INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCREENINGS PROGRAM
July 4th 2009 07:16
Chicago Cultural Center | 77 E. Randolph Street, 2nd floor
Free admission. Open to the public.
In collaboration with the Chicago Cultural Center and our international and cultural partners throughout the city, we are pleased to host FREE public film screenings at our 6th Annual International Summer Screenings Program. These weekly Wednesday evening screenings, running June 10 - September 16, showcase fifteen films from around the world at the Chicago Cultural Center's
Seating is on a first-come, first served basis and is limited to theater capacity.
Films are unrated. Viewer discretion is advised.
For a complete Summer Screenings Schedule, please click on link below.
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Wednesday, July 8, 6:30PM
PALOMA DELIGHT (Délice Paloma)
Dir. Nadir Moknèche, France, 2007, French and Arabic with English subtitles, 134 minutes
Need a building permit? Feeling lonely tonight? Call the fixer. When it comes to surviving in contemporary Algeria, no scam is too daunting for the resourceful Madame Aldjeria, a con woman who fancies herself a benefactress. If they're pretty and unprincipled, Aldjeria's recruits can make a career for themselves, like her newest enlistee Paloma. But Paloma is nothing but trouble. When Aldjeria sets her sights on a high-class score that will let her leave her tarnished past behind, it proves to be one deal too many. At turns scandalous, funny, and heartbreaking, Paloma Delight is a gritty tale of swindle and survival.
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Wednesday, July 15, 6:30PM
EMMA'S BLISS (Emmas Glück)
Dir. Sven Taddicken, Germany, 2006, German with English subtitles, 99 minutes
Slick city car dealer Max and lonely provincial pig breeder Emma are an unlikely couple. But when Max, recently diagnosed with cancer, crashes a stolen Jaguar filled with embezzled cash into the fence surrounding Emma's failing farm, Emma rescues both the man and the money. As she nurses him back to health, the contrary two-some unexpectedly find mutual attraction-and salvation-in each other. Emma's Bliss is a beautifully wrought parable that poignantly explores the limits of life, love, and mortality.
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Wednesday, July 22, 6:30PM
A LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Yi ge mo sheng nu ren de lai xin)
Dir. Xu Jinglei, The People's Republic of China, 2004, Mandarin with English subtitles,
90 minutes
Peking, 1948. A man rides home through a war-ridden city on a bleak winter night and finds a letter waiting for him upon his arrival. It's from a woman, written just before her death. In it, she tells him of her lifelong unrequited passion for him, to which he was impervious. She recounts their brief but fiery affair, her struggles raising their child alone, and their final meeting at which he failed to even recognize her. Now that she has lost their son, she no longer has the strength to live... Shaken by the letter, the man racks his brains trying to recall the unknown woman.
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Wednesday, July 29, 6:30PM
THE DAY OF THE HUNTER (O dia da Caça)
Dir. Alberto Graça, Brazil, 1999, Portuguese with English subtitles, 113 minutes
It's been four years since ex-drug trafficker Nando has left the business. When corrupt federal police agent Branco insists that Nando return to Colombia to smuggle some cocaine as a favor to the man who helped him get out of drugs, he cannot refuse. It isn't until the return trip that Nando realizes he has been set up. His only option is to devise a suicidal plan of retribution against the authorities complicit in his set up. This stylish thriller weaves a complex tale of corruption, betrayal, and revenge.
SPECIAL SCREENING MONDAY July 20
Monday, July 20, 6:30PM
THE RIVER
Director: Tsai Ming-Liang, 1997, Taiwan, Mandarin with English subtitles, 120 minutes
Winner of the Silver Bear Special Jury Prize at Berlin, THE RIVER is a bold, challenging, and enigmatic exploration of alienation, impressively rendered with Tsai Ming Liang's extended takes and deliberate pacing. Hsiao-kang is a lonely young man still living at home. Through a chance encounter with a friend, he takes a bit part in a film as a corpse floating in a river. Fatefully, the polluted river water leaves Hsiao-kang with an intense pain in his neck, which he futilely attempts to remedy via healers, doctors, and masseurs. His peculiar situation is compounded by the fact that his mom is slumming with a man who pirates porno tapes and his dad is hanging out in gay bathhouses. Meanwhile, a leaky roof that baffles the plumber threatens to destroy the family's apartment - and possibly their lives. Contains mature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.
THE RIVER is part of the 45th Anniversary Program, a free film series that was created to celebrate the Chicago International Film Festival's rich history of showcasing the best in world cinema. Each month, an award-winning film will be shown which best represents a different program of the Festival.
www.chicagofilmfestival.org
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Comment by SimonC
on OZPLOITATION RESURRECTION!
World Film Festivals
Good to see the ozploitation getting a run. You might want to check out my article on popcorn taxi running NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD this Wednesday with a Q&A with the director at www.worldfilmfest.net