The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's March 2016 Calendar

For the third consecutive month, there is not a puzzle in the Castro calendar.  As the saying goes, once means nothing and twice is a coincidence but thrice is a pattern.

Cinequest runs from March 1 to March 13 and CAAMFest runs from March 10 to March 20 so I won't have much time to drop by the Castro until the final part of the month.

Among the Castro highligts:

Elliot Lavine is back with Pre-Code films on Wednesday nights. 

Akira Kurosawa's Ran is paired with A.K. a documentary biopic on March 6.

A Sean Connery & Pierce Brosnan series from March 17 to 22 with an emphasis on their James Bond films.

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The March series I am most excited about is not a Cinequest or at the Castro but instead at the Roxie.  From March 21 to 31, the Roxie is presenting Greenaway Week with screenings of The Belly of an Architect, Drowning by Number, The Baby of Macon and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.  Greenway's latest film Eisenstein in Guanajuato plays from March 25 to 31. 

It was The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (which I saw in a Los Angeles theater in the summer of 1989) that turned me on to art house films.

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Castro Theater Calendar - March 2016

2014 Noir City

Noir City ran from January 24 to February 2 at the Castro Theater.  The program was billed as "International Noir" as there were films from around the world.

I saw 18 of the 27 films on the program.

Journey Into Fear starring Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Rio & Orson Welles; directed by Norman Foster & Orson Welles (uncredited); (1943)
Border Incident starring Ricardo Montalban & George Murphy; directed by Anthony Mann; (1949)
In the Palm of Your Hand starring Arturo de Córdova & Leticia Palma; directed by Roberto Gavaldón; Spanish with subtitles; (1951)
Victims of Sin starring Ninón Sevilla; directed by Emilio Fernández; Spanish with subtitles; (1951)
Too Late for Tears starring Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea & Arthur Kennedy; directed by Byron Haskin; (1949)
The Hitch-Hiker starring Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy & William Talman; directed by Ida Lupino; (1953)
Stray Dog starring Toshirô Mifune & Takashi Shimura; directed by Akira Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1949)
The Murderers Are Among Us starring Hildegarde Knef & Wilhelm Borchert; directed by Wolfgang Staudte; German with subtitles; (1946)
Berlin Express starring  Robert Ryan & Merle Oberon; directed by Jacques Tourneur; (1948)
Death of a Cyclist starring Lucia Bosé & Alberto Closas; directed by Juan Antonio Bardem; Spanish with subtitles; (1955)
Death is a Caress starring Claus Wiese & Bjørg Riiser-Larsen; directed by Edith Carlmar; Norwegian with subtitles; (1949)
Never Open That Door starring Ángel Magaña, Roberto Escalada & Ilde Pirovano; directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen; Spanish with subtitles; (1952)
Hardly a Criminal starring Jorge Salcedo; directed by Hugo Fregonese; Spanish with subtitles; (1949)
The Black Vampire starring Nathán Pinzón; directed by Román Viñoly Barreto; Spanish with subtitles; (1953)
Two Men in Manhattan starring Pierre Grasset & Jean-Pierre Melville; directed by Jean-Pierre Melville; French with subtitles; (1959)

Rififi starring Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel & Jules Dassin;  directed by Jules Dassin; French with subtitles; (1955)

Singapore starring Fred MacMurray & Ava Gardner; directed by John Brahm; (1947)

Macao starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell & William Bendix; directed by Josef von Sternberg & Nicholas Ray (uncredited); (1952)

Never Open That Door consisted of two films - Somebody on the Phone (Alguien al teléfono) and Hummingbird Comes Home (El pájaro cantor vuelve al hogar).

The Black Vampire was a remake of Fritz Lang's M.

Journey Into Fear, Border Incident, Too Late for Tears, The Hitch-Hiker, Singapore & Macao were Hollywood productions.  Berlin Express was filmed in Germany after the war but was a RKO film.

Of the Spanish language films, In the Palm of Your Hand and Victims of Sin were Mexican productions.  Never Open That Door, Hardly a Criminal and The Black Vampire were Argentinian films.  Death of a Cyclist was made in Spain

Stray Dog is, of course, Japanese.  Death is a Caress was made in Norway and The Murderers Are Among Us was the first German film made after WWII (sponsored by the Soviet Occupation Forces).  Two Men in Manhattan and Rififi were French made films.

I had previously seen Border Incident, Stray Dog & Rififi at the Castro.  I believe those are the only three "repeat" films of the eighteen I saw this year.

I had previously seen the nine films (in a movie theater) which I skipped at this festival - The Third Man, Drunken Angel, It Always Rains on Sunday, Brighton Rock, The Wages of Fear, Pépé Le Moko, Jenny Lamour, Riptide and The Shanghai Gesture.  Jenny Lamour screened under its French title (Quai des Orfèvres) at the PFA's Clouzot series in 2012.  Elliot Lavine screened Riptide under an alternate title (Such A Pretty Little Beach) in 2012.

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The 2014 Noir City was the 12th annual rendition of the festival.  As mentioned, the theme was international noir and the audience was receptive.  The audience is always enthusiastic but seemed extra so this year.  Attendance seemed up from previous years.

They screened a Serena Bramble video like have for the past several years.

They also screened an episode of Noir House which is a on-line series based out of Australia.

I recall a pair of tango dancers on the night they screened a pair of Argentinian films but I cannot recall their names.

Miss Noir City 2014, Evie Lovelle, performed a burlesque routine on the Castro Theater stage.  It was clear from her movements, costume, props and assistant that she was an experienced burlesque performer.

Czar of Noir Eddie Muller announced the creation of the Nancy Mysel Legacy Project. The project was created by the family of the late film preservationist whose restorations have screened at Noir City. The inaugural honoree, Ariel Schudson, knew Mysel and will work on restorations for Noir City.

The alcohol was flowing throughout the 10 day festival.  Eddie has become quite adept at getting liquor donated to Noir City.  I believe he mentioned that his temporary license to serve hard alcohol during Noir City only allowed him to serve 2 consecutive days.  Every third day was wine only.

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My favorite films were two that I've already seen - Stray Dog & Rififi.

I've long stated that Stray Dog is one of my favorite films by Akira Kurosawa.  I almost skipped the screening.  I didn't really gain much from this viewing so I 'll stand by what I wrote in this post.  I enjoyed it just as much as I did during my previous viewings.  Stray Dog holds up to repeated viewings.  By coincidence, actress Keiko Awaji, who played the self-conflicted girl the killer was in love with, died at age 80 a few weeks before Noir City.  She was only 16 (like her character) when Stray Dog was made.

I saw a 35 mm print of Rififi at the Castro several years ago (before I started this blog).  Now that I think about it, Rififi and Stray Dog would make a great double feature.  Whereas Stray Dog is a policier which transcends the genre, Rififi is a caper film which approaches the sublime.

The plot centers around a jewel heist involving four career criminals -  Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais), Jo le Suédois (Carl Möhner), Mario Ferrati (Robert Manuel) and director Jules Dassin as César le Milanais.  In true gangster film style, three out of the four are identified by their home towns:  Tony from Saint-Étienne, Jo the Swede and César the Milanese (resident of Milan).

Tony just gets out of prison and is met by his friend and protégé, Jo.  Jo has a wife & son so Tony didn't rat him out to the cops which resulted in his extended prison term.  Grateful for his silence, Jo proposes a jewelry heist to Tony who passes.  Tony instead looks up his old girlfriend Mado (Marie Sabouret) only to confirm that she has taken up with the gangster Grutter.  As an aside, Grutter runs the nightclub L'Âge d'Or (reference to Luis Buñuel?).  Second aside, at some point, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival has adopted an image L'Âge d'Or to accompany their tagline True Art Transcends Time.  The image is from an infamous scene of a woman (Lya Lys) sucking on the toe of a statue in a suggestive manner.  Is there a non-suggestive manner to suck on a toe?

Back to Rififi, after confronting his ex (Tony has some anger management and communication issues), Tony agrees to the heist but not any old smash and grab job.  Tony wants the contents of the safe so he can make enough money to lure back his ex.  I would think the belt-whipping he gave her would have ended any possibility for future rapprochement but who knows in 1950s Paris.  The job now requires a safecracker and Jo & Tony's friend Mario knows just the guy - César le Milanais.

Most of the film deals with the planning and actual execution of the heist.  I thought it was fascinating and the film was banned in several countries out of concern that it was a "how to" manual.  The highlight of the film is a 30 minute sequence without dialogue (and complete silence for much of the time) during which the actual burglary occurs.

