The Chicago Latino Film Festival, which has grown into one of the city’s premier annual cinema events, opens its 19th annual edition Friday at the Biograph theater, kicking off another grand fiesta of cinema and culture. Screening Friday will be the provocative new Colombian film, “I am Bolivar” (“Bolivar soy Yo”), with appearances by the director and star–followed by a post-film party and then by ten days of Latin cinema from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the U.S.
The Latino Fest, founded by still-active executive director Pepe Vargas, is not just a major film event, but a bountiful celebration of international Latino culture in many forms, including music, food, history and art. But the heart of the festival is the lineup of films. More than 120 of them, mostly local premieres, from Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the U.S., will be screened for Chicago audiences in those 10 days, with the main venues at the Biograph, the 3 Penny Cinema and Facets.
Among the programs of note are tributes to legendary Mexican actresses Maria Felix and Katy Jurado, the former Mexico’s primo femme fatale of the `40s and `50s, the latter a world famous Oscar-winner (opposite Gary Cooper in “High Noon”). Also scheduled are a lifetime achievement award to abstract artist Leonardo Nierman, and film series exploring aging and women in film.
Movies are in Spanish with English subtitles, unless noted. For daily schedules, call 312-409-1757.
“Bolivar soy Yo”(“I am Bolivar”) (Jorge Ali Triana; Colombia, 2001). (star)(star)1/2 This prize-winning political phantasmagoria is about a seemingly mad actor who takes his film role as 19th Century Colombian liberator Simon Bolivar to wild extremes, becoming a modern liberator wannabe and political firebrand and throwing the entire nation into turmoil. Lushly shot and elaborately playful, full of attractive lively performances, it doesn’t dig very deeply into politics or psychology and mostly misses the deeper, darker currents of its “Don Quixote”-like subject and theme. (Director-writer Triana, producer Clara Maria Ochoa and star Amparo Grisales will appear for discussion.) 6:30 p.m., Fri., April 4; Biograph –Michael Wilmington
“El Bruto ” (Luis Bunuel; Mexico, 1952). (star)(star)(star) A stark, ironic, tragic study of a simple-minded brute (Pedro Armendariz) hired to bully his fellow slaughterhouse workers. According to Bunuel, the effect was softened and if it’s not the film the Spanish-Mexican master intended, it’s still a powerful early work, simmering with erotic and social tension. Katy Jurado plays the lewd, obsessive wife of the brute’s employer, who seduces and helps destroy the bully. 4 p.m., Sat., April 5; 3 Penny Cinema (also 4:15 p.m., Sat., April 12, Biograph)–M. W.
“La Balsa de Piedra” (“The Stoneraft”) (George Sluizer; Spain/Netherlands, 2002). (star)(star)(star) Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, this Spanish-set apocalyptic fantasy by Netherlander Sluizer (director of both the original Dutch thriller “The Vanishing” and its American remake) has moments of weird lyricism and eerie romance as well as some strained symbolic over-reaching. The bizarre premise: A geographical crack has caused all of Spain to break off from France and go sailing off to sea, while a small group, including Federico Luppi and Gabino Diego, embark on a quest of discovery and escape. If you can buy that–and it’s not easy–it’s a wistfully enjoyable film. 7 p.m., Mon., April 7; Biograph (also 9 p.m., Wed., April 9; Biograph)–M. W.
El Viaje de Carol (Carol’s Journey) (Imanol Uribe; Spain, 2001). (star)(star) This coming-of-age tale, set during the Spanish Civil War, looks pretty but feels hollow, perhaps even shallow. It tries to be lovingly paced, but it’s far too in love with its own surface beauty–its golden scenery and its luminous child actors–to ever penetrate deeper into real heart-touching territory. Carol (Clara Lago) is a sullen New York tomboy brought to Spain in 1938 by her mother, who had left Spain years earlier. The fingers of the war touch Carol and her playmates’ adventures in the village and countryside, but despite the slow tempo, each little conflict is resolved jarringly fast, perhaps so we can hurry along to yet another swell of music and lingering close-up. Since even the minor beats of the plot are coated in such thick sentimentalism, by the time the more serious–albeit predictable–twists roll around, we are numb to their real impact. Judging by Carol’s facial expressions–which aren’t nuanced enough to convey each step in her emotional journey–perhaps so is she. 6 p.m. Thu. April 10, Bank One, Dearborn at Madison, $25, includes reception; 9:30 p.m. Sat. April 12, Biograph)–Ellen Fox
