Film Top 5: October 2019

“Let’s Scare Jessica To Death”

1
Au Hasard Balthazar
(Gene Siskel Film Center)
“Ah, the one with the donkey,” Walter Hill reportedly says when cornered for a confession that Robert Bresson is a key influence on his movies. Godard called “Au hasard Balthazar” “the world in an hour and a half.” On 35mm, let’s call the ever-giving animal’s journey to grace essential viewing.
October 4 & 8

2
Pain and Glory
At sixty-nine, Almodóvar sums up, with Antonio Banderas playing a counterpart to the Spanish master looking back on what will be his legacy.
Opens October 11

3
Queen of Diamonds
(Chicago Film Society at NEIU)
A 35mm restoration of the 1991 Las Vegas-set independent feminist classic in the tactile, allusive style director Nina Menkes is known for. An essential vision.
October 9

4
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
(Music Box Theatre)
Director John Hancock will appear with a 16mm print of his 1971 low-budget horror gem; after leaving a mental hospital, Jessica quickly discovers there may be more madness in the Connecticut countryside than she had counted on.
October 19 & 20

5
The Killers/The Killers
(Gene Siskel Film Center)
Two adaptations of the Ernest Hemingway short-short story arrive in 4K DCP restorations: Robert Siodmak’s 1946 memory-drenched noir (October 4, 6, 10) and Don Siegel’s hard-edged machine-tooled color delirium from 1964 (October 4, 6, 7), leaning heavy on the nihilism. In his last film role, big-business bad guy Ronald Reagan belts Angie Dickinson, inviting a punch from John Cassavetes.
October 4-10