The undoing of plan occurs when César le Milanais impulsively steals a diamond ring from the jeweler for a showgirl he lusts after.  The girl works for Grutter, Tony's sworn enemy.  When Grutter finds out who gave her the ring and reads about the jewelry heist, he puts two & two together and tries to muscle in.  One by one, the thieves are killed while Grutter holds Jo's young son hostage.  I won't give away too much of the ending except it's hilarious and sad.  Jo's son looks like he is on a sugar high while Tony, in agony from the bullet Grutter put in him, drives the boy back home.  The dichotomy between the grizzled criminal and his namesake is made comically clear.  When I saw the scene, I wondered if Dassin directed the boy to behave that way or if the actor was bored and fidgety and Dassin decided it would work better that.

Rififi has three things going for it.  First is Jean Servais in a role that I have to believe Jean Gabin was considered.  I'm sure Gabin would have been fine in the role, Servais plays the taciturn with a "still waters run deep" intensity.  Tony doesn't lose his cool except when he beats his ex-girlfriend which I guess is misogynistic expression of sexuality.  Even then, he barely says a word.

Next, the plot of Rififi is stripped of everything that could become extraneous; most obviously women.  The actresses play small and rather inconsequential roles in Rififi.  The film is about these four guys, the crime they plan and execute, and the criminal code of honor.  I wonder how a twentysomething woman in 2014 would react to Rififi.  The men in the film are a long way from vegan, tablet totting, New Age, metrosexuals.  I don't know if men really behaved this way in 1950s Paris, but they are entertaining as hell.

Rififi is a less is more approach.  By stripping away any direct or extended dialogue about the emotional state of these men, Dassin allowed the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions.  Tony is crazy for Mado and resentful that she didn't wait for him.  Jo is settled into marital life.  Mario has this earthy, Italian woman who he adores probably because she has a healthy sexual appetite that matches his own.  César doesn't get much action so when a showgirl gives him some attention, he breaks from the plan to pocket a diamond ring to impress the girl.

Finally, Dassin is meticulous in his direction.  The plot is laden with these scenes where the focus is on the action and not the dialogue.  He makes spraying fire retardant into an alarm box exciting.  He gave himself the difficult role of comic foil.

Strong performance by the lead actor plus a sharply focused plot plus detailed direction equals a great film.

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Journey Into Fear - set in WWII Istanbul (and later a tramp steamer bound for the Soviet Union), Joseph Cotten is an American weapons engineer who is drawn into intrigue involving a Turkish secret police officer (Welles), Nazi spies, an assassin and a sexy magician's assistant (Dolores Del Rio looking incredible considering she was 37 years old during filming).  Journey Into Fear was paired with The Third Man on the Noir City schedule.  The latter film captured the intrigue of post-WWII Vienna (in large part because it was filmed there).  Journey Into Fear looks like it was filmed on a sound stage.  In addition, the plot had a few too many false leads and twists; too clever by a half.  In comparison to The Third Man and many other films on the Noir City program, Journey Into Fear suffers.

Border Incident - a Mexican Federale (Ricardo Montalban) and US Border Patrol agent (George Murphy) go undercover to bust a illegal immigrant smuggling operation.  The film is not as powerful as I recall from my first viewing.  Actually, considering it was directed by Anthony Mann, filmed by John Alton and featured the incomparable Charles McGraw in the supporting role, Border Incident was slightly disappointing.  However, I will readily admit that high expectations and foreknowledge of the plot from my previous viewing were to blame for my mild reaction to the film.  The film presented a surprisingly sympathetic view of illegal immigration for 1949.

In the Palm of Your Hand - a astrologer/scam artist learns from his wife (who eavesdrops at the upscale beauty salon where she works) that a wealthy man has died just after learning his beautiful wife has been having an affair.  He targets the widow or does she target him?  I liked this film about a criminal getting in over his head due to greed, love & overconfidence.

Victims of Sin - a cabaret singer/dancer (the stunning Ninón Sevilla) rescues another dancer's baby from the garbage which puts her afoul with the cabaret owner/pimp/baby daddy.  Forced to be a streetwalker, she raises the baby boy as her own until a another club owner meets her, marries her and adopts the boy as his own.  All is well until the pimp kills the husband.  In a crowd pleasing scene, Sevilla kills the pimp with guns blazing.  You get the gist of the film.  Victims of Sin was a too melodramatic to be great noir and Sevilla's character was too selfless for my liking.  The musical numbers were smoking hot...just like Sevilla.  Victims of Sin is definitely worth a viewing if you haven't seen it.

Too Late for Tears - Lizabeth Scott plays a happenstance femme fatale.  Jane Palmer (Scott) and her husband are driving on a road one evening when a passing car throws a suitcase into the backseat of their convertible.  The suitcase contains a large sum of money.  Jane's husband wants to turn it over to the police but Jane convinces him to keep it for awhile.  The access to such a large amount of money brings out a new attitude from Jane.  She starts spending the money, lying to her husband, manipulating the criminal (Dan Duryea) who comes looking the money and ultimately t killing men left & right.  It's quite a showcase of Scott and very enjoyable in an "only in Hollywood" way.

The Hitch-Hiker - directed by Ida Lupino, this film involves two American buddies in Mexico on a fishing trip.  The pick up a hitch-hiker who turns out to be psychopath escaped from a criminal mental asylum.  The remainder of the film is a psychological drama as the two men's loyalty is tested by the sadistic killer.  Even at a modest 71 minutes, the film dragged at times.  Keeping the three men together in a car or on foot became an anchor on the plot.  The performances are fine but the script could have used another draft or two.

The Murderers Are Among Us was the first German film made after WWII.  It was filmed in the bombed out ruins of 1945 Berlin.  A young woman returns to her family's apartment.  She is a concentration camp survivor.  There, she discover an alcoholic doctor squatting.  Unable to displace the unsettled doctor, the woman befriends him.  The relationship is good for the doctor as his nightmares and obsessive behavior dissipate...until the chances upon his SS captain from the war.  The man committed war atrocities and the doctor's own complicity has haunted him.  He decides to kill the former officer who is now a wealthy businessman.

The backstory to the film is more interesting than the film itself.  The original ending had the doctor killing the man but the filmmakers were concerned about their Allied Occupational Forces censors so in the final version, the woman convinces the doctor to allow the man to stand trial (like the Nuremberg Trials which ended just as the film was released to German theaters).  The actor who played the doctor  (Ernst Wilhelm Borchert) had lied about his Nazi affiliation so his name was struck from the credits and promotional materials.

A film like this must be viewed within the context of its production.  The moral tone in the film was a result of collective German guilt and efforts to please the Occupational Forces.  On the flip side, for a concentration camp survivor, Hildegarde Knef (spelled Neff in her Hollywood films) was exceeding healthy looking and well dressed.  The Murderers Are Among Us must have been place on the Noir City program due its historical significance because I thought the film was mediocre at best.

Berlin Express - a bit of gimmick film.  The premise sound like a setup for a joke:  an American, an Englander, a Frenchman and a Soviet search for a German physicist.  That was the reality of postwar Germany.  If The Murderers Are Among Us was the first German film made in Germany after the war then Berlin Express is the first Hollywood film made in Germany after the war.

In the film, the German scientist is kidnapped from a train station in Berlin and the four occupiers search their respective zones for him.  Again, it was fascinating to see the bombed out city nearly three years after the war ended.  I can't recall much before a big showdown in a brewery.  I also recall the Frenchman was the perfidious one which surprised me a little since I would have assumed the Soviet would be cast as the villain.  I wonder what that says about US relations with France in the late 1940s.

Death of a Cyclist - one of my favorites from this year's festival.  Directed by Spanish actor Javier Bardem's uncle, Death of a Cyclist is a masterpiece tale of self-destruction.  Two lovers are driving on a deserted road back to Madrid when the strike a bicyclists.  Knowing that calling an ambulance or police will expose their extramarital affair (the woman is married), they leave the cyclist to die.  The resulting guilt and paranoia that an acquaintance (Carlos Casaravilla in a great supporting role performance) turn the two lovers against each other with fatal consequences.

Death is a Caress - in many noir films, a man meets a femme fatale who is married.  They decide they must kill the husband.  Sometimes the woman has duped her boyfriend and sometimes the guilt from the act (or fear of being caught) break the couple apart.  In this Norwegian film, the husband is quite amenable to stepping aside when his wife falls for a young car mechanic.  In fact, the mechanic's girlfriend doesn't squawk much either.  It doesn't seem to be much of a noir but the tension ratchets up after the couple weds.  The insecure man is unable to adjust to married life; specifically marriage to an older, poised woman.  Let's just say that for this couple divorce is not an option.

Never Open That Door - Never Open That Door was an anthology which consisted of two films:  Somebody on the Phone and The Hummingbird Comes Home.  Watching these Argentinian films, I realized how certain plot devices are ingrained in my consciousness.   Somebody on the Phone felt Hitchcockian to me.  A brother overhears her sister on the phone and assumes the other party is blackmailing her and takes appropriate actions; appropriate by noir standards at least.  The Hummingbird Comes Home has the prodigal son return home to his blind mother.  The young man has gotten involved in crime and has his associates with him.  They pretend to be something they aren't to fool the mother but a mother always knows; even a blind one.

