SFIFF Report: Buster Keaton and Merrill Garbus

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Last night I attended the San Francisco International Film Festival silent movie event at the Castro–four Buster Keaton shorts (two of them actually Fatty Arbuckle shorts with Keaton in supporting roles), accompanied by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs along with guitarist Ava Mendoza. This is something of a tradition at the Festival–screening silent films with accompaniment [...]

Filed under: Comedy, Festivals, First-person Report, SFIFF, Silent Films | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

SFIFF Report: Jacque Tati & Barbara Kopple

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

It’s been an unusual day at the festival. Here’s what I’ve seen: Master Class: Malcolm Turvey: Tati, Chaplin and the Democratization of Comedy I started the day with professor Malcolm Turvey, lecturing on Jacque Tati and how his comedy related to what he described as the “classical comedy” of Chaplin, Keaton, and other silent clowns. [...]

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SFIFF Report: Saturday Evening

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Caught two movies after dinner last night: A- Oslo, August 31 Anders, a recovering drug  addict living in a halfway house in the country, gets a day’s leave to return to Oslo for a job interview. The trip will also give him a chance to catch up with some friends. But he’s lost, has no [...]

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SFIFF Report: Alps

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Today, things are crazy at the Kabuki. Japantown is hosting not only the San Francisco International Film Festival, but also the Cherry Blossom Festival. The crowds are insane. But I’ve managed to get through the crowds and catch a movie: B Alps I’m not exactly sure what to make of Alps. It has just enough [...]

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SFIFF Report: The Fourth Dimension

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

I hit the jackpot for my second and last movie on Friday. First, they were giving out free popcorn and free beer. But the beer was only allowed in the balcony (this was in the  Kabuki’s big Theater 1). I don’t like watching movies from the balcony, so I skipped the beer. I also hit [...]

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SFIFF Report: Robot & Frank

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Got off to a bad start with my first movie of the festival: Robot and Frank. They didn’t let people into the theater until 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start. Then they rushed us in and started the film quickly. As far as the movie was concerned C+ Robot & Frank, This [...]

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Napoleon at the Paramount: An Incredible Day at the Movies

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Abel Gance’s Napoleon so overwhelmed me that I hardly know where to start. Despite a few slow sequences, the experience was as innovating, exciting, and entertaining as anything I’ve experienced as part of an audience. I doubt I have ever seen such a perfect melding of cinema and showmanship; the movie requires this special presentation, [...]

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Watching Casablanca, Digitally Projected, at a Big Multiplex

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Last night, Turner Classic Movies and Fathom–a company that distributes high-definition operas and stage plays to movie theaters–presented Casablanca in 485 theaters–mostly or entirely big multiplexes–across the USA. Needless to say, the movie was digitally projected. The event was tied to Casablanca’s 70th anniversary. In fact, the show was officially titled Turner Classic Movies Presents [...]

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Children of Paradise

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

Something struck me as I watched Children of Paradise Saturday at the Castro. The main characters are, at heart, all extraordinarily selfish. Even when expressing deep and undying love, they’re thinking only of their own needs and desires. They want to own the object of their adoration, but they don’t see that object as a [...]

Filed under: Film Preservation, First-person Report, Great Films | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Noir City Report: 2 by Sam Fuller

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Lincoln Spector

I spent last night at the Castro, where I saw two crime thrillers by the great Samuel Fuller: House of Bamboo and Underworld USA–all part of the Noir City festival running through Sunday. The evening got off to a late start. Due to an error, the starting time was advertised as 7:00 in some publications [...]

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