David Robson Only Has Two Eyes

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

The following list comes from cinephile David Robson, who blogs at The House Of Sparrows.

Top ten Frisco Bay rep experiences, unranked and in no particular order:

--I can't think of a filmmaker more deserving of a PFA retrospective than Claire Denis. The series was essential viewing, propelling the previously-unseen BEAU TRAVAIL straight into my alltime favorites, and offering another look at her don't-call-it-a-vampire-movie movie TROUBLE EVERY DAY (which remains every bit as harrowing ten years later). A perfect encore came to the Castro Theatre a few weeks later, as Tindersticks performed their Denis scores accompanied by scenes from those films. I can't recall another screening this year that left me so elated.

--The cinemas of Frisco Bay conspired unwittingly to make me re-examine the films of Francois Truffaut. I'd dismissed him (quite, quite stupidly) as inferior to and less ambitious than Godard, but this is your classic apples/oranges comparison. The Roxie's screenings of the Antoine Doinel series offered a wonderful all-in-one opportunity (though I understand my girlfriend's preference to keep the final freeze-frame of THE 400 BLOWS as the last word, watching the older Doinel's misadventures in work and love was a delight). A couple of theatres offered a look at SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (which now strikes me as a superior film to BREATHLESS, certainly a warmer one). And Truffaut's gun-toting femmes (the Cahiers crowd loved their Monogram b-pics) closed out the year, as THE SOFT SKIN and THE BRIDE WORE BLACK unloaded in two different theatres (the Castro and New People, respectively). May the crash course continue into 2012. (Though Woody Allen's oeuvre also benefitted from generous Frisco Bay programming [as well as an essential two-part documentary on PBS], the Truffaut revelation was a more striking one for me.)

--Though the Red Vic eventually went into that good night, they did so with a weeks-long grand finale of great programming. The crucial screening: WINGS OF DESIRE, so much a masterpiece I had taken it for granted, yet seeing it again was like a visit with cherished, too-rarely-seen friends. I don't believe that the mortality of the space juiced my reaction to this most precious of films; the divinity of the film did help process the passing of Peter Falk later that week.

--The Castro remembered Anne Francis with an excellent double feature. FORBIDDEN PLANET felt more otherworldly in that space than it ever could on video, and the new-to-these-eyes BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK was a compelling modern-day Western. It's little wonder that BLACK ROCK director John Sturges would remake SEVEN SAMURAI; BLACK ROCK arranges its characters in monumental configurations that anticipate HIGH & LOW's forest of detectives, and Spencer Tracy leavens his usual integrity with Mifune grit. A wonderful screening, sent into the stratosphere when Castro organist David Hegarty layered Wurlitzer chimes over the Barron's electronic FORBIDDEN PLANET end music. Sublime.

--The ongoing house imprisonment/legal limbo experienced by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi occasioned the screening of his recent films, including the glorious OFFSIDE. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts programmer Joel Shepard generously threw in Abbas Kiarostami's CLOSE-UP (which is, indeed, Kiarostami's masterpiece, and as effective a demolition of the borders between film and reality as any I've seen). Those who offer knee-jerk assent to our politicians who would attack Iran would find the country's cinema an eye-opener. Entertaining, too.

--I was as delighted as anyone else when the SF Film Society took over the Viz theatre at New People. And yet I felt like the sterling Japanese programming (specifically the anime) that the Viz had provided would completely disappear (worse, no one was lamenting that possibility). I'm pleased to see that my fears were unfounded, and that New People's programming continues in that space on at least a sporadic basis. Pleased am I also to see anime continuing as a staple in that space, as there's usually at least one anime screening there that turns out to be a favorite for the year. Seeing both films in the reboot of the long running EVANGELION series back to back (essential, given the convolution of the series' plot) made for a truly epic experience, eclipsing lesser sci-fi blockbusters with more ambitious scope, utterly batshit energy, and a disarmingly emotional core.

--The Castro's screening of David Lynch's DUNE revealed it to be the MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS of his oeuvre: a seriously compromised work that nonetheless contains many of the maker's familiar tropes and tics. It's a shame Lynch has disowned it; for all of the sci-fi imagery and De Laurentiian excesses of the film, its cast, grotesquerie, dream imagery, and heroic journey are all quintessential Lynch.

--Nice as it was to finally see the original FRIGHT NIGHT and EXORCIST III on the big screen, I gotta say the most gratifying screening of the Halloween season was THE HOLE, a charming and family-friendly 3-D offering from Joe Dante. It's rife with both the creepiness that Dante's brought to earlier films and his bracing humanism. In short it's utterly accessible, and I can see no compelling reason why it's been shelved for so long - I'm kind of appalled that the screening I saw was the three-years-old-and-counting film's US premiere.

--That screening came courtesy Jesse Hawthorne Ficks' Midnites for Maniacs series, which continues to shed light on genre cinema from bygone decades. A number of fine films were revisited at the Castro courtesy that series, and it gave me (and hundreds of others) a chance to assess the famous debacle that was Elaine May's ISHTAR. Decades after the hype that killed it, the film was revealed to be a warm and funny buddy picture, and an illuminating portrait of America's cluelessness in dealing with the Middle East.

--I wish all silent film accompanists were as skilled and sonically adept as Ava Mendoza and Nick Tamburro; their propulsive but nuanced after-hours score for Roland West's THE BAT added depth, grit, and suspense to the film's artful shadows, funny but never cutesy, adventurous but always serving the film. An ambitious programming choice for SFFS that paid off beautifully, and ideal for their intimate New People space.

