Music Box Blog - Entries by Buck LePard

The Gene Siskel Film Center celebrates Charlie Chaplin

Monday, May 16th, 11:47am

From May 15 through June 30, our friends at the Gene Siskel Film Center presents Charlie Chaplin, a series of twelve programs of feature films, featurettes, and shorts covering the prime period of the legendary comedian’s career from 1918 to 1958. All films are being shown in recently struck 35mm prints authorized by the Chaplin estate and released by Janus Films.

CIMMFest presents FIX: The Ministry Movie

Wednesday, April 13th, 4:55pm

Sound Opinions at the Movies is proud to present the Opening Night Film of the 3rd Annual Chicago International Movies & Music Festival: the World Premiere of FIX: The Ministry Movie at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue, Thursday evening, April 14 at 7:30pm.

New Cult Canon and Music Box Theatre present Death Wish 3 and Freaked, with Alex Winter

Wednesday, April 13th, 2:07pm

Chicago, the cinematic event of 2011 is almost here. And now there’s free beer to go along with it, too.

On April 20th, New Cult Canon returns to Music Box with a gloriously demented double bill of Death Wish 3 and Freaked, featuring special guest Alex Winter. Best known as Bill from Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Winter took an early bit part as one of the “creeps” who terrorize an urban neighborhood in Death Wish 3, but he enjoyed slightly more creative input on 1993’s Freaked, which he co-wrote and co-directed (with Tom Stern, one of his partners on MTV’s sketch comedy Idiot Box) and in which he also stars as our guide through a mutant freak farm.

Uncle Boonmee is an indie dream by Mike Falk

Tuesday, April 12th, 4:18pm

“My eyes are open, but I can’t see anything,” says Uncle Boonmee, a Thai man about to pass away near the jungles he loves. “Or are they closed?”

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the 2010 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or winning film is a moving, surreal treatment of a man preparing to relinquish his body and find peace in the ghost world. Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) suffers from kidney failure and has chosen to spend his last days in his home near the jungle. Accompanied by his loved ones and an immigrant he hired to provide medical care, he spends much of his day prostrate in bed or lamenting that he cannot eat the foods he once loved. When he is up and about, he visits and jokes with workers who cultivate fruit near the home. He encourages his friends to taste the special honey from his hives, and we see the last glimpses of a spirited man.

CIMMFest celebrates relationship between movies and music by MARY HOULIHAN

Tuesday, April 12th, 3:28pm

Three years ago, Josh Chicoine and Ilko Davidov were two guys sitting at a bar talking about possibilities. Today, they are the co-founders of the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, a four-day event now in its third incarnation that highlights the intersection of film and music.

Film festivals always have included music documentaries and musicals, but CIMMFest goes further by focusing only on films with music at their center, including concert films, animation, music videos, documentaries and feature films, along with related live performances, art exhibits and panel discussions.

Club TCM to Offer Celebrities, Expert Panels, Exhibits, Music and More During 2011 TCM Classic Film

Tuesday, April 12th, 2:34pm

Legendary stars, fascinating presentations, panel discussions, live music and special exhibits are just a few of the exciting experiences on tap for Club TCM, the central gathering spot for the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Located in the Blossom Room at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the very first Academy Awards® ceremony, Club TCM will be open throughout the festival, giving passholders a place to relax, meet new friends and mingle with special guests. Among those scheduled to appear are Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, Leslie Caron, Marni Nixon, Marge Champion, Debbie Allen, Peter Guber, Brett Ratner and graphic artist Michael Schwab, as well as TCM host Robert Osborne and weekend-daytime host Ben Mankiewicz.

The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival Starts This Week by Amy Dittmeier

Monday, April 11th, 3:57pm

What would movies and music be without each other? There are specific songs that inspire entire scenes, and films that inspire entire songs. The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival smashes the two mediums together into one magnificent weekend of shows, screenings, and discussions about how both arts influence each other.

Comedy That Travels by Elsa Keslassy

Monday, April 11th, 2:39pm

LA-based French lovefest City of Lights, City of Angels will unveil a broad range of comedies this year, underscoring an upsurge in script-driven laffers with crossover potential.

Music Box Films Wins In The Margins by Michael Phillips

Friday, April 8th, 2:20pm

Music Box Films handled all U.S. theatrical and home entertainment distribution for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” based on the omnipresent Stieg Larsson best-sellers, collectively known as “the Millennium trilogy.” Before that Schopf, Music Box Films managing director Ed Arentz and Music Box Films and Theatre marketing and programming head Brian Andreotti scored with the less-heralded thriller “Tell No One.” A word-of-mouth phenomenon and critical success, it became the highest-grossing foreign-language film of 2008 and put Schopf and associates on the international film distribution map.

An icon in every sense of the word by Christopher Wallenberg

Sunday, April 3rd, 2:50pm

NEW YORK — The term “icon’’ gets tossed around far too wantonly these days, whether it’s washed-up pop stars turned TV talent-show judges or overhyped starlets beloved by fashion magazine editors. But if any actress can be genuinely bestowed the label without eliciting stifled laughter, it’s that grand dame of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve, whose new film “Potiche,’’ a charmingly kitsch comedy by Gallic director François Ozon, opens in Boston-area theaters on Friday.

LUNAFEST (This one is just for you, mama) by Caitlin Giles

Wednesday, March 30th, 3:10pm

What mom couldn’t use a girl’s night out from time to time? Better yet, a girl’s night out that supports other women AND benefits important non-profit and charitable organizations in our community?

My new friend Jackie Dorris of Stroller Strides (more on my new-found love for Stroller Strides next week) told me about a great upcoming event called LUNAFEST Chicago 2011. I wanted to share more about this event with you (because really it is a no-brainer – you enjoy a fun night out with friends and all the money raised supports worthy causes).

Powell looks back on a career with Elizabeth Taylor by Michael Phillips

Friday, March 25th, 2:58pm

Jane Powell, a bona-fide MGM triple threat at a time when MGM had quite a few of various shapes and sizes, went to school with, among others, Elizabeth Taylor. But the young MGM contract players did not go to school the way you or I went to school. During the 1940s they attended the studio’s so-called “Little Red Schoolhouse,” where school-aged performers — pre- and mid-teens — took three hours’ worth of the basics in between lessons or their latest film commitments.

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