Hardly a Criminal - another gem from this year's festival.  A bank employee learns that the maximum sentence for embezzlement is six years in prison.  Considering how much he can embezzle, he plans to steal the money, hide it, do the time and reclaim it after his sentence.  As is usually the case in these films, his perfect crime doesn't go as planned.  Nice exterior shots of Buenos Aires.

The Black Vampire - first there was Fritz Lang's M, then Joseph Losey's Hollywood remake (also called M) and then The Black Vampire from Argentina.  Having seen all three, I am partial to the original but The Black Vampire is very good.  The film follows a psychopathic pedophile (Nathán Pinzón who bore a resemblance to Peter Lorre).  Like the other two films, Vampire has the criminal underground policing themselves.  There is a subplot involving a cabaret singer witnessing the killer and a flirty police inspector which seemed out of place but otherwise the film sticks close to the major plot points of M.  If memory serves me correctly, Pinzón even whistles In the Hall of the Mountain King which Lorre used as his leitmotif in M.

Two Men in Manhattan - director Jean-Pierre Melville casts himself and Pierre Grasset as a news reporter and photographer searching for the missing French delegate to the UN.  The film functions as a NYC travelogue as the two men pass by all the tourist landmarks and nightlife spots.  As they follow the missing man's steps, they discover mistresses, suspicious characters and a corpse.  Melville makes 1959 NYC look fabulous on film and his characters (particularly Grasset's character) remind more of his later French noir films than the standard cast of American noir films.  On its own merits, Two Men in Manhattan is a good film but it was paired with Rififi which may have colored my thoughts.

Singapore - Fred MacMurray is Matt Gordon, a pearl smuggler returning to Singapore after the war.  Returning to retrieve some pearls he hid as the Japanese were attacking, Gordon is shocked to encounter his wife (Ava Gardner) whom he thought was dead.  Instead, she has amnesia and does not recognize him.  Gordon must evade the local police and other criminals who suspect he will try to smuggle the pearls out of Singapore while simultaneously trying to win back his wife who has married another man in the intervening years.  Don't they bigamy laws in Singapore?  It takes another whack to the head for Gardner to recall her previous life.  The amnesia was a little too much for me and I didn't think MacMurray and Gardner had much chemistry either.

Macao - Jane Russell had some serious sex appeal in the early 1950s!  Three foreigners arrive on a tramp steamer in Macao:  Jane Russell as a sassy, headstrong lounge singer; William Bendix as a  pantyhose salesman and Bob Mitchum as an ex-GI  who wore out his welcome in the US.  One of them is a NYPD undercover agent sent to lure Brad Dexter out to international waters so he can be arrested for a murder in NYC.  No extradition treaty?  Anyway, Jane gets a job singing in the club Dexter owns and making Gloria Grahame jealous, Mitchum sticks around for no particular reason except Jane Russell is nearby (I would too) and I can't recall what Bendix does.

Although Josef von Sternberg has the director's credit, Nicholas Ray finished the shoot.  Macao seems to simply be a vehicle for Jane Russell to sing and look good and for Bob Mitchum to be paired up with Russell.  The best I can say about Macao is that I liked it better than Singapore.

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Now that I've completed this post, it occurs to me that the Hollywood films were the weakest on the program.  Of course the first time out, they were able to cherry pick the best films from each country.  I'll be curious to see what the festival programs next year.  They could run with the international theme for many years before running out of steam.  As long as I've revisited Stray Dog, I'll put in a plug for another of my favorite films by Kurosawa - High and Low (based on a Ed McBain novel).  Melville's Bob le flambeur would also be a welcome sight on the program.

I noticed that this year's Noir City poster uses the star and crescent image to dot the "i"s.  The star and crescent is most associated with Islam and appears on the flags of several Muslim nations.  That makes sense since there are several minarets behind the sheer curtain that Eddie is emerging from.  Typically Eddie is the victim in these posters.  However, with black glove on his right hand and his left hand ominously in his overcoat, it appears as those Ms. Lovelle is the one in danger.  Also that globe and airplane statuette seems familiar.  Was it in Gilda?

2014 Noir City Poster

Two of Many and Prisencolinensinainciusol

In October, I saw two non-festival, non-repertory films:

The Dark Knight Rises starring Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard & Joseph Gordon-Levitt; directed by Christopher Nolan; (2012) - Official Website
V/H/S; anthology; directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (as Radio Silence), David Bruckner, Tyler Gillett (as Radio Silence), Justin Martinez (as Radio Silence), Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Chad Villella (as Radio Silence), Ti West, Adam Wingard; (2012) - Official Website

I saw Dark Knight at Daly City Century and V/H/S at the Landmark Bridge.  I don't recall if this exhibit was there the last time I visited, but the Bridge has an interesting set of letters in the display case of their lobby.  It is correspondence between a former Bridge employee and the owners during WWII.  I won't spoil anything but thought the letters were powerful with their simple language.

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I believe The Dark Knight Rises will be the highest grossing film of 2012 so there is little reason to recap the plot.  I saw the film nearly four months after its release in the United States.  In fact, I saw it during its final week of release at a first run theater in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Although mildly interested, I went to see the film more out a peer pressure than anything.  When co-workers discuss films (invariably general release), I often feel left out as I skip most general release films.  As it was with The Hunger Games, I waited until months to see the film.

The Dark Knight Rises is an exceeding depressing film with a horrible ending.  Since everyone has already seen it, I won't give spoiler alerts.  The scene at the end where the US Army blows up a bridge and thereby stranding orphans on the Gotham City side and likely nuclear annihilation was as depressing as anything I've seen in a general release film.  Reminding the audience that when time are tough, people will act in their own self-interest, I have to wonder what children thought as they watched it.  Containing some violence, I thought the bleak view of humanity was oppressing which is saying a lot for a pessimist like me.

Throughout the film, Batman seems indifferent to whether he lives or dies while people around him reinforce the notion that society is not worth saving.  In the end, Batman decides to fly away with a nuclear bomb to save Gotham while sacrificing himself...that is until we get a classic bait & switch happy ending.  Instead, we see Bruce Wayne living it up on the piazza in Venice with the stunning Anne Hathaway as his companion.  Did I mention that Batman received what looked to be a fatal knife wound before flying off with the thermonuclear device?  The ending made me cry...with rage that the filmmakers tacked on that inappropriate ending.

At 2 hours, 45 minutes, the film would have benefited from some editing.  What else didn't I like?  Hathaway's Selina Kyle (I don't think she ever used the feline nom de guerre) was very unlikable.  Spouting lines as if they were written by Occupy Wall Street, her Kyle is a just skilled cat burglar and poseur.  I'm also getting tired of Christian Bale growling his lines like he's impersonating Gunny Highway from Heartbreak Ridge.  Bale can convey Wayne's weariness but not so much the root psychosis which drives a grown man to wear a bat suit and endure the unendurable for a populace which doesn't deserve it.

What did I like?  Hathaway in the Catwoman suit was very nice although not any more memorable than Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry before her..  Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon was terrific.  His character arc over the three films is a sight to behold.  Also showing considerable screen presence was Marion Cotillard who doesn't have a lot to do but I couldn't take my eyes off her.  Those scenes in the Black Hole which created Bane and where Wayne is re-born were visually and emotionally worthwhile.  For guy that needs a cane to get around and with no cartilage in his knee, Bruce Wayne sure does recover quickly from a broken back.

Tom Hardy & Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Bane and the future Robin, respectively are largely wasted in my opinion.  Hardy's heavily muscled, crisp dictioned villain seemed out of place in the film. 

Nolan was certainly stylish in his direction but The Dark Knight Rises felt bloated and uninspired.

I wonder if Gordon-Levitt will carry the new series.

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V/H/S is one of these faux found footage film.  The premise is that a gang of low lives get a criminal assignment break into a house to steal a VHS tape.  The problem is that there are 100s of tapes in the house.  So they start to watch the tapes although I'm not sure how they would have known which was the right tape or why they just didn't take all the tapes and leave.  Regardless, V/H/S consisted of that wrapper segment and five short films in the guise of found VHS tapes. All told, I thought the films were quite entertaining.  I'm not a big fan of horror but these films had a certain enthusiasm about them which was infectious.

My favorite was Amateur Night (directed by David Bruckner).  Using a camera hidden in the nose-piece of a pair of eyeglasses, Amateur Night follows three men on the make at a dive bar.  The wispy Hannah Fierman is tremendous as Lily, the succubus.  A courageous performance, Fierman is nude for much of the her screen time but throws herself  head long into the role.  Creepy, frightening and oddly sympathetic, Fierman gives a bravura performance.

