Sunday, March 17 – Gene Siskel Film Center — 164 N State Street
Tickets: $13 at the door or purchase in advance
2:00 PM
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
Directed by Jerry Lewis • 1963
In perhaps the most enduring hit of his career, Jerry Lewis stars as Julius Kelp, a neuroses-riddled chemistry professor who has run afoul of both his university’s administration and its student athletes, who mercilessly humiliate him in front of the attractive young women he teaches. Kelp’s scientific prowess leads him to a solution, a serum which transforms him into debonair nightclub performer and all-around jerkoff Buddy Love. The bold and generously applied colors Lewis favored as a visual stylist were a perfect fit for the Technicolor process, which perhaps reached its apotheosis in the toxic green chemicals and chintzy purple night club decor littered throughout The Nutty Professor. It’s this uniquely striking palette that gives some clarity to what Jean-Luc Godard meant when he said of Lewis: “he’s more a painter, maybe, than a director.” (CW)
103 min • Paramount Pictures • 35mm from private collections, permission Paramount
5:00 PM
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
Directed by Richard Fleischer • 1954
Ending a decades long Swift/Perry-sized feud, Walt Disney brought in Richard Fleischer, son of Betty Boop creator Max Fleischer, to direct this story of male ego and hubris. Disney’s first major attempt at serious live action filmmaking brought in a crew of A-list actors–a singing Kirk Douglas, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, and a particularly dark and brooding James Mason–and was, at the time of release, among the most expensive films ever made. Much of the cost came from the experimental underwater cinematography, which required custom-built diving suits and air tanks that only allowed for a few minutes of filming at a time. A one-ton, life-sided giant squid operated by a crew of 30 people also had to be redesigned multiple times at enormous expense. The results are, of course, spectacular, testing the limits of practical effects to create a world just as astonishing as in Disney’s animated features. (JA)
127 min • Walt Disney Productions • 35mm from the Chicago Film Society collection at the University of Chicago Film Studies Center, permission Disney
NEXT UP: MISSION TO MARS on Thursday, March 21 at Music Box