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SFIFF51, My take… Part 1

The 51st San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF51) has just concluded. Unlike the previous two years, this year I didn”t work at the Festival, so I had no insider information to use in selecting films (nor did I have free tickets). You can see my chronicles of the 49th and 50th in the archives of this site.

For SFIFF51, I relied on the Program Guide for my selections, as well as chatting up members of the SFFS staff at the Members Night previews. The Program Guide has descriptions of each film, along with one picture. They are not reviews, but promotional descriptions meant to entice ticket buyers to buy tickets.

Here, I include the Program Guide entries for the films I saw, and append a paragraph called My Take — for my reaction to the film. I’ve rated the films, as well, from * to **** with ~ being a half star. I”ve noted the films that have distribution. Some will gain distribution due to their exposure here, some may never be seen again.

The films are presented in the order I saw them, April 25 through May 9, 2008. My first film, The Golem, was a one time, live performance.

THE GOLEM WITH BLACK FRANCIS

A silent classic and an exemplary specimen of German expressionist cinema, The Golem is set in 16th century Prague. A rabbi fashions a proto—Frankenstein’s monster, sculpted from rough clay and brought to life through sorcery, to protect the Jewish ghetto from a Christian emperor’s decree that it be dissolved. Through means both surprising and charming, the creature manages to stave off the wrath of the emperor and his court. But it eventually goes haywire, as the rabbi’s jealous assistant turns the golem toward evil. A true juggernaut, the golem destroys everything in its path. The last in a trilogy of films on the golem myth, all cowritten and codirected by Paul Wegener, The Golem depicts the labyrinthine ghetto as a baroque and anxious world of secrets and magic capable of producing amazing discoveries as well as horrific power. Wegener, who had a long career as an actor, plays the title character with odd grace. Photographed by master cinematographer Karl Freund (Metropolis, The Last Laugh), the film, in a beautiful archival print, remains visually stunning. But there are aural enchantments in store as well at this special screening. Black Francis (aka Frank Black), best known as the front man for the towering 1990s alt-rock band, the Pixies, will perform the world premiere of his original score for the film live and onstage at the Castro Theatre. One of the most influential songwriters and performers of his generation, Black Francis’s collaborative appearance with The Golem marks a unique outing in musical and cinematic history.
â€”Sean Uyehara Continue reading “SFIFF51, My take… Part 1” →

LOU REED

Lou Reed was in Asheville NC last night,and I was there to see him. A jaunty little 220 mile ride up I-85 and I was there. (The bitch was the drive back at midnight,UGH). What an astounding little town,not unlike a little Berkeley: protesters, hippies everywhere, weird little shops selling organic tools and macrobiotic nail clippers. A perfect place for the king of cool to land.

And there’s that: He played at The Orange Peel: a venue named by Rolling Stone this month (in their Best of Rock 2007) as the “best rock venue in the US”. An open, standing room only theatre that allows you to get right up at the edge of the stage, just a few feet away from the performers. I came early and was stage-right/center, no more than 10 feet from Lou’s mike stand. The sound levels were perfect (they must have theorized that there would be a slightly older crowd,and they were right). It was a brilliant night of art-house cool music with a slightly sinister allure.

Reed was cool before we knew what it was, with his Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, Nico days in 60’s lower Manhattan. VU broke up around 1970, though he never stopped playing and evolving thru more than two dozen albums, not all of them gems.

His musical and romantic collaboration with Laurie Anderson (another avant-garde performance artist) has positively affected his music over the last 15 years they have been together (they married just this year), mellowing it and giving it a softer edge, yet still very Lou.

He showed that side last nite in his playlist: a mix of some of his classics (Ecstasy, I Believe in Love, Dirty Blvd) mixed with some newer pieces like Call on Me, A Thousand Departed Friends (his screed against AIDS), Guardian Angel, I Wanna Know, and Tell it To Your Heart. His accompanying band included legendary guitarists Mike Rathke and an old guy named Dan ‘something”. I know that Dan is legendary not only because Lou introduced him that way, but by the way the guy played. Incredible: A blend of Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, with a little John Butler mastery in evidence.