Also interesting was Ti West's Second Honeymoon. Immediately recognizing Sofia Takal (Gabi on the Roof in July & Green) as the wife in Second Honeymoon; I had a harder time placing Joe Swanberg who played the husband.  I think I recognized him from LOL, but I'm not sure.  The stalker in Honeymoon was Kate Lyn Sheil who co-starred with Takal in Green.  More preternatural than supernatural, Second Honeymoon featured a particularly gruesome throat-slitting.

Swanberg directed The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She was Young which takes the Gaslight premise to the Skype generation.  While not fully effective, Swanberg's segment was clever but had a Tales to the Crypt type feel which put it in contrast to the other segments.

10/31/98, directed by Radio Silence, was the most old school of the segments.  Four men (three of the actors are also credited as directors) are looking for a Halloween party but the address they've been given seems to the site of an exorcism in progress.

Tuesday the 17th (directed by Glenn McQuaid) gets the award for scariest use of pixelization.

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I've been reading a fascinating book called The Emperor and the Wolf by Stuart Galbraith IV. A dual biography of Akira Kurosawa and Toshirô Mifune, Galbraith provides insight into the men and their films (most of which I've seen over the past few years).  Galbraith makes much of the fact that his work is the first English language biography of the two men.  Among the interesting facts I've learned so far - Kurosawa's older brother (whom he was close to) committed suicide when he was a young man and Mifune grew up in China and was in his early 20s before setting foot on Japanese soil.  Both men avoided combat during WWII (Kurosawa avoided military service completely) as a result of their father's connections.

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Bonus item - I heard this song while listening to KQED yesterday and loved it.  The title of the 1972 song is Prisencolinensinainciusol.  The singer, Adriano Celentano, is Italian; he's quite popular in Italy according to NPR.

The Final Two at the Viz?

Warned by Brian Darr's tweets that Viz Cinema was closing at the end of January, I took an afternoon off from work to catch a double feature.

Ping Pong starring Yosuke Kubozuka and Arata; Japanese with subtitles; (2002) - Official Website
The Lower Depths starring Toshirô Mifune and Isuzu Yamada; directed by Akira Kurosawa; (1957)

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I saw Ping Pong on the Viz program guide for December but it didn't really interest me. It's hard to take a film about table tennis seriously. At the 2008 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, I saw Ping Pong Playa which I enjoyed. I didn't really feel like taking time off from work (the only screening of Ping Pong was at 1:30 PM on a Wednesday) to see a film about table tennis.

The Viz is closing, I have admission passes that may not be worth anything soon, work was slow and I wanted to see The Lower Depths which screened after Ping Pong. All that combined was enough to get me over there and I'm glad I did.

Ping Pong exceeded my expectations. There were certainly silly scenes but in general, the film played it straight. At the heart of the film are four, high school, table tennis players whose demeanors and motivations are very. Peco is a braggart and plays for personal glory. His friend Smile is introverted and initially doesn't give his full effort to ping pong for fear of demoralizing the opponent he could otherwise beat. Kong is a Chinese ringer who is brought to Japan because he did not make the Chinese National Team. Dragon is intense, shaved head (and eyebrows) competitor who lives for the competition.

The four of them have their own triumphs and failures but the main focus is on the relationship between Peco & Smile. As Peco's fortunes fall, he quits ping pong and that gives Smile the freedom to be the best player he can be. This must sound terriby silly when applied to ping pong but the film is able to pull it off with aplomb.

The film was engaging and achieved more than it probably should have. It was based on a popular manga so there was lots of source material to draw from. Shidô Nakamura as the intense Dragon stood out. Arata (Smile) recently appeared in Hirokazu Koreeda's Air Doll.

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The Lower Depths is one of the few Kurosawa films I had not seen. Based on a Maxim Gorky play, The Lower Depths is a bleak examination of the humanity at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. The film starts with two women dumping garbage into a pit. Their garbage pit is actually a shanty town for whores, thieves, drunks and gamblers with a slumlord and his shrewish wife (Isuzu Yamada). Toshirô Mifune plays the de facto leader of the group - a thief who is cuckolding his landlord. However, he has eyes for his lover's younger sister and this sets about the tragedy which ensues.

Another key character in the plot is Kahie (Bokuzen Hidari) an old drifter who spends the winter with the group. His stories and genial manner may be masking something more because at the end, he disappears at a key juncture.

Like many Russian works, The Lower Depths meanders with several subplots. Most of the film takes place in the hovel where the tennants live which amounts to bunks with a curtain for privacy. All the characters are self-deluded and claim to be or used to be more than they are now. The grinding poverty and self-deceit is difficult for me to stomach. One woman dies of tuberculosis but not after complaining to Kahie about her selfish husband. Her quiet complaints reminded me a little my own mother and struck an emotional chord with me.

Eventually, the relentlessly bleak nature of the character's lives becomes numbing and grotesque. The film is powerful but in an accretive way that left me exhausted when I left. I thought the film was one of Kurosawa's middling efforts. It seemed to be a bit of a vanity project for Kurosawa coming during the peak period of his commercial success. The Lower Depth did not seem like a Kurosawa film which is strange for one of the preeminent auteurs in cinema history.

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By my count, I have now seen all the films directed by Kurosawa except Dreams (1990) and the little seen Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946) which Kurosawa disowned and is nearly always excluded from his canon. All the Kurosawa films I've seen have been on the movie screen except Dersu Uzala (1975).

Kurosawa - One Last Time in 2010

2010 is the centennial of Akira Kurosawa's birth. The Stanford Theater and PFA have had Kurosawa programs to celebrate the anniversary. Now, Viz Cinema has programmed another Kurosawa program although it focuses on Kurosawa's work with Toshirō Mifune. The series runs from December 18 to January 6 and features seven films - Red Beard, The Idiot, The Lower Depths, High and Low, Stray Dog, Drunken Angel and Seven Samurai.

I believe The Lower Depths is one of the few Kurosawa feature length film that I haven't seen.

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I have yet to write about the Kurosawa program at the PFA (June 4 to Auguest 29). The massive series included 29 screenings including many Kurosawa films I hadn't previously seen. I watched 13 films in the series. I skipped every screning of a film I had previously watched. The two films from the series which I wanted to see but was unable were The Lower Depths and Dreams. I have seen Dersu Uzala on a VHS tape my father recorded from the Turner Classic Movie series on Kurosawa earlier this year.

The only other full length Kurosawa film which I have not seen, according to IMDB, is Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946). Kurosawa was contractually obligated to direct the film despite not liking the script so he disowned it. According to IMDB, the film hasn't been screened in Japan since its initial release and has never been shown in the United States.

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All 13 films were in Japanese with subtitles and directed by Kurosawa.

Red Beard starring Toshirō Mifune; (1965)
I Live in Fear starring Toshirō Mifune; (1955)
Sanshiro Sugata starring Susumu Fujita; (1943)
Sanshiro Sugata II starring Susumu Fujita; (1945)
The Most Beautiful with Takashi Shimura; (1944)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail with Susumu Fujita; (1945)
No Regrets for Our Youth starring Setsuko Hara and Susumu Fujita; (1946)
The Idiot starring Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori and Toshirō Mifune; (1951)
Dodes'kd-den; (1970)
The Quiet Duel starring Toshirō Mifune and Takashi Shimura; (1949)
Ran starring Tatsuya Nakadai; (1985)
Rhapshody in August starring Sachiko Murase; with Richard Gere; (1991)
Mādadayo starring Tatsuo Matsumura; (1993)

A few notes - Red Beard was the final collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune. Dodes'kd-den was Kurosawa's first film in color. 2010 is the 25th anniversary of the release of Ran so the film screened at the Landmark Lumiere for a week and the Castro Theater in November. Sanshiro Sujata (1943) was Kurosawa directorial debut.

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Given that it has been 3 to 5 months since I watched the films, I don't see much need to recap the plots. They are Kurosawa films after all so they is a wealth of material written about them.

I was most looking forward to Sanshiro Sujata and its sequel Sanshiro Sujata II. Since both films were made during WWII, I wondered how Kurosawa responded to the censorship of the Japanese government. Could Kurosawa's artistry and storytelling skills shine through the propagandists edicts of government censorship boards. The films disappointed me. I'm not sure if the problem was censorship and wartime deprivations or Kurasawa not yet having "found his voice." I never really found myself emotionally invested in Sanshiro Sugata (the title character), a young man coming of age with the help of the principles he learns through judo training. The films featured action scenes galore but I found them uncompelling; perhaps because I found the lead character uncompelling.

Having seen two film made during WWII, I was not anxious to see The Most Beautiful. The film was billed as more overtly propagandist than the Sanshiro films. As I started watching the film, I saw more familiar techniques by Kurosawa. Sentimentality, self-sacrifice and suffering were at the forefront. In The Most Beautiful, a group of young women (teenage girls really) live and work at a factory making lens for gunsights. Using a large ensemble cast of young women in his second film, Kurosawa seemed to have reached his zenith with regard to directing women. I don't recall another film where the main character was a woman until 48 years later when he directed Rhapsody in August.

