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(11/03/00 5:00am)
In the strobe-lit, mirror-endowed empty corner of a discotheque, the pieces of a man's existence crash to the ground one by one in the calculated chaos of his dance moves that accompany Corona's techno-pop work "Rhythm of the Night." All the stagnant conformity of the French Foreign Legion life he has led has been peeled away to reveal the inner insanity of his loneliness. \nThe writhing man, Galoup (superbly performed by Leos Carax-regular Denis Lavant), was Chief Master Sergeant of a group of French Foreign Legionnaires posted in the African locale of Djibouti. Now he is just another man. But this sequence, which serves up the concluding images of Claire Denis' "Beau travail," is not just any scene; it is a grand representation of man alone from a film that stands out as a rare example of pure cinematic verse. \nGaloup's descent into this madness begins with the arrival of a new legionnaire Sentain (Gregoire Colin). Sentain is a model of prime masculinity; he is handsome, youthful, tall and honorable (he saves a fellow legionnaire's life). All of these traits tower over the small, aging and scar-faced Galoup, especially Sentain's valor, which has, at least in the mind of Galoup, caught the eye of Commander Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor). Galoup cannot accept such favoritism, with Forestier serving as a pseudo father, resulting in Galoup's attempt and failure to destroy Sentain.\n"Beau travail" is a film about realities, especially the realities of the legionnaires, Galoup and cinema itself. The grind of the army is transformed into body poetry by Denis and choreographer Bernardo Montet, who show the legion offering their bodies to the sun, spider-walking underneath wire and violently hugging one another.\nGaloup does not accept this sensual reality anymore, though, as he terrorizes himself about a conflict with Sentain that has no actual concrete backing in the movie's consciousness. Even the two confrontations that Galoup and Sentain have -- one with them circling around each other\naccompanied by a piece from Benjamin Britten's opera "Billy Budd" (Denis also casually based the film on the Herman Melville work) and the other in which Sentain punches Galoup in slow motion -- are coated with a subconscious, dream-like sheen.\nIn fact, "Beau travail" is essentially an elliptical cinematic fever-dream composed of lushly photographed tableaux (shot by cinematographer Agnes Godard) and minimal dialogue that form a non-linear narrative. This opens the door for multiple interpretations of "Beau travail," a piece of celluloid with rhyme and meter unlike any other film in 2000.
(11/03/00 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton would have successfully survived up until this point in cinema, it is easy to think this is what they would have created. Arguably Jacques Tati's ("Mr. Hulot's Holiday") masterpiece, "Playtime" transports Monsieur Hulot (Tati himself) through the chaotic reality of a French metropolis as he attempts to keep an appointment.
(11/03/00 5:00am)
In the strobe-lit, mirror-endowed empty corner of a discotheque, the pieces of a man\'s existence crash to the ground one by one in the calculated chaos of his dance moves that accompany Corona\'s techno-pop work \"Rhythm of the Night.\" All the stagnant conformity of the French Foreign Legion life he has led has been peeled away to reveal the inner insanity of his loneliness. The writhing man, Galoup (superbly performed by Leos Carax-regular Denis Lavant), was Chief Master Sergeant of a group of French Foreign Legionnaires posted in the African locale of Djibouti. Now he is just another man. But this sequence, which serves up the concluding images of Claire Denis\' \"Beau travail,\" is not just any scene; it is a grand representation of man alone from a film that stands out as a rare example of pure cinematic verse. Galoup\'s descent into this madness begins with the arrival of a new legionnaire Sentain (Gregoire Colin). Sentain is a model of prime masculinity; he is handsome, youthful, tall and honorable (he saves a fellow legionnaire\'s life). All of these traits tower over the small, aging and scar-faced Galoup, especially Sentain\'s valor, which has, at least in the mind of Galoup, caught the eye of Commander Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor). Galoup cannot accept such favoritism, with Forestier serving as a pseudo father, resulting in Galoup\'s attempt and failure to destroy Sentain.\n\"Beau travail\" is a film about realities, especially the realities of the legionnaires, Galoup and cinema itself. The grind of the army is transformed into body poetry by Denis and choreographer Bernardo Montet, who show the legion offering their bodies to the sun, spider-walking underneath wire and violently hugging one another.\nGaloup does not accept this sensual reality anymore, though, as he terrorizes himself about a conflict with Sentain that has no actual concrete backing in the movie\'s consciousness. Even the two confrontations that Galoup and Sentain have -- one with them circling around each other\naccompanied by a piece from Benjamin Britten\'s opera \"Billy Budd\" (Denis also casually based the film on the Herman Melville work) and the other in which Sentain punches Galoup in slow motion -- are coated with a subconscious, dream-like sheen.\nIn fact, \"Beau travail\" is essentially an elliptical cinematic fever-dream composed of lushly photographed tableaux (shot by cinematographer Agnes Godard) and minimal dialogue that form a non-linear narrative. This opens the door for multiple interpretations of \"Beau travail,\" a piece of celluloid with rhyme and meter unlike any other film in 2000.
