The lines between cinema and theater, between the present day and the past, and between true emotion and self-serving ruse become delightfully tangled in this farcical romance based on a play by eighteenth-century Comédie-Française writer Pierre de Marivaux. Director Bondy (who died before the film was completed) transposes the manners and gilded living of a more opulent era to present-day Paris, where Amarinte (Huppert), a mega-rich widow with a cunning sense of her own worth and a hankering for love, hires Dorante (Garrel), a foppish male secretary, who either has a puppy dog-like crush on his mistress or a secret agenda. Meanwhile, Amarante’s manipulative grande-dame mother (Ogier, a hoot) works a real-estate scheme. An unfaithful butler, a heartsick maid, and an elderly spurned lover complete the ensemble. Filmed in part at the legendary Théâtre de l’Odéon, with surprises in store. In French with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
Runs & Limited Engagements
False Confessions
Les Fausses Confidences
2016, Luc Bondy and Marie-Louise Bischofberger, France, 82 min. With Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Bulle Ogier.
Showtimes:
- Fri, Jul 21st 2:00pm
- Fri, Jul 21st 6:00pm
- Sat, Jul 22nd 7:45pm
- Sun, Jul 23rd 3:30pm
- Mon, Jul 24th 6:00pm
- Tue, Jul 25th 8:00pm
- Wed, Jul 26th 6:00pm
- Thu, Jul 27th 8:15pm
Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe
Vor der Morgenröte
2016, Maria Schrader, Austria/Germany, 106 min. With Josef Hader, Barbara Sukowa.
"This is Hader’s movie. His is one of the great performances of recent years." — Ali Arikan, Village Voice
"Maria Schrader's boldly understated look at a great, forgotten 20th-century writer is one impressive achievement, all the more admirable for its understated subtlety." — David Noh, Film Journal International
Showtimes:
- Fri, Jul 21st 2:00pm
- Fri, Jul 21st 7:45pm
- Sat, Jul 22nd 3:00pm
- Sun, Jul 23rd 5:15pm
- Mon, Jul 24th 7:45pm
- Tue, Jul 25th 6:00pm
- Wed, Jul 26th 7:45pm
- Thu, Jul 27th 6:00pm
The exile years of Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (Hader), leading up to his suicide with his second wife Lotte (Aenne Schwarz) in Brazil in 1942, are chronicled in six symbolic segments illustrating a crisis of conscience that never abated. Abandoning his beloved Austria in 1934, at the height of his worldwide fame, Zweig is seen fomenting controversy among fellow writers for declining to denounce the Hitler regime, even as he establishes a new life in the safety of Latin America, a continent he comes to love. Zweig’s ex-wife and confidante (Sukowa) takes a pivotal role in deepening the burden of pain, when others look to her as an intermediary to secure his help. In German, English, Portuguese, French, and Spanish with English subtitles. DCP digital widescreen. (BS)
Wednesday, July 26: This screening is a Movie Club event facilitated by Sara Hall, Associate Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies at UIC.
"A film with the utmost cultural value, a must-see." — Matthew Ritchie, Exclaim!
"There is something miraculous about this patient little film...The director leaves ample room for the music, and it will take your breath away." — T'Cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette
Part oral history, part jam session, part back-roads odyssey, I AM THE BLUES journeys to the Delta country of Mississippi and Louisiana to seek out some of the last and most authentic practitioners of the quintessential African American art form known as the blues. Illustrious bluesman Bobby Rush serves as our unofficial tour guide, but the emphasis is on lesser-known Chitlin' Circuit veterans like Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, LC Ulmer, Barbara Lynn, Lazy Lester, Henry Gray, and Carol Fran. There are no big concerts and few onstage performances — most of this intimate film takes place in juke joints, front porches, parking lots, and pickup trucks, where we join the musicians as they hang out, swap stories, recall the past, and spontaneously perform spellbinding music that seems inseparable from their surroundings. DCP digital. (MR)
“Instructive and inspiring…an example of what’s possible for kids who might otherwise have been permanently sidelined.” — Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter
“Exceptional…what it means to come together for a common goal.” — Anne-Katrin Titze, Eye for Film
When New Jersey parents Maria and Mike McQuay observed that their young son with autism became calm and focused in the family pool, they founded a swim team, the Jersey Hammerheads, at a local Y, recruiting a multicultural group of other boys on the autism spectrum. A decade later, the now co-ed team thrives as a unique confidence-building program that produces a remarkable range of social and therapeutic benefits for the swimmers, some who have become champions in the Special Olympics. Director Stolman zeroes in on three teens, Mikey, Robert, and Kelvin, and their parents, charting the emotional journey of families challenging the limitations that society places on their children. “When I’m swimming I feel normal,” says Mikey. DCP digital. (BS)
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan
2016, Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger, USA, 94 min.
