CALENDAR DECEMBER 14, 2018 - FEBRUARY 14, 2019

COLD WAR A Pawel Pawlikowski Film Opens January 18

Chicago’s Year-Round Film Festival 3733 N. Southport Avenue, www.musicboxtheatre.com 773.871.6607

SHOPLIFTERS DISNEY THE FOUND POLICE STORY 1 & 2 OSCAR-NOMINATED 2018 PALME D’OR LIVE ACTION FOOTAGE FESTIVAL NEW 4K DOCUMENTARY WINNER DECEMBER 26- JANUARY 25 & 26 RESTORATIONS SHORTS OPENS DECEMBER 14 JANUARY 3 OPENS FEBRUARY 1 OPENS FEBRUARY 8

Welcome TO THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE!

FEATURE FILMS 6 SHOPLIFTERS OPENS DECEMBER 14 11 MANDY DEC. 26-JAN. 3 11 CAPERNAUM JANUARY 4-17 12 BATHTUBS OVER JANUARY 4-10 12 THE THAT JACK BUILT OPENS JANUARY 11 14 SUPER: BROLY OPENS JANUARY 16 15 COLD WAR OPENS JANUARY 18 17 POLICE STORY 1 & 2 FEBRUARY 1-7 16 OSCAR-NOM DOCUMENTARY SHORTS OPENS FEBRUARY 8 20 COMMENTARY SERIES 24 CLASSIC MATINEES 26 CHICAGO FILM SOCIETY 26 SILENT CINEMA 28 FROM STAGE TO SCREEN 30 MIDNIGHTS

SPECIAL EVENTS 4 CHRISTMAS DOUBLE FEATURE DECEMBER 15-24 6 SOLSTICE DECEMBER 18 7 ALTERNATIVE XMAS DOUBLE FEATURE DECEMBER 19 & 20 7 FIDDLER ON THE ROOF DECEMBER 25 8 LIVE ACTION DISNEY DEC. 26-JAN. 3 14 FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL JANUARY 25 & 26 16 DECONSTRUCTING THE BEATLES JANUARY 29 18 VALENTINE’S DAY: CASABLANCA FEBRUARY 10 18 VALENTINE’S DAY: THE PRINCESS BRIDE FEBRUARY 13 & 14

Brian Andreotti, Director of Programming VOLUME 36 ISSUE 153 Ryan Oestreich, General Manager Copyright 2018 Southport Music Box Corp. MusicBoxTheatre.com Buck LePard, Senior Operations Manager Stephanie Berlin, Public Relations Manager Published by Newcity Custom Publishing Newcitynetwork.com Claire Alden, Group Sales and Membership Manager For information, email [email protected] Julian Antos, Technical Director and Assistant Programmer or call 312.243.8786 Kyle Westphal, Programming Associate Rebecca Lyon, Assistant Technical Director Cover Image from the film COLD WAR, opening January 18 at Music Box Theatre.

Music Box Theatre 3733 North Southport musicboxtheatre.com 773-871-6604 showtimes 773-871-6607 office

3 FEATURES AND SPECIAL EVENTS

DECEMBER 15-24

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candyality and the music box a southport tradition

C A N D Y

THE 35TH ANNUAL MUSIC BOX CHRISTMAS SING-A-LONG & DOUBLE FEATURE One of the most popular and beloved Christmas traditions in Chicago is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Come celebrate the holidays with the Music Box!

Each year, holiday revelers are greeted by none other than Santa Claus, live and in person. Santa welcomes the audience and, accompanied by the theater organist, leads them in the singing of the most cherished Christmas carols of all time. The lyrics are projected onto the theater’s screen so no one misses a chance to sing their hearts out. Then the audience sits back and enjoys a Christmas movie classic. Some folks like to keep the music going and opt to see WHITE CHRISTMAS so they can sing the timeless lyrics of along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kay and Rosemary Clooney. Others prefer to cheer for Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey and hiss Mr. Potter during a showing of the heart-warming IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. And those truly filled with holiday spirit see BOTH films!

Advance tickets are: Day of tickets (if available) are: Single Feature: $13.50 • Member Single Feature: $11.50 Single Feature: $15.50 • Member Single Feature: $13.50 Double Feature: $20 • Member Double Feature: $17 Double Feature: $24 • Member Double Feature: $21 Children under 13: $10 or $15 double feature Children under 13: $10 or $15 double feature

Saturday, December 15 Friday, December 21 Sunday, December 23 12:00pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 12:00pm: White Christmas 12:00pm: White Christmas 3:15pm: White Christmas 3:15pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 3:15pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 6:30pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 6:30pm: White Christmas 6:30pm: White Christmas 9:45pm: White Christmas 9:45pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 9:45pm: It’s A Wonderful Life

Sunday, December 16 Saturday, December 22 Monday, December 24 12:00pm: White Christmas 12:00pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 12:00pm: White Christmas 3:15pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 3:15pm: White Christmas 3:15pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 6:30pm: White Christmas 6:30pm: It’s A Wonderful Life 9:45pm: White Christmas

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OPENS DECEMBER 14 THE MUSIC BOX’S ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS 2018 MISTLETOE MAYHEM December 19 & 20