(11/03/00 3:35am)
In the strobe-lit, mirror-endowed empty corner of a discotheque, the pieces of a man's existence crash to the ground one by one in the calculated chaos of his dance moves that accompany Corona's techno-pop work "Rhythm of the Night." All the stagnant conformity of the French Foreign Legion life he has led has been peeled away to reveal the inner insanity of his loneliness. \nThe writhing man, Galoup (superbly performed by Leos Carax-regular Denis Lavant), was Chief Master Sergeant of a group of French Foreign Legionnaires posted in the African locale of Djibouti. Now he is just another man. But this sequence, which serves up the concluding images of Claire Denis' "Beau travail," is not just any scene; it is a grand representation of man alone from a film that stands out as a rare example of pure cinematic verse. \nGaloup's descent into this madness begins with the arrival of a new legionnaire Sentain (Gregoire Colin). Sentain is a model of prime masculinity; he is handsome, youthful, tall and honorable (he saves a fellow legionnaire's life). All of these traits tower over the small, aging and scar-faced Galoup, especially Sentain's valor, which has, at least in the mind of Galoup, caught the eye of Commander Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor). Galoup cannot accept such favoritism, with Forestier serving as a pseudo father, resulting in Galoup's attempt and failure to destroy Sentain.\n"Beau travail" is a film about realities, especially the realities of the legionnaires, Galoup and cinema itself. The grind of the army is transformed into body poetry by Denis and choreographer Bernardo Montet, who show the legion offering their bodies to the sun, spider-walking underneath wire and violently hugging one another.\nGaloup does not accept this sensual reality anymore, though, as he terrorizes himself about a conflict with Sentain that has no actual concrete backing in the movie's consciousness. Even the two confrontations that Galoup and Sentain have -- one with them circling around each other\naccompanied by a piece from Benjamin Britten's opera "Billy Budd" (Denis also casually based the film on the Herman Melville work) and the other in which Sentain punches Galoup in slow motion -- are coated with a subconscious, dream-like sheen.\nIn fact, "Beau travail" is essentially an elliptical cinematic fever-dream composed of lushly photographed tableaux (shot by cinematographer Agnes Godard) and minimal dialogue that form a non-linear narrative. This opens the door for multiple interpretations of "Beau travail," a piece of celluloid with rhyme and meter unlike any other film in 2000.
(10/31/00 3:50pm)
Last year was a superb year for celluloid. The only problem is that one of the best films of 1999, if not the decade, was often misjudged and even ignored overall at awards time. The movie in question, "Eyes Wide Shut," deserves a second look, especially in lieu of the lauding of overrated '99 works such as "American Beauty," "Being John Malkovich" and "Three Kings," and the fact that 2000 is the most forgettable year for film in more than a decade. \nAlthough Stanley Kubrick's career only spanned 13 major films, he is arguably the auteur with the most diverse oeuvre to ever come out of America. From "Dr. Strangelove's" black comedy to the solemn drama of "Paths of Glory;" from the garish history of "Barry Lyndon" to the future's technological breadth in "2001: A Space Odyssey," Kubrick screened film's wildest possibilities. Although it is essentially an incomplete work, "Eyes Wide Shut" projects Kubrick's cinematic intellect in its most realized and refined form since "2001."\nThe title alone should be marveled at for its mysterious knowledge of matters that Kubrick himself could have never fully anticipated. Other than relating to the main character -- Dr. Bill Harford -- and his naivete in love matters, the words "eyes wide shut" carry more connotations. \nOne is the fact many critics and audiences decided to keep their eyes and minds locked up when viewing the film. Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman obviously paid little attention to the movie because he went as far as to say that "Eyes Wide Shut" is nothing more than "a series of haphazard revelations that come to very little." \nViewers could be much harsher. Their misunderstanding of the film led to laughing at inappropriate moments, the unleashing of agonizing sighs and even allowing stupidity to get the best of them. At one showing in Whittenberger Auditorium, a viewer occasionally used a pen light to point out the female anatomy to the rest of the theater.\nThe second and much more disturbing reality of the title is that it refers to Kubrick himself. His eyes were shut for eternity March 8, 1999, three months before the film opened. Ever the obsessive-compulsive with such matters, he could not complete the film's sound looping and overall editing. \nSo no matter what, the version of "Eyes Wide Shut" that cinema is left with is not wholly Kubrick's vision. And other than the much-publicized, mortifying addition of digital figures to cover up some of the orgy scene's naughty bits, Warner Brothers further visibly detached "Eyes Wide Shut" from the hands of Kubrick. The studio did this by altering the film in its video form by digitally removing a soundman who was accidentally reflected in Victor Ziegler's bathroom and by cleaning up the cut from the fade-out after the "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" lovemaking scene.