Something in the Air review
by Patrick McGavin
Monday, February 25th, 2013 5:29pm
Something in the Air has a rare and vital tone, a tough, honest and scrupulous reconstruction of the past, its youthful ardor mixed with a romantic verve, and how consideration of artistic choices and personal commitment spun on a dime, fleeting and often out of control and rapidly changing moment to moment.
Olivier Assayas’s new feature, Something in the Air, opens with a spectacular clash between student protesters and riot police captured with a rending volatility and tactile immediacy that feels as if it were shot on newsreel. It is electrifying though jolting and terrifying in a sad, even mournful way.
The movie’s French title, “Après mai,” or “After May,” is more evocative. The new work is the concluding piece in a loose trilogy of autobiographically-shaped features starting with the superb Cold Water and and the more introspective and subdued Late August, Early September, made in 1998.
The film that made his international reputation, the 1994 Cold Water developed out of the excellent French television series, “All the Boys and Girls of Their Time.” Set in 1972 on the outskirts of Paris, the story concerns the mysterious love affair of two criminally beautiful sixteen-year-olds, Christine (Virginie Ledoyen) and Gilles (Cyprien Fouquet). It was the first significant part for the unforgettable Ledoyen, and she lends the material a startling, feral quality.
Their rendezvous in the countryside sets in motion the movie’s astounding final forty minutes set around a party at an abandoned chateau. The bacchanal, anarchic and impulsive, is enthralling and majestically captured (like the bonfire, abetted by the teenagers that use the broken down furniture as kindle), attuned to the freedom and energy of the music (Janis Joplin’s version of “Me and Bobby McGee”) and the gloriously unpredictable and beautiful movements of the actors’ bodies and faces.
Working with his early collaborator, Denis Lenoir, Assayas achieved a remarkable stylistic fluency in his bracing and startling capture of character, movement and situation that achieve a lyrical and privileged sensation. The movie’s ending, charged, grave and wounding in its implications, is the most ambiguous of the director’s career. One always sensed Assayas was never fully finished with the ideas, themes or characters.
Now, thankfully, Assayas has gone home, as it were, remixing, rethinking, some of the same material, from a different perspective, and the incandescent and thrilling result is his new feature. The two protagonists have the same names, Christine and Gilles.
Cold Water was messy and unfinished. Something in the Air has a rare and vital tone, a tough, honest and scrupulous reconstruction of the past, its youthful ardor mixed with a romantic verve, and how consideration of artistic choices and personal commitment spun on a dime, fleeting and often out of control and rapidly changing moment to moment.
Assayas is very acute of the personal ramifications of the “long decade,” that marked the 1960s and what the carryover for the next generation of student radicals entailed. The self-portrait is wounding, even deflating, in what it unmasks. As a more doctrinaire friend observes, Gilles’s personal tension is naturally exacerbated between the solitary nature of his art and his obedience to the movement.
“I live in my fantasies,” Gilles says. He is naturally a man that stands outside, observing, coloring and reacting to events. In this version, Gilles (Clément Métayer) is a talented young painter and somewhat reluctant participant in the social and political fervor that exists in the aftermath of May 1968. He is member of a cell composed of high school students who are involved with all manner of street theater provocations, distributing leaflets and committing small, isolated acts of political sabotage.
The characters in COLD WATER were more circumscribed by class restrictions. In Something in the Air, the relative affluence cuts both ways, inculcating their growing radicalism while largely buffering them from the deeper complications. Gilles is shrewd enough to know the difference.
His dismay, even dissatisfaction, with the movement, is a constant. His uncertainty about the intellectual legitimacy of his actions and the necessity of his art is echoed emotionally in the two women he oscillates between, the willowy and dramatic Laure (Carole Combes) and the smart, fearless and committed Christine (Lola Créton).
As Laure recedes from his life and Christine assumes a more important role, Gilles slowly, irrevocably, begins to assert his own independence, regardless of the consequences.
After a security guard is seriously injured during one of the political demonstrations, Gilles, Christine and another friend, Alain (Félix Armand) flee to Italy and begin their own unsentimental education on art, sex and personal discovery. These passages are the most buoyant and transfixing in the film.
The camera, wielded by the great Eric Gautier, is fleeting and observational. Assayas’s liquid and relaxed style has moved from the nervous exhilaration of ?Cold Water?? to something pure, free and elastic, like the landscape rushing by as a train darts through the Italian countryside, a light that Gilles shines on Christine’s face, the charged, precise line renderings Gilles draws from the naked form of Christine, or the camera floating above and trailing Laure following her painful break up with Gilles.
The last time I interviewed Assayas, he said: “I think in time the influence of [Jean] Renoir has been growing. He’s always been a filmmaker who was very dear to me. You have other filmmakers that really strike you. When I started making films, I had this big influence of the work of [Robert] Bresson, who for me was the most important thing in cinema. I kind of drifted toward Renoir.”
The Bresson connection is also relevant. The new feature, explicitly, acknowledges the influence of Bresson’s 1977 penultimate feature, The Devil, Probably. In the movie, like life, the hero privileged image-making to agitprop, luxuriating in a vivid and sometime contradictory kaleidoscope of movie history to locate his own voice. Rueful, observant and beautiful, Something in the Air is about how that vital and discerning consciousness came to be.
It also marries the concerns of his recent work, linking the pastoral tones of Sommer Hours with the feverish and propulsive qualities of Carlos. This is an interior work, meditative and serene in the best sense, that throbs with an exacting toughness and discipline of a great artist. It all beautifully flows together.
Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago writer and film critic. His reviews, essays and film festival reports currently appear in Time Out Chicago, Boston Phoenix and Cineaste. He also maintains the film blog “lightsensitive.typepad.com”:http://www.lightsensitive.typepad.com.
Celebrating 5 Years of CIMMfest
by Gary Kuzminski
Monday, February 25th, 2013 5:26pm
For four rocking days, the connections converge with an international community of rabid fans, artists, producers, musicians and directors descending upon Chicago to celebrate their shared passion, their work, and their love of music – on stage and on screen.
CIMMfest, The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, returns April 18th-21st. for four days of premiere screenings, events, concerts, exhibits and presentations. Now in its fifth year, CIMMfest celebrates the intersection of music and movies in all forms, from around the world. From traditional documentary, concert, and feature films – to fringe and experimental DJ/VJ shows and multi-media installations, to daring and exclusive live musical accompaniment to film, there is nothing like CIMMfest. Welcome to No. 5.
Along with over 70 international films and videos, 2013 will see the expansion of the festival’s live music section, presenting label showcases, curated concerts, and innovative live film-scoring events. In addition, CIMMfest is launching CIMMcon, a professional and entrepreneurial conference and presentation arm in collaboration with Columbia College, Liverpool Sound City, and The Engineering and Recording Society of Chicago (EARS).
Festival central runs along Milwaukee Avenue and the Blue “L” line train from Wicker Park to Logan Square with 12 partner venues housing programming day and night. Film screenings, presentations, and panels during the day, slamming concerts when the sun goes down. Together with WXRT, our satellite venue, the Music Box, will be hosting a special “Rolling Stones in film” retrospective – CIMMpathy for the Stones, celebrating 50 years of the mod rockers from London.
40 features and documentaries comprise the competition section of the festival. Alongside special presentations like Melvin Van Peebles’ (SWEET SWEETBACK’S BADASS SONG, WATERMELLION MAN) legacy in film, the House Music doc UNCONSCIOUS THERAPY, the Napster doc, DOWNLOADED, and many more, there are films for every musical taste that entertain, educate, provoke, and excite at CIMMfest No. 5.
CIMMfest inherently understands the foundation on which it is built and diligently carries the touch handed down through Chicago’s great cultural legacy. From the role that “film row” played as a precursor to modern day Hollywood, to the gutters of Maxwell Street electrifying the blues and all that blues begat. An historically industrial city whose heritage was reflected back into the world as Industrial Music, with Wax Trax and Chicago Trax serving as the epicenter. When Chicago transformed from industrial to rust belt, the south side’s empty warehouses gave rise to House, which reverberates in clubs and arenas around world. This is the beauty and the grit that makes Chicago unique.
Second City Founder, Paul Sills laid it plain, “Chicago is a great city to create.” The creative impulse from long-time residents to new transplants rings true to this day. CIMMfest is one in a long tradition of arts organizations channeling the past to create the future, keeping Chicago at the center of global culture – a vital connector of the past to the present, of Chicago to the world.
For four rocking days, the connections converge with an international community of rabid fans, artists, producers, musicians and directors descending upon Chicago to celebrate their shared passion, their work, and their love of music – on stage and on screen.
Visit CIMMfest.org for more info, tickets and how to get involved.
You’re Going To Want To See It More Than Once: UPSTREAM COLOR
by Mike D'Angelo
Monday, February 25th, 2013 5:22pm
Perhaps no movie you see this year will excite so much discussion.
Nine years ago, a obscenely talented, entirely self-taught filmmaker named Shane Carruth made a cautionary tale called PRIMER, about two engineers who accidentally build a time machine in their garage. It turned out to be more cautionary than he probably anticipated. Carruth practically shot the movie in his own garage, on a budget of roughly $7000; it won the grand prize at that year’s Sundance Film Festival, landed a distribution deal, was hailed as a masterpiece of lo-fi sci-fi. For all its self-evident brilliance, however, PRIMER is a tad impenetrable. Few saw it during its theatrical run, and those who did often went back multiple times—partly for the sheer pleasure of the experience, but also in an attempt to work out the precise mechanics of its recursive narrative. Carruth then spent years struggling in vain to secure financing for an even more ambitious follow-up. It’s not hard to imagine him identifying with the character he played in his first picture, running himself ragged trying to capitalize on his astonishing good fortune.
UPSTREAM COLOR is Carruth’s second feature. Here at last. It’s not the insane project he spent the last decade pursuing, but you wouldn’t necessarily guess that from watching it. Perhaps no movie you see this year will excite so much discussion. And while it’s recognizably Carruth’s work—particularly in its unfashionable emphasis on montage, deriving meaning primarily from the way each brief, precise shot relates to those before and after—it’s also a dramatic gear-shift from chilly and intellectual to intuitive and sensual. Indeed, while UPSTREAM COLOR has a fair amount of (purely functional) dialogue, it’s essentially a silent film, obsessed not just with color but with texture and movement and rhythm. You’ll want to turn off the decoder ring, if you can manage it, and just allow yourself to luxuriate in its associative grandeur.
Still, let’s not pretend this is an easy film to grasp—though it’s knotty in a very different way from PRIMER. What happens isn’t in question this time; what to make of what happens is the tricky part. Here’s what’s certain: We meet a woman, Kris (Amy Seimetz), who appears to be an upscale professional working with special effects in some capacity. She’s drugged, hypnotized, and robbed of everything she owns. Unable to recall or comprehend what’s happened to her, she falls into a codependent relationship with Jeff (Carruth), a man she meets on a train, who seems to have undergone the same traumatic experience. Both, meanwhile, have been “sampled” by a strange man (Andrew Sensenig) who has surgically transferred their essence—and while I’ve been working very hard to obscure the bizarre details up to this point, I can’t keep it up any longer—into some pigs. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden plays a key role in the story, as does a grub that inhabits the dirt underneath certain orchids. Also, pigs. Did I mention pigs?
Trying to make literal sense of this baldly metaphorical picture can be fun but isn’t strictly necessary—it’s meant to work on a more primal level, bypassing the logic circuits. Visual and aural rhymes are constant and richly suggestive. Judging from the two films he’s made so far, Carruth seems particularly interested in destructive feedback loops; one memorable interlude in UPSTREAM COLOR (there are few conventional “scenes”) finds Kris and Jeff heatedly arguing about whether certain childhood memories are his or hers. The film is a study of damaged people in which both the damage and the method of recovery has been made productively strange, allowing Carruth to reclaim some potent ideas that have become clichés. It’s also a dazzling exercise in pure form, with a cinematic syntax that’s confident and exacting yet still feels wildly spontaneous—part Kubrick, part Malick. And it provides Seimetz (who’s a filmmaker herself) with a role that in many ways defies traditional acting, but which she nonetheless makes defiantly vivid.
The most exciting aspect of Carruth’s movies, though, in the end, may be the immense respect they afford the viewer. Not only does he refuse to spoon-feed, in the tiresome manner of most Hollywood fare (and even a sizable percentage of indie films), but he continually credits you with the intelligence to infer cause from effect, presenting you with B and trusting that you’ll work out A, which remains firmly offscreen, on your own. “You can step off the tile,” the Thief (Thiago Martins) tells a catatonic Kris at the outset of her ordeal, as her toes hover nervously in mid-air. “The rest of the floor will support your weight now.” Rather than show us Kris being hypnotized into immobility, as almost any other filmmaker would do for clarity’s sake, Carruth cuts directly to her release—which is every bit as clear and far more arresting. And this moment, too, feels vaguely autobiographical. That such a gifted artist has at long last sprung himself from the imaginary prison of development hell should make film buffs everywhere let out a mighty cheer.
Mike D’Angelo was among the first people to begin writing regular movie reviews on the Web, having created his stubbornly text-only site The Man Who Viewed Too Much in the summer of 1995. He has since been the chief film critic for Time Out New York and written a monthly film/TV column for Esquire, and has also contributed to the Village Voice, Nerve.com, and Variety, among other publications. Currently he writes regular film reviews for the Las Vegas Weekly and contributes a biweekly column on memorable movie scenes to the Onion’s A.V. Club.
OBSERVANT OR OBSESSIVE? A Review of ROOM 237
by Steve Prokopy
Monday, February 25th, 2013 5:09pm
What’s most amusing about ROOM 237 is how sure the subjects are that their version of what THE SHINING is about is the correct one. Phrases like “It’s obvious!” pop up more than once. But a favorite statement is: “How did I see this and nobody else did?” And while some of the experts’ observations and wild-guess interpretations are little more than intellectual exercises, a few are downright fascinating.
There was a time when cinephiles were not content with film reviews that simply told you whether a move was “awesome” or “crap.” In-depth analysis was the name of the game, and it wasn’t uncommon that a critic might watch a movie several times before offering up an opinion about its worth. In fact, the pure entertainment value of the work wasn’t always a part of the conversation. Film writers would dig deep for the meaning of the film (hidden or otherwise), sometimes picking up on visual clues or vague references in the dialogue. Sometimes, their theories sounded preposterous; but every so often, a thesis had a ring of truth and accuracy—or at least enough to keep us reading to the end of the writer’s conjecture, suppositions and educated guesses.
Welcome to the asylum of ROOM 237 (subtitled “Being an inquiry into THE SHINING in 9 parts”), the first feature-length work from director Rodney Ascher, which collects five radically different theories about the deeper meanings of Stanley Kubricks’s 1980 THE SHINING, loosely adapted from the early novel by Stephen King, who was never a fan of the film, due in large part to Kubrick’s injecting strange, seemingly unrelated ideas in to his haunted house story. But what were the nature of these new elements that Kubrick was so keen on making a part of this and many other of his later works? Some think it was his statement on the Holocaust, while others believe it was Kubrick’s commentary on the treatment of Native Americans in the United States. Still more believe it was the notoriously enigmatic filmmaker covertly commenting on his role in the faking of the first moon landing. Maybe it’s an exercise in subliminal messages, as Kubrick had a documented interest in hidden sexual messages in advertising. The list only gets more obtuse from there.
The five subjects of the film are never seen on camera; their disembodied voices simply float over film clips of both Kubrick’s work and other movies that illustrate some of their points. A few of these “experts” specialize in noticing and interpreting small details in the background of each scene: a poster or photograph; the design or color of the walls or carpet; or props that are there one second and gone the next. These folks never met a continuity error they didn’t love or one to which they couldn’t assign a great deal of value and meaning. But as ROOM 237 progresses, some patterns do appear to emerge that more than one of the commentators mentions—bigger-picture themes about the cruel and violent nature of humanity, the restorative power of sex, and the value of family. Of course, THE SHINING is also about insanity, murderous rage, and elevators full of blood, but all of these have multiple interpretations provided by these five.
What’s most amusing about ROOM 237 is how sure the subjects are that their version of what THE SHINING is about is the correct one. Phrases like “It’s obvious!” pop up more than once. But a favorite statement is: “How did I see this and nobody else did?” And while some of the experts’ observations and wild-guess interpretations are little more than intellectual exercises, a few are downright fascinating.
One of the more interesting experiments performed on THE SHINING—at least none of the subjects tries to pass it off as Kubrick’s intended means of viewing it—is the famed “Forwards and Backwards” experiment, in which the film is shown as originally intended, but a second projector shows the film from back to front, creating some admittedly eerie juxtapositions. While this means of display holds about as much water as playing Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” over THE WIZARD OF OZ, it’s still a surprisingly watchable experience.
It seems appropriate that the focal point of THE SHINING’s climax is a maze, with passageways that lead to dead ends and others others that may actually take you somewhere more to your liking. As one interviewee correctly points out, one of the many facets of post-modern film criticism is that author intent is only a part of the story of any work of art, and that the meanings these five people have assigned to this film are there whether Kubrick intended them to be there or not.
Kubrick was among the most deliberate stylists ever to have worked in cinema, so there’s little doubt that visual cues were a big part of his repertoire. Absolutely, he is manipulating our acceptance of visual information, but that doesn’t mean there is a hidden image of a minotaur in a poster that is clearly a photo of a guy skiing and nothing more. Still, all of this speculation and peeling back the layers is part of the great game those of us who love movies play in the darkened theater when we become fixated on a film we love and admire. It’s difficult to fault such undiluted passion, even if it seem a bit nutty.
Steve Prokopy is the Chicago Editor for Ain’t It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com), where he has contributed film reviews and filmmaker & actor interviews under the name “Capone” since 1998. In 2005, he also joined the staff of the Chicago-based media outlet GapersBlock.com as the site’s Friday film critic with his Steve@theMovies column.
