The opening weekend of the 33rd Chicago International Film Festival, which runs daily through Oct. 19, offers dozens of Chicago premieres — including excellent recent entries from the Cannes, Toronto, Locarno and Montreal fests. Happily, this year all of the festival films, except for a few special showings, will be under one roof at the Cineplex Odeon multiplex, 600 N. Michigan Ave. This welcome innovation will allow fest patrons to pick and choose films at their pleasure, without rushing from one part of town to another.
Exceptional films and special picks for this weekend include: from Sweden, Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman’s “Private Confessions” (Friday) and Kjell-Ake Andersson’s “Christmas Oratorio (Saturday); from Egypt, Youssef Chahine’s “Destiny” (Friday and Sunday); from Australia, Bill Bennett’s “Kiss or Kill” (Friday); from Austria, Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” (Friday and Saturday); from Germany, Werner Schroeter’s “Love’s Debris” (Saturday and Sunday); from Spain, Montxo Armendariz Barrios’ “Secrets of the Heart” (Saturday and Sunday); from the U.S., Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm” (Sunday).
The capsule reviews that follow are for films showing Friday through Sunday; check the daily Tempo section for reviews on films showing Monday through Thursday, and next week’s Friday section for films Oct. 17-19 (a complete festival schedule is below, and on the Internet at Metromix.com).
FRIDAY
– “Private Confessions” (star) (star) (star) (star) (Director Liv Ullmann; Sweden). The third great autobiographical screenplay by Ingmar Bergman, following 1992’s “The Best Intentions” and 1993’s “Sunday’s Children,” this superb drama of adultery, secrets and lifelong guilt brings back Pernilla August and Samuel Froler (of “Intentions”) as Bergman’s parents and Max Von Sydow in a devastating role as the interfering priest, Father Jacob. With Ullmann directing and Sven Nykvist behind the camera, the film is a magnificent reunion of Bergman’s finest collaborators. And though it sometimes suggests Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal,” the film is a remarkable effort on its own: it’s a laceratingly powerful, beautifully written and acted tale of passion’s thrall and love’s wounds, among people who can unburden themselves only behind closed doors. 12:30, 3 and 9 p.m. (Cineplex Odeon theaters, 600 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-332-FILM) — Michael Wilmington
– “Kini & Adams” (star) (star) (star) (Idrissa Ouedraogo; Zimbabwe). This visually opulent widescreen African film by celebrated young writer-director Ouedraogo sets two feuding friends on a collision course — they’re driven apart by jealousy, jobs, romance and the rattletrap car they own together. Rowdy and elemental, funny and critical, bawdy and tragic, it offers a sophisticated look at a modern Africa that retains the passions of the past while yearning for the future. 1, 3 and 7 p.m. — M.W.
– “Destiny” (star) (star) (star) (star) (Youssef Chahine; Egypt/France). A sensation at the last Cannes Film Festival, where it won a huge standing ovation from the audience and a career achievement award for Chahine (long Egypt’s most internationally renowned filmmaker), this spectacular historical drama makes an epic out of an intellectual/moral battle: the 12th Century fight to preserve the banned books of philosopher Averroes from destruction by a local tyrant. Chahine’s cinematic style is lusty and universal and the movie is crammed with life. But it’s also an uncommonly brave statement about a fight we take for granted: the battle for intellectual freedom. 6:45 p.m. (also 4:15 p.m. Sun Oct. 12; 9:30 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — M.W.
– “The Brother” (star) (star) (star) (Alexei Balabanov; Russia). A punchy contemporary thriller, set in St. Petersburg, which offers a hugely disturbing picture of modern Russia: a chaotic democracy, in which criminal gangs and roving killers have taken over the streets and markets, filling the void of leadership left after the collapse of Communism. Sergei Bodrov Jr., star of “Prisoner of the Mountain,” potently plays a young Army veteran who stumbles unknowingly into gang warfare when he visits his brother in a city as heavy with gunfire and machismo as the old Wild West. Not always convincing, but sometimes fiercely exciting. 6:45 p.m. (also 2:30 and 9:15 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — M.W.
