The downtown Gene Siskel Film Center reopens for in-person business Aug. 6, after a 17-month pandemic hiatus, with a broad array of programming including a new film musical from the French writer-director Leos Carax starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.
“Very rarely do I program a film sight unseen,” said Rebecca Fons, who was appointed Film Center programming director earlier this year. But Carax’s English-language debut, which opens the 2021 Cannes Film Festival July 6, was enticing enough for a blind commitment. The film, titled “Annette,” is about a starry LA couple whose lives are forever changed by the birth of their mysterious child. Amazon Studios will handle the streaming premiere Aug. 21. Prior to that, “Annette” will play in limited theatrical release, including the Film Center run.
Other programs beginning the first week of August:
Commemorating the Italian filmmaker’s centenary, “Fellini 100” is a nine-film retrospective of Federico Fellini’s work, by way of digitally restored and 35 mm screenings of “La Dolce Vita,” “8 1/2,” “Fellini’s Roma” and others. The restorations were handled mostly by Luce Cinecitta, Cineteca di Bologna and Cineteca Nazionale.
The Film Center’s August return will also feature Chicago premieres of two documentary Sundance Film Festival titles, “Whirlybird” and “Sabaya.” “Whirlybird” chronicles the breaking-news exploits of Marika Gerrard and Zoey Tur (known then as Bob), a married pair of L.A. news helicopter journalists who covered the singularly weird, medium-speed O.J. Simpson highway chase, the 1992 L.A. riots in the wake of the Rodney King police assault verdict and much, much more. “Sabaya” follows the nerve-wracking exploits of those trying to rescue Yazidi women and girls from a Syrian ISIS compound.
A new Film Center series, “Chicago Favorites,” begins in early August, presenting notable Chicago figures as they introduce films of particular personal meaning and impact. “City So Real” and “Hoop Dreams” director Steve James is on deck; so is LaSaia Wade,director of the Brave Space Alliance. Film titles and other weekly guests will be announced later.
The 27th Black Harvest Film Festival will take place both in person and online Nov. 5-Dec. 2. Entries for the festival are due Aug. 20.
After “this extended intermission,” as Film Center executive director Jean de St. Aubin put it in a prepared statement, “we’re thrilled to welcome back our loyal audience members and all Chicagoland movie fans. We’re grateful for the support of our patrons during our pandemic pivot to virtual events and gratified to hear how eager our community of film lovers is to return to the Film Center to gather for movies on our big screens.”
In a recent Film Center audience survey, 65% of patrons said they’d be ready to return to the theater “today.” Out of the same pool of 214 respondents, 85% said they’d be ready by August.
“I’m shocked how different things feel today even from from two weeks ago,” programming head Fons said Monday. “Memorial Day weekend, it felt like somebody flipped a switch. It was scary and excellent at the same time.”
With audience comfort levels changing all the time, it’s too early to say what percentage of capacity the Film Center will be filling come August. “Every other seat? Every other row? No restrictions? We just don’t know yet,” Fons said. The larger of the two Film Center venues seats 196; the smaller, 63.
This much is certain: Audience members bearing proof of Covid-19 vaccination get free popcorn anytime between Aug. 6 and Aug. 20.
For more information, go to siskelfilmcenter.org.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