Sundance Film Festival: Park City to Chicago
by Patrick McGavin
Monday, February 25th, 2013 5:05pm
This year’s edition, which ran January 17-27, was a strong and distinctive one. Sundance is also, conveniently, the first major film festival of the calendar year, so it plays a large and exacting role in shaping the larger discourse. Benh Zeitlin’s BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD played last year on the first full day of the festival, and it immediate created a sensation.
This January marked my 22nd time covering the Sundance Film festival, the most important American film festival.
Every festival creates its own rhythm. Sundance, like Cannes, is as much state of mind as a physical setting. Playing in my own mind how independent American film culture and landscape has been altered by the rise of Sundance over these last two decades is fairly daunting.
This year’s edition, which ran January 17-27, was a strong and distinctive one. Sundance is also, conveniently, the first major film festival of the calendar year, so it plays a large and exacting role in shaping the larger discourse. Benh Zeitlin’s BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD played last year on the first full day of the festival, and it immediate created a sensation.
By contrast, the major discovery this year was FRUITVALE, like BEASTS a first feature by a regional unknown, in this case a marvelously assured young filmmaker named Ryan Coogler. Brilliantly acted and imbued with a rage about race, class and social inequality, FRUITVALE tells the jolting the harrowing story of the final day in the life of Oscar Grant (beautifully played by the young actor Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area man trying desperately to hold on to his dignity while acknowledging past mistakes and the need to do right by his girlfriend (the wonderful Melonie Diaz) and their magnetic young daughter.
Coogler’s great talent is for subverting expectation, coloring feeling and emotion in an unforced and natural manner that only intensifies and anguish and wanton loss of the movie’s tragic and powerful climax.
Every Sundance produces at least one major provocation, and this year’s had Chicago connections. ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW is the first feature of Randy Moore, a North Shore native who grew up in Lake Bluff and studied film at Columbia College. In an act of political daring, he surreptitiously shot his film at Disney World, using small, mobile cameras to produce his searing and dark fantasia about a suburban Everyman who’s plunged down his own rabbit hole. The man (Roy Abramsohn), a somewhat nondescript married father of two beautiful young kids, awakes from his private nightmare to learn he has been fired from job.
Spending his final day of vacation, this idealized American representation of escape, wonder and thrill seeking is transformed through the black and white cinematography and sinister disorientation into a cautionary, soulless Mecca of cultural conformity, mind-numbing consumerism and lethargy. In a touch redolent of Vladimir Nabokov, the man is further unhinged by his deepening and criminal fixation on two lascivious French teenage girls.
Overnight, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW became the hottest ticket in town, the audacity of the filmmaking and its central conceits igniting all manner of wild speculation that Disney would seek legal injunctions to prevent the movie from ever being seen. I overheard one woman insist that Disney would buy the film and then suppress it.
Some journalists openly wondered if the film would ever been seen again. Tim Wu, a journalist who specializes in law and copyright issues, wrote in the New Yorker the film fell under the legal doctrine of “fair use,” and said Disney would have no legal recourse to ban the film. The movie’s overextended and not always as precise as necessary, but at its best it is incendiary and exhilarating.
Richard Linklater’s BEFORE MIDNIGHT, set in Greece, his rueful and blisteringly funny concluding piece to his extraordinary BEFORE triptych, struck me as the Austin-based independent’s greatest film. The first piece, BEFORE SUNRISE, opened the festival in 1995. The middle entry, BEFORE SUNSET, came out in 2004. Linklater again collaborated very closely with the stars, Ethan Hawke, as the American novelist, and Julie Delpy, as his French lover.
Linklater’s observational, liquid style has never been so fluid and graceful, capturing in long takes and subtle camera movements the heartbreak, pain, disappointment and extreme melancholy experienced by the central couple. The humor is piercing and poignant as what passes between the two are the most generous though difficult, even intransigent, of feelings, attitudes and desire. I seriously doubt to see a better English-language film this year.
Sundance now pulses in many directions. Fittingly, my Sundance ended not in Park City but the Music Box Theatre, part of the satellite Sundance USA festival. Lynn Shelton’s dramatic competition title, TOUCHY FEELY marks a sharp turn away from the sexual screwball activity of HUMPDAY and YOUR SISTER’S SISTER, exploring the complex family dynamics of Abby (Shelton regular Rosemarie DeWitt) and her brother, the wonderfully deadpan Josh Pais and his daughter, played by Ellen Page.
I interviewed Shelton during her time here. She called the movie her “Bergman film,” a necessarily interior, knotty film that was by nature meditative and searching. “In order to get those performances, I collaborated really closely with the actors to find the characters and fit them to the characters like a glove,” she said. “Because of that highly collaborative part, I was like a sociologist, an observer, an interloper. This film was inside of me and had to come out.
“Later, I asked [the actors] to put their own stamp on it. We got together and talked a lot on the phone and helped fill out the backstory. This film came from a different place and explored things I’d be yearning to explore, rather than just dialogue-driven narrative line.
“I want to get into people’s heads, and film is the best medium for doing that,” she said.
From Park City to Chicago, Sundance 2013 was ten days that shook the [movie] world.
Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago writer and film critic. His reviews, essays and film festival reports currently appear in Time Out Chicago, Boston Phoenix and Cineaste. He also maintains the film blog,
TROUBLED YOUTH: A Review of WAR WITCH
by Steve Prokopy
The film features a powerful and provocative story and several of the finest, most natural performances I’ve seen in quite a while by first-time actors, including young Mwanza, whose work earned her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival. We immediately recognize that something about WAR WITCH (which played at festivals and opened in certain countries as REBELLE) is both special and dangerous. Our narrator is a pregnant 14-year-old girl named Komona (Rachel Mwanza) who is talking to her as-yet-unborn baby, and she’s questioning whether she’ll ever be able to love this child once it’s born or whether she should simply let it die out in the middle of war-torn Sub-Saharan Africa, where the film takes place. Komona tells the child inside about her life for the previous two years, and it’s as harrowing and terrifying tale as you are like to see. At the age of 12, Komona was kidnapped from her village after being forced to execute her parents, thus beginning her young life as a child soldier for a band of rebels under the command of a man known as the Great Tiger (Mizinga Mwinga), a man who believes as much in magic to win his war as he does weapons and strategy. When it is discovered that Komona can see ghosts of the recently deceased (including her parents), and that these specters are giving her warnings about nearby government troop positions, she becomes a valuable asset to Great Tiger, who elevates her to the esteemed position of “War Witch.” Komona finds kindness and even love in a fellow young soldier named Magician (Serge Kanyinda), who is also believed to have special powers, and the two eventually run off together to start a life without violence (they even go through a self-created marriage ceremony). But neither the past nor the Great Tiger give up that easily. I won’t go into detail, but the child Komona speaks to was not fathered by her “husband.” Nominated this year for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (this is a French-language Canadian production), WAR WITCH may simply be too shocking and blunt for some viewers. The sight of these young children gunning down or hacking away at their enemies may be more than our sense of right and wrong can handle. But writer-director Kim Nguyen (CITY OF SHADOWS; TRUFFE) has built a difficult story about rebuilding one’s soul after it has been savaged by outside forces. There is a section of the movie where Komona and Magician live with his uncle (Ralph Prosper) in relative peace and serenity, and in those moments we see her true spirit, which makes what happens next all the more devastating. Most of the film is told in flashback, but director Nguyen makes it feel more like a dreamlike vision (and occasionally a vivid nightmare) with sometimes hazy visuals and exaggerated reality. What is most fascinating are the ghosts that appear and sometimes speak to Komona. They are simply people covered head to tow in what looks like flour; there are no special effects at work here, which makes them no less eerie. And of course, this is what this young girl would think ghosts look like. Are they real? Does she truly have the gift of second sight? In the end, these questions don’t matter because Komona is convinced they are real and capable of being both frightening and helpful. As much as WAR WITCH is a film that incorporates the belief in magic, it is also a raw, unflinching look at a continuing situation throughout parts of Africa: the practice of turning children into ruthless killing machines. As much as audiences will likely enjoy the moments involving Komona escaping the rebels, it feels like fantasy, like something she imagined in her mind so as not to have to cope with the reality of her situation. Nguyen puts a face on this tragedy and brings out the reality of kids training to be vicious murderers and handed an AK-47 or a machete. After one particularly important victory, the rebels celebrate in an alcohol-fueled party complete with machine guns shot in the air and a nasty, threatening vibe in the air. The final act of WAR WITCH primarily focuses on Komona’s pregnancy and brutal birthing method. As bleak as the film is for much of its running time, it is also a work that is held together by brief but significant moments of hope and kindness. Our young heroine is driven to return to her village to properly honor her parents’ death in order to set her damaged heart right and also to let their ghosts rest and stop haunting her. The film features a powerful and provocative story and several of the finest, most natural performances I’ve seen in quite a while by first-time actors, including young Mwanza, whose work earned her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival. Steve Prokopy is the Chicago Editor for Ain’t It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com), where he has contributed film reviews and filmmaker & actor interviews under the name “Capone” since 1998. In 2005, he also joined the staff of the Chicago-based media outlet GapersBlock.com as the site’s Friday film critic with his Steve@theMovies column. Historic Chicago Cultural Institution Makes Plans for 21st Century Renovation
by Dave Jennings
There are some big plans in store for the “little” theatre. The Music Box Theatre is excited to announce an upcoming renovation to our smaller screening room. Also known as the “Mini-Music Box,” the secondary screening room was added in 1991 when it was carved out of the neighboring building in order to offer additional screenings and special programs in conjunction with the main 748 seat auditorium which was built in 1929. Since 1991 guests have enjoyed thousands of films that have screened in the smaller auditorium while occasionally taking issues with seats in need of replacement, limited visibility and sound pollution from passing cars. The renovated space will present the best in digital and film projection and programming capabilities that Music Box patrons have come to expect. The process began over two years ago as the digital revolution in cinemas began to take hold throughout the United States. At that time the Music Box Theatre invested in the infrastructure of the business by adding a new digital projection system in the 749 seat auditorium. Over the past several years movie studios have released fewer and fewer films on the traditional 35mm film medium and forced cinemas across the country to move to digital projection. Contrary to popular belief, digital projection is not superior to film projection. It is, however, less expensive to produce and ship across the country and requires fewer skilled projectionists in the booth. As a result the Music Box Theatre and thousands of cinema across the world have had to make the first massive change to the way they screen movies since the advent of sound. The Music Box Theatre is committed to presenting moving pictures and culturally significant entertainment in whatever format they can be presented in as high of caliber as possible. To that end, the Music Box Theatre is the only Chicago institution capable of screening films in 70mm film and one of a very few number that is capable of screening films on 35mm change-over, DCP (Digital Cinema Package), HDCam, Digibeta, and other digital formats. He Music Box Theatre is also one of the few cinemas in the Chicagoland area that still employs a team of projectionists dedicated to that craft and maintains a movable masking system that allow the screen to be adjusted in size for each format of film presented. It is this dedication to presentation and audience experience that has led the Music Box Theater to be one of the premiere places to see and experience film in Chicago and is nationally recognized for their programming. Points of Interest: Special offer to Altered States screening with live music TOMORROW NIGHT
by Dave Jennings
A cool offer from Fulcrum Point New Music Project: email RSVP@fulcrumpoint.org before 6 PM today (MONDAY, APRIL 22ND) and get tickets for tomorrow night’s screening of Altered States with live music for only $10! (Normal single ticket price is $25.) Mention “MUSIC BOX” in your message. Your tickets will be held at Will-Call at the Level 5 Box Office. More info on the concert below – enjoy! Fulcrum Point New Music Project will blow your mind on April 23. It’s a once in a lifetime screening of Ken Russel’s Sci-Fi classic Altered States – Rated-R, 1hr 03min. The live performance of modern master composer John Corigliano’s original score, 100 musicians strong, is going to be an epic blast — beyond psychedelic! Meet Corigliano and celebrate his 75th birthday! Regular Admission— $25-$50 Student— $10 EMAIL TODAY TO GET YOUR DISCOUNT! The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is located at 205 E. Randolph Drive at the north end of Millennium Park in downtown Chicago. Get directions and more: http://www.harristheaterchicago.org/plan-a-visit/directions-parking Learn more about the show : http://fulcrumpoint.org/event-schedule/current-season.html 2001
by Dave Jennings
Friday Night’s screening of 2001 was canceled. We are doing everything we can to get it up and running for Saturday. This will not be as eloquent as I would like. I apologize completely for the unfortunate situation that let to cancelling 2001 on Friday night. I apologize for the lack of notice today regarding our efforts. Every possible thing that can go wrong has gone wrong. Delays, electricity outages, internet outages, and cracked sound discs. We are working as hard as we can to get tonight’s screening of 2001 up and running. We do not have any answers yet. We will let you know as soon as we can. If we cancel tonight’s screening, we will refund everyone. If we have tonight’s screening we will admit everyone we can with a ticket from last night. Sincerely, Opening day of the 70mm Film Festival
by Dave Jennings
On this opening day of our 70mm Film Festival I want to share with you a bunch of short videos you have to watch on your computer screen, perhaps just so you are more appreciative of film when you come to the Music Box this week. I don’t blog very often. I used to, but I got out of practice. I used to have a writing teacher who encouraged the entire class to start a blog. It was his belief that we could not call ourselves writers unless we wrote. It did not matter what we wrote or where we wrote it — but we had to write. It was part of the deal we had to make with ourselves if we were going to try the path we were embarking on. “Actors act, Singers sing, writers have to write. Don’t walk into a Starbucks and call yourself a writer. Just sit down and write.” Since giving up on my blog I have continued to write in other avenues. I still write the occasional script. I have about 20,000 words of a book burning a hole in my laptop. I write film descriptions for the Music Box Theatre quarterly calendar (sometimes when I have not yet seen the film). I write about 75-100 emails a day. I wish I was a blogger. I wish I had the time and energy to write more. This post is not really about blogging or writing… it’s about sharing. When we added the possibility of blog posts to our website I wanted an easy way to share important information about our programming, events, and all sorts of things. I didn’t want an opportunity to ponder film, talk about my work, or even share things that I found interesting. Today though, I want to do all of that. My co-worker and friend Doug McLaren has programmed one hell of a 70mm Film Festival. I am really proud of him. I am proud of our organization, and I am excited about the next two weeks. I am thankful to our customer service staff, our projectionists, our Head Programmer, Brian Andreotti — and everyone who makes our company hum along and allow us to put together a really important festival. So, here are some things I want you to see today and get into the spirit of the Music Box Theatre 70mm Film Festival: Y’all ready for this? Take a look at the Vertigo poster on this page. It was created by a staffer at the MBT named Andy Berlin. He’s one of the night managers. He is also a filmmaker, an artist, and a great person. This poster and two others will be on sale at the Music Box. Quantities are limited. You can see all three of them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152095168616996.446416.42646166995&type=3 Here was our first 70mm Film Festival Trailer that we released last week. I love it. A big thanks to Erik for doing this. Ok, even though we are saddened about the print quality of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang it is still one of my favorite films. I want you to see what an amazing guy Dick Van Dyke still is. He proves that great performers who are agile in their youth and take care of themselves can continue to perform long into their life: Ok, so we have a sense of humor. We took that first 70mm trailer and started to play the “Chitty Chitty” song under it. Try it yourself. It times perfectly. Seeing Jimmy Stewart collapse at the same time there is a “Bang Bang” is awesome. Erik then edited together another video with this in mind that got a little dark… but we loved it even more! Yesterday the Chicago Tribune released their first internet movie review. They talked about Die Hard and our festival. My friends know how much I love the first Die Hard film. I will talk through it as a college lecturer any time I can. I am excited to see the new one. Next week, maybe the week after… I will make my way to a competing cinema and watch the film. I will be excited. I will relive the experience of seeing Die Hard again, and I hope that “Ode to Joy” is used throughout the film. But the great thing about this 22-minute video released by the Chicago Tribune is that you get to see a conversation between three great film industry people in Chicago. Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips hosts reporters Nina Metz and Chris Borrelli to discuss Bruce Willis’s return to the role of John McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard. Other topics covered include violence in entertainment, and our 70mm Film Festival. Please watch this. Please share this. Please support this new endeavor by the Tribune. Finally, I want to share with you today’s final 70mm Film Festival Trailer… again, y’all ready for this? CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG in 70mm
by Dave Jennings