Plus one that got away: I'm kicking myself for not seeing more of PFA's Jerzy Skolimowski series. The three films I did see (the quietly, darkly wrong FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA; the tone-perfect Nabokov adaptation KING QUEEN KNAVE; and ESSENTIAL KILLING, the politically-apolitical allegory of an imprisoned terrorist on the run) were uniformly fantastic, but only barely seemed to capture the sheer breadth of Skolimowski's output and vision. How many more chances like that are we going to get?

Austin Wolf-Sothern Only Has Two Eyes

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

The following list comes from comedian-actor-projectionist Austin Wolf-Sothern, whose blog is found here.

I moved to Los Angeles this year on June 5, so this list only covers up to that point. The reason I moved on the 5th of the month (costing me a few extra days of rent) as opposed to the 1st was because Sleepaway Camp, my favorite horror film of all time, screened on 35mm (my favorite movie format of all time) on June 4. It played as part of Peaches Christ's Midnight Mass, and as it happens, my very first experience with Rep in SF was their presentation of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! back in the summer of 2000, so it really couldn't have been a more perfect send-off for me.

The Top 8 Best Repertory Films/Experiences in SF in the First Half of 2011
1. Sleepaway Camp (1983), Midnight Mass with Peaches Christ, Bridge Theatre
2. Seed of Chucky (2004) with Jennifer Tilly in Person, Midnight Mass with Peaches Christ, Victoria Theatre
3. The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon (1976) / The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) / Cipher in the Snow (1973), Midnites for Maniacs, Roxie Theatre
4. Ninja Turf (1985) / Miami Connection (1987), Roxie Theatre
5. Beverly Hills Cop (1984) / The Last Dragon (1986), Midnites for Maniacs, Castro Theatre
6. Jesse Ficks' 35 Favorite 35mm Trailers, Benefit to Save the Red Vic, Red Vic Movie House
7. The Woman Chaser (1999) with Patrick Warburton in Person, Roxie Theatre
8. The Monster Squad (1987) with Fred Dekker in Person, Midnites for Maniacs, Castro Theatre

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks Only Has Two Eyes

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

The following list comes from Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, who teaches Film History at the Academy of Art University and runs the MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS screening series.

13. Monte Hellman's Ride in the Whirlwind (1965), The Shooting (1966), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and Cockfighter (1974) at the Roxie Theatre on July 23, 24 & 27

12. Jerry Abrams' Sub Rosa Rising (1971) at a sold out Yerba Buena Center for the Arts part of Joel Shepard's brilliant series "Smut Capitol of the World" on August 18

11. Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976) at the Pacific Film Archive which turned out to be the 317 minute unrated version (5 hours and 17 minutes) on July 16

10. Claire Denis' The Intruder (2004) & US Go Home (1994) at the Pacific Film Archive on April 8.

9. David Holzman's Diary (1967) with director Jim McBride IN PERSON at the Victoria Theatre on June 15

8. Hal Ashby's Harold & Maude (1971) at the Red Vic's final nite on July 25. R.I.P.

7. "Watch Out For Children" Triple Bill: Tex (1982), Over the Edge (1979), River's Edge (1986) w/ director Tim Hunter and screenwriter Charlie S. Haas at the Roxie Theatre part of MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS on July 1

6. Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End (1970) & The Shout (1978) at the Pacific Film Archive on July 22

5. "Heavy Metal-Monster Mash" Quintuple Feature: Gerald Potterton's Heavy Metal (1981), The Monster Squad (1987) w/ director Fred Dekker IN PERSON!, Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (1984) with the only known 35mm print from Paris, Charles Martin Smith's Trick or Treat (1986) and Claudio Fragasso's Monster Dog (1984) showcasing Alice Cooper at the Castro Theatre part of MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS on April 16

4. The North American premiere of the restored 35mm print of Lois Weber's Shoes (1916) and Victor Sjöström's He Who Gets Slapped (1924) showcasing Lon Chaney at the Castro Theatre part of The SF Silent Film Festival on July 17

3. Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight (1965) on the only existing 35mm print in the US!! at the Pacific Film Archive on December 11

2. The U.S. Premiere (and perhaps the only screening ever) of The Hole in 3D (2009) w/ director Joe Dante IN PERSON at the Castro Theatre part of MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS on October 7

1. Hands down one of the most overwhelming and inventive films of the last decade, Bala's Naan Kadavul (I Am God, 2009) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts part of the series Cruel Cinema: New Directions in Tamil Film on October 9

Carl Martin Only Has Two Eyes

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

The following list comes from Carl Martin, the keeper of the Film On Film Foundation's Bay Area Film Calendar.

this year's short list was modest compared to years past. still tough to winnow down to ten:

april 3, pfa: north beach
the fragment of dion vigne's film i'd seen before is brilliant. i'd heard the complete film was even more so--but how could it sustain its frantic energy for 17 minutes? it could!

april 27, kabuki #1: salvador
i've never been an oliver stone fan but this early buddy movie (?) has just the right tone of general nonpartisan political cynicism. james woods is a lunatic. a first-rate print, well projected.

may 13, castro: out of the blue
finally allowed to direct again after the last movie, dennis hopper made a film almost as radical and disruptive, yet, to its benefit, with more confidence and cohesion. linda manz. linda manz!

june 5, red vic: the great muppet caper; june 19, castro: the muppets take manhattan
i hadn't seen these first two muppet sequels since their original releases, and they had me choked up from scene one. masterful puppetry, masterful command of cinema's emotive possibilities. plus great songs and cameos. lovely prints. (the new muppet movie was ok but they shot the dang thing with a video camera!)

july 1, roxie: tex
matt dillon: a dumb mug awash with pathos-inducing, vulnerable bravado. this movie tore my damn heart out. followed by the somewhat cathartic over the edge, an earlier, nearly as good effort (as screenwriter) from tim hunter.

