Nitehawk’s second FILM FEAST features Amélie with a traditional French cuisine menu by Chef Sara Nguyen (Top Chef Season 3 Miami, Sprout Restaurant, Frog n Snail, and Marc Forgione). Cocktails courtesy of Pernod Absinthe. 21 and up!

NITEHAWK CINEMA Presents: AMELIE Film Feast
Featuring Guest Chef Sara Nguyen.

Run through the streets of Paris with Amelie as she uses a rediscovered childhood treasure to transform the lives of others…and herself. Little Amelie is a cafe waitress who lives in a world inside her own mind, one of fantasy stemming from a mistaken heart condition that stifled her childhood but not her imagination. Cute and quirky (n’est ce pas?), Amélie is a vivid heartfelt exploration of human vulnerability, eccentricities, and the overwhelming power of love.

On selecting this film, Chef Sara Nguyen said, “This is one of my favorite, feel good movies.  I love the child like personalities of the characters and the overall innocence and whimsy that overlays the very adult circumstances of the film.”

MENU
Cocktail pairings by Pernod Absinthe

Course 1:
Croque Madame, Gruyere, Farm Egg, Mushroom and Black Truffle

Course 2:
Pork Rillete, Apple Mustard, Curry Ailoi and Baguette

Course 3:
Mussels, Fennel, Sausage and Absinthe

Course 4:
Crepe, Duck Confit, Orange, Crème Fraiche and Radish

Course 5:
Angel Food Cake, Plum Jam and Absinthe Cream

BONUS –  Our guests will get the total treat of Absinthe cotton candy!

EXTRA BONUS – Join Fluent City for a free French slang workshop in the downstairs bar/cafe before Amélie (7pm)! Receive a crash course in French before Amélie as Fluent City teaches you a few French phrases of what you can hear spoken in the streets of Paris (and in the background of Amélie). Understand not only the slang used, but also why it’s so common and how to not sound like a stereotypical American trying to speak French. Note: All levels welcome, including beginners, as this workshop is taught in English.

Before Sex and the City and Mad About You, Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt were just 1980s high school girls in Chicago looking for some dancing fun. 

Janey Gleen (SJP) is thrilled that her father has transferred the family to Chicago because it’s home to her favorite dance show Dance TV…and wouldn’t you guess it, she loves to dance! With her new BFF in tow, Lynne Stone (Helen Hunt), Janey gets out on a totally outrageous 80s adventures full of boys, prudish nuns, mean rich girls, and disapproving father on the journey to get in some on-air dancing time! It’s Footloose meets Cyndi Lauper!

The Found Footage Festival and TV Carnage present the action-packed new edition of their wildly popular and wildly unpredictable VHS-based variety show, VCR Party, at Nitehawk this February!

This month’s stellar lineup includes comedian Michael Lawrence (Conan), Eliot Glazer (Shit New Yorkers Say), Jess Dweck (Jimmy Fallon writer), and a host of other funny people to be announced. Plus, never-before-seen VHS goodies from the Found Footage Festival and TV Carnage vaults and the debut of a new training video made for Nitehawk moviegoers.

Like Dr. Frankenstein, Gary and Wyatt manipulate science to make their own human but, unlike the modern prometheus, their version is way hotter!

With bras on their heads and weird science on their side, young nerds Gary and Wyatt use their trusty computer create the “perfect” women who turns out to be a just a little more than a handful. When Lisa (Kelly LeBrock) emerges from the bathroom in a half-shirt and underwear, she begins to turn the boys’ world upside down by placing them in awkward and bizarre situations that they must deal with. Their road to acceptance is paved with obstacles…and hilarity. Aside from the sexy lady, you have to see Weird Science for Bill Paxton’s epic character “Chet”.

LIVE+SOUND+CINEMA goes back for more Jean Rollin with Requiem for a Vampire with a live original score by GUIZOT.

