The Post With Two Brains
By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 24, 2006 4:15PM
Oh, Chicagoist readers: we’re mighty conflicted this morning.
On the one hand, we want to tell you about these two amusing video clips posted on the Tribune’s site. Critic Robert Elder gives a brief tour of some famous Chicago movie locations while other Trib staffers re-create—with mixed results—scenes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. We’re wondering where they managed to find a white fringed jacket for “Sloane.”
(Confidential to Trib web geeks: It’d be nice if you’d make the embedded video viewable in Firefox as it only works in IE right now.)
Yet on the other hand, we feel we should also let you know about Heaven’s Gate playing at Doc Films at 7 p.m. tonight. While not an example of cinematic greatness, it’s certainly an interesting failure. It’s not a documentary on cultists in Nikes, but rather a film that closed the door on the era of the young maverick film movement of the 1970s due to its cost overruns and initial bad publicity. But it’s also worth noting that the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Art Direction due to its breathtaking views of the Montana plains.
And while we know we should be discussing the Academy award-winning Bunuel film playing at the Siskel Center tomorrow night, we’re also lamenting Roger Ebert’s inclusion in the hack-y list of Top 100 Unsexiest Men in the World (though there aren’t too many Belgians on the list from what we can see). Your drunken friends could come up with a list as authoritative so don’t put much stock in it. For what it’s worth, we think Ebert’s looking rather dapper as of late.
Finally, far be it from us to assume our specific tastes are compelling to a lot of other people (ahem), but we think this is a cause worth supporting: The New Orleans Solidarity Film Fest brings unseen images of the effects of Hurriance Katrina to the screen. The short films have a particular focus on the prisoner populations of New Orleans. Your $5 donation will go to relief efforts conducted by Common Ground, Critical Resistance and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund. The fest begins at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at DePaul University’s Schmidt Academic Center (Room 154).