The film buffs in your family will want to come to the Chicago European Union Film Festival March 9-April 5, and stay at the nearby and affordable LaQuinta Inn & Suites in historic Hyde Park!
The Chicago European Union Film Festival, the largest festival in the nation showcasing films of European Union nations exclusively, will open on Friday, March 9, and play on both screens through Thursday, April 5. The festival annually presents Chicago premieres of more than 60 feature films representing the 28 EU nations. With Bulgaria in the presidency of the EU, the festival will open with “Directions” by Stephan Komandarev, a tragicomic tale of one night in the lives of five late-night cab drivers.
Highlights of the festival confirmed to date include “Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc,” an unorthodox musical by Bruno Dumont, and “Godard Mon Maour,” by Oscar-winning Michel Hazanavicius, a fictitious biopic of Jean-Luc Godard. Another biopic, “Nico 1988,” portrays the final years of the Warhol muse and Velvet Underground singer. Isabelle Huppert stars as a has-been pop singer attempting a comeback with the help of a twenty-something lover in the Belgian film “Souvenir,” while Geraldine Chaplin and her daughter Oona Chaplin are featured in the romantic comedy “Anchor and Hope,” set on and around London’s historic Regent’s Canal.
German films include the black-comic caper film “Bye Bye Germany,” in which a band of Holocaust survivors scheme to score a tidy fortune at the expense of their former oppressors. The story of a notorious womanizing art forger revolves around the provenance of a painting coveted by a high-ranking Nazi in the Dutch film “A Real Vermeer.”
The Gene Siskel Film Center is located at the Art Institute of Chicago, 164 North State Street. For a complete schedule of films and for tickets, go online to http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/calendar/month/2018-03 and follow the prompts.
Make your Chicago European Film Festival experience even more enjoyable by staying at the LaQuinta Inn & Suites, in Hyde Park. The hotel offers free shuttle bus service to and from the Loop area and is close to bus and train services. Enjoy the free breakfast. AND Jazz and seafood buffet (non-seafood items available) Friday nights.