Facets' Daily Find

Facets Features wraps up its look at beauties of movies past with a clip of the one-and-only Louise Brooks in Prix de Beaute (1930), a film that "confirms once more that Louise Brooks was one of the most enduringly fascinating women ever to appear in front of the camera" (Andrew Sarris, Village Voice). It was her last starring role in a feature, and her only film made in France.

The Best of 2009 (and beyond!)

Facets staff picks of the best films of '09 and beyond are here!

Yes, we know--we're late to the game. This is intentional. Unlike our colleagues and peers who zip their lists out lickety-split at year's end, we take our time, finessing, debating and fine-tuning to produce what we hope are true representations of the year (and years) in film.

We're also lazy.

So, without further ado, let's hit it.


Phil Morehart, Facets Editor

1. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
2. The Hurt Locker (Karthryn Bigelow)
3. Anti-Christ (Lars von Trier) / Nymph (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang) - A terror-in-the-woods double shot!
4. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi)
5. You, The Living (Roy Andersson)*
6. The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh)
7. Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo)*
8. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
9. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
10. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)

Honorable Mentions: Avatar (James Cameron) - Yes, the plot was predictable and abyssmal, but the 3-D was just absolutely, gosh-wow thrilling. Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner) - This doc almost turned me vegetarian. Almost. Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli) - While not necessarily scary, the constant tension and suspense that this low-budget phenom maintains throughout is impressive. I admired its marketing tactics, too. Big Man Japan (Hitoshi Matsumoto) - It's hard being a superhero, and now we know why thanks to this hilarious, often touching Japanese mockumentary.

My favorite DVD releases for '09 can be found at Cincinnati Citybeat Newspaper's website. Check 'em.


Lauren Whalen, Facets Development Coordinator

Top 10 Favorite Documentaries of the Decade (In No Particular Order)

Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003)
Jesus Camp (Heidi Ewing/Rachel Grady, 2006)
Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz, 2002)
Every Little Step (Adam Del Deo/James D. Stern, 2008)
Michael Jackson’s This Is It (Kenny Ortega, 2009)
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon, 2007)
Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002)
Surfwise (Doug Pray, 2007)
Unmistaken Child (Nati Baratz, 2008)
In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger (Jessica Yu, 2004)


Amy Boyd, Facets Rentals

Top Ten of 2009
I've included here a close-to-my-heart list of the absolute best movies released theatrically in Chicago during the course of 2009. We have here a powerful doc about civil war in Liberia, a moving doc about hidden treasure and new found memories of WWII, edge of your seat tension with a full-throttle Tilda Swinton at the wheel, a fiction film that's as close to documentary as you can get, an indie that's not as hilarious as you might think, but a lot more relate-able than you may anticipate, a foreign thriller on par with Tell No One from last year, an eye opening doc that puts a face on the destruction caused by climate change, a cool doc about the U.S.'s consumer society and the coming craft revolution and a comedy that's anything but formulaic... straight up.

1. Pray the Devil Back to Hell (Gini Reticker)
2. Loot (Darius Marder)
3. Julia (Erick Zonca)*
4. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)*
5. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
6. Humpday (Lynn Shelton)
7. Just Another Love Story (Ole Bornedal)
8. About Water, People and Yellow Cans (Udo Maurer)
9. Handmade Nation (Faythe Levine)
10. The Hangover (Todd Philips)

Top Ten (to see) of 2009
As the end of the year approached and I created my list of movies that I missed during 2009, I found myself overwhelmed by a massive amount of titles. I've managed to narrow them down and prioritize them for the purposes of a "must see" or "to see" list. These are the movies I wasn't able to see in 2009 but that are at the top of my "to see" list.

