Tuesday’s schedule at the 29th Chicago International Film Festival features “The Inheritance” from noted Czech director Vera Chytilova. She provides lots of laughs in the story of a lazy villager who inherits a fortune and goes on orgy of conspicuous consumption. Chytilova is set to appear at the screening.
The festival continues through Oct. 24 at Pipers Alley Theatres, 1608 N. Wells St., and the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Reviews by Tribune film critic Michael Wilmington and others have been provided, when available.
Tickets are $7 for regular screenings with discounts for students, senior citizens and Cinema/Chicago members. Call 312-644-3456 for tickets and 24-hour festival information.
“Split: William to Chrysis-Portrait of a Drag Queen” (U.S.; Ellen Fisher Turk and Andrew Weeks), 5 p.m., Music Box. This hourlong documentary is built around an amazing character: drag queen, transsexual and man-made hermaphrodite International Chrysis, who began “her” career as William from the Bronx, a 14-year-old transvestite, in 1968’s “The Queen” and eventually became Salvador Dali’s Studio 54 “muse.” A surreally gorgeous super-showgirl, Chrysis died of her own self-creation-cancer from silicone implant leakage and continual hormone injections. The film alternates between interviews with Chrysis and post-mortems by her friends. It’s fascinating and chilling: a slice of life in the fast lane that beggars fiction. 55 minutes. (Ellen Fisher Turk will appear.) -Michael Wilmington (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Shown with two gay-themed shorts, Ilppo Pohjola’s “P(l)ain Truth” and John Outcalt’s “Until the Cure, I Offer the Care.”
“Making Up” (Germany; Katja von Garnier), 5 p.m., Pipers Alley. A cartoonist uses her friend for material for her weekly comic strip “Rubi, the Mosquito Woman.” 55 min.
“When I Close My Eyes” (Slovenia; Franci Slak), 5 p.m., Pipers Alley. Slak, one of the best-regarded young Yugoslav filmmakers of the ’80s, here helms the first independently produced Slovenian movie, a psychological romantic thriller about a young female bank clerk’s obsession with her troubled political past and the sexy crook who robbed her bank. Full of unusual angles, aggressive performances and lots of moving camera, the film has the conscious virtuosity of the ’60s Czech works. It gives us a keen glimpse into a country and culture falling apart and, perhaps, renewing. 94 min. (Slak will appear.) -M.W. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
“Woman of the Night” (Mexico; Eva Lopez-Sanchez), 5 p.m., Pipers Alley. A cowboy novelist is summoned by his difficult lover to help her get rid of the body of a millionaire. No subtitles; live voiceover will be provided. 100 min.
“The Conjugal Bed” (Romania; Mircea Daneliuc), 5:15 p.m., Pipers Alley. Living in a declining Romania, Vasile has a pregnant wife who wants a clean and costly abortion; his mistress has left him to start a pornography studio; and he is on the verge of losing his job. 102 min.
“Unexpected Encounter” (Mexico; Jaime Humberto Hermosillo), 7 p.m., Pipers Alley. In this social drama, a woman comes into serious conflict with her maid. No subtitles; live voiceover provided. 80 min.
“Seventh Horse From the Sun” (India; Shyam Benegal), 7 p.m., Pipers Alley. Benegal, maybe the lustiest and most life-embracing of India’s major filmmakers, gives us a sort of sexual “Rashomon.” All the conflicting viewpoints are controlled by one witness, an unpublished poet and railway mailman whose memoirs are gobbled up by his introverted buddies-and who gives them, in tantalizing sections, a byzantine erotic anecdote, with six people making up a double triangle. Comic, sad, violent and ribald, the movie is also a clever disquisition on the mechanics of storytelling. 130 minutes. (Benegal will appear.) -M.W. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
“Just Friends” (Belgium; Marc-Henri Wajnberg), 7 p.m., Pipers Alley. A group of jazz musicians and friends in Antwerp in 1959 want to stay together but also dream of success, even if it means going to the U.S. and leaving everyone they know. 95 min. (Wajnberg will appear.)
Animation program, 7 p.m., Music Box.
“Alice in Wondertown” (Cuba; Daniel Diaz Torres), 7:15 p.m., Pipers Alley. A modern and surreal satire follows a young drama instructor sent to a remote village. 93 min.
“Under One Roof” (Brazil; Paulo Thiago), 9 p.m., Pipers Alley. An overheated Brazilian film by a consistent “festival” director, this is based on one of those Walpurgisnacht-style dramas where volatile people in close quarters scream at each other for several hours, the play ending when one or more of them finally leaves. The issues in Alcione Araujo’s play are repression and eroticism. The core cast consists of three women of varying life experiences in a coastal city apartment. Everyone floridly overacts, and there’s a lot of breakage, stripping and soul-baring. It could have been worse. 104 min. (Thiago will appear.) -M.W. (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
“Autumn Moon” (Hong Kong-Japan; Clara Law), 9:15 p.m., Pipers Alley. The film examines the cultural loss China is suffering by looking at the lives of a young Japanese tourist and a girl from Hong Kong. 108 min.
“Bank Robber” (U.S.; Nick Mead), 9:15 p.m., Pipers Alley. Patrick Dempsey, as a troubled young bank robber, pulls a heist, is fingered and then gets trapped in Heartbreak Hotel, on Lonely Street yet, where everybody robs him and bleeds him dry. A simple question: Why doesn’t he just leave? Someone has probably been thinking about “Barton Fink” here, but not coherently. It’s another “worst that could happen” nightmare comedy, with lots of forced comedy and improbable guest stars popping up. (Lisa Bonet is the hooker with a soul of gold; Forest Whitaker and Judge Reinhold are a pair of bleeding-heart cops.) 100 min. (Mead will appear.) -M.W. (STAR)(STAR)
“The Inheritance” (Czech Republic; Vera Chytilova), 9:15 p.m., Music Box. In the heyday of the Czech New Wave, Chytilova’s feminist comedies were among the most impish and sunny-spirited in all world cinema. Since then, her films have sometimes seemed obscure or didactic, but “The Inheritance” is a real laugh-out-loud romp filled with expert comedians and hilarious situations. It’s about a lazy village nincompoop who inherits a fortune and goes from living with the pigs to living high on the hog, dragging the villagers with him in a mind-boggling orgy of conspicuous consumption. One of her best. 124 min. (Chytilova will appear.) -M.W. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
“Lolo” (Mexico; Francisco Athie), 9:30 p.m., Pipers Alley. Shot on location in Mexico City’s worst slums, “Lolo” follows the decline of an average man who loses his job and sinks into violence, destruction and sacrifice. 88 min.
