Autumn comes to Chicago, and with it the Chicago International Film Festival, whose schedule was released late last week.
As always, it’s nearly impossible to navigate their website and the only way to really figure out what’s going on is to have the handy paper copy. Luckily, I procured such a copy on Saturday, and while I don’t have a finalized schedule yet, some of the more prominent releases (in my mind):
-The North American premiere of the omnibus feature Paris, je t’aime, easily the most exciting film at the festival for viewers of a certain temperment (mine). And yet some people are unaware of its very existence! So here’s the short version: 20 filmmakers are producing 20 short love stories set in each of the arrondissements of Paris. Which is dull. The exciting part is the list of filmmakers involved, including Alfonso Cuarón, Joel & Ethan Coen, Walter Salles, Olivier Assayas, Sylvain Chomet, Tom Tykwer and so forth. Or click here.
-Manoel de Oliveira’s sequel to a Luis Buñuel film.
-The newest films by Kim Ki-Duk and Matthias Glasner, neither of them with a scheduled US release.
–Renaissance, the gorgeous looking French animated film whose “limited release” consists of one theater on either coast.
-And the traditional batch of movies that will get American release within a month or two of the festival: John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, Stephen Frears’ The Queen, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain.
I’ll be seeing and reviewing a healthy number of films (last year was 12 I believe, and I’m looking to top that), if anyone has a recommendation, let me know in comments.