David Robson's 2018 Eyes

The San Francisco Bay Area is still home to a rich cinephilic culture nurtured in large part by a diverse array of cinemas, programmers and moviegoers. I'm honored to present a selection of favorite screenings experienced by local cinephiles in 2018. An index of participants can be found here. 

Six-time IOHTE contributor and cinephile-at large David Robson documents his offline movie-viewing at a number of online film sites, like his own blog the House of Sparrows, and he cohabitates with those adorable simian cinephiles at Monkeys Go To Movies

I Know Where I'm Going! screen capture from Criterion DVD

In order seen, mostly: 

I Know Where I’m Going! – Castro Theatre, February 14 

The Castro Theatre had shown a couple of Powell & Pressburger films in January, right around a visit from director Paul Thomas Anderson – I regret being out of town for his chat with Castro Special Forces Director Stephen Eric Schaefer. A month later the strands of programming came together on Valentines Day, with a 35mm print of Anderson’s Phantom Thread paired with the Powell & Pressburger romance I Know Where I’m Going! This was indeed a day for lovers, and the latter film became a new favorite. It felt like a Scots counterpart to Ford’s The Quiet Man, but resonant in its own right as a deeply felt romance, with tangible chemistry between Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey. 

The WNUF Halloween Special image provided by contributor

The WNUF Halloween Special – Balboa Theatre (Unnamed Footage Festival), March 25 

I wasn’t able to catch as much as I would have liked of the Unnamed Footage Festival, a new fest (full disclosure: run by dear friends) dedicated to found footage horror and similar outlying genres. But I’m glad I got back to the Balboa in time for the fest-closing screening of this odd pastiche of Halloween news programming. It’s a winningly wacky and genuinely unsettling story loaded with spot-on parodies of independent television advertising, and even its somewhat mean-spirited ending didn’t reduce from the fun of seeing it with the Unnamed audience. 

To Be Or Not To Be - SFMOMA Wattis Theatre (San Francisco International Film Festival), April 14 

Always happy when our friends at SFFILM bust out a classic movie during the film fest. It was a joy to see this movie for the first time – a timely WWII offering that tackled the Nazi invasion of Poland with both necessary gravitas and genuine hilarity. The screening was given wonderful context by Mel Novikoff Award-honoree Annette Insdorf, whose engagement with history and profound cinematic intelligence made for a compelling afternoon. She even asked for, and got, a 35mm print of the movie, too. 

On Dangerous Ground – Stanford Theatre, May 2 

Delighted to get another shot at this Nicholas Ray/Ida Lupino feature, having missed a February screening due to illness. It’s a tight and intimate noir drama, with a bitter police detective (Robert Ryan) finding new reason to live courtesy the blind sister (Lupino) of a suspect he’s chasing through wintry upstate New York. And the Bernard Herrmann score turns it into a sweepingly romantic operetta, capturing my favorite cinematic subject: the rebirth of a human soul. Absolutely captivating, and paired by the Stanford with the nearly-as-engaging The Spiral Staircase. 

A Bronx Morning screen capture from Flicker Alley DVD "Masterworks of American Avant-Garde Experimental Film"

A Bronx Morning – Castro Theatre (Silent Film Festival), June 1

I would have slept on the avant-garde shorts program at the Silent Film Festival if my father (who visited SF for the festival, and wound up taking in eight programs) hadn’t indicated strong interest, and honestly I’d have been poorer for it. After a legendarily mind-expanding introduction by Craig Baldwin, the program ran with sterling musical accompaniment by the Matti Bye ensemble, a group whose contributions to the Festival I’d undervalued in the past. These largely familiar movies took on new life with their music, and the rainy, ambient music accompanying Jay Leyda’s eleven-minute city symphony brought it to life. I experienced the cinematic high that all IOHTE contributors spend our lives chasing, and this music, with this film, on this day, took me outside myself. 

The Shining – Castro Theatre, July 10 The Castro put together a nice series of Kubrick films around the new documentary Filmworker, which detailed the career and work of longtime Kubrick associate Leon Vitali. After acting in Barry Lyndon, Vitali began his arduous backstage career working on The Shining, his responsibilities revolving mainly around Danny Lloyd, the young lead of that film. I saw this movie again (and Filmworker for the first time) having just finished reading for the first time the source novel by Stephen King (and its decades-later sequel Doctor Sleep), and I was amazed by the parallels between both books and both films. A motif in the books – “When the student is ready, a teacher shall appear” – is naturally manifested in The Shining in the relationship between Danny Torrance (played by Lloyd) and Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers), but it also spoke to the relationship between Vitali and Kubrick, and extended to the friendship that evolved between Vitali and Lloyd. With the book fresh in mind, I appreciated more than ever how dedicated Kubrick was to both young Danny Torrance (the movie is VERY much his story) and the actor who played him. And I finally realized that despite the obvious commitment and energy he brings, Jack Nicholson’s lead performance is pretty terrible. 

Eve's Bayou image provided by contrbutor

Eve’s Bayou – SFMOMA Wattis Theatre, July 15 

SFMOMA and SFFILM juiced up their quarterly programming with some truly inspiring series, not the least of which was Black Powers: Reframing Hollywood. I didn’t get to nearly as many programs in it as I’d have liked, but was delighted to finally see Kasi Lemmons’ Eve’s Bayou projected, its humid and swampy atmosphere (and uniformly solid performances, not the least of which an uncharacteristically downplaying Samuel L. Jackson) finally given celluloid space to breathe. I was overjoyed when, a few months later, the movie was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. 

The Smallest Show on Earth – Castro Theatre, August 19 

Sometimes the Castro’s booking philosophy seems to be “what the hell, let’s give everybody a present.” Such was the spirit animating this screening of an imported print of a black-and-white British comedy about newlyweds who inherit a rundown movie house, and their efforts to turn it into a successful business. It was a charmer, with fun supporting performances by Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, and Bernard Miles, and at one point, in a marvelous instance of life imitating art, the film broke, sending the Castro audience into the same darkness experienced by the film’s characters. Joy. 

