Thursday, August 11

 

Shortends: Home Movie Day, etc.

1. This Saturday is Home Movie Day! If you're not convinced that home movies are relevant to film culture as a whole, perhaps you should watch Following Sean or Capturing the Friedmans. Better yet, track down Life in a Box or Bum's Paradise (pictured). Best of all, come to the events happening at the San Francisco Media Archive at 275 Capp Street in the heart of Frisco for 12 hours this Saturday, August 13. If you call ahead, you can get your own home movies inspected, screened, and even transferred to video from noon until 6PM. The evening events include screenings of particularly noteworthy home movies and a reception.

2. Landmark's new repertory calendar for screenings at the Opera Plaza and Lumiere Theatres has hit the streets. It looks like some nice selections; in each case these "calendared" films play for a week and often cannot be held over like other bookings, due to limited numbers of circulating prints. The schedule begins August 19-25 with Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows and its Miles Davis score; sometimes the 1958 thriller is called the first French New Wave film. I haven't seen it yet but I will. The other bookend is also a classic: Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 The Passenger (Nov. 11-17), starring Jack Nicholson, another one I haven't seen.

In between are more contemporary films, like Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance which I can recommend as the most artistic of the "Extreme" (as in, extremely violent) films I've seen come out of South Korea recently. It plays August 26 through September 1, probably at the Lumiere. Others of potential interest include Crimen Ferpecto (Sep. 9-15) and the Lars Von Trier-scripted Dear Wendy (Sep. 23-29). Many of these films will most likely also play at the Act 1/2 in Berkeley. Elevator to the Gallows certainly will.

3. Barbara Bel Geddes died Monday at the age of 82. Her best film, Vertigo, is playing the Castro in 70mm four times today. I'll be there at one of the evening shows.

4. The Four Star and the Presidio host the Asian Film Festival starting tonight and lasting through the 21st of August. I expect to write more on that soon, but just thought I'd add one last tidbit: In the midst of all the pop and cult cinema from Asia, the Presidio has also booked the Hollywood film trilogy with perhaps the biggest current cult: all three Lord of the Rings films play back to back on August 18th. It's for charity.

Comments:
Many thanks for the post on Home Movie Day!

Best,
John
 
Hey, thanks for tipping me off to it in the first place!
 
hey brian, i've been diggin' into your archives, and enjoying them.

also liked your senses piece on SFIFF. i've covered toronto and montreal for them, until a couple of years ago (got burned out on the super-long essay format!). but it was a fun experience.

i've never seen the amos vogel doc but want to. just love the book. i've been planning to blog about it, since it's being reissued (in september).

have very little experience watching films in the theaters in san francisco. the last time i was there (a couple of years ago), i caught the 7-hr satantango at PFA and had a chance to chat about it with edith kramer afterwards. what a movie.
 
You were at that PFA screening? Due to my work schedule I couldn't make it to any of the Tarrs they brought (actually I tried to go see Werckmeister Harmonies but was turned away by the sell-out. Went down the street and saw Mulholland Dr. instead as I recall. Thankfully The Castro showed Werckmeister shortly after.)

I'm glad you're enjoying digging in the archives. I'd read your 2002 Toronto piece before, but I just had the pleasure of going and reading some of the other ones. It got me into a daydreaming mode. One of these days I'd like to be able to travel to one of those great Canadian film festivals. If not Toronto, then at least Vancouver.
 
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