Now that the Patio theatre has reopened following the repair of its boiler, which broke down in freezing December, the nonprofit Northwest Chicago Film Society is back in business, with two upcoming 35mm screenings at the Patio.
On April 2, the Society presents director Milos Forman’s 1971 flower-power comedy and social commentary, “Taking Off,” about a couple, Buck Henry and Lynn Carlin, seeking their run away daughter who meet other parents looking for their children. Co-founder Rebecca Hall will introduce the film, as usual.
On April 23, the movie is Michael Curtiz’ 1932 maternal melodrama “The Strange Love of Molly Louvain,” starring Ann Dvorak, Richard Cromwell and Lee Tracy. It will be introduced by Christine Rice, author of “Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel.”
The mission of the Society, co-founded in 2011 by Julian Antos, Kyle Westphal and Hall, projectionists and programmers of the late Bank of America Cinema, theatre projectionists and film enthusiasts, is to preserve and restore the dying breed of 35mm and 16mm movie prints and screen them for movie buffs.
During the three month Patio programming break, they worked on 35mm restoration of “Corn’s-A-Poppin’,” considered to be one of the most unique movies ever produced; completed its Celluloid Chicago screenings calendar and Westphal wrote intelligent blogs of early movies and the people and studios behind them.
Despite the shift to digital projection Anton assures that they are still able to borrow plenty of 35mm prints from archives like the Library of Congress and studio vaults like Universal Studios.
“The fact that 35mm/16mm film projection has become increasingly rare is the very reason that we’re compelled to bring it to you,” says Anton. “We plan on showing these magnificent films in their original 35 mm format for a very long time.”
At the Patio, 6008 W. Irving Park, 7:30 p.m., $5 admission.
Sign of the times: Deluxe film processing Labs of Los Angeles will close May 9, “due to the decline in film processing as a result of the transition of capture and exhibition to digital, which caused the lab “significant financial losses,” a Deluxe executive said in a statement.
