Screening 35mm & 16mm film prints from studio vaults, film archives, and private collections.

  • Simple Men

    Wednesday, November 6 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU — The Auditorium at NEIU — 3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave
    Tickets: $10 at the door

    Directed by Hal Hartley • 1992
    In Gen X auteur Hal Hartley’s Simple Men, the men are indeed simple, but not entirely unsuccessful ($650,000 in stolen computer parts isn’t nothing). The third entry in his Long Island Trilogy, the film is filled with Hartley’s idiosyncratic humor and heart — it is about family, and it is about romance. In the film, two brothers (one lands a scholarship and the other lands on the frontpage of the newspaper) go on a road trip to find their deadbeat father, an infamous domestic terrorist. On the way they meet beautiful women, talk God and feminism, have an impromptu dance party, and reconnect. Hartley’s expressively inscrutable protagonists tease out their feelings in casual yet revealing conversations; small talk on big issues. As feminist scholar bell hooks wrote, “More than any other contemporary film-maker [Hartley] turns the camera on to masculinity. He lets us see aspects of maleness from the perspective of male abjection and vulnerability.” Hartley’s men may be goofy, but they are hardly unfeeling; their romantic traumas and disappointments consume their minds and direct their conversations. They are confused. On the other hand, Hartley’s odd, independent, and uncontrollable women don’t answer to anyone; they are too busy tearing up the dance floor. Simple Men is a remarkably fun time that also strips his ideas down to their basics, exposing their profundity. “Falling in love is like sticking an ice pick in your forehead, but we keep doing it. We hurl ourselves into the cauldron of passion. The bottomless pit of desire.” (RIN)
    105 min • True Fiction Pictures • 35mm from Chicago FIlm Society collections, gift of David Bordwell
    Preceded by: Hal Hartley trailer reel – 10 min – 35mm

    NEXT UP: Moonlight and Pretzels on Wednesday, November 13 at NEIU

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Upcoming screenings:

View all upcoming screenings & venue info

Wed 11/6 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
Simple Men 

Wed 11/13 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
Moonlight and Pretzels 

Mon 11/18 at 7pm
Two by Gottheim • RSVP Required

Wed 11/20 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
All That Heaven Allows 

Mon 11/25 at 7:00 PM at Music Box
Birth • Advance Tickets

Mon 12/2 at 7:00 PM at Music Box
The Shop Around the Corner  • Advance Tickets

Wed 12/11 at 7:30 PM at NEIU
Curse of the Cat People 

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