The New Parkway, The Believer, The Rumpus and Samsara

This is a potpourri post; many different topics.

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As we head into Veteran's Day or Armistice Day Weekend, I have too many film choices.  I would like to see the Natalie Wood series at the Castro Theater this weekend - 8 of her films from Friday to Monday.  I've always thought Natalie Wood was incredibly sexy.

Also running from Friday to Sunday is the San Francisco Film Society's Cinema By the Bay series at the Viz.  The series features 7 programs; several of which interest me.

The Victoria Theater is featuring three nights of films in November.  On the 9th, 17th and 27th, the San Francisco Cult and Psychotronic Film Society is screening films; double features each day.  The lineup is:
The Warriors and Slaughter in San Francisco (November 9), Viva and The Frightened Woman (November 17) and Cannibal: The Musical! and Parents (November 27).

Finally, the 2013 San Francisco Documentary Film Festival (DocFest) kicks off tomorrow night for 2 weeks at the Roxie and Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley.

I haven't decided what to see this weekend.  I have not committed to any of the screenings; i.e. I have not purchased tickets or passes to any of the events.

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The New Parkway Theater has announced it is opening on November 30.  I'm not sure if its official name is the New Parkway.  Somewhere I read it was going to be called the Uptown Parkway.  It has not announced films or admission prices but has hire Will "The Thrill" Viharo to be its publicist.

I know The Fezzed One from his Thrillville traveling road show of B films.  Viharo perfected his Thrillville show at the original Parkway Theater in Oakland where he was a programmer.  After the Parkway folded in 2009 so Viharo (and his wife Monica "the Tiki Goddess" Cortes Viharo) took their show to various movie theaters each month.  I saw them at the 4 Star and their final road show at the Roxie in June 2010.  Since then, Thrillville (rechristened Forbidden Thrills) has found a permanent home at the Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge in Alameda.

Viharo has started a blog counting down the days until the New Parkway opens.  It's been interesting for me to read as he reminisces about the Original Parkway.  I never went to the Parkway so I get the feeling I missed out on something special.

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Viharo, by the way, is an author of "gonzo pulp."  I've been meaning to read one of his books but haven't gotten around to it.  Here is a link to his webpage listing his works.

I've been reading quite a bit.  In addition to the Kurosawa/Mifune book I mentioned last time, I have subscribed to The Believer. which is not quite a literary journal but nonetheless book reviews, author interviews and original poems feature prominently.  I find the non-fiction essays to be fascinating.  The first issue I received printed American Isolato which hooked me.  The Believer is affiliated with McSweeney's which is affiliated with 826 Valencia which is few blocks from the Roxie.  I look forward to receiving The Believer each month.

In the most recent issue, there was an advertisement for The Rumpus.  From their website:

At The Rumpus, we’ve got essays, reviews, interviews, advice, music, film and poetry—along with some kick-ass comics. We know how easy it is to find pop culture on the Internet, so we’re here to give you something more challenging, to show you how beautiful things are when you step off the beaten path. The Rumpus is a place where people come to be themselves through their writing, to tell their stories or speak their minds in the most artful and authentic way they know how, and to invite each of you, as readers, commenters or future contributors, to do the same. What we have in common is a passion for fantastic writing that’s brave, passionate and true (and sometimes very, very funny).

The ad was promoting Letters in the Mail.  For $5 per month, I will receive "Almost every week, three to four times a month...a letter, in the mail."  As a boy, I remember reading about "Men of Letters" who had great wit and exchanged bon mots and discussed weighty matters.  Three men whose letters have been published are Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx and George Bernard Shaw.

As I looked at the Rumpus website, I noticed the Editor-in-Chief is Stephen Elliott who I am familiar with as the director of About Cherry which I saw at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival.  As I read more, I noticed he also shared a screenwriting credit on the film...with Lorelei Lee!  That would be the same Lorelei Lee who charmed me with her articulate words and soothing voice at the Femina Potens event at the YBCA in September.  It seemed like too much coincidence between the YBCA event, About Cherry, The Believer, etc. so I took the bait and signed up for Letters.

I found approximately one half of Lee's Rumpus letter posted on the internet.


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Did I see any films?  I guess should talk about one since I'm so far behind.

Samsara; directed by Ron Fricke; (2012) - Official Website

I saw the film at Landmark Embarcadero.