\nEven with the tampering, being unfinished is actually an asset for "Eyes Wide Shut." It adds a facet to the movie's overall dream state, where the realities of relationships and the fears of masculinity coalesce to form Kubrick's second greatest treatise on the male human (the best being "2001").\nAs important as it is to the understanding of the film, the dream concept of "Eyes Wide Shut" is one that eludes most viewers. It actually originates in the English title of the novel that "Eyes Wide Shut" is based on -- Sigmund Freud-admirer Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 work "Dream Story," "Traumnovelle" in its original German. \nFrom the first image onward, the whole of "Eyes Wide Shut" seems more like a masculine nightmare than just a simple piece of rapid eye movement-induced storytelling. The first shot shows Alice Harford (Nicole Kidman) turned away from the camera while she drops her elegant black dress to the floor, revealing Kidman's bare backside. The moment is brief and could almost be considered subliminal, planting a craving into the male viewer's mind to see the rest of Kidman.\nThis is essentially what Alice's husband, Bill (Tom Cruise), wants throughout the entire movie -- the ability to not just see, but be with the entire woman who he believed to be his soulmate up until the second night in the continuity of "Eyes Wide Shut." During this second eve, Alice unravels the truth of her mental infidelity with a naval officer, leading Bill to query everything about the truth of his love. \nThis triggers Bill's descent into the dream-world of his subconscious' greatest fears -- that the woman he cherishes has figuratively left him forever, leading him to wonder about his own sexual identity.\nBill's search for Alice yields love from a woman he barely knows, a moment with a prostitute (the kiss they share is one of Kubrick's most delicately composed shots), a whisper from a scantily-clad teen and a fascination with the one masked woman at the orgy who seems to care about him. (The book even suggests that when he visits this woman's corpse in the morgue, he half-expects her to be Alice). There is also the question of Bill's sexuality, with three different references to homosexuality made -- the college boys' taunting, the usage of the word "rainbow" in the name of the costume shop and the hotel clerk (played to uproarious perfection by Alan Cumming).\nKubrick intersperses connections between scenes to give the film a true dream-like state. Bill's model acquaintances ask if he wants "to go to where the rainbow ends," with the rain-induced anomaly later appearing in "Rainbow Fashions," while a mask similar to those worn at the orgy appears on one of Lou Nathanson's tables. There also is a haunting relationship correlation between Lou's dead body and his bed and the dying figure of Dave and his bed in "2001," stretching "Eyes Wide Shut's" dream-state into the mind of Kubrick. This is intensified even further by the fact that Lou looks similar to Kubrick himself, who died as unexpectedly as Lou.\nThe most profound association in "Eyes Wide Shut" is shared with the reality outside the cinematic medium. Since the viewer knows Cruise and Kidman are married before entering into the film's world, it is taken for granted that their relationship in the film is real. This oftentimes leads the viewer to assume that everything the Harfords participate in takes place within the realistic context of the film rather than in the realm of the fantastic. \nThe viewer's belief makes the jobs of Cruise and Kidman all the more difficult and their outstanding acting all the more remarkable. Cruise has become contemporary Hollywood's ultimate multidimensional man with his ability to be ultra-masculine in films like "Top Gun" and "Mission Impossible" while also portraying the male identity crisis in perfect fashion in "Born on he Fourth of July" and "Magnolia." \nSo, it is no surprise to see the pain and frustration of Bill flow so effortlessly through Cruise's every gesture and line delivery. Kidman, on the other hand, has rarely hinted at greatness (with the lone exception being "To Die For") and gives a most unexpected bravura performance. Her defining moment is the adulterous revelation, with her transition from laughter to seriousness being one of the most natural in the history of cinema.\nKubrick found little hope in the male existence, which is so masterfully evident in "Eyes Wide Shut." Just as Leonore frees her husband from jail while in her male disguise as Fidelio in Beethoven's opera of the same name (which is directly referenced in the film as the orgy password), Bill wishes Alice would finally show her face and unshackle him from his sexual identity crisis and return their relationship to the happy medium it was resting at at the film's beginning. When she finally does face Bill up-close at the movie's finale, she keeps his frustrations locked up by saying one of the most base sexual acts is the answer to their problems.\nThis is Kubrick showing man trapped once more, a la Jack and his axe-wielding obsession in "The Shining" and the ultimate Kubrickian statement: man running in an endless, lonely circle, like a rat trapped in its cage, in "2001." As Kubrick's celluloid dying words, "Eyes Wide Shut" gives male insecurities its last look at full cinematic understanding for probably quite some time, if not forever, even if Alice does not care for this infinite term.
