FALL 2008 SCHEDULE

September 12: City Lights

Singin’ In the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly, 1952)
This film spoofs Hollywood’s uneasy transition from silent pictures to “talkies.” It's not only a great song-and-dance piece starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and a sprightly Debbie Reynolds. Kelly plays debonair star Don Lockwood, whose leading lady Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) has a screechy voice hilariously ill-suited to the new technology (and her glamorous screen image). This is the musical for people who love to hate musicals. Among the many highlights, Donald O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” and the constant skewering of the Hollywood studios. (103 min.)

Salt of the Earth (Herbert J. Biberman, 1954)
Herbert J. Biberman’s chronicle of the struggles of Mexican-American zinc miners against life threatening working conditions and the oppression of racist management practices was widely labeled subversive both for its feminist and pro-labor message, and for its connection to members of the “Hollywood Ten” of uncooperative HUAC witnesses. The film was suppressed upon completion in 1953 and has since the 1960s been reintroduced to audiences as a testament to the harsh popular, critical, and governmental response to a progressive exploration of labor struggle, feminism, and anti-racism. A revolutionary film that remains unique in American cinema for both the circumstances of its production and its extraordinary forward-looking content. (94 min.)

September 19: Underground

El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
Often referred to as the original midnight movie, El Topo is a mystical and allegorical psychedelic Western. Chilean director and star Jodorowsky (who has also worked in theater and comic books) cobbles together bits of ancient and modern mythology from around the world, crafting a surreal experience whose meaning is always just out of reach. The film is constructed in two parts: in the first, El Topo pursues the title of greatest gunman in the land. In the second part, he is reborn as the savior of a group of subterranean outcasts. The film’s many stunning set pieces suggest a search for meaning through myth, a search ultimately doomed to fail. Though it is impossible to adequately summarize, El Topo remains, for all of its grandiosity, a striking, visionary film.

September 26: City Lights

Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
Billy Wilder's masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, a corrosive black comedy that remains the most memorable assault on the emptiness and vanity of the movie business, stars William Holden as young, down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis. As the narrative plays out both Gillis and the audience become privy to the cruelty of the film industry as washed up silent actress Norma Desmond (played by former silent actress Gloria Swanson) lives in a world of Hollywood has-beens and delusions of grandeur that ultimately proves deadly for those who expose the farce. (110 min.)

October 3: Underground Sports Night

Tonight we’ll screen three films that three different approaches to the cultural meanings of sports. Golden Gloves (Gilles Groulx, 1961, 28 min.) follows three Montreal boxers as they train for the Golden Gloves competition. In behind-the-scenes interviews, they talk about their ambitions and what prompted them to take up boxing. Part baseball documentary, part anti-drug film and part socio-political satire, Rob Perri’s I’m Keith Hernandez (2008, 19 min.) brings you into intimate and close contact with what it would be like if you were Keith Hernandez-- he masterfully uses news reel, clips and other Hernandez footage to show how male identity is shaped by TV/film, sports and advertising. American Dreams ($200, 58 min., 1983, color/sound), by noted filmmaker James Benning, investigates the inextricability of public and private desires through its juxtaposition of the careers of baseball legend Hank Aaron and would-be assassin Arthur Bremer.

October 10: City Lights

North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
Alfred Hitchcock at his best, directing this romantic comedy-thriller that features Cary Grant. North by Northwest features a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him. Featuring a score by Bernard Herrmann. (136 min.)

This night's screening will begin at 8:00PM.

October 17: Underground Visiting Chicago Filmmakers

Since 2005, Chicago-based Talking Walls Productions has created an award-winning body of work of documentary, fiction and sponsored films. Tonight co-founders Tom Bailey and Brendan Kredell will be with us to present a selection of their films. Among those to be screened include: No Halfsteppin’ (2007), a short documentary on Sharkula, a would-be rapper who struggles to make ends meet by selling CDs out of his bag on the trains and streets of Chicago; Short Winter (2008), a portrait of two boys who venture into their neighborhood park on a rare snowy day and are confronted with forces that threaten to fracture their community and destroy their friendship; and Día del Niño (2005), a film produced for the National Museum of Mexican Art documenting the celebration of the annual children’s holiday.

