Philipp Stölzl's NORTH FACE (New
German)
Music Box
- Check venue website for showtimes
Rarely on Cine-File do we cover a film
that feels like a Clint Eastwood sports epic (unless it is a
Clint Eastwood sports epic, viz. INVICTUS), but in this case the film
is a 2008 German release that has received little to no attention in
the States. Part adventure-epic, part journalist drama, and part love
story, it's all wonderfully shot blowing snow and foreboding rock crags
that echo the bergfilmes of the '30's. Set in 1936, when everyone wanted
to be the first to summit the north face of Switzerland's "the Eiger"--the
last great unsolved problem of the Alps. Teams from Germany, Austria,
Italy, and France were all competing to prove their superiority as mountaineers
and as a nation. And unlike other challenges of human endurance, this
one had a hotel with a lookout balcony and a cog railway through the
interior of the mountain (that still boasts the highest station in Europe)
that made this dangerous game of bravado into a spectator sport. What
makes this story of two unsuccessful German climbers and the journalist
who covered them worthwhile is the attention to detail that captures
the climbing experience in sight and sound. The camera dangles on a
rope next to the climbers, and at times we can barely hear their dialogue
over the howling wind. The story becomes secondary after the first hour,
as we already suspect their deadly fate. We stay to watch while the
landscape becomes all-consuming, and devours our "heroes" like an ogre. (2008, 121 min, 35mm) - Cine-File.info
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Pat O'Neill's WATER AND POWER (Experimental Revival)
Experimental Film Society (SAIC,
112 S Michigan Ave, Rm. 1307) - Tuesday, 4:30pm
In early films like 1967's 7362 or 1971's RUNS GOOD Pat O'Neill used an Optical Printer and sophisticated matting effects to play, as if he was crafting short sonnet-films. By 1989 he outgrew the trickster's humor of special effects and gave us his first bit of epic poetry with WATER AND POWER. An ode to the city of Los Angeles, layered images juxtapose facets the multi-ethnic metropolis that sprouted from the desert in Southern California to become a Mecca for the American Dream, and a synonym for traffic jams and capitalist excess. Found footage is mixed with time-lapse shots and staged sequences. We move from city to desert, and back again along the pipelines that bring water to the thirsty machine. He wants to show us the energy of his city and how the parts contribute to the whole, but as the New York Times said when the film was released, "Mr. O'Neill's major concern is the power of film to redefine and control all images, even natural ones." Reductionism would never befit an artistic exploration of any urban area, and O'Neill's complexity as a filmmaker seeks to touch on the range of surprises that make LA unique, as a story and an experiment. (1989, 54 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
In early films like 1967's 7362 or 1971's RUNS GOOD Pat O'Neill used an Optical Printer and sophisticated matting effects to play, as if he was crafting short sonnet-films. By 1989 he outgrew the trickster's humor of special effects and gave us his first bit of epic poetry with WATER AND POWER. An ode to the city of Los Angeles, layered images juxtapose facets the multi-ethnic metropolis that sprouted from the desert in Southern California to become a Mecca for the American Dream, and a synonym for traffic jams and capitalist excess. Found footage is mixed with time-lapse shots and staged sequences. We move from city to desert, and back again along the pipelines that bring water to the thirsty machine. He wants to show us the energy of his city and how the parts contribute to the whole, but as the New York Times said when the film was released, "Mr. O'Neill's major concern is the power of film to redefine and control all images, even natural ones." Reductionism would never befit an artistic exploration of any urban area, and O'Neill's complexity as a filmmaker seeks to touch on the range of surprises that make LA unique, as a story and an experiment. (1989, 54 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Films by Tom Palazzolo & Morton Heilig (Doc / Narrative Shorts Revival)
Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
If the name Tommy Chicago doesn't ring a bell, you better ask somebody. Since he moved to the city in the early '60s to study at the Art Institute, Palazzolo has made work that captures the diversity (read: ethnic enclaves), characters, and quirks of the Midwestern Metropolis. An accomplished painter and photographer with wit to spare, he's never tried to imitate the tropes of costal experimental film stalwarts. Instead he's used (and reused) his heartland footage to craft films with joie-de-vivre and irreverence. Palazzolo edits by intuition rather than theory, and even when his technique seems crude his heart makes up for it. Tonight's program, titled Gone Rogue: An Iconoclastic Look at Church and State, features four of his shorts and what he says is his favorite film about the early sixties. If counterculture is what you're after, then CAMPAIGN (1968/2009) will provide you with the recommended daily allowance of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsburg. The original Mayor Daley battles hippies and chaos, and gleefully sends his goons to keep the peace. Advantageously shot during the '68 Democratic convention, it ranks right up there with MEDIUM COOL as an accidental comment on the generational divide the event reinforced. Less political is TATTOOED LADY (1967/2009). Covering the long-since defunct Riverview Park, the camera lets the real freaks perform and enrapture us into believing that, even in 1967, this north-side amusement park wasn't downtrodden. The most recent film showing is a comedic collaboration with Second City, VATICAN WORLD (1992), and features Jon Favreau (credited as Favro) in his film debut. Favreau plays a young, near-sighted pope who enlists a PR man to increase the market share of Catholicism. Also screening is Palazzolo's HEY GIRLS (1990), based on a Heather McAdams cartoon, and Morton Heilig's ASSEMBLY LINE (1961), which has a tone reminiscent of classic 50's educational films. An optimistic young factory worker goes downtown to blow his weekly earnings but, instead of fun and camaraderie, he finds scams and loneliness and ends up at home with one more rung in the ladder of his banal industrial life. Palazzolo in person. (1961-92, approx. 70 min total, 16mm and DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
If the name Tommy Chicago doesn't ring a bell, you better ask somebody. Since he moved to the city in the early '60s to study at the Art Institute, Palazzolo has made work that captures the diversity (read: ethnic enclaves), characters, and quirks of the Midwestern Metropolis. An accomplished painter and photographer with wit to spare, he's never tried to imitate the tropes of costal experimental film stalwarts. Instead he's used (and reused) his heartland footage to craft films with joie-de-vivre and irreverence. Palazzolo edits by intuition rather than theory, and even when his technique seems crude his heart makes up for it. Tonight's program, titled Gone Rogue: An Iconoclastic Look at Church and State, features four of his shorts and what he says is his favorite film about the early sixties. If counterculture is what you're after, then CAMPAIGN (1968/2009) will provide you with the recommended daily allowance of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsburg. The original Mayor Daley battles hippies and chaos, and gleefully sends his goons to keep the peace. Advantageously shot during the '68 Democratic convention, it ranks right up there with MEDIUM COOL as an accidental comment on the generational divide the event reinforced. Less political is TATTOOED LADY (1967/2009). Covering the long-since defunct Riverview Park, the camera lets the real freaks perform and enrapture us into believing that, even in 1967, this north-side amusement park wasn't downtrodden. The most recent film showing is a comedic collaboration with Second City, VATICAN WORLD (1992), and features Jon Favreau (credited as Favro) in his film debut. Favreau plays a young, near-sighted pope who enlists a PR man to increase the market share of Catholicism. Also screening is Palazzolo's HEY GIRLS (1990), based on a Heather McAdams cartoon, and Morton Heilig's ASSEMBLY LINE (1961), which has a tone reminiscent of classic 50's educational films. An optimistic young factory worker goes downtown to blow his weekly earnings but, instead of fun and camaraderie, he finds scams and loneliness and ends up at home with one more rung in the ladder of his banal industrial life. Palazzolo in person. (1961-92, approx. 70 min total, 16mm and DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
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