Film News: Stephanie Sack Presents Finnish Sci-Fi Film ‘Time of Roses’ on July 28, 2024

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CHICAGO – Indie Film Programmer & Horror-rista Stephanie Sack is back with a Chicago matinee presentation of “Time of Roses,” an under-seen 1969 screening of an urban science fiction film from Finland, remaining the only representative example of serious sci-fi in their cinema history. The 11am matinee will be screened with the short “The Last Golem” at the Music Box Theatre, click TIME OF ROSES for details and tickets.

Risto Jarva’s “Time of Roses” is a rare flower in the histo­ry of Finnish cinema. Set during 2012 in a semi-dystopian world of gleaming white towers, Sony video monitors, and inflatable furniture, the film follows Raimo (Arto Tuominen), a prominent historian of late 20th century culture, researching the mysterious death many years earlier of a free-spirited erotic model, and hires an eerie double to recreate the murder for a TV show he is producing (Rita Vepsä in both roles).

Stephanie Sack Presents ‘Time of Roses’
Photo credit: MusicBoxTheatre.com

The main feature “Time of Roses,” according to the passionate rediscovery of film programmer Stephanie Sack, is a mix of “mod style with some surprisingly prescient technological advancements. This is a world where get-togethers involve everyone snuggled up in semi-orgiastic splendor, rapturously moving their hands to the music as though they’re sculpting shapes in the empty air and where nuclear engineers spend their lunch hours playing touchy-feely games of co-ed handball while sporting snazzy striped rompers.” Ms. Sack will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.

“Time of Roses” will be followed by a short … “The Last Golem” … a 1969 anthology horror film from Czechoslovakia that has “romance, some comedy and a faint whiff of science fiction.” In addition, attendees will be able to purchase souvenir local art inspired by the screening’s visuals and themes by award-winning painter Amanda “Freya” Johanson.

CLICK HERE for an Podtalk with film programmer Stephanie Sack by Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com.

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com