Chicago Tribune
European Union fest enters final week
By Michael Wilmington
Tribune movie critic
CHIGAGO. The third and final week of the Gene Siskel Film Center's European Union Film Festival offers one of its richest schedules so far--with a bevy of fine European films ranging from Lars von Trier's controversial Danish Cannes hit "Dogville" (with Nicole Kidman) to Marco Bellocchio's justly praised real-life Italian political thriller "Good Morning, Night" to interesting documentaries on British literary great George Orwell and Swedish photographer/jazzman Georg Oddner.
Following are reviews from the fest's third week:
`Good Morning, Night' (star)(star)(star)(star) (Italy; Marco Bellocchio, 2003). One of the very best films of the stylish Italian political/psychological gadfly Bellocchio ("China Is Near"). Based on the Red Brigade kidnapping of Italian premier Aldo Moro (Robert Herlitzka), it draws a sympathetic, multileveled portrait of the patient Moro confronting his relentlessly ideological captors, as the terrorists' cat-and-mouse game with the Italian government keeps sliding toward danger and death. In Italian, with English subtitles. 6 p.m. Fri., 3 p.m. Sun
`Presence' (star)(star)(star)1/2 (Sweden; Jan Troell, 2003).
...
`Loser Takes All' (star)(star) (Greece; Nikos Nikolaidis, 2002).
...
`Dogville' (star)(star)(star)1/2 (Denmark; Lars von Trier, 2003).
...
`The Galindez File' (star)(star)(star) (Spain; Gerardo Herrera, 2003).
...
`Song for a Raggy Boy' (star)(star)1/2 (Ireland; Aisling Walsh, 2003).
...
`Interview' (star)(star)(star) (Netherlands; Theo van Gogh, 2003).
...
`Twentynine Palms' (star)(star)1/2 (France-U.S.; Bruno Dumont, 2003).
...
`Orwell: Against the Tide' (star)(star)1/2 (Great Britain; Mark Littlewood, 2003).
...
----------
All films are screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, 164 N. State St. For information, visit the Web site (www.siskelfilmcenter.org) or call 312-846-2600.