There are good things and bad things about vintage film prints. We have some sad news about our 70mm film presentation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: the print has turned very pink over the years. We are incredibly excited about our 70mm Film Series this week. Unfortunately, we have some bad news. We were able to only find one single print of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in existence, and it is original from the 1968 release. We began testing prints today and discovered that while the print has very few scratches, it has turned very pink over the years. We have tried to find a replacement print, but this is the only print of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in circulation. Several other cinemas have screened the print over the past year around the country without reporting to the distributor what we feel to be a poor quality print. If we had known the current quality of the print, we would not have booked Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as part of this series. However, what’s done is done. As you can imagine, this puts us into a bit of a pickle. We pride ourselves on the best of the best in presentation at the Music Box Theatre. We do believe that in the spirit of repertory film programming and the 70mm Film Festival that we should screen the 70mm film print as it is. The only other option would be a Blu-Ray presentation. We cannot condone that as part of this festival. As we will still be running the film on Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 5pm, we will now do so at a reduced price of $3 per ticket. For those who purchased individual tickets in advance to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, your orders are being adjusted and you should see the price change reflected in your credit card statement shortly. If you are interested in buying tickets at this reduced rate, you can do so here: http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/collections/music-box-theatre-70mm-festival The clarity of the film and the sound quality are excellent, and it’s still an excellent movie. We feel it will still be an enjoyable film-going experience. For reference, you can see a picture of the print on this page. If you have any additional questions or comments, you can email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call our box office at 773-871-6607. Thank you very much in advance for your understanding. Best Wishes, Dave Jennings, General Manager Ira Sachs Interview
by Patrick McGavin
“Keep the Lights On” is the beautiful, emotionally devastating new film by New York independent filmmaker Ira Sachs (“40 Shades of Blue”). It is autobiographically-inflected piece charting the intricate, complicated decade in the relationship between a documentary filmmaker (Thure Lindhardt) and a closeted lawyer (Zachary Booth). The movie premeried in the competition at Sundance, and has won prizes at festivals in Berlin and Outfest. Music Box Films is releasing the movie around the country. Sachs talks about the entwining of his life and art. The movie lives or dies with the casting. How did you decide on the somewhat unorthodox choice of Danish actor Thure Lindhardt in the lead? Ira Sachs: Given the nakedness of the material, both physically and emotionally, I had a sense that this would be a hard film to cast in America. We are a country of Puritans, and sex is still something that is rarely seen in our films. Early on, I sent the film to an agent I know well in Hollywood. His response was that, “No one in our agency will be available for these roles.” That gave me a good idea of the hurdles I was going to face, and I had a feeling I might have to look outside the US for casting. At about that time, I heard about Thure Lindhardt, who I was told was “the bravest actor in Denmark,” as well as one of the very best. I sent him the script; he recorded himself performing a few of the scenes. I saw the material, and I cast him immediately. He was it, all the energy, and all the vulnerability, and all the risk I could want rolled into one. Given how personal, even autobiographical the material is, did you try to find some distance or was the point to simply mediate something more direct or private through its making? Ira Sachs: I didn’t begin to write the script until I had achieved the two things I need before starting any new project, which is a great intimacy with the subject along with a certain analytical distance. I think without both of those you can’t be a good storyteller. So by the time we were shooting, for me, my own personal experiences were just one of many resources the actors could access in the process of creating their own reality. Ultimately, I think of every film as a kind of documentary, and what the camera is recording is the present, what happens right at the moment of shooting between the actors in front of the lens. When people leave “Keep the Lights On,” what they remember is the reality of the characters on the screen, not the emotional history that I brought to it as the filmmaker. For me, part of what’s so powerful about the film is the glancing style you interpolate throughout. It’s almost Jamesian, so much is felt rather than expressed. Ira Sachs: Henry James is my favorite author, and I’ve read all his books except the two last, and most difficult, ones. To me what I try to do in making a film is to have a strong story with a beginning, middle, and end, but then how you get there needs to be made up of a series of moments that contain as many contradictions as possible. I want as much life in the film as I can get, and that includes all the mess, and all the conflicts. [John] Cassavetes has also been a big influence on me, and Maurice Pialat from France. These are directors who believe in telling a good story, but the audience always feels when watching their films that the actors have a certain freedom. The characters drive the film, not the plot, and at any moment they could shift its direction. You shot in Super-16mm, and the movie feels warmer, even sensual. What about your collaboration with the cinematographer, Thimios Bakatakis? Again, this is much different film stylistically than the Greek films I know him through, like “Dogtooth” or “Attenberg.” Ira Sachs: I knew Thimios would be the perfect collaborator for this project for a number of reasons. First and foremost, he has the eye of a painter, as much as a cinematographer. His understanding of light and of the frame is instinctual and brilliant. Secondly, he shoots sex better than anyone else I see working today. Affectionately, and with humor, as well as an openness. For Thimios, sex is just a part of life. The camera doesn’t have to shoot it any different than a dinner scene, or a birthday party. This is a very important theme in the film: it’s a story driven by shame, but we wanted to tell it shamelessly, with all the lights on. What I didn’t know about Thimios until we worked together – and I think is maybe the most important element in his work – is his warmth and kindness. He is someone who relishes life, and he brings that joy to every frame. All of your films seem predicated on relationships that either cannot consummated or survive, so there’s an underlying melancholy and sadness. Ira Sachs: Looking back at the four features I’ve made, I see that they are all about the conflict between how a person appears in the world, and what they keep hidden. I am then interested in how that individual conflict affects the relationships one has, and particularly how this secretiveness corrupts romantic intimacy. All my films have also been coming of age films, whether that be for a young man, as in “The Delta,” or a middle-aged one, like Chris Cooper in “Married Life.” I am interested in how we learn to know ourselves. It’s not surprising, I guess, that I spent many years in psychoanalysis. I think if I hadn’t been a film director, the only other job I would have been equipped for is an analyst, in fact. The criteria are quite similar. My next film, I’m glad to say is about a different kind of love relationship, one between two men who have been together, mostly happily, for 40 years. In many ways the story reflects a new way of being in the world – and a new way of being in relationships – that came for me in the wake of the difficult experiences that Keep the Lights On depicts. At Sundance, you introduced the largest artistic delegation I’ve ever seen there. It underlined what a labor of love the project is for everybody involved. Ira Sachs: My co-screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias and I finished the script in January of last year, and with my fellow producers, Marie Therese Guirgis and Lucas Joaquin, we committed to going into production by July of the same year. In a way, we went back to the idea of “independent” cinema not as a Hollywood genre, as it has become since the rise of Indie Cinema, but as a declaration of a type of production. Truly independent. Free. But you need a community of support to have this opportunity, and we found that community for Keep the Lights On, from institutions like Sundance and Cinereach, to hundreds of individuals who gave us money for the film, to companies like Kodak and Panavision, who made it possible for us to shoot on film. This film came out of the city of New York, and it was people who wanted to see a film that was honestly about that city, and its inhabitants, that made it possible. This was the 20th anniversary of the rise of the New Queer Cinema. Do you consider an heir of that movement, or do you belong to your own tradition? Ira Sachs: We are all products of our time and of our history, and I very much feel that I came of age as a filmmaker in an exciting time where it felt important and necessary to make work that was unafraid of being extremely open and queer. I was deeply influenced by [Todd Haynes’s film] “Poison,” as I was by my experiences in ACT UP, and by the urgency we all felt to make films that mattered, and that were not ashamed. In my life now, my sexuality is less something that separates me, and I think “Keep the Lights On” reflects that change. Gratefully, whether in Denver or in Tulsa, London or Paris, many of us live in communities where gay and straight no longer live in separate universes. That doesn’t mean that the experience for each of us is the same – there is always specificity in life, and in one’s place in culture – but the truth is the differences now are less pronounced than the were 20 years ago. In that way, I think “Keep the Lights On” is something very new. It’s not a film that struggles with identity. It’s a film about people struggling with life, and love. Something most of us know well. Ira Glass Interview
by Patrick McGavin
Ira Glass, the celebrated producer award-winning journalist of the NPR broadcast program This American Life, has always been a hybrid artist. Now, he has made a triumphant shift to filmmaking as a co-writer and producer of actor and stand-up comedian Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalking with Me. During a whirlwind visit where he hosted a series of sold-out shows at the theatre, Glass talked about the genesis of the product. What were the great challenges in conceiving this material as a movie? Ira Glass: There were several changes that were fundamental. When Mike told the story on stage of the true story of what happened, what happened didn’t have the structure you need for a movie. In real life, Mike had been sleepwalking since the time he was a teenager. In a movie, you’d want to show the very first sleepwalking incident. In real life, he jumped through a plate glass window while sleep walking and almost died. I told him, ‘I never made a movie, but I’ve been to the movies.’ In the movies, if you do something and you almost die, you have to learn something from it. In the one-man show, there wasn’t much about him becoming a stand-up comedian and that’s something we really invented with the movie. Truthfully, watching the film now, I really feel like the most successful part of the film is the stuff we completely invented. What was the chronology of your interest in his story. You heard about him and you produced a piece on your show [in 2008, called Fear of Sleep]. Ira Glass: He didn’t develop it with us. He started to tell the story on stage and he recorded it and somebody thought, ‘It’d be perfect for This American Life and sent it to our senior producer. I think the thing that made it so perfect was that it was a story that had some darkness but it was also very funny. The situation that Mike’s in, he’s in his twenties, he doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his life, he’s got to get it together. He’s a lost soul who’s supposed to turn himself into an adult but hasn’t yet. There’s something easily relatable about it and have this surprising and spectacular thing with the sleepwalking and then also this weirdly specific world of trying to be a stand-up comedian. Did it always strike you as something that could be made into a film? Ira Glass: I didn’t think that until we figured out the structural problems. There’s a point in the movie, about two-thirds through, where he does something he shouldn’t, he’s the hero of the story and we’re supposed to care about him, and his real story was playing out as a movie. There was also the incidents of the sleepwalking, and I knew that could be super visual and rendered in really cinematic way. On stage, when he talks about his girlfriend [played by Lauren Ambrose in the movie] in an affectionate way, it made the relationship seem real. Up until the last week of editing, we were struggling to find a way to make the relationship real. We’d show the rough cut to people, and nobody bought the relationship. It didn’t seem like a real relationship. We didn’t know how to do it, we weren’t good enough screenwriters. We did all kinds of things to fix it and shore it up. Mike’s stories seem very much of a piece, a Don Quixote quality about dreamers and mavericks who go against the tide and want their stories told. Ira Glass: As producers, we have tendency in ourselves to go towards these kind of stories. We have a lot of stories about somebody who’s got some dream or goal. That is a kind of story I’m attracted to. I think the reason why is because we’re often confronted, as reporter, with telling stories, or exposing people that are believed to be fakes or phonies. I was working on a story, about a judge in Georgia [a prize-winning piece called “Very Tough Love“], and I kept thinking while I was doing it, This is not my usual gig. Typically, I follow somebody who’s kind of normal who’s on a quest, it gives you the pleasure of watching what the quest is and then getting tested. It’s a fun kind of thing to watch go through. At the beginning, Mike wasn’t a subject. He was a contributor, he was telling stories about himself. We didn’t have funding and he had an idea. I want to make this film. This was last year, and he said, we don’t have funding, but we have to shoot by the summer in order to meet the deadline to get into Sundance [in January, 2012], and I’ve cleared my touring schedule. He said, if we’re going to start shooting in the summer, we have to start hiring a crew. He just started hiring them, out of his own savings. He said, I will not accept no. He just started spending money. We got financing, hired a line producer and started scouting locations. Once we shot the film and showed it to people and learned that it was bad, he wouldn’t accept it. There were things we took out of the film that he was very analytic in saying, This is killing us right here, stuff that I thought was fun to watch. At our level, that was very difficult. The stage show was getting laughs where the film isn’t and it’s the same material. He said, ‘I think what’s going on is, in the stage show, I’m the present talking about this thing that happened in the past and so you know it all worked out.’ It was a kind of tragedy for plus time equals comedy thing. He completely re-shot the narration. Then suddenly, when the story became the present with him talking about something that happened in the past, the film got laughs. How has your relationship evolved since you first became aware of each other? Ira Glass: I know him as well as I know anybody. I feel like after this experience we’re brothers. I feel like, I know every mood he has, backwards and forwards and he’s completely all true. There’s this other part of him that just not going to accept defeat. I remember when he was on the radio show. I remember saying to people, ‘That guy is going to be more famous than any of us.’ He had an air, in a very friendly way, of I’m going places. In many ways, this is such an unlikely thing. Most filmmakers never get their movie made. He did a one-man show, and he said, I’m going to make this into a movie. Three years later, it’s a movie. Wide Awake with Sleepwalk With Me writer-director-star Mike Birbiglia
by Steve Prokopy
An interview with Mike Birbiglia Although Mike Birbiglia began his career as a stand-up comedian, his act has evolved to the point where he has become more of a comedic storyteller, retelling some of the most painful events of his young and adult life in across comedy albums, appearances on the Public Radio series “This American Life,” a book, and in theater performances, including a successful off-Broadway run. Birbiglia’s debut as a feature director-writer-lead actor is Sleepwalk With Me, based on his one-man show, which chronicles his early years as a comic suffering from a chronic sleepwalking disorder that occasionally endangers his life and the lives of those around him. The story deals with stress that comes from his condition, as well as his limp act and a fading relationship. The film is funny, charming, and front-loaded with universal, anxiety-laden truths about pitting expectations others place on you against simply following one’s life ambition. I sat down to talk with Birbiglia to discuss the transition his story took from stage to book to the big screen, and working with Ira Glass (credited as a co-writer) to fine tune the screenplay. SP: Was the transition of your comedy career from joke-joke-joke to more talking about your life really as simple as someone saying, “Hey, you should talk about your life.” MB: That’s the movie version for sure. SP: So it wasn’t a single incident, but was that how it worked for you where you thought “This is where it’s probably going to work best for me.” MB: That was based in a few different people, like one person was Mark Maron, who was a disciple of that school of comedy, and I knew him a little bit. In New York, we had a love-hate relationship [laughs]. My first manager gave me this piece of advice once where he said, “If you write abut yourself, no one can steal it,” and there’s a lot of truth to that. That is one of the frustrations of being a stand up comedian, we’re all swimming in the same pond and you do get frustrated. I don’t watch many stand-up comedy specials, but I saw a clip of someone’s special the other day where almost verbatim they have a bit that is in my notebook and I just have to go, “Alright, can’t use that one.” And it’s a bit I really like. The more I found the audience was engaged and the more I thought, “They are engaged because I’m engaged and I’m giving myself to this to some extent.” There’s something I realized in my 20s about observational comedy or clever comedy where you look at someone doing it and to some degree you just have this thought in your mind like, “Yeah, I could have written that.” And when someone tells you something personal and revealing about themselves, you’re like “Oh thanks.” It’s a different reaction. I’ve never watched someone who tells a truly inspired personal story and thought, “I could have thought of that.” No, you couldn’t have. That happened to that person. Something happened where I was put in these situations and was asked to tell stories, and I realized, “I’m actually better at this, and there’s something happening that’s more exciting to me.” SP: Observational storytelling comedy has opened up stand up for a lot of people. When I hear people like you tell stories about their life, it’s identifiable. More than likely somewhere in your show, we will think, “I’ve been through that. I’ve lived through that.” I think it’s opened up comedy for people who weren’t maybe that interested in just hearing joke after joke. MB: I agree. There’s something special about being in an audience and having one person on stage say something that in a different context would be off the wall. If someone had said it at work, you would be like, “Oh my God!” But you’re in a room where everyone is laughing, and there’s something deeply cathartic about that. SP: The version of you in this movie, there might be some people in the audience who might not ever like him, and I don’t mean that’s because you are unlikable; it’s because he does some unlikable things. Is it more important that we like him or that we understand him? MB: No, I don’t think you have to like him. I’m always afraid of the word “likable” when writing anything. I try to use the word “relatable” and I think that the character is relatable, because the character is misunderstood. No one in his life thinks that he can do what he wants to do and no one really believes in him, and I feel like that’s relatable. I feel like that all of the time. SP: His girlfriend seems very supportive. MB: I think that that’s the paradox if the film. She is the one person he’s closest to in his life, and he can’t tell the truth to her anymore, because of his changing feelings. That was painful in real life, and I think that’s what works about the film. For most people when they watch the film, the moment where it makes you cringe is when he starts talking about her on stage, because you’re just going, “Oh no. We like her. Why is he doing this?” SP: It’s very clear he doesn’t ever want her to see him perform. We don’t ever see her in the audience of one of his shows. Did the girlfriend who was sort of the model for this never see that material? MB: The reality of it was, she knew that I had jokes about her, but I feel like the more I went on the road, the more specific the jokes got and the less she saw them. For film construction, we had to assemble it that way story-wise. That’s also why I’m “Matt Pandamiglio” and not Mike Birbiglia. SP: The condition you have is called…”? MB: REM Behavior Disorder. Something like 60 percent of Americans sleepwalk, or some really high number. I was shocked by it. A guy whose real name is Dr. Demented [who appears in the film as himself] wrote a wonderful book on sleep and sleep habits, and it’s a big problem. People are sleep deprived in our country. It’s a really common and dangerous thing. SP: In addition to co-writing the screenplay and being the lead actor, why did you decide piling directing on top of those was a good idea? MB: I always wanted to direct films, since I was about 19 or 20 years old, and what I discovered