Tag: movies

Nostalghia

The Siskel Film Center started the screening of the newly restored Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia, and I decided to go. I tried to watch Nostalgia twice before, and both times, I didn’t have enough patience, so I decided that watching it in the movie theater would pin me to my seat for these 2+ hours.

I love most of Tarkovsky’s movies, and I like the ones I do not love, so I thought that I was missing something with Nostalghia. Now I watched it to the end, and although I appreciate the artistic work, it’s probably the first of Tarkovsky’s movies I didn’t like. Most likely, it’s about me, not about Tarkovsky, but now I am thinking whether it’s time for me to watch again the ones I loved for many years.

I know one thing that changed in me: I am not interested in lengthy discussions about personal relationships, like who thought what and who did what because of what they thought. I am now realizing that it’s the bulk of classic literature and movies :), but I hope that there is still something out for me!

I Finally Watched Barbie

A friend asked me whether I watched it and said that she didn’t like it, so I finally made an effort to watch it (rented it on Amazon and watched it in parallel with some boring home activities). And I didn’t like it, exactly for the same reason as my friend didn’t like it: It’s an extremely important topic, and the movie had great potential which, in my opinion, was not fully realized. Yes, there are some excellent dialogues and monologues, but in my opinion, they do not blend into the movie fabric, and the whole movie is losing its point. Maybe I got it wrong, but for me, it sounded like women should not be discriminated against. Instead, men should be discriminated against and removed from everywhere.

There is definitely a problem statement in the movie, and lots of important questions are raised, but then nothing happens.

I take it as a positive thing that at least it raised awareness and prompted many people (of all genders) to speak up. So far, conversations seem to be productive, and we’ll see what will change.

Dr.Strangelove

I watched this movie based on a recommendation from a blog I follow.

Wow. Now I wonder why I never heard about this movie before, especially if it was so highly rated not only at the time it was made but years later … I guess, It’s one of these “people never learn” things. I am glad I watched it, but I find it difficult to write something meaningful about it. I just grabbed the Kindle book which this movie is based.

When I related my impressions to Boris earlier today, he said that it might have been filmed as a follow-up of the Caribean Crisis, but as I found out, the book was written earlier. I might write more after I read it!

“In The Rear View” Documentary

Chicago International Film Festival is in progress, and I had absolutely no time to see anything. Except for when I saw that documentary in the list of participating films, I knew I would find a non-existent time.

It was not even in the Siskel Center, but fortunately, on my way from work to home (I had to leave about an hour earlier to make it, but there were only two screenings of this film!).

It’s an unimaginably difficult film to watch. Even though there is no fighting, no shooting, no explosions, and even though we’ve seen footage of buildings damaged by Russian shells, you feel it differently watching from inside an evacuation minibus. Most of the people whom Maciek was evacuating were Russian speakers, and it was especially horrible to hear them referring to the “Russian tanks” as enemy tanks. About twenty minutes into the documentary, I started to cross my heart and didn’t stop till the end.

Maciek Hamela was there! The funniest thing is that he entered the building right before me, and like I, he was a little bit uncertain about where theater 13 was, where the screening was about to take place. And I heard him talking in Polish on the phone, and I thought that he might be going to the same screening, but I could never imagine it was a filmmaker!
He talked a little bit before the screening and after (he answered many of the same questions in the interview below), and then he answered questions from the audience. And then people started to thank him and started to come down and hug him, and then I left.
May those who brought this war to the land of Ukraine burn in hell!

Official trailer

An interview with Maciek Hamela:

“Our Body” Documentary

I am just out of the screening of this movie. I really wanted to see it, and it was very difficult to fit it into my schedule (it’s three hours long!) The only way of doing it was to rush there directly from the train from Milauwakee, which I did. It’s not what I thought it would be, way more difficult to watch than I thought, and way more powerful.

