A Tease Of 20 For The 50th Chicago International Film Festival

By Joel Wicklund in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 25, 2014 7:30PM

(A scene from Two Days, One Night)

The Chicago International Film Festival is still over a month away, but CIFF organizers released a list of 20 films that will play at the fest to entice adventurous moviegoers.

A few potential highlights from this “teaser” list:

• International star Marion Cotillard is the lead in Two Days, One Night, the latest drama from acclaimed Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Rosetta, The Kid with a Bike).
• Clouds of Sils Maria reunites Juliette Binoche with French writer-director Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours). A couple of prominent young American actresses—Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz—co-star in this tale of an actress revisiting her past success.
• Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, who showed his talent for conveying the creepy with Dumplings, presents a pandemic mystery with dark comic shadings in The Midnight After.
• One of the world’s most admired documentary filmmakers, Frederick Wiseman (Titicut Follies, At Berkely) turns his unobtrusive eye on the National Gallery of London in the aptly titled National Gallery.
• Sure to be a hot ticket for vintage film lovers, 1929’s Why Be Good? was long thought to be a lost film, but it was rediscovered in the late ‘90s. A jazz era comedy that crossed the silent and sound eras, it was released with a synchronized musical soundtrack and sound effects. The film has been restored and is playing theatrically for the first time in decades.
• As this is the 50th anniversary of Chicago’s biggest film festival, nostalgia is sure to abound, including a screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), which had its world premiere at CIFF and helped put the festival on the map.

Descriptions for all 20 of the announced films can be read here. More of the schedule will be announced in future weeks and the CIFF website is the best place to keep up with the latest fest news.