Pictured La Tregua, at the Latin Film Fest.
Limited runs and special events:
— Adler Planetarium – (312) 322-0548: SonicVision – Open-ended run
— Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State Street, (312) 846-2800: Gender at the Edge: Three Films by Michele Mahoney 1995-2003 – Midwestern Hospitality, Acrobats And Sword-Swallowers, and The Undergrad –Apr. 22
— Horticultural Hall (Lake Geneva) – (262) 740-BPFF: Black Point Film Festival – Apr. 21-25
— Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, (773) 871-6604: Midnight movies: Die, Mommie, Die! – Apr. 17, 16; Hedwig and the Angry Inch – Apr. 30, May 1
— Navy Pier IMAX Theatre, (312) 595-5MAX (5629): Nascar: The IMAX Experience 3D – now playing; Ocean Wonderland 3D – opens Apr. 16
— Rodan, 1530 N. Milwaukee, (773)276-7036: Program of live action and animated film, video, and new-media shorts from around the globe – Electric Fan by Bohyung Suh; Musicalidad by Thomas Lee; Night and Day by Phan Visutyothapibal
Latin Film Fest
20th Anniversary Chicago Latino Film Festival: 20th Anniversary Chicago Latino Film Festival: April 16-28, 2004
As they have been doing over the past few years, the programmers and organizers of the annual Chicago Latino Film Festival at the International Latino Cultural Center have once again done a superb job of including films of interest to LGBT audience members. With a few such titles among the more than 100 films in the schedule, both queer and straight festival-goers have a decent selection of movies from which to choose. Below are some of the LGBT highlights of the program.
At the beginning of Alegre Ma Non Troppo, an amusing Madrid-set comedy, gay musician Pablo (Pere Ponce) and his painter boyfriend have split up on the day of Pablo’s orchestra audition. Even though Pablo’s father Pablo (Oscar Ladoire) is an instructor and on the audition committee, Pablo is still uncertain that he will even be chosen. Pablo faints and is revived in the men’s room by fellow horn player Vicente (Jordi Molla), whose girlfriend Salome (Penelope Cruz), is also a musician. Both Pablo and Salome eventually make it into the orchestra. Early in their friendship, Salome convinces Pablo to see a psychiatrist friend of hers who attempts to cure him of his homosexuality. Salome gets involved in the therapy and becomes Pablo’s girlfriend. Pablo’s mother Asun (Rosa Maria Sarda), who has been separated from Pablo’s father for 12 years, is disappointed that her son is disavowing his homosexuality, and does what she can to persuade him otherwise. Meanwhile, climber Salome has turned her attention to Pablo Sr. and seduces him. This entertaining comedy from 1994 provides a number of laugh out loud moments.
An unusual cross-section of characters cross each other’s paths over a period of a few days in Caracas, Venezuela, in director Francisco de Pena’s video feature Amor En Concreto (Love In Concrete). Love-obsessed cab-driver Carlos (Carlos Miranda) finally works up the nerve to speak to nightclub singer Carmen (Gladys Prince), whom he has been stalking for 20 years. One of Carlos’s passengers, transvestite prostitute Clemencia (Erich Wildpret), saves the life of teenage runaway Tony (Alejandro Chaban), when she prevents him from throwing himself off of an overpass, and later takes him to his first gay bar. Claudia (Beatriz Valdes), a doctor in a bad marriage, withdraws all the money ($65,000) from her joint bank account and, as she is getting into her car, she is held up by unemployed Hector (Gregorio Milano). Somewhat less sturdy than concrete, the film attempts to deliver a message about the power of love which never quite solidifies.
La Tregua is a big-screen, overly dramatic, Telenovela-quality flick that pours it on as heavily as syrup. Widower Martin (Gonzalo Vega) works in the office of a coastal shipping company, and is struggling with depression. His eldest son Esteban (Arath de la Torre) is a government employee; his middle child Jaime (Rodrigo Vidal) works in an architect’s office; and his youngest child, daughter Blanca (Maite Embil) is a student. His sons are always at each other’s throats and his daughter is having trouble finding a boyfriend. Martin has better luck in terms of romance and begins dating a young woman from his office named Laura (Adriana Fonseca). But his happiness is tenuous as things begin to unravel. Esteban becomes involved in an embezzlement scandal, Blanca’s new boyfriend uses her virginity as a pawn in a bet, and Jaime is forced out of the closet by homophobic Esteban. Eventually, each of the family crises are resolved, but then (cue music), Martin is faced with an even greater tragedy when Laura suddenly takes ill.
