
Landscape with WEINER<br />
By Steve “Capone” Prokopy<br />
weiner STARTS may 27.<br />
SEE PAGE 8 FOR DETAILS.<br />
“Same Old Schlong & Dance,” “Weiner’s<br />
Second Coming,” “Weiner Pull Out,” “Weiner’s<br />
Rise & Fall,” “Tip of the Weiner,” “Weiner<br />
Exposed,” “Weiner: I’ll Stick It Out.” These are<br />
all examples of some of the tasteful headlines<br />
that appeared in that bastion of fine journalism,<br />
the New York Post, over the several years in<br />
which former U.S. Representative from New<br />
York Anthony Weiner was embroiled in<br />
multiple scandals involving lewd and explicit<br />
photos and text messages to various women.<br />
The justifiable uproar that followed the original<br />
scandal eventually led to him resigning from Congress in June 2011, but only two years later, he was a frontrunning<br />
candidate for mayor of New York City before a new round of revelations came to light, probably<br />
best remembered due to his chosen online alias “Carlos Danger.”<br />
Directors Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg do a sometimes shockingly thorough job of covering the Weiner<br />
mayoral campaign, giving the viewer the necessary backstory to make the second wave of sexting seem all the<br />
more shocking—especially since many of the texts were sent after he resigned from Congress. Although he<br />
never cops to it, Weiner clearly has some variety of sex addiction that only seemed to escalate once he got<br />
caught. But before he was dethroned as one of the Democratic Party’s shining stars, he was a congressman<br />
who passionately fought for keeping health benefits for 9/11 rescue workers when Republicans were on the<br />
verge of pulling the plug on them. And during his run of mayor, it was clear that many of his ideas for New<br />
York City were good ones that many voters supported.<br />
To add an ironic twist to Weiner’s story, in 2010 he married Huma Abedin, a long-time aide to Hillary<br />
Clinton, who served as her Deputy Chief of Staff at the State Department. Some of the film’s most palpably<br />
uncomfortable moments come between the husband and wife as they attempt to figure out what campaign<br />
events she feels comfortable attending by his side. It’s clear that after the first scandal, they went through<br />
intensive marriage counseling, even contemplating separation, but made it through together. After the<br />
second set of revelations, her mood alters dramatically, as you might expect, and the camera captures every<br />
sideways glance and If-Looks-Could-Kill glare. Even in their happier moments, Abedin is clearly a reluctant<br />
participant in this documentary.<br />
For most of the shoot, the filmmakers stay silent as they attempt to take a fly-on-the-wall approach to the<br />
documentary, but there are some moments where they break their silence with both Weiner and Abedin<br />
because to not comment or question the current state of the campaign or marriage would be almost<br />
unforgivable. The access granted to Weiner is astonishing at times. He invited the crew into his life, thinking<br />
they’d be documenting one of the greatest comeback stories in politics, only to have a new round of texts<br />
and photos leak, followed in kind by more outrage and jokes.<br />
WEINER is a fascinating view of the modern political landscape, which feels more like a battleground than<br />
a place for ideas. Weiner rarely hid from the media; he put himself in front of reporters every chance he<br />
could, hoping just one of them would want to talk about the issues, and he was consistently disappointed.<br />
Often gracious and patient, but occasionally passionate and frustrated, Anthony Weiner was a victim of his<br />
own desires, certainly, but the film also shines a light on the unbridled glee with which the press tore him<br />
and his family down. It’s a rather disgusting portrait of both sides of the camera.<br />
The most remarkable element to WEINER is that even if the second scandal hadn’t broke, the doc would<br />
have still been a gripping examination of a cutthroat campaign. The film reveals Weiner to be the perfect<br />
politician in many ways. He possessed a fiery persona that flared up right on cue during speeches and debates;<br />
his ideas about how to improve the city were so beloved by citizens that they often booed his opponents<br />
if they brought up the original scandal; and voters loved his wife to such a degree that many would have<br />
preferred it if she’d run for office, which made her the perfect target after the scandal, with such sensitive<br />
headlines as “What’s Wrong With You?” (again, courtesy of the New York Post) running next to her photo<br />
after the second scandal broke, and she continued to stick with her husband.<br />