The End of the Line (Rupert Murray) *
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) (Ellen Kuras/Thavisouk Phrasavath)*
Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (Lee Daniels)
Big Fan (Robert D. Siegel)
Mammoth (Lukas Moodysson)*
Before Twilight (Jacek Blawut)*
Forbidden Lies (Anna Broinowski)
Citizen McCaw (Sam Tyler)


Hallie Borden, Facetsmovies.com assistant

1. A Serious Man (Coen Brothers)
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
3. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
4. An Education (Lone Scherfig)
5. Proceed and Be Bold! (Laura Zinger)
6. Adventureland (Greg Mottola)
7. Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)
8. A Single Man (Tom Ford)
9. You, The Living (Roy Andersson)
10. Crude (Joe Berlinger)


Anna Ha, Facets Rentals

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
Cooking History (Péter Kerekes)
An Education (Lone Scherfig)
The Hurt Locker (Kathyrn Bigelow)
Moon (Duncan Jones)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
The September Issue (R.J. Cutler)
Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
Thirst (Chan-wook Park)
Up (Pete Docter/Bob Peterson)


Mike Phillips, Facets Videotheque Manager

1. You, The Living (Roy Andersson)
2. Julia (Erick Zonca)*
3. Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
5. World's Greatest Dad (Bobcat Goldthwait)
6. Big Fan (Robert D. Siegel)
7. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
8. Largo (Mark Flanagan/Andrew van Baal)
9. Sin Nombre (Cary Fukunaga)
10. Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer)


Chris Damen, Facets Rentals

1. Anvil: The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi)
2. Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
3. Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard)
4. Big Fan (Robert D. Siegel)
5. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
6. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi)
7. Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn)
8. Star Trek (J.J. Abrams)
9. Anti-Christ (Lars von Trier)


Grace Tran, Facets Rentals

In no particular order:

Up (Pete Docter/Bob Peterson)
Tulpan (Sergei Dvortsevoy)
Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu)
Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
The Beaches of Agnès (Agnès Varda)
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (John Gianvito)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
Moon (Duncan Jones)
Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
24 City (Jia Zhangke)


Miguel Martinez, Facets Rentals

1. Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
2. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
3. Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo) *
4. The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)
5. Tetro (Francis Ford Coppola)
6. Timescrimes (Nacho Vigalondo)
7. Treeless Mountain (So Yong Kim)
8. Thirst (Chan-wook Park)
9. Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
10. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (Lee Daniels)


Bruce Neal, Facets Rentals

1. You, The Living (Roy Andersson)
2. Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone)
3. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)*
4. Sita Sings the Blues (Nina Paley)
5. Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi)
6. The Beaches of Agnès (Agnès Varda)
7. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
8. Crank: High Voltage (Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor)
9. Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard)
10. Julia (Erick Zonca)*


For Facets staffers Susan Doll and Lew Ojeda's lists, visit Turner Classic Movies' Moviemorlocks.com and Damn That Ojeda, respectively.


*Screened at Facets Cinematheque

Facets' Daily Find

Facets Features continues its loving look at yesteryear's beauties with clips of the great, silent vamp Theda Bara.

Korean Cult Craziness This Saturday at Midnight!

Facets Night School presents...

Korean Cult Craziness:
The Mind-Blowing Genre Hybrid of Save the Green Planet

This Weekend! Saturday, February 27th at MIDNIGHT!

Join Facets for a wild ride inside South Korean cult favorite, Save the Green Planet! Lecture, screening and post-screening discussion--only $5!!

One of the quintessential films of the South Korean New Wave, Jang Joon-Hwan's Save the Green Planet has earned an ever-expanding worldwide cult following its premiere in 2003. The story of a blue-collar worker convinced that his former boss is an alien intent on destroying the human race, this outrageous and provocative black comedy reflects political anxieties dating back to South Korea's pro-democracy protests in the 1980s while also serving as a prescient ecological fable on a more universal scale.

Filmmaker and scholar Michael Smith plays guide to this mind-blowing film in which every conceivable movie genre (from the serial killer thriller to sci-fi to kung fu and beyond) combines to produce a highly original work of art that explodes the bottle!

Further details on the lecture, film and presenter available here.

Tickets available at Ticketweb.

Can't attend? Watch the lecture online LIVE! Learn more here!

Facets' Daily Find

You sure are, Marlene. Sigh.

From Seven Sinners (Tay Garnett, 1940).

Facets' Daily Find

Not only is she ready for her close-up, but she has pipes, too.

