PREVIOUSLY
Film series:
28th Annual Festival of Films from Iran
Showtimes:
- Fri, Feb 9th 2:00pm
- Fri, Feb 9th 6:00pm
- Sat, Feb 10th 8:00pm
- Sun, Feb 11th 3:00pm
- Mon, Feb 12th 6:00pm
- Tue, Feb 13th 8:30pm
- Wed, Feb 14th 6:00pm
- Thu, Feb 15th 8:15pm
“Teeming with life’s magic and mysteries…the work of a truly distinctive artist, and to be cherished as a last gift to us.” — Geoff Andrews, Sight & Sound
“A stunning and majestic Kiarostami statement about love, cinema, death, technology, censorship, and the 21st century…It is moving, it is cosmic, it is sublime.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Completed posthumously and premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, Kiarostami’s final film is a simple but profound work composed of twenty-four short film sequences based around his own photographs and one Bruegel painting. The film's subtle method begs the question whether these images are true to life or the sly digital sleight of hand of a master magician. Kiarostami’s love of snowy landscapes, the sea, and his fascination with the unsentimental drama of nature bring home the intelligence and patient vision of the artist behind the camera in two-dozen contemplative mini-dramas. Horses frolic in a skittish mating dance in a snow-covered field; a cow sleeps on a beach at dusk amid swelling waves; a feral cat traps squabbling blackbirds; feisty crows flit ominously — these and more compose a vibrant meditation on life in all of its mysterious forms and trajectories. In Persian with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
February 12: This screening is a Movie Club event facilitated by Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum, co-authors of Abbas Kiarostami (University of Illinois Press, 2003; new edition forthcoming in March).
Chicago premiere! Dome Karukoski via Skype!
Tom of Finland
2017, Dome Karukoski, Finland/Sweden, 115 min. With Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen.
Plays in:
Runs & Limited Engagements
Showtimes:
- Fri, Jan 5th 6:00pm
- Sat, Jan 6th 3:00pm
- Sat, Jan 6th 8:00pm
- Sun, Jan 7th 5:00pm
- Mon, Jan 8th 8:00pm
- Tue, Jan 9th 6:00pm
- Wed, Jan 10th 8:00pm
- Thu, Jan 11th 6:00pm
- Fri, Jan 12th 7:45pm
- Sat, Jan 13th 8:00pm
- Sun, Jan 14th 4:45pm
- Mon, Jan 15th 7:45pm
- Tue, Jan 16th 7:45pm
- Wed, Jan 17th 7:45pm
- Thu, Jan 18th 6:00pm
"One of the 10 best films of 2017...I hope it wins [the Oscar]." — John Waters
“Immersive…entertainingly recounts an intriguing and vital chapter of 20th-century gay history with style and deference.” — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
The life behind the legend is the subject of this biopic of artist Touko Laaksonen (Strang), who became world famous under the pseudonym Tom of Finland for his erotic drawings of hunky leather-clad men, influencing the direction of gay culture in the process. Director Karukoski doesn’t stint on provocative glimpses of Touko’s art, as the former army lieutenant endures waves of Fifties and Sixties oppression that keep homosexuality illegal in Europe, even as he maintains a furtive nocturnal life cruising in parks and committing his muscular, mightily endowed fantasies to paper. The work of Tom of Finland reaches an apex in hedonistic Los Angeles, where Touko’s acclaim by “his people” coincides with the challenge of the AIDS epidemic. Finland’s official submission for 2018 Oscar consideration. In Finnish, German, and English with English subtitles. DCP digital widescreen. (BS)
On Sunday, January 7, director Dome Karukoski will be present via Skype for audience discussion, joined by Leather Archives & Museum executive director Gary Wasdin and Windy City Times publisher and executive editor Tracy Baim in person.
The Thursday, January 11 screening is a Movie Club event facilitated by Richard Knight Jr., filmmaker, film programmer, and former film critic.