With the release of Red Beard, we come to an important turning point in Kurosawa’s career, although not one that he was aware of at the time. From here on in, he would make fewer, and far more somber, motion pictures. Counting years, his career was less than half over. He had been making movies … Continue reading Kurosawa Diary, Part 23: Transition
What’s Screening: August 6 – 12
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival finishes up this week, with engagements at the Roda, the Rafael, and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. And the Oakland International Black LGBT Film Festival runs Tuesday, Thursday, and the following Saturday at the Elmwood. Once again, festival screenings are at the bottom of this newsletter. A … Continue reading What’s Screening: August 6 – 12
The Cinematic Titanic Experience
As I promised last week, I attended the Cinematic Titanic event at the Castro last night, and got to experience a live Mystery Science Theater 3000 event in all it’s glory. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see Joel Hodgson, Mystery Science Theater, and Cinematic Titanic.) The first thing I noticed when I … Continue reading The Cinematic Titanic Experience
Kurosawa Diary, Part 22: Red Beard
We live in a cruel and indifferent universe, so we must act with kindness and charity. That’s the dominant theme of Akira Kurosawa’s works. But that theme was never stated as clearly, as forcefully, or as didactically as in Red Beard, the final work of Kurosawa’s most productive and artistically successful period. I don’t remember … Continue reading Kurosawa Diary, Part 22: Red Beard
Jewish Film Festival Report
I’m such a good Jew! I just spent the Sabbath at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. And it wasn’t even in San Francisco. I attended four screenings at the Festival’s first day in this year’s Berkeley portion of the festival. It was also my first movie event at Berkeley Repertory's Roda Theater. Before I … Continue reading Jewish Film Festival Report
What’s Screening: July 30 – August 5
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival moves out of San Francisco this week to settle in Palo Alto and Berkeley. (That’s why we’re called Wandering Jews.) And once again, I’m placing the SFJFF screenings at the end of this post. Also, the SFFS Screen opens again Friday at the Kabuki with Alamar. Since I missed … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 30 – August 5
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
Kurosawa Diary, Part 21: High and Low
After two detours into early Kurosawa films I couldn’t catch the first time around (see this and that), I’m finally back to the main point of what this Kurosawa Diary project: an examination of all of his films in chronological order. And what a relief that is—returning from the uneven (and often dreadful) quality of … Continue reading Kurosawa Diary, Part 21: High and Low
What’s Screening: July 23 – 29
Disclaimer: This may not be up-to-date. I’m actually writing this Monday, July 19, before going off on a vacation. Should anything change, I won’t be able to update it. Another Hole in the Head continues through the week, and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival opens Saturday night. I’ve placed Jewish Film Festival screenings at … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 23 – 29
Silent Film Festival Report, Part II
I took Sunday morning off from movie-watching, and got to the Castro in time to see the last three screenings of the festival. A- Man with a Movie Camera: I read about Dziga Vertov’s 1929 surreal documentary in college, but I didn’t see it until yesterday. The genre was actually fairly common in the late … Continue reading Silent Film Festival Report, Part II
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