The Two Eyes of Maureen Russell

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Maureen Russell, cinephile and film festival volunteer.

It was hard narrowing down this year’s list after my first pick. This list includes a number of interesting films by or about strong women that I hadn’t previously heard of.

1) Napoleon – Paramount Theatre, Oakland  4/1/12 Directed by Abel Gance. 330 minutes.
I’d never seen this film before and it lived up to all the hype. Albert Diudonné as Napoleon was captivating, the music was excellent, and the time went by quickly. Seeing it at the beautiful Paramount and even having a dinner break added to the experience. Ending with the three screen finale – spectacular all in all.

2) Pandora’s Box San Francisco Silent Film Festival – the Castro Restored film
I’d seen this film a number of times, but with the bits of restored footage added back in, along with the fantastic accompaniment by the Matti Bye Ensemble, this film was complete.  

3) Cleo from 5 to 7 – SFMoMA 7/5/12 Phyllis Wattis Theater Agnès Varda, 1962, 90 min., 35mm (nice print) In French with English subtitles.
Part of the SFMoMA’s Cindy Sherman Selects series, varied picks that inspired her photography. (I also enjoyed Seconds 7/19/12 John Frankenheimer, 1966, 35mm) This film takes place in almost real time.  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

4) Children of Paradise – the Castro  5/21/12 Pathé's new restoration, shown DCP  191 minutes
I was fascinated following the lead actress Arletty and this interwoven story.

5) Daisies – the Roxie – Nov. 28 A new 35mm print. Dir: Vera Chytilová. Starring Ivana Karbanova and Jitka Cerhova. Czechoslovakia. 1966. In Czech w/ English subtitles. 76 min.  

6) Roxie Punk films – SF shorts  7/28/12 Series trailer
This was a great series. San Francisco night – with a large crowd and directors in attendance – was my favorite.

From the event publicity notes: "This Must Be The Place: Post-Punk Tribes 1978-1982 is a series of short films documenting the regional post-punk scenes in the UK, France, Los Angeles/Orange County, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, New York City, and elsewhere. SFMoMA's Gina Basso and Roxie programmer Mike Keegan have curated the most provocative and rarely seen visual documents of that profoundly important period in the history of DIY and underground culture.
"I Can See It And I’m Part Of It: San Francisco Punk Portraits 1978 - 82" In The Red is a slice of life from the perspective of two friends (co-directors Liz Keim and Karen Merchant) who followed the scene at close range.  Dirs: Liz Keim & Karen Merchant. Digital. 1978. 20 mins.
Louder, Faster, Shorter is raw and powerful performance document recorded at the Mabuhay Gardens in March 1978. Bands: UXA, The Dils, The Avengers, Sleepers, and Mutants  Dir: Mindaugus Bagdon. 16mm. 1978. 17 mins.
Bruce Conner segment includes music videos he made during this time: Mongoloid (music by Devo), and Mea Culpa (feauturing music by David Byrne & Brian Eno). Dir: Bruce Conner. Digital. 1977 – 1981."

Also enjoyed as part of the series: Sunday, July 29: Debt Begins At 20 Dir: Stephanie Beroes. 16mm. 1980. 50 mins. Pittsburgh Downtown 81 Dir: Edo Bertoglio. Written by Glen O’Brien. 35mm. 1981. 73 mins. Manhattan

7) Christiane F – the Roxie, 35 mm print, 4/6/12
I hadn’t seen this one in years.

8) The Docks of New York – the Castro – 7/15/12 Presented at the 2012 SF Silent Film Festival USA, 1928. Director Josef von Sternberg great cast George Bancroft (Bill Roberts), Betty Compson (Mae), Olga Baclanova (His wife), Musical Accompaniment: Donald Sosin on grand piano

9) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)– the Castro – 12/30/12
First time for me seeing this; best way to see it on the Castro’s screen. Digital restoration.

10) The Killers (1964) / Point Blank (1967) Noir City – the Castro, Jan 21, 2012. Angie Dickinson in person, interviewed in between films.
I’d never seen either of these films before. Great double feature.

The Two Eyes Of Michael Hawley

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Michael Hawley, who allowed me to republish these selections from his annual round-up at his site film-415.

2012 Favorite Repertory/Revivals Screenings

Yellow Submarine (1968, UK/USA, dir. George Dunning, Castro Theatre)
As best as I can remember, this new restoration is the only film on the list that was projected digitally. And as much as I hate to admit it, was all the better for it. A trippy, eye-popping joyride.

Napoleon (1927, France, dir. Abel Gance, Paramount Theatre)
Kevin Brownlow's restoration of this silent classic presented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival was, of course, the repertory event of the year. While I can't say I was enraptured by all 330 minutes, Part I (Napoleon's childhood) and the grand three-screen finale were more thrilling than anything else I watched all year.

American Graffiti (1973, USA, dir. George Lucas, Pacific Film Archive)
I hadn't seen this in over 30 years and it held up shockingly well. The screening featured a conversation with costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers, for whom this was a first film. Rodgers shared dozens of anecdotes, my favorite being the great lengths taken to keep Richard Dreyfuss' sweat from bleeding his madras shirt, all in the service of continuity.