(10/27/00 4:16am)
The current Bloomington incarnation of Federico Garcia Lorca's final play, "The House of Bernarda Alba," will come to a close this weekend at the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium. \nBut it will not soon leave the mind of the productions' director, Nasrin Hekmat-Farrokh.\nHekmat-Farrokh, a continuing student seeking a degree in opera directing, has never directed theatre before in Bloomington, although she has directed a few operas, including "Waiting for Godot." \nStill, she has experience, having directed theatre elsewhere, including Ohio, Belgium and Iran. In these latter two locales, she has brought the harrowing psychological terrain of "The House of Bernarda Alba" to life.\nThe play, the last Lorca produced before his brutal killing at the hands of Franco's falangists, details the existences of five young women in black garb, imprisoned by Bernarda Alba (Breshaun Bierne-Joyner). Their only contact with the outside world comes from the sights caught through a barred window and the songs of young men returning from their daily chores.\nHekmat-Farrokh's recurring interest in the Lorca work comes from his interest in all oppressed peoples.\n"(Lorca) was always for the freedom of minorities: Jews, Gypsies, women and homosexuals," she said. "And also at that time there was great poverty in Spain and he was very much against it, the class system and the differences of wealth.\n"The play (is) about the repression of women imprisoned in this house and symbolically the oppression of any society of man."\nAlthough it features such content, "The House of Bernarda Alba" is not a political work in the eyes of Hekmat-Farrokh.\n"The play is not a political play even though it's about freedom because he is such a great dramatist that he brings it about in a dramatic way because there is no propaganda ... ," she said.\nShe finds that this Lorca work is closer to another of his passions, poetry.\n"He uses poetry in a dramatic way," she said. "His prose has this vein of poetry in it."\nOne of the ways that Hekmat-Farrokh emphasizes the work's poetry is through music. \nAtanas Tzvetkov, a doctoral student, provides a stringed outlet for the women's woes. Dennis Meckler, a music school graduate, also composed music specifically for the play's opening nightmare sequence, a sequence that Hekmat-Farrokh added to reveal the future transformation of Adela (senior Heather Winter). Dancers move about in this dream sequence as well, furthering the poetic construct. \nThe poetic "The House of Bernarda Alba" is very similar to Samuel Beckett's absurdist "Waiting for Godot" in the eyes of Hekmat-Farrokh. "The women in this house are repressed and they have this ridiculous life," Hekmat-Farrokh said. "It's like 'Waiting for Godot' -- that in spite of their life, these hobos are standing at the road waiting for someone to come and solve their problems. The problem is that there seems to be no way to solve it."\nDespite the horror of their existence, the women carry on to the best of their abilities.\n"The women in this house are repressed and they have this ridiculous life, but we see that in spite of it, they try to make themselves happy," she said. "They do things to pass this boredom. These women, even though they are brought to death and so on, they try to laugh and talk and bring certain life into it. At least this is the way I interpret it." \n"The House of Bernarda Alba" runs through Sunday at the Auditorium of the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St. General admission is $10, $8 for students and senior citizens. Curtain is 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
(10/26/00 7:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>"The Bride of Frankenstein" (James Whale, USA, 1935), "King Kong" (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, USA, 1933)
(10/26/00 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>"The Bride of Frankenstein" (James Whale, USA, 1935), "King Kong" (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, USA, 1933)
(10/21/00 1:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At 75 years young, Robert Altman has been a Hollywood maverick for three decades and counting, which is still apparent in his latest effort, "Dr. T & the Women," a heartfelt and amusing parable about the absurd existence of a gynecologist.
(10/19/00 10:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Also known as "The Young and the Damned," this film's canvas is filled with the depressing brushstrokes of a juvenile named Pedro, who transforms from delinquent into an accessory for murder in an impoverished hell in Mexico. A far cry from Luis Bunuel's famed comedies, "Los Olvidados" earned Bunuel the best director prize at Cannes.
(10/19/00 4:09am)
Chicago -- One hundred five feature films from 31 countries screened in two weeks. \nThis is the insane reality of the oldest competitive international film festival in North America -- the Chicago International Film Festival. \nIts 36th incarnation began with a jam-packed Chicago Theatre applauding the American premiere of Robert Altman's "Dr. T & the Women, " starring Richard Gere, Oct. 6 and concluded Oct. 8.\nThe festival extended throughout Chicago, from the North Side's art house, the Music Box, to downtown's 600 North Michigan Theatres to the South side at University of Chicago's Doc Films.\nA jury of seven international cinematic professionals presides over three of the four main competitive categories that make up the Chicago International Film Festival, with many previously acclaimed and unknown works vying for top honors. The main event is the International Competition, which featured flicks from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United States. \nIran's "A Time for Drunken Horses" and Mexico's "Amores Perros" had already received awards at Cannes while films such as Turkey's "Clouds of May" and Argentina's "The Adventures of God" were among the most awaited untested movies to be shown. The winner of the International Competition receives the festival's highest honor, the Gold Hugo.\nThe New Directors competition always receives a lot of attention since distributors, critics and viewers attending the festival are always looking to be the first to discover the next great auteur. The first and second features of the directors in this category that garnered the most attention were "101 Reykjavik," Iceland native's Baltasar Kormakur's coming-of-age black comedy and American native David Gordon Green's "George Washington," which has already been screened at numerous festivals including Berlin's and New York's. The winner of this category is given the FIPRESCI, the Prize of the International Film Critics, by a jury of five international critics.\nThe third competition is dedicated to the art of documentary. Eight documentaries were competing, with a few, like French New Wave veteran Agnes Varda's "The Gleaners and I," coming from proven filmmakers while others, like Tod Lending's work on a South Side Chicago family's struggle to survive, "Legacy," were directed by little known documentarians.\nThe final main competitive category belongs to the often-overlooked realm of short films. Four separate short film programs were presented throughout the fest, including "Chicago Meets the World," "Adventures in Outer Space," "Scottish Shorts" and "Animation Nations." Also, some short films preceded feature length presentations.\nOther festival highlights included acclaimed Hungarian director Bela Tarr's "Werckmeister Harmonies," Edward Yang's Cannes award-winning "Yi Yi" and South Korean Im Kwon-Taek's 100th-plus film, "Chunhyang."\nMany acclaimed celluloid veterans were celebrated. Lord Richard Attenborough received the Lifetime Achievement Award while actors Richard Gere and Laurence Fishburne and directors Joe Dante and Sabu were all presented with a Career Achievement Award. Harold Ramis was also awarded the Chicago Achievement Award.\nMexican and Cuban cinema celebrations also took place while a Black Perspectives series of films was shown in conjunction with a panel discussion.\nAn interesting addition to the festival was a critic's choice series, featuring six under-appreciated films chosen by the six leading Chicago film critics. Roger Ebert chose what he felt to be the best film at Cannes this year, Australian director Paul Cox's "Innocence," while Chicago Reader film critic Johnathan Rosenbaum chose the rarely-seen director's cut of John Cassavetes' 1976 work "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie"
(10/19/00 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At 75 years young, Robert Altman has been a Hollywood maverick for three decades and counting, which is still apparent in his latest effort, "Dr. T & the Women," a heartfelt and amusing parable about the absurd existence of a gynecologist.