august 1, roda theatre: the juggler
the early part of the day is a dead time for repertory. but that's when i'm most alert, most receptive, before the drowsiness of early evening cycles in. thank you, sfjff, for showing this lovely print of a heartbreaking film at mid-day. i felt every twist of the emotional wrench. kirk douglas gives one of his finest performances as a charismatic man revealed to be quite mad--the only sane response to the madness of his world. too bad the ending's a bit pat.

august 5, pfa: king queen knave
usually i don't like to "read the book" before i "watch the movie" but when i read nabokov's novel five years ago i had no idea who skolimowski was, let alone that he'd adapted it. oddly, some of the clunkier material from the book, such as the robot mannequin sequence, reveals itself to be cinematic gold in this hilarious sex comedy. the print, alas, was faded.

september 9, pfa: payday
no punches are pulled in this dissection of country music's seedy underbelly, back when country music was good. now it's even more cynically commercial, but, worst of all, bland. rip torn--bland he is not.

september 14, pfa: ice
a ballsy super-low-budget agit-prop feature that really seems to embody its own convictions and contradictions. the first part of zabriskie point meets... it happened here, maybe? why the hell is it called ice?

december 2, roxie: hi-riders
i was surprised the same auteur lay behind the ultra-schlocky joysticks and this considerably more interesting work. it's shamelessly exploitative, to be sure, with a breast count to rival its body count, but dean cundey's photography elevates it, and the finale is shockingly effective. this original print had, shall we say, lots of character.

Ben Armington Only Has Two Eyes

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

The following list comes from Ben Armington, Box Cubed manager and lapsed cinephile

1. The Woman on the Beach (Noir City 9, Castro)

Coastal Noir from Jean Renoir! This obscure (to me, at least) romance from the great humanist’s unhappy American stint opens awesomely with a hallucinatory nightmare sequence set at the bottom of an ocean carpeted in skeletons and haunted by a beautiful woman, and does not let up in mystery and excitement. Shell-shocked coast guard officer Robert Ryan spends his time riding horseback down the shipwreck strewn coastline until he trots into a seedy postman-always-rings -twice scenario with lusty Joan Bennett and her broke-ass beau, a once celebrated, now ambiguously blind artist played by Charles Bickford. However, Renoir is after more than merely grinding through the plot machinations, and the film deftly plays the characters off each other, investing them and the surroundings with an almost mythic quality of sadness, finally building to a Pyrrhic but hopeful climax that suggests redemption can be found, even if you have to burn it all down.

2. Love Exposure (Roxie)

An utterly beserk and totally sincere four hour coming-of-age exegesis from the usually uneven Sion Sono that follows one pilgrim’s progress through such growing pains as sinning to please father, upskirt photography stardom, cross-dressing, criss-crossing romances, cults, etc. One of those thrilling experiences where a filmmaker throws all of their concerns and obsessions up on screen and comes up with something completely original and vital.

3. Edgar Wright Triple Feature, with Edgar Wright in attendance (Midnites for Maniacs, Castro)

Edgar Wright’s films dance to the beat of the screwball comedy, so it was an absolute blast to see them with an enthusiastic (and, as far as the two can co-exist, respectful) sold out crowd at the majestic Castro theatre. Mr. Wright himself was witty, charming, and most refreshingly, generous with his time, answering film school-y questions from the audience and staying through all three screenings to do a Q & A after the midnight screening of Shaun of the Dead.

4. Ishtar (Midnites for Maniacs, Castro)

A true film maudit. While Elaine May’s satire has been a critical punching bag since it’s release, I found it to be as fresh as if it had been made yesterday, a Dr. Strangelove for the 1980’s. With Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as the luckless, hilariously undertalented songwriters who follow their dreams into a quagmire of top heavy cold war brinksmanship and arms dealing, the beguiling Isabelle Adjani, and the Heartbreak Kid himself, Charles Grodin, at his smarmiest as a CIA agent.

5. Love Streams (YBCA)

Late Cassavettes, with John and Gena as Grey Gardens-esque creatures stumbling through well worn grooves of self destruction. A film that you don’t so much watch as experience, and, as such, uniquely moving.

6. I Am God (Cruel Cinema, YBCA)

A totally bonkers movie that was unlike anything else this year, that played like some unholy admixture of Jodowrsky and Tod Browning. Must be seen to be believed.

7. 1900 (PFA)

Bertolucci’s primal obsession with the conflict between the comforting numbess of the bourgeois and the noble struggle of the working class, stretched over a sprawling canvas, etched in Vittorio Storaro’s lush camerawork. And, of course, sex. Much to my surprise, and, I believe, the PFA’s, the print screened was the 317 minute, NC-17 version. There are deifintely some longueurs’ here, and I wouldn’t call the film wholly satisfying, but the scope and ambition of it remain staggering. With Donald Sutherland, as the leering, fascist embodiement of evil.


8. The Great Flamarion/Once A Thief (I Wake Up Dreaming, Roxie)

The Great Flamarion (what a title!) saw icy Erich Von Stroheim, sharpshooter entertainer extraordinaire, tumble for his pretty assistant/target Mary Beth Hughes, despite his steely self-discipline. The only problem is that she’s already married, to grumpy souse Dan Duryea...directed by the awesome Anthony Mann, who knew where to aim suggestive guns. The co-feature, directed by Billy Wilder’s less heralded brother W. Lee Wilder, came equipped with a plot that Sirk or Fassbinder would have enjoyed torturing a complacent audience with; A down on her luck lady, played by June Havoc (what a name!), gets a chance to forget the past and go straight, but keeps on making bad choices, the fatal one being falling for an obviously untrustworthy clotheshorse con artist, played with excessive unctuosness by Cesar Romero. Amazing!

