if… (1968)

If…. is a 1968 British film directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell. A satire of English public school life, the film follows a group of pupils who stage a savage insurrection at a boys’ boarding school. The film was the subject of controversy at the time of its release, receiving an X certificate for its depictions of violence. If…. won the Palme d’Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 12th greatest British film of the 20th century. – Wikipedia

Filed under: Movies, 1960s, Classic Films, nostalgia

Belle de Jour at Berkeley’s PFA

Luis Buñuel‘s masterpiece with Catherine Deneuve, Belle de Jour (1967) is playing at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive (PFA) on July 22 at 7pm. The film is screening as part of the “Luis Buñuel’s Magnificent Weapon” series which includes all the director’s important movies.

In Belle de jour, Catherine Deneuve’s beauty is a thing in itself. Like writer Jean-Claude Carrière, Deneuve was a collaborator in Luis Buñuel’s vision, and she gives a knowing performance as Séverine, a bored-cold bourgeoise who discovers how good evil can be on afternoons spent in a high-class brothel, where fantasy itself is a fetish object. The film is as endlessly mysterious and fascinating as the Chinese lacquer box into which Séverine peers—and what does she see? Don’t quit your day job, Séverine. It takes violence, the more fantasized the better, to make any sort of crack in the lacquer. Belle de jour is L’age d’or updated and in color. As Raymond Durgnat wrote, “Glittery, cool and urbane, Buñuel’s film looks just like Lubitsch à la mode—almost a design for living in the Playgirl era. But underneath it’s a bleak and sharp surrealist object.”

—Judy Bloch

Filed under: Events, Classic Films, Film

A Song is Born (1948)

A Song Is Born (also known as That’s Life), starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, is a 1948 Technicolor musical film remake of Howard Hawks‘ 1941 movie Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. This version was also directed by Hawks, based on the story “From A to Z” by Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe, adapted by Harry Tugend (uncredited) and produced by Samuel Goldwyn and released by RKO Radio Pictures. – Wikipedia

Mild-mannered Professor Hobart Frisbee (Kaye) works and lives with seven fellow musicologists at the Totten Foundation’s Victorian mansion in New York City. They have been immersed in work on a massive encyclopedia of music for 9 years, apparently without a radio and seldom if ever going out. Their window washers (Buck and Bubbles), needing help with a radio quiz, wise them up to the hip new sounds that have appeared during their isolation—swing, jive, jump, blues, two-beat Dixie, boogie woogie, bebop (“man alive”)—that they know nothing about. Hobart, the expert on “folk music” goes out and explores this music scene, visiting a range of New York nightclubs and jazz rooms, and inviting various musicians to visit the Foundation to help them with their work. One of them is a nightclub singer, Honey Swanson (Mayo), who’s involved with a gangster and… well, hijinks ensue.

Filed under: Movies, Classic Films, favorites, Film, jazz

“Harold and Maude” at The Vogue

Harold and Maude (1971) at the Vogue Theater July 5 and 6

Harold and Maude on Wikipedia, Amazon and Kanopy.

Filed under: Events, Film, What's On

SF Films: Freebie and the Bean (1974)

Reblogging this to celebrate Alan Arkin’s career

zerode - a sensibility

Viewing Notes

An early buddy cop movie. And very explicitly so, as the poster makes clear: “above all, it’s a love story” between the two feuding, fighting partners. I’m not sure the whole buddy cop dynamic has ever be spelled out as explicitly and up front.

All the elements are here—the feuding, the styleand ethnic/racial differences, the insecurities addressed in their dynamic, the tender final moment… and if you want to talk about asexual or homoerotic component, you don’t have far to look. The pair spend a lot of times in toilets; there’s a scene with a young gay guy taking a bath; concerns about Bean’s wife having an affair form a major subplot; and so on.

Given how strongly all the key elements of the buddy cop film are present, and its year of release, a case could be made for Freebie and the Bean as the very…

View original post 497 more words

Filed under: Movies

Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars at the Roxie

Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture

David Bowie’s retirement of his Ziggy Stardust alter ego in front of 5,000 fans at London’s Hammersmith Odeon was captured on film by award-winning director D.A. Pennebaker on July 3, 1973. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic performances in the history of modern music, the original uncut version of the film has been restored in 4K and with a 5.1 theatrical mix and will feature never-before-seen performances with legendary guitar player Jeff Beck. Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture 50th Anniversary is the closest audiences will come to being there on that unforgettable night 50 years ago.

