Director Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Shoplifters”) embeds in French cinema culture for “The Truth,” his first film shot outside of Japan.
In the film, screening at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Chicago International Film Festival, Catherine Deneuve plays a grand screen star who’s just published a totally untrustworthy memoir and is shooting a sci-fi film about a mother and daughter meeting across time. Juliette Binoche plays her real-life daughter, a screenwriter married to an American actor played by Ethan Hawke.
Their little girl inspires lovely philosophizing about making up stuff to make life more fun. It’s a family business.
Also screening Thursday during the fest at AMC River East, 322 E. Illinois:
‘Alelí’ (Uruguay/Argentina), Leticia Jorge Romero directs and co-writes a wry comedy graced with classic physical shtick. A new widow and her bickering offspring deal with a backlog of grudges and a beach bungalow development. They exasperate one another to no end. It’s truly amusing how they are so incompetent in so many ways. 5:45 p.m. Oct 17; 12 p.m. Oct. 19
Shorts 1: Here. Now. – City and State (U.S.) Andre Muir directs and co-writes “4 Corners,” one of five shorts in this program. He says he set his “minimalist art-piece” in Rogers Park since that’s where he witnessed a shooting as a boy. Deft camera moves and a violin, cello and piano score allusively thread incidents with gang-related shots fired. These are revelatory alerts to a public health emergency. Muir channels the inner terror of too many Chicagoans. 6 p.m. Oct. 17; 3 p.m. Oct. 21; 12 p.m. Oct. 26