Gloria Swanson sings sweet and not-so-sweet nothings to a young Laurence Olivier in the early British sound comedy, Perfect Understanding (1933), co-written by Michael Powell.

Facets' Daily Find

Bub. Cinema's most famous zombie. The real star of Romero's Day of the Dead.

Learn more about Bub and the rest of his undead cohorts at tomorrow's edition of Facets Night School! Facets' resident zombie aficionado Patrick Ogle will present the lecture, Zombies, Humanity and Romero's Third Zombie Classic, a lecture that looks at this underappreciated horror great and its impact on the wave of zombie cinema that followed. The action starts at midnight. It's going to be boss!

If you can't make it out at midnight, fear not! You can watch the lecture LIVE at midnight on ustream! You have excuse now, people. Tune in.

Facets' Daily Find

Sons of Cuba ventures inside the Havana Boxing Academy, where a win in the ring is a victory for La Revolucion! Catch it starting tomorrow at Facets Cinematheque!

Facets' Daily Find

You can keep your hyped, boring Super Bowl ads, I'll take these seven television commercials by Swedish filmmaker extraordinaire Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor, You, the Living).

Facets' Daily Find

Thank you, YouTube, for bringing me Abbas Kiarostami's short, Bread and Alley (1970). This stunning piece of neo-realist cinema was not only Kiarostami's first film, it was also the first by the filmmaking department at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, which Kiarostami helped found. The program would prove seminal in the development of Iranian cinema, producing subsequent Kiarostami films as well as Amir Naderi's The Runner and Bahram Beizai's Bashu, the Little Stranger.

Experience a Film School Unlike Any Other!

Where can you learn about musicals in the '70s and '80s, Carole Lombard's comedic career, Billy Wilder's buddy comedies and realism in cinema?

Facets Film School!

Classes open February 22nd! That's next Monday!

This session features:

The Musical in Transition: THE 70s AND 80s
Mondays, February 22 - March 29 7-10 pm

Instructor Patrick Friel examines a fascinating period of transition for the movie musical when a number of innovative, challenging, and outright strange examples were produced. Films screened include Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977), All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979), Popeye (Robert Altman, 1980), One from the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982), Pennies From Heaven (Herbert Ross, 1982) and Absolute Beginners (Julian Temple, 1986).

Carole Lombard: THE DIVINE SCREWBALL
Tuesdays, February 23 - March 30 7-10 pm

Instructor Stephen Reginald explores the comedic career and the sustained popularity of an actress forever linked to the screwball comedy. Films screened include Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, 1934), Hands Across the Table (Mitchell Leisen, 1935), The Princess Comes Across (William K. Howard, 1936), True Confessions (Wesley Ruggles, 1937), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941), and To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942).

Odd Couples: THE BUDDY COMEDIES OF BILLY WILDER
Wednesdays, February 24 - March 31 7-10 pm

Instructor James Francis Flynn looks at the comedic collaborations of director Billy Wilder and screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond. Films screened include Some Like It Hot (1959), Irma la Douce (1963), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Front Page (1973), and Buddy Buddy (1981).

Engaging Reality: NEOREALISM AND BEYOND
Thursdays, February 25 - April 1 7-10 pm

Instructor Kate Balsley explores various styles of realism in cinema from Italian Neo-Realism onwards. Films screened include The Bicycle Thief (Vittoria De Sica, 1948), Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955), Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977), Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1995), Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, 1999) and Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2009).


For full course descriptions, instructor bios and more, visit Facets Film School online here.

Enroll online here or sign-up at Facets before class begins! Space is limited. Enroll now to guarantee yourself a seat!

Facets Patron Circle Members get priority and an additional $45 OFF the regular class price of $125. For membership information, click here.

For additional info, call 773-281-9075 or visit Facets.org.

Facets' Daily Find

Ed Ulbrich, the digital-effects guru from Digital Domain, explains the Oscar-winning technology that allowed his team to digitally create the older versions of Brad Pitt's face for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Facets' Daily Find

Lurch had moves. Who knew?

Facets' Daily Find

"Andy Warhol, David Bowie. David Bowie, Andy Warhol."