For over three decades, the Music Box has celebrated the holidays with Jimmy Stewart and Bing Crosby. However, if those guys aren’t your cup of eggnog, the Music Box’s Alternative Christmas Double Feature invites you to spend the season with John McClane in (John McTiernan, 1988, 133 mins, 35mm) & Kevin McCallister in Palme D’Or (Chris Columbus, 1990, 103 mins, DCP). Winner - 2018 DIE HARD print courtesy of Chicago Film Society. Cannes Film SHOPLIFTERS Festival A Masterpiece” Wednesday, December 19 –Wall Street Journal “ 4:30pm: Die Hard DIRECTED BY: Hirokazu Kore-eda This wise and insightful film 7:15pm: Home Alone STARRING: Franky, Ando Sakura, Matsuoka Mayu “ is delicate, poignant and 9:30pm: Die Hard 2018, 121 mins, DCP, In Japanese with English subtitles unexpectedly powerful.” – Times On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united Thursday, December 20 by fierce loyalty, a penchant for petty theft and playful grifting. When the 4:45pm: Home Alone young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence and 7:00pm: Die Hard test their quietly radical belief that it is love—not blood—that defines a family. 9:45pm: Home Alone

DECEMBER 25 SPECIAL EVENT

Presented in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Partnership with JCC Chicago Tuesday, December 25 at 7pm (Norman Jewison, 1971, 181 mins, DCP) The Academy Award-winning musical about family, faith, pride, love and, yes, tradition! The movie adaptation of the Broadway smash centers on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. Rich in detail, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’s universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy and sadness. Featuring such beloved musical numbers as “If I Were A Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker”!

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SPECIAL LIVE-ACTION EVENT DISNEY FILMS

December 26, 2018 - January 3, 2019 The Music Box rings in the new year with some of our favorite live-action films from the , from old standbys to new classics. Fair warning, attending any of these presentations WILL make you feel like a kid again!

BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (Robert Stevenson, 1971, 117 mins, 35mm) When young Charlie, Carrie and Paul move to a small village during World War II, they 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA discover their host, Miss Price (a divine (Richard Fleischer, 1954, 127 mins, 35mm) ), is an apprentice witch! For its first CinemaScope production, the Mouse House turned to Richard Fleischer, son of Disney’s long- Although her early attempts at magic cre- time rival and the results are seaworthy and then some. (Fans of Fleischer’s VIOLENT SATURDAY and THE ate hilarious results, she successfully casts STRANGLER shouldn’t shun this kiddie show.) Adapted from ’s novel with rare brio a traveling spell on an ordinary bedknob, and infectious energy, 20,000 LEAGUES also boasts the most distinguished grown-up cast of any vintage and they fly to the fantastic, animated Isle Disney picture: , James Mason, Peter Lorre, and a killer squid! of Naboombu to find a powerful spell that will save England! Wednesday, December 26 at 6:30pm Wednesday, January 2 at 1:30pm Saturday, December 29 at 2:00pm Thursday, January 3 at 7:00pm Wednesday, December 26 at 1:00pm Wednesday, January 2 at 7:00pm Tuesday, January 1 at 11:45am Sunday, December 30 at 1:45pm Thursday, January 3 at 4:15pm Monday, December 31 at 4:45pm NEWSIES HOMEWARD BOUND: (Kenny Ortega, 1992, 121 mins, 35mm) A teenage Christian Bale (THE DARK THE INCREDIBLE KNIGHT TRILOGY, THE FIGHTER) sings JOURNEY and dances his way through NEWSIES! This (Duwayne Dunham, 1993, 84 mins, DCP) early-90s musical tells the true story of the 1899 newsboys strike, The adventure begins when the loving own- as Bale leads a ragtag group of misfits in ers of bulldog Chance (voiced by Michael J. a rebellion against newspaper magnate Fox), Himalayan cat Sassy (voiced by Sally Joseph Pulitzer (A mustache-twirling Rob- Field), and Golden Retriever Shadow (voiced ert Duvall). A disappointment at the box by Don Ameche) are forced to leave them office on release, NEWSIES soon gained a in the temporary care of a friend who lives , and was later adapted into hundreds of miles away. But after several days, the worried animals begin to think their family must be in a Tony-winning Broadway musical. trouble, so they decide to head for home. On their incredible journey across the ruggedly beautiful Sierras, they encounter unexpected surprises from man, beast, and nature alike.

Wednesday, December 26 at 3:45pm Monday, December 31 at Noon Thursday, December 27 at 1:30pm Sunday, December 30 at 4:15pm Saturday, December 29 at 4:45pm Tuesday, January 1 at 2:30pm Friday, December 28 at 7:00pm Tuesday, January 1 at 4:30pm Sunday, December 30 at 7:00pm Saturday, December 29 at 11:30am

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PLAYING DECEMBER 26-JANUARY 3 FEATURE FILM

Back By Popular Demand!

MANDY gives the “performance of a lifetime” –The Playlist HEAVYWEIGHTS DIRECTED BY: Panos Cosmatos (, 1995, 100 mins, 35mm) 2018, 121 mins, DCP Before made THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, before made THE 40-YEAR Pacific Northwest. 1983 AD. Outsiders Red Miller (Nicolas Cage at his best) and Mandy Bloom OLD VIRGIN, before made BRIDESMAIDS, they made HEAVYWEIGHTS, the endlessly-quotable (Andrea Riseborough) lead a loving and peaceful existence. When their pine-scented haven is summer ! A group of overweight, underdog kids discover their camp has been sold to a crazy fit- savagely destroyed by a cult led by the sadistic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), Red is catapulted ness who’s determined to make their lives miserable. With no other options, they must take back into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with . the camp, by any means necessary!

