Film
Thursday, May 23, 2013
LGBT Film Talking to founder Brenda Webb about new plans for the city's LGBT film festival
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.23.13 at 01:38 PM
I spoke with Webb yesterday about Reeling's evolution. She was enthusiastic about the future of the festival but remained realistic about the challenges it faces. "It's become really tough for independent filmmakers," she said. "A lot of the old model—launching your movie at a film festival, getting a distributor, getting a theatrical run, going to DVD—has changed. . . . In terms of LGBT films, festivals around the world have come to be seen as the main theatrical opportunity; there are fewer and fewer opportunities to get a theatrical run. That changes the nature of a festival from exposing work to supporting work.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Books On Video Arts Booze Film History Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby is not the first movie to insult F. Scott Fitzgerald
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.22.13 at 01:24 PM
Seriously? Film Zardoz has spoken, and your penis may never be the same
Posted by J.R. Jones on 05.22.13 at 06:47 AM
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Do This Film Music Black Cinema House has The Blues—and more—this Friday
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.21.13 at 04:10 PM
Speaking of Chicago Film Archives, a week from tonight the organization will present another free outdoor screening, this one on the lawn next to Logan Square's Comfort Station. The movie will be Burden of Dreams, a documentary about the infamous production of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo by the recently deceased filmmaker Les Blank. (And speaking of Fitzcarraldo, that movie screens a week from tomorrow in Doc Films's ongoing Herzog series.) It'll be projected from a 16-millimeter print from the Chicago Public Library's collection.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Film Politics News Remembering Chicago's great school boycott of 1963
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 05.20.13 at 03:27 PM
That could be a headline ripped from today's pages, as students join parents and teachers to protest Mayor Emanuel's decision to close 54 public schools.
But in this case the protesting students were teenagers from 1963, and the mayor was Richard J. Daley.
They were protesting the segregation policy of cramming hundreds of students from city's then-burgeoning black population into rickety trailers rather than putting them in white schools with plenty of room.
Most of the protests were directed at school superintendent Benjamin Willis—the trailers were nicknamed Willis Wagons—but the power behind Willis was the first Mayor Daley.
In that regard nothing except the name has changed in 50 years. Today's CPS officials and board members are rubber stamps for Mayor Emanuel.
The Internet Moviegoing Film Small Screen The mixed blessing of watching movies online
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.20.13 at 02:36 PM
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Weekly Top Five Film Weekly Top Five: Joseph Lewis and the B movie swamp
Posted by Drew Hunt on 05.19.13 at 02:00 PM
Gun Crazy is obviously his foremost masterwork—Dave Kehr eloquently called it "One of the most distinguished works of art to emerge from the B movie swamp"—but his filmography features many exuberant and highly personal films. You can catch my five favorite after the jump.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Behind Our Scenes Opening Film An interview with Dan Sallitt, director of The Unspeakable Act
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.17.13 at 01:05 PM
Opening Film Incest, adultery, and the rest of this week's screenings
Posted by J.R. Jones on 05.17.13 at 07:36 AM
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Crime Opening Film The Iceman: A true-crime story in shorthand
Posted by Ben Sachs on 05.16.13 at 10:47 AM
I thought about this while watching a new movie called The Iceman, which opens commercially tomorrow. In it people utter the word "porn" during two scenes, one set in the mid-60s and the other in mid-70s; at both points it sticks out like a sore thumb. In the first instance it's spoken by Ray Liotta, who plays the New Jersey mobster who hires Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) as his hit man. When they first meet, Kuklinski copies hard-core movies for a living, leading Liotta to sneer, "How long you been dubbing porn?" I suppose it's not implausible that in 1964 the sleazeballs who profited off stag reels were so familiar with their product that they'd employ this blase term. But where would they pick it up? Wouldn't they be used to saying "stag reels" or "blue movies" (or some other such euphemism) like everyone else?