Samsara has no dialog and little in the way of plot.  It films landscapes, cityscapes, people, animals, etc. The imagery can be stunning.  Two of my favorite scenes were probably meant to be critical of modern life although I found them strangely poetic.  In one scene, an office worker in a suit and tie begins to slather mud on his face like an African bushman.  I suppose it was meant to show the similarities between the two but the music and the actors manic movements were like modern dance...except I enjoyed it.

The other scene I liked had a certain balletic movement to it.  It showed the movement of pig (or maybe cow) carcasses in a sleek and modern abattoir (I've been waiting years to use that word).  The synchronized and sequential movements of the workers was like an industrial ballet.  It made my engineer's heart swoon to see the men working with crisp movement and little wasted effort.  I'm sure the director was drawing a parallel to the mind-deadening work and the dead livestock the men process but I guess I saw what I wanted to see.

Frankly, the film was pretentious.  Without words or plot, the film was a melange of images which did not resonate with me.  Perhaps I am too small minded to be open to all that was implied in the film or perhaps I am too conservative and closed minded in what I expect from a film.  Regardless, the film was a series of striking images which was left open to interpretation...like a nice coffee table book.  That's my tagline for Samsara - a coffee table book brought to the big screen.  It was impressive for what it was but ultimately superficial and limited by its genre and style.

There was a woman taking cell phone videos of the screen during the film.  I complained to the staff.  Some staff members sat in the audience during most of the screening...and the woman refrained.  As soon as the staff member left (within minutes), she started filming again.  I was very distracted by this; it may have lessened my appreciation and understanding of Samsara.

Trio of Mexican Sci-Fi Films Plus the Ageless Luchador

I made it out to the PFA to see three of the films in their El Futuro Está Aquí: Sci-Fi Classics from Mexico series.

The Ship of Monsters; Spanish with subtitles; (1959)
The Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot; Spanish with subtitles; (1957)
Santo vs. the Martian Invasion; Spanish with subtitles; (1966)

I wonder if "classics" is the right word. These are classics on par with Plan 9 from Outer Space or some lesser known films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In other words, the films are so bad they're good.

The Ship of Monsters features Venuvian (Venusian?) women who have come to Earth to repopulate their planet by kidnapping men for stud. Santo vs. the Martian Invasion, on the other hand, features Martians who have come to Earth to put a stop to reckless atomic testing even if it means exterminating the human race. There was consistency though; the women of Venus and Mars exclusively wore bathing suits and/or hot pants. Inexplicably, one of the women from Venus was also a vampire. Santo, for the uninitiated, was a popular masked wrestler of the time. In the film, he saved humanity by applying ferocious armbars and relentless leglocks on numerous Martian foes.

The Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot - the title pretty much sums up the story although somewhere there was a villain with the decidedly Germanic surname Krupp whose secret identity was "The Bat" and a sidekick named Pinacate which is a dung beetle.

Basically, this series proved that Mexican filmmakers could make cheap schlock as well as their American counterparts. The "invaders from space" phenomena was big in the 1950/1960's, C-film market, north of the border but the Mexicans took the sci-fi and horror genres in different directions - masked wrestlers, Aztec mummies (I didn't even know the Aztecs mummified their dead), singing vaqueros, etc.

It was all quite silly and not quite worth two trips to Berkeley but I can't say I didn't enjoy myself. Did I mention the women were scantliy clad? Actually, it was interesting to see some voluptuous actresses that could never get a bathing suit scene in today's films. We're a long way from what was considered sexy in the 50s and 60s.

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Speaking of Mexican Sci-Fi films, Hole in the Head (in conjuction with Thrillville) is presenting Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy and Academy of Doom on July 22. Those films were made in the past few years and are English language. Mascaras stars in both films. The Man of a Thousand Masks was a big time wrestlers as far back as the mid-1970's. According to IMDB, Mascaras' first film credit was in 1968. That was 40 years ago and he's still wearing the mask?

Pregnant Teen, South African Rugby, Southern Fried Tramp, the Hermitage and Silent Era Porn

I'm in the middle of PFA's Tati and Capra series and 2010 Noir City just wrapped but I've several other films in January. The Tati series has been a pleasant surprise but I'll write about that a future date.

