The Chicago International Film Festival kinda sucks. It lacks a curatorial vision. It's a haphazard selection of films that have already rounded the festival circuit. There is no coherent logic. Traditionally you can find most of their selection in theaters or online. But, since it takes place in the city where I live, it gives me the opportunity to see some stuff without waiting until next year. To give you an idea of the festival's priorities, the Tom Tykwer-Wachowski production of Cloud Atlas is a spotlight film with a top-tier priced ticket. Leviathan is a $5 matinee. Lucky me.
The festival runs October 11-25. Here are the only films I am interested in seeing. I'll only make it to about three. I bought my Holy Motors tickets immediately.
Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel)
Like Someone In Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
Mekong Hotel (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Night Across the Street (Raoul Ruiz)
Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl)
The Patsy (King Vidor)
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
Reality (Matteo Garrone)
Room 237 (Rodney Ascher)
Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas)
I'm very excited and curious about HOLY MOTORS. I've loved everything Carax and Lavant have done together (except for "Merde") and consider them to be one of the great actor/director pairs in cinema. Unfortunately I doubt I'll be able to see it any time soon (maybe not until next summer at the MD Film Festival!), so I look forward to hearing your impressions.
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited to see it. That, Leviathan, and Mekong Hotel are probably the three I'll make it to, partly because they screen on days that I have available, although I really want to see Paradise: Love. I'll be sure to post my thoughts as soon as I can, maybe in one big festival impression. The CIFF is a messy animal. Last year they shut the lights off on Wim Wenders as he was introducing Pina to the audience. And this was after a 2 hour delay and change in venue!
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