The fifth annual European Union Film Festival continues Friday through Thursday, February 22 through 28, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State. Admission is $8, $4 for Film Center members. For further information call 312-846-2800. All films will be shown in 35-millimeter prints, and those marked with an * are highly recommended.
The Piano Teacher
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This powerful feature by Laurent Cantet (Human Resources) has probably generated more buzz than any other European feature shown last fall at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, all of it deserved. With uncanny precision and concentration, it follows the progress of a middle-class, middle-aged French businessman (Aurelien Recoing) who gets fired and hides the truth from his wife, son, daughter, and parents, pretending to be away on business trips while spending much of his time in or near Switzerland. Written by Cantet and Robin Campillo and based on a true story, it manages to register as a resonant contemporary fable while sustaining narrative interest throughout its 132 minutes. In French with subtitles; the native title is L’emploi du temps. The film will open here commercially at a later date. (JR) (3:00)
- Word and Utopia
The first feature by scriptwriter Anders Thomas Jensen (Mifune), this appealing 2001 comedy is by turns violent and gentle, as a bumbling petty criminal and his accomplices are dispatched by a mob boss to rob a diplomat but then abscond with the loot, heading for Barcelona. After their van breaks down in the Danish countryside they find refuge in an abandoned building, and the leader, deciding that he’s tired of the criminal life, buys it in hopes of opening a restaurant. The personality conflicts among the four seem a bit formulaic, as do the flashbacks explaining why each turned to crime, but the narrative is inventive enough to sustain interest. In Danish with subtitles. 109 min. (FC) (6:15)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24
Flickering Lights