The Longest Yard – Castro Theatre, October 13 

The Castro gave three Wednesdays to double features starring and celebrating the late Burt Reynolds. This one wasn’t necessarily my favorite of the films screened, though I would agree with Joel Shepard’s assessment, offered repeatedly both before and after the screening, “It’s a really good movie!” I highlight it here as I felt it was the best showcase of Reynolds’ magnetism and star power, as well as the particular anarchic comedy that he always threaded through his performances so effortlessly; by the time of the film’s climactic football game the whole audience is on Burt’s team. All of this in a lovely 35mm print, no less. 

Time Regained image provided by contributor 

Time Regained – Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, March 18 and 25 

In previous years I’d avoided listing any movies that I watched or introduced at YBCA; there were feelings that there was a conflict of interest naming movies that I screened at my former workplace. Now that YBCA has scuttled its film program, however (with no apparent plans for a full-time replacement), I’m going to throw such concerns aside and say that Time Regained (screened in a beautiful digital restoration courtesy Le Petit Bureau with support from France’s CNC) was the best thing I saw last year, an incredible tour de force from Raul Ruiz that largely ignored the plot of Proust’s Remembrance of Times Past but explored the hell out of its themes, using devices from literature, theatre, and cinema to capture and explore the memories of the past that remain alive with us in the present. I introduced both screenings, taking as much pleasure in cramming Ruiz’ life and work into a three-minute intro as he did jamming seven volumes of Proust into a single three-hour feature, and stayed through both screenings, which were over before you knew it.

10HTE: Adam Hartzell

The San Francisco Bay Area is still home to a rich cinephilic culture nurtured in large part by a diverse array of cinemas, programmers and moviegoers. I'm honored to present a selection of favorite screenings experienced by local cinephiles in 2016. An index of participants can be found here.

Eight-time IOHTE contributor Adam Hartzell is a local writer and Roxie board member. He has a piece on Advantageous in the recently released Directory of World Cinema: American Independents 3

This is where I tell you how seriously bummed I was when I found out I missed an opportunity to see First Nations Canadian director Alanis Obomsawin's films at the Pacific Film Archives. (Sad face.)

5) REBECCA (Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1940) - Balboa Theatre - February 20th, 2016

One of two films on this rep/revival list that I'm glad I held out on to see on screen. I always try to catch a couple films at each year's Mostly British Film Festival. Normally they screen at The Vogue, but this suspenseful classic of Hitchcock's played at The Balboa theatre, a theatre with a special place in my heart that I'm always game to patronize. And it doesn't hurt that such a trip gives me an excuse to eat at Shanghai Dumpling King.

Tokyo-Ga screen capture from Criterion DVD extra for Late Spring

4) TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1953) - September 3rd, 2016/TOKYO-GA (Wim Wenders, West Germany, 1986), the latter with an intro by composer/vocalist Ken Ueno - Pacific Film Archives - September 8th, 2016

My cousin, who lives in Berkeley, has a partner who is a cinephile like me. And ones appreciation of Ozu is one of those cinephilic connectors. So it was totally appropriate that my cousin, her man, and I would have Ozu's classic TOKYO STORY as our first viewing experience together as a triple. This was also my first visit to the new BAM/PFA building, so much more convenient from BART than the previous location. Although I've seen TOKYO STORY many times before, the PFA also offered the opportunity to finally see Wim Wenders' documentary about Ozu's Tokyo which includes interviews with regular Ozu collaborators actor Chishu Ryu and cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta. This time I saw it with just my cousin's partner who I'm sure will be a regular PFA companion for me.

3) TAMPOPO (Juzo Itami, Japan, 1985) - Opera Plaza - December 4th, 2016 I hadn't seen TAMPOPO for quite some time. My wife, who is Japanese, had never seen this film. The re-release offered each of us a different experience. My wife laughed at the sight of a young Koji Yakusho and even younger Ken Watanabe. In the end, she was surprised that she found such an 'older' film so delightful, since she tends to find older films boring. I was struck by the scenes I'd forgotten about, such as the French restaurant and the homeless foodies. TAMPOPO clearly transcends its time. Off we went afterward for ramen, but just as we were with our sushi after a screening of JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI (David Gelb, USA, 2011), we were disappointed that the dishes just weren't up to par with what we'd had in Japan.

2) WITHIN OUR GATES (Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1920) - Castro Theatre - May 4th, 2016 Micheaux is the grandfather of Black Cinema in the US. So when the San Francisco Silent Film Festival brought one of his silents this year, I had to attend. In this time of Black Lives Matter, revisiting WITHIN OUR GATES has an even greater impact. The lynching scene is shocking and leads one to reflect on the context of now, what we've witnessed captured on video via smartphone technology. The harrowing intensity of all this was heightened by the accompaniment of the Oakland Symphony and Chorus under the direction of Michael Morgan.

Screen capture from Criterion DVD. 

1) Tanya Tagaq sings as NANOOK OF THE NORTH (Robert J. Flaherty, USA/France, 1926) plays in the background at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - November 17th, 2016 I have had a couple opportunities to see this proto-documentary but failed to take advantage of them. I'm now glad I waited to see it until Polaris-winning Inuk Canadian throat singer Tanya Tagaq reinterpreted it. Placing the document in its time and place while still confronting its legacy, Tagaq brought new life and agency to the documentary's subjects. Seeing Tagaq has been a bucket-list item for me. Finally checking it off, the experience stays and resonates with me as you hope all bucket-list items will.

