I spent Saturday with Jean-Claude Carrière, Tilda Swinton, and John Turturro. Good company. (If you don’t recognize Carrière’s name, that just shows how badly we actor-and-director obsessed film fans disrespect screenwriters.) Yes, I’m talking about the San Francisco International Film Festival, where I devoted my day to big events with big names rather than actually … Continue reading More from the San Francisco International Film Festival

I spent last weekend at the San Francisco International Film Festival; Saturday at the Kabuki and Sunday at the Castro. I had a wonderful time. On Monday I told you about Adam's Apples, Iberia, Play, and Obaba; all films that were reshown this week. Now I'll fill you in on the rest. I broke my … Continue reading Weekend at the San Francisco International Film Festival

I spent the weekend at the San Francisco International Film Festival. I'll tell you more about it in my regular Friday newsletter. But I thought I should let you know about some movies you'll have an opportunity to see at the festival before Friday. I've listed them in order of quality, from the best to … Continue reading Midweek Festival Report

Another movie theater bites the dust. Without so much as a press release, Landmark Theaters quietly closed Berkeley’s Act I & II a few weeks ago. The company won’t comment on the closing, but it’s a good guess that this relatively old two-screener wasn’t making the bottom line. It was no palace, but the Acts … Continue reading Another movie theater bites the dust

Earthquakes and monsters. Oh, my. I didn’t see a single new movie last weekend, but I still managed some intense movie-going. A good chunk of it had to do with technology--either movie technology or plate tectonics. It started Friday night with both. My wife and I went to Earthquake at the Pacific Film Archive--part of … Continue reading Earthquakes and Monsters

What does it mean when three movies with similar but unusual subjects come out almost simultaneously? Are they tapping into something in the national psyche? Not if they're from different countries. So far this year, three films about parent-baby separation hit Bay Area theaters. In each one, a criminal deprives a mother of her baby. … Continue reading Stealing Children

Prepare yourself for a lot of movie-going. Graham Leggat, the new Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, announced the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival this week. It runs April 20 through May 4. The numbers, as always, are big: 97 features and 130 shorts from 41 countries, including 38 west coast, 12 … Continue reading Coming Soon: The San Francisco International Film Festival

The big one is coming. Actually, the big one came a hundred years ago. What’s coming is the big anniversary of the big one. I’m speaking, of course, of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Expect a lot of ink devoted to it in the local press, including sobering discussions of our unprepared conditions, comparisons with … Continue reading Earthquakes

I don't usually send out a newsletter on Sunday, but next Friday will be too late to talk about the 24th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. I caught two Festival events Saturday at the Castro, both very much worth talking about. As part of its tribute to actor James Shigeta, the Festival screened … Continue reading Addendum: Asian American Film Festival

Bayflicks lacks a links page, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love other web sites. Here are a few: SF360, a sort of local news site for the independent film scene, officially launched this week (this is called a news hook in the journalism biz). It’s still taking form, but it already looks good, with … Continue reading Links