1 Shy People (Chicago Film Society, Music Box) Andrei Konchalovsky’s rarely seen 1987 gem, a masterful, unabashed melodrama set in a haunted swamp, with Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey and Martha Plimpton. 35mm. March 30
2 The Twenty-Third Annual European Union Film Festival (Siskel) A tasty selection of forty-seven films from twenty-seven European Union member nations and, for one last time, self-exiled Great Britain. March 6-April 12
3 The Whistlers (Music Box) The great Romanian deadpan artist Corneliu Porumboiu turns his hand to an international comic caper to captivating result. Opens March 27
4 Saint Frances (Music Box) Chicago indie film makes good: SXSW standout from local talent makes good and wreaks tears as “issues” are heightened in human relief. Opens March 20
5 The 70mm Film Festival (Music Box) Get ‘em while they’re big: “Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood,” “West Side Story,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Big Trail,” “Last Action Hero,” “Roma,” “Lifeforce,” “The Untouchables,” “Khartoum,” “Interstellar,” “Tron” and “Hello, Dolly!” March 5-19
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.
Film Top 5: September 2020 Charlie Kaufman thinks, once more, as always, of ending it all; whimsitician Miranda July returns; Chicago Latino Film Festival goes virtual; Gerard Butler may or may not save the planet from a comet; and "Tenet" promises to time-invert over Labor Day in non-pandemic hotspot localities.
Film Top 5: October 2020 Chicago International, "Chicago 7" and "Candyman"'s Chicago; plus "WW1984" braces for social distancing and Kenneth Branagh again tunes up the tonsorial folderol as Hercule Poirot.
