Until yesterday, I'd never seen a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Feeling a need to rectify that, and suspecting that I couldn't stomach Salo, I watched The Gospel According to St. Matthew last night. If you have any sense of film history, you can't watch this stark, low-budget, black-and-white, telling of the life of Christ … Continue reading The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Month: January 2011
What’s Screening: January 28 – February 3
Noir City continues through the weekend. Both IndieFest and the Mostly British Film Festival open Friday. A Strangers on a Train, Pacific Film Archive, Friday, 7:00. One of Hitchcock’s scariest films, and therefore one of his best. A rich, spoiled psychotic killer (the worst kind) convinces himself that a moderately-famous athlete has agreed to exchange … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 28 – February 3
IndieFest Preview
I've previewed three films coming to IndieFest. Here's what I thought about them. B+ The Drummond Will, Roxie, Friday, February 4, 7:00; Sunday, February 6, 2:30; Monday, February 7, 7:00. No one can make murder funny like the British. In this low-budget comedy, two very different brothers inherent a ramshackle house from the father neither … Continue reading IndieFest Preview
Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
They're out, and there are no real surprises. But I still have a couple of comments: Like everyone else, I'm assuming that either The Social Network or The King's Speech will win Best Picture and its almost constant companion, Best Director. Both of them could win Best Screenplay, however. The King's Speech, based on historical … Continue reading Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
A Weekend in Black and White, Part 2: Noir City
It was dark. It was dangerous. Lust, greed, and fear hung heavily in the air. It was enough to drive you crazy. That's right. I spent Saturday at the Castro with two Noir City double bills. That's four pictures from the 40s and early 50s I'd never seen before. While the movies where dark and … Continue reading A Weekend in Black and White, Part 2: Noir City
A Weekend in Black and White, Part 1: Nuremberg
I saw five movies theatrically over Friday and Saturday, all of them in black and white. I started Friday night with a screening at the Shattuck of Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today. The director's daughter, Sandra Schulberg, who also oversaw the restoration of this 1946 documentary, spoke before and after the screening. Her father, Stuart … Continue reading A Weekend in Black and White, Part 1: Nuremberg
What’s Screening: January 21 – 27
Noir City opens Friday night and runs through the week. A The Thief of Bagdad (1940 version), Pacific Film Archive, Wednesday, 3:10. One of the greatest fantasy adventures ever made, and made decades before Star Wars clones glutted the market. The special effects lack today’s realism, but they still pack an emotional punch (my daughter, … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 21 – 27
IndieFest 2011
I tend to put film festivals into three categories. First, you've got identity festivals, which focus on the many ethnic, religious, racial, and gender ways in which people group themselves (the Jewish Film Festival, Frameline, and so one). Second, you have genre festivals, which look at particular kinds of movies (Noir City, Silent Film Festival). … Continue reading IndieFest 2011
What’s Screening: January 14 – 20
For Your Consideration continues through the week. German Gems opens tonight at the Castro and runs through the weekend. And B+ Budrus, Lumiere, Shattuck, opens Friday. This documentary is all about message, and I’m sure I would have hated it if I had disagreed with its point of view. But I liked the movie, which … Continue reading What’s Screening: January 14 – 20
For Your Consideration
I missed a festival: For Your Consideration. Well, I didn't quite miss it. It opens tomorrow at the Rafael, and runs for eight days. But I didn't catch it in time to include it in last week's newsletter. The festival will screen ten foreign-language films that have been submitted, by their countries of origin, into … Continue reading For Your Consideration
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