9. Nadja (Roxie)

A fun, unjustly forgotten gem from the faraway 1990’s that stylishly updates Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the shoegaze set. Dracula’s just been killed, leaving his daughter (played by the ghostly Elina Lowensohn) to drift through the existensial dark night feeding on whatever crosses her path, the film really captures a certain penniless slacker ennui that will bring a salty tear of recognition to many an eye. Peter Fonda is very touching as crazy uncle Van Helsing, just out of the clink for staking Dracula.

10 Anthropomorphlolz (SF International Animation Film Festival, SFFS Cinema)

The organizer of this short film and music video program, Jay Wertzler, is a friend and film festival colleague whose sense of humor I cherish, so it was an utter delight to witness this pink beam straight from his cat-addled brain pan. He-Man musical numbers, Tupac Cat, and anthropomorphic skateboards were some of the bizarre spectacles that stick in my memory from that evening. lolz!

Appetizers

Cinephiles the world over are poring over the announcements just made about the cinematic feast that is the Cannes Film Festival. But Frisco Bay cinephiles shouldn't get too distracted by these announcements, as we've got our own hearty meal coming out of the kitchen very shortly. The San Francisco International Film Festival opens next week, and tickets are selling briskly for certain shows (rush line only for Werner Herzog's 3-D Cave of Forgotten Dreams, for instance). Preview pieces by the likes of Michael Hawley, Max Goldberg and Richard Von Busack are appearing to help guide the hungry cinemagoer.

For those of us too famished to wait until April 21st, however, there are some mouth-watering appetizers being served up by other film venues and organizations. Tonight, for example Peaches Christ and Sam Sharkey host the San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival, returning to the scene at a new venue after a nearly three-year absence. I attended this one-program "festival" back in 2007 when it was an after-midnight event at the Bridge, and I expect this year's edition at the Victoria to be just as lively and surprising even though it's been moved to the prime time hour. Though nominally devoted to short films, the event includes the first showing of a locally-made feature, Devious, Inc. I'm more drawn to the shorts however, including new films by Beth Lisick and Frazer Bradshaw (who made Everything Strange and New), Lev (Tales of Mere Existence), and David Enos. Some of Enos's earlier works screened at last Friday's Berkeley Art Museum event I mentioned in my previous post, and I really enjoyed seeing how well they played on a good video-projection system in front of an unfamiliar audience. I'm excited for a chance to see him premiere a new video, Ankhs, co-directed by Mishell Stimson, tonight.

The following night is the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's annual tribute to the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, including a screening of the 1922 firefighting drama The Third Alarm, as well as a good print of the last filmed record of San Francisco before the 105-year-old disaster, a Trip Down Market Street by the Miles Brothers. Researcher David Kiehn of the Film Museum was recently interviewed by Sara Vizcarrondo on Look of the Week, and demonstrates a welcome sample of his remarkable knowledge. He'll appear at the San Leandro Public Library on Thursday April 21, to speak about the film and other earthquake-cinema related matters in greater depth and show a Trip Down Market Street as well as a modern documentary on the disaster. The latter is a free event.

Monday night brings another free event to local silent cinema fans: a 35mm print of Brazilian cinema pioneer Humberto Maura's Sleeping Ember. I wrote about another Maura film last year, but Matt Sussmann's article in sf360 has far more fascinating information about Monday's ultra-rare screening.

Yet another free screening happening, the day before SFIFF, is a Castro Theatre showing of the Richard Brooks classic Elmer Gantry, presented with an on-stage q-and-a with Shirley Jones, who won the 1960 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the film. Tickets must be reserved in advance at the Turner Classic Movies website.

One last appetizer before I get to the desserts (in my next post): this Saturday's all-afternoon-and-evening marathon of 1980s nostalgia entitled Heavy Metal Monster Mash should inspire almost a KISS-sized army of headbangers and horror fans to descend on Frisco's largest surviving single-screen theatre, and the highlight of the day for many of them is sure to be actor Fred Dekker's in-person appearance along with his most famous film The Monster Squad. You might want to read sometime Hell On Frisco Bay contributor Sean McCourt's interview with Dekker in the San Francisco Bay Guardian to prepare.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks's Two Eyes

Since my own two eyes were not nearly enough to see and evaluate all the repertory/revival film screenings here on Frisco Bay, I'm honored to present local filmgoers' lists of the year's favorites. An index of participants is found here.

The following list comes from Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, who teaches Film History at the Academy of Art University and runs the MiDNites For MANiACS screening series:

1. SF International Film Festival's screening of Ted Kotcheff's Wake In Fright (1971) with the director IN PERSON giving perhaps the greatest story of tracking down a print I've ever heard. Did I also mention that the jaw-dropping exploitation film showcases one of the greatest performances ever captured on the screen by Donald Pleasance!?

2. SF Silent Film Festival's screening of the Complete Restored Metropolis at the Castro Theatre with the archivists IN PERSON!

3. MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS screening of Jennifer's Body @ The Castro Theatre with an 8-month pregnant Diablo Cody IN PERSON!

4. Another Hole in the Head's screening of Giorgio Moroder's 1984 synth-soundtrack version of Metropolis at the Viz the following week after the restored version! That is brilliant programming!

5. SF Symphony's Halloween screening of Buster Keaton's The Haunted House (1921) and John S. Robertson's Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde (1920) with a terrifying performance by John Barrymore and Dennis James playing the Ruffatti Organ!

6. PFA's tribute screenings of Kelly Reichardt's Ode and Old Joy with the director IN PERSON!

7. MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS screening of the restored unrated version of MANiAC with William Lustig IN PERSON!

8. Watching the uncompromised genius of Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, (a forgotten 1977 Japanese Horror) at a jam packed Saturday nite screening at The Castro Theatre.

9. Watching the uncompromised genius of Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, (a forgotten 1977 Japanese Horror) at a jam packed Saturday nite screening at The Red Vic Theatre.

