Emma's News Archive
Cinema
'10: This is the first year since I can remember that I haven't been to the cinema. Chance would be a fine thing!
'09: In January we saw the darling of the Awards shows Slumdog Millionaire. Then....well, that's it actually.
'08: I began the year with the Oscar-nominated Juno; then Mike and I saw two more Best Movie contenders No Country for Old Men and Michael Clayton. In June my sisters and I saw and thoroughly enjoyed Sex and the City: The Movie. During the Chicago International Film Festival I went with Carrie et al to see French black comedy Family Values (Affaire de famille); and the following month we went to a preview of Vince Vaughn's new holiday movie Four Christmases.
Venues:Eight Chicago movie theatres have closed since AMC's 21-screen megaplex opened downtown in 2003. These include: the Village in Old Town which opened as the Germania in 1916 and went through several name changes over the years; the 3 Penny on Lincoln Ave which first opened in 1912 and sold alcoholic beverages; the haunted Biograph, also on Lincoln, where gangster John Dillinger was shot dead by the FBI in 1934; and the Esquire on Oak St with its 1938 art deco exterior. My local cinemas now comprise only: the Piper's Alley and Century art houses (the latter opened as the Diversey in 1924); the 1929 Music Box which has an organist and shows classic and foreign films; and Facets on Fullerton which features rather obscure documentaries.
'07: We began with Guillermo del Toro's weird and wonderful Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno); then in Singapore saw Singaporean film One Last Dance with Francis Ng. Caz and I watched Dreamgirls, based on the hit Broadway musical; and an advance screening of Amazing Grace, released to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade. On my birthday, in Bury St Edmunds, Mike and I enjoyed British spoof buddy cop movie Hot Fuzz; then Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal; and an advance screening of New Mexico-set psychological thriller First Snow with Guy Pearce. Our next two cinema-outings both starred German actor Sebastian Koch: Paul Verhoeven's thriller Black Book (Zwartboek), set in occupied Holland; and this year's Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen), set in Stasi-run East Berlin. We went back to the Century for French farce The Valet (La Doublure) by Francis Veber (writer/director of classic farces Le Dîner de Cons and Le Placard); then saw Anthony Hopkins in courtroom drama Fracture. I went to Edith Piaf's life-story La Vie en Rose; Mike joined me for Paris, Je t'aime; and I saw Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity at the Grant Park Outdoor Film Festival. Then three more solo viewings for me: Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller in Interview; Keri Russell in Waitress; and Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris (2 Jours à Paris). While in Bury, Mike and I saw Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum; and we both enjoyed the Crowe/Bale Western remake 3:10 to Yuma. At the Chicago International Film Festival we saw the atmospheric Ian Curtis biopic Control (which won two awards); and Ben Affleck's directorial debut Gone Baby Gone. To end the year I saw the much-talked-about Atonement.
'06: After watching Golden Globe-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, we made our first ever trip to the Music Box to see French thriller Caché (Hidden) with Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. Then it was back to the Landmark for George Clooney's much-acclaimed Good Night, and Good Luck with an Oscar-worthy performance by David Strathairn. Black comedy The Matador in which Pierce Brosnan plays an ageing "facilitator of fatalities" was next; followed by Woody Allen's London-set Match Point on my birthday; Aaron Eckhart in the satirical Thank You For Smoking; Spike Lee's perfect-bank-robbery thriller Inside Man (Clive Owen still can't do an American accent); and Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland (channeling Jack "Set up a perimeter" Bauer) in The Sentinel. We returned to the Music Box for grisly Australian western The Proposition with Guy Pearce and Ray Winstone. Then in July Caz and I enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada, especially as it was just days before our trip to the Big Apple; and Mike and I watched Scoop, Woody Allen's second London-based film starring Ms Johannsson. We resumed our cinema-going in October with Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia; the premiere of Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction at the Chicago International Film Festival; and the stylish Hollywoodland with Adrien Brody and Ben Affleck. I saw the critically-acclaimed Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen with Caz, then Mike and I went to an advance screening of A Good Year with Russell Crowe; the latest Bond outing Casino Royale; and Martin Scorcese's six-time-Golden-Globe-nominated The Departed. Over Christmas we saw the entertaining Curse of the Golden Flower (Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia) and Matt Damon in Robert De Niro's long and serious CIA thriller The Good Shepherd; and on New Year's Eve Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond.
