1 Stavisky (Siskel, August 13, 18) One of six imported 35mm prints of crime films from France, and one of Alain Resnais’ least-seen, this is the 1930s-set saga of a Russian-Jewish con artist (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who brings down the French left. With music by Stephen Sondheim. (Melville’s “Le deuxième souffle” and Renoir’s “La bête humaine” are great, too.)
2 Little Men (Opens mid-August) Ira Sachs’ latest is a tender telling of the street- and apartment-level effects of gentrification in modern Brooklyn, close to the grown-ups spatting over space but closer to their young sons in the city wild.
3 Multiple Maniacs (Music Box, Opens August 12) Janus Films and Criterion restore King of Sleaze John Waters’ little-seen, officially unreleased second feature. As Waters puts it, “Finally, Multiple Maniacs looks like a bad John Cassavetes film!”
4 Pete’s Dragon (Opens Friday, August 12) The previews promise much from “St. Nick” and “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” director-editor David Lowery with a reimagining of the 1970s Disney property as an all-ages tear-tingler, starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford and Oakes Fegley as a ten-year-old orphan with a secret friend.
5 Twenty Second Annual Black Harvest Film Festival (Siskel, August 5-September 1) Shorts and features exploring the best in contemporary independent filmmaking about the black experience in the United States and around the world.
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.
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