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
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.