Reel life: Dann & Raymond take a look at zombies
<h3 class="briefHead">Film critics notebook:</h3>
• Dann & Raymond's Movie Club has switched topics for its Thursday, Oct. 1, presentation at the Schaumburg Library, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg. Instead of "The Classic Fantasy Films," we're celebrating "Fright of the Living Dead: The Great Zombie Movies." Hey, it's more seasonal. Plus, we will salute the work of the late Wes Craven (who went to Wheaton College), whose zombie thriller "The Serpent and the Rainbow" will be featured, along with clips from "Night of the Living Dead," "I Walked With a Zombie" and even "Plan 9 From Outer Space." Free admission! Go to schaumburglibrary.org.
• The 7th annual Elgin Short Film Festival starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin. The red carpet reception begins at 6:15 p.m. at the front doors. Tickets cost $7. Go to http://bit.ly/1iMELjg
Film finalists (all less than 20 minutes) will be in competition. Winners will be determined by appointed judges and audience members. A People's Choice award, based on audience votes, will also be announced. WGN-TV's Mike Toomey will emcee.
• The 13th annual Woodstock International Film Festival continues through Sunday, Sept. 27, with movies shown at 1 and 7 p.m. at the Woodstock Theatre, 209 Main St., Woodstock. The fest features films from Russia, Argentina, Georgia, Poland and Mali - all nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Matinee and senior tickets cost $6; evening shows cost $8. Go to classiccinemas.com.
• The After Hours Film Society presents "Testament of Youth," based on Vera Brittain's 1933 memoir of World War I experiences, at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 28, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. (PG-13, 129 minutes.) General admission $10. Go to classiccinemas.com.
• In 1999, I was bowled over by an animated movie titled "The Iron Giant," a Cold War fantasy about a little boy befriending a childlike 50-foot-tall steel robot from another planet. I called it a "technically well-crafted piece of entertainment, radiant with the illusion of life, bursting with sweeping dynamic visuals and awesome sound effects."
The movie performed dismally at the box office. (One more reason why ticket sales aren't always the best way to judge the value of a motion picture.)
First-time director Brad Bird would go on to give us "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille" and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol." (We'll ignore "Tomorrowland.') If you want to re-evaluate "The Iron Giant" on the silver screen, you can.
"The Iron Giant: Signature Edition" will be released as a Fathom Events screening at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, at five suburban theaters with an encore noon showing on Sunday, Oct. 4. Go to http://fathomevents.com/event/the-iron-giant-signature-edition.
<h3 class="briefHead">Bird flies with 'Giant'</h3>
In 1999, I interviewed first-time director Brad Bird about his animated fantasy "The Iron Giant."
"Hollywood is a little slow when it comes to things that are different," Bird said. "For me, 'The Iron Giant' represented a chance to do something not so different that they didn't understand it, but different enough to make it interesting. Maybe next time I can do something a little darker, more adult."
Maybe something easier, too.
"Iron Giant" proved to be a much tougher task than Bird imagined.
"We didn't have a lot of time and we had a relatively young and inexperienced crew," he said. "In the darkest days of the film, when I couldn't see either the end or the entrance of the tunnel - just total darkness - I consoled myself by reading accounts of all the films I admired. They all had very difficult births."
For mentors, Bird went right to the top, several members of the immortal Nine Old Men at Walt Disney: Ward Kimball, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.
"They taught me to go to the source," Bird said. "If you tackle a character, don't draw inspiration from animation, but from life. Weakness is when you draw from drawings, not life. Today we have stronger animators and more animators than we had even during the Golden Age."
Bird also made "The Iron Giant" much more cheaply than Disney and DreamWorks projects. How much cheaper?
"I could make three of mine for one 'Tarzan' or a 'Prince of Egypt.'"
• Dann Gire's Reel Life column runs Fridays only in Time-out!