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The Sonoma International Film Festival continues through Sunday, and the San Francisco International Film Festival opens Thursday. And we’ve got an earthquake to commemorate.

A- The Palm Beach Story, Stanford, Saturday through Tuesday. No one wrote and directed screwball comedies as well as Preston Sturges, and if this one doesn’t quite come up to the brilliant level of The Lady Eve, it’s still too good to earn a mere B. It’s not just the absurdity of casting singer Rudy Vallee as the millionaire rival ready to win Claudette Colbert from husband Joel McCrea, it’s also the Weenie King, the Ale and Quail Club, Toto, and the most ridiculous happy ending ever filmed. On a double-bill with another Preston Sturges comedy, Unfaithfully Yours, which I’ve seen too long ago to comment on.

B- San Francisco, Castro, Sunday, 8:00. A big, silly, melodramatic special effects vehicle made before people thought of movies as special effects vehicles, San Francisco is a classic example of code-era Hollywood trying to have it both ways. It celebrates the non-conformist, hedonistic, open-minded joy that, at least to the screenwriters, symbolized the Barbary Coast. But it covers itself in a thick layer of Christian moralizing that’s as annoying as it is laughable. Still, San Francisco has considerable pleasures, especially in the last half hour when the earth shakes and the fires break out. And let’s not forget the title song–the best ever written about a city. And speaking of music, the evening’s entertainment includes a live performance by Blackie Norton’s Paradise Club Band (the group’s name is a reference to the movie). In honor of the Big One’s 104 anniversary.

C Old San Francisco, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, Saturday, 7:00. And while we’re honoring the big one, let’s do it with aristocratic Spaniards, corrupt Chinese, a caged dwarf, an Irishman in love, and an evil land speculator with a humiliating secret–all shaken by the 1906 earthquake and stirred by lurid melodrama. Silly and offensively racist, but still fun, Old San Francisco offers considerable historical interest with its fascinating glimpse at how Hollywood (and white America) saw the world in 1927. With its pre-Jazz Singer Vitaphone music-and-effects soundtrack, the essentially silent Old San Francisco stands as an important early film in the transition to sound. But you won’t hear that soundtrack at Niles; Frederick Hodges will be tickling the ivories, instead.

B Enchanted, Cerrito, Sunday, noon.  Howard Hawks’ famous criteria for a great film–three good scenes and no bad ones–almost applies to this family fantasy. It has  more than three great scenes. But it also has a few that border on the edge of just plain bad. Riffing on traditional, Disneyesqe fairy tales, Enchanted transplants the familiar characters (a beautiful blonde princess, handsome prince, and so on) from an animated fantasy land into live action New York. Amy Adams nails the princess part perfectly, and the two big production numbers are among the funniest ever staged. But other cast members, especially Patrick Dempsey, are just plain dull, and near the end, the movie forgets it’s a comedy. But when it works, it’s enchanting. Read my full review.

Hippie Temptation, Red Vic, Friday. I saw this already aging CBS news special in a club not too far from the current location of the Red Vic, probably about 1977. At the time, I thought it was hilarious (unintentionally, of course). I have no idea how I would react to it today.

A The Gold Rush, Davies Symphony Hall, Friday, 8:00, Saturday, 2:00. Of all the important works of the silent era—at least the preserved ones—none is more difficult to see properly than Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 masterpiece (his own personal favorite). The fault lies in Chaplin himself, who re-edited The Gold Rush and added narration in 1942, then insisted that the alteration was the definitive version. (See The Altered Charlie Chaplin Problem.) But now is your chance to see the original, accompanied not by piano, or organ, or even by spoken narration from the world’s greatest mime, but by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The catch: It’s expensive, and seats are running out.

BThe Big Lebowski, Red Vic, Sunday through Tuesday. Critics originally panned this Coen Brothers gem as a disappointing follow-up to the Coen’s previous endeavor,  Fargo. Well, it isn’t as good as the Coen’s masterpiece, but it’s still one hell of a funny movie. It’s also built quite a cult following; The Big Lebowski has probably played more Bay Area one-night stands in the years I’ve been maintaining this site than than any three other movies put together.

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This is a great week for silent movie lovers. We’ve got The Gold Rush with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Sunrise with organ accompaniment (it usually plays with the original Movietone track), and Sherlock Jr. with hip-hop.

On the festival beat, the Sonoma International Film Festival starts its four-day run on Thursday.

