As in past years, the film-focused folks at the Chicago International Film Festival, the longest running competitive film festival in America, have included a number of queer-themed films for our community's viewing pleasure. Of the 100 or so movies, representing approximately two dozen countries, being shown during the 38th annual edition of this renowned cinematic event, LGBT filmgoers will also have plenty of mainstream-oriented movies, of unquestionable interest to the gay community, from which to choose.
The two theaters showing the films...Landmark's Century Centre Cinema ( 2828 N. Clark Street ) and Music Box Theater ( 3733 N. Southport ) ...are also located close to the heart of the community and are easy to get to via car, cab or CTA. While I'm not entirely convinced of the Festival's selection of Pierce Brosnan to receive the Career Achievement Award, the opening night film Evelyn ( show at the Chicago Theater, 175 N. State Street ) , which stars Brosnan as a man who takes on the Church and the Irish Courts in a 1953 custody battle for his children, was directed by Bruce Beresford ( Tender Mercies ) who has a good track record. Evelyn also sounds like the kind of career-remaking vehicle needed by Brosnan, who has become best known for playing suave spies ( James Bond, The Tailor of Panama, and Remington Steele on television ) and hapless boyfriends ( Mrs. Doubtfire ) .
Several other filmmakers of renown also have highly anticipated films being shown at the Festival. They include All Or Nothing directed by Mike ( Secrets and Lies ) Leigh, Punch-Drunk Love directed by Paul Thomas ( Magnolia ) Anderson ( with the unlikely casting of Adam Sandler as the romantic lead ) , Rabbit-Proof Fence directed by Phillip Noyce ( who also directed a younger Nicole Kidman in Dead Calm ) , which features music by Peter Gabriel; and the Chicago International Film Festival's closing night feature Frida, director Julie ( Titus ) Taymor's bio-pic about painter Frida Kahlo, starring Salma Hayek in the title role.
Of particular interest to Chicagoans is The Dancer Upstairs ( starring Javier Bardem, who received accolades for his portrayal of the late, gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, and also played a gay character in the Spanish film Second Skin ) , which marks the directorial debut of acclaimed actor John Malkovich.
Capsule reviews of several of these films will be running in the Movie Maven column in Windy City Times in the coming weeks, during the run of the film festival. Also keep in mind the movie Brown Sugar, which is part of the Black Perspectives Program. The movie stars both Taye Diggs and Queen Latifah, who can also be seen in the forthcoming movie version of the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago.
With more than a dozen documentary options from which to choose, it may be difficult to select just one. Some of the more interesting selections include My Sister Maria ( Meine Schwester Maria ) , actor/director Maximilian Schell's film about his sister, the actress Maria Schell; Only The Strong Survive in which documentarian D.A. Pennebaker ( the Dylan documentary Don't Look Back ) turns his camera on the sounds of Stax and Motown; Michael Moore's gun documentary Bowling For Columbine; and Rich Fox and Kris Curry's rockumentary Tribute, which is about tribute bands and their devotion to the bands that they imitate, to name a few.
This year's queer-themed films include a documentary and more than a half-dozen foreign films, such as Blow ( Australia ) , The Embalmer ( Italy ) , The Happiness of the Katakuris, Madame Sata ( Brazil ) and Minor Mishaps ( Denmark ) . Written and directed by Gabriel Baur, Venus Boys is a documentary about drag king culture in New York, which is portrayed as a "journey in search of women who live in between for a night or for a lifetime." Tracing the rise of the drag king scene beginning in 1996 when the young king movement was getting on its feet through the Club Casanova night started by Mo B. Dick ( a.k.a. Mo Fischer ) as well as the significant contributions of Diane Torr and her drag king workshops through present-day issues of transgender identity. Via revealing and emotional interviews, the documentary gives the viewer a first-hand look at the friendships and bonds that develop across drag communities. One drag performer, for instance, states that her "male is all drag queen and her female is all amazon." Societal issues, undefined gender, and the political act of breaking down barriers are all part of what makes this fascinating film such a revelation. I also got the impression that Baur would like Venus Boyz to be the Paris Is Burning of its time. As one drag king "televangelist" declared, "Drag kingdom come, thy will be done."
The Lawless Heart is a Rashomon-meets-Go-style British film that was co-written and co-directed by Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger. This touching and powerful motion picture tells the story, from different perspectives, of what happens to Nick ( Tom Hollander, who previously played gay in Rose Troche's Bedrooms and Hallways ) , the surviving male life-partner of Stuart ( David Coffey ) , after Stuart's death by drowning. The story begins, in each telling, with Stuart's funeral. As the sad story unfolds, we learn that Stuart didn't leave a will, and while his sister Judy ( Ellie Haddington ) believes that Nick is the rightful heir, her husband Dan ( Bill Nighy ) , doesn't share her feelings. The remaining residents of the seaside town, including the flaky Charlie ( Sukie Smith ) , Dan's friend Tim ( Douglas Henshall ) , and the philosophical florist Corinne ( Clementine Celarie ) , all cross paths and intermingle their lives, further complicating matters. Under Hunter and Hunsinger's careful direction, the cast brings the pair's genuinely heartfelt words and characters to life, getting to the heart of the matter at its own sweet pace.
