The last few years have seen Chicago`s commercial art theaters all but abandon ambitious foreign language programming, and now the ranks of the non- commercial venues seem to be thinning as well, with the conversion of Facets Multimedia to what is mainly a video outlet and the continued withering away of the Chicago International Film Festival, now down to two not terribly inspired weeks.
Still keeping the faith are Chicago Filmmakers, a leading outlet for independent and avant-garde films, and the Film Center of the Art Institute, which continues to be one of the most vital not-for-profit programs in the country.
Of the following list of Chicago noncommercial premieres and special events, all but one (”Delicatessen”) were hosted by the Film Center. Film culture in Chicago would be infinitely poorer-and at this point, perhaps non- existent-without the Film Center`s efforts.
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1. An Evening with Jackie Chan. The legendary Hong Kong action star in person at the Art Institute last March 9, for a love-in with a thousand delirious fans.
2. ”A Bullet in the Head,” John Woo. Also from Hong Kong, John Woo`s extravagant epic about three buddies caught up in three decades of upheaval in Southeast Asia.
3. ”The Match Factory Girl,” Aki Kaurismaki. A deadpan comic melodrama by Finland`s leading director, who finds the idea of Finland just as funny as you do.
4. ”Palombella Rossa,” Nanni Moretti. A water polo match becomes a surreal image of Italian politics in a very original effort by Italy`s most important new comedian.
5. ”Freeze-Die-Come to Life,” Vitaly Kanevski. The most devastating and personal vision of the Soviet gulag to emerge from the post-glasnost Russian cinema.
6. ”Delicatessen,” Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. Due out commercially in January, this is an imaginative, visually adventurous black comedy from a pair of highly talented young Frenchmen.
7. ”The Camp at Thiaroye,” Ousmane Sembene. The leading African filmmaker returns after a 14-year silence with a quietly powerful study of colonial relationships in post-World War II Dakar.
8. ”The Ear,” Karel Kachyna. Made during the Prague Spring and suppressed in the subsequent freeze, the intense drama of a bureaucrat and his wife invaded by listening devices stands as political cinema at its most courageous.
9. ”Women`s Story,” Peng Xiao-lian. Three women from a remote Chinese village on a business trip to the big city, in a shrewdly conceived melodrama by a young female director from the mainland.
10. ”The Garden,” Derek Jarman. A British avant-garde filmmaker reacts to the AIDS crisis with a personal reflection on sexuality and the church.