Even more hair-raisingly than “The Crucible,” the 1995 Portuguese-Brazilian film “The Jew” ((star) (star) (star)), directed by Jom Tob Azulay, demonstrates the moral bankruptcy and bloody consequences of religious and political oppression.
The movie premiering in Chicago on Friday for a one-week run at Facets Multimedia, recounts the persecution, torture and execution of a great Portuguese literary figure: the comedy playwright Antonio Jose da Silva (Felipe Pinheiro), known as “O Judeu” (“The Jew”). Da Silva was denounced, imprisoned, tortured and burned at the stake in 1739 after making his immortal contribution to Portuguese literature in five short years with Lisbon’s Casa des Bonecos (Puppet Theater).
Gorgeously lit by cinematographer Eduardo Serra (“Jude’), “The Jew” is an almost incongruously beautiful period film, filled with compositions whose rich interplay of shadow and firelight often recall painters Georges de le Tour and Michelangelo Caravaggio. But beneath its evocation of the regal splendor of the court of Joao V (Mario Viegas) and the satiric delights of Da Silva’s puppet shows are shocking scenes of the tortures in Lisbon’s shadowy dungeons, under the direction of the religious inquisitors.
Facets Multimedia is at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. 773-281-4114.
– The excellent Mohsen Makhmalbaf retrospective at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute ends this weekend with screenings of three early Makhmalbaf films and another movie, made by the great Abbas Kiarostami, in which Makhmalbaf helps recreate a real-life incident. This last film, the 1990 modern classic “Closeup” ((star) (star) (star) (star) ), probably marks a crucial turning point in Makhmalbaf’s career: his shift from dogmatic young revolutionary fundamentalist to an artist with a more humane world view.
“Close-Up” — which screens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday — focuses on a poor printshop worker and aspiring filmmaker, Ali Sabzian, who exploits his eerie physical resemblance to Makhmalbaf to gain entry to a wealthy household. After Sabzian is discovered and brought to trial, Kiarostami has the participants recreate the original incidents, adding an emotional coda with the final meeting of the filmmaker (Makhmalbaf) and his double (Sabzian). The results make for a gem of humanism and irony, a masterpiece in which some of the methods of American true-crime TV are raised to sublime art.
The other Makhmalbafs include the unpreviewed 1985 “Boycott” and the 1984 “Fleeing from Evil to Good” (6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Sunday), message dramas on morality and Iran’s Islamic revolution. 1989’s “The Cyclist” ((star) (star) 1/2), which screens at 6 p.m. Thursday, is an erratic but memorable film about an impoverished Afghan immigrant and marathon bicyclist who agrees to circle a tiny track without sleep for a week to get money for his desperately ill wife. Made in Makhmalbaf’s flashy early style, it’s a moving drama of poverty and exploitation that deliberately recalls 1969’s “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” from Horace McCoys’ hard-boiled novel about ’30s marathon dances.
The Film Center is at Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard.
– This week’s big-screen offering at Navy Pier’s special “Late Night at the MAX” screenings at the IMAX 3-D Theater is the 1980 movie many regard as the finest hour of director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro, their knockout bio-drama of boxing champ Jake La Motta, “Raging Bull” ((star) (star) (star) (star) ). Starting Friday, “Raging Bull” plays at 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 p.m. Sunday through next Thursday. The Navy Pier IMAX Theater is located at 600 E. Grand Ave. 312-644-IMAX.
– One of the most striking films from the last Cannes Film festival, British iconoclast Peter Greenaway’s “The Pillow Book” ((star) (star) (star) 1/2), will be presented at a special benefit screening for the Film Center at 6 p.m. Saturday, with Greenaway in attendance.
“The Pillow Book” is prime Greenaway, mixing images of art, eroticism, death and humiliation in a style that blends cultures, national film styles, images and music with the free-roaming panache of an Internet explorer. (The inspiration is the 9th Century Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon.) Tickets for the film alone cost $20. For $75, benefactors can also attend a post-film reception with Greenaway. 312-443-3733.
– The second weekend of Columbia College’s Third Annual African Film Festival, “Voices of the Screen Griots,” starts Friday on the screens of the Ferguson, Hokin Hall and Collins Theaters. Especially recommended are Euzhan Palcy’s “Aime Cesare, Parts 1 & 2” from Martinique (2:45 p.m. Friday, Ferguson); “The Blue Eyes of Yonta” from Guinea Bissau (5 p.m. Friday, Ferguson); “Rude” from Canada (8:05 p.m. Friday Collins); “Ashes and Embers” From the U.S. (2:30 p.m. Saturday, Ferguson); and “The Silences of the Palace” from Tunisia (9 p.m. Saturday, Ferguson). The screenings are free; tickets must be picked up at 623 S. Wabash Ave. 312-408-1827.
– The Music Box Theater’s “Last Chance” 3-D series climaxes at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday with the first of two successive weekend showings of one of the most famous and creepy of all 3-D films, “House of Wax” ((star) (star) (star) ), with Vincent Price. This remake of Michael Curtiz’s 1933 “Mystery of the Wax Museum” was made, very effectively, by one-eyed director Andre De Toth, who could not see the 3-D effects himself. The Music Box’s weekend matinee Preston Sturges series also has one of the best screwball comedies, 1942’s “The Palm Beach Story” ((star) (star) (star) 1/2). The Music Box is at 3733 N. Southport Ave. 773-871-6604.