Nights of Constantinople, directed by Orlando Rojas, is a fluffy, but flawed Almodovar-esque farce set in Villa Florida, a decaying, mansion filled with valuable art, in modern-day Havana. The grandson of a repressive and conservative Cuban matriarch, who is considered to be the "writer in the family," struggles to write an ode for his grandmother's impending birthday after he learns that his novel, Nights of Constantinople, has won a prize for erotic literature. The assortment of characters, including the writer's nymphomaniac sister, the sleepwalking aunt, the ne'er-do-well great-uncle, the zany housekeeper, her gay, cross-dressing choreographer son ( who is also the illegitimate son of the matriarch's ne'er-do-well brother ) , the choreographer's friends, and others, make for comic action. The movie reaches its comedic peak when the desperate characters to try retrieve the paintings that were sold off while the matriarch was comatose, and return them to their proper places on the walls before she comes out of her resting state.
Cross-dressing is a recurring theme in the queer offerings at this year's Chicago International Film Festival. One Day In August, written and directed by openly gay filmmaker Constantine Giannaris, begins in Athens, Greece, in mid-August. Three families living in the same apartment building leave the big city during the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, which is the last holiday of the summer. Michalis, a coke-head, and his girlfriend Sandra, a dressmaker who is having an affair with Michalis's best friend, head for the beach. Costas, an architect, and his wife Katia, a gynecologist/sexologist, are a childless couple, on their way to Katia's late mother's house. Fanis and his wife are taking their children Antonis and Vanessa on a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary, in hopes that they will find a cure for the blood disease that has stricken Vanessa. While they are away, Giannis, a thief, breaks in to each of their apartments. In Michalis and Sandra's apartment, Giannis tries on and falls asleep wearing a wedding gown that Sandra is making for a client. When the police arrive, because they see lights on in what they think is an empty building, the wedding-gown-wearing thief flees. Meanwhile, each of the couples must face their own demons. Michalis and Sandra reconsider their futures together, Costas and Katia discuss the possibility of starting a family, while Fanis and his wife come to terms with the possibility of losing their daughter. If you saw Giannaris's previous film, From The Edge Of The City, you will probably remember actor Stathis Papadopoulos, who played male hustler Sasha, and spent a lot time wearing next to nothing. In One Day In August, he plays a hitchhiker picked up by Costas and Katia, and, gratefully, spends most of his on-screen time in a state of undress.
Exxxorcismos is a sexually graphic gay ghost story that was shot on digital film by Mexico-based filmmaker Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, who wrote and directed the feature. Marco Antonio ( Alberto Estrella ) takes a job as a night watchman in a haunted shopping mall so that he can confront the ghost of Pedro ( Jose Juan Meraz ) , his boyhood lover who killed himself there 20 years earlier. In a stagey fashion, Marco Antonio and Pedro each have a chance to tell their star-crossed teen-lovers story, speaking less to each other than to the audience on the other side of the fourth wall. The actors bring a tele-novela quality to characters, their emotions shifting suddenly, and the drama of the failed suicide pact is more schlock than Shakespeare. However, there are erotic elements that tease and titillate, and the spookiness of the haunted mall feels right, so close to Halloween.
One of the mainstream features that may be of queer interest is Auto Focus. Paul ( American Gigolo ) Schrader directed this uneven bio-pic which is based on Robert Graysmith's book The Murder of Bob Crane. Crane ( played by Greg Kinnear ) is almost as equally well-known for his hit 1960s TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes as he is for the mystery surrounding his brutal murder in 1978. The movie begins in 1964 when Crane, a radio DJ, aspiring drummer and struggling actor, is given a script by his agent Lenny ( Ron Leibman ) for the TV series that would make him a household name. Meanwhile, the teetotaling Crane is battling the inner sexually compulsive demons that threaten to break up his marriage to Anne ( Rita Wilson ) , the mother of his children. The demons eventually take a human form in John Carpenter ( an especially slimy Willem Dafoe ) , an electronics expert employed by Sony. Carpenter, a lady killer with a bisexual streak, opens a door into the sexual underground and the world of video sex for Crane, while plying him with liquor and drugs. Crane's downfall is gradual and ugly and includes two divorces, alienation from his children, embarrassing public scenes, tabloid headlines, and his ultimate inability to find work in his field.
A schedule for the 38th Chicago International Film Festival, Oct. 4-18, can be obtained by calling ( 312 ) 332-FILM ( 3456 ) or www.chicagofilmfestival.com .