The Most Beautiful features young women who are bit naive. They look upon their work as a contest of sorts and their patriotism seems more lke youthful idealism. It's hard to square the girl's work with the actions of the Imperial Japanese Army so as I watched the film, I divorced the two thoughts in my mind. The enjoyment of the film comes from Kurosawa's manipulation of the audience's emotions. Whereas I was apathetic to Sanshiro Sugata, the girls in the lens factory have an exuberance and esprit de corps which is infectious. The propaganda film set in a wartime factory is tranformed by Kurosawa into an examination of group dynamics among young women. The Most Beautiful turned out to be one my favorite films of the series.

After maintaining a punishing schedule in the 1950s, Kurosawa slowed his pace in the 1960s. By my count, Kurosawa directed 13 films between Roshomon (1950) when his international reputation was established and Red Beard (1965). Between 1965 and 1990, Kurosawa only made five films - Dodes'kd-den (1970), Dersu Uzala (1975), Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985) and Dreams (1990). Having seen four of the five films, I can say I'm less enthusiastic about Kurosawa's later works.

It is with some surprise then that I found his two works to be among the most enjoyable of the PFA series. Starting with Dreams, Kurosawa made three films in four years. Although the films were not well received upon their release, I was pleasantly surprised by them. The final two films in Kurosawa's filmography are Rhapsody in August (1991) and Mādadayo (1993). Work has been done to complete a documentary Kurosawa made about Noh theater so a new Kurosawa film may be forthcoming.

Rhapsody in August is about three generations of a Japanese family and how the bombing of Nagaski still affects them 46 years later. The key role of the grandmother who survived the bombing is played by Sachiko Murase in the final role of her 60 year acting career. Providing a counterpoint are her four grandchildren who are growing up in the Japanese economic boom years of the 1980s. Kurosawa explores issues related to the generation gap played out against the specific backdrop of Japanese society which experience profound change in the 45 years after WWII.

In Mādadayo, Kurosawa returns to overt sentimentality and male bonding as a group of men celebrate their university professor's birthday each year. The begins in the aftermath of WWII and continues into the 1960s. As the character's age, so does the nature of the party. What starts as a stag beerfest turns into a multi-generational banquet. Tatsuo Matsumura plays the aging professor who inspires such devotion and affection in his students.

Also noteworthy is No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) where Kurosawa teams up with Setsuko Hara three years before she would begin her celebrated collaboration with director Yasujirô Ozu in Late Spring (1949).

Beyond the Kurosawa-Hara teaming, No Regrets for Our Youth is more political than most Kurosawa films. Perhaps to atone for propaganda films during the war, Kurosawa casts the university peace protestors of the 1930s as his heroes. Hara is metamorphisizes from spoiled child of intelligenstia to a traitor shunned by the poor rice farmers she lives amongst.

July is the Hottest Month of the Year

Actually, in San Francisco proper, September is usually the hottest month but July is a brutal month for film lovers in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are so many options that I may set a personal record for most consecutive days at the theater. Regardless, the temperatures are usually cool inside the theaters (except the Little Roxie).

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From July 8 to 29, SF IndieFest presents the 2010 Another Hole in the Head which showcases Horror, SciFi and Fantasy films. The venues are the Roxie and Viz Cinema.

A few films caught my attention.

Metropolis 1984 Redux - In 1984, Fritz Lang's classic silent sci-fi hit Metropolis was reissued in tinted color and sporting a rock and pop soundtrack. It immediately developed a cult following, with its blue, green, violet, and red tints, along with a host of songs written by Giorgio Moroder of Donna Summer fame. This version has been completely re-edited, digitally restored and re-colored to the sharpest, cleanest and most colorful yet, revealing never before seen details. Metropolis 1984 Redux is an all original reconstruction, not to be missed!

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl - An intrepid high school transfer girl, Arukado Monami, has a deep dark secret that she'd like to, well, "share" with the target of her affections, Mizushima. It all comes to surface on Valentines Day and there's an immediate girl rivalry between Monami, our sweet and apparently innocent transfer student and the school bully chick, Keiko, who's ruling the local 'Lolita' chicks. Are the girls willing to fight over the object of their affections? Without a doubt! Do things get very, very out of control very quickly? Umm. Yes. This film sets a number of new benchmarks for madness and extreme gore & bloodletting. This is not a film for the meek and you'll know just what you are getting into before the opening credits roll. What exactly am I talking about here? Well, picture a decapitated head that's been flayed of it's skin, flying with gnashing teeth into the face of a victim where, in a unreal visual, a nose is taken with the teeth and the entire face is de-gloved like so much BBQ from a platter of well cooked spareribs. Ah, all this and a side order of well timed humor that ensures an entire film over the top gore and laughter. A splatter comedy? There is nothing sacred here and side splitting and blood spraying humor is on tap from start to hilarious finish.

Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives - a splendid riff on the classic Rape and Revenge Films of the 70s. Filmed and presented in classic Grindhouse style complete with multiple reels and the hissing and popping of old school film reels. This in your face exploitation film is equal parts 'campsploitation' and slasher flick. Yes, now that's what we're talking about! A group of three mean spirited homophobes with murderous intentions tries to take out the girls from the tranny club because one of them is enraged over when he finds what he deems to be "false advertising." Imagine that? Met 'her' at the local tranny bar and he's shocked to find... Oh, well. Never mind. What do they get when they take on the girls? Well, certainly more than they bargained for. What begins as a nasty night out on the town in the local tranny burlesque club quickly turns into a splatter fest of epic proportions. Divine justice? Trust me, this over the top film puts it all out there with hilarious commentary and some good times with the creative use and, well, the placement of knives.

American Grindhouse - a documentary about the full history and impact of grindhouse films in America. A cinematic phenomena that, like all good things, began underground and was ultimately embraced and exploited (such irony) by the main stream film industry.

What exactly is a "grindhouse" film? Grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. The name itself is derived after the now defunct burlesque theaters on 42nd street in New York where "bump and grind" dancing and striptease were once featured. Apparently the films moved into the only venue that would have them and the "grindhouse" movie was born. These films were, and are, typically low budget films that have pushed the envelope of their respective eras with sex, violence, drugs and every possible aspect of the weird and the offensive.

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In the middle of Hole in the Head is the 2010 San Francisco Silent Film Festival which runs from July 15 to 18 at the Castro Theater.

The undisputed highlight of the festival is their screening of Metropolis - When Fritz Lang’s masterpiece debuted in Berlin in January, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran an estimated 153 minutes, but in order to maximize box office potential the German and American distributors cut the film to 90 minutes for its commercial release. For decades crucial scenes from the film were considered lost. In 2001, the Munich Film Foundation assembled a more complete version with additional footage from four contributing archives, and Metropolis had a premiere revival at 124 minutes (widely believed to be the most complete version that contemporary audiences could ever hope to see). But, in 2008 archivists from the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires made a spectacular discovery — a 16mm dupe negative of Metropolis that was considerably longer than any existing print! That discovery led to this remarkable restoration and Metropolis can now be shown in Fritz Lang’s original — 25 minute longer — complete version.

Other films which appeal to me are:

A Spray of Plum Blossoms - One of the most prolific Chinese directors of the silent era, Bu Wancang based this film on William Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona, setting the action in China, circa 1930 and casting China’s favorite on-screen couple, Ruan Ling-yu and Jin Yan. Like any Shakespeare comedy, Plum Blossoms is replete with star-crossed lovers, mistaken identity, and a satisfying happy ending. By situating the play in the ’30s-era Chinese army, the “gentlemen” of the Shakespeare’s title are the film’s officers, the duke is a warlord, and his daughter’s ladies-in-waiting are military police!

Diary of a Lost Girl - the second and final work of one of the cinema’s most compelling collaborations: G. W. Pabst and Louise Brooks. Together with Pandora’s Box, Diary confirmed Pabst’s artistry as one of the great directors of the silent period and established Brooks as an “actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history.” (Kevin Brownlow) This version has been mastered from a restoration of the film made by the Cineteca di Bologna with approximately seven minutes of previously censored footage.

The Iron Horse - Set in mid-19th century America, The Iron Horse is the silent era’s version of How the West Was Won, weaving its themes of romance and history around the story of the building of the first transcontinental railway. This glorious print is the only surviving 35mm print of the American version. Directed by John Ford..

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In addition to those two festival in the City, PFA continues its Kurosawa Retrospective. By my count, PFA is screening 12 Kurosawa films in July. There are 5 films I have not previously seen. Coincidentally, those five films are being shown on three consecutive Wednesdays in July. The busy festival schedule won't allow me repeat viewings of the other Kurosawa films being screened in July (including Stray Dog).

The films which most interest me are Sanshiro Sugata and its sequel Sanshiro Sugata II.