was that I couldn’t afford to financially. It’s so expensive. I was directing shorts and just burning through money and I realized that making movies is the opposite of having a job. You are spending money, so it’s the opposite of taking in money. So it was a little like a suppressed dream all through my 20s. When push came to shove with this movie, I wasn’t going to direct it. It was with a company that makes a lot of films and it was going to be a larger-budget film—maybe as much as $7 million, but then they decided that they didn’t think the script was ready, and Ira and I felt like the script was ready. So we parted ways amicably, and we said “Let’s try to make it for $1 million.” I’m friends with Lena [Dunham], and she made TINY FURNITURE; I’m friends with like Jeff Garland who had made I WANT SOMEONE TO EAT CHEESE WITH. There were a lot of people who I was friends with, like Craig Zobel who did COMPLIANCE this year. They all said to me, “You should direct it, because you’re the closest to the material.” Jeff Garland literally said to me, “If you hire a director, you’re just going to fight with him the whole time. It was other filmmakers who gave me the confidence to direct. SP: What were Ira’s contributions to the screenplay? MB: It’s a really complex crediting, but all three of the other writers (Glass, brother Joe Birbiglia, and Seth Barrish] are people who I have collaborated with intensely over many years. Ira and I worked with each other over the last four or five years; Seth I worked with for about eight year; and my brother I had been working with since I was 19 years old. I always held the master document, but we would have sessions of just me and Ira or just me and Seth or me, Ira, Seth, and Joe. I’ve always felt that the thing about Ira is that he’s a real “story Jedi.” He’s a real stickler for perfection in telling stories. In a lot of ways, that’s the reason the film works, because there were scenes that I really liked, and he would go, “We are not feeling anything from this character,” and I would be “But it’s funny, because of this, and it moves the story.” He would just go, “No, we need something that is more along the lines of this.” In many ways, he did a lot of dramaturgical work on it. His standards on his radio show, his TV show, and with this movie are absurdly high. SP: The relationship with the girlfriend, and almost equally the relationship you have with your parents in the film, are fueling these dreams and sleepwalk incidents. MB: Sure. SP: Assuming that’s true, how did it feel coming to the realization that these outside forces were controlling you? MB: Realizations occur over time. It’s very rare that we kind of have “ah-ha” moments that exist in fiction and film. The Mark moment of, “Oh, I should talk about myself on stage,” in film that moment has to exist, because an audience can’t compute a passage of time realization. In terms of having a realization that my family and all of these pressures were affecting my dreams, I would say I’m still getting that now. I’m not even fully there yet. It’s tricky, because it’s a combination of a biological disorder that I have, which is similar to behaviors where people have dopamine deficiency, and also that I have extreme anxiety about things that I’m repressing. I think it’s mostly my fault, like I’m a people pleaser in some sense and I want to make people happy. When you have a duel goal, where one is you want to do this very unorthodox thing with your life—in this case being a comedian—and then the other thing, which is to make everyone else in your life happy when no one really understands what the other goal is. Steve Prokopy is the Chicago Editor for Ain’t It Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com), where he has contributed film reviews and filmmaker & actor interviews under the name “Capone” since 1998. In 2005, he also joined the staff of the Chicago-based media outlet GapersBlock.com as the site’s Friday film critic with his Steve@theMovies column. The Music Box Theatre Takes the Challenge to “Outguess Ebert”
by Dave Jennings
Last Friday the Music Box Theatre, via its social networks, threw down the gauntlet and challenged Roger Ebert, one of the greatest living film critics, to a battle of Oscar guesses. After a period of what we can only assume was deep and thoughtful consideration, Mr. Ebert publicly accepted our ‘foolish’ challenge. On February 8th, as part of his annual “Outguess Ebert” contest, Mr. Ebert announced his predictions for the 2012 Academy Awards, which take place this Sunday. The Music Box (and its fans) believe we know better. From Mr. Ebert’s website: “In self-defense, I will point out that the deadline for my predictions was Feb. 7, with the Oscars more than two weeks away, on Feb. 26. Predicting so far in advance is a handicap, and as a result, you have an excellent chance of outguessing me. Still, this annual contest is fun and provides me with an opportunity to show how badly I can do.” The Music Box Theatre will solicit the opinions of their over 13,000 Facebook fans and nearly 8,000 Twitter Followers in six categories to help make predictions to outguess Ebert. So, while the winners of Ebert’s challenge could win a an all-expense paid free trip to LA for a film premiere, the gentleman’s bet between the Music Box Staff and Ebert is simple… if the Music Box Theatre wins Roger will offer signed copies of his books to give away to selected Music Box patrons… but if Ebert wins he will get to pick a film of his choosing to screen publicly at the Music Box Theatre. That’s right, if Roger wins, he get the Music Box for a night. Here’s how it will work: From Monday, February 20th through Saturday February 25th the Music Box will post a Facebook poll each day, asking the assistance of their fans in making a decision in five categories: Foreign Language Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, & Best Picture—at the end of the workday, the Music Box staff will make a prediction and award prizes to those who participated! On Sunday night either the Music Box or Mr. Ebert will emerge victorious. Tune in to the Music Box Theatre Facebook and Twitter feeds for all the fun! https://www.facebook.com/musicboxchicago MBT welcome #OChi and #OWS
by Dave Jennings
The Music Box offers #OWS and #OChi members free tickets to see Harlan Country USA. The Music Box Theatre Live discussion and interview with director Steve James (Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters) and Robert K. Elder (author The Film That Changed My Life) We have a very special screening of the 1976 Oscar-winning documentary Harlan County USA at the Music Box Theatre this Sunday, February 19! This screening will be hosted by Steve James, the director of Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters, who chose Harlan County USA as his pivotal film experience when interviewed for Robert K. Elder’s book The Film That Changed my Life. This screening is being offered as part of the Music Box Theatre’s ongoing series based on Mr. Elder’s book and will feature a live discussion and interview with Steve James and Robert Elder following the film. We would like to extend an invitation to Occupy Chicago protesters to attend the 1:30pm screening of Harlan County USA as our guests. Members of the movement can simply say the code phrase “I Occupy Chicago” at the Music Box Theatre box office that afternoon to receive a complimentary ticket. This offer is limited to 200 tickets and applies to the 1:30PM event only but protesters are welcome to purchase tickets at the regular rate for the 5:00pm screening of “The Interrupters” if they choose to. http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/events/harlan-county-usa-2012-02-19-458-pm Special Discount to “The Intergalactic Nemesis”
by Dave Jennings
The Music Box Theatre wants to offer a special deal for “The Intergalactic Nemesis” this Sunday, Nov 6th at 4:30pm! ONE DAY ONLY! SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH AT 4:30PM! The Music Box Theatre is proud to offer a special deal for the first 50 people to purchase $2 tickets* for this AWESOME show! It began as a radio play performed in a coffeehouse in downtown Austin. It grew to sell out this midsize cityʼs 1,200-seat Paramount Theatre. Giant projections of comic book images were added. It reached 4,000 Austinites in this new form over three performances at Austinʼs new Long Center for the Performing Arts. Now itʼs poised to invade the rest of the world. The Intergalactic Nemesis Live-Action Graphic Novel will barnstorm more than 30 cities in its first world tour. The show lands in Chicagoʼs Music Box as part of a monthlong Midwest leg on Sunday, November 6, at 4:30 PM. To purchase tickets at this discounted rate, CLICK HERE! When those 50 tickets sell out, you can still purchase ticket at the regular price by CLICKING HERE If you want more info, visit the main page for the event at: http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/features/the-intergalactic-nemesis/ A Very Carrie Christmas!
by Dave Jennings
Please be advised, our Carrie event, originally scheduled for Sunday, October 9, will now take place on Sunday, December 4. Please be advised, our Carrie event, originally scheduled for Sunday, October 9, will now take place on Sunday, December 4. While we regret this sudden change in schedule, we are very pleased to announce that Piper Laurie, who played Carrie’s mother in the film, will be in attendance on December 4 to discuss the film, her extensive life in the entertainment industry, and will autograph her book “Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir.” This event will now be called “A Very Carrie Christmas,” with all the fun and camp previously planned. Those who had previously purchased tickets to the event will have their tickets honored and will be contacted immediately and offered refunds or exchanges. Tickets are now on sale for the December 4th the event. Tickets will be $12 in advance, $15 day of. Piper Laurie’s new book “Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir.” Will also be available for sale at the event. If you have any questions, you may contact Buck LePard, Assistant General Manager, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Best Regards, Music Box Theatre and Camp Midnight present… A VERY ‘CARRIE’ CHRISTMAS! WITH STAR PIPER LAURIE IN-PERSON! Sunday, December 4 Music Box Theatre and Camp Midnight present a one-of-a-kind screening of the infamous 1976 horror film CARRIE their first ever horror/camp screening to kick off the Holiday season on Sunday, December 4. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Hell in a Handbag Productions, Inc., the theatre company noted for their one of a kind theatrical parody shows, including a hit musical version of Carrie, called “SCARRIE The Musical” that debuted in 1998 and was revived in 2005. The event begins with a Camp Midnight pre-show hosted by Dick O’Day and featuring David Cerda, Artistic Director of Hell in a Handbag Productions and two of the troupe’s hilarious acting mainstays, Ed Jones and Alex Grelle. Following the pre-show, Brian DePalma’s thrilling 1976 teen horror classic CARRIE will be screened, complete with “frighteningly funny” interactive audience guide and “hellaciously hilarious” running commentary from O’Day and Cerda. Star and Camp Icon Piper Laurie will also be on-hand for a spirited, post-screening Q&A hosted by O’Day and Cerda. Those who had previously purchased tickets to the event will have their tickets honored and will be contacted immediately and offered refunds or exchanges. Tickets are now on sale for the December 4th the event. Tickets will be $12 in advance, $15 day of. Piper Laurie’s new book “Learning to Live Out Loud: A Memoir.” Will also be available for sale at the event. EVENT DETAILS Who: Camp Midnight and the Music Box Theater present “The Room: Live” Is Not Happening! It’s Tearing Us Apart!
by Buck LePard
We’re sorry to report that, due to scheduling issues, the Music Box is not going to present THE ROOM: LIVE on October 21 & 22 as previously announced in our schedule. We’re saddened that the event has fallen through, we hope to be able to reschedule it in the future, but we’ve got lots of other great events coming up in the meantime. Second City Student Discount Tickets to Wet Hot American Summer
by Buck LePard
The Music Box is offering discount tickets for Second City Training Center’s students to Wednesday’s screening of Wet Hot American Summer! The Music Box Theatre is offering Second City students $1 off tickets for our screening of Wet Hot American Summer on Wednesday, October 5th at 10:30pm. The screening will be presented by Scott Tobias of The AV Club and feature a Q&A with director/co-writer David Wain. To purchase your discount tickets, click the ticket link below and enter “SKYLAB” in the “Use Coupon” box, then present your Second City ID at the box office when you attend the event. Your chance to win tickets to CATCHING HELL this Thursday!
by Dave Jennings
Cinema/Chicago and ESPN FILMS will be hosting an exclusive screening of Catching Hell, directed by Oscar-winning director, Alex Gibney, on Thursday August 25 at 7pm… and we have a select number of tickets to give away FREE! Here is your chance for you and a guest to win! With five outs remaining in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, a foul ball descended from the cold Chicago sky, seemingly destined for the glove of Cubs left fielder Moises Alou. But a flurry of hands reached up from the left field stands, and one fatefully tipped the ball away from a frustrated Alou. It belonged to Cubs fan Steve Bartman, and as the cameras subsequently isolated on him trying to stay composed in the stands, most long suffering Cubs fans, including a chorus of hostile ones in Wrigley Field, quickly became convinced that he had swatted away Chicago’s chance of advancing to the World Series for the first time in 58 years. Cinema/Chicago and ESPN FILMS will be hosting an exclusive screening of Catching Hell, directed by Oscar winning director, Alex Gibney, on Thursday August 25 at 7pm at The Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport Ave. A panel discussion will immediately follow the screening. Scheduled to attend: director Alex Gibney, producer Gary Cohen, EPSN writer Wayne Drehs, and Chasing October documentary director Matt Liston. This screening is exclusively for Cinema/Chicago members— and those who sign up to win HERE The winners will be notified between noon and 1pm on Tuesday, Aug 23rd! Your chance to win a free Noir City pass (and dress up!)
by Dave Jennings
Want to win a free pass for all 16 films in the Noir City Film Festival? A value of $160? Here are two chances to win! So, we are holding two raffles, one online and one in person! You could win Free admission to the entire Noir city Film Festival! OPTION 1— ONLINE RAFFLE! You have until Friday at noon to sign up! OPTION 2— IN PERSON RAFFLE! Ticket giveaway for Tuesday night of the Summer Music Film Festival!
by Dave Jennings
Sign up here for a chance to win tickets for Tuesday’s triple feature! This concert film is best viewed with people who know the words to Dispatch songs… so spread the word. The Music Box Theatre is giving away 25 free admit two passes to Tuesday night’s presentation. That’s right. So, your chances are pretty good. Pass this on to every Jam Band friend you know. Sign up here to win tickets to the TUESDAY NIGHT of the Music Box Theatre Summer Music Film Festival presented by CHIRP RADIO. Winners will get tickets for two to the following screenings: Now’s your chance to win tickets to closing night of the Chicago French Film Festival!
by Dave Jennings
Want to see the closing screening of the Chicago French Film Festival on Sunday night for FREE? Enter to win a ticket for you and a guest to see The Hedgehog on July 24, 7:00pm directed by Mona Achache, 2010, 100m. CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION! Actress Josiane Balasko scheduled to appear! Another great opportunity to get in free to another film at the Chicago French Film Festival! JUST CLICK HERE TO ENTER TO WIN TICKETS FOR YOU AND A FRIEND! Win free tickets to the opening night double feature of the Chicago French Film Festival
by Dave Jennings
The Music Box is giving away 30 tickets to the French Film Festival! Enter here. Vive le Cinema! The Music Box hosts three days of the best films in recent French cinema! Featuring special guests and film presentations. Enter below to win passes to the July 22 opening night double feature of Romantics Anonymous at 7:45pm and Point Blank at 10:00pm. A select number of winners will be notified via email at noon on Friday, July 22nd. Music Box Summer Music Festival
by Dave Jennings
July 25 – 28, 2011 The only festival that will feature The Swell Season, Moby, Radiohead, Dispatch, the Talking Heads, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, and Neil Young. The Music Box Theatre is proud to announce that tickets are now on sale for the 2011 “Music Box Theatre Summer Music Film Festival” which will run at the Music Box Theatre July 25th-28th and features an eclectic mix of films. The Festival will run between some of Chicago’s biggest music festivals, and centers on telling the story of music through film. Featuring:
This is the only festival that will feature The Swell Season, Moby, Radiohead, Dispatch, the Talking Heads, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, and Neil Young. The Music Box Theatre Summer Music Film Festival will present six films (Two of which have never been screened theatrically in Chicago) including old favorites, brand new films, and underground icons. Audiences will experience these films on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen and in an atmosphere of music and film unparalleled in the Chicago Summer music festival scene. Visit the main page http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/collections/the-music-box-theatre-summer-music-film-festival/ for more information. Taxi Driver opens at the Music Box this Friday!
by Dave Jennings
Starting July 1st, the Martin Scorsese classic returns to the big screen! In honor of its 35th anniversary, Taxi Driver is being screened at the Music Box in a new 35mm restoration! Nominated for 4 Academy Awards and winner of the Palm d’Ore at Cannes, this quintessential piece of 1970s cinema is a must-see for film devotees and casual moviegoers alike! For more on Taxi Driver, check out Alison Frank’s breakdown of the film at The Moving Arts Film Journal by clicking HERE Grease Sing-Along
by Dave Jennings
Coming this July to the Music Box Theatre, the classic high school musical! Sing along with the T-Birds and Pink Ladies at this special summer event! Featuring the classic songs… Prop Bag! Advance tickets: $12.50 Day-of tickets: $15 Purchase your tickets Today! Click HERE! Sneak Preview of VIVA RIVA! at the Music Box Theatre on Monday, June 20th at 7:30pm
by Dave Jennings
Sign up for this free screening! By signing up for this screening, you will receive one free admission to our Sneak Preview of VIVA RIVA! at the Music Box Theatre on Monday, June 20th at 7:30pm. Please note that this RSVP doesn’t confirm you a seat, as this is a first-come, first-serve screening. See the newest Music Box Films release long before it is released in Chicago this Monday, June 20th at 7:30pm. Seating will begin at 7pm, and the screening will begin at 7:30pm. All admissions are First Come, First Served, however, you MUST RSVP to be on the list for admission! Click the link above to be RSVP’d for this event! We want to know what you think about the film and will invite you to give us your thoughts following the screening. Viva Riva! Directed by Djo Tunda Wa Munga “A seductive combination of African mystique and hardboiled noir storytelling.” -Twitch Film “A blast from start to finish” – Variety Riva is a small time operator who has just returned to his hometown of Kinshasa, Congo with a major score: a fortune in hijacked gasoline. Wads of cash in hand and out for a good time, Riva is soon entranced by beautiful night club denizen Nora, the kept woman of a local gangster. Into the mix comes an Angolan crime lord relentlessly seeking the return of his stolen shipment of gasoline. Winner of 6 African Movie Academy Awards Written, directed and produced by Djo Tunda Wa Munga WINNER: African Movie Academy Awards 2011 WINNER: PAN African Film Festival 2011 2010 Toronto International Film Festival (Official Selection) VIVA RIVA is the first Congolese feature film in the Lingala language and the first Congolese feature distributed in the U.S. It’s coming…. HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN
by Dave Jennings
Thanks, in huge part to all of you out there on the internet, we are proud to announce that HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN will be playing at least 4 screenings at the Music Box Theatre You guys are awesome. Hundreds of people shared and liked our blog post on Facebook. There were 60 comments on our blog. People Tweeted, shared, and did their part to get the word out, and we were able to convince the powers that be to screen this film in Chicago. Awesome. If you want to see the outpouring of support, visit the previous blog post by clicking HERE Here’s the current schedule: Showtimes Saturday, Jun 18 Friday, Jun 24 Saturday, Jun 25 This gory, gleefully over-the-top revenge fantasy stars Rutger Hauer as the Hobo, a bum who rolls into town hoping to start over, only to find his adopted city saturated in violence and ruled by a vicious crime lord known as the Drake (Brian Downey). The Hobo’s answer? Pick up his handy pump-action scattergun and start laying waste to crooks, corrupt cops and every other lowlife who crosses his path. This is the theatrical trailer… pretty tame compared to what you will see in the film: This trailer is pretty intense, BE WARNED: The New Cult Canon presents Starship Troopers!