WEINER is not designed to change your mind about Anthony Weiner. The odds are fairly strong that your<br />
opinion of him (assuming you have any), his poor choices, and his policies will remain largely unchanged<br />
at the end of this work. Instead, the film attempts to give more of a complete picture of a news story that<br />
largely played out as a series of punchlines in the press, on the talk shows, and around water coolers. Some<br />
in the film question why Bill Clinton—who officiated at Weiner’s wedding—was forgiven for his indiscretions,<br />
doing far worse than Weiner (remember, Weiner had no inappropriate physical contact with anyone). The<br />
unsatisfying answer given by one person is, “Clinton is different.”<br />
Based on a sit-down interview done by the filmmakers with Weiner months after his lost mayoral race, it<br />
becomes clear that part of the reason he agreed to allow cameras to follow him was to put a certain part<br />
of his life behind him. He certainly got more than he bargained for, but because of that, WEINER is one of<br />
the most unbelievable and sometimes grotesque (for many reasons that don’t have to do with cybersex)<br />
political profiles in recent memory.<br />
Steve Prokopy is the Chicago Editor for Ain’t It Cool News (www.aintitcool.com), where he has contributed<br />
movie reviews and filmmaker and actor interviews under the name “Capone” since 1998. From 2005-15,<br />
he was on staff at the Chicago-based media outlet GapersBlock.com as the site’s Friday film critic with<br />
his Steve@theMovies column, which now appears weekly at the newly launched ThirdCoastReview.com.<br />
GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER<br />
FRANCOFONIA MAY 6 - 19 JUNE 10 - 16<br />
NEW FROM THE DIRECTOR OF RUSSIAN ARK!<br />
PRODUCER KAREN SHAPIRO IN PERSON 6/10!<br />
164 North State • siskelfilmcenter.org<br />
16 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016
Bracing, Upsetting and Vital<br />
BLUE VELVET at 30<br />
By Patrick Z. McGavin<br />
From the moment it first appeared—<br />
voluptuous, staggering, startlingly funny—<br />
David Lynch’s fourth feature BLUE VELVET was<br />
a film so rich in its meaning and associations<br />
the movie achieved the sublime and<br />
unaccountable.<br />
blue velvet STARTS june 10.<br />
SEE PAGE 10 FOR DETAILS.<br />
Lynch was working in very personal and knotty<br />
material. It was never sensationalized or cheap.<br />
It was always a work fixed in time, of Ronald<br />
Reagan’s “Morning in America,” except that<br />
here was also a work that transcended time.<br />
Woody Allen called it the best film released that year. Roger Ebert panned it. “It’s an anomaly—the work<br />
of a genius naïf,” Pauline Kael wrote. The movie is again front and center thanks to a digital restoration<br />
marking its 30th anniversary.<br />
BLUE VELVET is unmistakably a work of its maker’s interests and preoccupations. The artistry is not Lynch’s<br />
alone. The velvet and deeply saturated color photography of the cinematographer Frederick Elmes is<br />
exceptionally vivid and suggestive. The great sound designer Alan Splet brings a great aural richness eerily<br />
synchronized to the intricate visual design. Lynch’s soundtrack, of Roy Orbison and Bobby Vinton, is also<br />
just right, aided by the unsettling and intoxicating score of Angelo Badalamenti.<br />
The casting is perfect, and the secondary characters, like Dean Stockwell’s epicene gangster, are memorable<br />
and frighteningly alive. MacLachlan gives a remarkably shaded turn that is both open and self effacing. The<br />
long limbed, gorgeous Dern is a revelation. In the greatest performance of her career, Rossellini gets lost<br />
in the part of Dorothy, tragic, beautiful and soulful. Hopper brings such a sexual menace and cruel energy,<br />
his handsomeness was never used to such powerful effect. A gifted filmmaker in his own right, Hopper<br />
had a wounding, sharp gift of language, gesture and intonation. He makes Frank’s derangement deeply<br />
human and recognizable.<br />
BLUE VELVET was never about shock. It opened up Lynch’s underground aesthetic to a wider audience. It<br />
was art, bracing, upsetting and vital. How magnificent to once again celebrate its existence.<br />
Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago writer and film critic. His reviews, essays and film festival reports have<br />
appeared in Cineaste, filmjourney.org, RogerEbert.com and the London film magazine Empire. He also<br />
maintains the film website www.lightsensitive.typepad.com<br />
Lynch always wanted the film to be his follow up to his extraordinary 1977 black and white debut,<br />
ERASERHEAD. He needed to prove himself with larger budgets, and he turned out his sharp and pungent<br />
adaptation of THE ELEPHANT MAN. Lynch’s DUNE was a legendary folly, but a necessary one in his<br />