IOHTE: Claire Bain

"IOHTE" stands for "I Only Have Two Eyes"; it's my annual survey of selected San Francisco Bay Area cinephiles' favorite in-the-cinema screenings of classic films and archival oddities from the past year. An index of participants can be found here.

Contributor Claire Bain is an artist, filmmaker and writer. She is a frequent contributor to the Artists Television Access blog, and most of the links below lead to her writings on the  screenings there.

Screen capture from Frameline DVD

Screaming Queens: the Riot at Comption's Cafeteria (directed by Susan Stryker & Victor Silverman, 2005), A.T.A. January 25, 2014

30 hour marathon, A.T.A. September 5-6, 2014

Marya Krogstad, A.T.A. July 14, 2014

U-Matic Night, A.T.A. July 3, 2014

Fred Alvarado, A.T.A. April 4, 2014

Thick Relations, A.T.A. March 21, 2014

Speaking Directly, Alley Cat Books presentation from SF Cinematheque. February 14, 2014

Reaching For the Moon, A.T.A. August 21, 2014
 

  And one last one, not from a blog:

Screen capture from Warner DVD

One cool Saturday April morning I drove my tired ass to meet a friend at the Balboa Theater's Popcorn Palace, their true Saturday matinee ("matin" means morning in French) where 10 bucks gets you admission and endless popcorn. I met a friend who is a Ray Harryhausen fan, to see The Valley of Gwangi. I expected kids to be running up and down the aisles, but there were only adults, more than a handful of fully mature ones. The movie had a compelling mix of intense characters, including a badass cowgirl boss, a miniature horse, and then some dinosaurs. The epic battle near the end had spellbinding cinematography and nicely blended (not digital, no no no this was long before) effects that occasionally had alluring rhythms that made me think of loops in the optical printer (analog re-photographing apparatus for creating/blending special effects on film). Hilariously creative, it's a movie worth seeing, especially if you can catch it in a theater on some rare occasion. But I do recommend the Balboa Theater's Popcorn Palace!

The Shining (1980)

WHO: Stanley Kubrick.

WHAT: You don't have to be a Kubrick fan, a horror movie fan, a Jack Nicholson fan, or a Stephen King fan to love and/or be obsessed by The Shining. It incorporates all of those broad categories of fandom but transcends them as well. So much has been said about this film, but I'm sure there's more to say. I'll have to leave that for another day however, and simply link to this amazing site for The Shining devotees.

WHERE/WHEN: 9PM tonight only at the Balboa Theatre, presented as part of Another Hole In The Head.

WHY: Unless you're a big Jaws fan this is clearly the greatest film playing this year's Another Hole In The Head film festival (I'm prejudging a lot of unseen horror films by saying this, but we're talking about what I consider to be an all-time masterpiece here). It's also the last "HoleHead" screening at the Balboa before the festival moves to New People in Japantown (where a digital "backwards and forwards" screening inspired by the movie Room 237 will occur next Thursday night.)

Not only that, it's screening in 35mm, an occurrence I'd expected to disappear now that a digital version of the film has been the go-to theatrical distribution method for Warner Brothers. The Castro and Roxie have both been forced to show The Shining digitally in recent years, and a "last-ever" 35mm screening happened over a year and a half ago (with the last Frisco Bay screening further back in history than that; my last viewing was almost precisely four years ago). I have no idea where and how the SF IndieFest folks who run HoleHead got this print and the permission to show it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not another long while before there's another chance to see it unspool this way. If ever.

HOW: Billed as a "perfect" 35mm print.

Discopath (2013)

WHO: Renaud Gauthier wrote and collaborated with Marie-Claire Lalonde to direct and co-produce this, the first feature film for either of them.

WHAT: I have not seen it, so let's let an excerpt from Fangoria do the talking:

Everything about Discopath, in fact, feels appropriate to the period that’s its setting and its inspiration—the movie even looks just right, John Londono’s cinematography capturing the hues and image density of pictures from those decades past. Clearly a fan of the era, Gauthier doesn’t filter his affection through ironic detachment or condescend to the material; he’s simply created a film—making the most of his low budget, and bringing it in at a tight 80 minutes—that could easily have played on 42nd Street alongside the latest indie stalker flicks and Italian imports.

WHERE/WHEN: 9PM tonight only at the Balboa Theatre, presented as part of the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival.

WHY: I don't think of myself as a particular fan of horror movies, but I've checked my records and confirmed that I've always attended at least one, and sometimes up to as many as four or five of the programs in Frisco Bay's biggest annual festival of (mostly) new (mostly) horror films over the past ten years of its existence. This is not nearly as much as someone like Jason Wiener, who is a true loyalist to all of SF IndieFest's annual events, but for me it's unusual. As much as I like to keep tabs on Frisco Bay festivals, there are only a few that I make sure to attend year after year, and only one with more longevity (Noir City, soon to be in its 12th year in San Francisco) that I've been with since its inception. Affectionately nicknamed simply HoleHead, the Another Hole In The Head Film Festival (as in, "this town needs another film festival like it needs...") appeals to me because it shows things no other festival in town would even consider booking, like Noboru Iguchi's The Machine Girl, Andrew Lau's Haunted Changi, or Jason J. Tomaric's Cl.One. These and the other HoleHead films I've seen over the years are not exactly profound works of deep meaning, and some of them are certainly better than others, but they all are very confident of what they want to be, with little or no regard for conforming to the rest of the cinematic landscape.

