Capote

I can’t think of a historical figure more challenging for an actor to play than Truman Capote. You can’t do that voice without it sounding like a broad comic Truman Capote impersonation. Capote himself sounded like a broad comic Truman Capote impersonation.

But Philip Seymour Hoffman pulls it off–with major help from screenwriter Dan Futterman and director Bennett Miller, of course. True, when you first meet Capote, enthralling New York partygoers with his wit, you snicker a bit at the imitation. But you soon forget the affectation and snicker at what a self-centered jerk he is. Then the jerk becomes ensnared with an emotional involvement he can’t handle, and it’s crushing. (It helps that Catherine Keener is instantly and consistently likeable as his friend and research assistant, To Kill a Mockingbird author, Harper Lee.)

In case you haven’t heard, this isn’t a birth-to-death biopic. It concentrates on the years that Capote researched and wrote his last and most-praised book, In Cold Blood. Highly recommended.

As are some of the films below.

Recommended: Kiss Me Kate, Castro, Friday. Perhaps I’m damning it with faint praise, but this musical is my all-time favorite 3D movie. Okay, it’s not the best MGM musical–or even the best from 1953–but the dancing is fantastic, especially in three dimensions. Part of the Castro’s 3-D series.

Recommended: Brazil, Act 1 & 2, Friday and Saturday, midnight. One of the best black comedies ever filmed, and the best distopian fantasy on celluloid. This is the second of three masterpieces Terry Gilliam made in the 1980’s, and the only one that isn’t a children’s fantasy at heart.

Recommended: Broken Flowers, Balboa and Parkway, opening Friday. Bill Murray at his low-key best as an aging Don Juan looking up old flames and trying to discover if one of them had his baby. Not really a comedy, but funny in that quiet, quirky Jarmusch way. At the Balboa, it’s on a double-bill with 40 Year-Old-Virgin.

Noteworthy: Henri Langois, The Phantom of the Cinémathèque, Roxie, opens Friday. Remember the protests outside the Cinémathèque Française in Bertolucci’s recent film, The Dreamers? This documentary examines the founder of that institution, one of the early leaders in film restoration and preservation. It was the controversial Langois’ firing in 1968 that upset the kids in Bertolucci’s picture.

Noteworthy: The Bridge So Far: A Suspense Story, CinéArts@Sequoia, Saturday, noon. If you drive between San Francisco and the East Bay, you’ve probably spent the last 16 years wondering when we’re finally going to get an earthquake-safe Bay Bridge. This documentary tells the story of that frustrating, constantly-delayed project. Part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Noteworthy: Berkeley, CinéArts@Sequoia, Saturday, 6:45, and at the Rafael, Tuesday, 6:15. Saturday must be local subject day at the Mill Valley Film Festival. First The Bridge So Far, then The Californians, and finally this promising-sounding story of a Cal student in 1968.

Noteworthy: Tribute: Michael Powell, Rafael, Saturday, 6:30. Michael Powell was one of England’s greatest film directors (as opposed to the other Michael Powell, who was one of the FCC’s worst directors) . On Saturday evening, his widow Thelma Schoonmaker (Martin Scorsese’s film editor) will discuss Powell’s life and art, show clips, and answer questions. Part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Noteworthy: Hoppity Goes to Town, Cinearts@Sequoia, Sunday, 11:30. Disney wasn’t the only studio making Technicolor feature-length cartoons in the late ’30s and early ’40s. Here’s a new restoration of the Fleischer Brothers’ (best known for Betty Boop) 1941 entry. Let’s hope it doesn’t show why we don’t think of the Fleischers as feature animators. Part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Recommended: Dial M for Murder, Castro, Sunday. John Ford never made a 3D movie. Neither did Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles, or Charlie Chaplin. But Alfred Hitchcock did–the only director in his class to try the short-lived medium. Dial M isn’t great Hitchcock–it’s pretty much a straight adaptation of a stage play–but it’s a good play and Hitchcock knew what to do with it. Forced against his will to use the new-fangled double-lens camera, Hitchcock pretty much ignored the obvious 3D effects popular at the time. But when he finally throws something at the camera, he knows exactly what he’s doing. Part of the Castro’s 3-D series.

Noteworthy: Sound of the Soul: The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, Rafael, Sunday, 5:45, and Cinéarts Sequoia, Thursday, 7:00. Religious musicians of many faiths and cultures come to Morocco to perform, learn, and celebrate together at the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music. Part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Noteworthy: Cinemasports, Masonic Hall, Sunday, 8:00. Filmmaking as a race against time. Saturday morning, contestants are given instructions on what their short videos are to be about. Saturday night, the movies are shown before a paying audience. Part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Recommended: Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action, Rafael, Wednesday, 6:45, and the following Friday, at the Throckmorton Theater, 6:45. One documentary, four stories of Native Americans fighting to protect their environmentally-threatened reservations. One of the stories deals with the same caribou/Alaskan oil drilling issue that’s at the heart of Being Caribou, but this time, they got it right. Emotional and compelling, this is what an activist, political/environmental documentary ought to be.