At the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco’s Mission District, July 9 and 10

Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars: The Motion Picture – newly restored version, on Blu-ray

Filed under: Events, Film, San Francisco

“Gregory’s Girl” on Kanopy

One of the most delightful films you are ever likely to see, Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl (1980) is available to stream for free on the Kanopy platform, which you may have access to through your library system (such as ours in San Francisco).

“Sixteen year old Gregory is an awkward, gangly Scottish lad who is in the midst of the throngs of puberty. The object of his affection is Dorothy, despite or in part because she is a talented striker who took his place on the school’s boys’ football team, he now demoted to distracted goalkeeper. Gregory tries to insinuate himself as much as possible in her life through her interests, such as learning the Italian language, without ever directly coming out and telling her that he likes her. Gregory’s male friends are of no help in advising him on how to get into a relationship with Dorothy. The only person with whom he confides that provides any constructive advice is his ten-year old sister, Madeline.”

It is truly a delight. Forsyth followed it up in 1983 with the possibly even more delightful (though with a bittersweet note as well) Local Hero. He’s only made a couple of other films, but with those two he secured a place in ever right thinking – or right feeling – person’s heart.

• Gregory’s Girl (1981). On Wikipedia, Kanopy, Amazon and elsewhere.
• Local Hero (1983). On Wikipedia, Amazon (Criterion Blu-ray and streaming) and elsewhere.

Filed under: Movies, Pop Culture, Film, Scotland

San Francisco Documentary Festival 2023

The San Francisco Documentary Festival 2023 is currently going on – through next week – at the Roxie Theater in the Mission District.

Filed under: Events, Film

Jeanne Dielman at PFA

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive (PFA) on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, at 7 pm.

Depicts three days in the life of a middle-aged widow, Jeanne (Delphine Seyrig), living alone with her teenage son. Those days are filled with a precisely circumscribed series of domestic tasks, framed straight on and taking place in what feels like real time.

A rare chance to see the surprise number one film of Sight & Sound’s 2022 Poll of the 100 Greatest Films on 35mm film on a decent screen (as opposed to streaming video).

Filed under: Events, Film

Ikiru (Kurosawa, 1952) at the Pacific Film Archive

An aging city official, dying of cancer, finds meaning in his life as he builds a playground for children during his final days.

Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952) at Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive (PFA) on Sunday, Jul 16, 2023

Kurosawa is of course most commonly known for his samurai movies (chambara) like Yojimbo and Seven Samurai, but he made a great variety of films, and the quiet but searing drama of contemporary Japanese society, Ikiru, is one of his finest, ranking up there with Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954).

It’s somewhat noteworthy that his three greatest films come essentially back to back in his filmography. But Kurosawa’s overall level of accomplishment is fairly phenomenal. Another astonishing run, from 1958 to 1962, produced The Hidden Fortress, The Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo and Sanjurō, one after the other.

Also available on Amazon and at the San Francisco Public Library and streaming via the Kanopy service (free to patrons of various library systems).

Filed under: Events, Film, Japanese movies

Claudia Cardinale at PFA

The Pacific Film Archive is hosting a retrospective on Claudia Cardinale through July 22, concluding with Sergio Leone’s weird and incredible Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Coproduced by Cinecittà, Rome, and featuring new restorations, Claudia Cardinale Once Upon a Time focuses on her great performances from the late 1950s through the 1960s in films imbued with an intelligence and depth that surpass the confines of the scripted characters. It addition to more widely know works like Once Upon a Time and 8 1/2, it’s a chance to see some lesser known and less commonly screened works.

Filed under: Events, Film

Holiday Reading

When the nights are dark and cold, there’s nothing like curling up in a comfy chair, next to a warm fire, with a good book.