In theaters:
Moonlight Mile: Writer/director Brad Silberling's very personal dramatization of the ways in which people cope with loss and tragedy is somewhat emotionally unsatisfying as it tries to balance the sorrow with a sly humor that works against it. The movie, which is set in New England during the mid-1970s, begins with the funeral of Diana, the estranged fiancee of Joe ( the ubiquitous Jake Gyllenhaal ) . Because he doesn't have the heart to tell Diana's parents Ben ( Dustin Hoffman ) and Jo Jo ( the equally ubiquitous Susan Sarandon ) that he and Diana had called off their wedding shortly before her murder in a coffee shop ( which, for dramatic purposes, is located across the street from Ben's office ) , he temporarily moves in with them. Holly Hunter plays the district attorney prosecuting the murderer, and as the trial approaches, Joe, Ben and Jo Jo settle into their unique living situation. It is then that Joe meets and falls in love with Bertie ( Ellen Pompeo, who brings a Renee Zellweger quality to the part ) a postal office employee who moonlights in a local tavern. Of the three films that Sarandon stars in this season, her performance as Jo Jo stands out as the best and most nuance-laden. It is, however, Gyllenhaal who steals the show in his third film of the year, making his big sad eyes work for him, expressing a range of emotions with just a look. Rating: 7/10
Sweet Home Alabama: Reese Witherspoon becomes a better comedic actress with each movie that she makes. In Sweet Home Alabama, her first film since her box office blockbuster Legally Blonde, Witherspoon plays Melanie Carmichael, who, just seven years earlier, was "a little debutante just off the plantation." Now, she is an up-and-coming New York fashion designer whose triumph during Fashion Week 2002 is nothing compared to her front-page-news engagement to Andrew ( Patrick Dempsey, looking more like a Kennedy than ever ) , the politically minded son of New York's first female mayor ( Candice Bergen ) . Before they can make it official, Melanie has to take care of a little business back home in Pigeon Creek, Alaa. She has to tell her parents, Pearl ( Mary Kay Place ) and Earl ( Fred Ward ) , and she has to serve her childhood sweetheart Jake ( Josh Lucas ) , with divorce papers. It seems that, "dumb, stubborn, redneck hick" Jake disregarded them each time they were sent by her lawyer and now Melanie, who completely reinvented herself in New York, really needs him to sign them. Of course there is still some sexual energy between Melanie and Jake ( can you blame her? ) , and her trip to bountiful lands her in jail, in a near-brawl in a roadhouse, and in all sorts of trouble. While she's in Alabama her concerned future mother-in-law runs a background check on Melanie, doesn't like what she finds, and then tries to persuade Andrew not to marry her. The movie does a nice job of balancing the humorous and serious moments while exploring Melanie's strained relationship with her mother, a former beauty queen, who wanted nothing more for Melanie than a way out of the dead-end town; her close friendship with gay townie Bobby Ray ( Ethan Embry ) , who comes to her aid, even after she outs him; and, of course, her relationship with Jake. Openly gay screenwriter C. Jay Cox's delightful script makes this the gayest straight movie of the year. Rating: 8/10 - GS
On TV:
PBS -
In The Life: Hosted by designer John Barlett "America's award-winning, gay and lesbian television newsmagazine series presents a one-hour program consisting of feature stories on: the dog-mauling death of Diane Whipple and the "wrongful death lawsuit and its affect on California law regarding gay and lesbian couples"; an interview with Family Fundamentals documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong; queer house of worship; the hit Broadway musical Hairspray; and Harvey Fierstein's "Out Takes" commentary segment, among other topics. Sun., Oct. 27, Midnight.
Sundance Channel -
Aimee & Jaguar ( 10.7, 8, 12, 18, 31 )
Better Than Chocolate ( 10.7, 17, 22, 26 )
The Crying Game ( 10.5, 16, 21, 24 )
Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 ( 10.5 )
National Coming Out Day: Sundance Channel's celebration of National Coming Out Day brings two Out Loud films that offer uplifting, engaging looks at gay and lesbian life. Nina Bergstrom and Cecilia Neant-Falk's documentary Companions: Tales from the Closet. Companions: Tales from the Closet introduces five lesbians, aged 65-70 who look back on their lives in their native Sweden. With great clarity and humor, these admirable women discuss their experiences from the 1930s to the present day. Writer/director/actor Jason Gould's bubbly autobiographical short Inside Out in which Gould, the son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould, stars as Aaron, a young man who has to deal not only with being a child of celebrity parents, but a gay child of celebrity parents. Elliot Gould and Christina Crawford offer hilarious support. Companions: Tales from the Closet ( 10.11 @ 5 p.m. ) and Inside Out ( 10.11 6 p.m. )