"Bravissima!...The film is inspiring...Co-directors Saffire and Schlesinger weave this extended diary into a narrative as fluid, committed and elegant in its movements as one of Whelan's performances." — David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
"This affecting film portrait can sneak up on you...The film is both a comeback story and, more profoundly, a coming to terms with aging." — Brian Seibert, The New York Times
Showtimes:
- Fri, Jul 28th 2:00pm
- Fri, Jul 28th 6:00pm
- Sat, Jul 29th 7:45pm
- Sun, Jul 30th 1:15pm
- Sun, Jul 30th 3:15pm
- Mon, Jul 31st 6:00pm
- Tue, Aug 1st 8:30pm
- Wed, Aug 2nd 6:00pm
- Thu, Aug 3rd 8:00pm
One of the most admired ballerinas of recent times, Wendy Whelan has been celebrated for her non-diva-like behavior and her remarkable longevity as well as for her dancing ability. "If I don't dance, I'd rather die," she claimed, only half-jokingly, but, as she reached her mid-40s, the New York City Ballet began easing her out of signature roles, and then a serious hip injury necessitated surgery. The footage of her performances, past and present, is stunning, but what sets this stirring film above other dance documentaries is the engaging personality of Wendy Whelan and the extraordinary access she gives to the filmmakers as she faces a crisis that forces her not only to face the possible end of her career but also, as she realizes, to grow as a person and an artist. DCP digital. (MR)
Amnesia
2015, Barbet Schroeder, Switzerland/France, 96 min. With Marthe Keller, Max Riemelt, Bruno Ganz.
"A thoughtful, sensitive character study." — Scott Foundas, Variety
"A suggestively, subtly told piece, to which the too rare Ms. Keller brings a graceful yet intensely layered performance, attentively directed by Mr. Schroeder; it's almost a love letter from a director to an actress who has seldom been better." — Jorge Mourinha, The Flickering Wall
Showtimes:
- Fri, Jul 28th 6:00pm
- Sat, Jul 29th 5:30pm
- Sat, Jul 29th 7:45pm
- Sun, Jul 30th 5:45pm
- Mon, Jul 31st 8:00pm
- Wed, Aug 2nd 8:15pm
- Thu, Aug 3rd 6:00pm
Over the course of a half-century, Barbet Schroeder has fashioned one of the most intriguingly eclectic filmmaking careers, marked by a recurring fascination with situations and characters that challenge moral assumptions, including a bloodthirsty dictator (IDI AMIN DADA), a filthy-rich murder defendant (REVERSAL OF FORTUNE), and a teenage hit man (OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS). AMNESIA is a deeply personal project, returning to the Ibiza location of Schroeder's first film MORE and featuring a central character based on his own mother. The story begins in 1990; Martha (Keller of MARATHON MAN and FEDORA) is a German musician living in self-imposed exile in Ibiza who, following World War II, completely renounced her native land. Her self-righteous isolation is challenged by the fall of the Berlin Wall and by a romantically charged friendship with Jo (Riemelt), a young German DJ who moves in next door. The title refers to a famous Ibiza nightclub of the era, but another meaning emerges when Jo's mother and grandfather (Ganz) arrive for a visit that will awaken the ghosts of the past. In English and German with English subtitles. DCP digital. (MR)
Endless Poetry
Poesía sin fin
2016, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chile/France, 128 min. With Adan Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky.