Thursday, December 27 at 4:15pm Sunday, December 30 at 11:30am Friday, December 28 at 4:30pm Monday, December 31 at 2:15pm PLAYING JANUARY 4-17 FEATURE Saturday, December 29 at 7:00pm FILM

RETURN

TO OZ (Walter Murch, 1985, Grand Jury 113 mins, 35mm) Prize Winner - 2018 Cannes Film The movie that scarred an Festival uncountable amount of children! In this belated sequel, Dorothy finds herself back in the land of her dreams, and makes CAPERNAUM Tackles its subject with delightful new friends (like “ intelligence and heart.” –Variety Tik Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, DIRECTED BY: Nadine Labaki and the Gump), and dan- STARRING: Zain al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole A deeply assured piece gerous new enemies (the creepy Wheelers, the head-hunting Princess Mombi, and the evil Nome King). 2018, 119 mins, DCP, In Arabic with English subtitles “of direction” Unforgettable character designs and haunting scenes in the more dangerous corners of imagination ensured –Vulture that once you saw RETURN TO OZ, you’d never forget it! CAPERNAUM follows Zain, a gutsy streetwise child as he flees his neg- ligent parents, survives through his wits on the streets, takes care of an Ethiopian refugee and her baby son, and sues his parents for the “crime” of giving him life. Thursday, December 27 at 7:00pm Wednesday, January 2 at 4:15pm Friday, December 28 at 1:45pm Thursday, January 3 at 1:30pm CAPERNAUM was made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely Tuesday, January 1 at 7:15pm parallel their own. Although it is set in the depths of a society’s systematic inhumanity, CAPERNAUM is ultimately a hopeful film that stirs the heart as deeply as it cries out for action.

10 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 Features and Special Events 11 FEATURES AND SPECIAL EVENTS give the gift of PLAYING JANUARY 4-10 FEATURE FILM the music box! This holiday season, a Music Box Membership is the gift that keeps on giving; with discounted tickets, bottomless popcorn, free members-only screenings,

BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY ENDEARING. A portrait and more. Your gift will continue to surprise the “of hobby turned obsession, a chronicle of a little-known DIRECTED BY: Dava Whisenant subgenre of musical theater film lover in your life all year long! 2018, 87 mins, DCP and an elegy for a period in midcentury America when While gathering material for a segment on LATE SHOW WITH DAVID company loyalty was, well, fun.” LETTERMAN, comedy writer Steve Young stumbled onto a few – vintage record albums that would change his life forever. Bizarre cast recordings—marked “internal use only”—revealed full-throated Broadway-style musical shows about some of the most recognizable corporations in America: General Electric, McDonald’s, Ford, DuPont, Xerox. With David Letterman, Chita Rivera, Martin Short, and Florence Henderson, BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY follows Steve Young while tracking down rare albums, unseen footage, composers and performers. Along the way, Steve discovers that this discarded musical genre starring tractors and bathtubs was bigger than Broadway.

OPENS JANUARY 11 FEATURE FILM

register online at musicboxtheatre.com or visit our box office! THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT Von Trier’s greatest “film to date.” –Slant Magazine DIRECTED BY: Lars Von Trier Questions? Contact: STARRING: , Bruno Ganz, It’s designed to 2018, 152 mins, DCP “get under your skin, [email protected] and does.” USA in the . We follow the highly intelligent Jack over a span of 12 years –Variety and are introduced to the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack’s point of view, while he postulates each murder is an artwork in itself. As the inevitable police intervention is drawing nearer, he is taking greater and greater risks in his attempt to create the ultimate artwork. Along the way we experience Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts through a recurring conversation with the unknown Verge—a grotesque mixture of sophistry mixed with an almost childlike self-pity and psychopathic explanations. Contains strong disturbing violence/sadistic behavior, grisly images, language, and nudity.

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OPENS JANUARY 16 FEATURE OPENS JANUARY 18 FEATURE FILM FILM

DRAGON BALL SUPER: BROLY The 20th Film

DIRECTED BY: Tatsuya Nagamine in the 2019, 100 mins, DCP, Dubbed in English DRAGON BALL From the Series A planet destroyed, a powerful race reduced to nothing. After the devastation of Director Planet Vegeta, three Saiyans were scattered among the stars, destined for different fates. While two found a home on Earth, the third was raised with a burning desire for of IDA vengeance and developed an unbelievable power. And the time for revenge has come. is back to training hard so he can face the most powerful foes the universes have to offer, and Vegeta is keeping up right beside him. But when they suddenly find themselves against an unknown Saiyan, they discover a terrible, destructive force. Locked into battle with the formidable Broly, Goku and Vegeta face their most dangerous opponent yet!

JANUARY 25 & 26 SPECIAL EVENT

Winner - Best Director - 2018

READ RAY PRIDE’S THE FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL COMMENTARY ON PAGE 20 Found Footage Festival hosts Joe Pickett (THE ONION) and Nick Prueher (LATE SHOW WITH COLD WAR DAVID LETTERMAN) return to the Music Box for TWO nights of wild & weird VHS oddities. A terrific, smoky-cool love story.” FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL: CHERISHED GEMS “–TIME Friday January 25 at 9:30pm DIRECTED BY: Pawel Pawlikowski STARRING: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot Visually stunning, passionate, A guided tour of FFF’s all-time favorite VHS finds. From the curiously-produced industrial training 2018, 89 mins, DCP, In Polish with English subtitles “wistful, and thoughtful in to the forsaken home movie donated to Goodwill, the Found Footage Festival resurrects equal measure.” these forgotten treasures and serves them up in a lively celebration of all things found. COLD WAR is a passionate love story between a man and –Vulture a woman who meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL: AFTER DARK vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned Saturday January 26 at 9:30pm to each other. Set against the background of the Cold War in 1950s Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Found Footage Festival’s dirtiest, most disturbing, and patently misguided VHS finds from 25 years Paris, it’s the tale of a couple separated by politics, character flaws and unfortunate twists of fate— of collecting at thrift stores. an impossible love story in impossible times.