Few of us have wood fires these days (though I happen to be sitting beside one at the moment), and in any case there are air pollution issues, but I find I can achieve something almost as good with ducted heating, a few candles, a nice reading lamp with a full-spectrum bulb, and some Christmas lights twinkling on the tree or around the window.

(If the smell of wood smoke is vital for you, you can always get one of those small Hibachis and burn a few pine chips, but make sure your smoke alarms are turned off first if you are going to burn more than two or three.  Or you can get a piney smell by draping a few branches and garlands around the room. I have been known to bring home fresh cut pine when I come across it for the aroma.)

And here are some suggestions for Christmas-themed reading—and a few books, as well, that I think go well with a warm chair in the dark nights:

A Christmas Carol—Charles Dickins — The classic story, which so many people know without having read it.  And it is worth reading (and seeing in a live theatrical production). [on Amazon; ebook version]

The Night Before Christmas — Many of us can recite this poem (by Clement Clarke Moore) by heart, but it helps to have a nicely illustrated version to read aloud on Christmas Eve, and the illustrations in this one, by Charles Santore, are lavish and appealing, albeit very much the expected, traditional thing. [on Amazon]

How the Grinch Stole Christmas—Dr. Seuss — Yet another classic Christmas text we all know by heart, but I suspect many people know it mostly from the original animated TV version, which is charming and terrific, but shouldn’t supplant the original. [on Amazon]

Olive, The Other Reindeer—Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold — The newest edition to the canon of Christmas classics, at least for me—I found it utterly enchanting, first in book form and then in the TV special, with Drew Barrymore doing the voice of a dog named Olive who thinks she’s the other reindeer from the line in the song, “all of [Olive] the other reindeer.” [on Amazon – the ebook is free if you have Kindle Unlimited]

Miracle and Other Christmas Stories—Connie Willis — Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Connie Willis reimagines some of the key themes of Christmas in this collection of warm and generous stories. [on Amazon]

Doomsday Book—Connie Willis — Set in Oxford of the future, when time travel is a research tool for history departments, and in Oxford of the 1300s, when plague stalked the land. It’s a phenomenal read, deeply moving in places, and set during Christmas. An excellent book for curling up with on a winter evening. [on Amazon]

Hogfather—Terry Pratchett — “Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.”  Sir Terry Pratchett has been called the greatest living satirist writing in English.  Here he turns his satirical, but also always warm and generous, wit loose on Christmas (among other things). [on Amazon]

The Riverside Shakespeare — Shakespeare is always readable, and I’ve spent many a winter’s night curled up with one or another play. “A Winter’s Tale” might seem like the seasonal reading, but I’d suggest giving it a miss. It’s one of the problem plays and doesn’t really have much to offer of a seasonally appropriate nature. Paradoxically, the play I might most recommend for reading during the long nights around the winter solstice is… “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Its magic, mystery and wonder seem much in keeping with the season, and of course it’s delightful.  [on Amazon]

The Lord of the Rings — Not at all holiday themed, but a book I’ve been curling up with during winters for more years than I care to reveal. Again, as with the Shakespeare, there is something about the mood that it summons in you as you read that does seem to consort well with the mood of the holidays, even when the content has nothing at all to do with Christmas or the holidays. [on Amazon]

In the past I would have included the YA fantasy series by she who must not be named. Not any more. But if you have them and they were special to you, they have nice Christmas scenes in them.

A newer addition to my holiday reading is Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising which I was turned on to by a social media post by Rob Macfarlane maybe 5 years ago, when he was proposing a winter solstice read. That led to Rob adapting the book as a radio play — which will be broadcast by the BBC in 12 parts beginning on 20 December. I’m very much looking forward to it, and am foregoing my annual read in anticipation. [book on Amazon]

If you are looking for any of these books, or for books as gifts for people you love for the holidays, please shop at independent bookshops as much as possible. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, try Green Apple Books, Booksmith or Borderlands in San Francisco, or Moe’s Books or Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley. They will also ship to you wherever you are.

You can also order from Powell’s Books in Portland, and Book Riot has a handy list of independent bookshops around the country from which you can order online. And if you are in the UK you can support independent bookshops by buying online with Bookshop.org

Filed under: What I Read Today, books, Christmas, eBooks, holidays