– “Kiss or Kill” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Bill Bennett; Australia). A maniacally fast, bleak, dry and scary Australian road movie about two criminal lovers on the run after an unintentional murder. Simultaneously pursued by two sardonic cops and a national sports hero with a guilty secret, the outlaw pair are neither Bonnie and Clyde nor natural born killers. Instead, Bennett uses his improvisatory style to create a hectic impression of instantaneous emotion and mystery. Star Frances O’Connor won the Best Actress prize at the Montreal Film Festival as one of the psychopathic fugitives; her angular body, impish smile and piercing eyes wreak emotional havoc in this flight to nowhere. 7 p.m. — M.W.
– “The Other Side of Sunday” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Berit Nesheim; Norway). A superior example of subtle, low-key filmmaking, this 1996 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film examines the repressed and difficult life of Maria (Marie Theisen, in a stunning film debut), the teenage daughter of a stern, small-town vicar in 1950s Norway, who must find a way to express her burgeoning sexuality in the shadow of her father’s God-fearing lifestyle. Loaded with challenging questions about sex, family and religion, this film does an excellent job of juxtaposing Scandinavian reserve and human emotion, while providing a slew of comic moments. 7:15 p.m. (also 2:45 p.m. Sun Oct 13) — John Petrakis
– “Cosmos” (star) (star) 1/2 (assorted directors; Canada). Six young Canadian directors banded together to tell small stories about life in contemporary Montreal; the vignettes are woven together to make a much larger statement about urban anxiety. The tales are uneven, ranging from too brief to overly shallow, but when the film hits, it’s a bullseye. My favorites involve a too-short segment about a shy artist who is hijacked by a pop-star interviewer, and a ragged scientist who is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend’s new surgically enhanced breasts. 9:15 p.m. (also 5 p.m. Sat Oct. 11; 9:30 p.m. Sun Oct. 13) — J.P.
– “Funny Games” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Michael Haneke; Austria). Two playfully psychotic young men in tennis clothes show up at an isolated lakeside family home, ostensibly to borrow some eggs, and then proceed to take over the house, imprison the family and torment, batter and threaten their victims for hours with a series of adolescently sadistic games. Of all the movie variations on “The Desperate Hours” plot of a family held by outlaws, this may be the most profoundly disturbing of all. 9:30 p.m. (also 3 p.m. Sat Oct. 11; 9 p.m. Tues Oct. 14) — M.W.
– “Welcome to Sarajevo” (star) (star) (star) (Michael Winterbottom; Great Britain). Set in Sarajevo during the height of the Bosnian war, among a group of battle-hardened international journalists, this exciting new film by Winterbottom (“Jude”) has a crystalline surface, exciting action scenes, a crisp but knowing political perspective and an undercurrent of somber compassion. In a way, the film emulates the style of its reporter-characters: like Woody Harrelson, playing a cocky ace journalist, whose demeanor suggests a soldier of fortune on a spree. But Winterbottom doesn’t slight the agony. The movie is about the impossibility of objectivity in the midst of bloodshed, tragedy and terror. 9:30 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — M.W.
– “The Headhunter’s Sister” (star) (star) (star) (Scott Saunders; U.S.). A young woman fleeing her unfaithful husband turns up in the funky, bohemian Lower East Side milieu of her brother, a recruiting executive who is attempting to cope with the wandering impulses of his beautiful Colombian wife, who works as a phone sex operator and doesn’t speak English. Off-beat, droll and punctuated by blackouts, the well-acted drama works best as an impressionistic and revealing portrait of desperation and loneliness in modern New York. 9:30 p.m. (also 2 and 4:30 p.m. Sat Oct 11) — Patrick Z. McGavin
SATURDAY
– Shorts 5: Animation — 1 p.m. (also 7 p.m. Wed Oct 15)
– “Assassins” (star) (star) (star) (Matthieu Kassovitz; France). From director-writer-actor Kassovitz (“Hate”): a slick, violent movie attacking media slickness and violence. An elderly hit man (Michel Serrault) takes on a young protege (Kassovitz), a TV addict obsessed with media carnage — who, in turn, attracts an even younger teenage acolyte. The structure seems mechanical, the theme vague and the form recycled from American action movies (like the 1972 Charles Bronson thriller, “The Mechanic”). But, despite the critical venom “Assassins” attracted in Cannes, it has something; especially in its sarcastic attacks on TV or in the moments when Serrault suggests, beneath the tired old killer’s quiet demeanor, a macabre and incongruous gentleness. 1:30 and 9 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — M.W.