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JANUARY 29 SPECIAL FEBRUARY 1-7 FEATURE EVENT FILM

READ STEVE PROKOPY’S COMMENTARY ON PAGE 22 DECONSTRUCTING THE BEATLES: THE BIRTH OF THE BEATLES Tuesday, January 29 at 7pm POLICE STORY & In the late fifties, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Richard Starkey were just Playing February 1-7 four Liverpudlian teenagers who picked up guitars (or drumsticks) and decided to play music. With no formal training and no ability to read or write music, they tried to emulate their American rock New 4K Restorations of the first two films in ’s action-packed, breakthrough heroes. Within a few years, they would change music history (and the world) forever. ! Presented in with English subtitles. Composer/producer/Beatles expert Scott Freiman explores the path that brought them to superstardom as The Beatles, from their early days as the Quarrymen to their transformation POLICE STORY in Hamburg and the many characters who helped them on their journey. (Jackie Chan, 1985, 92 mins, DCP) The jaw-dropping set pieces fly fast and furious in Jackie Chan’s breathtakingly OPENS FEBRUARY 8 FEATURE inventive martial-arts comedy, a smash hit FILM that made him a worldwide icon of daredevil action spectacle. The director/star/one-man machine plays Ka-Kui, a police inspector who goes rogue to bring down a drug kingpin and protect the case’s star witness (Chinese cinema legend ) from retribution. Packed wall-to-wall with charmingly goofball and astoundingly acrobatic fight choreography—including an epic shopping-mall melee of flying fists and shattered glass—POLICE STORY set a new standard for rock-’em-sock-’em mayhem that would influence a generation of filmmakers from Hong Kong to Hollywood. POLICE STORY 2 (Jackie Chan, 1988, 122 mins, DCP) Jackie Chan followed up the massive success of POLICE STORY with an even bigger box- office hit. Having been demoted to a lowly THE OSCAR-NOMINATED traffic cop for his, ahem, unorthodox policing methods, Chan’s go-it-alone officer Ka-Kui DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMS quits the force in protest. But it isn’t long before he’s back in action, racing the clock For the 14th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated to stop a band of serial bombers and win Documentary Short Films, opening in Chicago exclusively at the Music Box Theatre. A collection of back his much-put-upon girlfriend May (the phenomenal , reprising her star-making powerful and diverse real life stories, the Documentary Shorts routinely highlight lesser-heard voices role). Boasting epic explosions, an awesomely electro soundtrack, and a show-stopping finale— from around the globe. This is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your which turns an abandoned warehouse into a life-size pinball machine of cascading oil drums, collapsing Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s scaffolds, and shooting fireworks—POLICE STORY 2 confirmed Chan’s status as a performer of selection of shorts. The take place Sunday, Feb. 24. unparalleled grace and daring.

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H EST TC AT A E B W L I L N A E

M R

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• O • P K E E N E 7 DAYS A W

CASABLANCA with Sweetheart Sing-Along Sunday, February 10 at 2pm DIRECTED BY: Michael Curtiz STARRING: , , Paul Henreid; (1942) 102 mins, 35mm The Music Box Theatre’s annual screening of the classic film CASABLANCA begins with a special “Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Sing-Along” featuring a selection of favorite love songs complete with projected lyrics and accompaniment from the Music Box organ. Songs include “You Are My Sunshine,” “Bicycle Built for Two” and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” After the sing-a-long you and your sweetheart can hold hands, DABLON canoodle and watch Bogart and Bergman in the timeless CASABLANCA, one of the great romantic films of all time. THE PRINCESS BRIDE VINEYARDS 2 Shows! Wednesday, February 13 & Thursday, February 14 at 7pm DIRECTED BY: Rob Reiner STARRING: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright; (1987) 98 minutes, DCP The fairy tale that puts the “comedy” in “romantic comedy.” Featuring pre-show entertainment that includes a Winery & Tasting Room costume contest. Dress up as the dashing Inigo Montoya, the beautiful Buttercup, the gentle Fezzik, or any of your other favorite characters! A young boy listens while his grandfather reads him the adventures of Buttercup, the most beautiful woman in the world, and Westly, the man she loves, in the fairy-tale kingdom of Florin. Along the way they encounter a Spanish swordsman, a gentle giant, and the six-fingered villain, Count Rugen. Inconceivable! 111 W. Shawnee Rd. • Baroda, MI • 49101

• 18 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 269-422-2846 DABLON.COM COMMENTARY COLD WAR OPENS JANUARY 18.. SEE PAGE 15 FOR DETAILS.