A The Gold Rush, Davies Symphony Hall, 2:00. Of all the important works of the silent era—at least the preserved ones—none is more difficult to see properly than Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 masterpiece (his own personal favorite). The fault lies in Chaplin himself, who re-edited The Gold Rush and added narration in 1942, then insisted that the alteration was the definitive version. (See The Altered Charlie Chaplin Problem.) But now is your chance to see the original, accompanied not by piano, or organ, or even by spoken narration from the world’s greatest mime, but by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The catch: It’s expensive, and seats are running out. A few tickets are also available Friday the 16th (that’s when I’m going) and Saturday the 17th.

A+ Sunrise, Castro, Sunday. New Print! Haunting, romantic, and impressionistic, F. W. Murnau’s first American feature turns the mundane into the fantastic and the world into a work of art. The plot is simple: A marriage, almost destroyed by another woman, is healed by a day in the city. But the execution, with its stylized sets, beautiful photography, and talented performers, makes it both touchingly personal and abstractly mythological. Basically a silent film, the 1927 Sunrise was one of the first films released with a soundtrack (music and effects, only). But the Castro will skip the soundtrack and present this masterpiece with live accompaniment by Warren Lubich on the Wurlitzer pipe organ.

B+ Sherlock Jr., Pacific Film Archive, Thursday, 7:30. There’s nothing new about special effects. Buster Keaton used them extensively, in part to comment on the nature of film itself, in this story of a projectionist who dreams he’s a great detective. The sequence where he enters the movie screen and finds the scenes changing around him would be impressive if it were made today; for 1924, when the effects had to be done in the camera, it’s mind-boggling. Since it’s Keaton, Sherlock Jr. is also filled with impressive stunts and very funny gags. This is an extremely short “feature,” running only about 45 minutes (depending on the projection speed). As a PFA Cine/Spin presentation, Sherlock Jr. will be accompanied by UC Berkeley DJs who will “bust a move on Buster Keaton [with] vinyl audio augments and digital enhancements.” Keep an open mind.

B A Night at the Opera, Rafael, Thursday, 7:00. The Marx Brothers moved up in the world when they left Paramount for MGM—bigger budgets and bigger grosses. But the need to be more commercial cost them a lot of their bite. Their first MGM extravaganza has some of their best routines (“The party of the first part,” the overcrowded stateroom), but you have to sit through a dumb romantic plot, very unmarxist sentimentality, and insipid love songs. Introduced by actor Frank Ferrante, acclaimed by The New York Times as "the greatest living interpreter of Groucho Marx’s material."

D Warlords, Lumiere and Shattuck, opens Friday for one week. Huge, cumbersome, and melodramatic, The Warlords succeeds primarily in being loud. Set during the Taiping Rebellion, it stars Jet Li as a general who turns a group of bandits into an unbeatable army with the help of two bandit leaders who become his blood brothers. There’s a love triangle, as well. The battle scenes are big, but seldom thrilling and often laughable. Li’s General Pang commits multiple atrocities, but we’re supposed to forgive him because he cries as he does them. When the movie ended with a quote from itself, “Dying is easy. Living is harder,” I suppressed the desire to finish the old cliché properly: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

B The Big Lebowski, Red Vic, Sunday through Tuesday. Critics originally panned this Coen Brothers gem as a disappointing follow-up to the Coen’s previous endeavor,  Fargo. Well, it isn’t as good as the Coen’s masterpiece, but it’s still one hell of a funny movie. It’s also built quite a cult following; The Big Lebowski has probably played more Bay Area one-night stands in the years I’ve been maintaining this site than than any three other movies put together.

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I’m trying to get back into the swing of things after my mother’s death. Expect this newsletter to be short.

I missed the San Francisco International Film Festival press conference on Tuesday, but I have the press kit. I’ll get to it probably on Sunday.

B+ The President’s Analyst, Castro, Wednesday. This little comedy from 1967 deserves recognition, even if its extremely out-dated. The White House hires a psychiatrist (James Coburn) to help the president deal with his emotional burden. Trouble is, no one can help the psychiatrist. He’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown when spies from every country in the world converge to kidnap him (and stop other spies from kidnapping him). Although the movie shows its age in almost every way, the film’s surprise ending seems remarkably prescient. On a double bill with Kelly’s Heroes, a war comedy I liked when I saw it as a teenager, but doubt I would today. Part of the Castro’s tribute to jazz composer Lalo Schifrin.

A- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stanford, Saturday through Tuesday. Corrupt political bosses appoint a naive, young idealist (James Stewart) senator because they think he’s stupid. The second and best film in Frank Capra’s common man trilogy, Mr. Smith creeks a bit with patriotic corniness today, and seems almost as naive as its protagonist. But it has moments–Stewart’s speech about how “history is too important to be left in school books,” for instance–that can still bring a lump to your throat. And it’s just plain entertaining. On a double bill with Come Live with Me, which I have never heard of.

A- Crazy Heart, Red Vic, Thursday (and the following Friday). Jeff Bridges earned his Oscar for this role as an alcoholic once-famous country western singer on the skids. His Bad Blake drives from town to town in an old truck, playing in small bars and enjoying the occasional company of aging groupies. Not that he’s without friends. His still considerable charm help him win the love of a young reporter and single mother who knows better (Maggie Gyllenhaal). And a now-successful former protégée (Colin Farrell doing a believable  American accent) tries to help rejuvenate his career. But alcohol and self-loathing make him a difficult man to help. With excellent songs by T-Bone Burnett.

A+ Annie Hall, Pacific Film Archive, Wednesday, 3:00. Almost every Hollywood film deals on some level with romantic love, but very few accurately capture the complex, dizzying ups and downs of that common experience. And no other captures it as well, or as hilariously, as Annie Hall. Part of the series, and class, Film 50: History of Cinema.

A Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Red Vic, Sunday and Monday. Not quite as funny as Holy Grail (but still hilarious), the Pythons’ second (and last) narrative feature digs a little deeper than its predecessor. Its story of a hapless citizen of Roman-occupied Judea, mistaken for the messiah, satirizes faith, fanaticism (both religious and political), and the human tendency to blindly follow leaders. The religious right attacked it viciously when it came out, which is kind of funny since the movie’s strongest satire is aimed at left-wing radicals.

B Bullet, Castro, Saturday. San Francisco detective Steve McQueen plays it cool as he investigates a crime that the police force would rather he didn’t investigate. Nothing really exceptional in the script (unless you count its being one of the first Hollywood movies with the word bullshit, which brought audience cheers in 1968), but McQueen exudes McQueen cool in nearly every scene. And it contains a great car chase on the streets of our hilly city. On a double bill with Dirty Harry, another detective movie about a cool cop with uptight superiors. I haven’t seen this one in ages, so I won’t offer an opinion. Part of the Castro’s tribute to jazz composer Lalo Schifrin.

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The Asian American Film Festival plays through Sunday, and the Tiburon International Film Festival continue through the week.

Creature Features Presents Horror Express, Balboa, Thursday, 7:00. Bay area film  buffs old enough to remember TV before the VCR have fond memories of KTVU (channel 2)’s late night series Creature Features. Each week, host Bob Wilkins–or in later years John Stanley–would bring us a horror or Sci Fi flick, usually tacky, occasionally uncensored, and interspersed with interviews and trivia. This Thursday, Stanley will be on hand at the Balboa to recreate the whole experience (without commercials, I assume). The feature will be a little something from 1972 that I’ve either never heard of or willfully forgotten: Horror Express.

A+ The General, Oakland Paramount, Friday, 8:00 and Sunday, 2:00. Buster Keaton pushed film comedy like no  one else when he made this one. He meticulously recreated the Civil War setting. He mixed slapstick comedy with battlefield death. He hired thousands of extras and filmed what may be the single most expensive shot of the silent era (then used it as the setup for a punch line told in a simple close-up). The result was a critical and commercial flop in 1926, but today it’s rightly considered one of the greatest comedies ever made. With organ accompaniment by Christoph Bull. Also on the program: The Oakland East Bay Symphony performing Camille Saint-Saëns’
Symphony No. 3, also known as the "Organ Symphony" (and again with Bull at the organ).

A- Double Bill: Kagemusha & Sanjuro, Stanford, Saturday through Tuesday. That A- goes exclusively to Sanjuro. In this sequel to Yojimbo, Mifune’s masterless swordsman reluctantly helps a group of naïve young samurai clean up their clan. This action comedy ties with The Hidden Fortress as Kurosawa’s lightest entertainment. The climax involves one of the greatest, and most unique, swordfights in movie history. On the other hand, Kagemusha, Kurosawa’s 1980 epic–made largely with Hollywood money–is one big, long, and empty bore. Visually beautiful, it lacks the warmth and humanity we expect from Kurosawa, and it offers nothing to replace that warmth–such as humor, irony, or insight. The story of a petty thief posing as a warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai in two roles) could have had all those things, but here is little more than an excuse to show thousands of soldiers massing and preparing for battle. But it is beautiful to look at. Although I have revisited both films in the last few years, I have not yet gotten to either of them in my Kurosawa Diary project.

