OLD TOWN — Chicago is the setting for an increasing number of films, and the city's architecture gets a much-deserved starring role in a new four-month curated film series debuting this weekend.
Architecture Afternoons With the Chicago Architecture Foundation launches at 2 p.m. Sunday at Arclight Cinemas Chicago, 1500 N. Clybourn Ave., with a screening of "The Untouchables."
Brian De Palma's 1987 movie following federal agents as they track the notorious gangster Al Capone was shot in the city using existing skyscrapers from the Roaring '20s as backdrops, including the Rookery and the Board of Trade. And its climactic scene on the steps down into Union Station made reference to the Odessa steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's silent classic "Potemkin."
The screenings are curated by the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
Tickets are $14.50 (no $10.50 children's seats for this R-rated film) and $11.75 for seniors over 60.
The 2006 dramedy "Stranger Than Fiction," starring Will Farrell as a semi-self-aware character created by a novelist played by Emma Thompson, follows in February. It tries to make Chicago look more generic as an urban publishing center, but skyscrapers like the Wrigley Building keep finding their way into the movie.
Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film "Metropolis" follows in March with its look at futuristic architecture.
Then the fest returns to Chicago for its fourth and — as of now — final offering in April with "The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan's 2008 entry in the latest Batman series. Christian Bale and Heath Ledger star as Batman and the Joker, with an opening scene set in the Old Main Post Office, one notable confrontation between the two involving a semi-trailer on LaSalle Street in front of the Board of Trade and another featuring a car chase on Lower Wacker Drive.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.
