What’s Screening: September 1 – 7

~ Lincoln Spector

Three very different Martin Scorsese films play in Bay Area theaters this week. A Kubrick series opens at the New Mission.

Festivals & Series

The Week’s Big Event

Stanley Kubrick made only 13 feature films. The New Mission is playing all of them over several weeks. Here’s what they’re screening:

A+ 2001: A Space Odyssey
at the New Mission, and mostly on the very big screen
֍ Friday, 8:45pm
֍ Saturday, 11:00am
֍ Monday, 11:00am
֍ Tuesday, Sold out!
֍ Wednesday, 6:30pm, on a smaller screen

Stanley Kubrick’s visualization of Arthur C. Clarke’s imagination tells you little, although it shows you a lot. Unlike any other science fiction movie (or any other big-budget blockbuster), it offers a daring story structure, striking visuals, breathtaking use of music, along with a refusal to explain what it’s all about. As prophesy, 2001 failed. As fantasy, adventure, mystery, and even theology, it’s brilliant. Read my report, or perhaps my Eat Drink Film article on how this masterpiece should best be screened.

Theatrical revivals

A+ Rashomon (1950), 4-Star, Friday, 5:30pm & 8:00pm

You’ve probably seen Akira Kurosawa’s first masterpiece, but you probably remember it wrong. That’s the point – everyone remembers things differently. In medieval Japan, a notorious bandit waylays a high-born couple in the woods, ties up the husband, and rapes the wife. Or at least that’s how some of the witnesses remember it. This story is told in flashbacks, and in flashbacks within flashbacks. Kurosawa, a director known for long and expensive epics, made Rashomon as a chamber piece. The film that brought Japanese cinema to the world. Read my Blu-ray review.

A+ Taxi Driver (1976), 4-Star, Saturday, 8:00pm

When I think of the best of 1970’s Hollywood, my mind goes to Robert De Niro walking the dark, mean streets of New York, slowly turning into a psychopath. Writer Paul Schrader and director Martin Scorsese put together this near-perfect study of loneliness as a disease. It isn’t that De Niro’s character hasn’t found the right companion, or that society has failed him, or that he doesn’t understand intimacy. His problems stem from his inability to relate to other human beings. This is a sad and pathetic man, with a rage that will inevitably turn violent. Read my Blu-ray review.

A+ 8½ (1963), Monday (1963), Balboa, 7:30pm

Funny, exhilarating, perplexing, and tragic, 8½ is not only the greatest film ever made about writer’s block. It’s also the ultimate cinematic statement on the male midlife crisis. The film is about making a movie, and the movie that’s being made appears to be 8½. Filled with one memorable and unique scene after another, Fellini’s autobiographical surreal comedy lacks nothing except a coherent plot, and it has no use for that. Read my A+ appreciation.

A+ The Last Waltz (1978), Roxie, Saturday, 1:40pm

The Band played their final concert on Thanksgiving night, 1976. Their guest performers included Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and Joni Mitchell. Martin Scorsese brought a crew of talented filmmakers to record the show and created the greatest rock documentary ever made. Scorsese and company ignored the audience and focused on the musicians, creating an intimate look at talented artists who understood that this was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Read my A+ appreciation.

A Wild Strawberries (1957), 4-Star, Wednesday, 5:30pm

Ingmar Bergman’s road movie takes you on a drive with an elderly, widowed, retired college professor (the great silent film director Victor Sjöström). Traveling with his daughter-in-law through places he once lived, the professor daydreams of his youth, remembering events that may or may not have actually happened. Perhaps his mind is going. Three upbeat teenagers join them in their travels and provide both joy and laughs.

A- Johnny Guitar (1954), Roxie, Sunday, 1:00pm

Nicolas Ray’s 1954 low-budget western has to be the weirdest oater made before Blazing Saddles. Stagy and talkie, it’s filled with outrageous dialog and fanciful names (Johnny Guitar, the Dancin’ Kid). The women behave like conventional western men, and the men act kind of like traditional women. You can’t help noticing the cheap production methods, including obviously painted exterior backgrounds and shots that don’t match. Johnny Guitar is about as realistic as an opera. But like an opera, the stylization is part of the art. Read my Blu-ray review.

A- Hot Fuzz (2007), New Parkway, Saturday, 3:50pm

Director/co-writer Edgar Wright fills every frame of Hot Fuzz with his love for mindless action movies. Even the scenes of quiet village life have the frantic style of Hollywood violence–all accompanied, of course, by overly loud sound effects (he doesn’t overdo it). Hot Fuzz also contains a funny story, clever dialog, and charming performances, all of which help make this genre parody an exceptionally funny movie. It also contains one of the longest sustained laughs I’ve heard outside of silent movies.

B+ Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), 4-Star, Saturday & Sunday, 5:00pm

Before he was famous, Martin Scorsese directed this drama/comedy that’s little of what we expect for him. There’s little violence, but it does have a lot of camera movement. When her husband suddenly dies, Alice (Ellen Burstyn in a very good performance) takes her young son to another home and tries to become a singer. The cast contains Harvey Keitel, Diane Ladd, Kris Kristofferson, and a very young Jodie Foster.

B+ Clueless (1995), Balboa, Sunday, 7:30pm

Loosely adapted from Jane Austen’s Emma, this coming-of-age comedy follows a rich, well-meaning, but superficial teenage girl (Alicia Silverstone) as she tries to fix other people’s problems as well as her own. Sweet and funny, it looks at adolescent foibles with a sympathetic eye, rarely judging youthful behavior. With a surprisingly young Paul Rudd as the great guy she can’t appreciate.

C+ Contempt (1963), BAMPFA, Saturday, 7:00

Jean-Luc Godard’s early movie about making movies isn’t very good. And it’s not even about making movies. The women worry mostly about their looks. The men spend most of their time treating the women badly. For most of the movie, a screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) fights with his wife (Brigitte Bardot). Jack Palance plays the producer who wants to film The Odyssey. This is the film where Fritz Lang, playing himself, says that CinemaScope is “only good for snakes and funerals.” Part of the series Rialto Pictures Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Salute.

Movies I can’t review

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Published by Lincoln Spector

Lincoln Spector writes about cinema, technology, and cinema technology. From 1986 through 2008, he wrote Gigglebytes, the first technology-oriented humor column. From 1977 through 2016, he wrote PC World's Answer Line column and blog.