Facets Multimedia
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago IL 60614
Sales hours: 9am-6pm, Mon.-Fri.
Rental hours: 10am-10pm, Mon.-Sat.,
12pm-10pm, Sun. & holidays
1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago IL 60614
Sales hours: 9am-6pm, Mon.-Fri.
Rental hours: 10am-10pm, Mon.-Sat.,
12pm-10pm, Sun. & holidays
THEATRICAL EXCLUSIVES
Facets Theatrical Exclusives is a catalog of films available for theatrical showings.
Bookings may be arranged by emailing theatrical@facets.org or by calling
1-800-331-6197.
Bookings may be arranged by emailing theatrical@facets.org or by calling
1-800-331-6197.
FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY
Directed by Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2006
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WINNER Best Feature Chicago Intl Film Fest |
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"Psychologically intricate and dramatically engrossing."
-Variety
"Intelligent, illuminating and directed with unflashy expertise"
-TimeOut London
All of Tehran is preparing to celebrate Chaharshanbe-Soori, or the festival of fire, which falls on the last Tuesday night before the Persian New Year. On this auspicious evening, Rouhi (Taraneh Alidoosti), a young woman from a poor neighborhood, is hired by a middle class couple to clean their house. Sweet, naïve, and soon to be married, Rouhi's innocence is shattered when she finds herself in the middle of her employers' domestic dispute over accusations of infidelity. "Few Iranian films have tried to realistically depict both the urban middle and lower classes, and fewer still with the complexity of story telling and depth of characterization in Asghar Farhadi's impressive third feature, Fireworks Wednesday" (Deborah Young, Variety). In Farsi with English subtitles. 104 min.
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BRIGANDS: CHAPTER VII
Directed by Otar Iosseliani, France/Georgia, 1996
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WINNER Grand Jury Prize Venice Film Fest |
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"Wise, sad, chilling and funny... Mr. Iosseliani speaks with authority and eloquence"
-New York Times
This crazy, satirical epic humorously portrays several eras in European history. Though the costumes and regimes change, the film suggests, the human motives of lust and greed remain the same. Jumping back and forth in time, the film condemns its characters to an eternity of irony. In one section, a medieval king named Vano, who has a penchant for exotic torture techniques, executes his wife for being unfaithful. Seamlessly the film flashes forward to the early 1930s, with another Vano, played by the same actor, portraying a low-down thief who suddenly seizes power. Intercut with all of this is the story of a contemporary Vano, a hapless drunk who wanders across the underworlds of Europe. This extraordinary film expresses rage against the dark side of human nature that keeps despots in power, despite the upheavals of history, but it does so with a delightfully comic edge. (FYI, there are no chapters 1-6). In Georgian and French with English subtitles. 129 min.
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New York Times
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DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN
Directed by Mariam Shahriar, Iran, 2000
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WINNER Best First Feature Montreal Fest of World Cinema |
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"Beautiful and bleak"-New York Post
Mariam Shahriar's debut shows an "unusual gift for expressive imagery" (Leslie Camhi, The Village Voice). It follows a young woman who disguises herself as a boy so that she can work long, hard hours in a carpet workshop to support her family. Her secret is complicated when a female co-worker falls in love with her. In Farsi with English subtitles. 90 min.
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THE DECALOGUE
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland, 1988-89
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WINNER FIPRESCI Award Venice Film Fest |
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"One of the great movie achievements of our time"
-Chicago Tribune
Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue explores the timeless moral issues of human existence through ten contemporary tales, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. Originally produced for Polish television, this brilliant series of ten separate but subtly intertwining films transcended the boundaries of film and TV, winning honors in both arenas as it played around the world. The Decalogue was honored as Best Foreign Television Program by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and was named Best Foreign Language Film by the Chicago Film Critics Association in 1997. Each episode was co-written by Kieslowski's longtime collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz and features music by Zbigniew Preisner. In Polish with English subtitles. 10 episodes, 562 min.
