Noir City continues at the Castro over the weekend. I haven’t seen any of the films, so I give any specific recommendations. And then IndieFest starts there on Thursday.
The Seventh Seal, Pacific Film Archive, Sunday, 2:00. I fell deeply in love with Bergman’s religious allegory when I first saw it at the age of 18. The idea of a knight returning from the Crusades, playing chess with death while the plague kills people all around him appealed to me very much. So did Gunnar Fischer’s dark yet majestical cinematography. But when I saw it again recently, at a considerably older age, much of the symbolism seemed obvious and heavy-handed. It’s still a very good film, but not what a much younger me thought it was. Part of the PFA’s Medieval Remake series.
Rocky Horror Picture Show 10th Anniversary, Parkway, Saturday night, midnight. It’s been ten years since the longest-running film engagement in the world (my educated guess) moved from the U.C. Theater of Blessed Memory to the Parkway. By that time, I was too old to do the timewarp outside of the privacy of my own home. It’s a silly movie, clumsily made, but the tunes are catchy, some of the jokes funny, and the celebration of all things hedonistic is infectious. Besides, it’s not about the movie; it’s about the audience.
Bayflicks 