Raisin' Terminators Ain't Easy

If you missed last Saturday's Facets Night School session on Lady Terminator and Indonesian exploitation cinema, here's the short starring lecturer Lew Ojeda that kicked the evening off proper!

Facets' Daily Find

Kudos to the minds behind this spectacular tribute to Aliens (1986). I wish that I had that much time on my hands. I don't mean that sarcastically, either--I'd love to do a hip-hop/Troll 2 mash-up...

And before his eyes/She became a goblin feast
"They're eating her/And then they're going to eat me!"

I know, I know--don't quit your day job.

Watch Facets Night School Online!

Miss the packed opening of Facets Night School's winter session on Saturday? You're in luck--the lecture, Lady Terminator and the Golden Age of Indonesian Exploitation Films, is available online, courtesy of ustream!

Sit back, relax and watch Facets' own Lew Ojeda dig into the South Sea Island mysticism, high-octane explosions and killer sex of the wild slab of cinema, Lady Terminator, while also examining the unique cultural and political conditions that led to the island nation's incredibly prolific 20-year indulgence in outrageous cinema.

When you're done with the lecture, complete the experience by renting Lady Terminator at Facets Videotheque. If the DVD in the hands of an other patron, don't worry--IT'LL BE BACK.

Facets' Daily Find

Continuing with the bad acting theme: an awesome death scene from Enter the Ninja (1981). It's a funny clip, but its Youtube description elevates it to win.

"Moments before dying, the Enter the Ninja villain suddenly realizes the futility of it all and the meaninglessness of man's existence in a cold, uncaring universe - existentialism enlightenment acting! academy award thespian sartre slo-mo leisure suit throwing star."

Facets' Daily Find

Yesterday's clip inspired Facets Features to dig around for more examples of wonderfully atrocious movie acting. We hit pay-dirt. No surprise.

First up, witness the skills of master thespian Ryan O'Neal in Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987).

Where is this man's Oscar!?

Facets' Daily Find

This line from Z-horror masterpiece Troll 2 never gets old.

Facets' Daily Find

Inspired by The S from Hell, Facets Features went hunting for more "scary" film and TV logos from American's youth. We were rewarded in spades. The above clip is one of many found. The fear factor is questionable, if not laughable. However, as a nostalgic time capsule, this collection is invaluable.

Facets' Monday Morning Quarterbacks

As usual, Facets employees spent their weekend watching movies, and we have forged some strong opinions. A quick glance at the films reveals that we certainly have eclectic tastes! Let us know what you think.


Michelle, Facets Gal Friday, wins the award for the most unusual film on the list. She watched the 1961 Czech version of The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, originally titled Baron Prasil. She liked the artsy combination of animation, matte paintings and stop-motion puppets to create the world of Baron Prasil or Baron Munchausen

Anne B, our membership lady, watched Inglourious Basterds on DVD. As a matter of fact, she watched it twice, because she was so taken with the clever dialogue.

Chris in Accounting returned to the MCA’s series on Italian movies (curated by a former Facets employee). He took in Visconti’s The Damned and Fellini’s Casanova. The latter he found “crazy beautiful,” and it inspired him to dig up more Fellini films from the 1970s

Patrick, who handles Facets’ press, took his son to see Legion, which he described as “a low-budget Terminator Salvation—except not with robots but with angels.” He found that it did “not want to make me poke my eyes out,” but he recommends keeping your expectations low because it’s “not more than you think it’s going to be.”

Suzi from Marketing caught Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and highly recommends it. It’s worth seeing for Johnny Depp’s scenes alone, but the real star of the film is Gilliam’s imagination.

Allie from The Chicago International Children's Film Festival watched The Education of Charlie Banks, which she liked despite the fact it was directed by Fred Durst, former lead singer for Limp Bizkit. Allie liked Jesse Eisenberg in the lead (lately the star of Adventureland).

Abbey from Sales is preparing for Valentine’s Day by watching the romantic drama Now, Voyager, starring Bette Davis. The scene in which Paul Henreid puts two cigarettes in his mouth, lights both of them, and then gives one to Davis is one of the sexiest love scenes in film history.