For an old guy (65 and addled a bit by his decade of heroin addiction in the 60’s) he still has a clear voice and can still make the guitar sing their unique LOU sounds.

Perfect Day, an interesting ballad from his 1972 Transformer album was their encore. A fitting way to end what I felt was MY PERFECT DAY with Lou Reed.

The Olympic Torch

The Olympic Torch passed through San Francisco today.

There was a grand plan, published in the Chronicle and on web sites everywhere, to start with a ceremony at McCovey Cove, run with the torch along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf and return to Justin Herman Plaza for a ceremony. The event was to begin at one o”clock.

Given the disruptive events in London and Paris, Mayor Gavin Newsom repeatedly stated that things could change, depending on the situation.

I was thinking of going to the parade route, but the more I thought about it, the more I reasoned that there would be crowds and I couldn”t see anything. I considered a high vantage point, maybe Telegraph Hill, or maybe the parking garage where we go to the top floor to watch the Kaboom fireworks. Then I envisioned the sniper in the book bindery. I”m thinking security would probably have their eye on that kind of place, after all, we”re talkin” Police, Sheriff, FBI, CHP, the Olympic Committee and Lord knows who else. Best to stay home and watch it on TV with the rest of the world.

Indeed, large groups assembled; Chinese, Taiwanese, pro Olympic, Free Tibet, Get out of Darfur, and on and on. In the morning, they were orderly, but in place, with signs, banners, chants and bodies. Continue reading “The Olympic Torch” →

Opening Day

Baseball Opening Day is the best. Spring has sprung and visions of leisurely days in the ballpark dance in my head. Spring Training happens somewhere else, and there hasn”t been a glut of preseason games televised to take the edge off the opener. Even though I rarely go to Opening Day, it’s an event.

The Giants were scheduled to open on the road, in Dogerland, so the buzz of the home opener was a week away. AT&T Park will be sold out for opening day, even though this year all evidence points to the Giants sucking big time as we enter the Post Bonds era. Hey, they sucked big time last year, with Barry.

But then this ad in the Chronicle Sporting Green caught my eye.

Hey! I could bloody go to the game. Continue reading “Opening Day” →

CUT: Revealing the Section

An exhibition at SF MOMA
Exhibit curator Henry Urbach, the head of SFMOMA’s Architecture and Design Department assembled architectural section drawings of a number of buildings including the Castro Theater and the SFMOMA building itself for a current exhibit at the museum. Art works dealing with the third dimension of buildings were included, as well.

The most thought provoking, for me, was a work by Peter Wegner entitled Buildings Made of Sky.

All these pictures are upside down.
What’s up with that?

Mr. Wegner is interested in the solid of Manhattan skyscrapers only as a creator of the void. When the image is turned upside down, the void becomes a skyscraper of sky. Continue reading “CUT: Revealing the Section” →

[ology]

Who is David and Who is Goliath? Last year Greg Oden helped pound the Buckeye’s basketball team into the paint of the NCAA tournament; this year the Oden-less OSU hoopsters will be watching at home. Therefore I would understand if there is much less enthusiasm for this group going head-to-head on brackets as we did last year thanks to the NY Times new-fangled and easy to use tool that lets us compete as a group, as well as to measure ourselves against the larger world, including their own sports writers. The Times is offering this feature again this year, and I thought I’d roll out the ball again to see who picks it up.

I should be more interested in this year’s tournament because the hated Tar Heels are the top-ranked team, while Duke has beaten them once, and been highly ranked during the regular season, but then lost to the upstart Clemson Tigers in the ACC Tourney, so they do not have the highly regarded “MO” going into this thing. Luckily they will be playing near-by (in Washington DC) so should have little to distract them through the first round, but that’s no guarantee that their very young and very small team won’t get bounced early as has unfortunately happened in the past few years. I also wonder if Coach K has been distracted a bit lately by his USA Basketball responsibilities. I know little else about the rest of the tournament teams, having only watch portions of a few games in the last few weeks, though I did get to glimpse the much hyped Mayo kid at USC, playing the Twin Towers of Stanford (USC won comfortably). I look forward to finding out what the Beasley wonderkind has done to deserve his hype; and I’m glad that I won’t have to watch Joakim Noahs public paroxysms of pleasure after every layup…

Here is the link to the game site.

