After Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu is probably the greatest Japanese filmmaker. While Kurosawa is remembered for his samurai epics, Ozu is mostly remembered for his small, intimate pictures about family life. But he didn't just do small stories about families. In the 1930s, Ozu made crime dramas, like the ones that Warner Brothers were turning … Continue reading Yasujiro Ozu: The Elegance of Simplicity

Once Thanksgiving is over, you can be thankful for all the good, vintage movies playing in theaters over the week. You can pick between four films that I give an A+ (perhaps five if you consider films that also played last week). There are also three A films, and one with an A-. So, you … Continue reading What’s Screening: November 24 – 30

Where can you watch vintage movies on big screens, with other people around you? Here are ten movie theaters that are showing old movies this week (and other weeks, too). Look up these theaters and go back to the…well, I can't say the future. 4-Star Balboa BAMPFA Lark New Mission New Parkway Niles Essanay Silent … Continue reading What’s Screening: November 17 – 23

What kind of films play in Bay Area cinemas this week? There's a very wacky comedy, the drama that brought Reggae to the States, Raymond Chandler via Robert Altman, future science fiction, a silent war movie, animation from Wes Anderson, the first transgender bank heist, and two by Alfred Hitchcock. Festivals & Series The California … Continue reading What’s Screening: November 10 – 16