Hitchcock/Truffaut and Under Electric Clouds at CIFF

I wrote the following capsule reviews for Time Out Chicago. They should appear there in truncated form at some point today.

The Chicago International Film Festival continues through Thursday, October 29. Here are your best bets for the festival’s second week.

Hitchcock/Truffaut

Hitchcock/Truffaut is the title of the seminal book-length interview, originally published in 1966, in which Alfred Hitchcock discussed every film he had made up to that point with the neophyte critic-turned-director Francois Truffaut. It is also the title of this cracking new documentary in which critic/filmmaker Kent Jones corrals commentaries from a who’s who of contemporary cinema’s finest directors (Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, et al) into a swiftly paced but thoroughly illuminating overview of both the legacy of the book as well as the Master of Suspense’s career in general. Amply illustrated with well-chosen clips, from 1926’s The Lodger through 1976’s Family Plot, this is crucial viewing for Hitchcock — and movie — fans.

Hitchcock/Truffaut screens on Saturday, 10/24 at 5:00PM and Monday, 10/26 at 6:00PM.

Under Electric Clouds

A suicidal architect. A Kyrgyz construction worker searching for an electronics repair shop. The heirs of a wealthy landowner returning from abroad to claim their late father’s estate. A demoralized scholar who dresses up like a hussar to give tours of a 19th century mansion to Japanese tourists. All of these characters are connected through their relationship to an unfinished skyscraper in a Russia of the not-too-distant future as the world teeters on the brink of apocalypse. Under Electric Clouds was directed by Aleksey German, Jr. (whose father died not long before the release of his final masterpiece Hard to Be a God) and he proves to be a chip off the old block when it comes to grave, darkly funny and amazingly photographed political allegories.

Under Electric Clouds screens on Sunday, 10/25 at 7:45PM and Tuesday, 10/27 at 8:15PM.

For more info, including ticket info and directions, visit the Chicago International Film Festival’s official website.