1 A Touch Of Zen (Siskel, July 1, 3) King Hu’s epic, three-hour, three-years-in-the making wuxia masterwork in a new digital restoration. Essential eyeball kicks.
2 The Volcanic Anna Magnani (Siskel) From Italy with gusto, roles by one of the fiercest females in film history who is often heartbreaking and heart-punching in a single breath or flash of the eyes. This month: Vittorio De Sica’s 1941 screwball “Doctor, Beware” (July 2); Monicelli’s “The Passionate Thief” (July 2, 5); 1971’s late career “La Sciantosa” (July 9) and Pasolini’s astounding 1962 “Mamma Roma” (July 9, 12), wherein Magnani embodies a Roman prostitute reunited with her oblivious teenage son.
3 Neon Bull (Siskel, opens July 1) Gabriel Mascaro’s got game: Cowboys, Brazilian rodeo, voluptuary visuals, class consciousness, dreams of fashion, filched stallion sperm and a passage or two of riveting rutting.
4 Blood Simple and Coen Bros. retrospective (Music Box, opens July 8) “Let’s do it outside…in nature.” Digital 4K restoration of their first feature, along with showings of “Fargo,” “Barton Fink” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There.”
5 The Purge: Election Year (Opens July 1) And not a moment too soon.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
