Brian De Palma in Chicago
In advance of the upcoming release of Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, The Hateful Eight, Chicago’s Music Box Theatre will host a week-long series called Tarantino & Friends that begins tomorrow and includes a selection of films that influenced the director during his early days as a video store clerk. This Saturday and next Monday, the theater will show Blow Out, Brian De Palma’s riveting 1981 adaptation of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 thriller Blow-Up. This paranoia classic, led by John Travolta at the height of his stardom, explores the seedy underbelly of 1980s Philadelphia and centers on a film sound-effects technician who believes he’s inadvertently recorded a political assassination and undertakes a mission to uncover the truth. For now, while awaiting the screenings of the De Palma masterwork and the new Tarantino film, which the Music Box will show in glorious 70 mm starting on Christmas Day.
