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

Rabid right-wingers own cable news and talk radio, but we leftists sure dominate the feature-length documentary. I mean, when was the last time the Roxie showed an 80-minute video praising Ann Coulter? But do these documentaries serve an actual purpose? Anyone surfing through a television or radio dial can hit upon Bill O'Reilly or Rush … Continue reading Political Documentaries

"What did you think of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet?" "Oh, come on! You can't really call that Hamlet, can you? Hamlet was meant to be seen live, not canned. And why cast Kate Winslet and Julie Christie when Ophelia and Gertrude are supposed to be played by boys? And what's Branagh doing there? If it ain't … Continue reading Movies As They Were Meant to be Seen?

I don't know if the pen is mightier than the sword, but I've got a book on my desk that could make a pretty lethal club. It's called Cinema by the Bay, by Sheerly Avni, and it's a coffee table book for very sturdy coffee tables. The sucker is heavy. As the first title with … Continue reading Adulation by the Bay

If you were independently wealthy and had no friends, you could spend all of your time at Bay Area film festivals. Of course, if you did that, you probably wouldn’t stay friendless for long; you can meet some great people at these events. No sooner is the San Francisco International Film Festival over then Docfest … Continue reading More Festivals

Last week, I discussed art house theaters showing movies--especially old ones--on video rather than film, and whether I should warn readers when this happens. I forwarded the newsletter to theater managers in hope of getting some interesting replies. Their reaction was underwhelming. Only two responded. Tellingly, neither response came from a theater about which I've … Continue reading Video in Theaters, Part 2

I received an interesting email from a reader who, for professional reasons, wishes to remain anonymous. "It's becoming more common," he began, "for theaters to hold video screenings of movies (that are meant to be shown on film) without noting this in any of their publicity. Twice recently, I've commuted into S.F. to watch a … Continue reading Video in Theaters