The Artist

This French film played at the Chicago International Film Festival this year as its Closing Night film.  It stars Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, as silent film stars in Hollywood.  The story is a little bit A Star is Born, a little bit Singin' In the Rain.  Dujardin, as popular star george Valentin (no doubt a play on Rudolf Valentino) has enjoyed a successful career as a leading man in silent films.  It is now the mid-1920s.  Bejo is pretty young thing Peppy Miller, hoping to make it big in Hollywood, and they have a "meet-cute" at a premiere.  Valentin, despite being married, is taken with her.  As her star rises, his falls, due to two key events of that time.

CIFF 2011: King of Devil's Island

There are so many real stories in history that I wonder why filmmakers tread into remake territory.  The great acting in King of Devil's Island (even with its Titanic-type ending) is strong throughout, showing how the friendship of two boys can outlast the abuse they and others suffered in a prison-like reform school, in this true story from Norway in the early 1900s.

The Color of Magic

Terry Pratchett is a fantasy comedy writer with a big library of titles based on his fantastical flat-as-a-pancake creation, the Discworld. It is a place filled with inept wizards, smart witches, vampires, wolfmen and trolls, and every creature in between. Among my favorite storylines are those that involve the witch Granny Weatherwax and her friends, and Death and his adopted granddaughter Susan.

This second live action film based on Pratchett's works is a combination of the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, as well as The Light Fantastic, and involves the dotty wizards at Unseen University, who do their utmost to retain tenure while shirking as much work as possible.

Past seven days

I guess I am on a documentary kick this week.  I caught the new doc by Werner Herzog, Into the Abyss, as well as several on DVD.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Behind the Burly Q
Into the Abyss
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Lipstick & Dynamite
Man Hunt

Free event: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth observes why this public housing project in the 1950s was not able to achieve its goal of offering affordable housing for low income, and eventually an all black, population in St. Louis.  As with many public housing projects, this complex fell in decline with lack of government maintenance and infusion of high crime.  The film points a light at this issue, but it is hard to find any answers for this or any other attempt to successfully integrate low-income housing into an uban setting.

Northwestern University's Block Museum is hosting this screening.


The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Thursday, November 10
7:00 p.m.
Northwestern University, Block Museum of Art, Blcok Cinema
40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL