YOU'VE GOT TO HAND IT TO THE FRENCH

The European Union Film Festival is on at the moment at Gene Siskel and who could resist seeing a 5 hour epic about the history of cinema, edited down into 84 minutes...Oh and told in at least three different spoken languages (chapter titles are only in French). I'm talking about the re-edit of Jean Luc Godard's stunning collage of poetry, music, dialogue, still images and least we forget film. It goes without saying, it blew me away! Unfortunately, I hadn't received the memo from the building management that they were expecting near artic conditions outside and so were treating the audience to a sauna. That aside, I will be keeping an eye on the center's calendar for more gems. Just get there early...the teachers from the Art Institute seem to buy up a chunk of the tickets for their students.