evolution as an artist that demonstrated his uncanny ability to collapse boundaries between the avant<br />
garde and the industrial cinema.<br />
A trained painter, Lynch had a genius instinct for working through the abstract and the unconscious. I<br />
disagree with Kael. The naïvity was always a cover to make his ideas more accessible. He stylized his images<br />
but always located the dark humor, like the opening sequence where a man watering his lawn suffers a<br />
stroke and Lynch undercuts our sympathy by having the neighboring dog voraciously lap up the jutting<br />
water coming out of the hose.<br />
The three decade anniversary reissue is telling, because part of what made the movie so unnerving was<br />
how Lynch seamlessly suggested the past superimposed over the present tense—his vision of social rot and<br />
transgression underneath the placid surfaces echoed the key works of Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock.<br />
The movie’s fictional Lumberton, summoned through brilliant production design and painstakingly detailed<br />
sets, has an eerie authenticity.<br />
Lynch also deftly merged tones and mood, upbraiding the coming of age story with much darker<br />
implications coloring a horror noir that intertwined self discovery with intimations of sex, kink, violation<br />
and surrender. “I don’t know if you’re a pervert or a detective,” Sandy (Laura Dern) tells Jeffrey Beaumont<br />
(Kyle MacLachlan), the protagonist. A college kid, Jeffrey discovers a detached human ear that kicks the<br />
plot in motion.<br />
Jeffrey is ensnared into a criminal underworld as his fantasies and avid need for experience collapse against<br />
two strikingly realized figures, the alluring and damaged torch singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and<br />
the crime boss Frank (Dennis Hopper). The celebrated 20 minute centerpiece brought about by Jeffrey’s<br />
sexual initiation with Dorothy, touching on voyeurism, emotional vulnerability, corruption and death,<br />
throbs with a hallucinatory power.<br />
18 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016<br />
THE WORLD’S FIRST FILM<br />
SCHOOL COMPLETELY<br />
DEDICATED TO DEVELOPING<br />
COMEDIC STORYTELLERS.<br />
FOR MORE INFO<br />
VISIT RAMISFILMSCHOOL.COM<br />
OR CALL (312) 664-3959<br />
Cinespace is proud<br />
to support Chicago’s<br />
growing film<br />
industry and creative<br />
communities.<br />
WWW.CHICAGOFILMSTUDIOS.COM
Music Box Member<br />
Becoming a member at the Music Box is a great way to<br />
support the quality programming at the independently<br />
owned and operated historic movie theatre, lounge<br />
and garden. This includes our holiday classics, talk<br />
backs, film festivals, visits from directors, producers,<br />
and actors, as well as our regular midnight, matinee,<br />
and feature presentations.<br />
join today<br />
• Discounted tickets<br />
• Members-only screenings<br />
• Advanced purchase for<br />
special screenings<br />
• Restaurant discounts<br />
• Deals on Music Box <strong>Film</strong>s DVD’s<br />
• Bottomless popcorn<br />
• Discounted house wines<br />
SERIES<br />
Classic Matinees<br />
Saturdays & Sundays at 11:30am<br />
Foreign Masterpieces<br />
The Music Box takes you around the world<br />
with seminal classics from master filmmakers.<br />
May 14 & 15 May 28 & 29<br />
8 ½<br />
Dir. Federico Fellini, 1963, 35mm,<br />
138 mins, Italy<br />
Marcello Mastroianni plays<br />
Guido Anselmi, a director<br />
whose new project is collapsing<br />
around him, along with his<br />
life. One of the greatest films<br />
about film ever made, Federico<br />
Fellini’s 8½ turns one man’s<br />
artistic crisis into a grand<br />
epic of the cinema. An early<br />
working title for 8½ was THE<br />
BEAUTIFUL CONFUSION, and<br />
Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly<br />
that: a shimmering dream, a<br />
circus, and a magic act.<br />
THE SEVENTH SEAL<br />
Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957, 35mm,<br />
96 mins, Sweden<br />
Disillusioned and exhausted<br />
after a decade of battling in<br />
the Crusades, a knight (Max von<br />
Sydow) encounters Death on a<br />
desolate beach and challenges<br />
him to a fateful game of chess.<br />
Much studied, imitated, even<br />
parodied, but never outdone,<br />
Bergman’s stunning allegory of<br />
man’s search for meaning, THE<br />
SEVENTH SEAL was one of the<br />
benchmark foreign imports<br />
of America’s 1950s art-house<br />
heyday.<br />
June 4 & 5 June 18 & 19<br />
June 25 & 26<br />
register online<br />
at musicboxtheatre.com<br />
or visit our box office!<br />
THE RED SHOES<br />
Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric<br />
Pressburger, 1948, 35mm, 133 mins,<br />
United Kingdom<br />
A glorious Technicolor epic<br />