“Felliniesque and moving…a work of disciplined and touching emotional resonance.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“A feast for the senses…gloriously assembled.” — Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter
Showtimes:
- Fri, Jul 28th 8:00pm
- Sat, Jul 29th 3:00pm
- Sun, Jul 30th 5:30pm
- Mon, Jul 31st 7:45pm
- Tue, Aug 1st 6:00pm
- Wed, Aug 2nd 8:00pm
- Thu, Aug 3rd 6:00pm
Skeletons and surreal lovers, devils and dwarves, ninjas and Nazis, punks and poets pour into a great cornucopia of visual delight through this extravagantly eclectic autobiographical narrative by the creator of the psychedelic cult classics EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. in this freestanding sequel to his THE DANCE OF REALITY (2013), director Jodorowsky — Chilean playwright, poet and comic book artist — dramatizes his own coming of age in a magic realist mode. A boy hounded by a stern father, transformed by the poetry of Federico García Lorca, desired by a gay cousin, is seduced into an exotically seamy nightlife where insatiable women and carnal dangers lurk. From innocence to emancipation, from Santiago to Paris, the artistic journey of the young Alejandro unfolds with eye-popping imagery and effects, with cinematography by the acclaimed Christopher Doyle (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). In Spanish, French, and English with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
★★★½ "A compelling and, even now, suspenseful nonfiction account." — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“As gripping as the movie is as a legal thriller, it's even more notable as a portrait of a community." — Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 4th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 4th 6:00pm
- Fri, Aug 4th 7:45pm
- Sat, Aug 5th 3:00pm
- Sun, Aug 6th 5:00pm
- Mon, Aug 7th 6:00pm
- Tue, Aug 8th 8:00pm
- Wed, Aug 9th 6:00pm
- Thu, Aug 10th 8:00pm
How did Abacus, a small family-run bank, become targeted by the feds to take the fall for the 2008 financial crisis when the Wall Street giants tiptoed away so handily, asks award-winning filmmaker Steve James (HOOP DREAMS, THE INTERRUPTERS) in this affecting David vs. Goliath chronicle. Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey, banker hero of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, served as the role model for New York Chinatown lawyer Thomas Sung when he founded a community-friendly bank in the 1950s, serving an insular, bank-shy immigrant population. In 2010, his staff discovered and reported irregularities perpetrated by one mortgage manager, bringing down the wrath of the Justice Department and making Abacus the sole bank to face federal charges in the wake of the financial crisis. Nineteen employees were led away in chains before TV cameras, and the resulting five-year media circus and show trial exposed suspiciously glaring inequities in the government case. DCP digital. (BS)
Friday, August 4 at 7:45 PM & Saturday, August 5 at 3:00 PM: Director Steve James will be present for audience discussion.
“A powerful return to form for Mr. Loach…in full command as a filmmaker and social critic.” — Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“Loach’s film is about empathy…blunt, bracing yet loving and far, far from mere polemic.” — Ray Pride, Newcity
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 4th 2:00pm
- Sat, Aug 5th 5:15pm
- Sun, Aug 6th 3:00pm
- Mon, Aug 7th 7:45pm
- Tue, Aug 8th 6:00pm
- Wed, Aug 9th 7:45pm
- Thu, Aug 10th 6:00pm
Winner of the coveted Palme d’Or at 2016 Cannes, this moving character-driven story of the unlikely friendship between an aging carpenter, on disability as he recovers from a heart attack, and a single mother with two young children, features director Loach (THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY) at his best, with his social conscience burning as fiercely as ever. Katie (Squires) and Daniel (Johns) meet by accident at a welfare office, where each has been held up to public ridicule. Loach pulls emotion out of thin air, balancing the delicate chronicle of the bonding of a new surrogate family with scathing detail of the hellish cycles of bureaucracy designed to strip Daniel and Katie of their humanity when they most need a leg up. In trademark fashion, he provides a soaring moment of hope when the underdog finds that he is not alone. DCP digital. (BS)
The Girl Without Hands
La Jeune Fille sans mains
2016, Sébastien Laudenbach, France, 76 min.
“Exquisite artistry…reminiscent of certain Japanese prints and the work of French artists like Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard.” — Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 11th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 11th 6:00pm
- Sat, Aug 12th 8:15pm
- Sun, Aug 13th 3:00pm
- Mon, Aug 14th 6:00pm
- Tue, Aug 15th 7:45pm
- Wed, Aug 16th 6:00pm
- Thu, Aug 17th 7:45pm
A dark Faustian tale by the Brothers Grimm is the source material for this exquisitely drawn animation rendered in a style both minimalist and paradoxically delicate and bright with evocative swaths of watercolor shading. In a kingdom far away, a desperate miller makes a bargain with the devil and unwittingly promises his little daughter to the fiend after a drought stills his mill wheel. The millstream gushes with liquid gold, and Satan returns after a few years to claim the young virgin, who repulses him with her purity. A father’s rage, a devil’s vengeance, and star-crossed love for a handsome prince figure in a heart-rending three-part odyssey toward redemption. The film premiered in the ACID section at Cannes, was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the César Awards, won both the Jury Prize and the award for Best French Film at the Annecy Animation Festival, and Best Director at the Tokyo Anime Awards. Note: This film may not be suitable for children younger than teens; parental discretion is advised. In French with English subtitles. DCP digital. (BS)
Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All
2017, John Griesser, Jean Griesser, and Lauren Ross, USA, 90 min.
