Wisconsin Film Festival? I'm doing my part!
Here's what I'm planning to see and write about in Madison.
A sure sign of spring in Madison is the return of the Wisconsin Film Festival. Sponsored by the UW-Madison’s Department of Communication Arts, it’s an extraordinarily well-curated festival that mixes new premieres, restored classics, Wisconsin-related films and those little cinematic curios that you know a programmer fought tooth and nail to get on the schedule.
This year’s festival starts Thursday and runs through April 10. My fellow City Cast Madison compadres went to the schedule reveal party on March 6, and it’s shaping up to be another great festival.
Following the lead of my friend James Kreul at Moving Image Madison, here’s my game plan for seeing movies at this year’s festival. If you’re in the area, hope to see you there!
THURSDAY-SATURDAY: I won’t be able to catch most of the weekend screenings, which is a shame, because there’s a lot of good stuff playing. On the bright side, in past years I’ve usually overdone it on Friday and Saturday and not left much gas in the tank for the following week, so maybe this will work out.
The opening night screening of “Friendship,” starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd as frenemies, sold out the 850-seat Barrymore Theatre in just over an hour (!). It should be a lot of fun to see with a big crowd, and If I’m feeling it, I may go down to the Barrymore and see if I can score a rush ticket, but it’ll be a game-time decision. A24 is opening “Friendship” in May, so I won’t miss out too much if I skip it.
SUNDAY: My day will start at 2 p.m. in Music Hall, with “The Sea, The Silence and The Smiths,” which pairs the UW-Madison’s Douglas Rosenberg’s performance film ‘The Sea” with two shorts, Li Chiao-Ping’s “in silence is the offering presented” and “With Fire & Breath,” a short about Indian goldsmithing.
I’ve got an ulterior motive for sharing this one – I’ll be doing the intro and post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers! Hope to see you there!
After that, I think I’ll head over to the Barrymore to see “No Packers, No Life,” Craig Benzine’s documentary about a group of Green Bay Packers fans from Japan on a pilgrimage to Lambeau Field. Should be a fun one, and Benzine will be there to talk about the movie.
Then I’ll finish the day at UW Cinematheque for a 35mm print of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 bug hunt “Starship Troopers.” Screenwriter Ed Neumeier and producer Jon Davison will be there to talk about the film, and I’m sure they’ll get into parallels between the film’s fascist satire and today’s world. I think I’ll definitely write about this screening for an upcoming newsletter post, so stay tuned.
MONDAY: I’m a big fan of Tsui Hark (“Once Upon a Time in China”) so leapt at the chance to see a new 4K restoration of his 1984 film “Shanghai Blues” at 6 p.m. After that, I had a hard decision to make. I really want to see Alex Ross Perry’s playful movie about Pavement, “Pavements,” but the trailer for the documentary “Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other,” an intimate documentary that goes inside a long-term marriage, was so compelling that I couldn’t resist. Thinking I’ll write about that one.
TUESDAY: Taking the night off because it’s my wife’s birthday. Happy Birthday Greta!
WEDNESDAY: Going to start with “Anywhere Anytime,” a modern-day update on “Bicycle Thieves” that follows an undocumented immigrant in Italy searching for the stolen bike he needs for his food-delivery job. After that, programmer Jim Healy highly recommended “Rosaura at 10 O’Clock,” a little-seen 1958 Argentine film that takes a “Rashomon”-like approach to the residents at a Buenos Aires boarding house. Not sure which one I’ll write about.
THURSDAY: I’m a big Western fan but have somehow never seen “The Searchers,” so I’m looking forward to seeing Monument Valley on the big screen in a new 4k restoration. Then, I think I’ll close out the festival with the French Canadian sex comedy “Two Women” and the uplifting archival documentary “Middletown.”
Thanks for the plug! This is another reminder that people can have very different schedules and experiences and still see some great films.