TIME STANDS STILL confection. In capturing his parents’ emotional acts, if not historical facts, Pawlikowski honors love The Timeless Romance of COLD WAR in hard times. Escaping the east, evoking the romance of CASABLANCA—“They say Warsaw is the By Ray Pride Paris of the east, eh?”—to Paris, they try on the life of expatriate musicians, frequenting or playing at clubs with oh-so-French names like Le Balto, L’eclipse, Chez Marcette. The songs, including Cole “Everything tender and melancholy, as life is sometimes, just for one moment,” Jean Rhys wrote Porter’s “Love For Sale,” performed by Miles Davis, ’s “I Loves You Porgy” and Ira in the novel “Good Morning, Midnight,” and her reverie aligns exquisitely with the searing, thrilling Woods’ performance of Billy Austin and Louis Jordan’s “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” convey, spectacle of Pawel Pawlikowski’s COLD WAR. Pawlikowski’s first film since the Oscar-winning IDA elevate, and endorse the temperature of romance. Wiktor and Zula’s hearts soar or plummet to is a gorgeous depiction of the reckless decades-long love of a mismatched couple from different the soundtrack, music heightening the passions that play as lightning flashes across their indelible backgrounds in post-war Poland and then the Cold War 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Paris and Yugoslavia. features. (Zula records an LP, and of course, it’s called “Loin de toi…,” or “Far From You.”) The world outside their embrace tears at them, too. The integral use of music played and sung is akin to Terrence Davies’ musical melodrama, DISTANT The older Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), Gregory Peck-handsome, records folk music in the countryside, VOICES, STILL LIVES, and the wealth of detail presented casually yet concretely, is reminiscent of and later leads a chorus that celebrates these native songs (a mass of idealized Poles, which, of Terrence Malick’s little-seen SONG TO SONG. The black-and-white rhapsodies of images shot by course, is eventually exploited for propaganda purposes). Wiktor meets Zula (Joanna Kulig, from Lukasz Zal (IDA) are as clear-headed as the spaces in Carl Theodor Dreyer and as dream-drawn as Jean IDA), who dazzles him with her features, a rowdy, provocative attitude toward career and a lovely, Vigo’s ZERO DE CONDUITE or L’ATALANTE. Pawlikowski is adept of the allure of the mid- unschooled voice. by night but also of the timeless vista of two lovers lying in sunstruck rural landscape. “I’ll be with you COLD WAR could be called elliptical, but more precisely, it’s a sweeping succession of sensations, of until the end of time,” Zula tells Wiktor, disconsolately, almost murmuring, as in lazy grasses behind romantic fragrance told in songs—so many songs!—and shimmering images. Memories: memories of them, a cow lows. Time stands still. The heart waits a beat. What could be plain, even banal, soars precision, passion and stubborn beauty, told fluently in black-and-white images that make everlasting through the acuity of Pawlikowski’s eye. romance of each adoring gaze or rebuking stare or furious gaze. Pawlikowski tumbles in his sure hand COLD WAR is vivacious at every moment, even in the darkest hours. The lovers’ journey insists: the jewels of two lives, shared, apart, shared. COLD WAR slides from scene to scene, effortlessly and dance, sing, play, live, learn, live until the moment you die, until you cross to the other side. COLD brilliantly, as with the taken breath and skip-start heartbeat of desperate and trying love. WAR telegraphs the stubbornness of intractable love in pungent, poignant flashes. It is luminous Pawlikowski’s parents had difficulties for decades, and as a child, he thought nothing of the fury and romantic tragedy perfumed with longing and disappointment and ways of escape; a memento mori melodrama between his father, a doctor, and his mother, who ran away to be a ballerina at the age of diamond-hard grace. of 17. But as an adult, after a family loss, time off with his children, and IDA, his parents, Pawlikowski Ray Pride is film critic of Newcity and a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine. He is also a says, transfixed him and became the most fascinating people on earth. Wiktor and Zula bear their photographer: you can find his work on Instagram, and his book of words and images of Chicago names, but the particulars of their headlong, decades-spanning, border-spinning romance is a burning “Ghost Signs” is forthcoming.

