A big, bright, high-definition image projected onto a giant screen--”that’s what makes movies better than television! And no film format filled that screen better--”at least for narrative fiction films--”than 70mm, which dominated the biggest film presentations for nearly 40 years. Next week, the big picture returns in all of its glory as the Castro starts … Continue reading 70mm

Sequel. The very word conjures up images of Hollywood at its most crass and commercial. Indeed, the term art house sequel sounds like an oxymoron. Yet in less than two years, we've had The Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand's follow-up to his 1989 Decline of the American Empire) and Richard Linklater's Before Sunset. And now we're … Continue reading The Good, the Bad, and the Sequels

Box office sales are down. Studios are making less from theaters that from DVD sales. There's panic in the streets of LA. There are plenty of theories as to why people have lost the theater habit. Mick LaSalle wrote an excellent article about them in Wednesday's Chronicle. But does this trend extend to the art/repertoire/calendar … Continue reading Poor Box Office

Of all the ethnic/religious/sexual identity film festivals in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is my favorite. What do you expect, I’m Jewish? For a few weeks every summer, I’m not the only person in the congregation who wants to talk about movies. It’s an anniversary, this time, the 25th San Francisco … Continue reading San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you who sent their condolences on the death in my family. I appreciated your kindness. I had just started writing last week’s newsletter—about the Balboa’s Human/Nature Festival and the just-announced San Francisco Jewish Film Festival—when my brother called with the news that our mother’s husband was … Continue reading A Death in the Family