I’m currently reading Phillip Lopate’s huge anthology, American Movie Critics. Like all anthologies, it’s a mixed bag, offering the fascinating and the dull, the witty with the obtuse, the literate with the commercial. But almost everything in the book is at least of only historical interest.
For instance, the book proves that in key ways, our attitudes about this strange mix of art and business hasn’t changed much. Seventy years ago, critics were already complaining that new movies aren’t as good as old ones, and that American movies lack the artistry of European cinema. Meanwhile, other critics praised the latest American releases and
criticized the closed minds of the hopelessly elite and nostalgic. Like today, the mediocre outnumbered the good, the good outnumbered the great; and the masterpieces weren’t always recognized in their own time.
My main complaint: The individual articles aren’t dated. When Pare Lorentz begins an article with “During the past five years,” I really want to know what five years he’s talking about.
Another thing: Movie reviewing appears to be a dangerous job. Each reviewer included gets his or her own little biography, and a surprising number of these literate cinephiles died depressingly young. Harry Alan Potamkin lived only to 33; André Sennwald, 28. Otis Ferguson, whom Lopate calls the first of “the five greatest American film critics,” was killed in action during World War II at the age of 36. And the amazing James Agee? To paraphrase Tom Lehrer, it is indeed a sobering thought that, by the time James Agee was my age, he had been dead for six years.
Before I recommend some movies for this week and thus risk my own life, a quick note about the Jewish Film Festival: I’ll be using my red dot (
) icon for movies expecting a theatrical release after the festival (no guarantee). Consider these films less of a priority than movies that will only show at the festival.
Recommended: Good Night and Good Luck, Creek Park, San Anselmo, Friday, 
8:30. George Clooney made a terrific historical drama by sticking rigorously close to well-documented historical facts; it’s not supposed to happen that way. Good Night and Good Luck is about the battle between legendary television journalist Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and Senator Joseph McCarthy (Senator Joseph McCarthy), and that’s all it’s about. We don’t meet Murrow’s family; we never see his home. Instead, Clooney sticks to what matters, and at a time when elected officials are calling McCarthy a “hero for America,” it matters. As a Film Night in the Park screening, this is a DVD presentation.
Recommended: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Stanford, Friday through Monday. Not every masterpiece needs to provide a deep understanding of the human condition; some are
just plain fun. And none more so than this 1938 Errol Flynn swashbuckler. For 102 minutes, you get to live in a world where virtue–graceful, witty, rebellious, good-looking, and wholeheartedly romantic virtue–triumphs completely over grim-faced tyranny. Flynn was no actor, but no one could match him for handling a sword, a beautiful woman, or a witty line, all while wearing tights. And who else could speak treason so fluently? The great supporting cast includes Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Technicolor, a name that really meant something special in 1938. On a double-bill with The Wizard of Oz.
Recommended: The Wizard of Oz, Stanford, Friday through Monday. You don’t really need me to tell you about this one, do you? On a early Technicolor double-bill with The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Noteworthy: Bucking Broadway, Castro, Saturday, 11:00am. Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Long before John Ford directed many of the greatest westerns ever filmed, he made this recently-discovered 1917 Harry Carey oater. I haven’t seen it and can’t say if it’s any good, but if you love Ford’s work, you’ll want to find out for yourself. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is presenting Bucking Broadway accompanied by Michael Mortilla on the piano, and with personal appearances by Ford biographer Joseph McBride and Harry Carey, Jr.–the son of Bucking Broadway’s star and an actor himself in many later Ford pictures.
Recommended: Pandora’s Box, Castro, Saturday, 8:20. Nearly 70 years after her last 
film, cinephiles still debate whether Louise Brooks was a first-class talent or just a beautiful woman in the hands of a great director. Whatever, her oddly innocent femme fatale wins our sympathy as well as our lust as she sends men to their destruction without, apparently, understanding what she’s doing. A great example of what the silent drama could do in the hands of a master; in this case, G.W. Pabst. Clark Wilson will accompany the film on the Castro’s Wurlitzer pipe organ for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
Noteworthy: Laurel and Hardy Silent Shorts, Castro, Sunday, 12:30. I hope I don’t have to tell you that Laurel and Hardy were as funny as funny gets, but I may have to add that they were just as funny in silent pictures–the medium in which they were first teamed and developed their classic characters–as they were with sound. This program includes at least one of their best two reelers, “Liberty.” The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is presenting these shorts with piano accompaniment by Michael Mortilla.
Recommended: Blood Simple, Rafael, Sunday, 7:00. The Coen Brothers burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere with this atmospheric and grotesquely violent thriller. The noirish plot, involving adultery and murder (both real and faked), makes perfect sense to the viewer, although it’s unlikely that anyone within the story will ever figure it all out. One of the movies that defined today’s independent film movement, and screened this week as part of the Rafael’s Sundance Art House Project series.
Recommended: Show People, Castro, Sunday, 8:00. We remember Marion Davies, if we remember her at all, as William Randolph Hearst’s mistress and the inspiration for Citizen Kane’s talentless second wife. But King Vidor’s 1928 backstage-in-Hollywood comedy proves her a considerable talent. The story of knockabout slapstick going up against self-consciously arty cinema must have seemed 
all too autobiographical to Davies, a natural comedienne whose benefactor wanted to show off her class. Speaking of class, Dennis James will accompany the movie on the Castro’s Wurlitzer pipe organ as the closing show of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
Recommended: The Conformist, Red Vic, Sunday and Monday. It takes more than good men doing nothing to create fascism. According to Bernardo Bertolucci’s haunting character study, it also takes mediocre men with career ambitions. Jean-Louis Trintignant is chilling as a bland cog in the machine, ready to use his honeymoon in homicidal service to Mussolini. With Stefania Sandrelli as his not-too-bright bride and Dominique Sanda, in a star-making performance, as the object of everyone’s desire.
Recommended, with Reservations: Johnny Guitar, Castro, Tuesday and Wednesday. A very unusual western from Nicholas Ray. For one thing, the main rivalry is between two women: good saloon owner Joan Crawford and bad businesswoman Mercedes McCambridge. But don’t think this is a feminist picture. The women’s hatred stems from romantic jealousy, and the title character hero (Sterling Hayden) is a former lover of 
Crawford hired as her bodyguard. It’s fun, and strange, but far from a must for western lovers. On a double-bill with Rancho Notorious.
Recommended: Smoke Signals, Rafael, Wednesday, 7:00. Funny how ethnicity can make all the difference. Remove Smoke Signal‘s Native American angle and what have you got? A road picture about a jock and a nerd. But writer Sherman Alexie and director Chris Eyre take us into a society that few of us know firsthand while dealing with issues (family history, the nature of friendship, forgiveness) we have all experienced. Besides, they’ve created a very special jock and nerd, two young male Indians connected by a tragic accident from their infancy but in no way friends, leaving the reservation to collect the remains of the jock’s absentee father. Occasionally episodic, frequently funny, but always heartfelt. Part of the Rafael’s Sundance Art House Project series.
Recommended: Four Weeks in June, Castro, Thursday, 8:00. An alienated young woman in trouble with the law (for violently attacking her philandering boyfriend) befriends an old woman with a secret past. By keeping close to the dark edges of both characters, writer/director Henry Meyer avoids the obvious sentimentality and gives us two dark, wounded souls in search of healing. Think of it as Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont with fully-developed human beings. The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival‘s opening night presentation.
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