20 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 Commentary 21 COMMENTARY POLICE STORY OPENS FEBRUARY 1. SEE PAGE 17 FOR DETAILS. In the film, Chan plays Chan Ka Kui (or Kevin Chan in some versions of the film), a straight-as-an-arrow Hong Kong cop who captures one of the city’s most notorious drug lords (Yuen Chor), after the film’s splashiest, most fiery action sequence involving a that drives through and levels an entire shanty town built on a mountain side. Chan is both applauded for the arrest by his superiors— Supt. Raymond Li (Kwok-Hung Lam) and Inspector Bill Wong ()—and mildly berated for the level of destruction caused during the chase. Chan is put in charge of playing to the drug lord’s secretary, Selina Fong (Brigette Lin), who is the only witness who can put him away. This does not sit well with Chan’s girlfriend, May (an early appearance by the great Maggie Cheung), who is unreasonably jealous at the situation. Thanks to a slick attorney, the drug lord not only avoids the charges but sets up Chan in the process by framing him for the murder of another cop, who just happened to be dirty and on his payroll, and Chan spends the rest of the film attempting to clear his name, culminating in a spectacular fight sequence set in a massive that features possibly the most glass ever broken in a single action scene and a breathtaking stunt in which Chan slides several stories down a pole through hang- ing lights that explode as he passes by them. But before this sequence, Chan delivers an angry, heart- felt monologue about criminals who escape prosecution thanks to savvy lawyers that would have felt right at home in a Death Wish or Dirty Harry movie, which isn’t surprising since Chan has been quoted JACKIE CHAN: STUNTMAN, ACTOR, ENTERTAINER as saying that the POLICE STORY films were inspired by American police dramas of the era. Be sure to stick around for those end credits’ and the Chan-sung theme song, “Hero Story.” POLICE STORY & POLICE STORY 2 Highlight the Superstar By Steve Prokopy Although POLICE STORY 2 was released three years later, it picks up almost right where the first film left off. Still dealing with the ramifications of the previous story, Chan is actually demoted to traffic Although he began in films as an actor and action star, who studios wanted to model after the late cop for the chaos in the mall. Adding insult to injury, the drug lord once again is set free and his law- , Jackie Chan built his popularity on a foundation of traits that Lee never did: comic timing, yer (Chi-Wing Lau) vows to make life hell for Chan and May. But that plotline is quickly sidetracked a fighting style that appeared both technically masterful and improvisational, and death-defying by several elements, including a commitment by Jackie Chan (who gets sole credit as director this stunt performances that often resulted in well-documented injuries (often featured during the end time) for more traditional, but no less inventive fight sequences, including a spectacular, extended credits of his films). Although Chan was already an established talent in his native Hong Kong (thanks one in a fireworks factory that involves a great deal of explosives, setting Chan on fire, and a border- to late-1970s successes like and SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW), the POLICE line offensive deaf criminal (Keung-Kuen Lai), who also happens to be the best fighter in the movie. STORY films are his most successful and longest-running franchise, with six films from 1985 through The story this time involves a group of bombers seeking to extort rich real estate owners of 2013 (although some of the titles are sequels in name only). millions of dollars in exchange for not blowing up their properties. After being humiliated with the Although 1992’s POLICE STORY 3 was one of the first Chan films to get a wide release in the United demotion, Chan quits the force but is quickly reinstated and brought back in as a detective to help States (under the title in 1996, co-starring ), the first two entries in the fran- break up the bombing gang, who have made it personal for Chan by kidnapping May in their attempts chise never truly got their due stateside outside of repertory and art house theaters that managed to to keep him at bay. get ahold of beaten-up, badly subtitled or dubbed prints. But now, the first two POLICE STORY films While it has often been said that Jackie Chan is more stuntman than actor, the first two POLICE have been restored, with much-improved subtitles, and they are refreshing reminders at how versatile STORYs, in particular, give us a version of the superstar that proves he was clearly capable of heavier a performer Chan was still trying to be with his 1980s output. moments, even if he frequently opted out of reaching deep into his soul for a performance. And There is no better example of this than the opening shootout of 1985’s POLICE STORY, which still not every great performer needs to do that. There are few actors who have as clear a sense of giving marks the only time a Chan-starring film opens with gunplay rather than hand-to-hand combat. the audience what they want, and then some, than Jackie Chan. Especially with his output from the In fact, the film is rather light on traditional Chan-style fight sequences (all of which were choreo- 1980s and ’90s, Chan was on a never-ending quest to up his game with each new film and make them graphed by Chan, who also directed the film with Chi-Hwa )—often typified by a combination examples of pure, uncut, crowd-pleasing entertainment. of gravity-defying acrobatics and using whatever happens to be in the room as a weapon, often Steve Prokopy is the chief film critic for the Chicago-based arts outlet Third Coast Review resulting in some exceedingly odd fighting tools, such as a wardrobe rack, mannequins, bar stools, (www.ThirdCoastReview.com). For nearly 20 years, he was the Chicago Editor for Ain’t It Cool News, barrels, even a double-decker bus in one of the film’s most famous sequences. where he contributed film reviews and filmmaker/actor interviews under the name “Capone.”

22 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 Commentary 23 CONTINUING SERIES

CLASSIC MATINEES January 26 & 27 SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS AT 11:30am DESIGN FOR LIVING STAFF PICKS: MUSIC BOX FILMS EDITION! (, 1933, 90 mins, 35mm) For over 10 years, Music Box Films, the Chicago-based distributor of foreign & Picked by Kat, Marketing & Publicity Manager independent films, has been dedicated to providing audiences with diverse, exciting and intelligent cinema from around the world. Now, the folks behind the Music Box Kat says: Lubitsch is high among my favorite Theatre’s sister company take over our Matinees to share the films they love! directors, and I figured this was a great opportunity to see one of his lesser-revived films on the big screen, a subversive (especially for its time) romantic comedy January 5 & 6 about a love triangle. I especially enjoy anything he made with Miriam Hopkins, my favorite actress from DIVA that period. Fredric March and are (Jean-Jacques Beniex, 1981, 123 mins, 35mm) the suitors vying for her affection, with Ben Hecht adapting the script from Noel Coward’s play. Picked by Lisa, Director of Home Entertainment Sales Lisa says: DIVA is the French art-house thriller this Indiana girl February 2 & 3 needed back in the 1980s. The New Wave visual style, the chase scenes on the streets of Paris, the passion for music and the EVE’S BAYOU multiculturalism were unlike anything I had ever seen before. (1997, 109 mins, 35mm) DIVA has stuck with me after all of these years as one of the films that helped to open my eyes to a world outside the mall. Picked by Quinton, Distribution & Non-theatrical Engagement Coordinator Quinton says: EVE’S BAYOU is such an indulgent January 12 & 13 film. The cast—gorgeous and well-casted—includes Samuel L. Jackson, , MACGRUBER and the legendary . The dramatic performances by the children in the film, specifically (, 2010, 99 mins, 35mm) as Eve and Meagan Good as Eve’s Picked by Lindsey, older sister, are also mesmerizing. The film’s 1960s Material and Delivery Coordinator rural Louisiana setting is a character in and of itself, Lindsey says: After a ten year drought, a new comedy joined with its alluring sophistication and mysticism, and the illustrious group of “Films Based on it poetically complements the plot centered on sketches.” and a pre-BRIDESMAIDS Kristin Wiig star in family secrets and tradition just as absorbing as those this glorious homage to ‘80s excess. This perfect film lost money, storied, murky swamps. You won’t be disappointed. closed after 3 weeks in theaters AND was ranked by Parade magazine as the #2 biggest box office flop of 2010. But most importantly, it contains the greatest sex scene in film history. February 10 THE WAY WE WERE January 19 & 20 (Sydney Pollack, 1973, 118 mins, DCP) Picked by Dianne, Bookkeeper INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Dianne says: In 2004, there was a Barbra Streisand (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013, 104 mins, DCP) mini-festival scheduled at the Music Box that had Picked by Becky, to be cancelled. So when I was offered the chance Marketing & Communications Manager to pick a film, I went to Barbra Streisand and Robert Becky says: “If it was never new, and it never gets old, then Redford! If you need to clear your head with a good it’s a folk song.” Oscar Isaac is Llewyn Davis, a struggling folk cry, this is the movie! Though they have very different singer in 1961 Greenwich Village who we follow in a dream-like personalities, they fall in love. There is love, passion, journey from New York to Chicago and back. Also starring Carey rowing, sailing, rich friends, poor friends (James Mulligan, , Adam Driver, John Goodman, and Woods!), politics and in the end, love wasn’t enough a cat named Ulysses, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS is a darkly funny to keep them together. If you are not crying when look at an artist’s struggle and is one of the Coen Brothers’ best. she brushes the hair off his forehead, you are dead!