Quadrophenia (1979, UK, dir. Franc Roddam, Castro Theatre)
The experience of seeing this San Francisco International Film Festival late-show presentation of The Who's second filmed rock opera began while waiting in line, with two dozen motor-scooters with costumed riders pulling up in front of the Castro Theatre. During the screening, drunk and unruly wanna-be Mods and Rockers cheered and hurled insults at each, while others sang along to The Who's anthems. The new, pristine 35mm print was being projected for only the third time, and the highlight, as it was when I first saw the film 33 years ago, was Sting's nearly wordless, uber-cool performance as the king of the Mods.

Underworld USA (1961, USA, dir Sam Fuller, Castro Theatre)
I was lucky enough to catch all but one of the 26 flicks on offer at 2012's Noir City. Most were pretty darn fabulous, but this gritty revenge tale starring Cliff Robertson managed to stand out. Other highlights included the inane slapstick of Frank Tashlin-scripted The Good Humor Man, the slatternly haughtiness of Beverly Michaels in Pickup and the Angie Dickinson double bill of The Killers and Point Blank (with Dickinson herself on-stage in conversation with Eddie Muller).

Animal Crackers (1930, USA, dir. Victor Heerman, Castro Theatre)
Monkey Business (1931, USA, dir. Norman Z. McLeod, Castro Theatre)
Horse Feathers (1932, USA, dir. Norman Z. McLeod, Castro Theatre)
There were plenty of terrific revivals going on at the Castro outside the realm of 2012's film festivals, including this revelatory triple bill of the Marx Brothers' second, third and fourth features – and all for the price of one movie. Another memorable 3-way for the budget conscious was a Saturday marathon of Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love and 2046.

Possession (1981, France/West Germany, dir. Andrzej Zulawski, Castro Theatre)
The Tenant (1976, France, dir. Roman Polanski, Castro Theatre)
More love for the Castro Theatre, this time for their inspired double bills, and in particular this Isabelle Adjani creep-fest with gorgeous 35mm prints which looked like they'd been struck yesterday. I was also thrilled to partake in 2012 double bills of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2, and Boogie Nights with Pulp Fiction.

The Cheat (1931, USA, dir. George Abbott, Roxie Theater)
As a Tallulah Bankhead obsessive, this was of course my favorite of the eight films I caught during programmer Elliot Lavine's springtime pre-code series, "Hollywood Before the Code: Nasty-Ass Films For a Nasty-Ass World." Another highlight was finally getting to see the "Sweet Marijuana" production number from Mitchell Leisen's très risqué 1934 flick, Murder at the Vanities, complete with bare-breasted chorines posing as singing cactus flowers.

Come Back Africa (1959, USA, dir. Lionel Rogosin, Roxie Theater)
Seeing and hearing Miriam Makeba sing two songs in an intimate living-room setting was the high point of this film about one black man's struggles in apartheid-era South Africa. The screening I attended was followed by a live performance by the Vukani Mawethu Choir, who sang a selection of South African freedom songs. Talk about your value-added in-cinema experience! Other memorable 2012 revivals at the Roxie include Shirley Clarke's The Connection and 60's live-concert movie, The Big T.N.T. Show.

The Docks of New York (1928, USA, dir. Josef Von Sternberg, Castro Theatre)
Last, but certainly not least was this utterly exquisite love story set in a shabby waterfront saloon, my favorite of the 15 programs I saw at this year's better-than-ever San Francisco Silent Film Festival. There wasn't a single dud in this year's line-up, although I regret having to miss the Alloy Orchestra accompany The Overcoat, due to the REALLY late start time of the festival's Centerpiece Film, Pandora's Box. Other standouts included my first exposure to Pola Negri in The Spanish Dancer, the beautiful heartbreak of The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna, the dashing antics of Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro and of course, Buster Keaton in the closing night film, The Cameraman.

The Two Eyes Of Jason Wiener

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Jason Wiener of jasonwatchesmovies.blogspot.com.

This is only in approximate order. Most anything on this list could move up or down a few spots. And as always, the hardest part was narrowing it down to ten. You'll notice a few times I've cheated and listed double features as one entry. For each entry I've linked to my review at the time on jasonwatchesmovies.blogspot.com. For the most part, I have not re-read those reviews. Or at most briefly skimmed them. It amuses me after the fact to compare what I remember of the screenings now to what I wrote at the time. I invite you to delve in and see if I say anything really different now than I did right after the screening. Anyway, here we go:

10. Phantom of the Opera (1943) at the Stanford Theatre. As much as I simply love this movie, the only reason it made the elite top ten list against tons of worthy competition is because it was projected on silver nitrate film. The Stanford is one of the very few theaters (I've heard as low as 2, but I won't swear that's true) in the country that is up to code to play this highly flammable film stock. And I had always been told how much brighter, crisper, and more vibrant silver nitrate is over safety film (we won't even speak about digital for the moment.) Simply told, it "pops." And this screening popped my silver nitrate cherry. The reason it's so low on the list is because I didn't see much of a difference. And I'll just leave it at that rather than extending that sexual metaphor more. Although I have been told that with older films (particularly black and white silent films from the teens or '20s) the difference is much more noticeable.