– “The Headhunter’s Sister” 2 and 4:30 p.m. (see review under Friday listing)
– “The Brother” 2:30 and 9:15 p.m. (see Friday review)
– “Love’s Debris” (star) (star) (star) (Werner Schroeter; Germany). Opera lover Schroeter examines, though performance and interviews, the vocal technique, emotions and effect of great singers and divas, including the personal favorites he films here: Martha Modl, Tita Gorr, Anita Cerquetti and Laurence Dale. The director exposes his deepest feelings by fixating calmly on an art form he obviously loves; aiding him are actress/interviewers Isabelle Huppert and Carole Bouquet. The musical interludes are lovely and heartbreaking. 2:30 p.m. (also 4:30 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — M.W.
– “Univers’l” (star) (star) 1/2 (Anna Nicholas; U.S.). The title of this low-budget independent feature refers to a burned-out sign over an East L.A. strip mall, which is located at Ground Zero of the Rodney King riots. The microcosmic mall is filled with representatives of assorted races and nationalities: there’s a black-owned convenience store, a Vietnamese beauty parlor, an Arab dry cleaners, an Israeli video store, and so on. Some strong performances aren’t enough to overcome the stiff direction. Somehow, we never seem to forget we are watching an allegory in action, as the day-to-day bickering at the mall suggests larger problems in the world beyond. 3 p.m. (also 7:15 p.m. Mon Oct 13) — J.P.
– “Funny Games” 3 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Tues Oct 14; see Friday review)
– “Christmas Oratorio” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Kjell-Ake Andersson; Sweden). Goran Tunstrom’s novel about a Swedish family plunged into gloom, madness and near destruction by the accidental death of a music-loving young mother receives a fiery, bravura treatment from director Andersson, who takes us from one generation and catastrophe to the next with scintillating technique and blazing camerawork. This film, like “Shine,” sees classical music (exemplified by Bach’s Christmas Oratorio) as the redemptive force in a world that is often sordid and absurd. 4:30 and 9 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — M.W.
– “The Journey” (star) (star) (star) (Harish Saluja; U.S.). A subtle and revealing portrait of cultural dislocation and family relationships, the story concerns a retired Indian schoolmaster whose reunion with his son, a successful doctor, causes tensions with his American daughter-in-law. A quiet, tender work, the movie observes the distinct and separate personalities in which ideas and feelings are carefully delineated through action and character. 5 p.m. (also 3:15 p.m. Sun Oct. 13) — P.Z.M.
– “Cosmos” 5 p.m. (also 9:30 p.m. Sun Oct 12; see Friday review)
– “Secrets of the Heart” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Montxo Armendariz Barrios; Spain). A very affecting, lyrically shot childhood memory film set in the ’60s. “Secrets” uses a child’s sense of magic and mystery to probe beneath the surfaces of two Spanish towns: finding the young protagonist finds scandals, loves and hatreds, and an erotic torrent flowing through his divided family and within his repressed school commmunity. Barrios’ sense of childhood as a time of heightened awareness, fear and exploration suggests Italian neo-realism, while his poetic sense of landscape and the human face exemplifies the great stream (Carlos Saura, Victor Erice, Mario Camus) of modern Spanish cinema. 5:15 p.m. (also 6:45 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — M.W.
– “In the Name of Innocence” (star) (star) (Andreas Kleinert; Germany). A psychological murder mystery that is really about the reunification of the two Germanys. When a young girl is raped and murdered by a successful businessman, it is up to her seriously depressed mother (Barbara Sukowa) and a hard-drinking police detective to track down the killer. Along the way, they find plenty of time to gaze out windows and wax eloquent about questions of life, death and philosophy. Some nice photography and moody direction help, but they can’t offset the clumsy script, which keeps tripping over itself in a desperate attempt to find an ending. 5:15 p.m. (also 7:15 p.m. Sun Oct 12) — J.P.