24 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 Matinees 25 CONTINUING SERIES THE CHICAGO FILM SOCIETY PRESENTS The Chicago Film Society hosts monthly presentations featuring classic films, underseen rarities, cult movies, short subjects, reels and more, all on glorious celluloid. For more information, visit www.chicagofilmsociety.org. O.C. AND STIGGS (Robert Altman, 1985, 109 mins, 35mm) Monday, January 14 at 7pm Ready to burn his last bridge with Hollywood, took an offer to make a National Lampoon adaptation with a hefty budget at the height of the post-ANIMAL HOUSE boom. What resulted was O.C. AND STIGGS, a surreal, nearly-plotless evisceration of American culture in which obnoxious teenage miscreants O.C. Ogilvie and Mark Stiggs wreak havoc amidst a web of oblivious classmates, odious Reaganite suburb dwellers, and battle-scarred counter-culture refugees. An unparalleled achievement in transgressive studio filmmaking that MGM shelved for years, O.C. AND STIGGS is an utterly monstrous, mind-roasting explosive device ready to detonate in the face of anybody who dares to look its way. With Dennis Hopper, Melvin Van Peebles, Cynthia Nixon, King Sunny Adé, and more! THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (Lotte Reiniger, 1926, 66 mins, 35mm) Saturday, February 9 at 11:30am Teenage scissor prodigy and self-described “primitive caveman artist” Lotte Special SILENT CINEMA Reiniger began working in the film industry as a designer of animated title introduction Classic silent films the way they were meant to be seen! Featuring a live musical score cards in 1916 and soon found herself mixing with a coterie of bohemian car- from members on the famous Music Box organ by Dennis Scott, Music Box House Organist. Co-presented toonists. Reiniger’s big break came in 1923, as hyperinflation sent the value by the Chicago Film Society. of the Deutschmark plummeting; one of her patrons, Berlin banker Louis of Manual Hagen, converted his liquid assets to the relatively “safe” currency of raw Cinema motion picture stock and built a small studio for Reiniger over the garage of his Potsdam vegetable garden. After three years, Reiniger emerged with THE FROM MORN TO MIDNIGHT ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, a literally hand-made tapestry of silhouette (Karlheinz Martin, 1920, 69 mins, 35mm) that may as well have sprung from a magic lamp. Saturday, January 5 at 11:30am A free adaptation of several stories from the ARABIAN NIGHTS, this mythical journey from Bagdad to A bank clerk becomes beguiled with a mysterious wom- Wak-Wak, with plenty of witches, sorcerers, and flying horses along the way, conjures more wonderful an and embezzles a large sum from his firm in hopes of sights from card stock and tissue paper than most modern blockbusters can scare up with the budget sloughing off the oppressive stability of his bourgeois and computing power of a small nation-state. lifestyle. When the woman rejects his entreaties, the PRINCE ACHMED is now recognized as the earliest surviving animated feature film, but that’s perhaps clerk descends through the hellhole of modern urban the least astounding thing about it. The craftsmanship of PRINCE ACHMED remains singular and life. This stark adaptation of Georg Kaiser’s Expressionist undiminished, with its intricately designed puppets, its freely undulating backdrops, its otherworldly play was brought to the screen under the supervision of noted theater director Karlheinz Martin. The special effects, and its unstoppable narrative ascent to the clouds. stylization of FROM MORN TO MIDNIGHT proved so radical—the sets are angular and monochro- matic, the space is non-naturalistic, and even the light is painted on—that the film never received a The original negative of PRINCE ACHMED was destroyed in World War II, but luckily a tinted nitrate German release. Martin’s wild experiment makes THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI look like a bucolic print was safely ensconced at the ; this copy served as the basis for the film’s 1999 Sunday afternoon stroll. restoration, which yielded an irreplaceable print produced with historically authentic tinting methods. 35mm print courtesy of the National Film Archive of Tinted 35mm print courtesy of Milestone Films