This year I'm intrigued by several of the HoleHead selections, including Discopath, which screens tonight, and The Dirties, a favorite of my blog buddy Michael Guillén, who has called it a "tremendously entertaining low-budget feature that implicates the culpability of its audiences by way of an unidentified camera operator". Wednesday night and Thursday night are extremely special however; HoleHead has always included a retrospective component (the first show I attended my first year at the festival was a revival of Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer and last year an in-person appearance from director Richard Elfman at a digitally-colorized version of Forbidden Zone was a highlight), and this year it's a doozy: 35mm screenings of two classic horror films that I had thought had simply become unavailable to see on film any longer now that their rightsholders are committed to the DCP projection format: Jaws and The Shining. I've never seen the former on the big screen and had pretty much given up on the possibility of ever doing so on film. I have seen the latter in a good 35mm print and a good audience before, and it's one of the highlights of my life as a Kubrick admirer. Don't miss these screenings if you want to see these films the way their makers truly intended them to be seen!

HOW: Discopath screens digitally.

Inequality For All (2013)

WHO: Robert Reich is the focus of this documentary.

WHAT: This breezy documentary addresses a weighty topic, the causes and ill effects of the enormous gap between the wealth and income of a few very rich Americans, and that of the rest of us. Some have lamented that the film doesn't go far enough in arguing for effective solutions to the economic mess we find ourselves in, and it's a fair point to be sure. But clearly the filmmaker (Jacob Kornbluth, a local) felt his film would be more powerful as a tool to raise awareness about the magnitude of the issue, and perhaps even convert some skeptics. To that end, he doesn't go overboard on hammering political points but rather centers his film on one eloquent and tireless advocate of the importance of this issue, UC Berkeley professor and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, whose biography, it turns our, mirrors his chosen cause in poignant ways. Kalvin Henley has written a more complete review I can recommend reading.

WHERE: Screens at 9:00 tonight and at 6:30 tomorrow and Thursday at the Camera 3 in San Jose, and multiple times daily at the California Theatre in Berkeley at least through this Thursday. UPDATE 11/12/2013: The Balboa is also screening the film multiple times daily through Thursday.

WHY: Whether you feel you've heard Reich's arguments enough or feel you could never hear them enough (or more likely, fall somewhere in between those points on the scale), you may be interested in seeing Inequality For All simply for the local angle. A great deal of the documentary was shot in the Bay Area, including the above image of downtown Oakland's majestic Paramount Theatre (which screens The African Queen for $5 this Friday, incidentally).

Reich appears (with much less screen time, I'm led to believe) in another documentary coming to Frisco Bay soon: Frederick Wiseman's latest institutional investigation At Berkeley, which takes a more comprehensive view of the workings of the University of California's flagship campus. Since I last speculated about where it might screen, I've learned it will come to UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive December 3rd that Wiseman will be on hand for, but that will  be open only to the University's students, faculty and staff. A second PFA showing will occur January 18th, 2014 (dare I hope along with a retrospective of Wiseman films? It's been over ten years since the last), but before that both the Elmwood and the Roxie will screen At Berkeley for at least a week starting December 6th, with opening night screenings accompanied by a Skype q&a with the director.

HOW: Inequality For All was made and will screen digitally.

Carrie (2013)

WHO: Kimberly Peirce directed this.

WHAT: Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie is not just my favorite of that director's films; it's also my favorite American horror movie made in my lifetime, and my favorite film made from a Stephen King novel (both high praise, if only for the existence of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.) So of course I had to see this new remake on its opening weekend.  I did not expect to like it as much as I did, given some of its fundamental flaws, evident early on in the picture. I don't have time to review it, so instead will point to two polar opposite reviews that make compelling cases for and against the movie: Walter Chaw's and Armond White's.

WHERE/WHEN: Multiple showtimes daily at various multiplex theatres in every Frisco Bay county at least through the end of the month.

WHY: Halloween approaches! After posting about Halloween/horror screenings arriving at Frisco Bay cinemas in coming weeks, I was reminded by a reader comment that the Balboa is also hosting two October evenings of horror screenings, namely three silent-era films that have been given new soundtracks (not just music but sound effects and, it appears, dialogue as well) in an attempt to appeal to silent-film averse audiences, and a documentary on local television horror host Bob Wilkins.

After Halloween, the venue is screening a double-bill of 1930s Bela Lugosi horror films The Black Cat and White Zombie on November 7th. For the price being charged I would hope these would be 35mm prints, but I'm skeptical because the event is meant to be a benefit, and a big part of the draw is the presence of San Francisco resident and  horror movie memorabilia collector (oh and Metallica guitarist) Kirk Hammett, along with the display of some of the pieces from his collection which have recently been photographed for publication in a coffee table book. The Another Hole In The Head film festival is also on the horizon at the Balboa and the Roxie, with a just-announced schedule that includes now-rare 35mm screenings of Jaws and The Shining at the Balboa.

HOW: Shot on digital cameras and screening exclusively on digital projectors.

Gravity (2013)

WHO: Emmanuel Lubezski was director of photography for this, and is already being called a "lock" or near to one to earn his first Best Cinematography Oscar for it. I agree with Nathaniel Rogers that this indicates serious trouble in this category. I hope the cinematographers resist pundit and fan pressure and decline to nominate Lubeszki for this- perhaps they can pick him for To The Wonder instead. Because it makes more sense to me for Gravity to be an Animated Feature Oscar nominee than a Cinematography nominee.

WHAT: All that said, I really liked Gravity even if it came up far short of films like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris in conveying more than just thrills on a heightened scale. Then again, it may be unfair to compare this film to science-fiction, which it is not. I recommend Eric Henderson's review.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens multiple times daily into the foreseeable future at nearly half the cinemas on Frisco Bay.

WHY: I haven't usually featured the so-called "movie of the moment" on this blog this year but that's because I rarely find that movie both intriguing to see for a reason other than just being part of a current pop-culture conversation, and worth recommending. But Gravity is certainly well worth a look if you keep you expectations in check. And its box office success makes the Castro's booking of space-set Alien and Dark Star for October 23rd seem very prescient.