(10/19/00 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Also known as "The Young and the Damned," this film's canvas is filled with the depressing brushstrokes of a juvenile named Pedro, who transforms from delinquent into an accessory for murder in an impoverished hell in Mexico. A far cry from Luis Bunuel's famed comedies, "Los Olvidados" earned Bunuel the best director prize at Cannes.
(10/19/00 3:47am)
Although I am a college student with more than just movies on my mind and no transportation at my fingertips, I had the opportunity to attend the opening weekend of the 36th Chicago International Film Festival, Oct. 5-8. During these four days, I saw 13 movies, shook hands with some of the best directing talent and had a crash course in the world of big league film criticism. The following is my account of this overwhelming celluloid experience.\nOct. 5\nSure I have reviewed films for the IDS for more than three years now, but Bloomington and its Kerasotes monopoly is small peanuts compared to the big shoulders of the Windy City. So, when I stepped into the Cinema Chicago office on the sixth floor of 32 West Randolph at around 9:15 a.m., I was in a whole new universe. \nOther than the unfathomable reality that a festival the size of Chicago's was successfully run out of just one floor of a random office building, I was in general awe of the fact that I was just one step away from the likes of Robert Altman, Joe Dante and a whole slew of other renowned filmmakers whom I would soon be acquainted with.\nThe first true taste I got of the festival was in the Cinema Chicago screening room, which seats about 25 in reclining chairs and a couple of couches off to the left side. The first film to be screened also happened to be the worst I saw at the festival and one of the more despicable pieces of celluloid released this year -- E. Elias Merhige's "Shadow of the Vampire." John Malkovich stars in this fictional account of the making of the silent version of "Nosferatu." \nMalkovich plays director F.W. Murnau with a dry, oftentimes grating attempt at a German accent while Willem Dafoe dons some truly spooky make-up to play Max Schreck, the actor who portrayed Count Orlock/Nosferatu. The script is absolutely abhorrent, with cookie cutter drama more suitable for the small screen and some odd, misplaced humor -- Dafoe catches a bat and gobbles it up in an awkward, over-the-top moment. Dafoe often transcends the stilted script, but this is the only redeeming quality apparent.\nA brief intermission followed this celluloid waste and then the Chinese film "Song of Tibet" was screened. Directed by veteran Xie Fei, this is a lushly photographed, yet overly simplistic story that recalls the younger years of a Tibetan couple. \nThis basically forgettable movie was enhanced by the fact that I witnessed the true diet of film critics. A top critic from Chicago who will remain unnamed ate a fish fillet value meal from McDonald's complete with a McFlurry and two apple pies. How anyone can digest such rubbish while ingesting a film is beyond me.\nAt around 5:30 p.m. I arrived at the Chicago Theatre and geared up to get some photos of the stars that would be on hand for the opening night presentation of "Dr. T & the Women." By the time director Robert Altman arrived at 6:30 p.m., people had crowded around on both sides of the red carpet, yet I still remained in the front line. Mild chaos did not ensue at this time or when Shelley Long arrived. No, it was saved up for the arrival of Richard Gere. While I got many snapshots of all three, I was actually photographed by a Sun Times photographer and appeared in two photos in Friday's edition. And, as if this was not interesting enough, "Dr. T," which happened to be the fifth Altman film to open the festival, was a decent entertainment.\nOct. 6\nThe first full day of festival screenings was under way at 3:30 p.m. at the 600 North Michigan Theatres with the South Korean film "Peppermint Candy." A disarming tale of the destruction of one man's existence, the movie takes a rare narrative turn by beginning with his suicide and then methodically going back in time through pieces of major events in his life. Sol Kyung-Gu, who plays Yongho, gave one of the strongest performances I witnessed in a most powerful social parable.\nWhen this concluded, I was off to the El's Brown Line, which took me to within walking distance of the Music Box Theatre. Here, after sitting through the musings of an organist infatuated with showtunes, the best American film of 2000 (thus far) was shown -- 24-year-old David Gordon Green's "George Washington." \nThe movie follows the existence of a handful of African-American pre-teens in a Southern town during a week or so in the summer. An abandoned amusement park and the local railyard are their playground for youthful philosophical rantings in this sumptuously filmed work by first-timer Green. There is a profundity hidden in the words of these amateur actors, especially Nasia (Candace Evanofski), who proclaims to the title's George (Donald Holden): "I hope you live forever." These are big thoughts for a truly grand work of art that is hopefully the first of many to come from Green. After the film, Green briefly answered questions, which foreshadowed an interview I was to have with him Sunday.\nI finished off Friday with the delightful French excursion "Harry, He's Here to Help." This distinctly Hitchcockian work (as some have said, this could easily be renamed as one of Hitchcock's tales, "The Trouble with Harry") dips into the world of a married bourgeoisie couple, Michel and Claire, who have three daughters and no time for each other. Michel runs into an old schoolmate named Harry who he cannot quite recall and subsequently has a hard time getting out of his life. Eggs, flying monkeys and a well play important roles in this highly entertaining work that is sure to get a decent U.S. release.