There’s a lot of works from great auteurs this week in Bay Area cinemas. How about Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, John Huston, Francis Coppola, Jonathan Demme, David Lynch, and most importantly, Stanley Kubrick.
Festivals & Series
- Scorsese: More than a Gangster closes Sunday
- 2023 HUMP! Film Festival
- The San Francisco Dance Film Festival opens Friday
- The San Francisco Latino Film Festival continues to next month
Theatrical revivals
A+ Stop Making Sense (1984)
֍ Aquarius, opens Friday for at least a week
֍ New Mission, opens Thursday
New restoration! Great films can affect you in different ways. Some make you laugh, cry, or think. But the Talking Heads concert movie, Stop Making Sense, makes you want to jump out of your seat and dance. More than any other concert film I’ve ever seen, Stop Making Sense is a physical experience. The band is constantly dancing, moving in strange ways that look like nothing you’ve ever seen before. You can burn calories in this film. Read my A+ appreciation.
A+ North by Northwest (1959), Roxie
֍ Saturday, 6:45pm
֍ Sunday, 5:35pm
35mm! Glib advertising man (Cary Grant) becomes the victim of mistaken identity in Alfred Hitchcock’s most entertaining thriller. Foreign spies want to kill him, and the police want to arrest him for a murder he didn’t commit. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman provided almost as many laughs as thrills, balancing them deftly. Hitchcock made thrillers more frightening and thoughtful than North by Northwest, but he never made one more entertaining. Read my A+ appreciation.
A The African Queen (1951), Stanford, 5:35pm & 9:25pm
Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Africa, and Technicolor all make for splendid entertainment in John Huston’s romantic comedy action adventure. The start of World War I traps an earthy, working-class mechanic (Bogart) with a prim and proper missionary (Hepburn) behind enemy lines and hundreds of miles of jungle. It’s a bum and a nun on the run, facing rapids, insects, alcohol (he’s for it; she’s against it), German guns, and an unusual (for Hollywood) romance between two moderately attractive middle-aged people in filthy clothes. See my Blu-ray review. On a double bill with Funny Face, which I’ve haven’t seen.
A The Killing (1956), New Mission
֍ Saturday, 3:35pm
֍ Tuesday, 3:40pm
Stanley Kubrick started his Hollywood career with this crackerjack noir heist thriller. A career criminal (Sterling Hayden) orchestrates a complex racetrack robbery likely to net two million 1956 dollars. But he needs collaborators, and that means human frailty will get in the way. Hayden’s rat-a-tat-tat delivery does wonders for snappy, pulp-heavy dialog like “You’d be killing a horse – that’s not first-degree murder. In fact, it’s not murder at all. In fact, I don’t know what it is.” Read my 4K Ultra HD review.
A The Conversation (1974), Balboa, Sunday, 7:00pm
Francis Coppola’s low-budget “personal” film, made between Godfathers I and II, is almost as good as the two epics that sandwich it. The Conversation concerns a professional snoop (Gene Hackman) who bugs peoples’ private conversations for a living. Remote and lonely, his emotional armor begins to crack when he suspects that his work could lead to murder. Walter Murch’s ground-breaking sound mix exposes us to layers of meaning within the titular recorded discussion as we hear it over and over again.
A Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (2019), 4-Star, Sunday, 5:00pm
Martin Scorsese used archival 16mm footage and new interviews – some of them with fictitious people – to tell us the story of Bob Dylan’s near-mythical 1975-76 tour. This wasn’t just a Dylan tour; Joni Mitchell, Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Roger McGuinn, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Scarlet Rivera came along for the ride. And then there’s Joan Baez, singing, dancing, imitating Dylan, and talking about the old days…even if those days were an open lie. The rehearsal and performance footage intimately captures these musicians as they work and play. Read my Blu-ray review. Part of the series Scorsese: More than a Gangster.
A The Mask of Zorro (1988), New Mission, Saturday, 12:00 noon
Swashbucklers have been gone for generations, and it’s wonderful to bring them back. The original Zorro (Anthony Hopkins), now an old man, takes in a young thief (Antonio Banderas) to train him to become the new masked hero. The big budget is on the level of Indiana Jones movies (Steven Spielberg produced), with large crowds and exceptional stunts. Director Martin Campbell knows when a fight is intended for suspense and when it’s intended for laughs. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays an ingenue who knows how to fight.