A Double Bill: The Idiot & The Lower Depths,  Stanford, Wednesday through next Friday. Once again, the Stanford offers a mix of excellent and horrible Kurosawa. The Lower Depths is the one that earns the A, despite it’s feeling like a filmed stage play (which it is). Set in a grim flophouse in the 19th century (and based on the play by Maxim Gorky), the film examines several characters at the very bottom of the economic ladder. It’s depressing, of course, but it’s also warm, sardonic, and funny. A rare Kurosawa period piece without swordplay. The Idiot is also based on a work of Russian literature–a Dostoyevsky novel—but this time Kurosawa blew it badly. The dull and lifeless story concerns a man with a mental disability, his romantic prospects, and those prospects’ other romantic prospects. That sounds like a lot more fun than it actually is. For more on these films, you can read my Kurosawa Diary entries on The Lower Depths and The Idiot.

A Double Bill: The Bad Sleep Well & Throne of Blood, Stanford, Wednesday through next Friday. In The Bad Sleep Well, Mifune plays a young executive who leaps up the  corporate ladder by marrying the boss’s crippled daughter. But the company has a suspicious past, including a possible murder, and this new hotshot may have an agenda of his own. Kurosawa stands Shakespeare on his head with Throne of Blood, his haunting, noh- and kabuki-inspired loose adaptation of Macbeth. Toshiro Mifune gives an over-the-top but still effective performance as the military officer manipulated by his wife (Isuzu Yamada) into murdering his lord. The finale–which is far more democratic than anything Shakespeare ever dared–is one of the great action sequences ever. You can read my Kurosawa Diary entry on Throne of Blood now, but you’ll have to wait for The Bad Sleep Well.

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Slim pickings this week. If it wasn’t for the Stanford’s Kurosawa series, there would hardly be anything.

I hope to soon get back into the festival routine, which would give me much more to write about for weeks like this one. The Asian American Film Festival continues through the week. And the Tiburon International Film Festival opens Thursday.

World Premiere: Remembering Playland at the Beach, Balboa, Tuesday. I moved to the Bay Area in 1975—three years too late to have ever experienced Playland at the Beach. This documentary, which I have not seen, examines the history of this long-gone amusement park.

A Double Bill: The Hidden Fortress & Yojimbo, Stanford, Saturday through Tuesday. Kurosawa has made samurai movies that were epic tragedies, existentialist dreams, and black comic westerns. But The Hidden Fortress is just plain fun–a rousing, suspenseful, and entertaining romp. It was also his first widescreen film, and  contains two comic peasants (Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara) who were the inspiration for R2D2 and C3PO. Yojimbo is the above-mentioned the black comic western. A masterless samurai (who else but Toshiro Mifune) wanders into a small town torn apart by two gangs fighting a brutal turf war. Disgusted by everyone, he uses his wits and amazing swordsmanship to play the sides against each other. My Kurosawa Diary entries on these two are yet to come—although The Hidden Fortress is next on the list..

A Mary Poppins, Lark, Sunday, 3:00. The best live-action movie Walt Disney ever made, and one of the great all-time children’s pictures. Julie Andrews may have won the Oscar through a sympathy vote, but she really lights up her first movie appearance, managing to upstage Dick Van Dyke and some wonderful special effects. So what if it takes liberties with the books.

A Double Bill: The Bad Sleep Well & Throne of Blood, Stanford, Wednesday through next Friday. In The Bad Sleep Well, Mifune plays a young executive who leaps up the  corporate ladder by marrying the boss’s crippled daughter. But the company has a suspicious past, including a possible murder, and this new hotshot may have an agenda of his own. Kurosawa stands Shakespeare on his head with Throne of Blood, his haunting, noh- and kabuki-inspired loose adaptation of Macbeth. Toshiro Mifune gives an over-the-top but still effective performance as the military officer manipulated by his wife (Isuzu Yamada) into murdering his lord. The finale–which is far more democratic than anything Shakespeare ever dared–is one of the great action sequences ever. You can read my Kurosawa Diary entry on Throne of Blood now, but you’ll have to wait for The Bad Sleep Well.

