Music Box Films
Music Box Films is dedicated to curating a diverse repertoire of films and television from around the world. In partnership with the iconic Music Box Theatre, Chicago’s premier independent cinema, it is our mission to engage audiences with exciting alternatives to mainstream entertainment.
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The Twentieth Century
Directed by Matthew Rankin • Drama • With Dan Beirne, Mikhaïl Ahooja • 2019 • 90 minutes
Toronto, 1899. Aspiring young politician Mackenzie King (Dan Beirne) dreams of becoming the Prime Minister of Canada. But his romantic vacillation between a British soldier and a French nurse, exacerbated by...
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Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace
Directed by Jeff Dupre • Documentary • With Kehinde Wiley • 2014 • 40 minutes
The artist behind Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, Kehinde Wiley is known for his vibrant, larger-than-life reinterpretations of classical portraits featuring young Black men. “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace” ...
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Keep the Lights On (Ira Sachs)
Directed by Ira Sachs • Drama • With Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth; Julianne Nicholson • 2012 • 106 minutes
Keep the Lights On chronicles an emotionally and sexually charged journey of two men in New York City through love, friendship, and addiction. Documentary filmmaker Erik (Thure Lindhardt)...
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Fifi Howls from Happiness
Directed by Mitra Farahani • Documentary • With Bahman Mohassess, Rokni Haerizadeh, Ramin Haerizadeh • 2014 • 102 minutes
Mitra Farahani’s lyrical documentary explores the enigma of provocative artist Bahman Mohassess, the so-called “Persian Picasso,” whose acclaimed paintings and sculptures dom...
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Augustine (Alice Winocour)
Directed by Alice Winocour • Drama • With Vincent Lindon, Soko, Chiara Mastroianni • 2013 • 102 minutes
The powerful and darkly sensual drama Augustine is based on the true story of the unusual relationship that developed between Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, the pioneering 19th century French neurol...
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Penance: Episode 1
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa • Drama • With Kyoko Koizumi, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yu Aoi • 2014 • 75 minutes
The French Doll : Tragedy strikes when Emili is shockingly murdered by a mysterious stranger. The other four girls present at the scene of the crime - Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuka - are unable to ...
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Maison Close - Episode 1
Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri • Drama • With Jemima West, Anne Charrier, Valérie Karsenti • 2010 • 56 minutes
Paris, 1871. Vera, the star attraction of the The Paradise luxury brothel, is about to finally leave the institution to become the live-in mistress of the Baron Du Plessis. However, The ...
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Lore
Directed by Cate Shortland • Drama • With Saskia Rosendahl • 2013 • 108 minutes
Left to fend for themselves after their SS officer father and mother, staunch Nazi believers, are interred by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey that ...
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Full Time (w/ Laure Calamy)
Directed by Éric Gravel • Drama • With Laure Calamy • 2023 • 88 minutes
Julie (Laure Calamy) can’t catch a break. For a single mother raising two children in the suburbs of Paris but working in the city, the commuter train is a lifeline–and it’s suddenly been severed during the latest transit st...
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Frantz
Directed by Francois Ozon • Drama • With Pierre Niney, Paula Beer • 2017 • 114 minutes
Set in Germany and France in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, (1914-1918), Frantz recalls the mourning period that follows great national tragedies as seen through the eyes of the war’s “lost ge...
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Alleluia
Directed by Fabrice Du Welz • Drama • With Laurent Lucas, Lola Dueñas • 2014 • 95 minutes
Based on notorious real-life “lonely hearts killers” who make victims of their romantic liaisons, Alleluia is a dark and fascinating love-story-gone-wrong from Belgian horror maverick Fabrice du Welz. Miche...
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And Then We Danced (Levan Akin)
Directed by Levan Akin • Drama • With Levan Gelbakhiani, Bachi Valishvili, Ana Javakishvili • 2020 • 113 minutes
A passionate tale of love and liberation set amidst the conservative confines of modern Georgian society, AND THEN WE DANCED follows Merab, a devoted dancer who has been training for ...
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Antarctica: A Year on Ice
Directed by Anthony Powell • Documentary • With Genevieve Bachman • 2017 • 92 minutes
Antarctica: A Year On Ice is a visually stunning journey to the end of the world with the hardy and devoted people who live there year-round. The research stations scattered throughout the continent host a clos...
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Beloved Sisters
Directed by Dominik Graf • Drama • With Hannah Herzsprung, Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius • 2015 • 170 minutes
Beloved Sisters depicts the unconventional romance between two aristocratic sisters and a rebellious poet who took the European literary world by storm in the late eighteenth cent...
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Bettie Page Reveals All
Directed by Mark Mori • Documentary • With Bettie Page, Hugh Heffner, Dita Von Teese • 2013 • 101 minutes
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mark Mori’s Bettie Page Reveals All is an intimate look at one of the world’s most recognized sex symbols, told in her own words for the first time. In Mori...
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Black Out
Directed by Arne Toonen • Drama • With Raymond Thiry, Kim Van Kooten • 2014 • 92 minutes
If Guy Ritchie made The Hangover in Amsterdam, it might look something like Black Out, an audacious crime thriller laced with colorful lowlifes, tough femmes fatales, corrupt cops, and outbursts of extreme v...
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The Bohemian
Directed by Petr Václav • Drama • With Vojtech Dyk, Elena Radonicich • 2024 • 142 minutes
In 18th century Italy, aspiring opera composer Josef Mysliveček dreams of becoming a musician. His ambitions lead him to embark on a journey, exploring the world of opera to fulfill his destiny. Against all...
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By the Grace of God
Directed by François Ozon • Drama • With Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, Swann Arlaud • 2019 • 137 minutes
BY THE GRACE OF GOD tells the story of three men—Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud), François (Denis Ménochet), and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud)—who band together to expose the code of silence that cont...
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Chavela
Directed by Catherine Gund & Darsha Kyi • Documentary • With Chavela Vargas • 2017 • 93 minutes
Chavela is the captivating look at the unconventional life of beloved performer Chavela Vargas, whose passionate renditions of Mexican popular music and triumphant return to the stage late in life bro...
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The Club
Directed by Pablo Larrain • Drama • With Alfredo Castro, Marcelo Alonso, Antonia Zegers • 2015 • 97 minutes
In a secluded house in a small seaside town live four unrelated men and the woman who tends to the house and their needs. All former priests, they have been sent to this quiet exile to pur...
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A Coffee in Berlin
Directed by Jan Ole Gerster • Drama • With Tom Schilling, Friederike Kempter • 2014 • 88 minutes
Jan Ole Gerster’s wry and vibrant feature debut A Coffee in Berlin, which swept the 2013 German Oscar Awards, paints a day in the life of Niko, a twenty-something college dropout going nowhere fast. ...
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The Deep Blue Sea (w/ Rachel Weisz & Tom Hiddleston)
Directed by Terrence Davies • Drama • With Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston • 2012 • 98 minutes
In The Deep Blue Sea, Master chronicler of post-War England, Terence Davies directs Rachel Weisz as a woman whose overpowering love threatens her well-being and alienates the men in her life. In a deeply ...
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Ennio
Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore • Documentary • With Ennio Morricone, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood • 2021 • 156 minutes
Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the beloved CINEMA PARADISO, turns his camera on his longtime collaborator Ennio Morricone (1928 – 2020) in a moving and comprehensive profi...
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A Five Star Life
Directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi • Drama • With Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi, Fabrizia Sacchi • 2014 • 85 minutes
Leaving OVID on May 9th!
A Five Star Life is the sophisticated story of one woman’s quest for personal and professional fulfillment set against some of the most stunning cities an...