What’s Screening: February 23 – 29

~ Lincoln Spector

This week in Bay Area cinemas, you can go to two different Jewish film festivals! If you believe in the Auteur Theory, you can watch – on the big screen – films from Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Yasujirô Ozu, Vincente Minnelli, William Wyler, and two very different films from Jonathan Demme.

Festivals & Series

Movies that play over & over

Double Bills

A+ Top Hat (1935) & A The Band Wagon, Stanford: 3:35pm, 5:40pm, 7:30pm, & 9:35

Top Hat in 35mm! If escapism is a valid artistic goal, Top Hat is a great work of art. From perfect clothes to a ridiculous plot to the art deco sets, everything in this movie cries out “Don’t take this seriously!” But you don’t need realism when Fred Astaire dances his way into Ginger Rogers’ heart. Read my A+ appreciation.
The Band Wagon in 35mm! If Singin’ in the Rain is the best musical Hollywood ever created, The Band Wagon is a very close second. A satire on the clash between serious art and frivolous entertainment, held together by great songs, masterful choreography, and comedy that never feels forced.

Vintage films on the big screen

A+ 8½ (1963), Vogue, Wednesday & Thursday, 7:30pm

Funny, exhilarating, perplexing, and tragic, 8½ is 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 Before Midnight (2013), 4-Star, Wednesday, 7:30pm

The third film in Richard Linklater’s Before series is a gem – perhaps as good as the first, and much better than the second. It also stands entirely on its own. Even if you’ve never seen either of the previous Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy talkfests, you’ll still laugh, cry, and cringe at this study of a relationship in crisis. If you’re not acquainted with the first two films, watch the whole trilogy in order. And thanks to the 4-Star for showing the trilogy weekly.

A The Seventh Seal (1957), Balboa, Friday, 7:30pm

16mm! A knight returning from the Crusades (Max von Sydow) plays chess with Death – hoping to live a little longer while the plague ravages the countryside. But while the knight ponders God’s silence, his life-embracing squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) reminds us of what it really means to be fully alive. Meanwhile, a married couple of traveling players (Nils Poppe and Bibi Andersson), find simple happiness. Filled with wonderful characters, religious allegory, and sly humor, The Seventh Seal bursts with a love of humanity and a fear for our place in the universe.

B School of Rock (2003), 4-Star
֍ Saturday, 10:00am Popcorn palace
֍ Saturday, 1:30pm
֍ Sunday, 7:00pm

When Richard Linklater decided to make a commercial, conventional comedy, it came out pretty darn good. Jack Black plays a struggling rock musician who steals his roommate’s identity to take a temporary position in a very staid and proper private school. Impressed by the kids’ strict classical music skills, he turns the class into a rock band that he hopes will win an upcoming contest. Of course, the story is silly and predictable, and bows too much to star power (Black really should have stayed off-stage at the climax), but it’s fun and captures the rebellious spirit of all good rock.

B Roman Holiday (1953), Balboa, Wednesday, 7:30pm

Gregory Peck and a not-yet-famous Audrey Hepburn fall in love through an extremely contrived plot in this entertaining romantic comedy. She’s a runaway princess, and he’s a reporter hoping for a scoop. But the real star is Rome; shooting Hollywood films overseas was a new thing in the early 1950s. Directed by William Wyler, from a story by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.

C- An Autumn Afternoon (1962), BAMPFA, Sunday, 2:00pm

Great auteurs often end their careers with a stinker, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that Yasujirô Ozu’s last film disappointed me. As in his excellent 1949 drama, Late Spring, an aging, widowed father wants his daughter to marry. But this time, the warmth is gone and the characters aren’t fleshed out. When the men aren’t matchmaking, they’re drinking to excess (despite the title, the story covers far more than one afternoon). The near-constant music sounds like it belongs in a light comedy. Part of the series Yasujiro Ozu: The Elegance of Simplicity.

Too long ago to remember

Continuing engagements

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.