that influenced generations<br />
of filmmakers, artists, and<br />
aspiring ballerinas, THE RED<br />
SHOES intricately weaves<br />
backstage life with the thrill of<br />
performance. A young ballerina<br />
(Moira Shearer) is torn between<br />
two forces: the composer who<br />
loves her, and the impresario<br />
determined to fashion her into<br />
a great dancer.<br />
YOJIMBO<br />
Dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1961, 35mm,<br />
110 mins, Japan<br />
The incomparable Toshiro<br />
Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa’s<br />
visually stunning and darkly<br />
comic YOJIMBO. To rid a terrorstricken<br />
village of corruption,<br />
wily masterless samurai Sanjuro<br />
turns a range war between two<br />
evil clans to his own advantage.<br />
Remade twice, by Sergio Leone<br />
and Walter Hill, this exhilarating<br />
genre-twister remains one<br />
of the most influential and<br />
entertaining films of all time.<br />
M<br />
Dir. Fritz Lang, 1931, DCP, 99 mins,<br />
Germany<br />
In his harrowing masterwork<br />
M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant<br />
social commentary with<br />
chilling suspense, creating a<br />
panorama of private madness<br />
and public hysteria that to<br />
this day remains the blueprint<br />
for the psychological thriller.<br />
A psychopathic murderer of<br />
young girls terrorizes a German<br />
city causing public hysteria and<br />
intense police investigations,<br />
which in turn disrupts organized<br />
crime. The contrasting worlds of<br />
the police and the underworld<br />
are juxtaposed as they both<br />
resolve to hunt, capture, and try<br />
the murderer.<br />
Matinees 21
MIDNIGHTS<br />
SERIES<br />
MIDNIGHTS<br />
May 6 & 7<br />
May 13 & June 17<br />
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD<br />
(George Miller, 2015, 120 mins, 35mm)<br />
THE ROOM<br />
(Tommy Wiseau, 2003, 99m, 35mm)<br />
Friday & Saturday Midnight Screenings<br />
June 3 & 4<br />
June 10 & 11<br />
THE FINAL GIRLS<br />
(Todd Strauss-Schulson, 2015, 88 mins, DCP)<br />
3 NINJAS<br />
(Jon Turteltaub, 1992, 84 mins)<br />
SILENT CINEMA<br />
Classic silent films the way they were meant to be seen! Featuring<br />
a live musical score on the famous Music Box organ by<br />
Dennis Scott, Music Box House Organist.<br />
DENNIS<br />
SCOTT AT THE<br />
MUSIC BOX<br />
THEATRE<br />
ORGAN!<br />
May 14 & June 18<br />
ROCKY HORROR<br />
PICTURE SHOW<br />
(Jim Sharman, 1975, 100m, 35mm)<br />
June 24 & 25<br />
TWIN PEAKS:<br />
FIRE WALK WITH ME<br />
(David Lynch, 1992, 135 mins, 35mm)<br />
May 27 & 28<br />
REPO MAN<br />
(Alex Cox, 1984, 92 mins, 35mm)<br />
Rare 35MM<br />
Screening!<br />
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD<br />
(George Miller, 2015, 120 mins)<br />
From George Miller, mastermind behind<br />
the legendary “Mad Max” franchise, comes<br />
a return to the world of the Road Warrior.<br />
Haunted by his turbulent past, Max believes<br />
the best way to live is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across<br />
the Wasteland, led by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. Pursued by a vicious warlord and his gangs, Max must<br />
survive in a high-octane chase across the desolate, deadly landscape. Winner of 6(!) Academy Awards,<br />
with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.<br />
3 NINJAS<br />
(Jon Turteltaub, 1992, 84 mins, 35MM)<br />
**Saturday, June 11 screening will include a pre-party in the<br />
Music Box Lounge, sponsored by Pipeworks Brewing Co!**<br />
While their friends are spending the summer playing, three young<br />
brothers—Rocky, Colt and Tum Tum—are learning the ways of the<br />
ninja from their wise grandfather. As the boys’ FBI agent father closes in on capturing notorious arms<br />
dealer and evil ninja-master Hugo Snyder, the balance of power shifts when Snyder kidnaps the brothers.<br />
Suddenly, the boys are caught in the middle of an incredible adventure they never dreamed possible.<br />
Surrounded by danger, they must rely on their wits, as well as the ancient ninja ways, to even the odds<br />
and defeat the unscrupulous Snyder!<br />
THE FINAL GIRLS<br />
(Todd Strauss-Schulson, 2015, 88 mins, DCP)<br />
When Max and her friends attend an anniversary screening of “Camp<br />
Bloodbath,” the infamous ‘80s horror film that starred Max’s late<br />
mother, they are mysteriously sucked into the silver screen. Trapped<br />
inside the cult classic movie, they must team up with the fictional<br />
and ill-fated camp counselors, including Max’s mom as the scream queen, to battle a machete-wielding<br />
killer. With the body count rising in scene after iconic scene, who will be the final girls left standing and<br />
live to escape this film?<br />
SUNRISE: A SONG OF<br />
TWO HUMANS<br />
