Cairo 678 (2010)

WHO: Mohamed Diab wrote and directed this.

WHAT: The all-time most successful Egyptian film in terms of international film sales, according to Jonathan Curiel's interview with Diab.

WHERE/WHEN: 7PM tonight only at New People Cinema, presented by the San Francisco Film Society.

WHY: The big news is that Ted Hope's resignation as executive director of the SF Film Society was made public yesterday, so the SFFS is once again on the hunt to fill the shoes left empty by the deaths of EDs Graham Leggat and (just a few months later) Bingham Ray. According to Variety, Hope told the board his decision last Friday, the very same day the SFFS Fall Season opened with a Hong Kong Cinema series at the Vogue. Next up in the season is Zurich/SF, also at New People, followed by Taiwan Film Days at the Vogue, French Cinema Now at the Clay, and Italian and local-filmmaker-focused series with as-yet-unannounced selections at the Clay and Roxie, respectively. I understand these programs are all set and will not be affected by Hope's departure from the organization. I wonder what his involvement in them might have been in the first place; he seemed far more interested in the SFFS filmmaker granting programs than the local film programming.

But the festival moves forward with tonight's screening, part of Diab's Artist-in-Residency in which he's visiting with local students and presenting a free Artist Talk Monday.

Tonight's screening is co-presented by the Arab Film Festival, which begins at the Castro tomorrow night and moves to other venues in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley (and even faraway Los Angeles and San Diego) over the next few weeks. Many filmmakers will be in attendance.

Another Arab filmmaker coming to Frisco Bay is Morocco's Moumen Smihi, who arrives at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive October 20-27 to introduce screenings of four of his films. As a kind of preamble to his visit, the PFA screens his 1975 feature The East Wind and his 1999 Moroccan Chronicles tonight and next Thursday in 35mm prints.

HOW: Cario 678, though shot on 35mm, will be projected digitally tonight.

The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972)

WHO: Margit Carstensen has the title role; Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed the film, based on his own play.

WHAT: Not Fassbinder's only all-female-cast film (as Marsha McCreadie notes in her excellent piece on the film, there's also his 1977 rarity Women in New York) but his most famous one by far.

WHERE/WHEN: Tonight at the Roxie at 7PM, and Thursday, October 29th at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

WHY: With four posts on Fassbinder since Friday you may wonder if I have blinders on about other local screenings happening this week. No, I just consider a Fassbinder retro a major event and it's been ten years since the last substantial one in the Bay Area.

But I can't help but notice that tonight's Roxie selection is (surely by coincidence) booked on the same day as a female-centric Castro Theatre double-bill of Thelma & Louise and Switchblade Sisters. If you have a free afternoon you can actually catch that bill as a matinee with just barely enough time to quickly walk from the Castro to the Roxie before The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant begins unspooling. Or if not, you can potentially make the reverse trip to catch the 9:25 Switchblade Sisters, although it might be safer to cab it depending on whether or not the Roxie's Mike Keegan gives Petra an introduction (he did on Monday for another Fassbinder/Carstensen Fear Of Fear, but not on Sunday for The American Soldier.

HOW: 35mm

Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975)

WHO: Brigitte Mira plays the title role in this film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

WHAT: This irony-drenched fable is one of my very favorite Fassbinder's films. Often called his "most political" film, it tackles serious issues but is perhaps more playful in tone than usual. Joanne Laurier and David Walsh co-authored a fine article on the film from a socialist perspective in 2003; they call it "perhaps the last work of his most valuable and politically radical phase of filmmaking, 1971-1975".

WHERE/WHEN: Screens 7PM tonight at the Roxie and at 8:30 on November 30th at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

WHY: The San Francisco and Berkeley venues showing 24 Fassbinder's films over the next months have done a very good job of coordinating screenings to maximize local cinephiles' chances at seeing as many of them as possible. Only last Friday's dual-venue opening of the season and tonight are there  conflicting screenings at both the PFA and the Roxie. While the latter screens Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven, the former shows Effi Briest, which will repeat on October 24th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Though Mira appeared in over a dozen of Fassbinder's films and television works, only six of them are part of the PFA/YBCA/Roxie screening series. Luckily, both of her major 'leading lady' roles are represented, this and Ali: Fear Eats The Soul. Either one is eminently re-watchable for Fassbinder fans, and also an ideal introduction for a newcomer to his work.

HOW: 35mm.

Fear Of Fear (1975)

WHO: Rainer Werner Fassbinder wrote and directed this.

WHAT: Among the Fassbinder films I have yet to see. Justin Vicari calls is a "forgotten masterpiece".

WHERE/WHEN: Screens 7PM tonight at the Roxie and 8:50PM October 25th at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

WHY: It's certainly still possible to see all 24 of the Fassbinder films coming to Frisco Bay over the next few months (which I listed on my blog Friday), even if you missed the five films that screened at the Roxie and PFA over the weekend. Although there are seven films in the series that only screen once (all at the PFA), they don't begin unspooling until this Friday when his 1969 films The Katzelmacher and Gods of the Plague play the PFA. If you miss Fear of Fear at the Roxie tonight, there is still a chance to see it in two and a half weeks.

If you live in San Francisco and want to minimize trips to the East Bay, however, you can do so by seeing Fear of Fear tonight at the Roxie and The Merchant of Four Seasons October 20th at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts instead of seeing the pair at the PFA on the 25th. Seeing another Fassbinder film the same night as his emotionally-draining The Merchant of Four Seasons might not be ideal either, so even if you plan to visit the PFA that night, you might want to attend one or the other film in San Francisco first. Seeing two Fassbinder films in one night is generally unadvised. Luckily it's generally avoidable with this Frisco Bay Fassbinder season.

HOW: 35mm print.

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)

WHO: Directed and co-written by Lau Kar-leung (a.k.a. Liu Chia-liang), who died of leukemia at age 76 this past summer.

WHAT: My favorite kung fu film of all time, which Zach Campbell has noted has "quasi-Brechtian sets and acting"; the fact that it contains particularly exciting action scenes goes without saying.

WHERE/WHEN: Today only at 1:15 PM at the Vogue, presented by the San Francisco Film Society.

WHY: It's the final day of Hong Kong Cinema, the SFFS's first mini-festival of its Fall Season. Other screenings today include Wong Jing's The Last Tycoon, Kiwi Chow's A Complicated Story (executive produced by Johnnie To) and Oxide Pang's Conspirators.

Future Fall Season mini-fests include Zurich/SF October 18-20 and Taiwan Film Days November 1-3. The most recent announcement is the line-up of French Cinema Now, a November 7-10 showcase of Francophone cinema including the local premieres of acclaimed new films by directors such as Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Alain Guiraudie, Nicolas Philibert, Denis Côté, and Claire Denis.

HOW: Blu-Ray presentation.