26 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 Silent Cinema 27 CONTINUING SERIES FROM STAGE TO SCREEN The Music Box Theatre proudly presents the greatest in filmed theatrical experiences from around the world!

presents Tickets THE KING AND I are on Directed by: Bartlett Sher PRESENTED BY TRAFALGAR RELEASING sale now! Tuesday, January 8 at 7pm The award-winning Theater’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s THE KING AND I comes to the Music Box, recorded from London’s iconic Palladium. Call 773.871.3000 or visit EmeraldCityTheatre.com Reprising her Tony Award-winning role, “Broadway musical’s undisputed Queen” (The Sunday Times) Kelli O’Hara (Anna) takes to the stage alongside Tony and Oscar- nominee Ken Watanabe (The King) in a “powerhouse” (The Times) performance. GENE SISKEL FILM CENTER • SISKELFILMCENTER.ORG Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher THE 20th ANNUAL whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to ANIMATION teach his many wives and children. SHOW OF SHOWS “Breathtaking. Remarkable. Exquisite.” – The New York Times DECEMBER 14 - 27 JEAN-LUC GODARD’S THE IMAGE BOOK FEBRUARY 1 - 21 KING LEAR Encore Directed by: Jonathan Munby 164 N STATE ST • ADMISSION PRICES: $11 GENERAL | $7 STUDENTS | $6 MEMBERS Presentation! PRESENTED BY NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE Tuesday, January 15 at 6pm Jonathan Munby directs this “nuanced and powerful” (The Times) contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s tender, violent, moving and shocking play KING LEAR, anchored by Ian McKellen’s “extraordinarily moving por- trayal” (The Independent). Considered by many to be the greatest tragedy ever written, KING LEAR sees two aging fathers—one a King, one his courtier—reject the children who truly love them. Their blindness unleashes a tornado of pitiless am- bition and treachery, as family and state are plunged into a violent power struggle with bit- ter ends. Filmed in the West End. “Ian McKellen reigns supreme in this triumphant production.” – Daily Telegraph

28 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 CONTINUING SERIES

MEAN GIRLS FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS AT MIDNIGHT MIDNIGHTS (, 15th 2004, 97 mins, Anniversary! DCP) December EQUILIBRIUM January 19 THE HORROR 28 & 29 (Kurt Wimmer, 2002,107 mins, 35mm) PICTURE SHOW Raised in the Afri- (Jim Sharman, 1975, 100 mins, 35mm) can bush country by January SURFER: TEEN 4 & 5 CONFRONTS FEAR January her zoologist parents, Cady Heron (Douglas Burke, 2018, 98 mins, DCP) 25 & 26 (Mark Waters, 2004, 97 mins, DCP) () thinks she knows about “survival of the fittest.” But January 18 THE ROOM February DEAD SNOW the law of the jungle takes on a (Tommy Wiseau, 2003, 99 mins, 35mm) 1 & 2 (Tommy Wirkola, 2009, 92 mins, 35mm) whole new meaning when the February OVERLORD home-schooled 15-year-old enters 8 & 9 (Julius Avery, 2018, 110 mins, DCP) public high school for the first time and falls prey to the psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today. Writ- ten by . EQUILIBRIUM (Kurt Wimmer, 2002,107 mins, 35mm) Delivering awesome high-tech action in the DEAD SNOW power-packed style of and (Tommy Wirkola, 2009, MINORITY REPORT, EQUILIBRIUM stars 92 mins, 35mm) Christian Bale and Taye Diggs in a thrilling Ein! Zwei! Die! The film that shocked look at a future where the only crime is Sundance, rocked Europe and being human. In an attempt to end wars knocked American horror fans out and maintain peace, mankind has outlawed of their seats: When a group of the things that trigger emotion—literature, medical students take a sex-and- music and art. To uphold the law, a special booze-fueled ski vacation to a re- breed of police is assigned to eliminate all mote cabin in the Norwegian Alps, transgressors. But when the top enforcer they uncover a dark secret from (Bale) misses a dose of an emotional- WWII that resurrects a battalion of blocking drug, he begins to realize that uncontrollable, unstoppable and extremely undead Nazis. What follows is relentless thrills, unimaginable things are not as they seem. horrors and a shock ending guaranteed to make you scream out loud! OVERLORD SURFER: TEEN (Julius Avery, 2018, 110 mins, DCP) CONFRONTS FEAR With only hours until D-Day, a (Douglas Burke, 2018, 98 mins, DCP) team of American paratroopers Surfing since as young as he can remember, drop into Nazi-occupied to at the age of 13, Sage is crippled by fear after carry out a mission that’s crucial to suffering a wipeout on a huge wave. The the invasion’s success. Tasked with wave slammed him to the bottom and held destroying a radio transmitter atop him pinned there without air until he nearly a fortified church, the desperate sol- died. With his whole life still ahead of him diers join forces with a young French yet now paralyzed by fear, Sage no longer villager to penetrate the walls and surfs the waves. But unable to ignore the take down the tower. But, in a mys- mystical and powerful pull of the ocean, terious Nazi lab beneath the church, he fishes in the surf, and finds more than the outnumbered G.I.s come face- he bargained for. to-face with enemies unlike any the world has ever seen.

30 Music Box Theatre December 2018-February 2019 Midnights 31 Available January 8th 2019

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