November 22, 2024

Eight Is Never Enough: The Weekend After #wifilmfest

For eight days out of the year, Madison plays host to a barrage of diverse and stimulating films, but those films don’t just end when the Wisconsin Film Festival does. Lucky for us, rare is the day when you can’t find a good movie playing somewhere in this town, and some of the festival’s themes and sensibilities continue well beyond that window. So, for those of you for whom eight is nowhere near enough, this coming weekend offers some wonderful opportunities, courtesy of UW-Cinematheque and the WUD Film Committee.

nebraska_1For example, if you saw any of the Jacques Demy films at the festival—especially Lola—then you may want to check out Model Shop on Friday night, which is a sequel of sorts to the beautiful Lola, with Anouk Aimee reprising her role. Or, if you enjoyed seeing Alexander Payne at the screening of Il Sorpasso, you can catch him again on Friday night at a special screening of his own Academy-Award-nominated Nebraska. And since there is plenty of time between screenings, there’s no tough choice; you can watch both!

psycho_1Did you partake in a Cinemascope classic at the festival? Catch another with the beginning of the Richard Fleischer series, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. Playing as part of a series called “Killers and Thrillers,” how can you go wrong? On the subject of killers and thrillers, were you among the packed audience that watched that beautiful print of Vertigo? (I sure was). Another Hitchcock killer thriller is right around the corner: Psycho.

cheap_thrills_posterThough with all of these great movies, new and old, the one I’m most excited about is the one I just found out about: Cheap Thrills. I missed this film at last year’s festival, but all I need to get me there is star Pat Healy and the note in the description saying that this is a film to see with a crowd. Whether starring in Ti West’s modern horror classic The Innkeepers, shocking audiences with his turn in Compliance, or even making a cameo in a certain star-spangled superhero movie that opened this past weekend (one of many highlights of that film), Healy leaves an indelible impression every time I see him. Plus, as many of you know from your festival experiences both distant and recent, sometimes, the right combination of film and crowd is a magic all its own.

So fear not, good filmgoers of Madison. The festival may have ended, but great movies are evergreen in these parts.