Special festival programs include ‘Haitian Series: Triumph of the Human Spirit.’ ‘Spanish Perspective,’ ‘Most Memorable Films,’ ‘Made in Chicago,’ ‘Soundbites on Celluloid,’ ‘Andalusian Cinema,’ ‘Animation Creation,’ ‘Student Segment,’ ‘The Matinee Outreach Program,’ and ‘Women in Film.’ Gala Events, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the film festival, include the screening of Valentin at the Art Institute of Chicago-Rubloff Auditorium; ‘A Night of Spain,’ featuring a screening of Eres mi héroe (My Hero); the featured Mexican film Asesino en serio (A Serious Killer), during the Noche Mexicana program; and the closing night feature Sexo con amor (Sex with Love).
Festival screenings take place in Chicago at the Biograph Theater (2433 N. Lincoln Ave.), 3 Penny Cinema (2424 N. Lincoln Ave.), Facets Multimedia (1517 W. Fullerton) and a variety of community centers and universities in the area. The complete film schedule will be available on the ILCC website (www.latinoculturalcenter.org) beginning on the first of April and also on the ILCC hotline at (312) 409-1757.
In Theaters
Games People Play: New York (FIF) – With a $10,000 grand prize at stake, James Ronald Whitney’s game show/reality TV spoof seeks to find ‘six attractive, uninhibited people’ to film the pilot. Over the course of a ’72-hour shoot,’ we watch the auditions (which include a photo shoot, videotaped ‘confessions,’ and a screen test with an acting partner). The six selected cast members Joshua (Campbell), Sarah (Smith), Scott (Ryan), Elisha (Imani Wilson), David (Maynard) and Dani (Marco), then set off on a series of challenges, including collecting clean urine samples, talking to people in bathroom stalls, picking up a stranger and then choreographing and videotaping a ‘naked trio’ musical number and seducing a grocery delivery guy. Judged by Jim Caruso and Dr. Gilda Carle, the contestants turn it on full force in hopes of winning the prize. As if game shows and reality TV aren’t bad enough, having to sit through a movie about them only makes matters worse. (D)
The Punisher (Lions Gate) – Once you get beyond the premise of Thomas (The Velocity of Gary) Jane playing an avenging comic book character in a live-action movie adaptation, the rest is easy. When the son of crooked businessman Howard Saint (John Travolta) is killed in a sting-gone-wrong, Frank Castle (Jane), an undercover operative, is held responsible. Preparing to retire from this dangerous line of work to spend more time with his wife and young son, Castle has no idea that Saint, and his vengeful wife Livia (Laura Harring) have targeted him and his entire family for revenge. Somehow Castle survives the bloody and brutal massacre and prepares to get some revenge of his own. As live-action comic-books go, The Punisher is more pleasure than punishment. Director and co-writer Jonathan Hensleigh maintains a necessary sense of humor throughout, balancing the violence and vehemence with wit, which comes through, in many ways, including the guise of Castle’s new neighbors Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Spacker Dave (Ben Foster) and Mr. Bumpo (John Pinette). One of my concerns, however, is the character of John Saint’s personal assistant Quentin Glass (Will Patton reprising his crazy gay guy role). Castle/The Punisher uses blackmail to get at the closeted, gay Glass, which seems like something out of the deep, dark past. (B+)
On TV:
Cinemax (check local listings for time) – The Hidden Fuhrer: Debating The Enigma Of Hitler’s Sexuality – Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, the gay directors of documentaries such as The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Party Monster, turn their attention to historical figure Adolph Hitler. The subject of ‘120,000 books and studies,’ the ‘strange fascination’ with Hitler rages on, as this documentary, full of period footage, poses the question, ‘Could Hitler have been gay?’ Narrated by Marlene Sanders, the documentary reveals numerous facts about Hitler including his close friendships with August Kubizek and Ernst Schmidt, his prison relationship with Rudolf Hess (‘a.k.a. Fraulein Anna’), his failed attempts at relationships with women, his activities in ‘Vienna’s hidden, but thriving homosexual subculture,’ his 1913 residency in Munich’s gay neighborhood, and his obsession with opera, which at the time was ‘central to the homosexual milieu,’ among others things. Through a series of interviews with straight German historian and The Hidden Hitler author Lothar Machtan, Machtan’s gay former tutor and leading German sociologist Rudiger Lautmann, Ralf Dose of the Magnus Hirschfeld Society, gay concentration camp survivor Friedrich-Paul Von Groszheim and gay historians such as Michael Bronski, Michelangelo Signorile and Martin Duberman, yet another facet of the most controversial figure of the twentieth century is revealed and opened for debate. – Apr. 20
here! Pay-Per-View – showing in Apr.: The Trip; Under One Roof; Coming Out Party