The Tribune’s wrap-up of the Chicago International Film Festival schedule, by Tribune movie critic Michael Wilmington and the movie reviewing staff, appears each day. – indicates a personal appearance by the director or star.
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Picks of the day
“Once You’re Born, You Can No Longer Hide” (star)(star)(star)(star) (Marco Tullio Giordana; Italy/United Kingdom/France). Seething with emotion and packed with ideas, this new film by Giordana — director of the much-admired epic family mini-series “The Best of Youth” — plunges us right into one of contemporary Italy’s most furious controversies, the problems of illegal immigration and multi-ethnicity, as well as the age-old gaps and conflicts between rich and poor. The central character is Sandro (Matteo Gadola) a thoughtful Italian boy from a wealthy family, who falls overboard on a yachting holiday with his father (Alessio Boni of “Youth), and, near drowning, is fished from the sea by Sicilian smugglers carrying a cargo of illegal immigrants to a drop on the coast.
Just as the movie seems to be settling into a crackling-good modern version of “Captains Courageous” — with Sandro befriended on board by a plucky Romanian refugee and his sister (excellent jobs by Vlad Alexandru Toma and Ester Hazan) — it shifts gears again and becomes a painful drama and scathing look at the problems of legal immigration, even when aided by well-meaning liberal parents like that played by Boni. Beautifully shot, brilliantly written (by the “Best of Youth” team of Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli) and extremely well acted, this was one of my favorites at the last Cannes festival — a view, I should add, not generally held. (In Italian, with English subtitles.) 6:15 p.m. Mon. Landmark (also 6:30 p.m. Tue., Landmark; 9:15 p.m. Wed., Landmark). — M.W.
“Devils on the Doorstep” (star)(star)(star)(star) (Wen Jiang, China). A fantastic mix of World War II social drama and very dark comedy, writer-director-star Jiang’s goofball epic portrays the funny, terrible consequences when a fanatic Japanese POW and his translator are left behind in a rural Chinese village in 1944. Placed in the charge of a pretentious local bumpkin (played by director Wen himself), the two uninvited guests quickly throw the village into turmoil, a political mess that mirrors the larger chaos of the war and the coming xenophobia of Mao’s post-war rule. Shot in black-and-white, in a stunning rural location near the Great Wall, this film has been shortened by 23 minutes from the version that won the Grand Prize (runner-up to the Palme d’Or) at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and then was banned in China. It’s still a first-class work: robust, sharply drawn and frequently shocking. (In Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, with English subtitles.) 9 p.m., Mon., Landmark (also 4 p.m. Wed., Landmark; 7 p.m. Thu., Landmark). — M.W.
Other films reviewed
“October 17, 1961” (star)(star)(star)(star) (Alain Tasma, France). First-rate docudramatic filmmaking, dexterous and coolly seductive. With France and the rest of the world divided over France’s war in Algeria, terrorist acts in Paris and elsewhere provoked French officials into some very bad decision-making. The resulting police-on-immigrant violence culminated in a bloody street clash on the night indicated by director Tasmas’ title. Similar, and similarly fine, to the docudrama “Bloody Sunday” while foregoing the Irish film’s relentless hand-held camerawork, “October 17, 1961” arrives at a distressingly pertinent time given America’s ill-starred Iraq invasion and the racist suspicion back home. Tasmas handles it all with mournful ease; imagine what Alan Parker or Oliver Stone would’ve done to cheapen this material, and you appreciate the results all the more. 6:45 p.m. Mon., AMC. — Michael Phillips
“Manderlay” (star)(star)(star)1/2 (Lars Von Trier; Denmark). Von Trier’s sequel to his flabbergasting “Dogville” is another all-out satiric-dramatic dismantling of the flaws in the American Dream, once again shot on minimal (almost non-existent) sets on a huge cavernous soundstage, with a huge all-star cast — albeit with Bryce Dallas Howard replacing Nicole Kidman in the central role of suffering Grace. This time, Von Trier tackles racism in the South: Grace takes over a plantation still mysteriously run along pre-Civil War lines. She proceeds to fall into a lurid nightmare melodrama of exploitation and the chains of culture. Crazy, but affecting. The cast includes Danny Glover (in the complex role of the house servant Wilhelm), Isaach de Bankole, Lauren Bacall and narrator John Hurt. 9 p.m. Mon., Landmark (also 9 p.m. Wed., Landmark. — M.W.