Our Group Name is “RectorSite” (how original…)

Our Group Code is “991ec2a2278MwfK007sLrp3M7l1EE23yA” which you enter into “Enter Group Code” field on the “Groups and Top Scorers” page. Needless to say, you must be a registered reader of the NYT website to play — there shouldn’t be any problem there.

It’s a simple process; perhaps I’ll see you there.

Big City Food

Alison and I had a nice time in NYC last week, overlapping for Thursday night through Saturday morning. In between we had a lot of good food — expensive and cheap. As an East Coast Guy I am always aware of NYC’s boast about serving the nations best food. But having lived in SF and now returning there periodically, it’s hard for me to not counter that the Bay Area is truly America’s melting pot of culinary excellence. And recently London has begun to challenge both of these cities on it’s culinary merits in my and Alison’s world…I was very mindful of these ideas on this trip because we planned to visit Babbo which has achieved a great deal attention lately. But we had other experiences that were just as thought provoking. Ultimately we ate well, which is always the goal, but following are my notes on the specifics.
Continue reading “Big City Food” →

“Quote Wall”

“You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.”

David Lloyd George, as recalled by Nikita Khrushchev in Secret Tapes 1968

“Too often we relied on administrative means rather than permitting events to develop in a creative direction.”

Nikita Khrushchev, Secret Tapes 1968

“Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”

John Houston, playing the role of Noah Cross, a down-home, wealthy old tycoon, in the film, Chinatown, 1974

“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”

Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker, 1980

“You can’t get what you want,
Until you know what you want…”

Joe Jackson, from the album Body and Soul, 1984 Continue reading ““Quote Wall”” →

One Thing & Another

One thing leads to another.

1. Wendell, contemplating a trip to Israel, asked me for info on Jerusalem.
2. Got out my Jerusalem Journals.
3. Got interested.
4. Found what was on the computer incomplete. (During my two periods between jobs, I transcribed many of the Journals into the computer.)
5. Looked for originals.
6. Found Allied Van Lines boxes undisturbed since our move 15 years ago.
7. Found hundreds of snapshots, Olan Mills photos, stuff.

8. Sorted, keep, send, toss.
9. Sent packs of photos to Eric, Brian, Matt.

(ain’t Eric cute?)

10. Yesterday, I found more photos.
11. Still haven”t found the Journal originals.

THE BANK JOB

Roger Donaldson, the director was in attendance and participated in a Q+A after the film.

FILM BLURB
A tightly wound heist film, The Bank Job is based on an infamous 1971 London robbery, in which a gang of East End crooks got away with approximately £500,000. Roger Donaldson’s film unpacks all that went into the job and all that came after, including the shady criminals, the corrupt politicians, the government cover-up, the violent revenge and, of course, the royal scandal. Jason Stratham plays the mechanic and small-time criminal who masterminded the heist, ultimately finding himself in far over his head. The film opens in the Bay Area on March 7.

MY TAKE
Michael X, a black radical, has pictures of Princess Margaret in a compromising situation and is using them to thwart his arrest by the Government. MI5 (or MI6, who can tell) knows they are in a safe deposit box in a London bank. A babe returning from Morocco is found with drugs in her possession. An agent promises her immunity is she will round up a band of guys to break into the bank, give the pictures to MI5 and keep whatever else they take. They do this, but of course, there are complications. A Porn Lord who has the goods on crooked cops, a high class madam and members of Parliament become involved, so the hapless crooks are sought by dangerous dudes on both sides of the law and the government.

I wanted Michael X and the Porn Lord, despicable chaps, taken down, but could have accepted an ending where either MI5 or the small time criminal with balls of steel, prevailed.

Very cool film — taught, tense, and with more plot turns than Lombard Street. Incredibly, based on a true story.

A film that reminded me of Sir Ben Kingsley‘s Sexy Beast, as well as Layer Cake. Check it out.

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