by Dave Jennings
On Wednesday, June 15th at 7:30pm, the AV Club and Music Box Theatre present Starship Troopers, the 1997 sci-fi alien war film from Paul Verhoeven, director of Total Recall and Showgirls. Nominated for both an Oscar and MTV Movie Award, the film bombed on its initial release, earning little more than half its 100 million dollar budget, but has since amassed a cult following and gained a reputation as a high octane satire on the state of modern warfare. The cast includes future Bond Girl Denise Richards, this year’s Tony Awards host Neil Patrick Harris, Jake “Son of Gary” Busey, Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and Casper Van Dien, who would later reprise his role of Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. A.V. Club critic Scott Tobias, author of the New Cult Canon column, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterwards. To purchase advance tickets, CLICK HERE Fun Facts: Read Scott Tobias’ original write-up of Starship Troopers CLICK HERE Watch the trailer for the 2005 Starship Troopers Video Game CLICK HERE Help Us Bring HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN to the Music Box Theatre
by Dave Jennings
We are looking for your help to bring HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, the new film about just that- a hobo with a shotgun, a vigilante hobo who delivers justice with that shotgun, to Chicago. Can you help? Have you heard of this film yet? It’s a simple story of a vigilante hobo who delivers justice with a shotgun. Yep…. that’s it. A train pulls into the station – it’s the end of the line. A Hobo jumps from a freight car, hoping for a fresh start in a new city. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an urban hell. This is a world where criminals rule the streets and Drake, the city’s crime boss, reigns supreme alongside his sadistic murderous sons, Slick & Ivan. Amidst the chaos, the Hobo comes across a pawn shop window displaying a second hand lawn mower. He dreams of making the city a beautiful place and starting a new life for himself. But as the brutality continues to rage around him, he notices a shotgun hanging above the lawn mower… Quickly, he realizes the only way to make a difference in this town is with that gun in his hand and two shells in its chamber So, we want to bring it here to Chicago. We really do. Can you help? If we get enough comments below, enough shares on Facebook and Twitter, we think we can get the distributor to bring it here. That’s right, you have a choice in programming the Music Box Theatre. Let’s see what we can do together. 1) Comment below about why you want to see this film 2) Share this page on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icon in the upper right corner of this page 3) Come and see this film when and if we get it! That’s it all you Fans,Twitters, and Internet users out there. Help us out by spreading the word and making Summer 2011 a little more brutal. Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies: 13 Assassins
by Meghan
Meghan Buckner reviews ’13 Assassins’, now playing at the Music Box. When it comes to Japan, people think of a few things. Anime, sushi, ramen, ninja, samurai, and Takashi Miike. Okay, so maybe most people don’t think “Takashi Miike”, but for those of you out there who know the name, you probably also know he has a new movie out called* ’13 Assassins’*. Anyone who has seen a Miike film knows what to expect for the most part: a ton of violence, bloodshed, disturbing gore, distressing storylines, shocking images and bizarre characters. ’13 Assassins’ has only two of these, making it a bit more accessible than some of his previous work. ‘13 Assassins’ is a story of a tyrant in feudal Japan, and the people who want to prevent him from rising in the Shogunate ranks any further. As we are shown in the opening title sequence, “the era of the samurai is waning” and Japan is in the middle of several years of peace. Lord Naritsugu (the tyrant) seems to be bored of such peace and is causing trouble throughout the land. Lord Doi, an advisor to the Shogun, discreetly hires on a well-known samurai by the name of Shizaemon Shimida to bring down Naritsugu. Shizaemon recruits 11 other samurai, goes after the tyrant and picks up a bandit on the way. Do not be turned off by the large amount of characters – most of them we only see once in a while, and it’s fairly easy to keep track. There is violence, but the most disturbing parts go unseen – which is appreciated by the writer of this entry. Miike does not revel in the gore and bloodshed in this movie; he revels in the samurai legend and history. The act of harakiri (Japanese ritual of suicide due to dishonor) plays a decent sized role, as does the notion of what makes a samurai a samurai, a topic debated between Shizaemon’s rival and Naritsugu’s guard, Hanbei. These topics are presented in a way to make the audience ask themselves what being a samurai means – to die for your master, or to defend the people? We are given two characters who represent both sides and while Miike certainly wants you to pick one side over the other, the viewer is still free to ask themselves the aforementioned question. The violence that is shown is still brutal (it IS a samurai film and people are being cut with swords after all), but is done in a more realistic, less stylized and exaggerated way that is common to Miike films (I’m looking at you, Ichi the Killer.) This is not to say it isn’t at all stylized or exaggerated – it is, just not to the usual extent. The fight scenes are excellent, in particular the final one. Battles are either quick or drawn out in order to emphasize the skill of the samurai currently duking it out, and the sound design for the clanging of swords is a wonderful touch. Keep an eye out for any scene involving Hirayama, the guy is pretty awesome to watch in action. So then, is ’13 Assassins’ a flick worth checking out? I say yes, especially if you normally avoid Miike as a director. This is not Ichi the Killer or Visitor Q or Audition or even Dead or Alive. It is a samurai movie made in modern times that appeals to fans of Miike, fans of samurai, fans of Japanese cinema, and fans of period pieces. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a good introduction to Miike in general, but it’s certainly a decent example of what he can do beyond gorefests, horror, and offbeat comedy. While there are some shocking or questionable scenes, most of the film is straight-up samurai fun. Check it out! Music Box Films Is Looking For Summer Interns!
by Andrew
Wanna spend a summer helping Music Box Films take over the Indie Film world?! With your help, it’s totally possible. First thing’s first, though: Take a minute to learn about who we are, and the kind of movies we release. All the info is at http://www.musicboxfilms.com . Still interested? Good, because we’re looking for enthusiastic summer interns to join our busy (BUSY) team. You will be working in a small, but fast-paced office in all aspects of distribution. Excellent communication skills as well as an outgoing, open-minded personality, are a must. Tasks include researching press stories, assisting with marketing campaigns, maintaining our social media presence, previewing screeners, and general support of the entire team. OK, here’s the nitty gritty stuff. Applicants must meet the following qualifications in order to be considered: · Must be currently enrolled in, or a recent (less than 1 year) graduate of a bachelor’s or master’s degree program, ideally in marketing or communications (advertising/public relations) · Must be able to dedicate 15-20 hours per week for 10-12 weeks, beginning the week of Monday, May 24th or Tuesday, June 1st · Must be able to bring a laptop computer to work daily, with wireless internet capability; Microsoft Office is ideal but not required Please note: this is an unpaid internship, however we are happy to fill out the necessary paperwork brought in by those seeking college credit. We can also provide free popcorn. Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). No phone calls please. Roger Ebert reviews 13 Assassins
by Buck LePard
13 Assassins opens this Friday! Check out Roger Ebert’s review! Film critic Roger Ebert gives 13 Assassins three-and-a-half stars. Find out why by reading his review HERE DePaul presents Premiere VI Film Festival
by Dave Jennings
Come to the Music Box for DePaul University’s annual showcase of its promising student filmmakers! On Friday, June 3rd, the Music Box welcomes DePaul University’s presentation of the student filmmakers, featuring the best in live action, comedy, documentary, animated shorts, and music videos. For more in-depth look at the festival, check out this article by Tiffany Boncan Click Here The Gene Siskel Film Center celebrates Charlie Chaplin
by Buck LePard
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. The Charlie Chaplin series includes screenings of such classics as The Kid, Modern Times and The Gold Rush, his later ventures out of silent cinema like A King In New York and and Limelight, as well as a collection of Chaplin shorts. Sunday double-bill discount! For showtimes and more information, Click Here Interview with Bill Cunningham New York director Richard Press
by Buck LePard
Bill Cunningham New York director Richard Press and producer Phillip Gefter visit the Music Box on Friday, May 20th! The Music Box Theatre welcomes Richard Press and Phillip Gefter as they present their new film Bill Cunningham New York. Recently, director Richard Press spoke with FilmRadar about the process of making the film and his relationship to its central subject. Check out the interview by clicking HERE Purchase advance tickets for Friday, May 20th screenings of Bill Cunningham New York by clicking HERE NPR Interview with Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams
by Buck LePard
Before Meek’s Cutoff opens at the Music Box on Friday, May 13th, check out this interview with the filmmakers. NPR recently chatted with Meek’s Cutoff director Kelly Reichardt and star Michelle Williams about their new film, the real experience of the early settlers and the way the actors prepared for the film. Click here to listen Saturday Silent Cinema presents “IT” with Clara Bow
by Buck LePard
The Music Box Theatre presents the 1927 film with live theatre organ accompaniment. In the next installment of Silent Cinema Saturday series, the Music Box Theatre presents IT! The film stars Clara Bow as a saucy lingerie salesgirl who sets her sights on the handsome owner (Antonio Moreno) of a department store. Leading him on a romantic chase from the Hotel Ritz to the whirling attractions of Coney Island, she decides to crash a yacht party in a last-ditch effort to get her man. To purchase tickets to IT, CLICK HERE For more info on Silent Cinema Saturday CLICK HERE The Top 5 Most Absurd MacGyver Episodes
by Andrew
Just realized that MacGyver is available on Netflix Streaming and had totally forgotten just how ridiculously, crazily Camptacular that show was. Here are the Top Five Most Absurd Episodes As Described By Netflix: Trumbo’s World The Road Not Taken Jack in the Box Kill Zone The Outsiders Kevin Kline Talks Queen to Play with the AV Club
by Dave Jennings
As part of their Random Roles series, the AV Club chats with actor Kevin Kline about many of his film roles, including Queen To Play, opening Friday May 6th at the Music Box! “we live in the gray area, but films tend to be black and white. Black hats, white hats, good guys, bad guys; it’s oversimplifying. I like ambiguity. I like when all of the strings are not all neatly tied up at the end—the Hollywood ending, that sort of thing. This was nicely ambiguous. I enjoyed that.” —Kevin Kline, on Queen To Play Read the full interview by clicking HERE NUREMBERG opens Friday, May 6th at the Music Box
by Buck LePard
With Sandra Schulberg – Restorationist and Daughter of Stuart Schulberg – IN PERSON! Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today depicts the most famous courtroom drama in modern times, and the first to make extensive use of film as evidence. Strict limits were placed, however, on the Army Signal Corps cameramen. In the end, they were permitted to film only about 25 hours over the entire course of the 11 month trial. This was to prove a great impediment for director Stuart Schulberg when he was engaged to make the official film about the trial, in 1946, shortly after its conclusion. Restorationist Sandra Schulberg will be introducing and holding a Q&A after screenings this weekend, so please join us as we present this historic film. Roger Ebert on “Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us”
by Dave Jennings
Roger Ebert shares his thoughts on a film he says is “…a remarkable documentary that’s also one of the most beautiful nature films I’ve seen….” Queen of the Sun In the Central Valley of California, there are 500,000 acres of almond trees. All almond trees. Nothing but almond trees. This is wrong. It is not natural. For these trees to bear almonds, they must be pollinated. But bees cannot live there, for there is nothing to sustain them when the trees are not in blossom. So hives containing millions of bees must be trucked more than a thousand miles, and then trucked back again. Almonds are an agribusiness, run by corporations concerned only with profits. In “Queen of the Sun,” you will learn that bees would prosper in the valley if there were year-around nectar for them. Would it kill a corporation to set aside some tracts of land for flowers and vegetables? Wouldn’t that be easier and more pleasant than mile after mile and row after row of almond trees? Easier for the corporations and easier for the bees? From time to time, a bee truck will be involved in a highway accident. These aren’t cute little yellow trucks, but long flatbed trailer-trucks. The bees escape, motorists panic, the cops are called, TV helicopters circle, exterminators swarm in, and no one asks — why in the hell are we trucking bees across the country? CONTINUED….. Read the entire article HERE: Just Confirmed: QUEEN OF THE SUN with Taggart Siegel Director in person
by Dave Jennings
Director Taggart Siegel will be in attendance to answer questions about the film on Friday, Apr 29 7:30pm, Saturday, Apr 30 at 7:30pm, Sunday, May 1 at 7:30pm and Monday, May 2 7:30pm The schedule has been finalized for screenings of QUEEN OF THE SUN through Thursday, May 5, 2011, as well as the special screenings with Director Taggart Siegel in attendance. See all scheduled screenings, please visit our SHOWTIMES page or the film page for QUEEN OF THE SUN: WHAT ARE THE BEES TELLING US? All screenings are $9.25. Tickets will only be offered for advance sale for screening with the Director in attendance, all screenings can be purchased at the door on the day of the screenings. Those screenings with director Q and A are as follows: Friday, Apr 29 7:30pm, Saturday, Apr 30 at 7:30pm, Sunday, May 1 at 7:30pm and Monday, May 2 7:30pm Tickets can be purchased by clicking here - WTTW TV (PBS) 11 live interview with Taggart Siegel 4/27/11 http://www.wttw.com/chicagotonight/video/A6J3jc4zafqhTWggVMqEiLsSoQAJ_g23/ WBEZ FM (NPR) live interview with Taggart Siegel 4/28/11 New film looks at the buzz around the worldwide bee crisis CHICAGO TRIBUNE TIMEOUT CHICAGO CHICAGO READER Taggart Siegel, director of the popular eco-doc The Real Dirt on Farmer John (2005), turns his attention to the mysterious drop in honeybee populations across the U.S. and Europe, a phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder.” Because 40 percent of American food production involves pollination by bees, CCD is serious business, and scientists have blamed everything from pesticides to viruses to cell phone use. For the most part Siegel fingers corporate agribusiness, whose shortsighted procedures include monocropping (planting the same crop acre after acre, year after year), migratory beekeeping (importing hives for systematic crop pollination), and feeding the little critters high-fructose corn syrup to keep them hopped up and ready for action. The documentary begins to lose its shape as Siegel ponders the spiritual and cultural impact of the honeybee, but it does succeed in flagging a potentially critical problem. By J.R. Jones The Importance of Being Earnest Comes To The Music Box!
by Buck LePard
On Thursday June 9th and Sunday June 12th, the Music Box presents the Broadway performance of the Oscar Wilde classic. Roundabout Theatre Company, L.A. Theatre Works and BY Experience are thrilled to collaborate on this exciting theatrical project for movie audiences in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to be able to experience the best of Broadway. For more information, check out the articles below! Read more about Broadway shows coming to movie theatres HERE Watch dramatic reenactments of Jersey Shore by the cast of The Importance of Being Earnest HERE And don’t forget to purchase your tickets Here! Music Box presents the 4th Annual Mother’s Day with “Mommie Dearest”
by Dave Jennings
Celebrate Mother’s Day at the Music Box Theatre with Dick O’Day, Hell in a Handbag Productions, and Camp Midnight! With a portion of proceeds to benefit Vital Bridges The Music Box Theatre, Dick O’Day, Hell in a Handbag Productions, and Camp Midnight invite you to a special Mother’s Day event: Mother’s Day with “Mommie Dearest” on Sunday, May 8, 2011. With a portion of proceeds to benefit Vital Bridges – at the forefront of helping men, women and children impacted by HIV and AIDS build healthier lives for over twenty years. The Joan-a-Palooza festivities start at 1:30 pm with a pre-show featuring Dick O’Day and the Hell in a Handbag players. Join us for a Mother/Daughter matching outfit contest! Be amazed by a music video for “Mad at the Dirt” performed by The Joans, the world’s first band dedicated to “giving Joan Crawford a rock-n-roll voice.” A screening of the over-the-top 1981 camp classic immediately follows. Audience members will receive an interactive audience guide, and members of Camp Midnight will provide hilarious running commentary throughout the film. Mother’s Day with “Mommie Dearest” is being hosted by the camptacular emcee Dick O’Day (Emmy award winning “Wild Chicago” correspondent) of whom the Chicago Reader opined, “He might get beaten up on a regular basis if he weren’t so damn funny.” ABOUT THE FILM MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH! WHAT: A Mother’s Day Screening of “Mommie Dearest” with all the camptacular fun you can imagine. It’s like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 meets Joan Crawford and Ricky Gervais WHO: Presented by the Music Box Theatre, Dick O’Day, Hell in a Handbag, and Camp Midnight, hosted by Dick O’Day and Hell in a Handbag’s David Cerda WHERE: The Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport, Chicago, IL 60613 WHEN: Sunday, May 8th, 2011. Brunch staring at 11am at the Blue Bayou, festivities begin at the Music Box at 1:30pm TICKETS: $12 to $28.50 http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/events 773.871.6607 Seating is General Admission with a special section of reserved general admission seating devoted to VIM seating. EXTRA BONUS: The First 300 attendees in their seats will receive their own commemorative wire hanger! More info Kelly McGillis talks Stake Land
by Dave Jennings
Movieweb.com talks with the Top Gun star about the new horror film, opening at the Music Box Theatre this Friday, April 29th! The iconic flight instructor is back in a new movie about vampires and zombies Kelly McGillis first made her presence known to a national movie audience when she co-starred with Harrison Ford in the classic Amish thriller Witness. After that she played with the fly boys in Top Gun and acted opposite Jodie Foster in The Accused. After a long break from the movies, Kelly McGillis is back in the apocalyptic vampire adventure Stake Land. She plays a nun whose flock has turned into rabid monsters and she goes on the run with Connor Paolo and scream queen Danielle Harris. We recently spoke with Kelly about her new film, her new marriage, and her former life in Key West. How long has it been since you were in a major motion picture? Kelly McGillis: I don’t know. I have no clue. I’m a big fan of yours. Are you a horror fan or is this out of the box for you? Kelly McGillis: Totally out of the box. I’ve never even seen a horror movie quite honestly. I don’t really like scary movies. But it was really fun to do! Where did you guys film this? Read the exclusive interview here. Queen of the Sun opens this week!
