The 13th European Union Film Festival continues Friday, March 12, through Thursday, April 1, at Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312-846-2800. Tickets are $10, $7 for students, and $5 for Film Center members. Following are selected films screening through Thursday, March 18; for a full festival schedule see siskelfilmcenter.com.
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R Bluebeard Like Eric Rohmer near the end of his career, French director Catherine Breillat has begun to experiment with costume drama as a way of recasting her signature themes, and she’s found a perfect property in Charles Perrault’s tale of a fearsome nobleman who murders his wives. A narrative frame, set in the 1950s, shows two young sisters bickering as they read “Bluebeard” from a book they’ve found in the family attic; the main story centers on teenage sisters who are divided when the younger one, hoping to save their family from penury, agrees to marry the hulking noble. Breillat has described “Bluebeard” as “a story that teaches . . . little girls to love the man who’s going to kill them,” but as in her most notorious film, Fat Girl (2001), any hatred of men is counterbalanced by a thick streak of resentment between siblings. In French with subtitles. 80 min. —J.R. Jones Sat 3/13, 7:30 PM, and Thu 3/18, 6:15 PM
R Father of My Children A French film producer (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) begins to buckle under the weight of his financial problems, taking care to conceal his growing desperation from his devoted wife and three daughters. This warm, understated 2009 drama by Mia Hansen-Love devotes roughly equal time to the main character’s work and home lives, which he keeps rigidly compartmentalized. When the two suddenly merge, one begins to ponder whether a man’s artistic legacy can ever be as important as that part of himself he invests in his family. In French with subtitles. 108 min. —J.R. Jones Sun 3/14, 2:45 PM, and Wed 3/17, 8 PM