Five films/programs I've seen in January are:

Precious starring Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique; (2009) Official Site
Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon; directed by Clint Eastwood; (2009) - Official site
Shanty Tramp; (1967)
Russian Ark directed by Aleksandr Sokurov; (2002)
The Good Old Naughty Days; compilation of silent short films; (2002)

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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire has been well reviewed and received. I was mightily impressed by the film. It was an emotional punch to the gut. The story is about an obese, illiterate, pregnant, teenager in 1980's Harlem. I'm not sure why they set the film in that time period except that the novel was set in that time period. Regardless, there wasn't much specific to the period which came into play during the film. The litany of misfortunes I described is not the end of Precious' troubles. Her mother is abusive, she is a runaway and she has HIV. Now that would destroy most people but Precious has a very dedicated teacher (Paula Patton in an excellent performance) and a very dedicated social worker (Mariah Carey who seems to have received more praise than I thought she deserved). The film follows Precious as she lurches from one calamity to another. At its core is the fractured and tortured relationship between Precious (Sidibe) and her mother (Mo'Nique). Although Sidibe has most of the screen time, it is Mo'Nique who commands attention portraying the abusive and ultimately pathetic mother.

This is the kind of film where I'm at a loss for words. Do people like Precious & her mother exist? It's hard for me to imagine much less empathize with their situation but I'm certain they exist due to the constant barrage of shocking stories in the news. Seeing it portrayed on the screen left me numb. Mo'Nique's character has not only rationalized her behavior (enabling her daughter's incest) but come to deeply resent her daughter (dating to the time she was an infant) for "stealing her man."

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Invictus is also a film that has been well reviewed if not quite as widely well received as Precious. Clint Eastwood has been a good director. "Good" maybe a mild compliment but by that term I mean that Eastwood makes enjoyable and well-crafted movies. I would classify his films as "high art" or brilliant but Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima and Gran Torino are solid films that I can watch repeatedly. Like a master carpenter making a functional and aesthetically-pleasing piece of furniture, Eastwood cranks out these films that entertain and manipulate your emotions (which is a compliment in my lexicon).

Morgan Freeman and Eastwood have now collaborated on at least three film -
Invictus, Million Dollar Baby and The Unforgiven (my favorite film of Eastwood's directorial efforts). Freeman as an actor is like Eastwood as a director. Freeman always gives solid performances; usually of men who have a quiet dignity despite their circumstances. That's exactly what is called for in portraying Nelson Mandela who instituted a policy of forgiveness and inclusion after spending more than 20 years in prison.

The interaction among Nelson's mixed race security detail were the scenes I enjoyed the most. Julian Lewis Jones as the menacing Afrikaaner was a delight to watch. With a crew cut, sharp angular facial features and vaguely racist demeanor, Jones brought out the most in his character's limited screen time. A thorough security professional, his Feyder looks on with caution as his President tries to heal a country and always stays one step away from insubordination while dealing with his boss, a black man (Adjoa Andoh who gives a fine performance in is own right).

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Shanty Tramp was a Thrillville production at the 4-Star. The film was preceded by a burlesque revue called the Hubba Hubba Revue. Three girls performed their routines. The emcee was a raspy voiced guy named Kingfish who sounded a lot like Penn Jillette. The opening act was a guy billed as the Vicar of Liquor who spoke with a Southern drawl and wore a Catholic priest's collar with a leather suit. He gave a sermon about how God returned on the 8th day to make women (i.e. Men 2.0). There was also some guy dressed up like Alice the Goon or something similar that walked around.

As for the film, Shanty Tramp looked like it had a budget of about $20. They even had a original song called "Shanty Tramp" but the music I remember was a sultry cover of "When the Saints Go Marching In." Actually, that was probably the best part of the film. Most of the film involves horse-face Lee Holland sashaying around town and the woods in a tight white evening dress. The plot can be summarized as The Downfall of the Shanty Tramp. She gets involved with an oily, tent-revival preacher, a biker who almost rapes her, a black man who saves her from being raped only to have her accuse him of rape when caught in flagrante delicto and eventually kills her drunkard father. Best scene - there is a dance scene in a dive bar/roadhouse where the man looks like he is having a seizure. Everyone in the film comes off looking sleazy except perhaps the black man. Even he could have avoided his fate if he had listened to his mother and stayed away from the Shanty Tramp. As it turned, he had sex with a white women, then falsely accused of rape and eventually dies in a car accident while fleeing the police. How is that for a moral? It's like the KKK After School Special.

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Russian Ark was quite an ambitious film. Screened at the Phyllis Wattis Theater in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the film is one continuous shot filmed at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. The film used a guide who spoke directly to the camera as if the audience was a part of the action. Much of the Russian history references were lost on me. My knowledge of Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible is limited. I only caught one reference to the Siege of Leningrad and another reference to Nicholas II and his daughter Anastasia.