Kurosawa made his directorial debut in 1943, during the height of World War II and at a time when “you weren’t allowed to say anything worth saying,” as he recalled. “Back then everyone was saying that the Japanese-style film should be as simple as possible; I disagreed and decided that, since I couldn’t say anything because of the censors, I would make a really movie-like movie.” Concerning a hero’s awakening and embrace of a larger ideal (in this case, judo), the film’s dazzling cinematic energy is already pure Kurosawa, complete with novel fight scenes (one done entirely in darkness and shadow, another shot on a windswept, grassy mountainside) and a remarkable control of filmic techniques for capturing emotion, space, and time; one montage of a pair of discarded sandals, for instance, conveys the passing of the seasons with an economy that’s as simple, and as pure, as a line of poetry. Within these eighty minutes lies the foundation of an entire career.

Forced to make a sequel to the successful Sanshiro Sugata, Kurosawa responded with a by-the-numbers account of the further years of our lockjawed, sweetly shy young judo hero (the appealing Susumu Fujita, who had become a major star thanks to the first film). This being a wartime production, Sanshiro warms up by battling some naughty foreigners (first a drunken sailor, then a tall boxer with “Killer” helpfully emblazoned on his flowing robe), but Kurosawa has even more fun introducing the next villains: the brothers Higaki. All long hair and white robes, odd twitches and ominous declarations, the two seem to have been flung out of a Noh play. “What interested me was not the hero but the opponent,” Kurosawa noted. Fascinating as an example of Japanese filmmaking during the war years, the film is also revelatory as an example of how Kurosawa could fuel even the basest of tales with moments of pure grandeur.

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The Castro Theater is currently presenting a program called Hollywood Does Hollywood. Several of the films draw my attention. The double feature on July 7 is particularly of interest.

Myra Breckinridge - In this hyper-surreal, psycho-sexual farce, transsexual Rex Reed transforms into Raquel Welch, infiltrates an acting school, and plots “the destruction of the American male in all its particulars.” Director Michael Sarne uses clips from dozens of vintage films as counterpoint to this pastiche. Upping the ante is Mae West as a horny, foul-mouthed casting director and a game John Huston. (1970)

The Wild Party - Loosely based on the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, James Coco is a fading silent film comic who throws a party to showcase his latest movie, a party that soon devolves into a full-blown sexual free-for-all. Raquel Welch and Tiffany Bolling co-star in Merchant/Ivory’s ravishingly naughty spectacle. (1975)

Unfortunately July 7 is the day of the Sanshiro Sugata double bill at the PFA so I won't be able to see The Wild Party.

On July 6, the Castro is presenting Gods and Monsters - The sublime Ian McKellen is one of numerous exceptional components illuminating this compassionate speculation on the final days of infamously gay Frankenstein director James Whale. A unique blend of flashback and hallucination, director Bill Condon won the Oscar for his screenplay. With Brendan Fraser and Lynn Redgrave. (1998)

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In addition, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is screening from July 24 to August 9 at the Castro Theater, San Francisco JCC and other locations in Palo Alto, Berkeley and San Rafael. Several of the films are tempting me.

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On July 16 & 17, Red Vic is screening Wild in the Street (1968) - this camp-tastic example of 60’s youth-sploitation satirizes the establishment’s paranoia about what would happen if “the hippies” took over. Teen rebel Max Frost (Christopher Jones) is a well-loved rocker and revolutionary who lives in a mansion with his extremely groovy band. He hooks up with a politician (Hal Holbrook) and manages to become President by lowering the voting age to 14. Max takes the saying “Don’t trust anyone over 30” and runs with it, establishing 30 as a mandatory retirement age and sending those older than 35 to re-education camps where they are forced to take LSD! The film, a kind of psychic mosh pit for 60’s social issues, has a swinging soundtrack, and an outstanding performance by Shelley Winters. With Richard Pryor.

On July 20 and 21, the Red Vic is presenting Tod Browning's classic Freaks (1932) - One of the most unusual films ever made! Director Browing, who spent time with a traveling circus in his youth, chose to set this horror film in a circus to use a cast mostly composed of actual carnival performers. “This incredible feature, banned for decades, is a powerful morality tale with a thunderstorm scene that is still strong enough to induce nightmares. Tiny Harry Earles is Hans, the star. When a cruel trapeze artist marries him, publicly humiliates him, and tries with her strong-man lover to kill him for an inheritance, the circus freaks band together to avenge their friend.” - The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film.

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On the 4 Star website, it states Spring Fever is "coming in July." Spring Fever is the follow-up film from director Lou Ye. Ye received a five year ban from filmmaking issued by the Chinese government in response to his Summer Palace (2005). Defying the ban, Ye shot Spring Fever guerrilla style in China.

Spring Fever premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and won the award for Best Screenplay.

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I'm not sure how many films I'll see in July. I have already purchased festival passes for Hole in the Head & the San Francisco Silent Film Festival - (SF)^2 Festival.

Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi (Part 1 ot 3)

Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi - sounds like a Tokyo law firm. Akira Kurosawa & Yasujirō Ozu are inarguably, the two greatest directors in Japanese cinema. Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi is not as well known but highly esteemed for Ugetsu, The Crucified Lovers and other jidaigeki films. Not being familiar with Japanese history from the Edo or Meiji periods, I have never been a big fan of period films set in the samurai and shōgun periods.

The reason I mention this prestigious trio of Japanese directors is because New People/Viz Cinema had 12 film/3 week series in June featuring the works of Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi. As an added bonus, all the films were projected from 35 mm prints.

I watched 10 of the 12 films in the series.

Stray Dog starring Toshirō Mifune; directed by Akira Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1949)
High and Low starring Toshirō Mifune; directed by Akira Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (1963)
The Only Son directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
Record of a Tenement Gentleman directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1947)
Early Spring directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
Tokyo Story directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1953)
Sisters of Gion directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
Ugetsu directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1953)
Utamaro and His Five Women directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1946)
Street of Shame directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)

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I've seen Stray Dog and High and Low before. Indeed Stray Dog may be my favorite Kurosawa films. High and Low is mystery based on King's Ransom, an 87th Precinct novel Ed McBain. High and Low is one of the best police procedurals I've seen.

The two films I missed from the series were Kurosawa's Drunken Angel and The Bad Sleep Well. My records indicate I saw Drunken Angel in January/February 2007. I saw Stray Dog, The Bad Sleep Well and High and Low in January 2008. I didn't write anything up for Stray Dog or High and Low back then so I'll make up for it now.

Stray Dog is, by appearance, a policier with noirish overtones set in the immediate post-WWII years. Murakami (Toshirō Mifune), a young Tokyo cop, has his pistol pickpocketed while on a crowded trolley. Initially concerned about his career, he scours Tokyo to find the person who has stolen his gun. With the help of fellow detectives (especially Sato played by Takashi Shimura), they close in on the stolen gun but not before it is used in a few murders. Murakami is extremely self-reproachful as he feels his carelessness has caused the deaths of the victims. He becomes desperate to find the missing handgun.

An entertaining film with that plot could be set anywhere but Kurosawa adds a few elements that only he could. First it was filmed and set in 1947 Tokyo so we see a bombed out city with a defeated population, desperately poor and despondent. Layered in with the crime drama is a 1947 Tokyo travelogue and commentary on the social upheaval resulting in aftermath of the war. In addition, the plot takes place over a brutal heat wave which isn't that original but it allows Kurosawa to show a panting dog and made my skin feel clammy.

Second, Kurosawa had Mifune and Shimura to play the younger cop & his de facto mentor, respectively. More precisely, student and master. Their chemistry is subtle but adds immensely to the film. Kurosawa had previously paired these two actor in Drunken Angel and The Quiet Duel and would do so again in Scandal and most famously, The Seven Samurai. They appeared together in several other Kurosawa films.

Of the 15 or so Kurosawa films I've seen which Mifune and Shimura appeared together, it is Stray Dog which is most satisfying to me. Their relationship is more honest and realistic without the flamboyant braggadocio Mifune exhibited in The Seven Samurai or the pathetic alcoholic Shimura portrayed in Scandal. Kurosawa allows his leads to be more humble and less epic. This is probably because he gives the Full Kurosawa treatment to the villain, a mentally unhinged mad/stray dog and his confused girlfriend (Keiko Awaji). Off screen for most of the film, Isao Kimura as the killer is involved in the memorable and excruciating climax. Kimura would later achieve cinematic immortality as the youngest samurai in The Seven Samurai.

Finally, Kurosawa delves into psychological issues which compare and contrast Murakami, the cop with Yasu, the killer. Both characters stand in as a proxy for Japan itself but Kurosawa keeps the film literal enough so the audience can appreciate the characters for themselves. The increasingly desperate Murakami chasing the unseen but increasingly desperate Yasu as if he is chasing his own tail or doppelgänger.

Clearly, Kurosawa aimed for something greater than a potboiler detective story. Like a magician showing the audience just enough to sell the trick, Kurosawa delivers a noir, a psychological thriller, a commentary on social decay, and a veiled examination of Japan after WWII.