– “Ill Gotten Gains” (star) (Joel Marsden; U.S.). Like the Amistad story, “Ill Gotten Gains” examines the dehumanizing conditions resulting in a slave ship revolt in 1869, following the extreme sexual and physical abuse suffered by the black captives. From the ridiculously anachronistic dialogue to the director’s profound failure to individuate any of the characters, the film is wrongheaded and bluntly naive. The sole impressive aspect is the textured black and white cinematography. 6:45 p.m. (also 5 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — P.Z.M.
– “Broadway Damage” (star) (Victor Mignatti; U.S.). A painfully unfunny gay comedy chronicling the romantic and professional activities of three friends trying to survive in Greenwich Village. In a film about self-delusion, the character of Cynthia, a self-loathing woman given to nervous breakdowns, is particularly disturbing. The feel-good ending is completely unwarranted. 7 p.m. (also 2:15 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — P.Z.M.
– “Moebius” (star) (star) (Gustavo Mosquera R; Argentina). Jorge Luis Borges meets “The Twilight Zone” in this metaphysical allegory about the disappearance of political dissidents in pre-democratic Argentina. A subway train carrying 30 passengers has mysteriously vanished, though its haunting sound can still be heard echoing through the endless underground tunnels. Pratt, a topologist, is brought in to investigate, and the film resonates with questions of fantasy versus reality. Originally conceived as a film school project for a teacher and his 45 students, this film falls short of its ambitious goals, while still exhibiting great potential. 7 p.m. (also 5 p.m. Sun Oct 12) — J.P.
– “The Prince of Homburg” (star) (star) (star) (Marco Bellocchio; Italy). Bellocchio’s lush and stately version of Heinrich Von Kleist’s classic, impassioned play: in which a brave and handsome Homburg Prince and soldier (Andreas Di Stefano) disobeys orders, wins a battle but is still sentenced to death (for insubordination) by his father. This very cool, opulent and theatrical production seems a world away from the scathing radical dramas of Bellocchio’s younger days (“China is Near,” “Fists in the Pocket”), but it shares with them a sense of entrapment and doom in elegant surroundings. 7:15 p.m. (also 5:30 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — M.W.
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– “The Sixth Happiness” (star) (star) (star) (Waris Hussein; Great Britain). Indian writer Firdaus Kanga wrote and stars in this comic and touching semi-autobiographical tale of growing up with brittle bone disease, a condition that has left Kanga unable to walk or grow past 4 feet. But unlike your standard illness film, this comedic drama, set in his family’s middle-class Bombay home circa 1960, reveals as much about what it is to be an Indian Parsee (a Persian minority in India), an Anglophile (as is his Marmite and marmalade-eating mother) and a child of a disappointed father, as it is to be a family dealing with a disability. Through each of Kanga’s movingly rendered tragedies, loves and losses, we gain a few more detailed brush strokes in this fascinating portrait of a very brave man. 7:15 p.m. (also 3 and 9:30 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — Monica Eng
– “I Hate Love” (star) (star) (Laurence Ferreira Barbosa; France). A convaluted and too-long film about a lonely Parisian doctor named Annie Simonin (the lovely Jeanne Balibar), who gets dangerously involved in the lives of her patients. They include a young, good- looking HIV-positive man who is looking for reasons not to kill himself; an elderly teacher who knows that the end is approaching; and a hypochondriac actor who is convinced that Annie — whom he once dated — has given him AIDS with a contaminated vaccination needle, and so begins to stalk her in revenge. There are way too many subplots on this film’s plate, leading to a confusing second act and a messy conclusion. Still, there are elements to enjoy here, including a comic ex-convict who becomes Annie’s personal secretary and shots of the large-eyed Balibar zipping around Paris on her moped. 7:30 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Thurs Oct 16; 1:30 and 9 p.m. Sat Oct 18) — J.P.
– “Kitchen” (star) (star) 1/2 (Yim Ho; Hong Kong). A beautifully shot film that succeeds as a tragedy but fails as a comedy, leaving the audience floating in limbo. It tells the story of a pretty young girl named Aggie, who dreams of becoming a chef, but first she must get over the death of her grandmother. Alone in the world, she is taken in by a transsexual nightclub owner and her hairdresser son, who soon grow attached to this grieving and silent young girl. When Aggie finds her voice, however, the film loses much of its power, since director Yim Ho’s slow but deliberate camera style lends itself to visual expressions of emotion more than frantic activity. 9:15 p.m. — J.P.