by Dave Jennings
The startling new documentary comes to the Music Box Friday, April 29th. Read an interview with director Taggart Siegel. Tommy Wiseau Q&A at the Music Box Theatre
by Dave Jennings
Tommy Wiseau answers questions from his most dedicated fans after a screening of his cult hit The Room. I Met Tommy Wiseau at the Music Box Theatre
by Dave Jennings
Are you one of the many fans who met cult icon Tommy Wiseau during one of his trips to the Music Box? Check out our Facebook group! The Room director/writer/star Tommy Wiseau has visited the Music Box Theatre several times, much to the delight of his fans. If you’ve got a Tommy story you want to share or need a place to show of your pictures of you and the football-throwing star, join our Facebook group! I Met Tommy Wiseau At The Music Box Theatre ODDSAC
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There was a time before YouTube, believe it or not, and if you wanted to see clips of your favorite band playing live, you either had to try and bootleg them from the next show you went to, which was not generally encouraged by most bands, or you could buy a concert video. Most of the music films discussed thus far are fairly easy to classify; they’re either a concert film or a documentary. ODDSAC is neither. ODDSAC is hard to classify, mainly because it is so utterly obscure. It is not so much a film, as it is pure art. They say the best art brings out a strong reaction in the viewer, whether it is positive or negative, and this film is no different. The whole movie has a surreal feeling to it, as if you are peeking in on someone’s deepest dreams, or nightmares, as it were. The concept behind this film was to make a “visual album”, that is to say, a close-knit collaboration between musician and film maker to make a visual representation of brand new, never-before-heard Animal Collective material. The guys in Animal Collective did not want to make all the music beforehand, and then bring it to a film maker to fill in the blanks, so to speak. They wanted a true collaboration in the creative process, where the film inspired the music, and the music inspired the film, and that is what they got. The director of the film, Danny Perez, had done a few music videos for Animal Collective, all equally bizarre, and was very familiar with the band’s style of music and influences, so it was an obvious choice for them. Danny Perez, who has done videos for songs such as “Summertime Clothes” and “Who Would Win A Rabbit”, brings a similar style associated with Animal Collective’s music videos to ODDSAC, which gives it that distinct Animal Collective taste and flavoring. The film doesn’t have any concrete plot, although after multiple viewings, one can draw their own conclusions. It is more of a series of vignettes loosely strung together with random eruptions of color and strange, mystifying imagery than any kind of traditional narrative. But then again, there is nothing traditional about Animal Collective’s music, so what else would you expect? Most of the scenes take place in bizarre landscapes, like a spooky forest haunted by cannibalistic vampires, or a mutated creature playing a drum set in the middle of a rock quarry. Some of the shots are so beautiful and strange that one can not help but wonder if is an actual place being depicted on screen, or if it is some kind of green screen trick, and that is half of the magic of the film. The other half is the music. Animal Collective’s music has always been considered “avante-garde” and “experimental”, but this is a whole new level of experimentation for them. Only a few tracks on the “visual album” have lyrics, whereas a good majority of the film is instrumental, which is not exactly the norm for Animal Collective. Most people know them for their odd vocal stylings and haunting-yet-somehow-catchy melodies. The film still does has some of that, and the songs that do have lyrics are quite exceptional, but the instrumental music is the real highlight. It is very dramatic and suiting to the mysterious, psychedelic, and sometimes graphic imagery portrayed on screen. The film itself is only about 50 minutes, but time becomes a rather meaningless concept once the film starts. As soon as you are immersed in the ocean of color, sight, and sound that is ODDSAC, your mind is under complete control by Animal Collective. Darren Lynn Bousman presents Mother’s Day
by Dave Jennings
Are you ready for this? Darren Lynn Bousman (SAW II, III, IV and REPO!) and special guests will be here to usher in Mother’s Day with Mother’s Day. Seriously, look at this still from the film. How could you not want to see this? OK, I totally understand how you could not want to see this. In fact, I see how much of the populace could avoid watching this… but not YOU. No, you love the messed up things the Music Box Theatre screens late at night. You love it. This is going to be no exception. This film has not been seen anywhere within 1,000 miles of Chicago yet. It was screened at Fantastic Fest last Fall. It’s a remake of a Charles Kaufman-directed Troma Films-distributed 1980 film. Tickets for this event are now FREE! That’s right! Crazy! You must RSVP here, and the first 500 to show up before the screening will get in for free. You will receive a confirmation a day or two before the screening. TICKETS ARE FREE, BUT YOU MUST RSVP BELOW! “Sides will be taken, secrets revealed, and sins punished as the hostages struggle to make it through the night alive.” GO TO FACEBOOK AND INVITE EVERYONE AND YOUR MOTHER TO THIS SEE MORE OF A DESCRIPTION ON OTHER PARTS OF OUR WEBSITE This film is not yet rated, no one under 17 will be admitted without an adult. Bill and Ted 3? Keanu Reeves talks
by Dave Jennings
Keanu Reeves talks about the possibility for a third film for the beloved duo. The Music Box Theatre and The AV Club recently hosted an event with Alex Winter, who revealed in a Q&A that a third Bill and Ted film is in the works. Now here what Keanu Reeves has to say on the matter! Free midnight tickets this Friday for The Last Dragon
by Dave Jennings
Free tickets to the most awesome midnight cult film of all time! On Monday, April 18th, the Music Box Theatre reached 10,000 Facebook fans! The small indie cinema on Chicago’s North Side has been showing films since 1929, and has kept with the times to communicate with independent film fans through social media. 10,000 fans is no small deal. The Music Box Theatre runs special promotions, free ticket give-aways, and even takes programming ideas through their Facebook page and Twitter feed. Why? Because it’s a great way to create an online community that will actually interact with the cinema and celebrate the films and events that happen at “Chicago’s Year Round Film Festival.” How does the “Little Cinema that Could” celebrate the achievement? They give away stuff. Free tickets! As promised on the Music Box Theatre Facebook page, the theatre will screen a midnight film for free! After confirming permission with the studio, the Music Box can announce that the Friday, April 22nd 11:59pm screening of The Last Dragon (1985, 108 minutes) will be free to any Facebook fan who RSVP’s through Music Box Theatre Facebook page. Seating is limited, and only the first 700 people who RSVP and show up on Friday night will get seats. RSVP for free tickets to The Last Dragon If you’re not already a fan of the MBT on Facebook, you really should be. Find us on Facebook. April 22, 23 Michael Schultz, 1985, 108m Motown music mogul Berry Gordy produced this all-purpose pastiche of 1970s and ’80s pop culture, which features martial arts, funk, blaxploitation, disco and recording star (and former Prince protégé) Vanity. Bruce Lee wannabe “Bruce” Leroy Green (Taimak) must protect Laura (Vanity) from gang boss Sho’nuff. Frankly, with lines like “Kiss my Converse!” we’re not sure why this movie isn’t already your favorite cult film. Roger Ebert on Dairy of a Country Priest
by Buck LePard
Roger Ebert revisits the classic French film, which will be playing at the Music Box starting Friday, April 22nd! In honor of its 60th anniversary, Roger Ebert looks back at Diary of a Country Priest. Read his thoughts and see the film at the Music Box Theatre! http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110413/REVIEWS08/110419993 Taylor Kitsch talks about The Bang Bang Club
by Buck LePard
The Bang Bang Club star talks about his new film, opening at The Music Box on Friday, April 22nd! Taylor Kitsch talks with Collider about the making of The Bang Bang Club, the experience of playing a real person, and why audiences should see the movie. Check it out by clicking the link below! http://collider.com/taylor-kitsch-interview-the-bang-bang-club/86780/ NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE ONLY AT THE MUSIC BOX!
by Andrew
Starting April 27, Music Box Theatre teams with National Theatre Live to bring Danny Boyle’s stage production of Frankenstein to Chicago! “Danny Boyle’s return to stage directing is a breathtaking mix of intimate drama and spectacular imagery.” – Hollywood Reporter STARTING APRIL 27! About the event National Theatre Live continues its season with Academy Award winner Danny Boyle’s hugely acclaimed production of FRANKENSTEIN, starring Benedict Cumberbatch & Jonny Lee Miller. FRANKENSTEIN, a new play by Nick Dear based on Mary Shelley’s novel, will be filmed twice for National Theatre Live to allow cinemagoers to see Cumberbatch and Miller alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature! Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal. Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale. Event details THERE ARE NO SCREENINGS OF WILLY WONKA THIS WEEKEND!
by Dave Jennings
It’s rare that we have to cancel a film screening, but in this case Warner Brothers has pulled all available prints and cancelled all screenings of WILLY WONKA until late Fall 2011. We’ll explain what the deal is here…. We were really excited to screen WILLY WONKA for Easter weekend. We had everything planned… everyone was going to get gift bags of stuff, there was to be preshow singing… all sorts of cool stuff. After we had booked the 35 mm print of the film, after we had announced it in our calendar, after we had printed 29,000 copies of that calendar, and after we had all been running around the Music Box Theatre singing “I’ve got a golden ticket” we got a really difficult call from Warner Brothers. See, we had booked, confirmed, and planned for two films on this calendar that were celebrating 40 years— WILLY WONKA and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. WB sees this as an awesome opportunity to do some special stuff with these films this Fall. So, in order to make that happen, they don’t want to have any screenings of either film for the foreseeable future. To say the least, several of us went out and chose to deal with the pain by consuming fizzy lifting drinks. So, we tried to pull something else together. We tried to get another musical to put in it’s place, but it was too much. We could not pull it together. We could not get a print of another musical that would bring in an audience and we could make enough money to cover costs. We failed. We are really sorry folks. We fall on the sword. We wish it could happen, we hope that we can arrange something for Easter for 2012. The Music Box Theatre has 10,000 Facebook fans!
by Dave Jennings
As a way to say “Thanks” they are giving away all sorts of stuff! On Monday, April 18th, the Music Box Theatre reached 10,000 Facebook fans! The small indie cinema on Chicago’s North Side has been showing films since 1929, and has kept with the times to communicate with independent film fans through social media. 10,000 fans is no small deal. The Music Box Theatre runs special promotions, free ticket give-aways, and even takes programming ideas through their Facebook page and Twitter feed. Why? Because it’s a great way to create an online community that will actually interact with the cinema and celebrate the films and events that happen at “Chicago’s Year Round Film Festival.” How does the “Little Cinema that Could” celebrate the achievement? They give away stuff. On Monday, April 18th, 2011, the Music Box Theatre announced two special promotions: DEAL # 1: $5 tickets! The New Cult Canon Presents: Alex Winter Double Feature of DEATH WISH 3 and FREAKED. Special guest Alex Winter (Bill from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure) will join A.V. Club critic Scott Tobias for a gloriously demented double feature. The first 50 ticket buyers to enter a special code (“facebook”) will get a discounted ticket price to this awesome event. To get your tickets for this awesome event, click here DEAL #2: Free Tickets! As promised on the Music Box Theatre Facebook page, the theatre will screen a midnight film for free! After confirming permission with the studio, the Music Box can announce that the Friday, April 22nd 11:59pm screening of “The Last Dragon” (1985, 108 minutes) will be free to any Facebook fan who RSVP’s through Music Box Theatre Facebook page. Seating is limited, and only the first 700 people who RSVP and show up on Friday night will get seats. CIMMFest presents FIX: The Ministry Movie
by Buck LePard
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. Find out more about the event. According to Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy, the HTML cite tag actually exists! New Cult Canon and Music Box Theatre present Death Wish 3 and Freaked, with Alex Winter
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Read more at: http://origin.avclub.com/chicago/articles/one-week-notice-new-cult-canon-and-music-box-theat,54525/ Uncle Boonmee is an indie dream by Mike Falk
by Buck LePard
“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. “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. Read more at: http://www.loyolaphoenix.com/features/diversions/article_46d73a0c-65a9-11e0-b7a5-001a4bcf6878.html CIMMFest celebrates relationship between movies and music by MARY HOULIHAN
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Read more at: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/4662650-417/cimmfest-celebrates-relationship-between-movies-and-music.html Club TCM to Offer Celebrities, Expert Panels, Exhibits, Music and More During 2011 TCM Classic Film
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Interview: Actor Michael Rooker is Feeling Just “Super” by Patrick McDonald
by Buck LePard
Chicagoan Michael Rooker, who starred in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, is currently featured in the audacious new Super. Michael Rooker, who grew up in Chicago as a developing actor and had his first breakout role in the locally-filmed Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, is currently featured in the audacious new film “Super,” starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page. Rooker plays Abe, a henchman to crime boss Jacque (Kevin Bacon), as they try to thwart the meanderings of vigilante costumed heroes named the Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson) and Boltie (Ellen Page). Raw, poignant and strangely probable, Super is a unusual take on a comic book situation, as if they decided to take those familiar heroics into a desperate real-life situation. Read the interview at hollywoodchicago.com. The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival Starts This Week by Amy Dittmeier
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Read more at: http://gapersblock.com/ac/2011/04/11/the-chicago-international-music-and-movie-festival-starts-next-week/ Comedy That Travels by Elsa Keslassy
by Buck LePard
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. 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. “Although they make popular Hollywood remakes, Gallic comedies don’t traditionally travel well to the U.S. as they’re perceived as too culturally specific to appeal to American audiences,” explains Francois Truffart, ColCoa’s topper. “But since last year, a new breed of French filmmakers and producers are boosting the genre with different kinds of comedies.” Read more at: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034760?refCatId=19 Music Box Films Wins In The Margins by Michael Phillips
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Read more at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ae-0410-music-box-films-20110408,0,7613553.column An icon in every sense of the word by Christopher Wallenberg
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Read more at: http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-03/ae/29377873_1_landmark-films-potiche-three-films LUNAFEST (This one is just for you, mama) by Caitlin Giles
by Buck LePard
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). 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). Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/wee-windy-city/2011/03/lunafest-this-one-is-just-for-you-mama.html Powell looks back on a career with Elizabeth Taylor by Michael Phillips
by Buck LePard
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. 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. Danny Boyle’s ‘Frankenstein’ to Screen at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre by Matt Fagerholm
by Buck LePard
Mary Shelley’s infamous monster is alive and well in Nick Dear’s acclaimed new stage adaptation set to be screened worldwide. It’s the latest installment of National Theatre Live, a series of high definition filmed performances released theatrically, courtesy of Britain’s National Theatre. Mary Shelley’s infamous monster is alive and well in Nick Dear’s acclaimed new stage adaptation set to be screened worldwide. It’s the latest installment of National Theatre Live, a series of high definition filmed performances released theatrically, courtesy of Britain’s National Theatre. Read more at: http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/13726/film-news-danny-boyle-s-frankenstein-to-screen-at-music-box#ixzz1JRfLwxfq “Bill Cunningham,” “Win Win” Give Specialty Market a Winning Weekend by Pete
by Buck LePard
Catch Bill Cunningham New York at the Music Box Theatre, opening May 20! Catch Bill Cunningham New York at the Music Box Theatre, opening May 20! While the studio box office is going through another somewhat mediocre frame, the specialty market went 2 for 2 this weekend, with Richard Press’s “Bill Cunningham New York” and Tom McCarthy’s “Win Win” both averaging over $30,000. That follows last weekend’s double whammy of “Jane Eyre” and “Kill The Irishman”, giving 2011 its four highest specialty debuts in the past two weekends. Read more at: http://www.indiewire.com/article/2011/03/21/box_office_bill_cunningham_win_win_give_specialty_market_a_winning_weekend A Look Back At Fever Pitch
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As each Grapefruit and Cactus League game inches us closer to Opening Day, I’ve looked back at some of the most beloved cinematic salutes to our national pastime…except this week, of course. Seriously, folks, they can’t all be winners. So, today I look back with all the crankiness of a Nick Hornby novel at one of the most overcooked of all cinematic baseball turkeys – Fever Pitch. No, I’m not talking about the funny 1997 Colin Firth vehicle about a long, suffering soccer fan. I’m talking about the terrible 2005 American version, starring the woeful Jimmy Fallon, as a long, suffering baseball fan. Oh! So that’s what makes it American…baseball. What? Does Soccer not transfer from English to English? If I didn’t spend $10 on the ticket and wasn’t the designated driver, I would have walked out on this disaster 15 minutes in. As each Grapefruit and Cactus League game inches us closer to Opening Day, I’ve looked back at some of the most beloved cinematic salutes to our national pastime…except this week, of course. Seriously, folks, they can’t all be winners. So, today I look back with all the crankiness of a Nick Hornby novel at one of the most overcooked of all cinematic baseball turkeys – Fever Pitch. No, I’m not talking about the funny 1997 Colin Firth vehicle about a long, suffering soccer fan. I’m talking about the terrible 2005 American version, starring the woeful Jimmy Fallon, as a long, suffering baseball fan. Oh! So that’s what makes it American…baseball. What? Does Soccer not transfer from English to English? If I didn’t spend $10 on the ticket and wasn’t the designated driver, I would have walked out on this disaster 15 minutes in. Fever Pitch (2005) was directed by the Farrelly Brothers (Hall Pass) and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (A League of their Own). The film introduces us to Ben (Fallon) and Lindsey (Drew Barrymore). Opposites in everyway, they fall in love. Everything is going great until Opening Day reveals a deep secret about Ben – he’s a Red Sox Fan. Can their budding romance survive the baseball season? Better yet, who cares? I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never sat through such a flawed movie in my life. It wasn’t even bad enough to be good. The Farrelly Brothers were so wrapped up in location (with scenes actually shot at and around Fenway Park), authenticity (cameos by actual Red Sox) and rewriting the ending that they forgot about a little thing called, acting. (Note: I don’t want to give away too much about the 2005 or 1997 movies, but when the Red Sox actually won the World Series, some major scenes had to be reshot.) Watching Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon as romantic leads on screen is as exciting as watching paint dry. You know the performances in the film are pathetic when ex-Red Sox, Johnny Damon, easily puts in one of the more charming performances in the film. Stella Adler and Babe Ruth must be rolling over in their graves. I was never a Nick Hornby fan, but I always liked the novel, Fever Pitch. Because it’s autobiographical, I feel like it speaks to some inherent truth in all of us. If I could make a business card that said “Trish Vignola – long, suffering sports fan”, I would. Seriously, Fever Pitch is not Hornby’s typical heaping helping of whinny men suffering from “Peter Pan” complexes. It’s actually good. Maybe the 1997 film worked so well because Hornby was actually involved in the production, writing the screenplay. Maybe the 2005 film failed so badly, because the Farrelly Brothers got so wrapped up in Americanizing the film, they forgot about story or dynamic casting. Maybe a film that was less than 10 years old at the time had no business being remade? Thank god Hollywood learned its lesson with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Oh, wait! Too late. IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332047/ Check out Trish’s new Baseball Blog at trishvignola.mlblogs.com ! Music Box Theatre Presents CATHERINE DENEUVE: Portrait of a French Icon
by Andrew
Music Box Theatre presents 5 classic Catherine Deneuve titles leading up to the release of “Potiche,” the new film by Francois Ozon starring the inimitable French actress herself! Armed with her mother’s maiden name and her father’s acting prowess, Catherine Dorleac (daughter of French stage and screen actor Maurice Dorleac) became Catherine Deneuve — the icy icon of art house cinema best known for her work with directors Roman Polanski and Luis Bunuel. This retrospective will end with a special screening of Potiche on March 23rd where all ticket holders from any previous Deneuve screening will be invited to a free screening of this new Music Box Films release! Repulsion and Umbrellas of Cherbourg DOUBLE FEATURE on Sunday! Two classic films for the price of one! Schedule: Ticket info – Most tickets are $9.25 and can be purchased at the Music Box Theatre on the day of the screenings. – Tickets on Sunday, March 20th will be $9.25 for a double feature of “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “Belle de Jour” – Our Monday $5 ticket price will be in effect for both screenings of “Eight Women” Tickets for the Thursday, 7:30 screening of “Potiche” is free for the first 100 people who show up with a ticket stub from a previous screening from the festival. We Believe