Directed by F.W. Murnau<br />
1927, 94 mins, DCP<br />
Wednesday, May 18 at 7:30pm<br />
One of the most acclaimed silent films of all<br />
times, F.W. Murnau’s heart-wrenching romance<br />
SUNRISE was his first film in the United States.<br />
George O’Brien is a married farmer tempted<br />
away from his wife, Janet Gaynor, by a slatternly<br />
woman from the city, who tries to convince<br />
him to drown his wife. When the farmer’s<br />
wife escapes her murderous husband, he has<br />
a change of heart and must find his wife in the<br />
big city to which she’s fled and bring her home.<br />
Featuring the most adorable drunk pig you’ll<br />
ever see on film!<br />
Tol’able David<br />
Directed by Henry King<br />
1921, 99 Mins, 35MM<br />
Saturday, June 11 at Noon<br />
Young David Kinemon (Richard Barthelmess)<br />
lives in a small West Virginia farming village and<br />
wants to be taken seriously by those around<br />
him—particularly by the pretty girl (Gladys<br />
Hulette) who lives on a nearby farm. When<br />
a family of hooligans led by Iscah Hatburn<br />
(Walter P. Lewis) moves into town, David<br />
watches as they wreak havoc. After David’s<br />
father dies, David must summon his inner<br />
strength and take it upon himself to stop the<br />
fugitive Hatburn clan.<br />
35 MM Print from the Museum of Modern Art<br />
22 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 Silent Cinema 23
SERIES<br />
From Stage To screen<br />
THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRESENTS<br />
The Stratford Festival has been setting the standard<br />
for classical theatre in North America for more than 60<br />
years. Since the revolutionary first season, more than<br />
26 million theatregoers from around the world have visited the Stratford Festival. Now<br />
partnering with SpectiCast, the acclaimed repertory theatre presents three exciting<br />
plays captured live in September 2015. Working with renowned Producer and Director<br />
Barry Avrich, and his exceptional team at Melbar Entertainment, the plays are captured<br />
using 10 cameras and 128 tracks of sound to create a sensational high-definition,<br />
surround-sound experience remaining faithful to the stage version of the production.<br />
HAMLET<br />
Directed for the stage by Antoni Cimolino<br />
Directed for the screen by Shelagh O’Brien<br />
Presented by The Stratford Festival & Specticast<br />
May 14 at noon<br />
May 24 at 7pm<br />
A ghostly visitor with a shocking secret, a daughter devastated<br />
by loss, a deadly duel and the most famous question in all of drama: Shakespeare’s<br />
iconic tragedy will hold you spellbound. HAMLET has been called the greatest play in the<br />
English language, and this production from the world-renowned Stratford Festival—the<br />
most complete, most fulfilling, most satisfying in decades of theatergoing. Jonathan Goad<br />
is witty and courageous in the title role, but also deeply human. The film excites and surprises<br />
at every turn, with a cast of some of the finest classical actors in the world bringing<br />
to life the most intense and heartbreaking relationships the stage has ever seen.<br />
THE ADVENTURES OF PERICLES<br />
Directed for the stage by<br />
Scott Wentworth<br />
Directed for film by Barry Avrich<br />
Presented by The Stratford Festival & Specticast<br />
May 28 at noon<br />
June 7 at 7pm<br />
A storm at sea brings love into the life of Pericles, Prince of<br />
Tyre, and another snatches it away. This magical production of Shakespeare’s epic tale is a<br />
delight for the eye and ear. Filled with music and brilliant spectacle, it follows a fairy-tale<br />
hero on a miraculous journey to one of literature’s most poignant reunions. Evan Buliung<br />
gives a sweeping performance, portraying the dashing young prince with verve and<br />
swagger, and taking him into his elder years with sorrowful tenderness. Moving and fun<br />
from beginning to end, it is a story rarely told, and one you won’t soon forget.<br />
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW<br />
Directed for the stage by Chris Abraham<br />
Directed for film by Barry Avrich<br />
Presented by The Stratford Festival & Specticast<br />
June 12 at 11:30am<br />
June 21 at 7pm<br />
Courtship or conquest? The breakdown of a defiant spirit or<br />
a breakthrough that liberates a heart deprived of love? This<br />
scintillating production of Shakespeare’s boisterous comedy<br />
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW will stir your emotions as you follow the love story of<br />
Katherina and Petruchio—the feisty lovers at the center of Shakespeare’s most pointed<br />
social commentary. Deborah Hay gives a performance for the ages as the Shrew and Ben<br />
Carlson is the perfect counterpoint as her plotting suitor, creating a chemistry that sets<br />