\nOct. 7\nI began the day in a very wasteful fashion by watching a forgettable film I could not see in the festival on video. The motion picture, Japan's "Sunday's Dream," has many wonderfully framed moments and striking images, especially that of purple strobe lights wandering down a stairwell, but, alas, nothing of substance occurs.\nOne of the more exciting moments of the festival happened when I got the chance to briefly meet director Joe Dante. I shook his hand and told him that I watch "Gremlins" every Christmas with my mother. He seemed proud of this fact and was more than willing to take a photo with me. The rush of energy that resulted from this encounter lasted throughout the insightful documentary "Bus Riders Union," which brings to light the frustrations that many Los Angeles citizens have about the bus system and their resulting actions. \nDirector Haskell Wexler was on hand for a Q and A after the screening. I approached the veteran, award-winning cinematographer and director, shook his hand and asked which he would rather do -- photograph or direct.\n"I like doing everything myself," he said.\nA Metra ride later, I was in University of Chicago territory, where I waited to view the film I was most looking forward to seeing, Taiwanese director Edward Yang's "Yi Yi," at Doc Films. While I waited in the lobby outside the theater, a Renaissance club gathered, decked out in their best costumes. This intriguing distraction aided in alleviating the frustration brought on from the 25-minute delay in the starting of the film. \nThe anticipation and ensuing delay was well worth it because the three hour tale of the innerworkings of a modern Taiwanese family was wholly engrossing on both narrative and visual levels. Yang shows that his best director award at Cannes for this work was fully earned with the immaculate framing and depth of each shot, including striking moments involving the reflections of a city's night lights drowning out the figure of the main female character. And the film's 8-year-old boy character, aptly named Yang Yang, captures the sprit of the human condition with his insights and photographic artistry. \n"Yi Yi" was certainly the best film I saw during the weekend. And when I exited this visually and emotionally powerful piece of celluloid, I encountered an equally riveting sight -- snow pellets cascading to the ground backed by lightning cracks and a chorus of thunder. This goes to show how crazy and wondrous Chicago can be in October.\nOct. 8\nThis final day of my excursion brought me to an 11 a.m. interview with David Gordon Green in the Hilton Garden Inn's Hospitality Suite. We discussed many varying aspects of his cinematic life, from the fact that he believes he is the first ever Blockbuster Video customer to his influences, which include Terrence Malick, Carroll Ballard and Michael Ritchie. Green also said after the audience finishes "George Washington," he "wants them to take a walk."\nFollowing this chat, I took in four films. \nFirst on my plate was first-time Iranian director Marzieh Meshkini's "The Day I Became a Woman." Scripted by her husband, acclaimed filmmaker Moshen Makhmalbaf, this gorgeously haunting work tells three separate stories about female oppression in Iran. The first deals with a girl who is only hours away from her ninth birthday, the day she becomes a woman, and how she spends it. The second and most resounding of the three tells of a woman who has left the responsibilities of her home life to be on her own in a bike race, only to find her husband and company galloping about on horses to take her back. The final story, which shows an old woman who finally can buy the items she has always wanted, ends with the most haunting images of the festival: furniture floating out to sea, as seen though the eyes of the girl of the first story.\nAfter this, I saw Agnes Varda's thoroughly enjoyable documentary "The Gleaners and I." Beginning with the idea of finding out if gleaning still takes place on a large scale level, she travels about the French countryside discovering interesting people and funny facts about her own filmmaking process, as is evidenced in one sequence when her lens cap dangles about in the image. One of the lasting moments of the whole festival weekend occurs when Varda discovers some heart-shaped potatoes. During the Q and A that proceeded the screening, the aging, yet glowing Varda cited this moment as the point when she realized that the movie had life because of the fact that she could find such beauty among the garbage of gleaning.\nThe third and fourth films were Iranian -- Bahman Ghobadi's harrowing "A Time for Drunken Horses" and Hassan Yektapanah's flawed "Djomeh." "A Time for Drunken Horses" depicts the impoverished lives of a family of teenagers who must survive as adults in the icy realm of Iranian Kurdistan. Although only 16, the lead actor who portrays Ayoub gives a heart-wrenching performance in this co-winner of best first feature at Cannes, which it shared with "Djomeh." \nAt times, the gripping realism coupled with the sparse dialogue, with only the stomping of hooves against snow acting as the lone item on the soundtrack, makes this one of the year's finest films. \n"Djomeh" focused its sights on the alienation Afghanis face in Iran with the story of an immigrant Afghan dairy farmer who falls in love with an Iranian woman. Yektapanah cites Abbas Kiarostami as a major influence, which often shows in "Djomeh's" slow-pacing and overall naturalism.\nBut unfortunately, "Djomeh" is ineffective in allowing the viewer to get past the character's carapaces and into their inner-workings, which is where it seems the film's answers would lie.\nI began with the worst of the worst and ended with three films from one of the great contemporary cinema centers -- Iran. This was a fabulous experience that I can only hope to repeat next year.