– “Pale Eyes” (star)(star)(star) (Jerome Bonnell, France). Writer-director Bonnell follows a few days in the life of mentally ill Fanny (Nathalie Boutefeu), who disrupts her routinized existence by stealing her brother’s car and heading to Germany in search of their father’s grave. Any amount of syrup and you’d have a triumph of the human spirit on your sticky hands; instead, Bonnell and Boutefeu keep things narratively simple yet tonally plaintive and delicate. 4:45 p.m. Mon. Landmark (also 6:45 p.m. Tue., Landmark). — M.P.
– “Play” (star)(star)(star) (Alicia Scherson, Chile/Argentina/France). The title “Play” serves as both misdirection and seduction in Scherson’s lyrical debut film. Viviana Herrera stars as Cristina, a young woman from rural Chile working as a nurse in Santiago. Her life of solitude and video games opens up when she finds a briefcase belonging to Tristan, a young construction consultant going through a divorce. As she assembles the pieces of his life, listening to his music and learning about his predicament, Tristan slowly unravels. Scherson’s assured, visual imaginative “Play” (watch for the blending of video game and movie elements) is a pop song for the heart — melancholy, lush and unforgettable. 6:15 p.m. Mon., AMC (also 8:45 p.m. Tue., 7 p.m. Wed., AMC). — Robert K. Elder
Shorts: Animation Nations (star)(star)(star) (Various countries and directors). A fine program of sophisticated cartoons, highlighted by one highly personal work: John Canemaker’s autobiographical “The Moon and the Son,” which candidly and imaginatively tells the painful story of the animator’s relationship with an angry father and splintered family, with father and son voiced movingly by Eli Wallach and John Turturro. Other highlights: Igor Kovalyov’s dreamy Russian “Milch” and Marcos Besas’ lively Spanish Quixote-tinged fable “The Legend of the Scarecrow.” 9:15 p.m. Mon., AMC (also 6:30 p.m. Thu., AMC). — M. W.
– “Constellation” (star)(star)1/2 (U.S.; Jordan Walker-Pearlman). The long shadow of an unhappy interracial love affair casts a pall over several decades, two families and this film’s energy level as well. Sympathetic but not too original, it’s an ensemble drama about a large African-American family assembled for the funeral of the woman who suffered through that unhappy affair. (Her ex-lover’s clan is pulled in here too.) Rarely surprising, it does offer a good showcase for a strong cast, including Hill Harper, Gabrielle Union, Lesley Ann Warren (who shines) and Billy Dee Williams, who brings lots of sour charisma to the part of the cynical brother of the deceased. 8:30 p.m. Mon., AMC. — M.W.
Unscreened, but of interest
“La Courage d’Aimer” (“The Courage to Love”) (France; Claude Lelouch). Love and pop music mix in the latest romance from the occasional master of classic art-house schmaltz, Lelouch (“A Man and a Woman”). In French, with English subtitles. 6:30 p.m. Sat., Landmark (also 3:45 p.m., Sun., Landmark; 8:45 p.m. Mon., Landmark). — M.W.
“Housewarming” (France; Brigitte Rouan). The premise for Rouan’s new film sounds hilarious: a crackerjack French lawyer (Carole Bouquet) hires a convincing but inept contractor to remodel her apartment; he proceeds to demolish it. (In French, with English subtitles.) 6:30 p.m., Mon., AMC (also 6:45 p.m. Wed., Landmark; 4:30 p.m. Thu., Landmark). — M.W.