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A perfect companion piece to Stray Dog is High and Low (1963). Focusing more on the whodunit aspects of the plot, High and Low provides ample social commentary on Japan nearly 20 years after WWII.

In High and Low, Mifune plays Gondo, a shoe company executive who is ready to launch a hostile takeover but his plans get interrupted by his son's kidnapping. Quickly it is discovered that the wrong boy was abducted; they kidnapped Gondo's chauffeur's son.

Pressured by his wife, his son, his chauffeur and even the police to some extent, Gondo pays the ransom demand even though both the kidnapper & Gondo know the wrong boy has been kidnapped. The rest of the film deals with the intricate procedures associated with paying the ransom and then the subsequent police investigation to catch the kidnappers. A secondary plot line involves Gondo's financial ruin as he was leveraged to the hilt for the takeover and had to use that money to pay the ransom. At the same time his financial ruin is playing out, he becomes a hero in the media for his selflessness as well as regains his self-respect.

The film is based on an Ed McBain novel but it translates well to 1960s Japan. Like Stray Dog, Kurosawa uses the film to showcase the Bullet Train and parts of Yokohama (south of Tokyo) and provide social commentary. Heroin addicts and the poverty/income gap are highlighted in the film. Actually, Gondo's house on the hill is très chic - a large circular, Western-style living room with panoramic views of the entire city.
At the other end of spectrum is the slum at the bottom of the hill where the kidnapper lives and constantly sees Gondo's mansion. A rather distasteful sequence is set in an alley where heroin addicts gather to score some smack (usually by prostitution). There was another interesting scene where police are tailing the kidnapper when he ducks into a night club. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the cops blend in by dressing as gay men. I guess it was a gay cruising spot although there were numerous women in the scene.

When compared to Stray Dog, it's clear how far Japan advanced between 1947 and 1963. Their cities are rebuilt, people are working legitimate jobs, some Japanese have obtained extreme wealth and the protagonist and antagonist are distinctly characterized.

In Stray Dog, Mifune and the killer are differentiated by the slightest twists of fate. In High and Low, Mifune and the kidnapper couldn't be more different. After establishing his bona fides as an aggressive industrialist, Gondo silently endures the hardships, deprivations and humiliations with Job-like forbearance whereas the kidnapper's motivations are never fully explained and ultimately, he is shown to be a coward. I suppose Japanese self-identity (or at least Kurosawa's take on Japanese self-identity) had progressed in the 16 years between films such that good and evil could be consumed separately and economic conditions had improved enough that the Japanese could afford a higher grade of collective self-esteem and the luxury of ignoring self-examination.

In that sense, High and Low doesn't resonate with me like Stray Dog but High and Low is still a film worth seeing for the crime story it tells as well as a being a snapshot of Japan in the early 1960s.

This film may also be the first prominent pairing of Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshirô Mifune. Nakadai plays the chief police inspector investigating the kidnapping. Kurosawa's collaboration with Mifune would end in 1966 while Nakadai would continue making films with Kurosawa through 1985's Ran. Takashi Shimura has a small (non-speaking?) role as the police chief. Kenjiro Ishiyama as the bald headed detective they called Bosun and Yutaka Sada as Aoki the chauffeur provided solid support. Tsutomu Yamazaki as the kidnapper was sufficiently malevolent. Yamazaki may be familiar to modern audiences for his role in the Oscar winning film Departures where he played the older and mentoring mortician.

Big River Man & Hole in the Head

I caught a documentary called Big River Man at the Roxie.

Big River Man directed by John Maringouin; (2009) - Official Website

Big River Man is about Marin Strel, a fiftysomething year old Slovenian who is a hero in his own country. Strel's claim to fame is that he has swam the entire length of the Danube, Mississippi and Yangtze rivers. The film chronicles his "training" and attempt to swim the length of the Amazon. This attempt would be amazing for a man half Strel's age but to add to his burden, Strel is a functioning alcoholic and likely has longstanding mental health issues. Although entertaining, in hindsight I thought the film was highly exploitive of Strel but given his nature, I wonder who is exploiting who.

Just the logistics are fascinating. The Amazon is 5,268 km or 3,273 miles in length. Strel begins his swim when the river is flooding and has to avoid debris including huge logs and trees that are floating down the river. In addition, Strel must avoid crocodiles, piranha and candirus which allegedly will swim up a man's urethra. They didn't include footage but apparently when piranha were in the vicinity, Strel's team would chum the water to attract the carnivorous fish away from him.

Although flooding at its mouth, once Strel swam downstream the region was in drought. Strel had counted on cloudy and rainy weather to protect him from the sun but the clear skies sunburned his face horribly. To protect his face, Strel's son and chief advisor, outfitted him with a white clothe or canvas bag with cutouts for his eyes, nose and mouth. Strel would swim with this covering and the effect was to make him look like the Elephant Man.

The main plotline for this film was like the opposite of Marlon Brando's character in Apocalypse Now. As Colonel Kurtz went up the Mekong River, he "went native" and lost his mind. As Strel swims downstream, he begins to behave erratically. Many factors affect his behavior - the long isolation while swimming, excessive alcohol consumption, physical exhaustion, etc. However, it seems clear that Strel had issues before he even started his swim. As his son recounts stories of Strel youth and the abuses he endured, his alcoholism and compulsive behavior become more understandable.

Equally amazing is that Strel's son, physician or friends didn't pull the plug on the swim when he mental and physical condition became alarming. Strel's son rationalizes continuing the swim because Strel would just swim out one night to continue the swim on his own. On two occasions in the film, Strel does exactly that and prompts a dangerous night search. As the days turn to weeks, Strel's son summarizes the group's opinion. As Strel is reduced to near catatonia while on a boat at night, he puts on his swimsuit every morning and starts a day of swimming. The son said, words to the effect, "We didn't consider him human anymore. He was like a mule that we saddled up and drove without consideration.

Strel's physician makes him sign a waiver indemnifying her of responsibility. Strel's best friend and river guide is a professional poker player from Wisconsin. He's never been to Brazil and frequently seems lost on the Amazon. He appears to lose his mind as the film progresses.

I won't give away the ending but an internet search will disclose the final result of Strel's swim.

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SF Indiefest announced their Hole in the Head schedule. The festival runs from July 8 to 29. The Roxie will be the sole venue from July 8 to 22 and Viz Cinema will be the sole venue from July 23 to 29. There are also musical performances from July 9 to 13.

I was a little surprised because the website had said July 8 to 22 for several weeks but apparently they decided to expand to a third week. There are 32 film programs scheduled with a large number of Japanese films.

I haven't really examined the film schedule. I did notice Lady Terminator is on the schedule. I greatly enjoyed that film at a Midnites for Maniacs screening last year. Giorgio Moroder's 1984 version of Metropolis is also on the schedule. Undoubtedly, this was programmed with an eye towards the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's screening on July 16.

Speaking of which, Hole in the Head conflicts with the Silent Film Festival from July 15 to 18. In addition, there were a number of Kurosawa films I wanted to see at the PFA. I'll have to see how much conflict there is. 32 films in 22 days is a fairly leisurely schedule. Hole in the Head is screening 3 films per weeknight and 4 films on Fridays and Saturdays (with one exception).

With all the Japanese films, Viz may be a good fit for Hole in the Head. The Roxie is more conveniently located on the BART line but Viz Cinema's facility is much nicer.

Cal vs. Stanford for the Kurosawa Crowd

The Stanford Theater's Kurosawa Retrospective ended yesterday. I only caught three films in the series:

Rashômon starring Toshirô Mifune and Takashi Shimura; Japanese with subtitles; (1950)
Scandal starring Toshirô Mifune and Takashi Shimura; Japanese with subtitles; (1950)
One Wonderful Sunday; Japanese with subtitles; (1947)

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As I previously mentioned, the PFA is having its own Kurosawa retrospective (30 films from June to August). I would have seen more films at the Stanford series but the looming PFA series, being a procrastinator, still suffering from the effects of a prolonged respiratory illness, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the Tiburon Internationl Film Festival, the King Tut exhibit at the de Young Museum, preparing my income tax returns, a Kurosawa retrospective on Turner Classic Movies in March and other activities conspired against the Stanford series.

In particular, I regret missing the last three films of the series: The Idiot (1951); The Lower Depths (1957) and Ran (1985).

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I've seen Rashômon before. There is no point in recounting the plot since the film was popular enough to lend its name to a scientifically observed effect of subjectivity in memory and perception. I watch the film to see if Kurosawa tipped his hand as to which version of the truth is the real truth. I've read opinions on the subject and it is certainly suspicious that Lady Kanazawa meets up with the bandit (Mifune) at the river later in the film. It's likely that none of the four version presented were the truth.

