I've previewed three films scheduled for the Berlin & Beyond festival opening Thursday at the Castro. Here's how they stand: Fashion Victims, Friday, 8:00. Financial, professional, and personal pressures push fashion salesman Wolfgang Zenker to the edge in Ingo Rasper’s vaguely serious comedy. We can laugh at this man’s self-destruction because he’s such a self-centered … Continue reading Berlin & Beyond Preview
Category: Upcoming & Local
New Pacific Film Archive Schedule
I just received the Pacific Film Archive’s schedule for January and February. Some interesting stuff, and some disappointing things missing. But then, those are two short months for the PFA. The Archive closes every year for U.C.’s winter break, and by the time it reopens on January 11, the month is a third gone. February … Continue reading New Pacific Film Archive Schedule
January Festivals
German-language films, foreign films that aren’t in German, and the dark side of Hollywood all come to Bay Area theaters next month. The 13th annual Berlin & Beyond Film Festival opens at the Castro January 10 for a one-week, 35-film run. The opening night feature, The Edge of Heaven, follows a father and son and … Continue reading January Festivals
A Century Ago on Film
The cinematic art is just barely old enough for centenaries. After all, the oldest movie to still retain some popularity as entertainment, "A Trip to the Moon," is only 105 years old. On December 6, the Rafael will look back at the year 1907 in a collection of shorts that promise to capture that transitional … Continue reading A Century Ago on Film
Previews of Coming Attactions
Remember Hal Ashby? If you don’t, he was a top director in the --˜70s--one of those people who was Hollywood then but would be indiewood now if he were still alive. The Castro screens six of his movies over three nights in late November. Most are films I haven’t seen in decades but loved when … Continue reading Previews of Coming Attactions
San Francisco Silent Film Festival–Winter Edition
We think of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival as a summer event, but they’re taking over the Castro on December 1 for three presentations--two of them with live musical accompaniment. There’s a good reason why the 11:00am show won’t have live music: It’s not silent. Warner’s Vitaphone short subjects were among the first widely-seen … Continue reading San Francisco Silent Film Festival–Winter Edition
Upcoming Events
A few interesting things coming up: The Roxie presents RKO Lost & Found, a series of six RKO movies that have not been seen since at least 1959, throughout the week of November 23. One of them, A Man To Remember, hasn’t been seen since it’s first run in 1938. I missed a press screening … Continue reading Upcoming Events
The Altered Charlie Chaplin Problem
If people know anything about Charlie Chaplin, they know he made silent movies. And if they know anything about silent movies, they want said movies to be accompanied by live music. And yet the upcoming Chaplin series at the Pacific Film Archive, screening nearly all of his features and all of his later shorts, has … Continue reading The Altered Charlie Chaplin Problem
Global Lens Series
Somehow I entirely missed the Global Lens series. It opens Thursday at St. John's with the Indonesian family comedy Of Love and Egg, and runs at various locations--including the Balboa and the Roxie--through November 15. The Global Film Initiative attempts to build understanding between cultures by presenting films from developing countries to American audiences. I’m … Continue reading Global Lens Series
Niles International Film Festival
This weekend the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum runs its three-day Niles International Film Festival. Actually, it would be more accurately titled the Niles European Film Festival, since the six features and seven shorts are all from that particular semi-continent. All films are silent, of course, with piano accompaniment. The George Melies short, "The Impossible … Continue reading Niles International Film Festival
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