I am not even sure what my takeaways are, except for “It’s hard to be a woman.” It’s almost unbearable to watch at some moments (I could not look at the screen for at least a quarter of the duration of the movie).

And another surprising fact: while following all these women at the most difficult moments of their lives and thinking about what I, as a woman, was through, I felt jealous: I was never treated with such respect by the doctors as these women were. I might have experienced only a small portion of all the physical suffering these women were through, but the humiliation and disrespect I had to live through were unimaginable. I am so glad that my daughter didn’t have to go through it, and my granddaughters won’t even know how bad it could be.

The Fablemans

Oh, how much I loved this movie! I am so glad I made a non-existent time in my schedule to watch it! Once again, thanks for 400 Theater being so close to us and running all the new releases. Funny thing – for the first time ever, I used a senior discount:).

I just can’t get over it – what a great movie! I liked everything about it!

She Said Movie

I finally watched “She said” over the weekend. I knew it was a great movie and wanted to watch it for a while, but somehow, finding a place online to watch it was challenging! It is not available on Amazon, and it was not on Hulu (I do not use Hulu, but while searching for a place to watch, I decided to accept a free month of Hulu, which they sent to me for my birthday). I finally found it on Apple TV (yes, I also accepted three months free of Apple TV, it came with my new iPhone, and I am going to drop it because I do not use it!)

So, I finally watched it. What a great movie! I do not want to write at length about it, it just checks all the marks. Watching it, I could not stop thinking about how deeply sexual harassment is enrooted in all aspects of our life. I recall my teenage and young adult days, and even later – I can’t believe to which extent it was expected! We never thought about complaining, it was just a force of nature you had to consider. I realized one small but rather astonishing fact while watching – we never thought kissing against somebodies would be abuse! You were not raped, what you are complaining about?!

The movie emphasized one more time the power of numbers and the importance of everybody coming together and raising their voices against whatever evil we want to fight.

The Great Dictator

A note from the Siskel Center said:

After a remarkable twenty-year tenure, Gene Siskel Film Center Executive Director Jean de St. Aubin will resign in February. Join us in celebrating Jean’s impact and leadership, as we toast to her next chapter and celebrate her love of the movies with one of her favorite films, THE GREAT DICTATOR (this title, by the way, is in no way a reflection on Jean’s own leadership style!). Film followed by a post-screening reception with champagne, pretzels (her fave), and more. All ticket proceeds benefit the Film Center.

To be completely honest, I was more interested in the movie than in the reception :). I never saw the whole movie, not to mention on a big screen! Amazing! I knew about this movie, the plot, and when it was filmed, but even the excerpts I saw do not give enough impression of how awesome it is! It is hard to believe that it was filmed in 1940 when the US was’t even at was with Germany.

A Movie Night

The longest continually operating movie theater in Chicago is within walking distance from my house, but for some reason, I never when to see movies there. This finally changed last night when Igor, mom, and I went to see Babylon.

The movie is very long, and it’s great that the theater is so close to us, especially mom’s house. For the movie itself, I am glad I went, although Igor and I agreed that so it is not clear what’s all the drama about. I am sure it was done on purpose because the producers know very well what it should have looked like, but the purpose remains unclear to me :).

Again, the most important is that now I know the way to 400 Theater, and I will see more movies there. And another good thing is that with all of my mom’s “I don’t understand American English,” she understands good acting, so she actually liked it, even though it was three hours long!

Three Thousand Years Of Longing

OMG, what an awesome movie! Igor and I went to Siskel Center yesterday to see it, and it totally exceeded expectations! Yes, the director is awesome, and reviews where good, but recently, we had so many situations when reviews were great, but the movie would turn up being mediocre. that I couldn’t count on good reviews.

But this movie is just brilliant! With each next twist of a plot it becomes better and better. Usually, this is not my favorite genre. I saw comments on YouTube that this trailer represents the movie correctly. I disagree: there are less special effects per minute than in that trailer 🙂