The film was interesting as a curio piece but the Russian history references, constant camera movement, large cast and what I considered pretensions left me luke warm towards the film.

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The Good Old Naughty Days screened at the Red Vic. The program was a compilation of pornographic short films from the 1920s. Most of the films were French intertitled and according to the introduction, shown to customers at French bordellos while awaiting their service.

It was interesting how the pornographic tropes were present 90 years ago. My favorite was a cartoon featuring Eveready Harton, a well-endowed, mustachioed man whose penis not only had mind of its own but could also detach itself and had to be chased after. According to lore, Max Fleischer of Popeye fame was involved in the animation.

The live action films were interesting just to see the grooming practices of men and women back then. The women were rather flabby by today's standards; likewise the men did not measure up to their modern counterparts (Eveready Harton notwithstanding).

I honestly find pornography boring and even silent era porn became a little tedious. I will say that I was surprised by the presence of acts of homosexual and bisexual behavior. Obviously, that behavior has been going on since the beginning of mankind but I would have thought that it carried to great a stigma to get "actors" to perform. In hindsight, I guess the incremental shame between porn and gay porn was rather small during that time. These men and women were probably marginalized before they made porn or else they wouldn't have risked so much to make the films. Besides, they were French...

Jennifer Jones, Fish Tank and Shanty Tramp

The Stanford Theater is screening a Jennifer Jones Tribute double feature January 8 to 10. The Stanford is screening two of her biggest hits - Love is a Many Splendored Thing co-starring William Holden (1955) and Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955).

I don't know if this is part of a longer tribute or if the Jones series is limited to this weekend. Jennifer Jones passed away last month

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The Vogue Theater in San Francisco is offering a free screening of Fish Tank (2009). The screening is co-sponsored by the Mostly British Film Festival. The film was 2009 Jury Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival.

A woman’s desire is the subject of this taboo-breaking film about a 15-year old girl who becomes attracted to her mother’s young boyfriend played by Hunger’s Michael Fassbender. The disruption in everyone’s life is vividly captured by director Andrea Arnold, an Oscar winner for her short film Wasp. Her debut feature Red Road was another Cannes Jury Prize winner.

The screening is Saturday, January 16 at 11 AM.

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Thrillville is screening Shanty Tramp (1967) at the 4 Star on Thursday, January 21. That's the night before Noir City opens.

Thrillville, Black Christmas and Silent Film Era Pornography

I caught the Thrillville show on December 3 at the 4 Star. The show featured Project Pimento and the film Black Christmas.

This was my first Thrillville show. There were 40 or 50 people in the audience. To recap the show, the hosts are Will The Thrill Viharo (trading his trademark fez for a Santa hat) and his wife, Monica the Tiki Goddess. As I entered the theater, the film The Snow Queen, a 1957 Soviet animated film based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, was screening. The version screening was the 1959 English language version. I recall seeing this film as a child on television (perhaps courtesy of Tom Hatten and KTLA).

Before The Snow Queen finished, Will & Monica started their schtick. First, they got up on the stage and danced a little to their theme music. Then they kibitzed and told a few jokes. Next they introduced Project Pimento which for the uninitiated is a lounge band featuring a theremin. The five piece band was quite entertaining. The members included Dr. Robby Virus on theremin, Lola Bombay on lead vocals, Gentleman Jack on guitar, Carolyn Curacao on bass and Aaron Wallbanger on drums. I'm not sure why they chose psuedonyms. They played smooth jazz covers. The finale was the theme to the original Star Trek televion series with the seldom heard lyrics.

Next, Will & Monica gave away some schwag. Nominally a raffle contest based on the admittance ticket numbers or a trivia question prize, they seemed to be disinterested as to whether the answer was correct or the ticket number matched. Since the film was Black Christmas, Will asked a number of questions along the lines of "Who would be best cast in the film Black Valentine's Day?" The floor show was pretty low key.

Finally, the movie started. Will joked that Black Christmas is actually a good film as opposed to most of the films he screens. I have to agree. The 1974 film starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder and John Saxon was groundbreaking on its release. It allegedly originated two staples of the slasher film genre - the sorority house massacre and the telephone call from within house.