"A fittingly devotional tribute...the film effectively summons an evocative moment in time." — Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times
"An artfully crafted, seamless, multimedia medley." — Sam Slovick, LA Yoga
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 11th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 11th 7:45pm
- Sat, Aug 12th 6:30pm
- Sun, Aug 13th 4:45pm
- Mon, Aug 14th 7:45pm
- Tue, Aug 15th 6:00pm
- Wed, Aug 16th 7:45pm
- Thu, Aug 17th 6:00pm
In 1965, 70-year-old Srila Prabhupada arrived in New York City on a cargo ship, short on cash, contacts, or even suitable clothing for the harsh winter. This authorized documentary tells the amazing story of how Prabhupada, by the time of his death in 1977, had propagated a worldwide Krishna Consciousness movement with millions of followers. Included in this wide-ranging account are Prabhupada's early life as a pharmacist and family man; the mandate from his guru to begin a revolution against materialism in the West; the movement's humble beginnings in an East Village walk-up apartment; its intersection with the burgeoning counterculture to become the "hippie religion;" and its growth as a cultural phenomenon that was satirized, analyzed, and denounced, while attracting such high-profile advocates as Allen Ginsberg, George Harrison, and Boy George. DCP digital. (MR)
From The Land of the Moon
Mal de pierres
2016, Nicole Garcia, France/Belgium/Canada, 120 min. With Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel.
“It looks a treat from the sparkling azure seas to the sprawling fields of lavender and the clouds that circle the Alpine peaks…incurable romantics should happily surrender to its allure.” — Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
“Literally a tale of amour fou — loving the ideal of love…a surprisingly intriguing and affecting movie.” — Geoff Andrew, Time Out London
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 18th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 18th 6:00pm
- Sat, Aug 19th 8:00pm
- Sun, Aug 20th 4:30pm
- Mon, Aug 21st 7:45pm
- Tue, Aug 22nd 6:00pm
- Wed, Aug 23rd 7:45pm
- Thu, Aug 24th 6:00pm
Marion Cotillard (LA VIE EN ROSE; TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT) gives a thoughtful and affecting performance covering seventeen years in the life of a woman whose passion to find a grand love defies the social norms of her time. In this story based on the novel by Italian writer Milana Agus and related largely in flashback, Gabrielle (Cotillard), a village girl in the south of France, is quickly married off to a willing Spanish farm worker after she disgraces her family. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a patient man, she is sent to a Swiss sanitarium for a rest cure, where she falls for the wan and tousled Lt. André Sauvage (Garrel), a severely wounded veteran of the war in Indochina. Gabrielle’s obsession with grand love is seemingly justified at last, but the dream may prove to be a cruel illusion. In French, Spanish, and German with English subtitles. DCP digital widescreen. (BS)
“Enjoyable but also profound…Ms. Dorfman emerges as an artist of deep compassion, empathy, humor and wisdom.” — Glenn Kenny, The New York Times
"So vast, so bittersweet and so kind and giving, a brilliantly casual portrait." — Ray Pride, Newcity
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 18th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 18th 8:15pm
- Sat, Aug 19th 6:30pm
- Sun, Aug 20th 3:00pm
- Mon, Aug 21st 6:00pm
- Tue, Aug 22nd 8:15pm
- Wed, Aug 23rd 6:00pm
- Thu, Aug 24th 8:15pm
Best-known for probing famous and notorious subjects with his straight-in-the-eye Interrotron camera set-up, seminal documentarian Morris (THE THIN BLUE LINE, THE FOG OF WAR) takes a more casual approach in this affectionate portrait of his friend and Cambridge neighbor, photographer Elsa Dorfman. Self-described as “a lucky little Jewish girl,” Dorfman discovered photography at age 28 and produced memorable black-and-white images of such literary and musical luminaries as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Audre Lorde, Jorge Luis Borges, and longtime friend Allen Ginsberg. In 1980, she gained access to one of Polaroid’s massive 20x24 color cameras, which she used for life-sized portraits of non-famous people who commissioned her to record birthdays, anniversaries, births, and family portraits. The expense of the process limited Dorfman to two exposures of each subject; the client would choose one, and the other would remain in her files as a “B-side.” Most of the film is set in Dorfman’s garage/studio/archive as she relates the stories behind her B-sides, mixing autobiography with down-to-earth insights on photography’s relationship to time and memory. DCP digital widescreen. (MR)
