Category: Marcus

After the Festival, I sent the following email to Sean Uyehara, the programmer I know best at the Film Society:

Sean,
Standing in line, I was often asked, “What’s your favorite film so far?” I would usually answer, “The last one I saw.”

I just want to let a programmer know how much I enjoyed the Festival this year. I saw 18 films plus 4 Tributes (including films). Of all those, I there was only one that I really didn’t like (Woman on Fire…).

The four Tributes and their attendant films were outstanding (Hertzfeldt, Salles, Duvall, Ebert); and I considered seven of the other films I saw outstanding, with many runners-up.

WAY OF NATURE
CAIRO TIME
WILD GRASS
MOTHER AND CHILD
ALAMAR
SEDUCING CHARLIE BARKER
BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK

Please convey my appreciation to Rachael, Rod and Joe; and of course, Graham.

Until the fall season…
Sincerely,

Marcus Rector

So here are the descriptions and MY TAKE for my favorites. Film descriptions are from the Program Guide or from Scoop du Jour, the daily chronicle of Festival activity.

WAY OF NATURE
Documentaries – Sweden, 2008, 107 minutes

A mostly wordless meditation on the seasonal ebb and flow of life’s rhythms on a remote Swedish farm, where the sights and sounds build to create an elegantly subtle drama of biodiversity and sustainability in action.

MY TAKE – Fabulous. And beautiful. Way better than Sweetgrass (which was really good), as this film concentrates on the farm and the animals, with the sole purpose of vividly showing a year-in-the-life. My favorite scenes were near the beginning, of big draught horses and their young galloping in the snow. The family farm raises – from what I could see – heritage breeds of horses, dairy cattle, sheep, turkeys and chickens. Milk and eggs are sold in bulk, and they make butter and cheese and mow their own hay. The 107 minutes flew by and I wanted more. ***** Continue reading “SFiFF53 My Favorites” →

Random bits and pieces of SFiFF53:

Most films are at the Sundance Kabuki, where 5 screens are utilized.
House #1, has a balcony where one may enjoy food and adult beverages; it seats about 600. The other four houses seat about 200 each.

Let’s say we have tickets to ALAMAR at 6:45pm. A line forms outside on the sidewalk about an hour before the film begins. I would show up a little after six and Carol would join me, coming directly from school about 6:15. Our line would go in about 20 minutes before the show.

The Rush Line. If all tickets are sold for ALAMAR, its not “sold out,” it “goes to RUSH” and a Rush Line is formed. Once all ticketholders are seated, the staff fills no-show seats from the Rush Line. First come, first served, cash only.

Really big shows (Opening Night, Closing Night and certain Tributes) are at the Historic Castro Theater (1400 seats).

Before the Robert Duval Tribute, we had a bowl of chowder here on Castro Street. It’s a lot like the Swan Oyster Depot on Polk, but a bit classier, and larger, with a row of tables. Good stuff. Yum. Continue reading “SFiFF53: The Scene” →

I’m not going to publish my take on every film I saw at the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival; that would be boring as Carol and I saw 18 films between us in addition to the Tributes. But I do want to share the four Tributes we attended; I thought all were brilliant.

DON HERTZFELDT                             PERSISTENCE OF VISION AWARD
Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award – The POV Award honors the lifetime achievement of a filmmaker whose work is crafting documentaries, short films, animation or work for television. This year’s recipient is Don Hertzfeldt.

An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt
Friday, April 23
7:30 PM pm Sundance Kabuki Cinemas

From the Program Guide:
The 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival is proud to present the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award to Academy Award–nominated short filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt for his unique contributions to animation. Over a long career, Hertzfeldt has remained fiercely independent by sticking to short format and challenging the boundaries of his craft. The popularity of his work is unprecedented in the world of short animation and his films are frequently referenced in pop culture. Hertzfeldt will be presented with the award and participate in an onstage interview at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. The shorts program Life, Death and Very Large Utensils, a collection of short films, past and present, is set to follow.

In her introduction, Rachael Rosen, the program director, said that most films – thus most awards – are centered on narrative, feature length films. The POV Award is about the others.

MY TAKE – Accepting the award, Hertzfeldt said, “I’m kind of nervous, getting this award at my age (he’s 32); what if I screw up later… do I have to give it back?”

The great thing about film festivals is that you can see things here you can’t see anywhere else. Don Hertzfeldt is a brilliant storyteller, both in person and in his films. His film stories are, for the most part, told with hand drawn stick figures. Some very funny, some poignant, some slice of life, some one joke stretched out and embellished. Brilliant. One can see his work on DVD and on the internet, but it ain’t the same as being in a packed theater – with him.

Continue reading “SFiFF53 TRIBUTES” →

MEMBERS SCREENING: THIS IS IT
Saturday, December 19
Premiere Theater
Letterman Digital Arts Center

There are just a handful of seats left for our year-round members screening of Kenny Ortega’s This is It, presented by the Variety Screening Series. Kenny Ortega is expected to be in attendance.

The screening is on Saturday, December 19, at 2:00 pm.

MY TAKE – I knew nothing. This was a Variety Screening Series film and we were invited by the San Francisco Film Society. For the SFFS screenings I like to go cold because they are often on subjects that I might not choose to see. I didn’t know it was Michael Jackson.

What a surprise! I was never into Pop music or Michael Jackson and he has been out of sight or embroiled in court cases for at least 10 years… not making music. Here, he is totally on form as Ebert describes, and the singers, dancers and musicians in the cast are the world’s best. The film shows that they put out a world wide casting call and over 2500 auditioned. The dancers were most impressive. They and MJ were in perfect union through impossibly difficult moves, stops and starts. I thought of La Danse, a story of behind-the-scenes at Russian Ballet – I haven’t yet seen it, but Jon Carroll wrote about it – this dancing has to equal or surpass ballet. Awesome. And the hot blonde guitarist… also awesome as she jams with MJ and he says, “This is your time… hit your highest note.” Another revelation – through this show and the Q&A with Kenny Ortega, I realized that when Michael sings about love, he’s not singing about boy-girl or man-woman, he’s singing about mankind. This was a profoundly moving experience.
Continue reading “THIS IS IT” →