– “The House of Yes” (star) (star) 1/2 (Mark Waters; U.S.). Parker Posey’s loopy, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it performance is the best reason to see this otherwise stagy adaptation of Wendy MacLeod’s play about Jackie-O, a disturbed, Jackie Kennedy-obsessed woman, and her unnaturally close relationship with her twin brother, Marty (Josh Hamilton), whom she treats as if he were JFK. The story is a twisted variation on the home-for-dysfunctional-Thanksgiving formula, with Marty bringing his new, ditzy fiance (Tori Spelling, believable and then some) to the family’s palatial Washington, D.C.-area house for a holiday of hopscotching amid emotional land mines. This is a comedy with a grain of salt; it’s also heavy going at times. 9:30 p.m. (also 9 p.m. Wed Oct 15) — Mark Caro
– “Killer Condom” (star) (star) (star) (Martin Walz; Germany). A hilarious and subversive Germany comedy taken from Ralph Konig’s underground graphic comic book about a killer strain of contraceptives unleashed in New York’s lower depths and the hard-boiled gay detective investigating the case. The discordant combination of noir elements and gay outrageousness creates a weird and deranged synthesis of possibility, and finally, a moving romanticism. 9:45 p.m. (also 9:30 p.m. Sun Oct. 12) — P.Z.M.
SUNDAY
– “Love Stories” (star) (star) (Jerzy Stuhr; Poland). “Love Stories” takes a pretty broad look at love — parental love, romantic love, crazy love, doomed love. But its conceit — four simultaneous stories starring the same actor (Stuhr) in four different roles — is evident much too soon. As a result, the game of piecing the stories together falls apart long before the stories themselves have concluded. And because they’re played out in relation to each other, once you’ve figured one out, you’ve got them all down. Still, Stuhr is pretty engaging, particularly as the crushed-out con whose girlfriend keeps betraying him. 2 p.m. (also 2:30 p.m. Mon Oct 13; 9 p.m. Wed Oct 15) — Achy Obejas
– “Broadway Damage” 2:15 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– Shorts 1: “Culture” and Lost Civilizations — 2:30 p.m.
– “The Other Side of Sunday” 2:45 p.m. (see Friday review)
– “Bogwoman” (star) (star) (Tom Collins; Northern Ireland). This low-budget, independent feature from Northern Ireland chronicles 10 years in the life of Maureen (Rachel Dowling from “The Dead”), who moves from Donegal in the Republic of Ireland to Derry in the Northern Ireland in 1958, to marry a good-hearted gambler named Barry. Once there, she is forced to live through the burgeoning genesis of “The Troubles.” Just as important for this film, however, is the examination of a woman’s life and role in heavily-Catholic Northern Ireland during that period, where large families and abject poverty were the norm. A first feature by documentarian Tom Collins, it tries somewhat successfully to incorporate black-and-white news footage of the time into the movie. But despite some strong performances, the film feels stiff and theatrical, suffering in comparison to many of the recent working-class films coming out of England and Ireland. 3 p.m. (also 7:15 p.m. Tues Oct 14) — J.P.
– “The Journey” 3:15 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “Destiny” 4:15 p.m. (also 9:30 p.m. Mon Oct 13; see Friday review)
– “Best Man” — 4:30 p.m. (also 5:15 p.m. Mon Oct 13)
– “Love’s Debris” 4:30 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “Ill Gotten Gains” 5 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “Moebius” 5 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “The Prince of Homburg” 5:30 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “Secrets of the Heart” 6:45 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “The Ice Storm” (star) (star) (star) (Ang Lee; U.S.). A glossy movie soap opera, adapted from Rick Moody’s novel, that recalls the early ’70s in a rich Connecticut suburb. Set during the climax of the Watergate hearings, the film portrays the era as a time of repression, unhappiness, generation gaps, secret sexuality, guilt, wife-swapping and hypocrisy. The story is intelligently and absorbingly done, but ultimately thin. Yet Lee directs so carefully and the entire film has such a mood of resigned sadness and nervous unease — along with another fine ensemble cast headed by Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen and Christina Ricci — that it catches your eye and imagination anyway. 7 p.m. — M.W.