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Official site Roger Ebert
DELTA
Directed by Kornél Mundruczó, Hungary, 2008
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WINNER FIPRESCI Prize NOMINATED Golden Palm Cannes Film Fest |
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"A beautifully atmospheric vessel"
-Variety
"Sliding forward with the grim finality of Greek tragedy, this largely wordless Hungarian drama is powered by the tension between its idyllic setting and its disturbing subject matter... Think Deliverance on the Danube, and without the catharsis"
-Chicago Reader
"Beautifully shot, with an impressive feel for the poetry of faces and natural phenomena. Mr. Mundruczó's deft use of sound...suggests emotions that his characters are too taciturn to articulate"
-New York Times
After a decades-long absence, a young man (Félix Lajkó) returns to his mother's home situated within the labyrinth of waterways, small islands and over-grown vegetation that buffers the delta and its denizens from the outside world. There he finds a sister he never knew he had. The reunited siblings become unusually close, so much so that they decide to build a stilted house in the middle of the river in which to live, far from local villagers who do not accept their "unnatural" relationship. The distance does not keep them safe from the condemning outside world for long, though. In Hungarian with English subtitles. 96 mins.
Director interview FIPRESCI Variety
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DREAM OF LIGHT
"In its own minimalist way [the film] becomes a thoughtful, delicate inquiry into the essence of the artistic process, and a tribute to the beauty and mutability of nature. Erice's film is much bigger than it may appear to be. It is also, like the subject, undeniably one of a kind"
-New York Times
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New York Times
Village Voice
FANTASTIC PLANET
"Laloux's film is a provocative foray into the psychology of state-sponsored terror...it is difficult to watch any scene without being aware of its symbolic and metaphorical potential"
-Senses of Cinema
"Highly engrossing"
-New York Times
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Senses of Cinema
IT ALL STARTS TODAY
"A warm, often invigorating and ultimately moving ode to community values"
-Variety
"Filmed with unassuming realism, beautiful to look at even as it refuses any suggestion of stylishness"
-New York Times
Bertrand Tavernier makes the everyday electric with this compelling portrait of a teacher and administrator struggling to make a difference in a system plagued by institutional paralysis, blinded bureaucracy, and the desperate living conditions of his students' parents. Philippe Torreton is absolutely perfect in the lead role in this powerful, dramatic story of social commitment. In French with English subtitles. 117 min.
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New York Times TimeOut NY
MEDEA
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New York Times Village Voice
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LOS MUERTOS
"The Dead is an ironic appellation for a movie so fiercely alive, though perfectly apt for what turns out to be a strange sort of horror film"
-Village Voice
"Stunning... psychologically penetrating"
-New York Times
Official site Village Voice New York Times
MUHAMMAD ALI THE GREATEST
½ "This is a fantastic doc, much better than the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings"
-Film Threat
Critics' Pick! "No other film...has created a more vivid sense of who Mr. Ali was, or what he meant"
-New York Times
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Village Voice
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MY NAME WAS SABINA SPIELREIN
"A cinematic palimpsest, at once mysterious and illuminating"
-TimeOut NY
"This evocative film is a poignant testament to the twin forces of love (however blighted) and the unconscious"
-Village Voice
"Indispensable lore to anyone interested in psychoanalysis"
-New York Times
"Márton tells this romantic and tragic story economically and imaginatively"
-Chicago Tribune
Facets site Village Voice
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THE OUTSKIRTS
"Lutsik's first feature is astonishingly precise in its effects and performances."
-Village Voice
"Strange, disturbing and yet occasionally quite funny"
-New York Times
"It has an earnest absurdity fully worthy of Monty Python"
-TimeOut London
New York Times Village Voice
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PRIVATE CENTURY
"It's an intense, moving experience... From something like this probably emerged Italian neo-realism"
-Miloš Forman
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Official site Village Voice
Director interview FIPRESCI Variety
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DREAM OF LIGHT
(Quince Tree of the Sun)
Directed by Victor Erice, Spain, 1991
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WINNER Grand Prix and FIPRESCI prize Cannes Film Fest |
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"In its own minimalist way [the film] becomes a thoughtful, delicate inquiry into the essence of the artistic process, and a tribute to the beauty and mutability of nature. Erice's film is much bigger than it may appear to be. It is also, like the subject, undeniably one of a kind"
-New York Times
An amazingly beautiful, studied film by the Spanish cinematic genius Victor Erice, and one of the most intense, detailed looks at the artistic process. The film follows the creation of a single painting, a still life of a quince tree, by contemporary painter Antonio Lopez Garcia. The film takes the form of a journal as Erice delves inside the very process of artistic creation. In Spanish with English subtitles. 128 min.
