A Sex Symbol And Hidden Treasures

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 7, 2005 4:12PM

The Gene Siskel Film Center picked a helluva time roll out some excellent retrospectives.

With the temps so low, all we want to do is roll ourselves up in blankets and watch our Tivo’ed episodes of Law and Order. But The Gene is tempting us to bundle up and head downtown for some great revivals and overlooked films of 2005.

First up is "Merry Marilyn," a look at the films of Marilyn Monroe. Now: you could stay at home and wait for these to show up on AMC, but the newly restored prints of films like The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot make it worth braving the cold.

In an era when actresses need to be willing to pose in Maxim first and take acting classes second, Monroe’s oeuvre proves that you can do more with less. Forty years from now, we can’t imagine film historians poring over the films of Jessica Alba or even Angelina Jolie ("Presenting Hackers in a newly struck 35 mm print!").

The centerpiece of the "Merry Marilyn" series is a screening of The Misfits this Saturday December 10th at 3:00 PM with Sony Entertainment archivist John Kirk on hand to discuss film preservation. The retrospective runs through January 5th.

Also running this month is “Overlooked in Oh-Five,” a series of films from this year that deserve a second chance. There are lots of reasons why audiences miss films during their initial run. Some have poor initial reviews (The Brothers Grimm), others have troubling subject matter (Palindromes), while still others go unwatched because no one wants to say they just saw a movie with a pervy director (Melinda and Melinda, Oliver Twist).

All of the films in OIO5 challenged audience expectations the way good films should and your film geek friends would describe them as “worth seeing.” Check The Gene website for dates and times.