(10/12/00 11:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Icelandic pop mistress Bjork has decided to spread her artistic wings into the realm of film in Lars von Trier's award-winning musical "Dancer in the Dark." Her new EP, Selmasongs, is the oftentimes stunning symphonic result of this endeavor. Weaving together her vast imaginative soundscapes and the astonishing fantasies of Hollywood musicals, Bjork has produced a work that has evolved from the standard musical soundtrack of old into a pastiche of modern harmonious textures.
(10/12/00 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Icelandic pop mistress Bjork has decided to spread her artistic wings into the realm of film in Lars von Trier's award-winning musical "Dancer in the Dark." Her new EP, Selmasongs, is the oftentimes stunning symphonic result of this endeavor. Weaving together her vast imaginative soundscapes and the astonishing fantasies of Hollywood musicals, Bjork has produced a work that has evolved from the standard musical soundtrack of old into a pastiche of modern harmonious textures.
(10/06/00 3:40am)
Ballantine Hall 013 will be transported to the dawn of cinema at 8 p.m. Sunday. \nSeven short films by silent celluloid director Georges Melies will be screened along with live musical accompaniment from Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet. A talk by Communication and Culture professor Joan Hawkins will precede the event. The evening is free and open to the public. There is also free parking in the Ballantine Hall garage when a handbill or City Lights schedule is left on the vehicle's dashboard.\nPresented by Bloomington-based Beyond the Pale Productions and the Arts Resource Consortium, the mini-festival of Melies' work gives viewers the opportunity to see one of the early special effects pioneers.\nHawkins said Melies was one of the first auteurs to not merely "document reality," but instead use it as a "medium for exploring the imagination."\n"He was a magician and was very interested in illusion and fantasy," she said. "So he started filming some of Jules Verne's stories, and his favorite themes included things like a journey to the moon and trips into hell. It is easy to see why he's called both the father of sci-fi and the father of horror."\nMelies also was among the first to utilize fade-ins and fade-outs, stop-motion animation, double exposure and split-screen shots. All of his innovations can be seen in the seven shorts to be screened: "The Melomaniac" (1903), "The Mermaid" (1904), "The Damnation of Faust"\n(1903), "Trip to the Moon," (1902), "Hydrotherapie Fantastique (The Doctor's Secret)" (1909), "The Merry Frolics of Satan" (1906) and "Voyage Across the Impossible" (1905).\nOne of his better-known films, "Trip to the Moon" features one of silent cinema's trademark images -- a rocket ship embedded in the right eye of a facially-endowed moon\nThe fact that the Phillip Johnston Transparent Quartet will be providing a live score gives viewers "a rare opportunity to see the way they were originally meant to be seen," Hawkins said.\n"Silent films were never really shown without sound," Hawkins said. "At the very least, there'd be a piano or organ accompaniment, live music that went along with the film. In some places, there were full orchestras."\nBecause of the quartet's jazz background, Hawkins finds their orchestration to be the perfect fit to Melies' films.\n"It seems fitting to me that the films should be paired with jazz, which is a music form that traditionally makes some demands on the audience," she said. "But it also treats the audience with great respect."\nThe Phillip Johnston Transparent Quartet is composed of Phillip Johnston on sax, Joe Ruddick on piano, Mark Josefsberg on vibraphone and David Hofstra on bass. They first performed their Melies score Nov. 15, 1997, at New York City's Lincoln Center. Since then, they've brought it to such diverse locales as Florence, Italy and Frank Sinatra's high school in Hoboken, N.J.\nJohnston has composed music for film, theatre, radio and dance. He was drawn to composing music for these seven shorts because he "wanted to write for a program of shorter films, in which (he) could approach the relationship between film and music in a number of different ways."\nThe music, Johnston said, draws upon many influences, including both modern and traditional jazz, as well as classical and improvisational music.\n"One of the pieces is thematically based upon a Chopin waltz, which it transmutes into a gospel tune, a jazz tune and a ballad," he said. "Others refer in various ways to the history of film music, silent and otherwise."\nShane Graham, a graduate student and one of the co-founders of Beyond the Pale Productions, describes Johnston's music as "very playful, very intricate."\n"He never does what you expect him to do next, and that's especially true of his film scores, where he often confounds the audience's expectations." Graham said. "He makes you think about the films differently and more closely than you otherwise might." \nBut accomplishing this feat does not come easily. Johnston said the most challenging aspect of composing the Melies music was "trying to approach each film in a slightly different way."\n"The live performance of the music with film is always an insane juggling act because of the challenge of staying in sync with the films with no outside conductor, and while making multiple meter and tempo changes," he said.\nHawkins emphasizes that the free package of silent cinema and live orchestration is "a great opportunity."\n"In San Francisco, where I grew up, we'd get shows like this at the Castro Theater and have to pay $5-$7 a head to have a similar experience," she said. "This is an amazing deal"
