The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer.
What does a week without moviegoing look like for a moviegoer?
Well, for one, bleak. And frustrating. It wasn’t by choice that last week was void of any moviegoing. (Though, of course, I did watch movies at home.) During the week, I was busy preparing for a big meeting at work—I’m at the point in my life and in my career (at least the one I foster during the day) that I sometimes have to prioritize my day-to-day over my night-to-night, so to speak. I had still intended to write up some things for Cine-File, one of which was Collective Messages: Short Films of Grupo Chaski, screening at Northwestern University’s Block Cinema last Friday; I watched them but was unable to write anything due to work obligations.
I loved the films, though. Grupo Chaski is a Peruvian filmmaking collective whose goal was, and still is, to produce and disseminate films in marginalized areas of Peru. The program consisted of two films: the short Caminos de Liberación (Pathways of Liberation) (1985) and the longer Miss Universo en el Perú (Miss Universe in Peru) (1982). Both are rooted in juxtaposition, the former between social unrest and liberation theology, grounded in the same ideology but realized differently (one more tactically, the other philosophically, but still working toward the same goals), and the latter between social unrest and the capitalist fantasy propagated by the Miss Universe pageant, which was held that year in Lima. I appreciate how the group used filmmaking itself to highlight these distinctions, cutting abruptly between the discrete worlds, emphasizing similarities and differences within them with equal impact.
Then, on Friday, my husband and I went to the Steppenwolf Theatre to see one of the final performances of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love. It was amazing, and immediately upon getting home, I wanted to watch Robert Altman’s 1985 film adaptation starring Kim Basinger and the playwright himself as the leads. The movie is double the length of the play but contains no more and certainly no less. Altman extends it solely through dialogue-free interludes, especially ironic because his defining motif as a filmmaker might be the overlapping sound and dialogue that makes his films so immersive. Yet this was equally so despite a lack of this technique. (It’s something I realized is the case with another of his play adaptations as well, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean [1982]; in general, it’s also ironic that there was a period of Altman’s career where he gravitated toward such projects.)
Rounding out my no-moviegoing week was a memorial in Milwaukee for the dear Carl Bogner, teaching professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, who passed away in December. There may have been no moviegoing involved, but for me, it was the essence of cinema and what it means to really love movies—which is to be part of a community who yearns to be alone together in its hallowed halls and then maybe from that, together together, something that Carl embodied wholeheartedly. (Though he lived in Milwaukee, Carl was a common presence here in Chicago, remembered dearly in both cities as a pure soul whose love for film and books was boundless.) During the first day of the celebration, at the service where people spoke for more than three hours about how great Carl was, one speaker mentioned that “Experimental cinema is community,” this being the mode about which he was most passionate. And it’s true, as is evidenced by all those who came, many from out of state, to celebrate that which Carl fostered so beautifully.
It may have been a week with no moviegoing, but there’ll never be one without movies, as they’re such a part of my life that whether I’m working, enjoying another cultural outlet, or even mourning a friend, they’re still flickering on the big screen in my mind.
Until next time, moviegoers.
P.S. I’ll be in discussion with Marya E. Gates about her new book Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words at the Music Box Theatre on Saturday, March 29, after an 11 AM screening of Jane Campion’s Bright Star (2009). We’d love to see you there!
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