'05: I laughed and cried my way through Million Dollar Baby (a very early contender for my film of the year) - and cried all over again when Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank won Golden Globes! Caz and I enjoyed Closer, The Phantom of the Opera and Ray; and I went alone to French WWI love story A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles) which was very...long. Mike and I saw chess documentary Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine; and Martin Scorcese's entertaining Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (Leo definitely deserved his Oscar nom). Then next for me and Caz were Bollywood's Bride and Prejudice and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. In May Mike and I saw Sidney Pollack thriller The Interpreter; Matthew Vaughn's Brit gangster movie Layer Cake; Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven; and the thought-provoking Crash. Next we saw Mr and (soon-to-be?) Mrs Pitt in Mr and Mrs Smith; Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti in the enjoyable Cinderella Man; French thriller The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrêté); Wedding Crashers (on our wedding anniversary); and Wes Craven's suspenseful Red Eye. The fall brought Paltrow and Hopkins in Proof; Fiennes and Weiss in the disappointing The Constant Gardener; David Cronenberg's excellent A History of Violence with Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello; Jodie Foster airplane thriller Flightplan; the latest reworking of Pride and Prejudice; and Clive Owen/Jennifer Aniston Chicago-set thriller Derailed. In December I saw Middle Eastern oil thriller Syriana; Peter Jackson's overlong King Kong; Heath Ledger and the adorable Jake Gyllenhaal in the very moving Brokeback Mountain; and Eric Bana leading a team of hit-men in Spielberg's Munich.
'04: We began with the glorious The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Anthony Minghella's beautiful Cold Mountainwith Jude Law; and the bleak, non-linear but must-see 21 Grams. Next a girls' night out to watch Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights; then likeable Vegas movie The Cooler; an advance screening of Kevin Smith's sappy Jersey Girl; enjoyable Montreal-set thriller Taking Lives; Kaufman's bizarre Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; and wonderful Italian film I'm Not Scared (Io Non Ho Paura), followed by a discussion with its Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores. Spring brought the epic Troy (I preferred Eric Bana's Hector to Brad Pitt's Achilles!);
Foreign Film Oscar nominee and cut above the usual Hollywood fare Bon Voyage with Isabella Adjani; Robert Redford and Helen Mirren in capable kidnap drama The Clearing; and Michael Moore's stirring Fahrenheit 9/11. Our first summer movie was King Arthur; followed by fine Parisian romance Before Sunset; non-stop actioner The Bourne Supremacy; assassination thriller Collateral; and great conspiracy movie The Manchurian Candidate. Then came the sumptuous Vanity Fair; stunning Chinese martial-arts film Hero (Ying Xion); hilarious British zom-com Shaun of the Dead; existential comedy I Y Huckabees; Oliver Stone's historical Alexander; brilliant California wine country road movie Sideways; Steven Soderbergh's crime-caper sequel Ocean's 12; and the striking House of Flying Daggers (Shi Mian Mai Fu).
'03: My film of the year was Graham Greene's Vietnam-set The Quiet American - directed by Australian Philip Noyce and starring Oscar-nominated Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser - with the whimsical I Capture the Castle and the Anglo-French Swimming Pool starring Charlotte Rampling coming joint second. Clint Eastwood's haunting but classy Mystic River was deserving of a mention, as was Sofia Coppola's Tokyo-set Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannsson. Mike particularly liked Charlie Kaufman's clever Adaptation with Nic Cage in twin roles and the seafaring-epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. I went to twomovie premieres: French farce Jet Lag (Décalage Horaire) at the Miami International Film Festival, which was followed by Q&As with the director Danièle Thompson; and Philip Roth's The Human Stain at the Chicago International Film Festival, which was preceded by a tribute to its Oscar-winning director Robert Benton. We also saw The Battle of Shaker Heights (the making of which we'd followed on HBO's Project Greenlight), followed by Q&As with the screenwriter Erica Beeney. Favourite Actor: Sam Rockwell impressed me greatly in both George Clooney's Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men, but I have to say Colin Farrell: I guess I have a thing for unshaven Irishmen!
[ Click back button on your browser. ]