(10/05/00 4:05am)
The dramatic lure of the Titanic has not been lost on the theater world, as is demonstrated by the mystery "Scotland Road," the John Waldron Arts Center 2000-2001 theater series kick-off production. \nThe puzzles of this 1993 Jeffrey Hatcher work will be revealed Thursday through Sunday in the Rose Firebay of the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St.\n"Scotland Road" centers on a young woman, Winifred, and the single word she utters when rescued from the chilling clutches of an iceberg floating in the North Atlantic: "Titanic." An expert on the infamous liner suspects her to be a phony, but when the last living Titanic survivor is called in (Mrs. Kittle), Winifred remembers a confrontation the two had on the gargantuan ship on the night of its sinking. Death, identity crises and a surprise revelation ensue while Winifred treks one last time to Scotland Road.\nThe above synopsis is the extent of information on "Scotland Road" available since everyone involved with the production wants the plot kept hush-hush so the play's surprises are not known to the audience before entering the theater. All that director Sharon Porter-Phillips, who also directed "Inspecting Carol" last year at Waldron, would reveal about the production's mystery is that "what you think you know about each character is not so." \nBloomington Arts Area Council marketing director Jan Skinner said programs will not be distributed until after the play's conclusion so the surprise factor will remain intact.\nThe enigmatic characteristics of "Scotland Road" interested Porter-Phillips because of a nontheater related fascination.\n"I normally prefer comedy, but being an 'X-Files' fan, I thought it would be fun to do something entertaining, but off-beat," Porter-Phillips said. "And of course, the whole Titanic story is fascinating."\nJamie Brown Acres, a veteran actress of 35-years who portrays Dr. Halbrech, was also drawn to "Scotland Road" because of its mixture of the eccentric with the Titanic disaster.\n"I have almost every episode of 'The Twilight Zone' on tape. This play would have made a great episode," she said. "I also have been obsessed (with) the story of the Titanic ever since I was approximately 10 years old when I saw 'A Night to Remember' on TV ... . I have a copy of every movie made about the Titanic, lots of books—we use several during the play—sheet music, newspapers, puzzles, games, mementos and two actual pieces of coal from the Titanic."\nEven with so many similarities between "Scotland Road's" dynamics and Acres' interests, she said she is still challenged by her character.\n"My character is very different in personality from me," Acres said. "She is a loner. I am very much a people person. She is skeptical. I am an optimist.\n"I had to search deep to find those qualities within me and bring them to the surface and make them believable. My character also undergoes a change during the play that I had to portray realistically." \nPorter-Phillips said the "multi-dimensional aspect of each character" is one of the "joys of the play." This makes the actors more important than any other aspect of "Scotland Road."\n"It really is an actor's play, with sets and props almost nonsignificant," she said. "Well acted, ('Scotland Road') can be spell-binding"
(09/28/00 10:48am)
This David Fincher masterwork could go down as the most misunderstood film of the \'90s, with critics claiming it has fascist leanings and audiences not caring to go the extra mile to comprehend the reality of Tyler Durden. And even though the film basically flopped, Twentieth Century Fox pulled out all the stops on the DVD, making it a definite must-have.\nThe two-disc set can best be described as pure all-around fun. It all starts with the DVD\'s booklet, which features tons of quotes from movie reviews that trounce the film. The first disc presents a clean print of the film and four commentary tracks, including one of the best ever to appear on a DVD -- Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham-Carter. The second disc includes alternate versions of scenes, including the infamous \"I want to have your abortion\" line, behind-the-scenes vignettes, a load of trailers for the film and a video copy of the movie\'s uproarious press kit.
(09/28/00 10:48am)
Take the red pill or the blue pill? Buy the videocassette or the DVD version of "The Matrix"? It's a tough choice, but for everyone who is still surfing the Internet trying to find Morpheus, DVD is the only way to go. The DVD version, which was released before the videocassette version, is jam-packed with extra little goodies.\n"The Matrix" was by far the most groundbreaking movie of 1999. For all those looking to see how it was done, this DVD provides plenty of behind-the-scenes footage and documentaries on the brains behind the movie. Those who think they know everything there is to know about "The Matrix" can play "The One" trivia game. Winners are rewarded with a visit to an exclusive Web site.\n"The Matrix" also provides a plethora of written material that is only found on the DVD version. It chronicles the entire creative process with scripts and storyboards. Also on the DVD is Web access to seven special essays and articles that analyze and elaborate on the themes in "The Matrix."\nThe biggest drawback to the DVD version is that it is offered only in wide screen. While this does preserve quality, it prevents viewers from taking advantage of the full screen size.