10. The Roxie's double feature screening of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant with Paul Schrader's Blue Collar.

Austin Wolf-Sothern's Two Eyes

Since my own two eyes were not nearly enough to see and evaluate all the repertory/revival film screenings here on Frisco Bay, I'm honored to present local filmgoers' lists of the year's favorites. An index of participants is found here.

The following list comes from projectionist/filmmaker Austin Wolf-Sothern, who blogs at Placenta Ovaries:


Sensitive 70s, Oddball Film+Video
-Francesca, Baby, The Drug Scene, Your Self Image, I'm Feeling Scared, Suicide: It Doesn't Have to Happen
A selection of 16mm shorts dealing with serious issues for kids and teens. The sweetest, most sincere two hours of my life. Flawlessly heartbreaking.

Midnites for Maniacs, Castro
A very productive year for Jesse Ficks' fantastic film series, including two all day five-film fests (the themes being Macho Mania and Robots). The year provided a nice mixture of old favorites (Fright Night, An American Werewolf in London, The Gate, RoboCop) and some incredible new discoveries (Nighthawks, Bloodsport, Too Much). My favorite overall program would be the triple feature of Just One of the Guys, Point Break, and Maniac. Jesse insisted there was a common thread between the three, but I actually prefer to think there isn't, and I adored the randomness of three entirely different movies, which if they're linked by anything, it's that they are all fucking great.

Bad Lieutenant/Blue Collar, Roxie
I missed almost every night of Roxie's intriguing Not Necessarily Noir series, but I'm thankful I made it out for this double feature of Films That Assault You.

Phantom of the Paradise, Bridge
The Bridge started up a new series called Citizen Midnight, showing a rock 'n roll classic, with a live rock pre-show inspired by the night's film, performed by a band made up of Bridge staff. Phantom was unfortunately not a print, but the event was a blast, and holy shit, that fucking movie is amazing.

Gone with the Pope, Bridge
If you were one of the other four people in the theater, you already know that this was a genuine treasure discovered by Grindhouse Releasing.

Man with a Movie Camera, Castro
A great film with the most powerful, overwhelming live score (by Alloy Orchestra) I've ever experienced. I wish I could relive this one.

Castro Double Features
There were three double features at the Castro this year that paired up some of the most perfect movies ever made. The Thing/Videodrome, Blue Velvet/River's Edge, and Gremlins/Black Christmas. Most exciting was Videodrome, which I've yearned to see on 35mm for years. Many of the others I had seen on the big screen before, but they are all movies I could watch forever.

Also These
Castro: Showgirls, The Beguiled, A Star Is Born, Roxie: The Brood, Surf II: The End of the Trilogy/Times Square, Wet Hot American Summer, Paramount: Wait Until Dark, Red Vic: The Room with Tommy Wiseau in Person, Hausu.

I had seen Hausu previously under shitty circumstances, having driven up to San Rafael only to discover it was being shown via the ugliest digital projection I've ever seen, and as a result, I found the film underwhelming. But this year, I saw it properly at the Red Vic (on 35mm) and I was able to get wrapped up in the delirious, hilarious, adorable, fun absurdity of this completely nuts horror ride. I'm not wholly against digital projection, as I've seen some stunning HD screenings, but if it looks like shit, it defeats the purpose of the big screen and I'd much rather watch it in better quality on my substantially smaller television at home. Alternately, a film print feels special and amazing even in terrible condition. A film like Hausu definitely deserves ideal presentation.

I'm Still Miserable About Having Missed
Mac and Me at the Castro, Night Train to Terror/A Night to Dismember at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Miyazaki Midnights & Matinees (and more)

One of my favorite films of the year so far is the latest animated feature from Hayao Miyazaki, Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea, also know as just Ponyo. Made by a near-septuagenarian, and perhaps aimed primarily for children just barely old enough to sit still for a movie, this Japanese re-imagining of Hans Christian Andersen holds the power to captivate a childless 30-something willing to be awash in Miyazaki's visuals, whether depicting the crashing of furious waves as a Hokusai woodcut come to life, or the simple process of serving a bowl of ramen to a little girl who has never eaten noodles before. Miyazaki's inked lines are more robust than ever, and his gentle-handed ecological message perfectly apropos for his pre-school protagonist Sosuke, who understands the import of the chain of events he has set off less completely than audiences of any age will, yet it better able to make a crucial narrative leap of faith than a more world-weary individual might. He provides an inspirational model for us all.

Some Miyazaki fans seem to be, at least mildly, disappointed in Ponyo in comparison to the master's other animated films. I can't understand almost any of their arguments, and I can't help but wonder if some are registering disagreement less with the film itself than with the Disney Corporation's decision to release the film only in a dubbed version, in contrast to their making Howl's Moving Castle available to theatres both an English-dubbed and a Japanese-language version with English subtitles. Sprited Away, too, was sent on the festival circuit in a Japanese version before its theatrical release with American voice artists providing the soundtrack.

I've watched both versions of Ponyo. First I saw a 35mm print of the Disney-dubbed version; though I was mildly bothered by Liam Neeson's distinctive tones, and Cate Blanchett's essential reprisal of her Galadriel role, their Ponyo characters are relatively minor and I was so overwhelmed by Miyazaki's fluid animation and florid imagination that they couldn't mar the experience in any meaningful way. The other voice actors submerged their star personae and were unrecognizable to me until the end credits. In sum it was a terrific dub job; nothing like the distracting celebrity voice-fest of the Miramax Princess Mononke dub. Watching a friend's Japanese Ponyo DVD import with English subtitles shortly afterward was nearly as wonderful, but I'm glad it was not my first experience with the film. In fact the dub translation was slightly superior in a few instances, as I confirmed with a native Japanese speaker. The only major improvement was the end-title song, which Disney turned from a sweet farewell to the film into a groan-worthy techno remix involving its stable of pop singers.