9. Forbidden Zone (1982) at the Terra Gallery as part of Another Hole in the Head. This movie is a real piece of work. There's a few semi-controversial things about this choice. First, the Terra Gallery is not typically a venue for movies. Second, it was shown on DVD (not even Blu-ray or DCP digital projection, but just a DVD.) Neither of those really disqualify it for me. But the third point is most controversial--it was the recently colorized version, so it's kind of questionable to call this an old movie. For the record, Richard Elfman claimed he always wanted it to be colorized--via the hand-tinting process used in old silent films. In any case, it makes the list because it was my second time seeing it and after being totally befuddled (while amused) the first time, it actually started making sense this time. And that scared me more than anything else at San Francisco's premiere horror movie festival. Can't wait for the sequel.

8. A double feature of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) at the Dark Room for Bad Movie Night. What the hell, I love Bad Movie Night. And these are great movies. And the night was proof that you can have a lot of good, twisted fun getting drunk (which I no longer do at Bad Movie Night, but that's another story) and making fun of movies that you actually like quite a lot.

7. Target Earth (1954) at the Niles Film Museum in their Halloween Creature Features show. I could have filled this entire list with all the stuff I saw at Niles (full disclosure, I volunteer there. Come by some weekend and I might just give you a tour of their original 1913 projection booth. And I feel kind of like a skunk allowing it to be represented by something other than one of their great Saturday night silent film programs. But this was more than just a Halloween presentation of a really cheesy 1950's sci-fi flick. It was a reconstruction of a classic Bob Wilkins episode of Creature Features, complete with Wilkins' humorous comments, interviews, vintage commercials, etc. Since the tapes were nearly always written over in the next week, this is one of only four episodes that survive (and only two that have been reconstructed.) Weird thing is, I didn't even live in the Bay Area at the right time to see it originally. So I'm actually enjoying some faux nostalgia here. I don't care if it's fake, it's still good nostalgia.

6. Double feature: Something Wild (1986) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) at the Roxie as part of Not Necessarily Noir III. Weird, looking back at my records I learned two things: First, I had said that before last year I had seen Something Wild about 10 years ago. Second, I learned that I had actually seen it just one year prior at the Vortex Room. Anyway, what really put it on my list is for some reason this is the first time I got that Melanie Griffith's character was trying to be Louise Brooks (even calling herself Lulu.) I don't know why I hadn't caught that when I saw it in 2011. But seeing that--and realizing Lulu in fact spent the whole movie worshiping and trying to emulate powerful strong women--really added something for me. I guess I could have just put Something Wild in this entry, but Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was also just a hell of a lot of fun and also featured a strong woman. So it makes a good strong woman double feature.  As an aside, when I pared this list down from about 20 entries on my first pass to 10 entries for the final list, I dropped more screenings from the Roxie than any other theater. In fact, this was the only Roxie screening that made the cut. And that seems...wrong. I love the Roxie and just have way too many great experiences there to capture them all.

5. Another double feature: The Muppet Movie (1979) and Phantom of the Paradise (1974) as a Paul Williams double-feature at the Castro Theater. After careful contemplation, I've decided I don't have to say anything the justify my love of either movie or this pairing. The Muppets might just be my favoritest thing ever. And not only is Phantom of the Paradise a brilliantly kooky movie, but it was released into the world on the greatest day in the history of mankind--October 31, 1974 (the same day I was released on the world!) But I will repeat what I noticed about it that day:

When Beef is attacked by the Phantom in the shower, he has a red squiggly temporary tattoo on his cheek. Minutes later, Philbin finds him trying to escape the theater, and now he has a green clover tattoo on his cheek. So his thinking after the attack was, 'I have to go. I'm going to dress, pack my bags, change the tattoo on my cheek, and get the heck out of here!' And he claims to know the difference between drug real and real real.  

4. Pandora's Box (1929) at the Castro in the SF Silent Film Festival. I could've filled this list just with films from the Silent Film Festival. But this was a clear standout. And I don't think I could say it better than a friend of mine did after the screening (paraphrased): Why didn't they just say after this movie, "Okay, that's a wrap! The art form of moving pictures is perfected, nobody needs to make any movies anymore!"

3. (Sort of) a double feature, The Maltese Falcon (1931 and 1941) at the Castro at Noir City. I also could've filled this list just with the awesome things I saw at Noir City. But here's a weird cinephile confession--I had never seen The Maltese Falcon before! And I broke that cherry with both the famous 1941 Bogart version and the lesser-known 1931 version with Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels (who I only knew as Harold Lloyd's leading lady in the silent comedies.) And I love quite a lot about the sleazier pre-code version, especially when Sam Spade challenges Ruth/Brigid to buy his loyalty with something other than just money. Mary Astor needs it spelled out for her, but Bebe Daniels knew what Ricardo Cortez meant right away. Still, the Bogart/Astor version is the classic, and rightly so. It was just such a treat to see them both on the same day (although it wasn't really a double feature because there were a few other movies in between.)

