Some people are better at making lists than others. Some people seem to breathe and shed lists. My memory’s more of a mosaic, but the forty-third edition of the Chicago International Film Festival, with more than 100 features from forty-four countries, offers up almost forty movies that I’ve either seen or have read enough about to heartily recommend. A movie year should be this lucky, let alone a festival filled with these postcards from around the planet. Thursday night opens with “Kite Runner” and a Roger Ebert tribute, to whom 2007 CIFF is dedicated. I’ve written already about Tamara Jenkins’ closing night entry, “The Savages,” a tone-perfect American black comedy. My favorite title comes from Bangladesh, whose Oscar entry’s here, “Swopnodanay,” by Golam Rabbany Biplob. Serene Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-Hsien decamps to Paris and updates “Flight of the Red Balloon.” Andrei Zvyagintsev’s “The Banishment” is another post-Tarkovsky, post-Soviet slab of gloom from “The Return”‘s director. Photographer Anton Corbijn’s “Control” is a touching, tragic biopic of doomed Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. Cannes-prized “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” is a Romanian gem about teen abortion under the Ceausescu regime. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, whose “Invisible Waves” dazzled, returns with another Thai puzzle, “Ploy.” New German master Christian Petzold’s “Yella” is joined by new movies by established filmmakers including Andre Techine, Roy Andersson, Jiri Menzel, Catherine Breillat, Diego Lerman, Bela Tarr, Charles Burnett, Ermanno Olmi, Paul Schrader, Carlos Reygadas, Jean Renoir, Kartemquin Films, John Sayles, Anthony Hopkins, Susanne Bier, Sidney Lumet, Denys Arcand, Jacques Nolot, Jacques Rivette, Julian Schnabel and Zhang Yang. And newcomer Craig Zobel’s “Great World Of Sound” is pretty terrific on our post-“reality” world and Esther Robinson’s biopic of an uncle who worked with Warhol, “A Walk Into the Sea” is one of the year’s most hypnotic. (Ray Pride) Complete listings at chicagofilmfestival.org
Talking Screens, October 15-21, 2021: The Best of the Chicago International Film Fest The fifty-seventh Chicago International Film Festival runs through Sunday, October 24. And, Michael Caplan's "Algren" has its Chicago theatrical run beginning this week via Music Box virtual cinema. Several movies open Friday, including David Gordon Green's "Halloween Kills," Ridley Scott's "The Last Duel," Mia Hansen-Løve's "Bergman Island" and Todd Haynes' "Velvet Underground."
