What’s coming at BAMPFA

~ Lincoln Spector

It’s getting harder to see a movie in a theater – especially when you live in the East Bay. Berkeley has only two cinemas, and one of them belongs to the University.

That’s the one I wanted to talk to you about. The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) doesn’t screen regular movies. They play film series. Over the summer, they played film series’ spotlighting Claudia Cardinale, urban Japan, and the comedies of Preston Sturges. So, sit back and see what will be screening for the rest of the year.

Luis Buñuel’s Magnificent Weapon
July 7–November 19
Illusion Travels by Streetcar
This series has been running since early July; but you can’t put Buñuel into a small box. Here are the films he made in Mexico and nobody wanted to see his work. I’ve seen only one of these pictures, Illusion Travels by Streetcar. I saw it in the ’70s, at the Roxie, and loved it. I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

Rialto Pictures Twenty-Fifth Anniversary
September 2–November 29

Ran
Rialto Pictures brought many a great film to American theaters. Among the films I saw and loved thanks to Rialto are Army of Shadows (Saturday, September 9, 7:00 PM), The White Sheik (Friday, November 3, 6:30pm), The Third Man, and Akira Kurosawa’s last masterpiece, Ran.

Mill Valley Film Festival at BAMPFA
October 7–15

You don’t have to go to Mill Valley to attend the Mill Valley Film Festival, or even Marin County. Many of the films that will screen will play in Berkeley. Which ones? I don’t know yet. I’ll have the information early next week.

Other series

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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.