Dim the Lights

Michelle Sinclair (left) with Maya Rudolph and Joaquin Phoenix in Inherent Vice

Pornography remains a major influence on Paul Thomas Anderson

by Ben Sachs on January 19, 2015 at 3:30PM

The director isn't unsympathetic to the women who act out these fantasies (the porn actress and trophy wife played by Julianne Moore in Boogie and Magnolia, respectively, are some of the most sympathetic characters Anderson's written), though his deepest sympathies would seem to lie with the men who devise and consume them. His protagonists, who are uniformly male, tend to be either naive loners longing for some idealized woman or power-hungry patriarchs with no compunctions about using women for sex.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show must feature one of the most famous curtains in movie history.

Is it curtains for curtains in America's movie theaters?

by Ben Sachs on September 8, 2014 at 1:30PM

Announcing the start of The Blue Angel yesterday, the rising red curtain in the main theater of the Music Box took on a certain risque quality—it was as though the screen were performing a striptease for the audience, creating anticipation for the burlesque numbers Marlene Dietrich would perform in the film. Of course, a movie house doesn't need to show The Blue Angel (or Gypsy or The Rocky Horror Picture Show) for a curtain to trigger this association.

Carolee Schneemann's Fuses plays in the adults-only portion of this year's cat-related experimental film program.

Tomorrow night South Side Projections turns Co-Prosperity Sphere into a cathouse

by Ben Sachs on July 23, 2014 at 12:30PM

There are way too many good screenings scheduled for tomorrow night, presenting Chicago cinephiles with their greatest dilemma since, well, last Friday, when there were concurrent revivals of The Ladykillers, Knife in the Water, and Douglas Trumbull's Brainstorm (the latter screens again tonight, thankfully). The weeklong runs of James Gray's masterful The Immigrant and Sam Fleischner's flawed (yet courageous) Stand Clear of the Closing Doors conclude at the Siskel Center and Facets Multimedia, respectively.

More on the Trilogy of Life, Nymphomaniac, and Roommates: Three ways of playing the organs

by Ben Sachs on July 9, 2014 at 3:30PM

What would Pasolini have thought of the singular Roommates, which I wrote about last week? Here's a film, made ostensibly for the hard-core pornographic market, that seriously laments the sexual degradation of women.

Carol Laure, Gerard Depardieu, and Patrick Dewaere in Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Fading Gigolo rekindles the light of Bertrand Blier

by Ben Sachs on May 7, 2014 at 4:15PM

In an interview with Michael Phillips that appeared last week in the Chicago Tribune, John Turturro cited French novelist and filmmaker Bertrand Blier as a major influence on Fading Gigolo, the new movie he wrote, directed, and stars in. He also said he's working on a loose remake of Blier's breakthrough feature Going Places (1974).

One person's special effect is another's sensory bombardment

by Ben Sachs on December 11, 2013 at 4:08PM

I've been somewhat bewildered by the advertising push for the state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos sound system, which a number of local multiplexes installed in their theaters this past year. Most people I know go to movies based on what they're about or which actors are in them or perhaps who wrote or directed them.

Either Charles Blackstone is the worst writer in Chicago, or we are being punked

by Aimee Levitt on October 21, 2013 at 4:36PM

Reader readers, I owe you an apology. I tried really hard in my review of Vintage Attraction, a new novel by Charles Blackstone (aka Mr. Alpana Singh), to convey its badness, but I'm afraid I failed.

The screening environment as choker hold

by Ben Sachs on July 29, 2013 at 4:42PM

One thing I like about watching movies at Chicago Filmmakers in Andersonville is that they try to keep the screening room as dark as possible. There are no emergency lights, a thick black curtain prevents any illumination from sneaking in through the foyer, and it's common practice during shows to keep the door to the back hallway shut.

What your travel reading says about you!

New study shows that a woman's reading material reflects her willingness to put out

by Aimee Levitt on May 16, 2013 at 12:38PM

Guess what, guys? A single female traveler's choice of airport reading material can indicate whether she's interested in hooking up with you!

An image from Agnes Varda's Vagabond, sans halo

When celluloid film bleeds over the screen

by Ben Sachs on April 8, 2013 at 3:35PM

On Saturday afternoon the Gene Siskel Film Center projected Agnes Varda's Vagabond from 35-millimeter film. Throughout, the celluloid image appeared just larger than the screen, and so a halo of light flickered on the wall to its left.

Chicago Reader

Bleader

» topic: Dim the Lights