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FANTASTIC PLANET
Directed by René Laloux, France/Czechoslovakia, 1973
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WINNER Grand Prix Cannes Film Fest |
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"Laloux's film is a provocative foray into the psychology of state-sponsored terror...it is difficult to watch any scene without being aware of its symbolic and metaphorical potential"
-Senses of Cinema
"Highly engrossing"
-New York Times
Rene Laloux's mesmerizing sci-fi classic, based on the book Om en Serie by Stefan Wul, is a landmark of European animation. La Planete Sauvage tells the tale of a race of humanoid creatures called Oms, fighting for their freedom from the giant, blue-skinned Traags, who keep them as pets. A group of rebel Oms travel to a strange planet where they try to uncover the secret of the Traags' existence. The film prefigures much of the work of Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) with its palpable political and social concerns, cultivated imagination, and memorable animation techniques. 72 min.
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IT ALL STARTS TODAY
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, France, 1999
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WINNER FIPRESCI Prize & Jury Prize Cannes Film Fest |
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"A warm, often invigorating and ultimately moving ode to community values"
-Variety
"Filmed with unassuming realism, beautiful to look at even as it refuses any suggestion of stylishness"
-New York Times
"This is wrenching, unpatronising social conscience cinema"
-TimeOut NY
"Although there is real pain and suffering in It All Starts Today, it is too impassioned, too brisk and too embracing of life and human foibles to be depressing"
-Los Angeles Times
"A film full of life, emotion, anger and hope"
-Chicago Tribune
"A tender and passionate protest, not without laughter, by Bertrand Tavernier - a director who is not only gifted but honorable"
-Roger Ebert
-TimeOut NY
"Although there is real pain and suffering in It All Starts Today, it is too impassioned, too brisk and too embracing of life and human foibles to be depressing"
-Los Angeles Times
"A film full of life, emotion, anger and hope"
-Chicago Tribune
"A tender and passionate protest, not without laughter, by Bertrand Tavernier - a director who is not only gifted but honorable"-Roger Ebert
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New York Times TimeOut NY
MEDEA
Directed by Lars von Trier, Denmark, 1987
"Achieves an abrading, intimate, primal force his later films
only hint at."
-Village Voice
"No admirer of Mr. von Trier's work should miss this
compelling rarity."
-New York Times
"Exhilarating"
-Chicago Reader
only hint at."
-Village Voice
"No admirer of Mr. von Trier's work should miss this
compelling rarity."
-New York Times
"Exhilarating"
-Chicago Reader
Lars von Trier claimed to be in psychic communication with the late Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc), on whose screenplay the film is based, during the shooting. This brilliantly original exploration of the dark passions of a woman scorned unfolds in shimmering North Sea marshlands and gloomy subterranean passageways. Von Trier (Dancer in the Dark) has created a haunting work of mythic realism. Loosely adapted from the play by Euripides. In Danish with English subtitles. 76 min.
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New York Times Village Voice
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LOS MUERTOS
Directed by Lisandro Alonso, Argentina, 2004
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WINNER FIPRESCI Prize Venice Film Fest |
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"The Dead is an ironic appellation for a movie so fiercely alive, though perfectly apt for what turns out to be a strange sort of horror film"
-Village Voice
"Stunning... psychologically penetrating"
-New York Times
Gorgeously shot in the Argentine jungle, Los Muertos is a hypnotic and austere investigation of the boundaries between nature and civilization - and the violence that lurks within both. A man named Vargas (Argentino Vargas) is released from prison and goes into the wild. He methodically relieves himself of clothing and money, allowing the jungle to reclaim him. Filmmaker Lisandro Alonso (La Libertad) refuses to explain his themes (the isolation of the jungle; the path from guilt to absolution; the convict's reintegration into society), preferring to bathe his viewers in the sensual sights and sounds of the tropics, while hinting at the unsettling implications of such a journey. In Spanish with English subtitles. 82 min.
