Last week theater owners gathered in Las Vegas for CinemaCon, the annual movie industry trade convention, and delivered a message to the studios: there aren’t enough movies.
Blame it on the strikes for delaying productions, blame it on Netflix for disrupting consumer habits, blame it on the audience for neglecting their local 16-plex. Whatever the cause, there’s a product shortage. However, there is no shortage of films at the Chicago Film Society. In fact, the CFS film collection continues to grow.
Chicago Film Society’s new season includes films from around the world: Beauty and the Beast from France, The Spirit of the Beehive from Spain, The Day I Became a Woman from Iran, and two films from Hiroshi Shimizu, both playing in 35mm prints imported from Japan. They found a beautiful print of The Jackie Robinson Story at the Library of Congress, preserved from nitrate elements in sterling black-and-white, when most copies you can watch at home are dubious, computer-colorized versions of the original film. They also have great films by John Cassavetes, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Sirk, and Peter Weir, all in 35mm.
This season you’ll see a brand-new print of Haskell Wexler’s docufiction classic Medium Cool, struck especially for Chicago Film Society by Paramount Pictures.
Chicago Film Society, Season 34
May 2 – August 28, 2024
The Auditorium at NEIU (Building E, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave)
Music Box Theatre (3733 N. Southport Ave)
Admission: $10 – 12 (varies by venue)
chicagofilmsociilm feety.org
FULL SCHEDULE
Thursday, May 2 @ 6:45 PM / Music Box Theatre
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
Directed by Peter Weir • 2003 • 35mm, permission Disney
Oceans are now battlefields–and this beloved naval epic returns to the big screen in all its imperial grandeur.
Saturday, May 11 @ 11:30 AM / Music Box Theatre
THE SHIP OF LOST MEN
Directed by Maurice Tourneur • 1929 • 35mm from Library of Congress
A revolt at sea, starring a dozen slimy men and Marlene Dietrich, just before she sang her way to stardom in The Blue Angel. Not available on disc or streaming. Live musical accompaniment by Jay Warren
Wednesday, May 15 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
FRANKENSTEIN
Directed by James Whale • 1931 • 35mm from Universal
You can have your terrors however you like, but we prefer the strong, silent type: Karloff, the man, the monster, the legend.
Wednesday, May 22 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
Directed by Víctor Erice • 1973 • 35mm from Janus Films
A dream-like reverie for childhood, revolution, and itinerant film projection. In Spanish with English subtitles
Wednesday, June 5 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
CHILDREN OF THE BEEHIVE
Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu • 1948 • 35mm from Kawakita Memorial Film Institute
A beguiling journey through post-war Japan, courtesy of a gaggle of war orphans. Not available on disc or streaming. In Japanese with English subtitles
Saturday, June 22 @ 11:30 AM / Music Box Theatre
JAPANESE GIRLS AT THE HARBOR
Directed by Hiroshi Shimizu • 1933 • 35mm from National Film Archive of Japan
Hiroshi Shimizu’s most celebrated silent film, a chronicle of two young friends growing apart in the shadow of Yokohama Harbor. Live musical accompaniment by MIYUMI Project Japanese Experimental Ensemble Sponsored in part by Asian Improv aRts Midwest
Wednesday, June 26 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch • 1932 • 35mm from Universal
A gentleman thief (Herbert Marshall) and a lady pickpocket (Miriam Hopkins) make beautiful music while robbing a perfume executrix (Kay Francis) in Lubitsch’s sublime pre-Code romantic comedy.
Wednesday, July 3 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
THE DAY I BECAME A WOMAN
Directed by Marzieh Meshkini • 2000 • 35mm from Chicago Film Society collections
Three tales exploring the wages of womanhood in Iran. In Farsi with English subtitles
Sunday, July 14 @ 7:00 PM / Music Box Theatre
MANTRAP
Directed by Victor Fleming • 1926 • 35mm from Library of Congress
Tortured poets unite: it’s Clara Bow’s mountain romance, set in the wilds of rugged Canada. Live musical accompaniment by David Drazin
Wednesday, July 17 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ
Directed by John Cassavetes • 1971 • 35mm from Universal
Cassavetes’s cracked take on the rom com with Gena Rowland and Seymour Cassel: He ain’t no Bogart, and love isn’t like what you see in the movies
Wednesday, July 24 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY
Directed by Alfred E. Green • 1950 • 35mm from Library of Congress
An independently-produced biopic of the pioneering baseball star, who plays himself in between seasons on the field.
Monday, July 29 @ 7:00 PM / Music Box Theatre
MEDIUM COOL
Directed by Haskell Wexler • 1969 • 35mm from Chicago FIlm Society collections, permission Paramount. “Look out Haskell – it’s real!” The radical Chicago classic, showing in a brand-new 35mm print, just in time for the DNC.
Wednesday, August 7 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Directed by Jean Cocteau • 1946 • 35mm from Janus Films
Cocteau’s wondrous fairy tale, starring his boyfriend as an unforgettable brute. In French with English subtitles
Wednesday, August 14 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW
Directed by Douglas Sirk • 1956 • 35mm from Universal
Double Indemnity, one decade later, with toy robots instead of guns. A heartbreaking, staggering midlife crisis melodrama from Douglas Sirk, with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.
Wednesday, August 28 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU
THE COCA-COLA KID
Directed by Dušan Makavejev • 1985 • 35mm from Park Circus
A sexy, DayGlo version of Local Hero, with Australia standing in for Scotland, and Coca-Cola gurgling like crude oil. Yum!
Founded by projectionists in 2011, the Chicago Film Society promotes the exhibition and preservation of film in context. CFS screenings provide access to the restoration efforts of archives, studios, and private collectors, the work of artists exploring the film medium today, and the experience of seeing film projected live in a theater, with an audience. As physical artifacts, the film prints CFS shows hold the stories told by films — but also the stories of the industries that produced them, the labs that printed them, the places where they were exhibited, and the people who watched them. Through screenings, writing, film preservation projects, and workshops, CFS works to make all of this context visible and accessible to the public.
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