“One of the most extraordinary pieces of revolutionary propaganda ever produced, as vibrant and vital as anything the Soviets released during the silent era.” - Mattie Lucas, From the Front Row
“Some of the most exhilarating camera movements and most luscious black-and-white cinematography you'll ever see inhabit this singular, delirious 141-minute communist propaganda epic.” - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Sunday, August 2, 5:00 p.m. | "Amazingly poetic and terminally wrongheaded," proclaimed the Chicago Reader's Jonathan Rosenbaum when this cast-off artifact of Communist camp-propaganda was finally released to U.S. audiences in 1995. "Undeniably monstrous and breathtakingly beautiful, ridiculous and awe-inspiring." After the revolution of 1959 put Fidel Castro in power, his new government partnered with the USSR for military support, food assistance, and yes, cinema. The Soviet government tapped Kalatozov, along with his THE CRANES ARE FLYING cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky, to helm this co-production, in which four moral fables (set in Batista's pre-revolution Cuba) unfold, all illustrating the urgent need for a socialist uprising. The film, despite electrifying camera movements and a uniquely bizarre high-contrast B&W look, was unsuccessful in both Cuba and the USSR — but eventually found a rabid art-house audience in America some thirty years later, after being championed by capitalist tastemakers Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. (Gabriel Wallace, Chicago Film Society) 35mm from the Chicago Film Society
Preceded by: 1964 trailer reel – 10 min – 35mm from the Chicago Film Society
Chicago Film Society Presents | Ongoing Series
Founded by projectionists in 2011, the Chicago Film Society promotes the exhibition and preservation of film in context. CFS screenings provide access to the restoration efforts of archives, studios, and private collectors, the work of artists exploring the film medium today, and the experience of seeing film projected live in a theater, with an audience. As physical artifacts, the film prints we show hold the stories told by films—but also the stories of the industries that produced them, the labs that printed them, the places where they were exhibited, and the people who watched them. Through screenings, writing, film preservation projects, and workshops, CFS works to make all of this context visible and accessible to the public. Learn more about Chicago Film Society at chicagofilmsociety.org.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu