The City at Night Or An Early Winter Fright

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 2, 2004 2:43PM

Chicagoist loves this city. But you knew that right? And while we love it 24/7, we’re especially partial to the nighttime hours. Maybe it’s the way the city sounds a bit different…maybe it’s the look of the skyline as you cruise down the Drive…maybe it’s the drink specials that don’t start until after 6 PM…in any case, Chicago at night still gives us the feeling that an Algren story is going to break out at any moment.

However, most of the time we’re too busy running here and there to catch all the sights and sounds of the city. To see Chicago at a much different pace, check out Something More Than Night at the Siskel Film Center tonight at 8 PM. Director Daniel Eisenberg will be presenting his film in person there this evening. The work captures familiar Chicago cityscapes (airports, train platforms, office buildings) in an unfamiliar way thanks to Eisenberg's non-narrative technique and some imaginative uses of time and editing. If you want to get a better idea of what you're in for and bone up on your high-faultin’ film talk, check out this PDF of a catalog page that features some stunning insights from the director (and by stunning we mean the “to make senseless, groggy, or dizzy by or as if by a blow” definition).

Also, just in time for the holiday season, the Siskel Film Center* begins their Occult Cult Film series. Things get started on Friday with two classics from the Tigon British Films production house: Blood On Santa’s Satan’s Claw and The Conqueror Worm (more popularly known as Witchfinder General) starring Vincent Price. Tigon has made some of the scariest British films of all time that weren’t named Four Weddings and a Funeral and much like The Wicker Man, the horror in these films comes not from scary monsters but from super (human) creeps like Vincent Price’s Witchfinder and the creepy ass little kids in Satan’s Claw. The series continues through January with films featuring werewolves, zombies and satanic orgies. *sigh* Don’t you just love this time of year?

* Isn’t it about time we started calling this place “The Gene?”