10 by 11 - My adventures at the Chicago International Film Festival and Beyond (Part ONE)

Flash back to two/three years ago, and I was working my way through my Netflix queue at warp speed, watching obscure films from all over the world at a rate of three or four a week. Then Netflix added instant viewing, and suddenly, there were hundreds of movies available for me to watch with the simplicty of a single click, including many from my beloved Film Movement.

But, sadly, I haven't been watching. I'm not sure what has or hasn't happened in my life to change my habit, but now I'm lucky if I even watch one disc per month, and I almost never take advantage of the instant viewing. I have several theories about what might be causing this - but, I realized I really was missing a lot of great foreign and independent films.

So - this summer/fall I renewed my membership for the Siskel Center, and then decided to take things one step further and bought a pass (and a gala pass to boot) for the Chicago International Film Festival. After a few warm-ups at the Siskel, which I won't go into here, in the interest of keeping things current, I embarked on an 11-day, 10-film wild ride. Below is a day-by-day account of the undertaking.

Saturday 10 October
I started at the Siskel with Majid Majidi's The Song of Sparrows. It wasn't part of the festival, but provided a good starting point. I enjoyed watching the story of Karim and his family members, which the other Majidi films, centered on story of a very good person encountering one minor tragedy after another, (i.e. life). I like the complexity of the main character, and the simple beauty and use of color, water and nature, throughout the film.

Then on the the festival proper for my old favorite, Ken Loach's newist offering, Looking for Eric. Although some people will dismiss the story as too far-fetched, I really enjoyed seeing depressed postman Eric, conjure up his personal hero, footballer Eric Cantona, to act as his therapist to help him get his shit together. Not as predictable as one might expect.

Monday 12 October
I went to the Gala screening of Lars Von Trier's new monolith, Antichrist. I did my best not to read anything about the film in advance, and went almost solely based on my near-obsession with Charlotte Gainsbourg. It was a very difficult film. The opening sequence is beautiful and dreamlike, and a lot of that beauty carries through the rest of the film, but the hard parts were so difficult to watch, I came away with the idea that I would never recommend it to anyone.

This unnamed couple loses their child, and when conventional methods don't seem to be pulling the mother out of her grief, her husband decides to take matters into his own professional hands. I think that one can make this film as simple or as difficult as one would like in interpretation. I essentially took it as a story of a guy who thinks he can fix his wife, but in the middle of it all, realizes that her problems might be a lot more serious than he initially thought - however, I think her realizes this too late, and before he figures out how to abort his mission and take her back to civilzation, all hell breaks loose - and I really mean that.


The Q & A with Willem Dafoe afterward was really helpful in terms of giving some insight to Von Trier's motivations and process, and also in giving us permission to interpret the film in our own ways, like any artwork.

Coming Soon

Just in case anyone's reading this - I've got a very full plate for Rocktober 2009, which includes a handful of concerts and two handfuls of movies, thanks to buying a pass for the Chicago International Film Festival. So, if there aren't at least five new posts here by the end of the month, well, I don't know why you bother checking.

I spent several weeks in Europe this summer, and tried out Pitchfork when I got back. I don't think I'll feel like I need to go next year. The Flatstock portion aside (where I finally tracked down that Diana Sudyka mermaid poster from the Laura Veirs/Liam Finn Show last spring), it's not really my scene. I did get to catch a special Pre-Lollapalooza Andrew Bird show at Schubas in August and that was amazing. I saw The Rural Alberta Advantage in the park for free, and took unplanned trips to Schubas for The Cave Singers and to The Green Mill for Astral Project last month. I had an adventure chasing Sufjan Stevens tickets all over two states and one province and never did catch a one - though I was in Montreal at the same time as him AND the Dalai Lama.

What does The Wonderful World of Fall have in store for Nobo? We shall see. Stay tuned.