the stage alight.<br />
Encore<br />
Presentation<br />
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS<br />
Presented by National Theatre Live<br />
June 25 at 11:30am<br />
For a limited time only, National Theatre<br />
Live’s Encore Series brings a selection of<br />
award-winning British theatre productions<br />
to your local cinema.<br />
Featuring a Tony Award-winning<br />
performance from host of THE LATE LATE<br />
SHOW, James Corden, the uproarious<br />
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS was a<br />
runaway hit both in London’s West End<br />
and on Broadway. Fired from his skiffle<br />
band, Francis Henshall becomes minder<br />
to Roscoe, an East End hood looking to collect a debt from his<br />
fiancée’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her<br />
own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley.<br />
Holed up at The Cricketers’ Arms, the ravenous Francis spots<br />
the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with<br />
Stanley, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent<br />
discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple.<br />
For more on these productions, The Stratford Festival, and National Theatre<br />
Live, visit MusicBoxTheatre.com<br />
24 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 Stage to Screen 25
SERIES<br />
Anime <strong>Film</strong>s<br />
DOU KYU SEI – CLASSMATES<br />
Saturday, May 7 at Noon<br />
& Wednesday, May 11 at 7:30pm<br />
(Dir. Shoko Nakamura, 2016, 60 mins)<br />
Rihito Sajo is an honor student who got perfect<br />
scores in every subject on his entrance exam.<br />
Hikaru Kusakabe is in a band and popular among<br />
girls. They are “different kind of guys,” who would<br />
have never crossed paths. But one day Hikaru<br />
offers to help Rihito prepare for their upcoming<br />
chorus festival and improve his singing skills.<br />
As the two meet after school, they feel one<br />
another’s sound, listen to each other’s voices, and begin to harmonize as their hearts start to beat<br />
together. Two adolescent boys–learning not only about each other, but also about themselves–<br />
struggle and get confused; however, they eventually get to understand each other. As the time to<br />
start thinking about their futures approaches, what do these young men find as they try to move<br />
forward…<br />
HARMONY<br />
The Second <strong>Film</strong> of the critically-acclaimed<br />
Project Itoh Trilogy<br />
Tuesday, May 17 at 7pm (English subtitles)<br />
& Saturday, May 21 at Midnight<br />
(dubbed in English)<br />
(Dir. Michael Arias & Takashi Nakamura, 2016,<br />
120 mins)<br />
In a future ruled by an unwavering dedication<br />
to good health, three high school girls attempt<br />
suicide as the ultimate act of rebellion. One girl,<br />
Tuan Kirie, survives but can’t shake the hatred<br />
she has for the “perfect world” she lives in. Years<br />
later, a simultaneous mass suicide rocks the globe and sends society into a state of shock. A small<br />
group of terrorists stands up to take credit for the event, claiming they’ve hijacked the consciousness<br />
of every person on the planet. Tuan suspects an old friend might be involved, but how could that<br />
be when she¹d supposedly killed herself years earlier? Desperate for answers, Tuan launches an<br />
investigation that takes her across the globe chasing the ghost of her old friend.<br />
Art & Architecture<br />
in Cinema<br />
Captured exclusively for the cinema this ground-breaking<br />
series brings the world’s greatest works of art, and their<br />
environs, to cinemas nationwide. Enjoy unprecedented<br />
big screen access into the lives of renowned artists, their<br />
art, and the fabulous museums and galleries that are not<br />
only the custodians of such masterpieces, but works of<br />
art in their own right.<br />
LEONARDO DA VINCI:<br />
THE GENIUS IN MILAN<br />
May 21 & 22 at 11:30am<br />
(90 mins)<br />
Under the watchful gaze of 4K cameras, Leonardo<br />
da Vinci’s famous painting “La Belle Ferronière”<br />
is removed from the wall, packed and sent to<br />
Milan where, on the occasion of EXPO 2015, the<br />
most important cultural event of the year will be<br />
inaugurated: “Leonardo 1452- 1519.” This exhibition<br />
is the result of six years work by leading Leonardo<br />
experts, retracing the multiple paths travelled by<br />
the mind of the genius: the foundation of drawing,<br />
the role of nature and science, comparison<br />
between the arts, reflection on the ancients, the<br />
unity of knowledge, images of the divine, myths<br />
over the centuries, and more.<br />
RENOIR: REVERED AND<br />
REVILED<br />
June 18 & 19 at 11:30am<br />
(87 mins)<br />
Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known and loved<br />
