Thursday, August 18
Major catching up
Wow, I've really built up a backlog of Frisco screening news items!
1. My friend Jackie Moe hosts an award-winning film night most Mondays at the Edinburgh Castle Pub on Geary Street. Monday, August 22 is "Trailer Trash" night for fans of watching back-to-back movie trailers for European cult films and other obscure gems. Short films by Bay Area filmmakers Jose Rodriguez, Matt Wagner and David Enos will also be screened.
2. I couldn't find the schedule on their website, but the Italian Cultural Institute is presenting a short series tributing actress Alida Valli next week. Monday: Carol Reed's The Third Man with 9 AM: Chemistry Class; Tuesday: Hitchcock's The Paradine Case with the art-horror classic Eyes Without a Face; Thursday: Pontecorvo's The Wide Blue Road with Bertolucci's The Spider's Strategem; Friday: her great starring role in Luchino Visconti's Senso. All programs start at 6PM; be on time or else you'll disturb everybody with the noisy elevator, which the screening room was right next to the last time I went there. These are probably projected DVD presentations.
3. The 9th Annual Madcat Women's Film Festival has released its new program of films to play this September at the Yerba Buena Center, Artists' Television Access, and the El Rio pub, and the Pacific Film Archive in October.
4. Speaking of the PFA, I've been given a clue regarding their upcoming September calendar: included will be a spotlight on British silent cinema, including films by Anthony Asquith and Alfred Hitchcock.
5. The San Francisco Film Society has announced their annual "Film in the Fog" outdoor screening on October 1. For the fourth straight year it's a 1950's sci-fi film, in this case The Day The Earth Stood Still. Live music, a costume contest, and a classic cartoon are also promised. It all begins at 5PM on the Main Post, 99 Moraga Avenue.
6. I found a copy of the schedule for Act 1 & 2 in Berkeley and, as I expected, it's almost identical to the Lumiere/Opera Plaza schedule. Berkeleyites will get to see Elevator to the Gallows, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, and The Passenger for a week apiece, too. But they won't get Kamikaze Girls like we in Frisco will October 28- November 3; that slot on the calendar is given to the Asian omnibus horror film Three: Extremes, which with its stronger directorial pedigree (Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan and Park Chan-Wook rather than Nonzee Nimibutr, Kim Ji-Woon and Peter Chan) is much better than its predecessor Three. Presumably Three: Extremes will play in Frisco somewhere too around then.
The Act 1 & 2 will also host midnight screenings Fridays and Saturdays starting September 9-10 with Donnie Darko: the Director's Cut. It's mostly the usual 80s selections like The Karate Kid and The Neverending Story, but they're also throwing in The Wizard of Oz and Enter the Dragon.
7. A North Bay film series: contemporary Italian films every Saturday at the Marin Center Showcase Theatre.
That's enough for now. I'm off to go watch the Danger: Diabolik DVD.
1. My friend Jackie Moe hosts an award-winning film night most Mondays at the Edinburgh Castle Pub on Geary Street. Monday, August 22 is "Trailer Trash" night for fans of watching back-to-back movie trailers for European cult films and other obscure gems. Short films by Bay Area filmmakers Jose Rodriguez, Matt Wagner and David Enos will also be screened.
2. I couldn't find the schedule on their website, but the Italian Cultural Institute is presenting a short series tributing actress Alida Valli next week. Monday: Carol Reed's The Third Man with 9 AM: Chemistry Class; Tuesday: Hitchcock's The Paradine Case with the art-horror classic Eyes Without a Face; Thursday: Pontecorvo's The Wide Blue Road with Bertolucci's The Spider's Strategem; Friday: her great starring role in Luchino Visconti's Senso. All programs start at 6PM; be on time or else you'll disturb everybody with the noisy elevator, which the screening room was right next to the last time I went there. These are probably projected DVD presentations.3. The 9th Annual Madcat Women's Film Festival has released its new program of films to play this September at the Yerba Buena Center, Artists' Television Access, and the El Rio pub, and the Pacific Film Archive in October.
4. Speaking of the PFA, I've been given a clue regarding their upcoming September calendar: included will be a spotlight on British silent cinema, including films by Anthony Asquith and Alfred Hitchcock.
5. The San Francisco Film Society has announced their annual "Film in the Fog" outdoor screening on October 1. For the fourth straight year it's a 1950's sci-fi film, in this case The Day The Earth Stood Still. Live music, a costume contest, and a classic cartoon are also promised. It all begins at 5PM on the Main Post, 99 Moraga Avenue.
6. I found a copy of the schedule for Act 1 & 2 in Berkeley and, as I expected, it's almost identical to the Lumiere/Opera Plaza schedule. Berkeleyites will get to see Elevator to the Gallows, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, and The Passenger for a week apiece, too. But they won't get Kamikaze Girls like we in Frisco will October 28- November 3; that slot on the calendar is given to the Asian omnibus horror film Three: Extremes, which with its stronger directorial pedigree (Takashi Miike, Fruit Chan and Park Chan-Wook rather than Nonzee Nimibutr, Kim Ji-Woon and Peter Chan) is much better than its predecessor Three. Presumably Three: Extremes will play in Frisco somewhere too around then.
The Act 1 & 2 will also host midnight screenings Fridays and Saturdays starting September 9-10 with Donnie Darko: the Director's Cut. It's mostly the usual 80s selections like The Karate Kid and The Neverending Story, but they're also throwing in The Wizard of Oz and Enter the Dragon.
7. A North Bay film series: contemporary Italian films every Saturday at the Marin Center Showcase Theatre.
That's enough for now. I'm off to go watch the Danger: Diabolik DVD.