A- Blue Velvet (1986), Balboa, Wednesday, 7:30pm
You could call this picture a murder mystery without a murder, but David Lynch has never been strong on genre. It’s really about the ugly reality hidden within tranquil suburbia, where two wholesome youths (Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern) stumble over a group of cruel men led by a horrible sadist (Dennis Hopper). Their primary target: a strange, European woman who can’t leave for some serious reasons (Isabella Rossellini). Don’t worry much about the story; just go where the movie takes you.
B+ Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), various theaters, Sunday through Wednesday
I don’t know when Studio Ghibli started making animated movies targeted for the American and European market. This one, based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones (certainly not a Japanese name), seems set in a fantasized Europe in the early 20th century. The story deals with a useless war, a handsome wizard with a very bad yellow streak, a courageous girl turned into an old woman, and, of course, the moving castle of the story. The design and hand-drawn animation are exceptional.
B+ Princess Mononoke (1997), New Parkway, Thursday, 9:00pm
For much of its runtime, this Japanese, animated, action fantasy takes you on a wild and exciting ride. The hand-drawn characters, the strange animals, and the amazing moments of fear, struggle, and love are surprisingly powerful. But the climactic battle between animals and people drags on too long, seemingly just for the point of making things big. The environmental message is both obvious and shallow. Too extreme for young children.
B Hugo (2011), 4-Star, Saturday, 1:00pm
Believe it or not, Martin Scorsese made a family movie, using special effects and 3D technology. It’s the story (largely fictitious) of Georges Méliès, the man who invented movie special effects. Now he’s a very sad and grumpy old man working in a train station, where he finds an orphan boy. The story is slight and cliché-ridden, but it has the virtue of touching on early film history and ending with a message: movies must be preserved. As far as I know, it’s not being shown in 3D. Read my Thoughts on Hugo. Part of the series Scorsese: More than a Gangster.
B Killer’s Kiss (1955), New Mission
֍ Friday, 4:30pm
֍ Saturday, 11:30am
֍ Wednesday, 3:00pm
Stanley Kubrick’s second film just may be the best-looking movie made on a very tiny budget. He raised money from friends and family, cut corners all over, and yet the result is something special. Kubrick shot the picture as well as wrote, directed, and edited it, and it’s one of the best-looking low-budget noirs ever. The fight scenes are striking and powerful. But there’s nothing original or special about the hackneyed story. After this movie, all of his films were made with Hollywood money, and would be based on published novels (with the arguable exception of 2001).
B+ American Graffiti (1973), Balboa, Friday, 7:30pm
A long time ago, in a Bay Area that feels very far away, George Lucas made an entertaining (and extremely profitable) comedy without a body count, a big budget, or special effects. Talk about nostalgia. You can also talk about old-time rock ‘n’ roll. American Graffiti makes great use of early 60s music in one of the most effective and creative sound mixes of the ’70s.
B Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Balboa, Saturday, 7:30pm
Tim Burton’s first feature revels in its own silliness. Pee-Wee Herman, before children’s television and indecent exposure, is a strange, neurotically innocent creature. The movie is uneven, and most of the jokes are extremely dumb, but the oddball charm cannot be denied. A tribute to the late Paul Reubens, who played Pee-Wee.
Continuing engagements
- B The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920); Lark, live music with Invincible Czars
Movies I can’t review
- Scanners, 4-Star, Wednesday, 6:00pm
- Videodrome, 4-Star, Wednesday, 8:00pm
- Barry Lyndon, New Mission, check dates and times
- Thelma & Louise, New Mission,, Friday, 10:00pm, check dates and times
- The Mummy, New Mission, check dates and times
- Fear and Desire, New Mission, check dates and times
- Orson Welles’ The Trial, Roxie, New restoration, Saturday, 1:10pm & Wednesday, 6:30pm
- Cinema Paradiso, Vogue, Wednesday & Thursday, 7:30pm
Bayflicks 