October 24: City Lights

Shane (George Stevens, 1953)
George Stevens' classic Western, adapted from the Jack Schaefer novel, stars Alan Ladd in the title role. Riding the ranges of Wyoming's Grand Tetons, Shane stops at the farm of homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) just before Ryker (Emile Meyer), a powerful and predatory cattleman, arrives with his hired muscle to make the farmer a threatening offer for land that he intends to get by any means necessary. Stevens' meticulous artistry blends with career performances by Ladd, Heflin, Arthur, and de Wilde in what many regard as the finest western ever made. (118 min.)

October 31: Halloween Double Feature

Vampyr (Carl-Theodor Dreyer, 1931)
Acclaimed Danish director Carl-Theodor Dreyer’s unsettling take on vampire myths is unlike any other vampire film ever made. Eschewing standard horror techniques of shock and gore, Dreyer crafts a eerie, omninous film that makes heavy use of fog, a densely layered soundtrack with minimal dialogue, and suggestive set pieces. Vampyr is a masterpiece of European horror film. In German with English subtitles. (75 min.)

The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)
This influential zombie film was produced by England’s famed Hammer studios, which produced a series of Gothic horror films beginning in the 1950s, films known for their lavish style unprcendented violence and gore. A parable of colonialism and tyranny, it follows Sir James Forbes’ (Andre Morell) investigation into a series of mysterious deaths in a 19th century Cornish village. As Forbes and his daughter, Sylvia (Diana Clare), work to find the cause of the deaths, they encounter zombies, voodoo, and the charming yet unnerving Squire Hamilton (John Carson).

November 7: City Lights

All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)
This wonderfully witty comedy, written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, concerns an aging theater star (Bette Davis) whose life is being supplanted by a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing ingenue (Anne Baxter) whom she helped. Released in 1950, All About Eve’s power radiates undimmed through the years. Both Davis and Baxter garnered Best Actress Oscar nominations, and the film in its entirety took 14 nominations, winning seven of them, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Consistently listed among the best films of all time. (138 min.)

November 14: Experimental Shorts Program

Tonight we will present a potpourri of short experimental films in a variety of forms and styles. Filmmakers to be screened include Stan Brakhage, Rose Lowder, and Morgan Fisher.

November 21: City Lights

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)
Orson Welles added to his legend with this herky-jerky noir set on the U.S. and Mexico Border. It starts with a bang, literally, as the now-famous opening scene, a continuous shot tracking over both sides of the border, erupts in a violence that sets the plot in motion. Charlton Heston is a bit of a stretch as a Mexican narcotics official, but his stubborn commitment to the role pays off. Amazing cinematography, especially the hotel room strangling scene, coupled with a truly stellar who’s who supporting cast, including Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Akim Tamiroff and a young Dennis Weaver amongst many others, are enough to make this film a classic. But Orson Welles’ performance as the slimiest police captain ever, Hank Quinlan, casts a large enough shadow that this can be considered his greatest role ever. An absolute must see. (95 min.)

November 28: NO SCREENING--Thanksgiving

December 5: City Lights Double Feature

Picnic (Joshua Logan, 1955)
Another dose of William Holden, this time in the award-winning film adaptation of the William Inge play. Hal Carter (William Holden) is an arrogant drifter who sets off dramatic fireworks when he visits a quiet Kansas town to see an old friend. Before long he has managed to steal Madge Owens (Kim Novak), the most attractive girl in town, away from his pal. Much of the drama takes place in the midst of the town's annual Labor Day picnic. Among the many other memorable characters in the film are a spinster schoolteacher who desperately longs for the security of marriage, and Madge's jealous younger sister, Millie (Susan Strasberg). (115 min.)

The Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
A fast-paced look into the lives of New York City gossip columnists and the cruel underworld they inhabit, Sweet Smell of Success is driven by the two commanding performances at its center. Burt Lancaster is JJ Hunsecker, a preeminent gossip columnist who has the power to destroy lives and is not afraid to use it. Tony Curtis, in one of his best dramatic roles, plays Sidney Falco, an ambitious, young publicist not averse to slinging the slime if it will move him up the ladder. Like two dogs fighting for the last bone, Lancaster and Curtis go for each other’s throats in every scene. Sweet Smell of Success is a wonderful example of Hollywood movie making at its best: a tight script, dramatic black and white cinematography from the great James Wong Howe, and enough star power to light up Broadway. (79 min.)