HOW: Here's where it gets complicated. I saw Gravity in digital 3D on the Metreon's IMAX screen, but though this is the largest screen in the Bay Area, it was not the IMAX experience (a title card shown before the film started even stated so), as the entire screen was not filled and a wide aspect ratio was maintained. I understand other IMAX screens show it the same way. Yet the full IMAX 3D price was charged. If I revisit the film I will certainly not go with IMAX, and will instead find a cheaper digital 3D screening. I'll admit I'm curious about the multidimensional sound options available through Dolby Atmos, and unavailable at any IMAX showings.

If you're the sort who cannot or does not appreciate 3D for any reason, there are also 2D screenings of Gravity as well, including a 35mm booking at the Balboa

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

WHO: Wes Anderson directed this.

WHAT: Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite new release of 2012. It was the first of Anderson's films since Rushmore that I fell in love with upon a single viewing, although I rewatched it twice in theatres and liked it better and better each time. I think it's because, like Rushmore or Anderson's formative influence the Bill Melendez-made Peanuts specials, the film is almost entirely about children. Adult actors like Bruce Willis, Edward Norton Jr., and Tilda Swinton are on hand to provide some star wattage but they subvert their own personae, and are peripheral to the story. At times they might as well be speaking in the indistinct monotones of Melendez's faceless adult characters, for all the importance their words have to the children in the story.

The Cinetrix wrote a lovely illustrated piece on the film when it came out, but that I only recently came across. I highly recommend clicking on the link.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens at 8:00 tonight on a temporary outdoor screen constructed in Washington Square Park in San Francisco's North Beach.

WHY: Look outside. Maybe you're outside already and looking at this on a portable device. If not, you probably should be. It's a gorgeous day. Last night was a gorgeous evening, and tonight's likely to be just as ideal for an outdoor event. Frisco Bay residents know that September is really our Summer, and it seems almost wasteful to spend to many of the warmest nights this month indoors watching movies. So why not stay outdoors and watch one? The San Francisco Neighborhood Theatre Foundation has for many years now put on outdoor screenings in San Francisco parks. Sometimes the weather doesn't co-operate for the June screenings, but September is pretty golden, and should be especially so tonight.

More outdoor screenings are planned in other Frisco Bay cities, including Berkeley, where the Pacific Film Archive is using the future site of its planned relocated space to show a couple locally-filmed 1970s classics in a few weeks, as well as Redwood City, Oakland, and San Rafael.

Meanwhile, the SFNTF's other major enterprises, the Balboa and the Vogue, are newsworthy this week. The Balboa just successfully achieved its kickstarter goal to raise funds to install state-of-the-art digital projection equipment. I hope the venue is able to retain at least one of its 35mm projectors, and from what I've heard the staff there is hoping to do so too. As for the Vogue, it's going to play host to the San Francisco Film Society's Hong Kong Cinema series on the first weekend in October. I'll discuss that line-up in a near-future post.

HOW: Digital projection.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

WHO: Composer John Williams is, as far as I'm concerned, the most crucial creative contributor to this film.

WHAT: Everyone knows this film. But did you know that an important scene in this film was shot (though not set) in San Francisco, with both Harrison Ford and Karen Allen filmed on location in a familiar SF environment? No, I'm not talking about the brief, actorless shot of the Golden Gate Bridge represented by the screen capture above. Hint: it's a location shared by Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk.

I thought I was a pretty eagle-eyed spotter of my city in films, and had even accepted the task of writing a short essay on the subject in the book World Film Locations: San Francisco, which is newly available for purchase at finer Frisco Bay stores including City Lights and Moe's. But it wasn't until I opened my copy of the book that I realized the San Francisco connection to Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

The format of the World Film Locations series (of which there are more than twenty published so far) is that each book features about forty-five individual scenes from about forty-five different movies, each highlighting one of about forty-five different locations in the city. Most of the featured films are better known for their San Francisco-ness than Raiders of the Lost Ark but I was glad to learn about it and other unexpected entries among the selections. Now I want to revisit the film again, as it's been years since I've seen it in its entirety.

WHERE/WHEN: This morning at the Balboa Theatre only at 10:00 AM.

WHY: George Lucas has long been one of the foremost proponents of digital production and presentation, so it's no surprise that his movies are among those no longer available in 35mm distribution prints. As more and more titles fall into this category it leaves a neighborhood theatre like the Balboa with the option of screening a Blu-Ray or nothing at all. I've heard rumors that some companies (Disney and Fox were mentioned) are becoming reluctant to allow their library to be screened via Blu-Ray in cinemas, meaning only theatres with DCP capability can host showings of their titles. 

Thus the Balboa is holding what I believe to be the first "go digital or go dark"  kickstarter campaign to hit San Francisco. These crowd-funding appeals for funds to purchase new DCP-level projection equipment have been spreading across the nation in 2012 and 2013, thanks to major studio threats to make it impossible for a commercial theatre to legally screen any of their properties in formats other than DCP. The closest-to-home theatre to attempt one of these campaigns before the Balboa was the Rio Vista, a Quonset hut cinema up on the Russian River Noeth if Frisco Bay. Their campaign was successful, and it's looking pretty good for the Balboa too, as it's about halfway to its goal for bringing DCP to one of its two theatres, with 40 days left in the campaign. 

Meanwhile the venue is showing, along with 35mm prints of two of the only mainstream releases available that way (the Butler and Elysium), less-than-DCP quality digital screenings of all three 1980s Indiana Jones movies on successive Saturdays in August, and a documentary on VHS tape collectors that was reviewed by Cheryl Eddy in this week's Bay Guardian.

Finally, for fans of Lucas and John Williams and Harrison Ford and digital projection, it's just been announced that the Mill Valley Film Festival will screen Return of the Jedi at the Corte Madera Cinema October 7th. Beside Still Waters is the only other announced festival title so far; it plays October 12th.