“One of the most beautiful and life-affirming and uplifting movies of the year…Hawkins never overplays it. She’s simply great.” — Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“The film glows with the kind of sweetness last seen in John Crowley’s BROOKLYN. All it asks of you is an open heart.” — Tomris Laffly, Time Out New York
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 25th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 25th 6:00pm
- Sat, Aug 26th 8:15pm
- Sun, Aug 27th 3:00pm
- Mon, Aug 28th 7:45pm
- Tue, Aug 29th 6:00pm
- Wed, Aug 30th 7:45pm
- Thu, Aug 31st 6:00pm
Sally Hawkins (HAPPY GO LUCKY) is being touted as an Oscar candidate for her performance in this fact-based drama that relates a moving tale of artistic and emotional awakening while minimizing sentimentality. She plays Maud Lewis, a self-taught painter from a remote village in Nova Scotia who overcame poverty, isolation, and physical disabilities to become one of Canada’s most beloved folk artists. The film centers less on her artistic triumphs than on her difficult relationship with her husband Everett (Hawke), a brutish, taciturn fishmonger who hires her as his maid before grudgingly marrying her. There are no miraculous breakthroughs in Irishwoman Walsh’s film, just a carefully observed process of perseverance and small advances that builds to a convincing, hard-earned emotional payoff. DCP digital widescreen. (MR)
The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis
La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis
2016, Francisco Márquez and Andrea Testa, Argentina, 78 min. With Diego Velázquez, Laura Paredes.
“A dark journey of the soul…one of the more understated and yet compelling evocations of life under the junta.” — Jay Weissberg, Variety
“Keep[s] the viewer claustrophobically locked in Francisco’s experience of the city, a labyrinth of shadow in which any number of threats lurk just off camera.” — Erin Delaney, Film Comment
Showtimes:
- Fri, Aug 25th 2:00pm
- Fri, Aug 25th 8:15pm
- Sat, Aug 26th 6:30pm
- Sun, Aug 27th 5:15pm
- Mon, Aug 28th 6:00pm
- Tue, Aug 29th 8:15pm
- Wed, Aug 30th 6:00pm
- Thu, Aug 31st 8:15pm
Set in 1977 Buenos Aires under Argentina’s military regime, this low-key but suspenseful thriller makes a middle-aged apolitical office worker the reluctant messenger in a precarious plot to prevent the political kidnapping of two strangers. Francisco (Velázquez), a sad-faced family man, receives a call from a woman he knew in college, with a seemingly benign request to publish his student poem. Directors Márquez and Testa keep the story simmering just below the surface, floating subtle suggestions of humor even as they trigger unease and launch the threat that forces Francisco into a life-and-death odyssey that evolves in the dark empty streets just blocks from his home. In Spanish with English subtitles. DCP digital widescreen. (BS)
“A psychological study in erotic obsession…the sex is much more explicit than in the [Visconti] film, and the two lead actors go at it with a vengeance.” — Michael Billington, Guardian
“Law smolders…that manly-boyish, angel-devil aura, which makes you follow him, fixate on his every restless, prowling move.” — Dominic Cavendish, Telegraph
Gino is a drifter, down-at-heel and magnetically handsome. At a roadside restaurant he encounters husband and wife, Giuseppe and Giovanna. Irresistibly attracted to each other, Gino and Giovanna begin a fiery affair and plot to murder her husband. But in this chilling tale of passion and destruction, the crime only serves to tear them apart. Ivo van Hove (NT Live's A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, HEDDA GABLER) directs this new stage adaptation of Luchino Visconti’s 1943 film, starring Jude Law (THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, "The Young Pope"). DCP Digital. (Description courtesy of NT Live)
SPECIAL PRICES: $14 GENERAL • $8 MEMBERS /STUDENTS
Please note that our normal matinee discount prices will not apply at 2:00 pm matinees of these special screenings.