FACETS CINÉMATHÈQUE

August 2008

The Facets Cinémathèque is located at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago. For more information on films playing in the Cinémathèque, please call 773-281-4114. To order advance tickets online, visit the TicketWeb website by clicking here.

Chicago Premiere

FROWNLAND

WINNER
Special Jury Prize
SXSW Film Fest

"This is personal cinema at its most uncompromising and fierce"
-New York Times

"Frownland is the indie equivalent of a stiff drink. The buzz will shake some auds to giddy wonder and excitement while making others toss it into the sink, but all will agree it stays with you"
-Variety

"This amazingly accomplished first feature...throbs with the energy and vision that independent filmmaking is all about"
-New Yorker

"Uncompromising...there is some kind of demented brilliance at work here"
-Village Voice

½ "Nerve-rackingly funny... Mann's performance rivets your attention"
-Chicago Tribune

½ "A rebirth of the need for expression that inspired the American independent movement in the first place"
-Roger Ebert

Tip of the Week! "Painful, acute, so-darkly-funny-you-can't-breathe... It's a singular achievement: this is a searing anecdote of rage, terror and tragedy that's hard to tear your eyes away from"
-NewCity Chicago

Critics Choice! "Resurrects the grungy, street-level immediacy of indie filmmaking"
-Chicago Reader

A self-described "troll from under the bridge," the painfully awkward Keith Sontag (Dore Mann) spends his days selling coupons door-to-door and his evenings trapped in a squalid apartment situated in some particularly hellish outer ring of New York. With the most basic elements of human communication a struggle, Sontag lurches through an uncaring city, attempting to aid a suicidal friend, evict an unctuous roommate, and simply attain some measure of self-respect. With Frownland, Bronstein has made a bold and bracing film that is both a hilarious black comedy and a ragged love letter to an earlier era of independent film. Both the film and its singular hero are raw, confrontational, and, finally, unforgettable. Bronstein also works as a projectionist for various New York arthouses and financed Frownland with his own savings, taking five years to shoot and complete the film.

Directed by Ronald Bronstein, U.S.A., 2007, 35mm, 106 mins.

Official site Trailer New York Times Variety Filmmaker Magazine New Yorker

Village Voice Chicago Tribune Roger Ebert NewCity Chicago Chicago Reader

Showtimes:
Fri., Aug. 8 at 7 & 9 pm
Sat.-Sun., Aug. 9-10 at 3, 5, 7 & 9 pm
Mon., Tues. & Thurs., Aug. 11, 12 & 14 at 7 & 9 pm

Tickets:

$9 general admission
FREE for Facets Members!

For all Cinémathèque inquiries, contact Charles Coleman at 773.281.9075 or charles@facets.org

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences