Ryland Walker Knight Only Has Two Eyes

It's impossible for any pair of eyes to view all of Frisco Bay's worthwhile film screenings. I'm so pleased that a number of local filmgoers have let me post their repertory/revival screening highlights of 2011. An index of participants is found here.

The following list comes from cinephile & writer Ryland Walker Knight, who blogs at Vinyl Is Heavy.

Struggling to remain lucid with a headcold the size of Miss Piggy's ego, here's a really simple list of rep activity I enjoyed in 20!!….

1. World on a Wire at the PFA, where they screened it on film instead of digitally, as was the case with the Kabuki-housed SFIFF presentation. I missed it at the Roxie because I was in Europe.
2. The Awful Truth at the Castro because it's the best movie ever and I had a blast drinking beers and laughing with Cambomb. (Brian sat a row or two behind us, I think.)
3. Moonrise by Borzage followed by Swamp Water by Renoir, at the Roxie. I wrote a bit about how awesome this was in my BANG BANG post, but it bears repeating: using the swamp locations as metaphors for the world (as perpetually violent, and dangerous) was like catnip to me, and these two dudes are expressive enough that it's never on-the-nosey as it might be in the hands of, say, a lot of contemporaries.
4. Bringing Up Baby and Monkey Business at the Castro. Two of the great films, one of the greatest double bills you can imagine. Read the Rivette essay already.
5. The Long Goodbye and California Split at the Castro. Elliot Gould 4eva.
6. Beau Travail at the PFA. All those Denis I got to see could go here. This one in particular never fails to blow me away and offer some new choreography for the eyes. (I liked seeing these more than that Tindersticks SFIFF event, though that comparison is unfair and useless.)
7. Angel Face at the Castro. How do you end a movie? Like this.
8. The Wrong Man at the Castro. What a dreary thing!
9. Cronique d'un été at Cannes, because you can't stop me, Brian. I also saw some good stuff in Berlin.
10. I missed a lot of stuff I'm mad I missed. Off the dome: the whole Summer Silent Film Fest, Nadja at the Roxie, Musicals at The Stanford, US Go Home at the PFA, a ton of Oddball nights (like all of them), Alternative Visions nights at the PFA (though I did see some Dorsky early on in 20!!), oh too many things always and forever. (That's the problem/joy.)