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Directed by John Scheinfeld, We Believe: A Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime (2009) celebrates the devotion of the great city of Chicago for its beloved Chicago Cubs. This nostalgic documentary explores the relationship between Chicago, the Cubs and their inexplicably loyal fans. Shot during the failed 2008 Baseball season, We Believe documents the city and team as well as the 100th anniversary of the Cubs’ last World Series win while looking toward the team’s future. The film features cameos by Lou Piniella, Hugh Hefner, Billy Corgan, Ernie Banks, Joe Mantegna, Ron Santo and current as well as former players. It also features politicians, historians and their ever-faithful fans. Scheinfeld gives the world a look into the unique city of Chicago and why its citizens are so passionate about their team. Directed by John Scheinfeld, We Believe: A Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime (2009) celebrates the devotion of the great city of Chicago for its beloved Chicago Cubs. This nostalgic documentary explores the relationship between Chicago, the Cubs and their inexplicably loyal fans. Shot during the failed 2008 Baseball season, We Believe documents the city and team as well as the 100th anniversary of the Cubs’ last World Series win while looking toward the team’s future. The film features cameos by Lou Piniella, Hugh Heffner, Billy Corgan, Ernie Banks, Joe Mantegna, Ron Santo and current as well as former players. It also features politicians, historians and their ever-faithful fans. Scheinfeld gives the world a look into the unique city of Chicago and why its citizens are so passionate about their team. Even though there is another team across town…remember them? We Believe is the first documentary of the Chicago Cubs to be completely sanctioned by the team. It also contains what is believed to be the only known footage of the 1909 Chicago Cubs. Scheinfeld’s opus to his beloved team seemed to contain the perfect ingredients for an awesome documentary. Then the film began… This promising documentary dissolves quickly into a self-loathing homage to a group of sad sack fans. It celebrates and never questions why there is a culture of losing on as well as off the field. I’m sorry, Cubs fans. Your team isn’t the only team in the history of sports to go through a comically long losing streak. For Scheinfeld though, Cubs fans and the Cubs franchise are that special. They’re deserving of this attention because Cubs fans still root for their team when they lose. I guess Royals fans don’t? I’m not saying to dump your team at the first sign of a sweep by the Pirates. What I’m saying is, maybe you shouldn’t go to the ballpark and dump a hundred bucks on beers when the organization isn’t putting a winning team on the field. Maybe if you stayed home and the franchised was forced to face those empty seats, they would invest more in the team. Sure, I understand that for the past season or so, the franchise was facing bankruptcy and now the team is under new ownership. However, what’s your explanation for the ninety-eight years before that? Or better yet, what’s your explanation for the team’s lack of inactivity during this off-season? For Scheinfeld, Cubs fans are different because they are generational. What? And Red Sox fans aren’t? Would you like to tell that to my cousins in Lowell, MA? What about those White Sox fans? You know, that other team with a comically long drought that still found a way to win five years ago? IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266118/ Check out Trish’s new Baseball Blog at trishvignola.mlblogs.com! Battleship Potemkin at The Music Box Theatre
by Meghan
On March 4th, The Music Box Theatre started showing Battleship Potemkin with a fully restored 35mm print and the original orchestral score by Meisel. The story of The Battleship Potemkin is based in reality, as the crew of the real battleship of the same name rebelled against their oppressive Tsarist officers. The mutiny on the ship coincided with the Russian Revolution of 1905 and helped usher in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The film itself does not shy away from themes of revolution and political upheaval, and does not hide its nature as a propaganda film. Does this dampen its place in film history? Not at all! On March 4th, The Music Box Theatre started showing Battleship Potemkin with a fully restored 35mm print and the original orchestral score by Meisel. The story of The Battleship Potemkin is based in reality, as the crew of the real battleship of the same name rebelled against their oppressive Tsarist officers. The mutiny on the ship coincided with the Russian Revolution of 1905 and helped usher in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The film itself does not shy away from themes of revolution and political upheaval, and does not hide its nature as a propaganda film. Does this dampen its place in film history? Not at all! Battleship Potemkin’s most famous and memorable scene is known as “The Odessa Steps”. While the events of this sequence have no historical foundation, it is still haunting and emotionally powerful. The scene is so embedded in our culture that, even as a young child, I’d emulate it by letting a play shopping cart with a doll in it roll down the driveway and try to catch it… and I hadn’t seen the film by then! The Odessa Steps are parodied and praised so often that they have even found their way into shows a child would be watching. But, let’s stray from the usual Battleship Potemkin discussion of The Odessa Steps and focus on its overall impact as a film. While Eisenstein’s editing was not a total success with audiences, it certainly pulls on a person’s heartstrings. Quick cuts between shots of marching soldiers and fleeing civilians make you feel sympathy for the latter; longer takes of sailors’ quarters and rotting meat coupled with officers who see nothing wrong with anything make you feel the growing frustration of the sailors. Shots of lion statues, at first laying down, then rising, then roaring and looking shocked mirror the events occurring in front of them, as if they are reacting as the crowd. Images of machinery working mirrors work done by humans, and so on and so forth. In Battleship Potemkin, every image means something. There is not a single shot or cut that is meaningless or there simply to add minutes to its runtime. That is what montage filmmaking really is – putting together images that mean something and relate to each other that otherwise would not. The film is short but does not skimp on message or meaning as each shot is specifically chosen both for its emotional impact and its ability to move the story ahead. The films photography is breathtaking and the editing is outstanding. Modern audiences are now used to quick cuts and montage, but in the 1920s it was much less common. Battleship Potemkin was groundbreaking, and its influences on filmmakers are far-reaching. Political stances aside, the film is powerful and extremely well done. The new print looks fantastic and the score sounds incredible. If you miss it in theaters but have interest in film history or history in general, check this movie out. Meghan Buckner is a digital cinema graduate of DePaul University and has been a front of house staff member at the Music Box since December 2009 The Rookie
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As the weather starts to warm (yes, Chicago, I promise you it is), our thoughts turn to all things Spring. For me, nothing says spring more than Baseball. However, if it’s still a bit too cold to hit the batting cage and you don’t have the cash to go to Arizona or Florida, a baseball movie does just as well. Today, we look at Disney’s The Rookie (2002). Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and written by Mike Rich (Secretariat), The Rookie tells the story of real-life Major League Pitcher, Jim Morris. A High School Chemistry Teacher and Baseball Coach, Morris is looking for a way to inspire his kids. He promises his team that if they can win the championship, he’ll go to the professional tryout they’ve been bugging him about. The kids win and he reluctantly goes to the tryout expecting to be cut immediately. There’s only one problem. Morris throws 12 consecutive pitches at 98 miles an hour and he’s signed by the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays. As the weather starts to warm (yes, Chicago, I promise you it is), our thoughts turn to all things Spring. For me, nothing says spring more than Baseball. However, if it’s still a bit too cold to hit the batting cage and you don’t have the cash to go to Arizona or Florida, a baseball movie does just as well. Today, we look at Disney’s The Rookie (2002). Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and written by Mike Rich (Secretariat), The Rookie tells the story of real-life Major League Pitcher, Jim Morris. A High School Chemistry Teacher and Baseball Coach, Morris is looking for a way to inspire his kids. He promises his team that if they can win the championship, he’ll go to the professional tryout they’ve been bugging him about. The kids win and he reluctantly goes to the tryout expecting to be cut immediately. There’s only one problem. Morris throws 12 consecutive pitches at 98 miles an hour and he’s signed by the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Rookie follows Morris (played by the exceptionally rugged Dennis Quaid) on his unconventional road from the classroom to the majors and all of the challenges in between. He still has a family to take care for on a Minor Leaguer’s salary, which for those of you keeping score is far from a Major Leaguer’s salary. Oh, and did I mention that he’s 35? If he gets injured once, it’s all over. If you don’t tear up when he sees his name sewn onto his jersey at the Ballpark at Arlington for the first time, you have no soul. (Please note: I teared up while typing that sentence.) The real Morris lasted two seasons in the Major Leagues. He had a 4.80 ERA and struck out 42 guys in a 162-game career. That’s not Hall of Fame numbers, but that’s still two more seasons than you or I ever pitched in the Majors. Today, Morris is justifiably a motivational speaker. The Rookie employs all of the hackney stereotypes of a Disney movie: sweeping shots, a swelling soundtrack and lighting that always makes the female lead (Rachel Griffiths in this case) look amazing. Nonetheless, in regards to this movie, I fall for all of it. Who wouldn’t? Apparently you can still “wish upon a star”, even at the ripe old age of 35. It’s hard to look on this movie with any cynicism. At its core, it’s a beautiful story about making your dreams come true. It’s got a strong cast, including the kid from Two and a Half Men (before he was afraid to go to work) and most importantly… it’s a great excuse to watch of a montage of a sweaty Dennis Quaid pitching in the rain. IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265662/ Check out Trish’s new Baseball Blog at trishvignola.mlblogs.com ! Baseball in Film *61
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Directed by Billy Crystal and produced by HBO, *61 revisits the first serious attempt at breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. As the weather starts to warm (yes, Chicago, I promise you it is), our thoughts turn to all things Spring. For me, nothing says spring more than baseball. However, if it’s still a bit too cold to hit the batting cage and you don’t have the cash to go to Arizona or Florida, a baseball movie does just as well. Today, we look at *61 (2001). Directed by Billy Crystal and produced by HBO, *61 revisits the first serious attempt at breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. It’s the summer of 1961. New York Yankees’ Roger Maris (Barry Pepper) and Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) are on pace to do it. You couldn’t write the storyline better. The torch is about to be passed from one heroic Yankee to another. However, there’s a problem. America only has room in its heart for one hero. Babe Ruth was a God… a God who played in the age of Segregated Baseball, but that’s a review for another day. Mantle was America’s Golden Boy. If he were to take the record that would be fine, but Maris, American didn’t take so kind too. With Mantle as the hero, Maris was forced to play the villain. The sports writers crucify him, pitting Maris against Mantle. Wherever Maris goes, he’s booed (even by Yankees fans). Finally, when Mantle falls off the pace due to injury, the commissioner announces that Ruth’s record stands unless it’s broken within 154 games. Any record set after 154 games of the new 162-game schedule will have an asterisk, thus minimizing Maris’ accomplishments. The film follows Mantle and Maris on as well as off the field including their undocumented friendship, the stress on Maris and his frustration with the negative attention. Maris wrestles with following his dreams or just giving up and going home for the sake of his sanity. Let’s not pretend that *61 was not a “Made-For-TV” movie. (Enjoy watching the balls from batting practice fall through the third deck, added in post-production.) Nonetheless, *61 is at its core a well-written, well-acted piece. Sure, Crystal is a Yankees fan from back in the day, so the film gets a bit schmaltzy and nostalgic at times. If you can get passed the Barbara Walters lighting and sweeping music at inappropriate times, you’ve got yourself a movie that is tragic, almost Shakespearean, in tone. I grew up in an age where “the easy way out” became far too common in America’s Game. It’s hard to imagine someone being villainized for simply wanting to go to work and do what he actually does best. So, if you have baseball on the brain, check out *61. You’ll enjoy Anthony Michael Hall as a pretty charming Whitey Ford and will be amazed that Thomas Jane can actually carry a film. (Seriously, are you going to argue that Deep Blue Sea was better?) IMDB *61
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As the weather starts to warm (yes, Chicago, I promise you it is), our thoughts turn to all things Spring. For me, nothing says spring more than baseball. However, if it’s still a bit too cold to hit the batting cage and you don’t have the cash to go to Arizona or Florida, a baseball movie does just as well. Today, we look at *61 (2001). Directed by Billy Crystal and produced by HBO, *61 revisits the first serious attempt at breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. It’s the summer of 1961. New York Yankees’ Roger Maris (Barry Pepper) and Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) are on pace to do it. You couldn’t write the storyline better. The torch is about to be passed from one heroic Yankee to another. However, there’s a problem. As the weather starts to warm (yes, Chicago, I promise you it is), our thoughts turn to all things Spring. For me, nothing says spring more than baseball. However, if it’s still a bit too cold to hit the batting cage and you don’t have the cash to go to Arizona or Florida, a baseball movie does just as well. Today, we look at *61 (2001). Directed by Billy Crystal and produced by HBO, *61 revisits the first serious attempt at breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. It’s the summer of 1961. New York Yankees’ Roger Maris (Barry Pepper) and Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) are on pace to do it. You couldn’t write the storyline better. The torch is about to be passed from one heroic Yankee to another. However, there’s a problem. America only has room in its heart for one hero. Babe Ruth was a God…a God who played in the age of Segregated Baseball, but that’s a review for another day. Mantle was America’s Golden Boy. If he were to take the record that would be fine, but Maris, American didn’t take so kind too. With Mantle as the hero, Maris was forced to play the villain. The sports writers crucify him, pitting Maris against Mantle. Wherever Maris goes, he’s booed (even by Yankees fans). Finally, when Mantle falls off the pace due to injury, the commissioner announces that Ruth’s record stands unless it’s broken within 154 games. Any record set after 154 games of the new 162-game schedule will have an asterisk, thus minimizing Maris’ accomplishments. The film follows Mantle and Maris on as well as off the field including their undocumented friendship, the stress on Maris and his frustration with the negative attention. Maris wrestles with following his dreams or just giving up and going home for the sake of his sanity. Let’s not pretend that *61 was not a “Made-For-TV” movie. (Enjoy watching the balls from batting practice fall through the third deck, added in post-production.) Nonetheless, *61 is at its core a well-written, well-acted piece. Sure, Crystal is a Yankees fan from back in the day, so the film gets a bit schmaltzy and nostalgic at times. If you can get passed the Barbara Walters lighting and sweeping music at inappropriate times, you’ve got yourself a movie that is tragic, almost Shakespearean, in tone. I grew up in an age where “the easy way out” became far too common in America’s Game. It’s hard to imagine someone being villainized for simply wanting to go to work and do what he actually does best. So, if you have baseball on the brain, check out *61. You’ll enjoy Anthony Michael Hall as a pretty charming Whitey Ford and will be amazed that Thomas Jane can actually carry a film. (Seriously, are you going to argue that Deep Blue Sea was better?) IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250934/ Check out Trish’s new Baseball Blog at trishvignola.mlblogs.com ! Stop Making Sense
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There was a time before YouTube, believe it or not, and if you wanted to see clips of your favorite band playing live, you either had to try and bootleg them from the next show you went to, which was not generally encouraged by most bands, or you could buy a concert video. Made around the peak of Talking Heads’ commercial success, David Byrne wanted Stop Making Sense to be very different from traditional concert films. The 80’s were a very strange time for music. It seemed like everything about music had changed. Bands you loved in the 70’s were now going in a new, less-than-desirable direction, and pop music at a whole was taking an interesting turn, for the better or worse. There were a lot of trendy, good-for-nothing groups going around, polluting the air waves, but there was also some pretty innovative stuff being made as well. The Talking Heads fall into the latter. The Talking Heads started out as nasally, new wave punk music and had evolved into funky, rhythmic pop music, all in the span of about 5 years. David Byrne was the creative genius behind it all, and he was pulling the band into a mainstream light that was shining brightly at them. The film was created in 1984, which was around the peak of the band’s commercial success. Songs like “Burning Down The House” and “Once In A Lifetime” were dominating the charts, and it was as good a time as ever to cash in on the band’s popularity. David Byrne always had a very unique way about making music, and that definitely bled through into the creative process for the film. He wanted the film to be very different from traditional concert films. There are never any close ups of any of the band members during solos, for one, which is not a traditional approach to making a concert film. Normally, the solo is the musician’s moment of glory, his time to shine, but not in this film. The stage set is also built from the ground up as the concert progresses. What starts out as just David Byrne standing on a bare stage with an acoustic guitar and a beatbox playing drum loops eventually turns into an elaborate stage set-up with screens and lights, as well as a full band with 2 drummers and 2 back up singers. The film is also a great display of the quirkiness of David Byrne’s often imitated but never duplicated stage presence. Whether he is dancing wacky choreography while singing, running laps around the stage, or parading around in his infamous ‘Big Suit,’ it is safe to say he is always keeping the viewer entertained. This film is one for the ages. Sundance USA Photos
by Dave Jennings
Photos from Sundance USA on January 27th 2011. Director Jim Kohlberg discussing his film after the screening of “The Music Never Stopped” during Sundance USA Photos by Ari Neiditz Photos by Ari Neiditz Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii
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There was a time before YouTube, believe it or not, and if you wanted to see clips of your favorite band playing live, you either had to try and bootleg them from the next show you went to, which was not generally encouraged by most bands, or you could buy a concert video. Always theatrical, Pink Floyd was at a creative peak when they filmed themselves playing at the famous ancient Roman amphitheatre in the Pompeii ruins in Italy. Pink Floyd has always been a very theatrical band. From their first incarnation with the late Syd Barrett, their live performances were an experience of sensory overload; light, color, and sound. It was only fitting that they aim to capture that very experience on film. Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii was made in 1972, during an interesting point in the bands career. They had a good following in Europe, but had yet to break through with any commercial success, especially in the United States. They were reaching a creative peak, which was about to throw the doors wide open for them. The band got the idea to take some of the material they were currently doing live, and have a film crew recording them performing it in the famous ancient Roman amphitheatre of the Pompeii ruins in Italy. The film is mostly live concert footage, but it also contains little documentary-esque pieces. Interviews with the band are highlighted throughout the film, as well as clips of the band working in the studio on their upcoming and would-be breakthrough album, Dark Side Of The Moon. The songs performed live in the Pompei ruins represent the Floyd in their earlier, more experimental form. Songs like ‘One Of These Days’ and ‘Careful With That Axe, Eugene’ start off very ambient as almost minimalist instrumental pieces, while gradually reaching triumphant peaks that were a signature trait of the more formative Pink Floyd years. Also, more orchestrated pieces such as ‘Saucerful Of Secrets’ and ‘Echoes,’ which is split up in two parts to open and close the film, are featured. It’s also obvious when watching this film that the band was influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had come out a few years earlier. There are recurring themes of space, go figure, and the computer animation might look a little cheesy by today’s standards, but were very ground-breaking at the time. And I mean, it’s Pink Floyd, would you expect anything less than brilliance? Festival Express
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There was a time before YouTube, believe it or not, and if you wanted to see clips of your favorite band playing live, you either had to try and bootleg them from the next show you went to, which was not generally encouraged by most bands, or you could buy a concert video. Festival Express chronicles a traveling music festival in 1970 with a rather bizarre but very innovative concept: it was scheduled all over Canada and all the band members and crew — among them The Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin and Buddy Guy — travelled together by train. The film is a documentary about a traveling music festival in 1970. The concept behind this festival was rather bizarre, but a very innovative idea for the time. The music festival was scheduled in various towns all over Canada, and the real kicker is that all of the band members and crew were going to be traveling on a train to the various locations. The entire train was filled with band and crew members alike, as well as an array of musical instruments and alcoholic beverages. A bunch of famous rock stars, on a train filled with booze and instruments, all with the intention of having a good time for the video cameras; sounds like a good concept for a film, right? Precisely. The most amazing parts of the film are the collaborations between all of the musicians on the train. The line-up for the ‘Festival Express’ is chalked full of amazing acts. The Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and many others. A lot of these guys would never have had the chance to play music with each other if it weren’t for this festival, and you can tell they are really enjoying themselves, because they create some truly magical music. The interviews with the bands about the whole experience are very entertaining, as well. Stories about someone spiking the booze with various illicit substances and others about Janis Joplin having not-so-quiet orgasms in the wee hours of the morning; it’s just about everything you would expect from a bunch of rowdy rock-n-rollers partying it up on a booze train, and then some. The guy running the whole festival is very down to earth, as well. At one point in the trip, the train runs out of booze, so the guy in charge makes an unscheduled stop in the nearest town, and proceeds to buy out a whole liquor store, just so the party could live on. At another time on the trip, a group of kids are protesting the event’s prices at one of the shows, and since it’s such a hassle for everyone involved, he just lets everyone in for free. If that’s not a good man, I don’t know what is. TCM and Eva Marie Saint visit The Music Box
by Dave Jennings
As part of their Road To Hollywood event, TCM and Robert Osborne teamed with the Music Box to host a screening of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, with Oscar-winning star Eva Marie Saint! receive weekly showtimes & information news and reviews by our staff and friends announcements, blog entries and newsletters watch trailers on YouTube
Monday, February 25th, 2013 4:59pm
Friday, May 10th, 2013 7:24am
• Closed May 11- June 6
• Repositioning the screen for better sightlines
• Enlarging the screen size by nearly 100%
• New sound proofing wall from Southport Avenue
• Completely replacing the sound system with a state of the art surround system for special programming from classic films to captured live broadcasts of symphonies and live theatre
• Sound dampening within the space to reduce echo
• Installing new digital projection system while maintaining 35mm film projection system
• Complete spatial facelift that will give a new look and feel to the space while maintaining architectural and historical integrity.