HOW: Raiders of the Lost Ark screens as a Blu-Ray projection. A free popcorn and drink are included in the $10 ticket price.

Pacific Rim (2013)

WHO: Guillermo Del Toro co-wrote and directed this.

WHAT: I've seen a few more stereotypical "summer movies" this year than I usually do. Perhaps it's because, with the (temporary) closure of the Embarcadero and the (sadly permanent) closure of the Bridge and the Lumiere, there are fewer arthouse options calling me to the cinema this summer than in prior years. So far my favorite of the gargantuan-budgeted studio releases, my favorite has been the widely reviled The Lone Ranger, which I hope to make time to write about before it disappears from local screens- but that day is not today. So instead, Pacific Rim. I can't say I liked it very much, other than a few touches revolving around the fairly well-handled Mako Mori character.

If you want to read a generally favorable take on Pacific Rim that is nonetheless rational about some of its shortcomings, there's probably no-one better than Vern to provide it for you. But my friend Dennis Cozzalio (from whom I have brazenly borrowed he above still, hoping he doesn't mind) sums up my impression quite nicely:

Del Toro's monster mash makes a hell of a racket, but it goes nowhere, and not particularly fast at that. The sinking feeling I got from watching the trailers, which was dissipated somewhat by some of the decent reviews, came back very quickly as I waited for the endless battle sequences to amount to something-- anything-- but the conclusion of Pacific Rim ends up as routine as everything that came before it, and just as exhausting as well.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens multiple times daily at the Balboa through Thursday, and at many other theatres throughout the area through Thursday and beyond, although its screen count will drop Friday to make way for the next would-be blockbusters.

WHY: Why feature a movie I didn't particularly care for on a day when there are interesting films (albeit unseen by me) playing at (for example) the Stanford or the Roxie?

Because it seems like a perfect opportunity to remind readers of an upcoming screening of the film that more than any other Pacific Rim owes its existence to. Of course I speak of Ishiro Honda's 1954 Godzilla, which has its own remake on the way, but more importantly screens at the the most palatial movie venue on Frisco Bay in just over two weeks.

The Paramount Theatre in Oakland was designed by Timothy Pflueger's firm and erected in 1931, making his company's Castro Theatre design from ten years prior seem like a mere warm-up. It's quite a bit larger and more elaborate, not to mention better preserved than the Castro (where the ceiling paint is noticeably peeling, as a friend pointed out to me as we sat in the balcony this past weekend). But it's not an ideal venue for movies in which making out lots of dialogue is, er, paramount to appreciation of the film (I still have bad memories of a showing of His Girl Friday there), as, last I checked, the audio track can be muddy with certain prints. Thus it's used more frequently as a concert venue (its sound problems don't seem to extend to live performances for some reason), and is ideal for silent film screenings with live accompaniment, as anyone who attended Napoléon there last year will attest.

I've never known the Paramount to screen a foreign-dialogue film with English subtitles before, however. Godzilla will screen, I understand, in its original Japanese-language version, with subtitles translated and prepared by Michie Yamakawa and Bruce Goldstein in 2004. This might work. This might be awesome. With the energy of a big enough audience there, it WILL be awesome.

Akira Ifukube's score and Godzilla's signature vocalizations should come through fine, and if the dialogue doesn't it won't be much of a problem for English-language readers. As usual at the Paramount there will be a cartoon, newsreel, and live organ performance beforehand. Best of all, the show will only cost five dollars a ticket. At those prices, your budget may be able to also afford the cocktails available to be enjoyed in style in the glorious Grand Lobby or one of the ornately Art Deco lounges,

So if your friends ask you to go along with them to see Pacific Rim, consider taking them up on it. Maybe you'll like it better than Dennis or I did. But whether you do or not, make sure to tell them to come along with you to Godzilla at the Paramount August 9th so you all can see what a time-tested kaiju eiga (monster movie) can look like on a REALLY. BIG. SCREEN. Wouldn't it be great if 1700 people filled every seat in the house for a showing of a 1954 Japanese movie?

HOW: 35mm print at the Balboa, and digitally in 2D, 3D, and (at least through Thursday) 3D IMAX (at the Metreon) and "LieMax" (at other venues using the IMAX brand) elsewhere. It was shot in digital 2D, so 3D versions are post-converted.

I Walked With A Zombie (1943)

WHO: Val Lewton is credited as the producer and uncredited as a writer on this.

WHAT: It sounds like the basest of exploitation films from its title, but say I Walked With A Zombie enough times and you eventually may hear in it the poetry that Lewton and his director Jacques Tourneur were able to imbue into the film itself. Yes it deals with the supernatural but in perhaps the most elegant and honest way imaginable in a film. Lewton was tasked with creating low-cost films to compete with the iconic and incredibly popular monsters of the Universal House of Horrors, which in the 1940s was given to team-up films like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, privileging characters over genuine chills. Lewton's studio RKO had no properties suitable for such treatment (how can you make a King Kong movie for less than $150,000?), which was all the better for Lewton: he applied his imagination and drew inspiration from his own biography (Cat People, his first film, in some ways mirrored his personal history as a Crimea-born immigrant from a Jewish-turned-Russian Orthodox family, who became baptized as Episcopalian upon arrival in the US) and from public-domain literature.

I Walked With A Zombie is loosely an adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, transposed to a fictitious Caribbean isle called Saint Sebastian. If it shares (as some commentators have noted) similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's Eyre-esque Rebecca, it wouldn't be a surprise as Lewton assisted in that Oscar-winning film's production while at his previous Hollywood job working under mega-producer David O. Selznick. But I Walked With A Zombie is, in my book, a better film than Rebecca. It packs twice as much eerieness and overwhelming mood into half the running time of the Hitchcock film, and includes unique-for-its-time commentary on relations between whites and blacks, and one group's relative obliviousness to the other. It's a masterpiece for all these reasons and more.