In any language, Ponyo is absolutely something to see on the big screen if you can, and if you live in Frisco that's still possible, at least for another week, as it continues to play at the Balboa Theatre until Thursday. Miyazaki fans holding out for the subtitled DVD, you'll thank yourself for taking the opportunity to see it in a cinema. If you want to display your original-version-purist credentials, take the rare opportunity to watch the Japanese-language version of Miyazaki's Spirited Away this November when it plays four midnight shows and a matinee in Frisco Bay theatres. Both the Clay here in Frisco and the Piedmont in Oakland have included the 45th San Francisco International Film Festival's audience award-winning film in their autumn lineup of cult favorite screenings. The Clay shows it November 6th & 7th, and the Piedmont on November 13th & 14th, with an additional 10 AM screening on the 15th.

Other midnight movies coming to Landmark theatres this season include This is Spinal Tap, the Wiz (featuring Michael Jackson as the scarecrow, of course) the original release cut of Donnie Darko, the Graduate, the Shining, and more. Check the Landmark After Dark website. And though the Bridge will no longer be the site for full summer seasons of Peaches Christ's Midnight Mass series, the horror hostess will present a one-off screening of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 there on October 24th.

Meanwhile, the Red Vic on Haight Street has a midnight hit on its hands as well these days. The Room, Tommy Wiseau's enigmatically awful, but clearly rather expensive passion project, has been packing in viewers and solidifying screen-talkback rituals the last Saturday of every month all summer. The tradition, as revealed in the latest Red Vic calendar, is planned to continue this fall with shows on September 26th and October 31st (come in costume as one of the characters for additional fun.)

Finally, my friend Jesse Ficks has been hard at work putting together his season of MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS shows at the Castro. Tonight he's playing Risky Business, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the Last American Virgin in a set entitled "Cocky White Guys". October 2 is "Bite Nite", pairing the Santa Cruz-set the Lost Boys with Katheryn Bigelow's Near Dark, which I've never seen (for shame!) And November 6th is called "Love Kills", with True Romance, Natural Born Killers and a midnight MiDNiTE screening to be determined. Looking at the thematic pattern, I bet it'll be something written by Quentin Tarantino. Though Jesse has been known to have unexpected surprises up his sleeve.

March (and April) of the Women Filmmakers

A week ago Thursday I passed a major milestone in my cinephilia: I saw Chantel Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles for the first time ever. It was screened in a newly-struck 35mm print from Janus, although reel two was sadly misplaced by another institution showing the film, and had to be sourced from a PAL DVD. The transition between film and video provided a fine lesson in the virtues of celluloid over everyday digital projection; though Jeanne Dielman is more of a narrative film than I had been led to believe, it's singularity derives from the way the narrative "events" of the film are conveyed through the subtle variance of repetition. Some of these subtleties are undoubtedly clouded over by the digital haze of even a superb DVD transfer. What's more, the way the film works as a light & motion study as well as a "story" is undeniably altered when the medium shifts. I don't think I have to tell you which of the two I found more visually glorious. For more about the film, I would like to call attention to a piece on the film written by SFMOMA projectionist Brecht Andersch, who was instrumental in facilitating the mid-screening media switches.

Andersch is also board chair of the Film on Film Foundation, which in addition to having a great blog on local film screenings that almost makes Hell On Frisco Bay feel obsolete (luckily this beat's big enough for more than one interest-drummer to cover), also presents screenings. As mentioned here before, their next event is this Sunday's Ida Lupino double-bill at the Pacific Film Archive, part of a series of actor-turned-auteur programs entitled the Film Gods Shot Back. The case of Ida Lupino is seemingly unique; if there was another woman directing feature films for Hollywood studios in the early 1950s, I'd love to learn her name because I'm certain I've never heard of her before. And it just so happens that this pairing of the Outrage in 16mm and the Bigamist in 35mm is occuring on International Women's Day. Check out Frako Loden's article on these two films at the Evening Class.

March and April might be considered International Women's Season at the PFA. Not only do we have the Lupino twofer, but a major retrospective by the so-called "grandmother of the French New Wave" Agnès Varda. For those like me who have seen landmark films like Vagabond and the Gleaners & I on DVD but never on the big screen, and/or have huge gaps in our experience with Varda's filmography, this series is a godsend. It began last night with La Pointe Courte and her most well-known film Cleo From 5 To 7, but thankfully most of the titles in the series play twice so there's another chance to see them both. Her latest documentary, the Beaches of Agnès, plays April 10th and 11th. I tried to see it at the Portland International Film Festival last month but was turned away for lack of available seats.

If that weren't enough, the PFA also is in the midst of a series entitled Women’s Cinema from Tangiers to Tehran, spotlighting filmmakers from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Islamic countries. It covers relatively well-known names like Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and Marziyeh Meshkini (the Day I Became a Woman - a must-see in case you didn't already know that) to little-known figures like Moufida Tlatli (the Silences of the Palace) and the recently-departed Randa Chahal Sabbag (the Kite). The series on essay films the Way of the Termite, curated by Jean-Pierre Gorin continues through the months and includes a trove of rarities, including two directed or co-directed by women, Akerman's Jeanne Dielman-prefiguring Je tu il elle and From Today Until Tomorrow by Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub. A set of Argentine Experimental Films that includes work by women and men was recently reported on by Jennifer MacMillan, who caught the touring program on its New York stop.

