I confess. I have not yet seen Snakes on a Plane. Not that I don't want to. I'm curious, and it sounds like fun. But I don't have time to see every movie that attracts me, and there are plenty of other new films out there right now that are higher priorities (top of the … Continue reading Snakes on a Plane

Cinematic civilization isn't just a big city affair. I had reason to spend last Friday night in Red Bluff, a hamlet of 13,000 considerably north of here on Interstate 5. I took a walk early Saturday morning, and spotted an old single-screen movie theater that had clearly seen better days. You'll find these in almost … Continue reading Movies in Red Bluff

What this country needs is a really good, big budget, escapist action flick. No, that sentence is neither oxymoronic nor sacrilegious. These things exist. Last year we had Star Wars III, Batman Begins, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, King Kong, and Narnia, all superb entertainments providing plenty of fun and computer-generated spectacle, while … Continue reading Lousy and Expensive

Fifty years ago, Hollywood desperately needed to tempt people away from their TVs. They turned to bigger, wider techniques for shooting and presenting movies. A lot of formats were tried, but only one survived for 40 years as a way to make that movie at that theater an extra-special treat: 70mm. The Castro's second 70mm … Continue reading Glorious 70mm

I wasn't as clear as I should have been in last week's newsletter. I didn't mean to imply that San Francisco still enjoyed a huge market for revival house cinema. There was such a market 30 years ago. In the late 1970's, cinephiles not wishing to leave the City's borders could catch classics any day … Continue reading Classics–Not So Common

Gary Meyer of the Balboa wrote a decidedly depressing newsletter last week. In case you don't subscribe, you'll find it on his Web site's Latest News page. Scroll down to "NO NEW CALENDAR?" Courtesy of Patrick Crowley Meyer informed his theater's fans that the Balboa cannot continue its programming policy of classics and little-known independents. … Continue reading The Balboa’s Problems and the Silent Film Festival

I'm currently reading Phillip Lopate's huge anthology, American Movie Critics. Like all anthologies, it's a mixed bag, offering the fascinating and the dull, the witty with the obtuse, the literate with the commercial. But almost everything in the book is at least of only historical interest. For instance, the book proves that in key ways, … Continue reading American Movie Critics

Want to hear something amazing? Watching movies is more fun than writing about them. With that in mind, I’m going to skip this week’s editorial and go directly to the movies. Recommended: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Commons Park, Ross, Friday, 8:30. I agree with common wisdom: Raider of the Lost Ark is a … Continue reading Movies for the Week of July 7, 2006

I spent Saturday in Niles at the Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival. Lots of fun, good people, and great movies. And some strange ones. One of the strangest: A five-minute short in the Flaming Youth series called "Why Girls Walk Home." Imagine the sort of sexploitation film where people (usually women) strip at the least … Continue reading Broncho Billy and Other Classics

What? More festivals? Two words: Silents and Jews. The Broncho Billy Silent Film Festival starts tonight (Friday) at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont. Of the two weekend-long silent film festivals that grace the Bay Area every summer, Broncho Billy is the smaller, friendlier, small-town affair. The prints are 16mm, the live accompaniment … Continue reading Films Silent or Jewish