Now in its 31st year, the Chicago International Film Festival, which runs through Oct. 29, offers myriad movies for all tastes. Here is a schedule of festival films for Monday, with reviews in italics. A schedule of weekday screenings will run in the daily Tempo section. For next weekend’s Film Fest schedule, see Take 2 in the Oct. 20 Friday section.
Sunset Boulevard (USA; Billy Wilder), 2 p.m., Fine Arts. Part of the festival’s Wilder retrospective, this 1950 film gave us the immortal line “I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. De Mille.” Both a noir classic and one of the great backstage Hollywood movies, Wilder’s corrosive romance–with Swanson’s bewitching star turn at its center–hauntingly evokes the silent era’s flawed splendor, while wittily slicing up ’50s Hollywood. (star) (star) (star) (star) Michael Wilmington. 110 min.
Madagascar Skin (Great Britain; Chris Newby), 5 p.m., Fine Arts. An offbeat love story between a shy man with a birthmark in the shape of Madagascar and the tattooed kleptomaniac he finds buried up to his neck on the beach. From the director of “Anchoress.” 93 min.
Don’t Die Without Telling Me Where You’re Going (Argentina; Eliseo Subiela), 5 p.m., Fine Arts. An inventor falls in love with a woman conjured up by his dream machine, who then beckons him to join her in the great beyond. Subiela’s wistful, deadpan take on magic and mysticism yields marvelous results. This movie sometimes sleepwalks, but more often soars. (star) (star) (star) 1/2 Michael Wilmington 130 min.
For God And Country (Austria; Wolfgang Murnberger), 5 p.m., Fine Arts. A young Austrian soldier in 1980 longs to escape the politics of the Cold War and dive headfirst into his own erotic fantasy world. Stylistically impressive though dramatically repetitive, Murnberger’s autobiographical film has moments of intelligence and style but it’s inconsistent and frequently undefined. (star) (star) 1/2 Patrick McGavin 99 min.
Fiesta (France; Pierre Boutron), 5 p.m., Music Box. A young aristocrat is forced to leave school and join the pro-fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. While serving duty on a firing squad, he discovers his own humanity. A just-average script that is saved by Jean-Louis Trintignant’s truly brilliant performance as the commanding officer, a man who is part murderer and part philosopher. The film is beautiful to look at, with terrific art and set design, but the story just sort of peters out by the end. (star) (star) (star) John Petrakis 108 min.
Let’s Talk About Men (Italy; Lina Wertmuller), 5:15 p.m., Fine Arts. Part of the festival’s Wertmuller retrospective, this 1965 film contains four separate segments from the male point-of-view, each starring Italian star Nino Manfredi. 94 min.
Cross My Heart And Hope To Die (Norway; Marius Holst), 7 p.m., Fine Arts. A young boy befriends an older man, and he turns out to be a nasty piece of work. 96 min.
Under The Domim Tree (Israel; Eli Cohen), 7 p.m., Fine Arts. This sequel to 1989’s “Summer of Aviya” explores the haunted lives of a group of teenage Holocaust orphans living on an Israeli work farm in 1953. 102 min.
Roula (Germany; Martin Enlen), 7:15 p.m., Fine Arts. A widower, still in mourning two years after the death of his wife, travels to Denmark where he meets and falls in love with a mysterious woman who also possesses a tragic past. A perverse romance, elegantly shot but hollow at the center; the movie’s unpleasant subject is less resolved than sidestepped by the fiery climax. (star) (star) 1/2 Michael Wilmington 98 min.
A Kiss To This Land (Mexico; Daniel Goldberg), 7:15 p.m., Fine Arts. A documentary that examines the immigration of Eastern European Jews to Mexico in the 1920s, and how they adapted to their foreign surroundings. Interesting at times, with a wonderful poet character, but the film fails to zero in on what made the Mexican experience unique. There are many unanswered questions, especially concerning being Jewish in such a heavily Catholic country. (star) (star) 1/2 John Petrakis 93 min.
Nobody Loves Me (Germany; Doris Dorrie), 7:15 p.m., Music Box. A lonely single woman, obsessed with marriage and death, develops an unusual relationship with a gay, black clairvoyant who claims he’s from another planet. Impudent and colorful, with bittersweet undertones, Dorrie’s latest show pleasingly extends the tradition of sarcastic but humane German comedy exemplified by Lubitsch and Wilder. (star) (star) (star) . Michael Wilmington 104 min.
Full Body Massage (USA; Nicolas Roeg), 9 p.m., Fine Arts. A woman learns about love, philosophy and a whole lot more from her wise and experienced masseur. Starring Mimi Rogers and Bryan Brown. From the director of “The Man Who Fell To Earth.” At times, it plays like soft-core porn interspersed with New Age preachments. But Roeg and his fine star duo don’t let us down; they vivify a dubious project. (star) (star) 1/2 Michael Wilmington 93 min.
Two Crimes (Mexico; Roberto Sneider), 9:15 p.m., Fine Arts. A young Bohemian, on the lam from the law, hides out in his uncle’s small village and brings both craziness and passion to the town’s inhabitants. Based on the novel by Jorge Ibarguengoita. At times overplotted, this small gem is a sexual comedy of manners suggestive of Luis Bunuel’s Mexican films, with a fine sense of time and place and an erotically charged landscape that simmers with passion, intensity and sinister motives. (star) (star) (star) Patrick McGavin 105 min.
Not Yet A Time For Sorrow (Russia; Sergey Selyanov), 9:15 p.m., Fine Arts. A mysterious surveyor enters a small Russian village and changes the lives of all who live there. A confusing and often pretentious tale, with so many story lines and time frames going on at once it is nearly impossible to sort them out. This is the kind of film where people don’t talk, they pontificate. (star) 1/2 John Petrakis 95 min.
Parallel Sons (USA; John G. Young), 9:30 p.m., Fine Arts. A white teenager develops a close relationship with an escaped black convict named Knowledge. Maudlin gay love-on-the-run tale which at least has the virtues of compassion and good landscapes. (star) (star) Michael Wilmington 93 min.
The Poet’s Princess (Austria; Niki List), 9:30 p.m., Music Box. A hack writer conjures up a beautiful but mysterious woman from one of his novels, and must save her from her tragic literary fate. A self-indulgent play on Pirandello, that is overlit, overwritten and overacted. (star) 1/2 John Petrakis 90 min.