WHERE/WHEN: Today and tomorrow at the Stanford Theatre at 7:30.

WHY: Although David Packard and his film booking team behind the Stanford have been known to program films based on current events (such as timing a run of the 1951 musical Royal Wedding with Prince William's), I can't remember ever detecting any acknowledgement of current Hollywood trends in the venue's programming choices. After all, the Stanford devotes its screen entirely to films made before the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential administration (with the very occasional exception made for a few certain favored filmmakers like Howard Hawks, Akira Kurosawa, Katharine Hepburn and Satyajit Ray). Why should they notice what's playing at the multiplexes in nearby Redwood City or Mountain View?

But today's double bill of two Lewton-produced films, I Walked With A Zombie and Isle of the Dead (a film about a plague and quarantine in Greece, and inspired by an Arnold Böcklin painting that is seen hanging in I Walked With A Zombie as well), seems somehow calculated as a response to the nation's current #2 movie at the box office, which has already in one week brought in more raw dollars (not adjusted for inflation) than any other zombie movie released in US history. I haven't seen World War Z so perhaps I should refrain from snide judgments- although I've never been a fan of its director Marc Forster. I Walked With A Zombie was a big box office hit in its day as well, and likely was sneered at sight unseen by certain moviegoers, and it lives on today as a cult classic appreciated both by horror fans and art-movie lovers.

More films appealing to arthouse and horror audiences playing on Frisco Bay this summer include Cat People, booked at the Stanford August 21-23 on a double-bill with the decidedly-non-horror (but exquisitely beautiful) Lewton picture Curse of the Cat People. The Castro Theatre brings a July 12th double-bill of The Exorcist (by avowed Lewton aficionado William Friedkin) in DCP, and a 35mm print of Dario Argento's Suspiria. The day before that another Castro bill places Charles Laughton's 1955 Night of the Hunter, which I dare say might be called Lewtonesque, with a film by another Lewton fan, Martin Scorsese; it's his 1991 remake of Cape Fear; both of these in 35mm. Horror is practically the only major genre not included on Silent Film Festival program, which brings comedies, dramas, a Western and a Scandinavian "Northern" to the Castro July 18-21. So the Balboa Theatre's July 13th screening of Paul Wegener's The Golem will have to suffice for silent film fans eager to see early precursors to the horrors of Universal and Lewton.

The Roxie, meanwhile, is showing another Dario Argento classic on 35mm: Tenebre, which like Suspiria was scored by the members of the band Goblin (who is making a stop at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco October 20th as part of its first-ever North American tour; tickets go on sale tomorrow). They also screen Berberian Sound Studio tonight (it's last night of a week-long run) and, as part of the Frozen Film Festival, a documentary about the making of Rosemary's Baby.

Finally, the Mission Street restaurant Foreign Cinema is showing Rebecca nightly from July 19 through August 4th. I've never actually attended this venue, and am not sure if they still show 35mm prints as they did when they first opened in 1999, nor whether it's at all a worthwhile place to watch a movie- most reports I've heard say the films are really used as no more than ambiance for the dinner experience; in other words it's no New Parkway. But I'd like to hear from anyone who has had experiences eating and trying to watch a movie there.

HOW: I Walked With A Zombie screens on a 35mm double-bill with Isle of the Dead.

The Long Goodbye (1973)

WHO: Robert Altman directed this.

WHAT: Smack dab in the middle of Altman's unbeatable string of truly great films that ran from Brewster McCloud in 1970 to Nashville in 1975 (and that perhaps extended even longer on both ends for people who like MASH and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson a bit more than I do) is his version of Raymond Chandler, the missing link between (for instance) Murder, My Sweet and The Big Lebowski. It's been far too long since I've last seen it, though I've read a lot of writing about it in the meantime, including a great take by James Naremore, from whom I shall now quote:

The underlying concept is intriguing: Elliot Gould is intentionally miscast as Philip Marlowe, and the setting is updated to contemporary, dope-crazed Los Angeles, where the private eye becomes a ridiculous anachronism.

WHERE/WHEN: Tonight only at the Phyllis Wattis Theatre at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, at 7:00.

WHY: With SFMOMA shutting its revolving doors for an extensive remodeling project in a week and a half, the Wattis, one of the key venues for film projection in San Francisco, will be out of commission for more than two years. It's hard to think of a more aptly-titled film to mark tonight's final 35mm projection at the museum before the projectors are to be removed.

The good news is that tonight's "long goodbye" is really a "see you later," because the projectors are just going into storage for the extensive construction period, and are expected to be re-installed in time for the museum's reopening in early 2016. And when they are, they may get used more frequently than ever, as part of the museum makeover is the addition of a separate entrance to the theatre from the outside, so that screenings will be able to happen at times when the museum galleries are closed. Which means the Wattis, previously been limited to Thursday evening and daytime screenings, will have the flexibility to hold evening programs more than once a week upon reopening. So while a piece of the Frisco Bay specialty film-screening puzzle will be missed for a while, it has the potential to come back with more passion and power than ever before.

If you've been immersed in the Roxie's classic noir series (which ends tonight with a double-bill of Criss Cross and The Crooked Way) over the past two weeks, The Long Goodbye may be a good way to ease back into the modern world with a merely forty-year-old detective film rather than the sixty- or eighty-year-old films that made up the bulk of that series.

And if you want to see another Altman film on the big screen soon, try the Balboa Theatre, which will screen Popeye on June 8th as part of a weekly Saturday matinee series of kid-friendly films, that started last week.

HOW: 35mm print

Peter Pan (1924)

WHO: Anna May Wong has a very small but very memorable role as Tiger Lily in this.