And of course, both the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (Mar. 12-22) and the San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23-May 7) both use the PFA as a venue this Spring and include women-directed films in their lineups. The SFIAAFF's full program is known and includes Jennifer Phang's lo-fi sci-fi Half-Life and Heiward Mak's Hong Kong delinquent film High Noon among others. The SFIFF has started announcing titles as well, though few as yet attached to venues. Its relaunched website has information on competition films, including new directors and documentary features. In the meantime a documentary on philosophers called Examined Life is currently playing on the SFFS Screen at the Kabuki Theatre. It's director Astra Taylor's follow-up to her 2005 film Zizek! (not to be confused with the following year's the Pervert's Guide to Cinema by Sophie Fiennes)

Though I move out out talking about PFA events, I'm going to hang on to the "women filmmakers" thread, as a number of Frisco Bay screening venues which have recently revealed new calendars have films directed by women among the more intriguing and/or recommendable upcoming options.

For instance, the program I'm most interested in catching at the Tiburon Film Festival (Mar. 19-26) is unquestionably Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues, an animated riff on both a tale from the Ramayana and songs from Annette Hanshaw. When last this film played publicly in Frisco (at the SF Film Society's animation festival in November) I hadn't yet been following Paley's blog and was still unaware that this particular intercultural mash-up was causing copyright consternation and that the film would almost certainly be blocked from a "normal" distribution. You have to find it at a film festival or another non-traditional screening venue if you want to see it projected in a big dark room with a bunch of strangers. March 20th provides such a chance in Marin County.

The Red Vic shows Jennifer Baichwal's terrific documentary that considers the aesthetic value of ecological devastation, Manufactured Landscapes, on March 15 & 16. Read my 2007 interview with Baichwal here.

The latest updates to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts calendar include four screenings of Chiara Clemente's Our City Dreams, focusing on five women artists working in New York. That's April 9-12.

The Castro Theatre's March calendar has the dead white male auteurs we know and love on it (Truffaut, Hawks, Fosse) but what of Martha Coolidge, first and thus-far only female president of the Directors Guild of America? She may not be quite as much of a cinephile household name but she's represented at the Castro too, by a MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS-presented screening of Real Genius March 20th. I haven't seen Real Genius since its initial theatrical release back when I was in junior high school, perhaps the perfect demographic for a Val Kilmer college comedy. I loved it then, so why not now? I hope to find out March 20th.

More midnight movies come courtesy of the Landmark After Dark series at the Clay here in Frisco and the Piedmont over in Oakland. The latter will show Mary Harron's American Psycho April 17th and 18th at 11:59 PM.

And then there's the San Francisco Women's Film Festival, running April 1-5. It has just announced its program at its blog.

Finally, Artists' Television Access is celebrating International Women's Day it's own way - slightly belatedly- with a March 12th screening of Under the Same Moon. The venue also hosts two evenings of films by local filmmaker Kerry Laitala on March 13 and March 20.

On the Marquee Tonight

The 400 Blows. I haven't watched Truffaut's first feature in almost ten years, when the Castro Theatre brought a giant retrospective of the director to town. It's at the Red Vic one last night, and I've got a Punch Card burning a hole in my pocket. As a member of the What Time Is It There? fan club, I'm overdue to see the film it "samples" again, before I get exposed like one of those fauxs who pose at Marginal Prophets shows.

If you miss this, it's pretty much all hits at the Red Vic in January:

Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels January 8th (a gap in my Wong-ography) followed by two nights of Ashes of Time Redux which I wrote on a bit here.

Hiroshi Teshigahara's Antonio Gaudí, a regular attraction at the venue, at least until it was released on a Criterion DVD nearly a year ago. That shouldn't scare off the Red Vic loyalists, though. Right?

A midnight screening of Jackie Chan's The Legend of the Drunken Master from 1994, on Sunday January 11th. Will the Red Vic become Frisco's next viable midnight movie venue?


One of my favorite films of 2008, Ballast, plays January 14-15. See my interview with the director, Lance Hammer. But more importantly, see this film on the big screen if you haven't had a chance to yet.

People have been telling me to see the American Astronaut for years now. Hopefully I'll finally get around to it, now that director Cory McAbee has a new film scheduled for Sundance and I won't be in Utah to see it.

Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie January 18-19- I usually cite this as my favorite Godard.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars January 20-21.

And what would we do without the eighties? Perhaps be rolled over by the snowballing nineties revival, kicking and screaming? 'Til then, The Dark Crystal plays January 22.

It's Not Too Late To Whip It

It's true I've had reservations about the fact that Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull is playing at the Castro Theatre until the day before Frameline. But now that the moment is upon me, I'm as caught up in the excitement as just about anybody else. (How does Hollywood do that?)

I thought it might be worth a mention that the Castro is going to be holding a just-after-midnight screening of the film tonight, and that as of this posting, tickets are still available at the box office. I've already encountered someone who made his plans to see the film at another venue holding midnight screenings, even though he'd prefer the Castro, simply because he assumed that as a single-screen theatre it will be impossible to get in. People forget how huge the place is: 1400 seats or some-such.

See you there! I'm excited to see Cate Blanchett in a Colleen Moore hairdo, but am otherwise keeping my expectations of the film itself relatively low. But I've decided, I don't want to miss it as an EVENT.

Of course, midnight movies are also presented every weekend at the Clay Theatre. This weekend it's three nights of Jim Henson's the Dark Crystal, and June 6 & 7 it's Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby.

Vision Thing

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Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the release of Showgirls in director Paul Verhoeven's Mother Holland, and it didn't take much prodding for me to be convinced to join the appreciation party happening right now in the blogosphere. Yes, I actually like this perhaps inherently misogynistic film that rates a measly 3.8/10 from imdb voters and a 16/100 score on Metacritic. I count myself among the growing number of cinephiles whose views at the very least fit under the umbrella statement, "It doesn't suck."

