Milos Stehlik: A Life in Film @ Facets Cinémathèque

Milos Stehlik devoted his life to film. As the founder and director of Facets, Milos has helped revolutionize film education, exhibition, and distribution for independent, international, and arthouse film. As an educator, a journalist on WBEZ, and vocal champion of film, Milos has helped introduce generations to the awesome power of film. With Milos's passing in July, we have truly lost a legend.

To continue our celebration of Milos's life and legacy, Facets will host the Milos Stehlik: A Life in Film open house. This free event will include screenings of some of Milos's favorite films with introductions from friends and colleagues, free popcorn, and a special sale of rare VHS from the Facets Label.

There has never been a more important moment in history to celebrate Milos's vision and stress the importance of film as a gateway to the world. By properly wielding the power of film, it is possible to, in Milos's words, "open minds and souls, giving every individual the opportunity to see themselves as they are, and as what they can be, embracing their potential to save our planet and ourselves."

The Facets Cinémathèque is located at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago

More details available here.  

The Mirror (1975) is arguably Andrei Tarkovsky's greatest masterpiece as well as being his most unconventional in form. Weaving personal memories and dreams (wartime exile, the travails of Tarkovsky's beloved mother) into collective memory (newsreels of the bombing of Barcelona, the Stalinist era, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, World War II), The Mirror recreates the world of Tarkovsky's childhood in a flow of unforgettable images: a burning barn, a levitating woman, a boy being cured of a stutter by a hypnotist, a bird fluttering against a window pane.

Attacked by the Soviets for elitism and obscurity and banned from foreign screenings for many years, this awe-inspiring autobiographical film (Tarkovsky called it his "confession") is a key to the director's world and as close as cinema has come to a Proustian evocation of "lost time."

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union, 1975, 107 mins. In Russian and Spanish with English subtitles.

Sunday, Dec. 8 @ 2:45pm

With introduction by Zbigniew Banas

A 10-hour Polish television serial based on The Ten Commandments, Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue (1989–1990) was branded a masterpiece when it first appeared on the festival circuit in 1988.

In 2000, Facets collaborated with New Yorker Films to release The Decalogue on DVD. Dan Talbot of New Yorker Films championed Milos for his effort for releasing such a massive film project on DVD: "He's a savior of film. It's astonishing what that fellow has put together and made available for people who love film."

In a tribute to the artistic ambition of this achievement, we will screen Decalogue: 6, the episode that focuses on the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." A lonely teenage boy regularly spies through his telescope on the affairs of a promiscuous young woman across the courtyard. He falls in love, she discovers him and his obsession leads him into trouble. As in other parts of The Decalogue, Kieslowski illustrates the unexpected and complex consequences of human actions. Behind every door, there are desires, secrets, and feelings worth exploring on film and Kieslowski pays homage to Hitchcock directly in Decalogue 6, arguably the richest and most affecting episode in the series.

Decalogue: 6 will be preceded by the PFFA Milos Stehlik Tribute video, a short documentary about the legacy of Facets' founder screened at the opening of the 31st annual Polish Film Festival in America, which was dedicated to Milos.

Zbigniew Banas is a film critic, teacher, and a radio and television journalist. Over the years, his reviews have appeared in Chicago Reader, Boston Phoenix, New City, and other publications. He is affiliated with WPNA (1490 AM) and WNVR (1030 AM) radio stations in Chicago, as well as Polvision TV (Ch. 24.4). He is currently an Instructor in International Film at Loyola University in Chicago and in the past has lectured at Columbia College. He is also a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland, 1989–1990, 60 mins. In Polish with English subtitles.

Sunday, Dec. 8 @ 3pm

Milos admired the independent and anarchic spirit of Dušan Makavejev, whose work tests the boundaries of narrative forms and challenges traditional notions of filmmaking. Makavejev and Milos were close friends, and both shared a maverick style that gave them success in film, in spite of Hollywood. Makavejev visited Facets on multiple occasions before his death in 2019 and Facets' label released Makajeva's first five films in 2002, including WR.

Dušan Makavejev was one of the most important filmmakers to come from former Yugoslavia, even though he was met with official disapproval and several of his films were never shown commercially in his own country. WR: Mysteries of the Organism might be the most unconventional cinematic rendering of Soviet-Yugoslav-American relations, Serbian maverick Dušan Makavejev employs his characteristic style of associative montage to create a comedic manifesto for sexual revolution.

Makavejev collages documentary footage and fiction to create a mashup of American counter-culture, Soviet ideology and Nazi propaganda. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and called Makavejev "the most eclectic, eccentric, impenetrable, jolly anarchist to come out of Eastern Europe" in the 1960s.

Directed by Dušan Makavejev, 1971, Yugoslavia/West Germany, 84 mins. In Serbo-Croatian, English, Russian and German with English subtitles.

Sunday, Dec. 8 @ 5pm

With introduction by Randy Adamsick

Milos always saw Vera Chytilová as a vibrant innovator who made her own way in a decidedly male-run industry, which made her known as the "First Lady of Czech Cinema." This film is the one that showcases her key contribution to the Czech New Wave in her nation's cinematic history and due to distribution issues, it was not available to be seen for many years.

Maybe the New Wave's most anarchic entry, Vera Chytilová's absurdist farce follows the misadventures of two brash young women. Believing the world to be "spoiled," they embark on a series of pranks in which nothing—food, clothes, men, war—is taken seriously. Daisies (1966) is an aesthetically and politically adventurous film that's widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema.

Daisies will be preceded by Jan Nemec's Oratorio for Prague (1968). One of the most powerful documentaries ever made, contains the only footage from the Soviet-led invasion of Prague in 1968. Czech New Wave filmmaker Jan Nemec (A Report on the Party and the Guests) began filming with the intention to document Prague Spring, a celebration of the newfound liberalization of Czechoslovakia, but the film's subject took a dramatic turn when Soviet tanks rolled through the streets.

Jan Nemec, who fled his country to escape Communist repression in 1977, was a friend of Milos's and credits the legendary Facets catalogue listings for the survival of his work. Milos always admired him for his position as one of Czech cinema's most uncompromising nonconformists and was quite proud to distribute the work of the "enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave."

Randy Adamsick is co-chair of the Facets Board of Directors and a 35 year friend of Milos. Over his 25 year film career, Randy served as executive director of the Gene Siskel Film Center, Minnesota Film Board, and was co-founder of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.

Directed by Vera Chytilová, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 74 mins. In Czech with English subtitles.

Sunday, Dec. 8 @ 7pm