This will have to go down as one of the less impressive
years at the Chicago Film Festival, as while there were good films, none were
among the best of the year (with the exception of Moonlight, which screened one-time only as a Special). Again, placing festival quality films in the
over-priced Specials category simply eliminates them from view, as they are not
accessible to most viewers, but remain exclusive one-time-only screenings for
the financially privileged. This
two-tiered system does not work well in terms of presenting overall quality, or
accessibility, but the festival can then hype that these films were part of the
festival. It’s very misleading. The award selections were overly conventional
as well, and failed to single out any of the more unique films shown, so overall
it was a disappointing year.
Missing from the festival, yet playing in New York, Kenneth
Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea,
Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Olivier
Assayas’s Personal Shopper, Hong
Sang-soo’s Yourself and Yours,
Dardenne brother’s The Unknown Girl,
Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta, Kelly
Reichardt’s Certain Women, Kleber Mendonça
Filho’s Aquarius, featuring one of
the stunning performances of the year from legendary actress Sonia Braga,
Eugene Green’s Son of Jospeh, Mike
Mills’s 20th Century Women, Alison
Maclean’s The Rehearsal, Ava
DuVernay’s The 13th, and James Gray’s
The Lost City of Z. These missing films are significant as the
Chicago festival is one of the few venues that could promote non-commercial
artists like Kelly Reichardt, Alison Maclean, Maren Ade, Eugene Green, or Hong
Sang-soo. They could use the added exposure,
and Chicago viewers deserve to see their films side by side with other great
works.
Nonetheless, the experience of so many films flooding into
the area for a two-week festival is itself unique and unlike any other
film-going experience, as the options, even for a short period of time, are
elevated. One always gets their hopes up
for a chance to discover a surprise of the year, or some unrecognized film,
where perhaps this year, among the better surprises were Harmonium
(Fuchi ni tatsu), The
Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (Hymyilevä mies) , Journey
Through French Cinema (Voyage à travers le cinéma français), and Heartstone
(Hjartasteinn), as we knew going in that the Romanian films were strong
contenders from their reputations at Cannes.
There are always disappointments, and this year was no exception, where
the Russian films in particular seem to have been affected by the heavy-handed
influence of Putin, where one can only hope that’s not a general trend, but
Berluscone seemed to have a similar affect on the Italian film industry when he
was in power. Lord knows what effect
Trump will have on American films, as the industry itself appears under siege,
as more and more are watching films in the comfort of their homes on a
television screen, which is becoming an acceptable alternative to seeing films
in a theater. The theater experience
remains the optimal choice, as theaters have larger screens and are designed
for uninterrupted viewing. When one
considers rave reviews by film critics, they are not talking about watching at
home interrupted by all manner of daily occurences happening simultaneous to
the screening. One remains the ideal,
while the other is becoming a convenient option. Knowing this, Hollywood has converted to box
office bonanzas only, where they continue to churn out super hero movies with
bombastic special effects. This festival
is a glorious alternative to the escapist entertainment of those loud and
obnoxious Hollywood releases, as these are quieter and more contemplative, and
feature much better acting performances.
Even in a down year, a festival like this offers more significant options
than any other event during the rest of the year. For that we should be grateful.
Films Seen
B+
B
Sieranevada 89
Apprentice 88
Layla M 86
Destined 85
B-
C+
C
D+
Fado 66
D
D-
Jonathan has created a Google spreadsheet allowing a small
group of us to enter grades for each film we see:
The graders this year include:
Jonathan Dabian, free lance software informer
Evan Wang, Masters in Biology from IIT and grad student at
Northwestern Documentary Films program
Frank Biletz, college history professor
Ivan Albertson, perennial Film Center volunteer
Waydell Walker, television production manager
Robert Kennedy from Cranes Are Flying
Unfortunately, Kirk Madsen was unavailable to attend this
year’s festival, which was a loss to us all.
Hopefully he'll be back next year.
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