LILI

Saturday, August 23, 2:15 p.m. | Five years before GIGI, Leslie Caron starred as Lili, a happy-go-lucky French lass surrounded by lecherous men (and impressively crafted puppets) in Charles Walters’s largely forgotten, winsomely kooky MGM musical. Lili doggedly pursues a manipulative magician (Mel Ferrer), eventually lands a decent job at the carnival, and finds her niche in the troupe after her colleagues discover her earnestly conversing with the puppets as though they’re her friends (she cares quite deeply for them). Screenwriter Helen Deutsch was nominated for an Academy Award for her script; she later pitched the concept to Broadway, where it became the stage musical Carnival! (Rocío Irizarry Nuñez)

Awards & Nominations

Nominee - Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Leslie Caron), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Score, Academy Awards
Winner - Best Foreign Actress (Leslie Caron) - BAFTA Awards

Technicolor Weekend | August 22–24, 2025

The Chicago Film Society returns for its third iteration of Technicolor Weekend, a series which showcases prints made using the Technicolor printing process. All of the films in this series will be projected from prints that were at one point or another saved by private collectors. They were intended to last only through their initial runs, but instead have endured hundreds of screenings, studio mergers, film exchange closures, and multiple private owners. These unlikely survivors offer us a view of what these films looked like before digital color correction and other modern restoration techniques, and are stunning examples of an incredibly complex industrial process that delighted millions. Synopses courtesy of Chicago Film Society. Learn more 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