Red Rock West
Chazen Museum of Art 750 University Ave., Madison, Wisconsin 53706
press release: USA | 1993 | 35mm | 98 min.
Director: John Dahl
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle
A drifter (Cage) wanders into a small Wyoming town and immediately gets mistaken for a hitman hired by a wealthy rancher (J.T. Walsh) to kill his wife (Boyle). From there the twists pile up higher than a soft-serve cone in this razor sharp neo-noir from director/co-writer, Dahl. Originally slotted for direct-to-cable and home video release, the film attracted enough positive attention at the 1993 Toronto Film Festival to warrant a limited theatrical release. It then went on to become an art-house hit. Preceded by a Nicolas Cage trailer reel!
Chicago Film Society Presents!
Founded in January 2011 by Becca Hall, Julian Antos, and Kyle Westphal, three Chicago based projectionists and programmers, the Chicago Film Society was created to “to promote the preservation of film in context.” The CFS’s successful regular screening series at Northeastern Illinois University, the Music Box Theatre, and other locations in Chicago, was, according to their mission statement, launched out of a conviction that “films capture the past uniquely. They hold the stories told by feature films, but also the stories of the industries that produced them, the places where they were exhibited, and the people who watched them. We believe that all of this history–not just of film, but of 20th century industry, labor, recreation, and culture–is more intelligible when it’s grounded in unsimulated experience: seeing a film in a theater, with an audience, and projected from film stock.” The CFS has also established a significant and eclectic archive of 35mm and 16mm film prints that we have drawn upon for the purposes of this series tribute to the Society’s cinephilic accomplishments. Our Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen series from September through December will present an international selection of 15 feature films and several shorts from throughout film history, all on 35mm, from the collection of the Chicago Film Society! Additionally, Julian Antos and Becca Hall will appear in person on September 28 at our regular Vilas Hall venue to present a CFS restoration of Hal Hartley’s American indie classic Trust.