2. Faust (1926) at the California Theatre, San Jose during Cinequest. A masterpiece by Murnau. Dennis James rocking the Mighty Wurlitzer (pre-show he claimed the California has the most powerful Wurlitzer in the country, and he would play it at full blast.) Mark Goldstein on the Buchla Lightning Wands. Absolutely stunning and thrilling, even near the end of an absolutely exhausting film festival. This was the most amazing silent film--heck any film--experience I had ever had.  And it held that title for just a couple of weeks, because...

1. Napoleon (1927) at the Paramount Theater, Oakland. Simply the best 5+ hours I've spent watching a movie. In fact, the fastest 5 1/2 hours of my life (which is impressive because with intermissions and a dinner break it was more like 8 to 9 hours. There just isn't anything that could possibly occupy the number 1 spot on this list.

Look, I love the fun of sharing and comparing top ten lists (or any top N list.) And for the most part the fun is that there are no right answers. Disagreeing is as much fun as agreeing. I know I've put some things on this list that are fun to put on a list more than they are great movies (The Forbidden Zone, really?) But this is one where I won't tolerate disagreement. Napoleon at the Paramount Theater was the greatest movie event of the year (of my life, really) and if you disagree you simply don't get to pretend to be a cinephile with me (until I forgive and forget...which will take about five minutes.) And if you didn't see it...well that's even worse than seeing it and not putting it number 1 on your list.

The Two Eyes Of Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, an educator, SF Bay Guardian contributer, and MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS programmer

Ficks' Rep Picks

1. 3rd i Film Festival presents
"The Eternal Poet: Raj Kapoor & the Golden Age of Indian Cinema"
@ The Pacific Film Archive
Aag (1948) - 35mm
Barsaat (1949) - 35mm
Awaara (1951) - 35mm
Boot Polish (1954) - 35mm
Shree 420 (1955) - 35mm
Jaagte Raho (1956) - Digital
Bobby (1973) - 35mm

2. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents
Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927) - Poly Vision 35mm (3 Screens)
@ Oakland's Paramount Theatre

3. MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS presents
Peter Bogdanovich's Texasville: Director's Cut (1990) - Laserdisc
@ Lost Weekend's Cinecave Underground Theatre

4. "From a Whisper to a Scream: Discovering Andrzej Zulawski"
@ The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
On the Silver Globe (1976/1988) - 35mm
Third Part of the Night (1971) - 35mm
The Devil (1972) - 35mm
Possession (1981) - 35mm
Szamanka (The Shaman, 1996) - 35mm

5. Dennis James playing the organ
@ The Stanford Theatre
Victor Sjöström's The Wind (1928)
Allan Dwan's Robin Hood (1922)
Erich Von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922)

6. "Bullets and Bikinis: The Films of Andy Sidaris"
@ The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) - 35mm

7. Tribute to Howard Hawks hosted by David Thomson
@ The Stanford Theatre
The Criminal Code (1931) - 35mm
Sergeant York (1941) - 35mm
To Have and Have Not (1944) - 35mm
The Big Sleep (1946) - 35mm
I Was a Male War Bride (1949) - 35mm
The Big Sky (1952) - 35mm
Rio Bravo (1959) - 35mm
Man's Favorite Sport? (1964) - 35mm
El Dorado (1966) - 35mm
Rio Lobo (1970) - 35mm

8. MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS presents "No Pain No Gain" Triple Bill
@ The Castro Theatre
Bring it On (2000) - 35mm
Hairspray (1988) - 35mm
Kickboxer (1989) - Preceded by 18 Jean-Claude Van Damme trailers all on 35mm

9. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents
William Wellman's Wings (1927) w/ Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and Foley sound effects by Ben Burtt and Rodney Sauer - DCP
@ The Castro Theatre

The Two Eyes of Lincoln Spector

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Lincoln Spector of Bayflicks, from where these selections were extracted (with author's permission) to fit the I Only Have Two Eyes format:

Runners-up: 

The Cameraman, Castro, San Francisco Silent Film Festival 

Harlan County, USA, Kabuki, San Francisco International Film Festival 

House of Bamboo and Underworld USA, Castro, Noir City

Always for Pleasure, Pacific Film Archive 

Anti-Commie Double Bill, Pacific Film Archive
35mm film

Last fall, the PFA screened two very different flicks from 1953, Invaders from Mars was silly, cheap, and a lot of unintentional laughs. Pickup on South Street was a revelation. Written and directed by the great Samuel Fuller (2012 was my Sam Fuller year) this Cold War noir stars Richard Widmark as a pickpocket who lifts a wallet containing top-secret information. Soon, the FBI and Communist agents are after him. By the time it was over, I had a new all-time favorite Sam Fuller picture, and a new all-time favorite noir. The PFA screened both films in 35mm with changeover projection (the way film should be projected). The print of Pickup, from Criterion Pictures, was exceptional. My one complaint: The movies would have played better if they had reversed the order.