• Reduction in capacity from 98 seats to 70 seats
• Replacement of the seats with new seats, new layout, better sight-lines
Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies:
Monday, April 22nd, 2013 1:40pm
Part of the Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies series
Saturday, February 16th, 2013 12:03pm
Dave Jennings
General Manager
Friday, February 15th, 2013 9:35am
Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies:
Thursday, February 14th, 2013 3:24pm
Part of the Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies series
Doug McLaren, Head Projectionist, Director of Repertory Programming
Buck LePard, Assistant General Manager
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 12:18pm
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 12:03pm
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 11:44am
Monday, February 20th, 2012 3:16pm
http://twitter.com/musicboxtheatre
Friday, February 17th, 2012 2:41pm
presents
Harlan County USA
Directed by Barbara Kopple
Sunday, February 19 at 1:30pm
Friday, November 4th, 2011 11:45am
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 5:25pm
Music Box Theatre
What: A VERY ‘CARRIE’ CHRISTMAS
When: Sunday, December 4
Where: Music Box theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave, Chicago
A portion of the proceeds will benefit Hell in a Handbag Productions
Info: http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/features/camp-midnight-presents-carrie
Monday, October 3rd, 2011 1:06pm
Monday, October 3rd, 2011 12:15pm
Monday, August 22nd, 2011 10:39am
Thursday, August 11th, 2011 4:14pm
Click the link below to enter the contest. We will pick one lucky winner and many other runner up prizes! Sign up below for your chance to win a Festival Pass for the Noir City: Chicago 3! As the Music Box teams up with the Film Noir Foundation for a festival that combines extraordinary rarities with revivals of recognized classics—all presented on the big screen in glorious 35mm prints! You can sign up until noon Central time on Friday, Aug 12th! One lucky winner will receive a free pass tot he ENTIRE NOIR CITY FILM FESTIVAL! That’s 16 films! That’s 7 days of films! That’s AWESOME! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!
Come to opening night of the Film Noir Festival, and DRESS UP! Wear your finest! Get all noir! Wear that red dress! Pin stripes! A fancy hat! Then fill out a drawing for a Film Noir pass! We will draw right there at the opening of the festival! DRESS UP!
Monday, July 25th, 2011 8:49am
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 “A Fond Farewell Night”
5:30 CIMMFEST SHORTS B 60
7:30 THE LAST DISPATCH 90
9:30 THE LAST WALTZ 117
Friday, July 22nd, 2011 2:02pm
Thursday, July 21st, 2011 12:33pm
Thursday, July 7th, 2011 9:04am
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 3:46pm
(Warning: Spoilers abound!)
Monday, June 20th, 2011 12:20pm
“YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT”
“WE GO TOGETHER”
“SUMMER NIGHTS”
and many more…
Costume Contest!
Interactive Fun!
Children 12 and under $8
Available on-line through the Music Box Theatre website
Children 12 and under $9.00
Available at box office only
Thursday, June 16th, 2011 2:27pm
Sign up for your free ticket!
To sign up for this free screening, please CLICK HERE and fill out the form
VIVA RIVA!Awards
Best Film
Best Director – Djo Tunda Wa Munga
Best Supporting Actress – Marlene Longange
Best Supporting Actor – Hoji Fortuna
Best Production Design
Best Cinematography
Best Feature Film
2011 Berlin Film Festival (Official Selection)
2011 South By Southwest Film Festival (Official Selection)
The film swept the 2011 African Movie Academy Awards, taking home 6 awards, including Best Director and Best Film.Sign up for your free ticket!
To sign up for this free screening, please CLICK HERE and fill out the form
Sunday, June 12th, 2011 2:59pm
Friday, Jun 17
midnight— 700 seats available!
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! CLICK HERE
midnight— only 80 seats available!
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! CLICK HERE
midnight—
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! CLICK HERE
midnight—
BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! CLICK HERE
Monday, June 6th, 2011 3:28pm
-Director Paul Verhoeven admits to never finishing the novel on which the film is based, claiming he read through the first few chapters and became both bored and depressed.
-A miniature Millenium Falcon can be seen on the backside of one of the starships’ bridges.
-More ammunition was used in this film than in any previous movie.
-Nearly every military uniform has WW2 German military and SS paramilitary uniform references.
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 5:48pm
About The Film
So, what you should do is:
Monday, May 30th, 2011 10:40am
Saturday, May 28th, 2011 2:50pm
Thursday, May 26th, 2011 10:30am
Monday, May 23rd, 2011 1:27pm
Monday, May 16th, 2011 11:47am
Buy a ticket at regular prices for a Charlie Chaplin movie on any Sunday in May or June, and get a ticket for a second Chaplin movie that day at this discount rate (tickets must be purchased at the same time): General Admission $7; Students $5; Members $4. (This discount rate applies to the second film only.)
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 3:06pm
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 2:26pm
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 1:14pm
The silent film will feature live music accompaniment by organist Dennis Scott.
Thursday, May 5th, 2011 9:44pm
An expedition to the Amazon turns potentially deadly when MacGyver discovers a colony of carnivorous army ants on the march in the rain forest. He joins forces with an eccentric, reclusive landowner named Trumbo to fight the insect horde.
A nun and some orphans are in need of rescuing by MacGyver from murderous soldiers in Southeast Asia. It turns out that the nun’s assistant is an old girlfriend of MacGyver’s.
MacGyver goes to a small town in Arkansas to bail Jack Dalton out of another predicament. MacGyver ends up getting arrested along with Jack and sent to a prison camp where they’re forced to dig in an abandoned mine for millions of hidden dollars.
When a satellite carrying a genetic experiment crashes to earth MacGyver is sent in to recover. When he arrives he discovers that the experiment mutated in space and now ages animals at a vast rate.
In the middle of nowhere, MacGyver gets involved in a car accident. He is luckily found by an Amish family and nursed back to health. MacGyver then helps the Amish community to confront a construction crew that is trying to force them off their land.
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 4:50pm
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 3:39pm
Thursday, April 28th, 2011 7:27pm
BY ROGER EBERT / April 27, 2011
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110427/REVIEWS/110429978
Thursday, April 28th, 2011 12:45pm
TICKET INFORMATION
Below are some interesting press pieces on the film:
A documentary abuzz with ecological portent
‘Queen of the Sun’ — 3 stars out of 4
By Alissa Simon, Variety
9:11 a.m. CDT, April 28, 2011
sc-mov-0427-queen-of-the-sun-20110428
A creative exploration of the global honeybee crisis replete with remarkable nature cinematography, some eccentric characters and yet another powerful argument for organic, sustainable agriculture in balance with nature, Taggart Siegel’s attractive call-to-action documentary “Queen of the Sun” represents a natural follow-up to his prize-winning “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” albeit never matching the latter’s depth, poignancy and humor…
READ MORE
http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/film/14738643/queen-of-the-sun-what-are-the-bees-telling-us
Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?
A documentary looks at the repercussions of the potential extinction of the bees.
By Patrick Z. McGavin 3 Stars our of 5
Siegel’s fascinating follow-up to The Real Dirt on Farmer John (2005) is a droll, inquisitive and sorrowful exploration of how mechanized industrial production has occasioned a scientific phenomenon called “colony collapse disorder,” which will ostensibly lead to the extinction of the honeybee. From the provocative opening images—showing a piece of performance art in which a woman’s body is swarming with bees—the images are frequently hypnotic. Siegel navigates the globe and gives voice to a series of scientists, philosophers and organic beekeepers who point out devastating ecological repercussions of the potential loss. These subjects make charismatic and vividly drawn characters, although the film’s reliance on talking heads lessens its cinematic possibilities.
SEE THE ARTICLE
Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?
Director: Taggart Siegel
Producer: Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel
Cast: Vandana Shiva, Gunther Hauk and Michael Pollan
SEE THE ARTICLE
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 3:33pm
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 12:52pm
David Cerda, founder and lead singer with The Joans, is playwright and Artistic Director of Hell in a Handbag Productions (the company that the Chicago Reader says, “Represents the gold standard in camp in Chicago”). The Chicago Tribune has dubbed Cerda the “Charles Ludlam of the Midwest.”
The lavish, over the top Mommie Dearest is the 1981 screen adaptation of Christina Crawford’s best selling memoir about growing up as the adopted daughter of iconic movie star Joan Crawford. The infamous book details Crawford’s allegations of years of physical and mental abuse by her movie star mother. Faye Dunaway’s performance in the film brought equal parts hosannas and derision by critics.
Though the movie flopped with the mainstream public it was instantly enshrined as a camp classic and is revered by fans. “No wire hangers!” “Don’t f*** with me fellas!” “Tina, bring me the ax!” and several other memorable lines from the film have also entered the camp lexicon and popular culture.
The Camp Midnight crew has also teamed up with Blue Bayou, Chicago’s terrific Sunday brunch destination to offer an exclusive upgrade for the event. Guests can purchase VIM (Very Important Mother) tickets that include brunch beginning at 11:00am at Blue Bayou (directly across the street from the Music Box at 3734 N. Southport) and preferred, reserved seating at the theatre. A limited number of VIM tickets are available and are just $28.50 each and include brunch and an adult beverage. Tickets for the screening alone are $12 per person.
http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/features/mothers-day-with-mommie-dearest
Monday, April 25th, 2011 1:17pm
Monday, April 25th, 2011 12:57pm
Monday, April 25th, 2011 11:19am
Monday, April 25th, 2011 10:45am
Films With and About Music:
Friday, April 22nd, 2011 11:37am
Part of the Films With and About Music series
Thursday, April 21st, 2011 1:36pm
UPDATE! (4-22-11)
Thursday, April 21st, 2011 11:23am
Thursday, April 21st, 2011 10:45am
The Last Dragon
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 2:27pm
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 1:51pm
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 11:54am
The Music Box Theatre is Chicago’s only source for National Theatre Live, the groundbreaking initiative by the UK’s National Theatre to provide high-definition filmed performances of its productions to theaters worldwide.
What: DANNY BOYLE’S FRANKENSTEIN
Where: The Music Box Theatre
When: April 27 at 7:30, April 30 at 2:00pm; May 4 at 7:30, May 7 at 2:00pm
Add’l info: Please visit http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/collections/national-theatre-live/
Monday, April 18th, 2011 3:53pm
Monday, April 18th, 2011 10:22am
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011 4:55pm
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011 2:07pm
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 4:18pm
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 3:28pm
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 2:34pm
Monday, April 11th, 2011 4:22pm
Monday, April 11th, 2011 3:57pm
Monday, April 11th, 2011 2:39pm
Friday, April 8th, 2011 2:20pm
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 2:50pm
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 3:10pm
Friday, March 25th, 2011 2:58pm
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 4:29pm
Monday, March 21st, 2011 3:15pm
Saturday, March 19th, 2011 1:21pm
Stars: Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore
Written by: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
Directed by: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Friday, March 18th, 2011 1:05pm
Deneuve made her film debut at age 13 in Les Collegiennes (1956) and found stardom eight years later, thanks to a breakthrough role in the 1964 French musical Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). Her subsequent roles in Repulsion (1965) and Belle de Jour (1967) solidified her international appeal, and an Oscar-nominated role in Indochine (1992) secured her place in movie history.
Repulsion March 18, 2:30pm; March 18, 4:40pm; March 18, 7:20pm (Roman Polanski, 1965, 105m)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg March 20, 2:00pm; March 20, 5:50pm (Jacques Demy, 1964, 91m)
Belle de Jour March 20, 3:50pm; March 20, 7:40pm (Luis Buñuel, 1967, 101m)
8 Women March 21, 5:00pm; March 21, 7:20pm (François Ozon, 2002, 111m)
The Last Metro March 22, 4:20pm; March 22, 7:00pm (François Truffaut, 1980, 131m)
Potiche (SNEAK PREVIEW!*) March 23, 7:30pm (François Ozon, 2010, 103m)
Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies:
Sunday, March 13th, 2011 12:33pm
Part of the Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies series
Director: John Scheinfeld
Writer: John Scheinfeld
Stars: Lou Piniella, Ron Santo
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 12:03pm
Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies:
Sunday, March 6th, 2011 1:57pm
Part of the Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies series
WRITER: Mike Rich
DIRECTOR: John Lee Hancock
STARS: Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Brian Cox
Monday, February 28th, 2011 6:49pm
Writer: Hank Steinberg
Director: Billy Crystal
Stars: Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, Anthony Michael Hall
Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies:
Sunday, February 27th, 2011 1:28pm
Part of the Music Box Theatre Goes to the Movies series
WRITER: HANK STEINBERG
DIRECTOR: BILLY CRYSTAL
STARS: BARRY PEPPER, THOMAS JANE, ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL
Films With and About Music:
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 11:44am
Part of the Films With and About Music series
Thursday, January 27th, 2011 3:46pm
Films With and About Music:
Thursday, January 20th, 2011 11:18am
Part of the Films With and About Music series
Films With and About Music:
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 11:08am
Part of the Films With and About Music series
Thursday, March 25th, 2010 11:51am
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