Presented as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, whose theme this year is “The Climate of Concern,” this series runs 10/29-11/8 at Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton. Tickets are $9; for more information call 773-281-4114 or visit facets.org. Following are screenings through 11/1; for a complete schedule visit chicagoreader.com.
The Highwater Trilogy Bill Morrison (Decasia), who creates art films from deteriorated celluloid stock, created this 31-minute piece from footage of natural disasters. Screening with Lessons of Darkness and La Soufriere (see separate listings). a 6:30 PM.
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Lessons of Darkness In his characteristically dreamy Young Werther fashion, Werner Herzog generates a lot of bombastic and beautiful documentary footage out of the post-gulf-war oil fires and other forms of devastation in Kuwait, gilds his own high-flown rhetoric by falsely ascribing it to Pascal, and in general treats war as abstractly as CNN, but with classical music on the soundtrack to make sure we know it’s “art.” This 1992 documentary may be the closest contemporary equivalent to Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, both aesthetically and morally; I found it disgusting, but if you’re able to forget about humanity as readily as Herzog there are loads of pretty pictures to contemplate. 54 min. (JR) Screening with The Highwater Trilogy and La Soufriere (see separate listings). a 6:30 PM.
RStarship Troopers Four friends just out of high school join the military: Denise Richards wants to pilot enormous spaceships, Casper Van Dien wants to be near her, Dina Meyer wants to be near him, and Neil Patrick Harris wants to pit his brain power against that of giant enemy insects–if they have brains. The plot of this 1997 feature may sound like silly, conventional science fiction and soap opera romance, but director Paul Verhoeven blends the conflicting elements of intentional camp and perverse sincerity into a single tone–and he doesn’t resort to simple irony. Instead he revels in the contradictions and defies us to see fascist ideology in a story that allows us to identify with warmongering characters. Ed Neumeier’s screenplay was based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein. 129 min. (LA) a 6:30 PM.