Lawrence of Arabia, Castro
DCP

This same film, in this same theater, won ninth place last year, as well. That time, it was the 1988 restoration, projected in 70mm. And it looked great. This time, it was the new, 2012 restoration, projected digitally, and despite some flaws, it looked even better. A long, wide, visually expansive epic that cries out for a giant screen, Lawrence also succeeds as an intimate study. Peter O’Toole plays the title character as an emotionally troubled military genius, a megalomaniac and an exhibitionist, riddled with guilt and wanting to become something he knows he can never be. Whoever was working the booth at the Castro that day knew how this type of roadshow epic should be presented. The houselights slowly faded during the overture, reaching full darkness just before the Columbia logo flashed onto the opening curtain. Wonderful as Lawrence looked, I wish the Castro had used a 70mm print of the new restoration, or better yet, had a 4K digital projector. But economics make those options impractical.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Rafael
DCP

Clive Wynne-Candy is an officer and a gentleman. A career soldier in His Majesty’s army, he believes in following the rules of combat–even against an enemy willing to commit atrocities. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp follows Wynne-Candy through four decades, from his dashing youth to a somewhat foolish old age. Along the way, filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger–the same team that created The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus–provide warmth, heartbreak, laughs, and several viewpoints on what it means to be a soldier, a patriot, a young man, an old man, and a decent human being. This beautiful, three-strip Technicolor fable received a major restoration in 2012. Screened through the Rafael’s new digital projector, it looked great. A talk before the screening helped set the scene.

Children of Paradise, Castro
DCP

Have you ever loved a film for decades, then seen it restored, and realized that it’s even better than you thought? That was my experience watching the new restoration of Children of Paradise. Suddenly there were shades of gray and fine details I’d never seen before (was that really one of Arletty’s nipples?). Flaws and scratches and duty stamps have been removed, and what’s left is a beautifully realized past recreated in sumptuous black and white. The most ecstatically French of all French films, Children follows the life of a beautiful woman and four men caught in her orbit–all set in the theater scene of 1840s Paris. That this big, expensive epic was shot in the last months of the Occupation makes it all the more impressive.

Wings, Castro
San Francisco Silent Film Festival  DCP

Live accompaniment by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Ben Burtt, & others  I never cared for realistic sound effects in silent films, but this summer I found the exception to the rule. Sound effects wizard Ben Burtt (Star Wars, WALL-E, and others) used bicycles, drums, a typewriter, several assistants, and devices that I couldn’t possibly name to bring the air and land battles of World War 1 to audio life. Music by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra–one of the best ensembles accompanying silent films today–added emotional heft to the story. But let’s not forget the movie. William Wellman’s Wings, the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar, is a grand epic of regular soldiers at war, taking its time to develop the atmosphere and characters, and foreshadowing an important death. When the action starts, we’re entirely invested. The two leads, Charles (Buddy) Rogers and Richard Arlen, give complete and subtle performances. There’s a moment when Arlen’s character is receiving a medal, and the weary sadness and confusion on his face speaks more eloquently than any dialog ever could. Newly restored, Wings looks more thrilling than it has in at least 80 years.

Napoleon, Oakland Paramount
San Francisco Silent Film Festival  35mm, with the final sequence in three-strip Polyvision

Accompanied by 46-piece orchestra conducted by Carl Davis  I have a confession to make. I went into 2012 all but certain that this event would hit the number 1 spot on this list. I was right. This may have been the greatest movie-going experience of my lifetime. I doubt I have ever seen such a perfect melding of cinema and showmanship. Napoleon requires the special presentation that the Festival provided, and the presentation would overwhelm any other movie. Running 5 1/2 hours (broken up by three intermissions, including a long dinner break), and filled with thousands of extras, this picture is huge in every way. Yet it can be intimate and witty when appropriate. Although the film was made in 1927, it uses the camera and scissors in ways that seem revolutionary today. And 20 minutes before the end, the masking opens up and the screen triples in width, showing us a vast vista recorded by three cameras and shown by three projectors. The audience went wild. I’ve been watching silent films for more than 40 years. Many of them had color tints. But this was my first literally tinted print. Rather than recreating tints on color film, restorer Kevin Brownlow ran black and white film through dye baths, giving the colors a radiance that no photochemical or digital process can replicate. Carl Davis, one of the heroes of modern-day silent film accompaniment, conducted a full orchestra at the screening. His score, which leaned heavily (and appropriately) on Beethoven, added zeal, depth, and beauty to the film.  Talk about a hard act to follow.

The Two Eyes Of David Robson

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from David Robson, proprietor of the House Of Sparrows blog:

In order seen:

- Perturbed though I was that all of the offerings I caught at the Vogue Theatre's Mostly British Film Festival were offered on video, the chance to catch up, in a single month, with Michael Apted's entire 7 UP series was just one gift the series offered. But THE GREAT WHITE SILENCE was the most compelling thing I saw there, its imagery of Antarctica (the first film ever shot there) offered new vitality by a smart and emotive score by Simon Fisher Turner. Scott and four of his companions never returned; in some kind of solidarity, I walked home from the Vogue.

