FACETS CINÉMATHÈQUE
November 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
LATE BLOOMER
"Weird, wicked and wonderfully perverse"
-New York Times
"[
Late Bloomer] delves deep into the psychological state of a lonely outcast in a way that recalls
Taxi Driver and
I Stand Alone"
-Village Voice
-New York Post
"One of the densest, most disturbing things you'll ever see"
-Variety
-Roger Ebert
Sumida is a wheelchair-bound handicapped guy whose life is spent getting drunk with Take, one of his health-care attendants, and going to her hardcore metal shows. Unable to speak except through a Stephen Hawkins voicebox, Sumida is an enigma. All anyone knows about his desires and personality is what they project onto him, which is nothing more than their own insecurities in his presence. When Nobuko, a young college student comes to take care of him for a school paper, Sumida mistakes her superficial flirtation for the real thing. He propositions her, and surprised by his peculiar offer, she withdraws and starts spending more time with the able-bodied Take. And this is when Sumida, feeding his resentment against the walking world around him, begins a diabolical plan seek his revenge. Aggressively experimental, with a wall-of-noise sound design by electronic art band World's End Girlfriend,
Late Bloomer took five years to make, and is shot for maximum paranoia, creeping dread, and an unease that the movie builds to one of the more disturbing climaxes that you can imagine.
Directed by Gô Shibata, Japan, 2004, 35mm, 83 mins. In Japanese with English subtitles.
YouTube trailer
Midnight Eye
Midnight Eye: Director interview
New York Times
Village Voice
TimeOut NY
Chicago Reader
Roger Ebert
Showtimes:
Fri, Nov. 7 at 7 & 9 pm
Sat.-Sun., Nov. 8-9 at 3, 5, 7 & 9 pm
Mon.-Thurs., Nov. 10-13 at 7 & 9 pm
Tickets: