This Sunday is Oscar night. As far as I can tell, seven Bay Area movie theaters will be playing - not a movie - but a celebration of the concept of movies. Or at least a celebration of ostentatious clothing. Here are the theaters that I know will have a Oscar party: Cerrito New Parkway … Continue reading What’s Screening: March 8 – 14
Tag: Fred Astaire
Leonard Bernstein & the MGM musical
In the 1940s and '50's, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) made some of the best dancing musicals ever filmed. And now, Criterion is streaming nine of these pictures. I've added two movies, making eleven. Most musicals are fantasies. Without instruments and choreography, real people don't just burst into song and dance. But there are also realistic … Continue reading Leonard Bernstein & the MGM musical
What’s Screening: July 21 – 27
If you want vintage cinema playing in Bay Area theaters, follow the auteurs. This week there are movies from Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Lee, Sergio Leone, Luis Buñuel, and Preston Sturges. But some films are not made by directors, but by studios such as RKO or Studio Ghibli. Festivals & Series The San Francisco Jewish Film … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 21 – 27
What’s Screening: July 8 – 14
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance back onto the big screen as the Stanford Theatre finally opens. And that also means the return of double features! Also works by Jacques Tati, Studio Ghibli, Monty Python, and the brilliant but sadly short-lived Barbara Loden. Festivals & Series The San Francisco Frozen Film Festival opens Wednesday and … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 8 – 14
What’s Screening: July 13 – 19
Astaire and Rogers, Powell and Loy, Harryhausen and Disney, and the Wrath of Khan. Also Beatles, Chaplin, exploitation, five (count 'em, five!) film festivals, and love amongst the autistic - and all available this week on Bay Area movie screens. Festivals Modern Cinema/Black Powers: Reframing Hollywood continues. Read my preview. Charlie Chaplin Days opens tonight … Continue reading What’s Screening: July 13 – 19
What’s Screening: June 22 – 28
Fred and Ginger meet Preston Sturges. Ingmar Bergman makes us laugh about sex. Kurosawa takes on Shakespeare. Wes Anderson and Greta Garbo take you to two very grand hotels. And it all happens this week on Bay Area movie screens. Festivals Frameline closes Sunday Promising events Grand Hotel, Pacific Film Archive, Sunday, 7:00 It's been … Continue reading What’s Screening: June 22 – 28
A+ List: Top Hat
Few Hollywood features have celebrated their own wholly unreal artifice like Top Hat, the best Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical. Despite its contemporary setting (contemporary for 1935, the year it was released), it contains almost nothing that suggests the real world. Thanks to that artifice, the songs, the madcap comic dialog and hijinks, and most of … Continue reading A+ List: Top Hat
What’s Screening: August 24 – 30
No festivals this week. B Alps, Roxie, opens Friday for one-week run. I’m not exactly sure what to make of Alps. It has just enough continuity to make you try and follow the story, but there’s no story to follow. Many of the characters (primarily the female ones) seem sympathetic, yet their motivations and actions … Continue reading What’s Screening: August 24 – 30
Bayflicks 