- I'm pretty sure that all of the TWO EYES participants who saw the epic restoration of NAPOLEON at Oakland's Paramount Theatre will include it in their lists. The restoration of Abel Gance's epic (itself only a sixth of the total story he wanted to tell) was certainly one of the major film events of the year, well-served by its orchestral accompaniment in that lovely theatre. A bonus came from seeing it with my girlfriend, who had no idea the three-screen finale was coming and gushed excitedly upon its arrival.

- When I made a vow to never watch the Oscars again if they omitted Raul Ruiz from its In Memorian montage, Mr. Darr gently, firmly (and, of course, correctly) told me that I could be sure it wouldn't happen. And sure enough, the passing of Ruiz, despite his voluminous body of work, to say nothing of the sometimes incredible shit executed within that corpus, warranted nary a blip on Oscar's radar. Pacific Film Archive were more generous, and offered us a series of films unified by their literary origins. And though the series was far from complete, as some observed (though I remain weirdly optimistic that a Ruiz series can never be complete, as I'm positive he created much more work than logged by even his substantial IMDB filmography), it offered this filmgoer a first look at a decent cross-section of his oeuvre. I didn't like everything I saw; THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE STOLEN PAINTING bewitched me with its shadowy labyrinth and quietly witty imagery. And even if Ruiz has finished expanding his work, the end of it is nowhere in sight. It lives.

- A screening of a loose trilogy by Wong Kar-Wai at the Castro gave me a welcome second look at these interconnected romances. Though I remain somewhat distant from DAYS OF BEING WILD and found myself liking 2046 a bit less on seeing it again, I finally, belatedly connected with IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. It's my new favorite of his films, perhaps, its slo-mo fancies, Maggie Cheung's dresses, intimate rooms, and Umebayashi score resonating in my mind even as I sit here recalling it.

- A number of people (maybe a majority) on their list of all-time favorite movies include films they've seen hundreds of times, and would enjoy again. It's not a bad criterion, but there are a couple of films on my list that I've only ever seen once, and fear I may never see again. My experiences with these films are quite special, a one-time-only glimpse of an incredible, intimate but far-away world. Such was my time viewing Zulawski's ON THE SILVER GLOBE (part of a touring retrospective hosted by Joel Shepard at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts). Some movies function like drugs, and you feel your mind expanding, your brain building upon itself to take in, navigate, and fully process the movie unfolding before your eyes. ON THE SILVER GLOBE remains one of the most powerful trips I've ever had, with cinema my sole intoxicant. It's all you need, really.

- I mean god dammit, if all DCP restorations of older films were undertaken with the care, diligence, and fanpassion as the digital PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE that the Castro screened in September, it'd make digital cinema a hell of a lot easier to bear. It looked lovely. And the movie's terrific, of course.

- I woke up late one August Saturday and my mind went to film. I had a particular craving for old school, 35mm thrills that only an aging print of a possibly schlocky movie could provide. What's at the Castro today? EARTHQUAKE. This can't possibly have been a deliberate piece of highly focused (and extremely well-anticipated) film programming, but Mark Robson (no relation)'s ensemble disaster drama was just what the DR ordered. Fantastic.

- Jesse Hawthorne Ficks' Midnites for Maniacs series, though it continues to struggle with the nonavailability of film prints, continued to offer an always intriguing selection of overlooked, semi-underground films for the Castro's audience. And even though it wound up screening (rather beautifully, as it turns out) on Blu-Ray, PHENOMENON became my favorite Dario Argento film at its M4M showing. A rare (unique?) coming-of-age film from its director, PHENOMENON found a lovely setting for its horrors in a weird area outside Zurich, pitched between Argento's supernatural and giallo modes.

- The Not Necessarily Noir 3 series at the Roxie was one of those events that brings out every cinephile in the Bay Area. There really was something for everyone in that sprawling series, with a robust enough selection spanning from well-known gems in the neo-noir canon to rare films seen for the first time by many in the audience. And yet my most treasured film in the series was TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. - though it's a film I know well, the screening here cemented it as an all-time favorite. It's probably William Friedkin's greatest labyrinth: though it yields a number of well-executed crime movie thrills, its more abstract details (from its tricky homoeroticism to its layers of artifice that suggest a film directed by its villain, counterfeiter Rick masters [Willem DaFoe]) continue to resonate and shift decades after its making. It certainly occasioned the most layered and intense post-screening discussion I had after a movie this year. I'm convinced that Roxie programmer Elliot Lavine had some kind of intimate congress with the print he screened, but I'm too polite and unimaginative to speculate here on the details. In any event, Lavine cannily paired the film with Woo's HARD BOILED, a film with as much to say about 1990s Hong Kong as TL&DILA has about 1980s America.

- I can't believe it took me this long to get down to the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, but after my first trip there in October I went a couple of more times before year's end. Most fun was blowing off work early, grabbing Caltrain down, and settling in for the MUMMY'S HAND/WOLF MAN two-fer. I was giddily excited for weeks before the program, and everything from the murky weather to the tastes of buttered popcorn and chocolate mixing in my mouth the the gonzoid fucking energy of THE MUMMY'S HAND made for a memorable night at the movies, and the perfect capper to the Halloween horror season. Exquisite.

The Two Eyes Of Victoria Jaschob

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Victoria Jaschob, freelance writer and Event Planner for the SF Silent Film Festival.

Noir City X: Castro Theater, January 20 – 29th.  As usual, Eddie Muller and company did not disappoint.  Every year, this excellent festival manages to unearth little-known gems (and revive some better-known ones) and, as always, a swell time was had by all.  This year I caught “Bad Girls” night featuring Naked Alibi (Jerry Hopper, 1954), because I’ll watch anything with Gloria Grahame in it, and Pickup (Hugo Haas, 1951), starring the stunningly bad (in a good way) Beverly Michaels, and the director himself as her hen-pecked husband.  Both were highly entertaining.  I also caught one of the oddest films I’ve seen at Noir City:  Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco, 1946), with the incredible cast of Sidney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Peter Lorre.  All three act up a storm in this genre-defying film that blends noir with elements of the supernatural and genuine pathos.  

San Francisco Silent Film Festival 17:  Castro Theater July 12 – 15th  Once again the SFSFF was the high point of my movie-going year.  The standouts for me were Joseph Von Sternberg’s Docks of New York (1928), which has been on my must-see list for years, and confirmed my belief that JVS was truly one of the most innovative and modern filmmakers of his time.  Another wonderful moment was hearing Paul McGann, star of the classic Withnail and I, reading the letters of Ernest Shackleton as accompaniment to Frank Hurley’s South (1919), along with the brilliant Stephen Horne on piano.  Sweden’s Matti Bye Ensemble returned, this time with a new score to one of my all-time favorite films, G.W. Pabst’s masterpiece Pandora’s Box (1929).  This is a film I’ve seen many, many times since joining the army of Louise Brooks devotees in the early 1980’s, but once again, thanks to a beautifully restored print and Matti Bye’s fresh and innovative score, it truly was like seeing it for the first time.   

The Two Eyes Of Jonathan Kiefer

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.

The following list comes from Jonathan Kiefer, a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, whose reviews are collected at jonathankiefer.com.

Five faves, in chronological order:  

1. The Robert Bresson retrospective at the Pacific Film Archive, January-February

2. Napoléon at the Paramount, March

3. Pretty much the entirety of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro, July

4. The double bill of La Jetée and Meshes of the Afternoon at SFMOMA, August

5. L’Age d’Or at YBCA, September

No film was screened during Geoff Dyer and David Thomson’s public conversation at Tosca in March, but Tarkovsky’s Stalker, the subject of Dyer’s lively latest book, was happily discussed. 

The Two Eyes of Ryland Walker Knight

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Ryland Walker Knight, writer, filmmaker, and contributor to this annual project since the beginning.

My repertory cinephilia seems to decrease every year so to keep things simple let me select just one film for this list and say thank you to YBCA for programming Celine et Julie vont en bateau [Celine and Jule Go Boating] earlier this year. It's my favorite movie for a number of reasons but one of the best ways of putting it comes from Dennis Lim: "His signature special effect is the uncanny impression that the story is being generated by the characters as we watch; or, spookier and more thrilling still, by the very act of our watching." The saddest part of the experience was that the crowd consisted of exactly 9 people and three left the screening an hour into it. Seems I'm not the only one with problems with cinema-going, but, by the same token, cinema-going doesn't seem to be the same (across the board) as it was when Brian started this series five years ago. Movies just don't hold the public's attention (and even less of their respect) the way they used to before the HD/flatscreen/streaming shift made this art more product for comfort, to say a private affair, rather than any kind of shared experience. After all, your couch is more comfy than the seats at the Castro, but seeing Thunderbolt and Lightfoot with fifty unknown friends all vibing on crime's absurd logic beats seeing Eyes Without A Face alone in bed eating cookies.

A few days later, a second paragraph was submitted...

For whatever late night reason, my brain failed to register seeing Abel Gance's Napoleon twice last spring at the Paramount. This is baffling. Because both of those screenings were quite dear to me. And both times that the screen opened up into its three panels I felt the true meaning of the word "awesome" in my whole body as if I, in turn, was given the freedom of expression Gance made manifest in that twenty minutes of crowd pleasing triumph trumpeting (and string soaring) capped by one of the most majestic eagles you've ever seen on three screens. And both times I saw the snowball fight, with what I was told are as many as 28 exposures captured in camera, and layered in a rush of simultaneity, the image as giddy as the boys playing heroes and villains (but mostly that little Napoleon playing hero), well, my eyes went pretty bonkers with excitement.

The Two Eyes of Rob Byrne

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Rob Byrne, board president of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and blogger at Starts Thursday. The photograph below is his own, taken during the set-up of the first five events on his list...

1. Napoleon (1927) @ Oakland Paramount, 3/24/12. Opening night!  The realization of a dream.

2. Napoleon (1927) @ Oakland Paramount, 4/1/12. Closing night.  Tears.

3. Napoleon (1927) @ Oakland Paramount, 3/31/12.

4. Napoleon (1927) @ Oakland Paramount, 3/25/12.

5. Napoleon (1927) @ Oakland Paramount, 3/23/12. Dress rehearsal. We're actually going to pull this off!

6. Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna [The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna] (1929) @ Castro (SFSFF), 7/13/12. A revelation. Brigitte Helm performance in the title role may be one of the best of the silent era.  