A Double Bill: High and Low & I Live in Fear, Stanford, Friday. High and Low is one of the best crime thrillers of the 1960’s. Toshiro Mifune stars as a successful businessman who thinks he’s off the hook when a kidnapper snatches the wrong boy, leaving his own son safe. But the kidnapper still insists on receiving the ransom (large enough to destroy Mifune’s tenuous hold on his company), forcing the man into a moral dilemma. I Live in Fear (also known asRecord of a Living Being), while a good film, is easily the worst work from Kurosawa’s best period (1952 – 1965). The story concerns an aging industrialist (Toshiro Mifune, made up to look twice his 35 years) driven insane, or at least irrational, by his fear of the the atom bomb. His family is trying to declare him mentally incompetent before he ruins them financially. You can read my Kurosawa Diary entry for I Live in Fear, but it will probably be a few months before I post one for High and Low.

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Cinequest continues through Sunday, and the Asian American Film Festival starts Thursday.

Oscar Night, Sunday evening (exact times vary from one theater to another). Don’t want to be alone as you watch James Cameron lose to his ex-wife? Join a live Oscar screening party at the Balboa, Cerrito, Lark, Rafael, or Roxie. Many are encouraging costumes. Hmmm, perhaps a giant, blue alien defusing a bomb.

A Double Bill: Stray Dog & Drunken Angel, Stanford, Saturday through Tuesday. Here are two excellent, early Akira Kurosawa/Toshiro Mifune collaborations. In Stray Dog a young, rookie detective (Mifune) loses his gun to a pickpocket. Tortured by guilt, he becomes obsessed with finding the stolen Colt, which is getting used in a series of violent crimes. Takashi Shimura plays his mentor in his sensitive fatherly mode. The title Drunken Angel refers to an gruff, short-tempered, and alcoholic doctor (Shimura) who runs a small slum clinic next to a filthy sump. Mifune plays one of his patients, a tubercular gangster who cannot fight the disease and keep his high-living, macho lifestyle. Read my Kurosawa Diary entries for Stray Dog and Drunken Angel.

A Double Bill: High and Low & I Live in Fear, Stanford, Wednesday through next Friday. High and Low is one of the best crime thrillers of the 1960’s. Toshiro Mifune stars as a successful businessman who thinks he’s off the hook when a kidnapper snatches the wrong boy, leaving his own son safe. But the kidnapper still insists on receiving the ransom (large enough to destroy Mifune’s tenuous hold on his company), forcing the man into a moral dilemma. I Live in Fear (also known as Record of a Living Being), while a good film, is easily the worst work from Kurosawa’s best period (1952 – 1965). The story concerns an aging industrialist (Toshiro Mifune, made up to look twice his 35 years) driven insane, or at least irrational, by his fear of the the atom bomb. His family is trying to declare him mentally incompetent before he ruins them financially. You can read my Kurosawa Diary entry for I Live in Fear, but it will probably be a few months before I post one for High and Low.

A+ Double Bill: Ikiru & One Wonderful Sunday, Stanford, Friday. One of Kurosawa’s best films co-billed with one of his worst.The A+ goes to Ikiru, arguably the greatest serious drama ever projected onto a screen. Takashi Shimura gives the performance of his lifetime as an aging government bureaucrat who discovers he’s dying of cancer. Emotionally cut off from his family–including the son and daughter-in-law that live with him–he struggles to find some meaning in his life before he dies. You can read my Kurosawa Diary entry here. But the second feature, One Wonderful Sunday, is one terrible movie. A young couple who have been dating for years (and still haven’t gotten to first base) try to have a fun day on the town despite a lack of cash or, quite frankly, chemistry. Think Before Sunrise without good dialog, interesting characters, or real sexual tension. I discuss it briefly in this Kurosawa Diary entry.

A Precious, Red Vic, Friday and Saturday; Roxie, Friday through Sunday.  Few film-going experiences match this one for intensity. And it’s not the intensity of a good horror film or thriller (although it’s more horrifying and suspenseful than most of them). This is the intensity of life at its most relentlessly depressing and hopeless. The title character, played by newcomer Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, is 16 years old, extremely obese, illiterate, and pregnant with her second child. She’s also regularly abused physically, emotionally, and sexually by her parents. And yet, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, manages to find hope. Where there is life, that life can be improved. Read my full review.

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