WHAT: The silent version of J.M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up is for my money still the best screen adaptation of this famous tale. Yes, we all know the Disney version but the Paramount version directed by Herbert Brenon is far more faithful to Barrie's stage original. (Barrie scholars have written that the playwright in fact was dissatisfied with the film for being too faithful to his stagings; he was hoping Hollywood technologies would be used to further expand the scope of his play, but his suggestions went unused.)

One convention of Peter Pan performances was the casting of a young woman in the title role, for "purely practical" reasons as Heidi de Vries puts it: "girls were lighter in the harnesses that were required to lift them up into the air for the flying effects." Brenon's fidelity to staged versions extended to this convention, and 17-year-old Betty Bronson was given the Peter Pan role in his film. An in-the-know audience can't help but recognize the lesbian implications of this casting choice, given that both Wendy (played by Mary Brian) and Tiger Lily are more explicitly (if unrequitedly) romantically interested in Peter in this version than in Disney's. Although Anna May Wong has few scenes as Tiger Lily, in one of them she memorably rubs noses with Bronson affectionately, an action which is clearly meant to be a stand-in for a kiss. So while this isn't the first on-screen interracial, same-sex kiss, it may be the closest a 1920s film came to such a portrayal. At any rate it's probably the only silent film example of face-to-face contact between a white woman in male drag, and a Chinese-American woman in costume as an Indian from a fictitious tribe.

(Speaking of which, although the portrayals of the tribe is based on the stereotypes held by a playwright who knew of America only through what he read, such as the works of James Fenimore Cooper, there's nothing nearly as cringe-inducing as what the 1953 cartoon did with these characters. Still, if you bring children to the screening, it would be a good opportunity to talk to them about racial stereotypes and the use of actors of one ethnicity to portray another.)

WHERE/WHEN: Two screenings today only at the Balboa Theatre, the first a 4:00 PM "Family Matinee" and the second as part of the Balboa's annual Birthday Bash, celebrating 87 years of this stalwart movie house festivities starting at 7PM but Peter Pan starting well after that, if previous years are an indication.

WHY: The Balboa's Birthday Bash is one of the most underrated silent film events of the calendar year, especially when it comes to value for money. For a regular ticket price every attendee gets to see a feature film and shorts with live musical accompaniment, as well as other live entertainment as well as a chance to win terrific prizes for knowing silent film trivia. Not to mention the complimentary cake and door prizes, which when I attended two years ago were worth more than the ticket price to begin with!

If you liked seeing Anna May Wong shine in a small role in The Thief of Bagdad at the most recent San Francisco silent film event, the Silent Winter held two weeks ago, you'll definitely want to see a glimpse of her again here. Of course she's also in Shanghai Express at the Roxie today, but it's quite possible for a dedicated cinephile with a free Sunday to make it to screenings of both that and Peter Pan. The next chance to see Wong on screen I'm aware of will be April 13th at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's theatre, where she appears in an Earthquake-themed drama called Old San Francisco from 1927. The Niles calendar for March is also up.

Other silent film events on the horizon include this Friday's showing of Safety Last and Cops in the currently-running Cinequest festival in San Jose, and, just announced, the San Francisco Film Society's first announcement for its upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival: a May 7th Castro Theatre screening of the German expressionist showcase Waxworks with live music by Mike Patton, Scott Amendola, Matthias Bossi and William Winant. I'll admittedly be attending this less as a silent film fan but as a longtime fan of other musical projects these men have been involved in, including Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.

HOW: 35mm print, with music performed by accomplished silent film piano accompanist Frederick Hodges.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

WHO: Quvenzhané Wallis was just great in this. her first film role with more on the way.

WHAT: This wasn't among my favorite films of 2012, mostly because I found it stylistically and/or thematically derivative of prior films by David Gordon Green, Spike Jonze and especially Terence Malick, whose influence hangs over the proceedings like a storm cloud over the Bayou. But it contains performances (Wallis's especially) that seem remarkable, and a number of scenes (I'm thinking of the "Girls Girls Girls" scene in particular) that capture a singular poetry worthy of comparison to the films it seems to be emulating.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens three times daily at the Opera Plaza, and twice daily at the Balboa and (in Berkeley) the Elmwood, at least until this Thursday.

WHY: Yes, my hunch was wrong about Amour getting shut out at the Oscars yesterday. I will have to modify my generalized, stereotypical image of Academy members accordingly. In fact, of the nine Best Picture nominees, only one team came out of the evening completely empty-handed: Beasts of the Southern Wild, which went 0 for 4. It had the least number of nominations among the nine (less even than Skyfall, which failed to make the Best Picture slate). During the ceremony, jokes were made from the stage about its status as the most truly "indie" of the nominees (one song lyric said it cost "fifty bucks"; I hope the folks at the San Francisco Film Society have a sense of humor; they awarded a pair of post-production grants and helped ensure editing and visual effects work was done here in San Francisco) and perhaps its nominated participants were simply happy to be there, amidst the entitled Hollywood royalty epitomized by Ben Affleck, whose receipt of a statue as producer of Best Picture-winning Argo didn't seem to do much to change his petulant demeanor, worn presumably because of the massive injustice done to him by the directors' branch that failed to nominate him in that category as well. Never mind the massive injustice his movie does to a great "stranger than fiction" story that deserved a better movie in my opinion. I shudder to think of latecomers entering the theatre to watch this movie after its opening montage has already completed; it's the only moment of the film that provides appropriate political context to a film that teeters dangerously close to jingoistic propaganda otherwise. Anyway, if you can't tell, I wish Beasts of the Southern Wild or any of the other nominees had bested Argo. Now the latter is likely to hang around on local cinema screens a lot longer than the former, which having gone winless I suspect doesn't have much of a theatrical life left in it. Its more modest flaws deserve to be overwhelmed by the big-screen experience.


HOW: In 35mm at the Opera Plaza and the Balboa. Digitally at the Elmwood.