As the Chicago International Film Festival moves into its second week, there are still a lot of interesting and exciting movies to be seen. I feel compelled to note that none of the 16 features on this week’s program that I’m familiar with are as beautiful or as potent as Jean-Luc Godard’s Nouvelle vague–one of the 39 films shown in Toronto last month that Chicago festival director Michael Kutza boasted to the press about having rejected. (Among the other 38 “rejected” titles are a charming minimalist comedy, A Little Stiff, shown at the Film Center last month, and a fascinating documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, which premiered on cable last weekend.) So though, as always, Kutza’s selection is a mixed bag, there are nonetheless several titles included that are worth anyone’s time.
Screenings are at the Fine Arts, 418 S. Michigan, the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, and the Esquire, 58 E. Oak. Tickets can be purchased at the theater box office the day of the screening starting one hour in advance or at the film festival store, 828 N. State; they are also available by phone at 644-3456 or 902-1500. General admission to each program, with some exceptions, is $7, $6 for Cinema/Chicago members; the first shows of the day before 6 PM at each theater are two dollars cheaper. “Best of the Festival” programs cost $10, $9 for Cinema/Chicago members. For further information, call 644-3456. –Jonathan Rosenbaum
30 Door Key–Ferdydurke
Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 1989 ten-film work Decalogue, one of the most critically acclaimed achievements in recent cinema, is a hard act to follow, but The Double Life of Veronique, a French-Polish coproduction, is a worthy successor. Kieslowski has challenged himself stylistically and thematically, again measuring human behavior not against a codified moral law but against natural mysteries of a sort that he implies is ultimately unfathomable. His story of two young women, one born in Poland and the other in France, who are inexplicably identical in every way, is no trick of interlocking puzzle pieces but a lovely construction of loose ends that trail off to infinity. The film is exhilarating, shot through with moments of soaring triumph, and at the same time oblique, impenetrable, and strange, all of which Kieslowski intends. This is a film that lives in the imagination long after viewing, and one of the must-sees of the year. (BS) (Fine Arts, 7:00)
*Delicatessen
Chicagoan Dennis Farina and Leo Rossi star in this U.S. feature as New York hustlers who hide out in Los Angeles after failing to pull off a Wall Street bond heist. James Lemmo directed. (Esquire, 9:30)
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Sandra Werneck’s 51-minute “nonsensationalist” Brazilian documentary delves into the reasons why more than 1,800 children have been murdered in Brazil over the past five years. (Music Box, 3:00)