– “The Dinner” (star) (star) (Bernie Casey; U.S.). From writer-director-star Bernie Casey: A “Dinner With Andre”-style conversation piece among three successful and articulate African American male friends who meet in a restaurant decorated with presidential portraits and discuss the gap between their aspirations and their lives, between America’s image and reality. One of them is powerful, one young, one conservative. Though it seems almost wholly improvised, the conversation works as a revelation of tensions and ideas often unspoken or unexplored. The movie’s erotic-thriller framing device seems a total mistake. 7 p.m. (also 7 p.m. Tues Oct. 14) — M.W.
– “In the Name of Innocence” 7:15 p.m. (see Saturday review)
– “Suzaku” (star) (star) (star) 1/2 (Naomi Kawase; Japan). This startling and visually ravishing feature debut from Naomi Kawase deploys an ambitious time frame to explore the devastating personal, cultural and economic repercussions of the radically shifting work opportunities among an extended family living in a remote farming village. The acting, by a largely non-professional cast, is restrained and concentrated, and Masaki Tamura’s cinematography is lyrical and spellbinding. A must-see film. 7:30 p.m. (also 4:30 and 9:15 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — P.Z.M.
– “Dogtown” (star) (star) (George Hickenlooper; U.S.). A local high-school graduate who has had modest, sleazy success as fringe movie actor in Hollywood, returns to his sleepy home town, finds the same buddies, enemies and untouchable crush. This movie has wit, pace and a great cast, but it also condescends to most of its characters and lacks real invention. 9 p.m. (also 2:30 and 7 p.m. Mon Oct. 13) — M.W.
– “Fred” (star) (star) 1/2 (Pierre Jolivet; France). An unemployed ex-factory worker with a girlfriend, a baby and a passion for trucks gets pulled into a criminal quagmire, from which, try as he might, he can’t quite escape. Co-produced by Bertrand Tavernier, this film has a flair for pace, realism and local color — but not, apparently, for making the most of the city’s own realistic performances. 9:15 p.m. (also 5 p.m. Mon Oct. 13; 9:15 p.m. Tues Oct. 14) — M.W.
– “The Witman Boys” (star) (star) (star) (Janos Szasz; Hungary). Relentlessly cold and macabre fact-based examination of two young psychopathic brothers, by the writer-director of the haunting recent remake of Buchner’s “Woyzeck.” Chillingly emotionless, with dead fishlike faces, the warped Witman boys become visual icons of the chaos that sometimes lies below the surface of conformity. 9:15 p.m. (also 3:30 and 6:45 p.m. Mon Oct 13) — M.W.
– “Life is All You Get” (star) (star) 1/2 (Wolfgang Becker; Germany). A sometimes sharp and trenchant examination of the alienation and loss of identity confronting Germany’s youth, the story follows the adventures of a young meat packer who becomes involved with a mysterious woman. Despite some strong acting and a sure visual energy that captures Berlin, the overpacked narrative turns increasingly baroque and unformed. 9:20 p.m. (also 3 and 9 p.m. Tues Oct. 14) — P.Z.M.
– “Cosmos” 9:30 p.m. (see Friday review)
Film Festival facts
What: The 33rd Chicago International Film Festival
When: Daily through Oct. 19
Where: Cineplex Odeon theaters, 600 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-255-9340
Number of feature films: 85+
Number of shorts programs: 5
Number of countries represented: 30
Special tribute, career achievement: Michael Douglas
Special tribute, career achievement, retrospective: Spike Lee
Personal appearances: Roger Corman, Jean-Luc Godard, Liv Ullmann, Anouk Aimee, Michael Haneke, Matthieu Kassovitz, Bernie Casey, Ira Wohl, James Toback, Agnes Merlet, Juzo Itami and others.
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Ticket Prices: Weekday matinees (Monday-Friday before 5 p.m.) $3; Mondays-Thursdays $8 (non-members), $6.50 (members); Fridays-Sundays $9 (non-members), $7.50 (members); special group rates (available through festival office or Ticketmaster, 312-902-1500).
Festival Office: 312-425-9400
Festival 24-hour hotline: 312-332-FILM
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.chicago.ddbn.com/filmfest/