What would a Jean Rollin film be without girls, graveyards, and vampires? In Requiem for a Vampire (aka Caged Virgins) two young women – all mini-skirts and knee-high socks, killing men in clown masks – find their way into an atmospheric castle of vampiric delights. Conflict arrives when one of the girls one of the girls decides to lose her virginity while the other preserves hers and joins the ranks of the undead. With its moody visuals and softcore sex, Requiem for a Vampire is a coming of age story of friendship told Rollin-style. Amusez-vous.

Guizot: Clifton Hyde (Guitars, Mandolin, & Composer), Chris Komer (French Horn), Grant Zubritsky (Bass), and Rich Stein (Percussion).

Starring: Heather O’ Rourke, Nancy Allen, Tom Skerritt, Lara Flynn Boyle, Zelda Rubenstein

Buckle up for a wild time in a ritzy Chicago high rise where evil spirits lurk inside mirrors and familiar faces are not always who they seem!

Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke), foisted on her rich aunt Pat (Nancy Allen) and uncle Bruce (Tom Skerritt) who believe her past was the fabrication of a gifted but complicated girl, attends a special school where the resident psychiatrist thinks she has the power of mass hypnosis. Over the course of one night the new apartment building that her uncle runs becomes the playground of the ghoul Reverend Kane, who disappears Carol Anne and cousin Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle). Can Tangina (the iconic Zelda Rubenstein) harness her powers to once again wrestle them from the grip of the other side? With startling special effects and a chilling atmosphere, this sequel will have you dodging mirrors, the name “Carol Anne” swirling on repeat in your skull.

Quintessential Chicagoan John Cusack counts down his top five break-ups in this music driven comedic drama based on Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel.

When independent record store owner Rob Gordon gets dumped by his girlfriend, he launches into the one thing that makes him feel secure: lists. As he lists his top five break-ups of all time, including the current one, he comes to realize that memory isn’t always a reliable resource and perhaps the answer to his problems lies in growing up. Set in the Wicker Park section of Chicago at the height of the late 1990s indie music scene, High Fidelity captures the slacker-ness of the time through the beautiful pain of losing someone you love. It’s like John Cusack becomes Lloyd Dobbler for the2000s. Also, Jack Black is stunningly brilliant in his role of the abrasive, loud-mouth, offensive record store employee.

Starring: Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towlers

When we meet Henry (Michael Rooker) he has left carnage in his wake – piles of bodies in all forms, though often female. Landing in Chicago, he moves in with ex-prison buddy Otis (Tom Towles), whose sister Becky (Tracy Arnold) is also seeking shelter, escaping her abusive husband. Otis easily follows the violence that Henry unleashes, with Becky catching only the charming side of Henry.

Decades after its release, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer remains a shocker, grimy and matter-of-fact in its depiction of a psychopath who kills just as easily as he might eat a meal. The film also introduced the world to Michael Rooker, an intense presence who embodies Henry with a simmering rage.

Starring: Tony Todd, Virgina Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons

Set in Chicago’s infamous public-housing project Caprini-Green, Clive Barker’s Candyman is a corporeal horror film that embodies racial and gender politics.

Skeptical graduate student Helen Lyle’s investigation of the “Candyman” urban legend – where a hooked-hand killer can be summoned by saying his name five times in a mirror – not only initiates a series of new unexplained murders but also ignites a realization that personal traumas can violently exist beyond the grave. With its inclusion of architectural connections and spiritual conversions (rooms within the projects are linked to each other and are from where Candyman emerges), Candyman destablizes and eviscerates the results produced when urban development and cultural politics collide.

Malaysian director Dain Said’s second feature film centers around a complicated and violent family living in the small village of Bunohan (translation: murder).

Bunohan: Return to Murder deals with family histories, rural isolation, and the inevitability of development through the complicated evolution of three estranged brothers – a kickboxer, a businessman, and an assassin. Murky, violent, and a little fantastical (mixed in are talking birds and a strange ghost-women), the brothers in Bunhan fight for their lives in a  “dark web of deceit, regret and murder.” It’s definitely not your conventional Asian crime film.

Film fact: though it was not short-listed, Bunohan was only the second Malaysian film to ever be nominated for the Academy Awards’ Best Foreign Language Film by the The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia.