The European Union Film Festival continues at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; 312-846-2600. For a complete schedule, visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org.
‘A Girl Cut in Two’ *** 1/2 (France/Germany; Claude Chabrol, 2007). This elegant, coolly acidic tale is a suspense exercise by structure but a black comedy by temperament, involving amorous secrets and the usual French May-December relational landscape. The story’s inspired by Harry Thaw’s 1906 murder of Stanford White — a little bit, anyway. Francois Berleand plays the reclusive novelist smitten by a much younger TV weathercaster (Ludivine Sagnier); a rich snot played by Benoit Magimel positions himself as the woman’s ardent suitor and the novelist’s rival. Tightly controlled and wonderfully acted, “A Girl Cut in Two” doesn’t advance the cause of feminism. It does, however, advance the case for Chabrol’s mordant craftsmanship. 3 p.m. Sun.; 6 p.m. Tue. — Michael Phillips
‘The Tiger’s Tail’ * 1/2 (Ireland; John Boorman, 2006). Over the past decade, the romantically hardscrabble Ireland of James Joyce and Seamus Heaney has been recast as a capitalist powerhouse, the “Celtic Tiger” of legend. And, as the country’s rich got richer, the poor lost everything. The latest from John Boorman (“Deliverance,” “Hope and Glory”) wants to be either a morality tale condemning Ireland for its greed, or a ghost story about mistaken identity. It doesn’t succeed on either count — instead, Boorman and star Brendan Gleeson have made a slightly campy and marginally entertaining mess about twins separated at birth. One twin, played by Gleeson, is wildly successful (giant house, disaffected teenage son, wife played by Kim Cattrall — yes, that Kim Cattrall). The other twin, also played by Gleeson, is not successful. When the latter meets the former, confusion ensues, some of which is supposed to be creepy (it’s not) and some of which is supposed to be funny (it is, but only sporadically, and occasionally, I suspect, inadvertently). 5 p.m. Sat.; 6 p.m. Wed. — Jessica Reaves
‘A Hero … in Rome’ ** (Greece; Panos Angelopoulos, 2006). An awkward young outsider (Giuseppe Sulfaro) plans a trip from his home in Greece to see his idol, Luciano Pavarotti, in Rome. In the stolen-suitcase-movie tradition (“The Freshman,” “French Kiss”), “A Hero … in Rome” takes its lead character, now with no possessions and no language skills, through a series of misadventures, some of them quite dark, while Sulfaro’s narration ruminates philosophically on the meaning of life. Writer-director Angelopoulos misses in his attempt to knit fantasies, memories and farce. 8:15 p.m. Fri.; 8 p.m. Mon.
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