7. Grand Illusion (1937) @ Castro, 6/12/12.  There's nothing new that anyone can say about this film.  Crystalline new restoration, I just sat back and let soak it in.  So gorgeous I watched it twice.

8. Trailer Trash: A Mini-Movie Extravaganza (1950s-70s) @ PFA, 6/8/12.  A wild and varied potpourri of movie trailers from the PFA collection, many of which originated from Gary Meyer.  Too often ignored, trailers truly deserve recognition as genre apart.

9. Koruto wa ore no pasupooto [A Colt is My Passport] (1967) @ PFA, 9/1/12.  Jô Shishido is a tough guy's tough guy.  In a fight he'd kick Clint Eastwood's ass any day of the week.

10. Crime Watch!  (1922-1973) @ Oddball Film Archive, 9/14/12.  No Top 10 list would be complete without an entry from Oddball, the Bay Area mecca for orphan film.  This program of seven crime/police related films, included Parole (1956) shot on location in San Quentin; Don't Shoot II (a sequel!) (1973), a training film for law officers about when to use their weapons, and Flesh and Leather (1951) starring Hugh Beaumont (aka Ward Cleaver) as a hard boiled private detective trying to unravel a murder.

The Two Eyes Of Adam Hartzell

If you didn't attend some wonderful repertory/revival film screenings in 2012, you missed out. As nobody could see them all, I've recruited Frisco Bay filmgoers to recall some of their own favorites of the year. An index of participants is found here.  

The following list comes from Adam Hartzell, a frequent contributor to Hell on Frisco Bay and other sites, and now available to follow on twitter.

I only have 4-eyes this year, appropriate since I am dependent on glasses in order to see far in front of me.  Here are my favorite rep house events - not necessarily in preferential order

1)  Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, Compensation (Zeinabu irene Davis, 1999, U.S.), part of the L.A. Rebellion Series.  

Of course, Charles Burnett's classic Killer of Sheep (1977) is a masterpiece, but all I was able to catch from the L.A. Rebellion Series was Compensation and what a delight this film was to see.  As Davis noted in her Skype-recorded introduction, she re-configured the structure of the film after she found the best actress for the role, Michelle A. Banks.  Davis incorporated a partial silent film narrative because Banks is Deaf and Davis wanted to make sure Banks' community could enjoy the film as much as hearing folk could.  Such efforts to create a work accessible for a greater number of individuals is just plain awesome!  Again, the PFA is my teacher, introducing me to great cinema from artists I knew nothing about until their programs hit my mailbox.  

2)  Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco - Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay (Antoinette Jadaone, 2011), part of New Filipino Cinema Series  

This list is limited to what we saw in theaters, so I will refrain from mentioning the excellent films, like Benito Bautista's Boundary (2011), that I saw as screeners on DVD, but of the two films I saw in the YBCA theatre, the US premiere of Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay was truly the highlight.  An amazing mock-umentary that leaves the willing real-life subject with such an amazing sense of dignity, you forget  for a moment you were watching a mock-umentary and realize again how fiction can often present us with greater truths than non-fiction.  

3)  The Bridge, San Francisco, Studio Ghibli Retrospective 

The perfect way to say goodbye to The Bridge's last year in operation.  How wonderful to see the long line of patrons queuing up for a screening of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hiyao Miyazaki, 1984).  How nice for my wife to now know that when dubbed with care, My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki, 1988) can translate.  (Although she could do without all the extra music imposed upon necessary breaths of silence.)  What a true joy it was watching Kiki's Delivery Service (Miyazaki, 1989) with my goddaughter's friends.  What a surprise it was to see the amazing Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata, 1991) for the first time and learn that Ghibli doesn't need to just be Miyazaki.  And equally important, how nice to know that Studio Ghibli is human and can fail too with crap like The Cat Returns (Hiroyuki Morita, 2002).  

4)  The Roxie, San Francisco - Dance Craze (Joe Massot, 1981, United Kingdom) at San Francisco Documentary Festival,  

Once,  when I was in high school, the British ska band Madness was coming to The Shoppe, our local record shop back when every town had one, along  with a local bookstore and cinema.  In order to impede my brother and I  from playing hooky to meet them, my mother offered to go in our place and get albums signed for me, my brother, and our cousin Nathan.  I ended up with a signed copy of the 'One Step Beyond' 12-inch.  I also ended up with a story of my mother telling the young men of Madness - I really hope it was Suggs - "I don't know anything about you boys, but my sons sure like you."  

That is why I went to see Dance Craze as a double date with my British friend who experienced much of what we were witnessing on screen.  Dance Craze is a wonderful snapshot and breakbeat of the  vibrancy of youth creating (or, in this case, re-creating, since this was a revival of the ska genre) musical movement that would make its way to my little city of Berea, Ohio well across the pond.