The eighth annual European Union Film Festival, with entries from all 25 member states, runs Friday, March 4, through Thursday, March 24, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 175 N. State, 312-846-2800. Tickets are $9, $7 for students, and $5 for Film Center members. Following are listings through Thursday, March 10; a full schedule is available online at www.chicagoreader.com.
SATURDAY 5
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In Joachim Lafosse’s 2004 Belgian feature, based on Euripides’ Medea, a wife tries to break up with her husband, who refuses to go away, saying he still loves her and their young son. A live-in boyfriend complicates the picture, as does the son’s love for both men–he turns down his father’s proposal to “hunt” for the boyfriend. Kris Cuppens is extraordinary as the father, seething with rage as he gradually loses his grip on reality, and the intensity of all the performances is magnified by the handheld camera. Swerving about in close-up, it connects the characters in rapid pans that capture both the emotional volatility of their confrontations and the hard-to-dissolve bonds of a family. In French with subtitles. 67 min. Shot in DV and transferred to 35-millimeter. (FC) (2:15)
R In Your Hands
Commissioning a director from each of the 25 European Union countries to make a five-minute work displaying a vision of Europe sounds like a swell idea, but the result is more problematic: I’d hate to see these films and videos scattered to the winds as filler in state TV broadcasts, yet this 138-minute mara-thon (some directors went over the limit) is a bit of a glut. Still, it pinpoints what I like about Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki (facetious folklore) and Hungary’s Bela Tarr (an endless, sorrowful tracking shot) and don’t like about Peter Greenaway (a disgusted fascination with nudity) and the recently assassinated Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (crude derision). Other contributors include Barbara Albert (Austria), Christoffer Boe (Denmark), Tony Gatlif (France), Sharunas Bartas (Lithuania), Teresa Villaverde (Portugal), and Jan Troell (Sweden). In English and subtitled European languages. (JR) (5:30)
R Mix
Caterina in the Big City
