Movies

European Union Film Festival

March 6, 2008

The 11th European Union Film Festival runs Friday, March 7, through Thursday, April 3, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312-846-2800. Tickets are $9, $7 for students, and $5 for Film Center members. Following are selected films screening through Thursday, March 13; for a full festival schedule visit siskelfilmcenter.com.

Battle for Haditha The killing of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. marines in November 2005 is still so clouded by cover-up that the last thing anyone needs now is an improvised drama about the tragedy by UK gonzo documentarian Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac, Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam). Shot in Jordan with a mix of professional actors, ex-soldiers, and Iraqi war victims, the movie presents a relatively balanced view of the incident, portraying it as a massacre while noting the stress level of the soldiers and the role of insurgents in sparking the bloodshed. But Broomfield, whose celebrity exposés are known for their intrusiveness and innuendo, lost me with his gentle shower scene between an Iraqi woman and her husband; even if it wasn’t invented, is it really any of our business? In English and subtitled Arabic. 93 min. (JJ) a Sat 3/8, 7 PM, and Mon 3/10, 6 PM.

Boarding Gate Key scenes in this corporate thriller by Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, Irma Vep) play out in French or Cantonese, untranslated in the press screener, so I could have missed a few layers of deception and betrayal. But as in Demonlover, the puzzle-box plot matters less than Assayas’s cool mix of elegant imagery and creeping mistrust. The most ngrossing scenes, both dominated by the bluish translucence of plate glass, are extended, feline duels between Michael Madsen as a global entrepreneur who’s going down the tubes and Asia Argento as the kinky mistress he once pimped out to his clients. The maniacal new-media scheming of Demonlover is replaced here by a more run-of-the-mill intrigue involving heroin smuggling, though both lead to the same welter of double crosses. With Carl Ng, Kelly Lin, and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. R, 106 min. (JJ) Sat 3/8, 9 PM, and Wed 3/12, 8 PM.

Import Export In this 2007 drama, Austrian despair monger Ulrich Seidl (Dog Days, Jesus, You Know) cuts between two tales of young adults sinking deeper into the tar pit of poverty. The “import” is a tenderhearted Ukrainian nurse (Ekateryna Rak) who arrives in Vienna looking for decent-paying work but winds up cleaning a geriatric ward. (The gumming, gibbering patients are all real, and presumably worked for scale.) The “export” is an unemployed Viennese youth (Paul Hofmann) who suffers various indignities while accompanying his filthy-minded stepfather on a trip to install vending machines in the Ukraine. Seidl’s drab, straight-ahead long shots have a narcotic pull that keeps this absorbing throughout its 135 minutes, but the final image—a bedridden crone mindlessly chirping, “Death! Death! Death!”—is typical of the movie’s knee-jerk grimness. In English and subtitled German, Russian, and Slovak. (JJ) Sat 3/8, 2:30 PM.

Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun A cranky Danish recluse with spiritual leanings turns his moldering estate into a sanctuary for an order of Russian Orthodox nuns in Pernille Rose Gronkjaer’s atmospheric 2007 documentary. Filmed over the course of six years, it’s an affectionate portrait of a complex man, well-intentioned and oddly generous despite his wariness and phobias. Sparks fly when the flinty octogenarian meets Moscow’s envoy, the strong-willed Sister Amvrosya. Think Lilies of the Field in a Scandinavian setting for a notion of how Gronkjaer balances the humorous and the inspirational. In English and subtitled Danish and Russian. 84 min. (AG) Fri 3/7, 6:15 PM, and Tue 3/11, 8:15 PM.

Priceless A relentless gold digger (Audrey Tautou of Amelie) mistakes a hapless hotel barman (Gad Elmaleh of The Valet) for a swell, and by the time she realizes her error, he’s hooked. Bankrupted by her demands, he eventually becomes a gold digger himself, mooching off a wealthy middle-aged woman, and the young lovers’ exploitative relationship warms into conspiratorial intimacy as they compare notes. Like Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, this cynical 2006 French farce by Pierre Salvadori (Apres Vous) traces a romance that’s both fostered and constrained by the lovers’ moral compromises. The outcome is never much in doubt, but Salvadori artfully choreographs the endless table turning, and the Moroccan-born Elmaleh capitalizes on his striking resemblance to Buster Keaton with a similarly comic composure. In French with subtitles. PG-13, 104 min. (JJ) Sun 3/9, 3 PM.

ALSO SCREENING

The Art of Crying Sun 3/9, 5:15 PM, and Thu 3/13, 6 PM.

The Dark Deer Sat 3/8, 9 PM, and Thu 3/13, 8:15 PM.

Estrellita Fri 3/7, 7 PM, and Sun 3/9, 3:15 PM.

How to Cook Your Life Sat 3/8, 5 PM, and Wed 3/12, 6 PM.

It Happened Just Before Mon 3/10, 6:15 PM.

Kicks Sat 3/8, 2:45 PM, and Mon 3/10, 8 PM.

Sugartown: The Bridegrooms Fri 3/7, 8 PM, and Tue 3/11, 8:30 PM.

The Way I Spent the End of the World Sat 3/8, 7 PM, and Thu 3/13, 6 PM.

The Wedding Director Sat 3/8, 5 PM, and Mon 3/10, 7:45 PM.

Whisper of Sin Sun 3/9, 5 PM, and Tue 3/11, 6:15 PM.

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