I first saw Showgirls in the summer of 2001 when I scored free passes to Peaches Christ's summer series of witching hour cult movies called Midnight Mass. Showgirls was the second film in the series, and unquestionably the most raucous evening of those I attended (I skipped 9 To 5). The audience was packed with drunks, butch dykes, drag queens, and a few of us token "normals" who maybe didn't feel quite so normal anymore. I had the distinct impression that my friend and I were the only ones who'd never seen the film before, especially when most of the audience seemed to be yelling half the lines of dialogue at the screen. It was clear that at least we'd stumbled into a true cult phenomenon, and indeed Peaches has screened the film to sellout crowds at least once every summer since 1998. Well, how can you not enjoy a film on a certain level when surrounded by enthusiasm like that? I even got into the spirit of the evening and at one point around the midway mark yelled out (something I never do in a movie theatre) in my most nasal geek voice, "Excuse me, I'm trying to watch the movie!" It got a laugh, but there was some truth in my mock complaint. It was fun but difficult to untangle my reaction to the film from my response to the audience's shouts and cheers. I remember thinking that the film had utterly failed at being sexy if that was the intention, but I had the impression that the sterile plasticity of the sex and nudity just might have been part of a grander scheme to satirize the American Dream. Though I hadn't yet read Charles Taylor's review of the film, I agreed with his premise that Showgirls is intentional camp. I had been exposed to the idea of Verhoeven as satirist (through Zach Campbell for one) before seeing the film, and I found myself agreeing.

Here come spoilers in case you're still a Showgirls virgin...



I was totally caught off guard by Molly's rape scene, though. It's a truly disgusting and shocking scene, and sharply contrasts the good-natured humiliation, back stabbing, lying, pimping and whoring that make up the bulk of the film. Perhaps I was reacting less to the film than to the way the Midnight Masses became so much more subdued for this scene and its aftermath, but it felt like a real miscalculation to suddenly change the film's tone so radically. It took exposure to insightful analysis by the likes of Eric Henderson for me to start to understand the function of that scene in the film, and to finally see Verhoeven's creation as something more than a fun but flawed film.

So when the call went out for participation in a Showgirls-a-thon, I was ripe to revisit the film on DVD, which I finally did last night. What follows are a few thoughts and questions, not coherently gelled into any kind of argument whatsoever.

1. I own the soundtrack on audiocassette (it features excellent tracks from likes of Killing Joke, David Bowie, and Siouxsie and the Banshees) but I'd forgotten that in her initial hitch-hiking scene, Nomi changes the music from Dwight Yoakam (who she mislabels as Garth Brooks) to a song not found on my tape for whatever reason. "Vision Thing," by one of my favorite bands of the late eighties and early nineties, the Sisters of Mercy, is a song about America's cocaine-fueled aggression and imperialism. Though we don't hear the beginning of the song (which starts off with the sound of a coke sniff) I'm sure that whoever selected it knew what Verhoeven was up to; it's no coincidence that the Bowie song that plays in the dance club is "I'm Afraid of Americans". Oh, and guess where the Sisters are launching their 2006 American tour on March 22? Sin City itself, where the streets are lined with the tossed-away hamburger wrappers left by Nomis of the world over.

2. Having recently seen Footlight Parade for the first time and being struck by the incredible speed of the first half of that film, propelled of course by the actor who personifies "rapid-fire", James Cagney, I have to say Verhoeven doesn't quite capture that feeling of intense organizational energy though he comes close a couple of times. I'm not saying he's even trying to. The 1933 Lloyd Bacon/Busby Berkeley film Showgirls usually gets compared to is of course 42nd Street which is less fresh in my mind. But I definitely feel that Footlight Parade is worth a comparative look too, if only because the milieu seems somewhat more similar; aren't the depression-era girlie shows Cagney is trying to put together in that film some of the more apt equivalents to big Vegas shows like "Goddess"? And wasn't a big part of the appeal of Busby Berkeley's most lavish production numbers (like the ones in Footlight Parade) the feminine flesh on display, even if they never provided audiences the full frontal nudity required to bat eyebrows in 1995?

3. What kind of fantasyland is this where not only does someone suggest that Janet Jackson or Paula Abdul might star in "Goddess", but that the president of the hotel actually repeats the dismissed suggestion to the media? Or am I remembering 1995 inaccurately, with my post-Super Bowl, post-American Idol perspective clouding my sense of history?

4. What's with Cristal's underdeveloped Elvis fixation? Is there some character backstory or a key line that got trimmed out somehow?

5. Least-sexy sex scene in the film: Elizabeth Berkley flopping like a fish in the pool with her groin attached to Kyle MacLachlan's abdomen.

6. Spoilers again. That means you, mom; I know you haven't seen the film. Here's a wacky and/or trite interpretation of Nomi and Molly's relationship for everyone to point and laugh at. Let me know if this has already been proven or disproven somewhere I haven't seen (like in that Film Quarterly roundtable on the film that I still haven't read). Molly, who reiterates that she hasn't had sex in many a moon at the point Nomi comes into her life, represents Nomi's virginity (or born-again virginity if you will, since we later learn Nomi's a reformed Oaktown crack-whore). Though surrounded by wanton Vegas sexuality, Nomi's roommate remains chaste, ensuring that no matter what our natural-blonde heroine goes through in her escapades at the Cheetah club or with aspiring gynecologists by which I mean choreographers, her hymen remains intact. But when Andrew Carver and his gang force their camels through the eye of the seamstress's needle (sorry about that turn of phrase but I couldn't resist) it's as if Nomi has herself been raped. And though she gets revenge on the rapist, she also feels the blame and shame rape victims (I'm told) often do. Looked at this way, it seems that perhaps her departure on the road to Los Angeles is not so much a return to blind ambition but an escape from a community where she no longer can live in her own skin. Or is that what ambition always is anyway, an escape from our selves?