Who would you expect to direct the better Shakespeare film: Kenneth Branagh or Joss Whedon? Sounds like a stupid question. Branagh is our generation's Laurence Olivier – the man who turns the bard into flesh and blood. Whedon makes sci-fi and runs a production company called Mutant Enemy Productions. Yet Whedon's film of Much Ado About … Continue reading Much Ado About Shakespeare’s Comedy
Category: Live Performance (other than for silent movies)
Mr. Rogers, Identical Triplets, & movies with music: Monday at SFFilm Fest
Unlike Sunday, there was no overall theme between the movies I saw Monday at the San Francisco International Film Festival, also known as the SFFILM Festival. Won't You Be My Neighbor? I kept my review of this film to a maximum of 75 words on the Festival's request. Ordained minister Fred Rogers - with his … Continue reading Mr. Rogers, Identical Triplets, & movies with music: Monday at SFFilm Fest
The Found Footage Festival…the theatrical experience
A multitude of Jesuses. A safe sex video that recommends you use a latex barrier for kissing. Some very unconvincing signs of demonic possession. Being that it's Friday, you're probably expecting my weekly What's Screening newsletter. Don't worry. You'll get it in a few minutes. But first, I must tell you about something I saw … Continue reading The Found Footage Festival…the theatrical experience
Live Music for the Undead: Monday at the San Francisco International Film Festival
I only went to one San Francisco International Film Festival event on Monday, and that was Carl Theodore Dreyer's 1932 classic, Vampyre, with musical accompaniment by Mercury Rev and Simon Raymonde. It was at the Castro. Vampyre belongs on any list of great horror films. Todd Brown's Dracula, made the previous year, is stagy and … Continue reading Live Music for the Undead: Monday at the San Francisco International Film Festival
War and music: The Kronos Quartet at the San Francisco International Film Festival
Wednesday night, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet came to the San Francisco International Film Festival to present their music-and-moving-image piece, Kronos Quartet Beyond Zero: 1914-1918. I was in the audience. This was not the usual silent movie presentation. The Quartet commissioned Aleksandra Vrebalov to write the music. Then they commissioned Bill Morrison to create a new … Continue reading War and music: The Kronos Quartet at the San Francisco International Film Festival
The Return of the Found Footage Festival
The world is full of unwanted VHS cassettes, which is a good thing for Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett. They mine comic gold from the unwanted dregs of the video universe, which they serve up every so often with their Found Footage Festival. The results are often shocking, absurd, and pathetic. But they are also, … Continue reading The Return of the Found Footage Festival
Once in a Lifetime at ACT
Why would a movie blog cover a piece of live theater? When the play is about the movies. Last night, my wife and I attended a preview performance of the American Conservatory Theater’s new production of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman ’s 1930 Broadway hit, Once in a Lifetime. A broad farce about Hollywood, … Continue reading Once in a Lifetime at ACT
Live Theater on the Big Screen and Frankenstein
Have you noticed the trend? Movie theaters aren’t just for movies anymore. Many of them are adding live opera, ballet, and theatre to their program—even if none it is actually live in that particular theater. The actual performance may be happening as you watch, or it may have been recorded—probably London or New York. But … Continue reading Live Theater on the Big Screen and Frankenstein
Joel Hodgson, Mystery Science Theater, and Cinematic Titanic
Next Tuesday, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson, along with other MST3K veterans, will invade the Castro to riff on a 1968 Japanese science fiction called War of the Insects. “It’s a great looking print, widescreen, really well made,” Hodgson told me earlier this month in a phone interview. “It’s kind of the story … Continue reading Joel Hodgson, Mystery Science Theater, and Cinematic Titanic
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