Autumn comes to Chicago, and with it the Chicago International Film Festival, whose schedule was released late last week.
As always, it's nearly impossible to navigate their website and the only way to really figure out what's going on is to have the handy paper copy. Luckily, I procured such a copy on Saturday, and while I don't have a finalized schedule yet, some of the more prominent releases (in my mind):
-The North American premiere of the omnibus feature Paris, je t'aime, easily the most exciting film at the festival for viewers of a certain temperment (mine). And yet some people are unaware of its very existence! So here's the short version: 20 filmmakers are producing 20 short love stories set in each of the arrondissements of Paris. Which is dull. The exciting part is the list of filmmakers involved, including Alfonso Cuarón, Joel & Ethan Coen, Walter Salles, Olivier Assayas, Sylvain Chomet, Tom Tykwer and so forth. Or click here.
-Manoel de Oliveira's sequel to a Luis Buñuel film.
-The newest films by Kim Ki-Duk and Matthias Glasner, neither of them with a scheduled US release.
-Renaissance, the gorgeous looking French animated film whose "limited release" consists of one theater on either coast.
-And the traditional batch of movies that will get American release within a month or two of the festival: John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, Stephen Frears' The Queen, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.
I'll be seeing and reviewing a healthy number of films (last year was 12 I believe, and I'm looking to top that), if anyone has a recommendation, let me know in comments.
25 September 2006
6 comments:
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Hooray for the triple post! Also, will Renaissance be anything like Triplets?
ReplyDeletedo you know if the AMC East screening of Renaissance is going to be on a digital projection screen? That would look fantastic, I'd wager. Shi gan and Paris, je t'aime also look really interesting.
ReplyDeleteWill you be seeing Shortbus?
ReplyDeleteI'm dying to see The Fountain. I saw a trailer for Renaissance at Comic Con, and it looked interesting.
As for your blog, I see nothing and then too many (though, apparently, I'm not alone when there are too many).
i think you should definitely see Shortbus. i know this woman back home who went to NU with John Cameron Mitchell, and they are friends, and she saw it a few months ago and said it was great.
ReplyDeleteand please, please, please go see The Bridge. I bet Jack will go with you, he expressed interest after i saw it.
i would also see Iraq in Fragments, which I missed at the SF Film Festival. it was shot on a DVX100 and is supposed to be amazingly beautiful, as well as very powerful.
Taa-daa, only one now.
ReplyDeleteI hate Blogger so much.
I hate Blogger so much.
I hate Blogger so goddamn much.
Kinda looked through the listings for some of the Asian countries 'cos there's a higher possibility of me actually having seen those.
ReplyDeleteChina: Haven't seen a single one, although "Jasmine Flowers" has played in Singapore. I will probably see "Little Red Flowers" when it opens, because my friend fell in love with the trailer (which is interesting at best and manipulative at worst).
Hong Kong: I'd say a Yes to "Triad Election", but find some way to watch Johnny To's first "Election" film to get some sense of background. The two films are different in tone though, so don't go in expecting more of the same.
South Korea:
I've seen a couple, although I wouldn't hugely recommend any one of them. "The Host" is a decent monster movie that delves more into a family's relationship than most flicks of the nature, but it somehow leaves me feeling hollow.
"The King and the Clown" starts off pretty promisingly, with above average (for mainstream flicks) direction and plotting. But it all devolves in the third act into an overlong, melodramatic finale.
I've heard good things about "The Unforgiven", which is worth watching for the very fact that it's a student film made good. I managed to miss it during its run though.
And of course any film by Kim Ki-Duk is worth your time.
Thailand: "Invisible Waves" is a masturbatory movie that goes nowhere and is shot by Christopher Doyle. I'd say watch it if you were a big fan, but otherwise give it a pass. It's not that pretty anyway.
That's pretty much it. Haven't heard of anything else.