Official site Village Voice New York Times
MUHAMMAD ALI THE GREATEST
Directed by William Klein, France, 1964-1974
½ "This is a fantastic doc, much better than the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings"-Film Threat
Critics' Pick! "No other film...has created a more vivid sense of who Mr. Ali was, or what he meant"
-New York Times
Not to be confused with the Hollywood biopic, The Greatest (1977), this documentary by acclaimed photographer and filmmaker William Klein is a vibrant, intimate portrait of one of the greatest sports figures of modern times. The first portion, shot from 1964-65, covers the period of Ali's title fight and rematch with Sonny Liston, when he was still known as Cassius Clay. Klein later expanded the film to feature length by following the historic "Rumble in the Jungle" match against George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. Rather than highlight fight footage, Klein focuses on Ali and his era, with glimpses of such notables as Malcolm X, Norman Mailer and The Beatles. The changing nature of Ali's inner circle, the fighter's spiritual and political complexity, and the racial climate of the times are all brilliantly captured. 110 min.
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Village Voice
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MY NAME WAS SABINA SPIELREIN
Directed by Elizabeth Márton, Sweden, 2002
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WINNER FIPRESCI Prize Sochi Film Fest Russia |
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"A cinematic palimpsest, at once mysterious and illuminating"
-TimeOut NY
"This evocative film is a poignant testament to the twin forces of love (however blighted) and the unconscious"
-Village Voice
"Indispensable lore to anyone interested in psychoanalysis"
-New York Times
"Márton tells this romantic and tragic story economically and imaginatively"
-Chicago Tribune
In 1977, a surprising find in Switzerland led to the re-discovery of one of the most important female figures in the early history of psychoanalysis. The found diaries and letters revealed an extensive relationship between the unknown Russian-Jewish psychiatrist Sabina Spielrein and two founding fathers of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The correspondence charted Spielrein's previously unknown influence on both men's lives and work, as well as her own unique contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. Through recreations and voice-over readings of Sabina's letters, the lost story comes alive and a true pioneer of psychoanalysis and child psychology gets the recognition she deserves. In German with English subtitles. 90 min.
Facets site Village Voice
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THE OUTSKIRTS
Directed by Peter Lutsik, Russia, 1998
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WINNER FIPRESCI Prize Chicago Intl Film Fest |
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"Lutsik's first feature is astonishingly precise in its effects and performances."
-Village Voice
"Strange, disturbing and yet occasionally quite funny"
-New York Times
"It has an earnest absurdity fully worthy of Monty Python"
-TimeOut London
In this extraordinary epic - a political thriller in the tradition of Z and Weekend, mixed with acid-sharp humor - Peter Lutsik creates an astounding chronicle of a country in violent transformation. A group of men fight injustice as they try to discover who stole their land. Their hunt for the offenders takes them from the gentle countryside to the halls of power. Hailed at film festivals worldwide as a modern classic, The Outskirts vividly reveals Russia as alternately corrupt, melancholy, dogmatic, romantic, and spiritual. In Russian with English subtitles. 95 min.
New York Times Village Voice
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PRIVATE CENTURY
Directed by Jan Šikl, Czech Republic, 2006
"It's an intense, moving experience... From something like this probably emerged Italian neo-realism"
-Miloš Forman
This remarkable eight-part series tells the stories of ordinary Czech citizens caught in the wheels of history. Composed entirely of home movies, still photographs, letters, and diaries dating from the 1920s to 1960s, Private Century explores the impact of sweeping historical events - war, economic depression, and government interference - on the private lives of regular people. In the midst of political turbulence and social change, they grow up, fall in love, get married, go on vacation, and so on. Major turning points in 20th-century Czechoslovakia provide the historical backdrop, but the problems, pleasures, and pain of the people in each episode are universal in nature. In Czech with English subtitles. 416 min.
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Official site Village Voice