Scandal was an entertaining but minor film in Kurosawa's filmography. The plot revolves around painter who is photographed with a popular singer (Shirley Yamaguchi) at a mountain resort. The tabloids imply the two are having an affair and the photo is of them in a moment post-coital repose. The two decide to sue the newspaper but have the misfortune to hire sad-sack lawyer Takashi Shimura. Slovenly, frequently drunk and venal, Shimura has thrown the case unbeknownst to his clients although they have their suspicions. Shimura is, however, devoted to his tubecular daughter who is his only chance at redemption. Sadly, it is her death ulimately leads to his finding his moral conviction.

Mifune is able to show off his screen charisma as always optimistic, never fearful painter and Shimura gives a preview of the type of character he would perfect in Ikiru (1952).

One Wonderful Sunday was very different from any other Kurosawa film I've seen. First of all, neither Mifune or Shimura are in the film which is unusual for Kurosawa films of the period. The two leads are Isao Numasaki and Chieko Nakakita. A quick perusal of IMDB shows that the two actors did not make anymore films with Kurosawa.

One Wonderful Sunday is not epic which is an adjective I'd use to describe most of Kurosawa's films and/or lead characters. Instead, One Wonderful Sunday feels like The Bicycle Thief transplanted to 1947 Tokyo. The story revolves around a young couple as they try to spend a Sunday afternoon in Tokyo with only 30 yen between them. As they make their way around town, we get a glimpse of post-war Tokyo - the poverty, the grifters, the gangsters, etc. Along the way, we share in the couple's heartbreak such as when a ticket scalper buys the last tickets to Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and scalps them at a 50% markup. Kurosawa engages in all kinds of cinematic devices during the film - sunshine/rainfall/wind to signal the mood of the couple, breaking the fourth wall, etc.

At one point Nakakita urges an imaginary audience to clap for her and her boyfriend who is despondent because the howling wind will not allow him to conduct an imaginary orchestra. The effect is Nakakita speaking directly to the audience in the theater. I was amazed that speaking across 60 years and different culture, Nakakita was able to elicit a modest round of applause from the audience. Maybe I was really surprised that I joined the clapping.

Taking Inventory as of March 8

For the past several weeks, I've been battling a chest cold that has hampered my movie going abilities. I feel on the mend but still haven't shaken the cough completely.

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From January 16 to February 27, the PFA ran a series called Before “Capraesque”: Early Frank Capra. I was able to view five films in the series.

American Madness starring Walter Huston; (1932)
Submarine; silent with intertitles; (1928)
Rain or Shine starring Joe Cook; (1930)
The Matinee Idol; silent with intertitles; (1928)
The Way of the Strong; silent with intertitles; (1928)

All silent films were accompanied by Judith Rosenberg on piano.

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From January 22 to February 13, the PFA screened Complicated Shadows: The Films of Val Lewton. Lewton was a producer at RKO in the 1940 who cranked out horror films that were a cut above the rest.

I have previously seen two films in the series - The Cat People (1942) and I Walk with a Zombie (1943). I watched:

Youth Runs Wild; (1944)
The Ghost Ship; (1943)
Bedlam starring Boris Karloff; (1946)

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On February 19, I was able to watch an early work by Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu.

That Night's Wife; silent with Japanese and English intertitles; piano accompaniment by Judith Rosenberg; (1930)

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This past weekend, I watched all three films in the Red Riding Trilogy based on the novels of David Peace. Peace also wrote The Damned Utd which was adapted into a well received film last year.

The Red Riding films were originally aired on the BBC. The three films are a fictionalized version of the Yorkshire Ripper murders in the 1970's.

Red Riding 1974 starring Andrew Garfield and Sean Bean; directed by Julian Jarrold; (2009) - Official Website
Red Riding 1980 starring Paddy Considine; directed by James Marsh; (2009) - Official Website
Red Riding 1983 starring David Morrissey; directed by Anand Tucker; (2009) - Official Website

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Although I had hoped to see several more films at Cinequest in San Jose, my illness derailed those plans. Armed with anti-biotics, I only saw three films.

The Merry Widow starring John Gilbert and Mae Murray; directed by Erich von Stroheim; silent with intertitles; organ accompaniment by Dennis James; (1925)
The Real Revolutionaries; documentary; directed by Paul Crowder; (2010)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg starring Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer; directed by Ernst Lubitsch; silent with intertitles; organ accompaniment by Dennis James; (1927)

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On the day I started feeling ill, I went to the 4-Star to see the Hong Kong double feature. I didn't feel well so I left after the first film.

72 Tenants of Prosperity starring Jacky Cheung; Cantonese with English subtitles; (2010) - Official Website

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When I was last at the PFA, I picked up a flyer that announced a 30 film Kurosawa series from June to August in celebration of the centennial of his birth. I guess that explains why Stanford Theater is currently having a retrospective.

Details on the PFA retrospective will be announced April 15, I believe.

Kurosawa Retrospective at the Stanford Theater

The Stanford Theater is screening 18 films by Akira Kurosawa from now until March 30.

Looking at the list, I've seen several of the films before. There was a Samurai film series at the Balboa a few years back where I caught several of that genre by Kurosawa. The PFA and Castro screened several Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations in 2007 I think Looking at the Stanford line-up, I've already seen 12 of the 18. The films I haven't seen are indicated with an asterisk.

The Seven Samurai; (1954)
Rashomon; (1950)
Scandal; (1950)*
Ikiru; (1952)
One Wonderful Sunday; (1947)*
Stray Dog; (1949)
Drunken Angel; (1948)
High and Low; (1963)
I Live in Fear; (1955)*
The Hidden Fortress; (1958)
Yojimbo; (1961)
The Bad Sleep Well; (1960)
Throne of Blood; (1957)
Kagemusha; (1980)
Sanjuro; (1962)
The Idiot; (1951)*
The Lower Depths; (1957)*
Ran; (1985)*

I've enjoyed every Kurosawa film I've ever seen (although Kagemusha less so than the others). I particularly enjoyed The Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Stray Dog and High and Low.

Taking Inventory as of February 3

San Francisco Silent Film Festival Winter Event at the Castro Theater
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages; directed by D.W. Griffith; silent with intertitles; (1916)

Note: Intolerance was added to the inventory list on February 9, 2009 to correct its inadvertent omission. I saw this film on December 1, 2007. I was reminded of this because Intolerance is showing at the 2009 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose.

Charlie Chaplin Retrospective at the Castro Theater.

Modern Times with Paulette Goddard; mostly silent; (1936)
The Circus; silent; (1928)
Sunnyside; silent; (1919)
A Day's Pleasure; silent; (1919)
Pay Day; silent; (1922)
Monsieur Verdoux with Martha Raye; (1947)
Limelight; (1952)
A King in New York; (1957)
The Great Dictator with Paulette Goddard; (1940)

Irma la Douce with Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine; directed by Billy Wilder; (1963)

Valley of the Heart's Delight with Pete Postlethwaite and Bruce McGill; (2006) - Official Site

All in This Tea; documentary; (2007)- Official Site

Rock Hudson & Doris Day Double Feature at the Castro Theater.
Pillow Talk co-starring Tony Randall; (1959)
Lover Come Back co-starring Tony Randall; (1961)

Helvetica; documentary; (2007) - Official Site

Akira Kurosawa & Toshirô Mifune Retrospective at the Castro Theater.
Rashomon; Japanese with Subtitles; (1950)
Stray Dog; Japanese with Subtitles; (1949)
The Bad Sleep Well; Japanese with Subtitles; (1960)
High and Low; Japanese with Subtitles; (1953)

Juno; (2007) - Official Site

Noir City 6 Film Festival at the Castro Theater.
Repeat Performance with Joan Leslie; (1947)
The Hard Way with Ida Lupino & Joan Leslie; (1943)
Gun Crazy with Peggy Cummins; (1950)
The Grand Inquisitor with Marsha Hunt; directed by Eddie Muller; (2008) - Official Site
Moonrise with Gail Russell; (1948)
Night Has 1000 Eyes with Edward G. Robinson; (1948)
Woman in Hiding with Ida Lupino & Howard Duff; (1950)
Jeopardy with Barbara Stanwyck & Barry Sullivan; (1953)
Hangover Square with Laird Cregar and Linda Darnell; (1945)
Dangerous Crossing with Jeanne Crain; (1953)
Reign of Terror with Robert Cummings and Richard Basehart; (1949)
Border Incident with George Murphy & Ricardo Montalban; (1949)
D.O.A with Edmond O'Brien; (1950)
The Story of Molly X with June Havoc; (1949)
Conflict with Humphrey Bogart; (1945)
The Suspect with Charles Laughton; (1944)
The 3rd Voice with Edmond O'Brien; (1960)
Face Behind the Mask with Peter Lorre & Evelyn Keyes; (1941)
Roadhouse with Richard Widmark, Ida Lupino, and Cornel Wilde; (1948)
Night and the City with Richard Widmark & Gene Tierney; (1950)