for his impressionist paintings of Paris. These<br />
paintings count among the world’s favorites.<br />
Renoir, however, grew tired of this style and<br />
changed course. This stunning film—based on<br />
the remarkable collection of 181 Renoirs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia—examines the direction<br />
he then took and why it has provoked such extreme reactions. What may surprise many is that among<br />
the artists who were highly influenced by Renoir’s new works were the two giants of the 20th century—<br />
Picasso and Matisse. The film is a fresh new biography of this artistic giant, and places Renoir as a critical<br />
link between the old and the new.<br />
26 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 Cinema Science 27
SERIES<br />
Field Trips:<br />
Cinema Science with The Field Museum<br />
Join The Field Museum at the Music Box Theatre for a special series of film screenings dedicated<br />
to diving into the science behind the big screen. In this ongoing series, The Field Museum brings<br />
science professionals and lecturers to the Music Box Theatre to introduce the films and provide<br />
a forum for discussion following the film.<br />
Wednesday, June 1 at 7pm<br />
THE MESSENGER<br />
Tuesday, May 10 at 7pm<br />
Directed by Su Rynard<br />
Su Rynard’s wide-ranging documentary THE MESSENGER explores our deepseated<br />
connection to birds and warns that the uncertain fate of songbirds might<br />
mirror our own. THE MESSENGER brings us face-to-face with the human-made<br />
perils that have devastated thrushes, warblers, orioles and many other airborne<br />
music-makers. On one level, THE MESSENGER is the artful story about the<br />
mass depletion of songbirds, and about those who are working to turn the tide. On another level, THE<br />
MESSENGER is an engaging, visually stunning, emotional journey, with unique glances into the influence<br />
of songbirds on our own expressions of the soul.<br />
Featuring a discussion with Dr. Peter Marra, Director of Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington<br />
D.C. In his 17 years with the Smithsonian, he has become an international leader in avian conservation<br />
science focusing particularly on the ecology of migratory birds, urban ecosystem ecology,<br />
and disease ecology.<br />
Presented by<br />
Sound Opinions at the Movies<br />
THE HARDER<br />
THEY COME<br />
The latest installment in the Sound<br />
Opinions at the Movies series is the<br />
groundbreaking reggae sensation<br />
THE HARDER THEY COME. Jimmy<br />
Cliff stars as an aspiring young singer<br />
who leaves his rural village for the city of Kingston, hoping to make a<br />
name for himself. Robbed on his first day in town, he finds work with<br />
a bullying preacher and an unscrupulous music mogul. In desperation,<br />
the simple country boy turns outlaw, at war with both the police and<br />
his rivals in the ganja trade. This gritty, groundbreaking film brought<br />
reggae music to the international stage, made Jimmy Cliff a star, and<br />
demonstrated that music and art can change the world. DCP provided<br />
by Xenon Pictures.<br />
Rock critics Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, the hosts of Sound Opinions from WBEZ, will be on hand<br />
to introduce the film. Advance tickets are available at SoundOpinions.org.<br />
The National Society<br />
of <strong>Film</strong> Critics Series<br />
The National Society of <strong>Film</strong> Critics is made up of the leading film critics in the United States,<br />
whose purpose is to promote the mutual interests of film criticism and filmmaking.<br />
The Music Box Theatre presents a brand new series along with three members of the National<br />
<strong>Film</strong> Society of <strong>Film</strong> Critics who are living and working in Chicago. Chicago Reader film editor<br />
Jim Jones, Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips and Jonathan Rosenbaum will present three<br />
of their favorite films with a post show discussion!<br />
Tuesday, May 31<br />
STRANGER THAN PARADISE<br />
presented by Jonathan Rosenbaum<br />
(1984; dir. Jim Jarmusch; 89 minutes, 35MM)<br />
STRANGER THAN PARADISE is an odd, low-key comedy about a trio<br />
of misfits—an everyday guy, his Hungarian female cousin, and his<br />
geeky best friend—who decide to take a road trip across the United<br />
States on the spur of the moment. Over the course of their voyage, they have both good and bad luck,<br />
meet a number of bizarre and interesting characters, and are frequently bored.<br />
Jonathan Rosenbaum, former film critic for the Chicago Reader (1987-2008), maintains a website archiving<br />
most of his work at jonathanrosenbaum.net<br />
Tuesday June 7<br />
THERE WILL BE BLOOD<br />
presented by Michael Phillips,<br />
Chicago Tribune film critic<br />
