Cinefile

47th CIFF: "Venus" + "Method" + "Here"

Nelson Carvajal Oct 19, 2011

Any instance where excitement brews over an animated tale that is not stemming from Pixar is always worth sharing. Such is the case for Tor Fruergaard's oddly touching claymation short film Venus (Denmark), which played in one of the shorts programs at this year's fest.

Venus follows Rasmus (Johan Philip Asbaek) and Caroline (Laura Bach) as they attempt to reignite the sexual flame in their relationship by going to a local swingers club (against Caroline's quiet reluctance). Of course, right from the start, many of the laughs come from watching these curvaceous clay figures perform all sorts ...

47th CIFF: "Patang" + "Joint Body"

Nelson Carvajal Oct 17, 2011

Patang (India) tells the perfunctory story of a transparent, dysfunctional family who bicker and hug a lot during a weekend kite festival in the kaleidoscope city of Ahmedabad. Prashant Bhargava's feature debut carefully follows an age-old outline: Introduce characters one by one (even with on-screen nametags), center the plot on a reunion of some sort (the kite festival), introduce a little tension ('Do we sell the family house or not?') and spoon-feed the audience with obvious visual metaphors (the kites in the sky serve as an analogy for life's game of soaring and falling!). There's nothing cruel ...

47th CIFF: "The Slut" + "Into The Abyss"

Nelson Carvajal Oct 14, 2011

For a film that is spends most of its time observing the decrepit countryside, The Slut's (Israel) visceral strengths come in unexpected instances of sexually carnal action--much like the recurring urges felt by the film's protagonist. Writer-Director-Star Hagar Ben-Asher plays Tamar, an attractive thirtysomething mother of two young daughters, who gets through the rural day-to-day workflow by squeezing in sexual favors for the village male professionals (bicycle repairman, stocky tough guy, poultry farmer, you name it). At first, it seems that it's the men who are running the show. Anytime one of them feels horny, they know ...

47th CIFF: "We Need To Talk About Kevin" + "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

Nelson Carvajal Oct 10, 2011

One of the first searing images we see in Lynne Ramsay's bleak, nonlinear drama We Need To Talk About Kevin (United Kingdom) is that of a mosh pit of people covered in what looks like tomato sauce, swaying back and forth (sometimes violently) in a collective current amidst the city streets. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey shoots this from an aerial point of view. The curvish lines among each person's body creates a pulsating vibration on the screen. In fact, the whole screen is practically red; imagine the white noise you see on a TV channel suddenly bleed red. It ...

47th CIFF: "Andrew Bird: Fever Year" + "Day Is Done"

Nelson Carvajal Oct 08, 2011

Although the Chicago International Film Festival may not have the "hip" or "rock star" sensibilities of say Sundance or SXSW, this year's 47th fest again proves that effective curation is more valuable than effervescent coolness. The Chicago Reader's J.R. Jones said it best: "[The films of the CIFF] may not be what the world is watching, but they represent a valuable opportunity for us to watch the world." Sure there are Hollywood films in the lineup (like the inexplicable inclusion of The Three Musketeers 3D) but the crux of the fest's appeal comes from its overwhelming ...

47th CIFF Kicks Off Thursday October 6th!

Nelson Carvajal Sep 28, 2011

Every year the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) brings a world of great, interesting, sometimes baffling and always exciting cinema to the Windy City for two weeks. This year marks the 47th CIFF and the festival kicks off next Thursday October 6th, 2011 with its opening night presentation of the Chicago-filmed The Last Rites of Joe May, starring Dennis Farina.

Via the CIFF website: "When we held the first Chicago International Film Festival, we couldn't have imagined where the medium of film was headed. Today, you can have a film from around the world delivered straight to your door ...