Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant”
1 Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Film Center, Monday, January 24) Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking 1975 feminist feature of sturdy, steady duration (201 minutes) presented on 35mm as part of the Siskel Film Center’s yearlong “50/50” series.
2 A Hero (Ghahreman) (Opens Friday, January 7) Iranian master Asghar Farhadi—only forty-nine years old!—remains an essential dramatist of our times, his times.
3 The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Film Center, Monday, January 3) You want toxic? I give you giftig: in the most piss-elegant setting, an essential destruction of the soul in a savage early R. W. Fassbinder masterpiece. Part of “50/50.” 35mm.
4 A Woman Under The Influence (Film Center, Monday, January 17) Mabel needs to be loved. John Cassavetes’ shattering 1974 epic of intimate lightning. 35mm. Part of “50/50.”
5 ¡PEDRO! (Film Center, January) As “Parallel Mothers” plays in theaters, the Film Center brings back six Almodóvars: in 35mm, “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”; “All About My Mother”; “Volver”; “Talk To Her”; and “Broken Embraces”; plus “Pain and Glory.”
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: January 2021 Old folks, young love, aspiration in India, Denzel Washington still hunting serial killers, and Tom Hanks way out west.
Film Top 5: January 2023 Epic movies at a single sitting, including "OUT 1," "Sátántangó" and "Dekalog"; two months of Billy Wilder movies in 35mm; and one creepy doll.