(2007; dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 158 minutes, 35MM)<br />
THERE WILL BE BLOOD won the 2008 Best <strong>Film</strong> award from the<br />
National Society of <strong>Film</strong> Critics. Paul Thomas Anderson’s loose<br />
adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil!” is actually about something, or many things—greed, capitalism,<br />
American success stories—while succeeding as one of the great performance showcases in modern cinema.<br />
Michael Phillips is the film critic of the Chicago Tribune. He started his career writing about the movies for<br />
the Twin Cities weekly, City Pages. He’s pleased to be a new member of the National Society of <strong>Film</strong> Critics.<br />
Tuesday June 14<br />
LIFE IS SWEET<br />
presented by Jim Jones, Chicago Reader editor<br />
(1990; dir. Mike Leigh; 103 minutes, 35MM)<br />
LIFE IS SWEET, chosen as best film of 1991, tells the story of a workingclass<br />
family in suburban London whose easygoing patriarch, played<br />
by Jim Broadbent, impulsively buys a snack-vending trailer in hope of making a few extra pounds.<br />
J.R. Jones is film editor for the Chicago Reader and author of “The Lives of Robert Ryan”<br />
[livesofrobertryan.com] (Wesleyan University Press). He was elected to the NSFC in 2015.<br />
28 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016 29
SERIES<br />
Cinema Slapdown at<br />
The Music Box Theatre!<br />
Starting its tenth year, Columbia College Chicago’s CINEMA SLAPDOWN is a unique screening<br />
series that has achieved cult status. A wildly entertaining hybrid of film discussion, knockdown,<br />
drag out debate and audience interaction, CINEMA SLAPDOWN believes that all films can<br />
be passionately argued.<br />
At each session of CINEMA SLAPDOWN we screen a well-known, discussion-worthy film. It<br />
can be anything from a documentary that polarized its audience to a big award winner that<br />
left many scratching their heads and asking “Why?” Following the screening, two debaters,<br />
one who loves it and the other who hates it, engage in a heated argument about the film, then<br />
open themselves up to the audience. The debaters will be announced in mid-May.<br />
Movies for Summer:<br />
June 15<br />
“ ”<br />
- TIME OUT NEW YORK<br />
BOB ROBERTS<br />
"A pointless and insulting attack on American<br />
values, or a freakishly on-point prophecy Trumped<br />
by reality.”<br />
July 13<br />
DO THE RIGHT THING<br />
“An honest and compassionate look at the state<br />
of American race relations in the pre-Rodney<br />
King era, or just another 'joint' that thinks reverse<br />
stereotyping and divisiveness equals ‘something<br />
important to say'”<br />
“Confirms Larraín as one of the more<br />
genuine talents working in Cinema today.”<br />
- THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER<br />
30 Music Box Theatre May-June 2016<br />
SHOWGIRLS<br />
August 10<br />
“A trenchant and penetrating look at the crass side<br />
of the American success ethic, or a campy piece<br />
of cinematic waste best handled with oven mitts<br />
and a pair of tongs.”<br />
FIND IT WHEREVER YOU WATCH MOVIES<br />
@musicboxfi lms<br />
musicboxfi lms.com
Producing the Future<br />
Their sTories are our sTory. We produce more Than movies. We produce filmmakers.<br />
colum.edu/cinema<br />
Collin SChiffli (BA ’09)<br />
Director: AnimAls<br />
Debut feature; winner 2014 SXSW Grand Jury Prize;<br />
winner 2014 Chicago <strong>Film</strong> Critics Association<br />
Audience Award<br />
Director: Ghostophobia<br />
Second feature (in development)<br />
RheA BozzACChi (BA ’12)<br />
Director & Writer: vCArd<br />
Debut feature (in production); initially developed<br />
in Columbia College’s Semester in LA program at<br />
Raleigh Studios, Hollywood<br />
Writer: Cheat, Cheat, Bang, Bang: short film for<br />
Fulton Market <strong>Film</strong>s<br />
Intern: Fulton Market <strong>Film</strong>s, Chicago; Hutch<br />
Parker Entertainment, LA; <strong>Film</strong>Engine, LA<br />
RoBeRt-CARniliuS (MfA ’15)<br />
Director & Writer: JAspA Jenkins<br />
2014 Student Academy Award finalist (winner<br />
Midwest regional award)<br />
Director & Writer: Pulse<br />
Thesis short film (in production)<br />
Director & Writer: McTucky Fried High<br />
Comedic animated web series (in production)<br />
GARy MiChAel SChultz (BA ’01)<br />
Director & Writer: VinCent-n-roxxy<br />
Unified Pictures production starring Anton Yelchin<br />
and Megalyn Echikunwoke (in production)<br />
Director & Writer: Devil in My Ride (2013)<br />
Multiple award-winner now in wide Video On<br />
Demand release<br />
Co-Producer: Rudderless (2014)<br />
William H. Macy’s feature directing debut starring Billy<br />
Cruddup; premiered at 2014 Sundance <strong>Film</strong> Festival<br />
Cinema Art + Science