The plot...well the plot is now cliché - unseen stalker terrorizes a house full of women. Despite being 35 years old, predictable and saddled with some questionable 1970's attire, I was able to enjoy the film. The phone calls (it's me Billy) are still disturbing. There are some humorous scenes (intentionally and unintentionally) to move the film along. My favorite is when they trace the phone call, there is a technician in a old landline switching center running around the racks looking for the one where the call is being routed through. Also, the film leaves the identity of the killer (and Hussey's fate) open ended. Hussey, with her British accent, seemed like a fish out of water in the film but gave it her all. I would imagine that the star of Romeo and Juliet (1968) must have wondered what she was doing in a schlock film like Black Christmas. In hindsight, the film was quite tame and sophisticated compared to what came after it.

My bottom line is passively mild: Project Pimento - not bad, I'd like to see them again; Black Christmas - not bad but not good enough that I'll watch it again; Thrillville - not bad and I'll probably go to another show although I doubt I'll drive to the Camera Cinemas in San Jose or the East Bay to see them again.

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I was looking at the paper copy of the November/December calendar from the Red Vic. I can't recall the dates except it's in the first half of January 2010, the Vic will present The Good Old Naughty Days - a compilation released in 2003 of "12 silent hardcore pornographic shorts." The Red Vic screened this program in January 2006.

Copying from their website which, if memory serves me, is identical to its description in the latest published calendar:

The Good Old Naughty Days is a collection of 12 silent hardcore pornographic shorts from the early 1900's. Beautifully restored by the National Cinematheque in France, these films were originally created to “entertain” brothel patrons as they awaited their turn. The exhibitionists in Naughty Days are a far cry from the pumped and greased up, silicone-injected bodies of our current porn stars. And although the set-ups are rather similar to contemporary plots (the pizza delivery guy is replaced by a monk) there is more humor and variance than by today's standards. Most scenes begin with two women (men have always liked to watch women go at it) and then in walks - surprise, a man. But if he doesn't watch out when he bends over he may also be happily surprised from behind. For adults only, no one under 18 admitted.

I usually don't watch porn but it is commonly understood that pornography transforms itself into art or erotica after 75 years. By the halfway point of this century, John Holmes will be considered a master thespian. Actually, that's not far from the truth as I recall seeing Deep Throat at the Roxie a few years ago. At the time, a documentary called Inside Deep Throat was a modest success on the art house circuit. I watched Deep Throat so I would have a point of reference but somehow I missed the documentary before it left the theaters.

Check out the Red Vic calendar for January to see dates and showtimes.

Thrillville

When I saw the Chinese American Film Festival at the 4 Star, I noticed they had some Thrillville postcard advertisements.

I've never been to a Thrillville show. They used to put on shows at the now defunct Speakeasy Theaters. Quoting from their homepage:

Thrillville is a City of B Movie Dreams in a State of Culture Shock, where Time stands still and aesthetics supercede politics; where monsters, babes, hipsters and swingers mingle and mate over Martinis and Mai Tais; where Style rules over Fashion, Elvis is King, the Rat Pack rules, and Will the Thrill, a beatnik lounge lizard, is Mayor. Mr. Thrill and his lovely assistant and bride, Monica, Tiki Goddess, host a live cult movie cabaret celebrating Classic Retro Pop Culture, from the Atomic Age to Zombies.

I notice that they are producing shows at three theaters that I frequent to varying degrees - 4 Star, Balboa and Camera Cinemas in San Jose.

Their schedule looks interesting. On December 3, they are screening Black Christmas (1974) at the 4 Star. Perhaps the original sorority house slasher film, Black Christmas has achieved cult status in the last 35 years. I don't think I've ever seen the unedited version. I've seen it on network or cable TV but those sanitized for broadcast.

On January 21 (during Noir City), they are screening Shanty Tramp (1967) at the 4 Star. I don't believe I've ever seen this film in any version. Certainly, it's title does not sound familiar but how can you not be intrigued by a title like that. A one star rating in TV Guide only whets my appetite. It looks to be an insightful treatise on death, racism, rape and religion.

Another quickly made movie from the South (shot on location in Florida) designed for the drive-in crowd. This one involves a young woman of loose morals who tries to seduce an evangelist. She then gets involved with a motorcycle gang, which only leads to trouble. She is saved by a black youth who is accused by the girl's sharecropper father of raping his daughter, and a sheriff's posse is sent out after him. The boy is forced to steal a car (from a moonshiner, no less) but dies when the vehicle crashes. The daughter has it out with her father, stabbing him to death, and heads off to her evangelist in hopes of leaving town.

On February 25, they are showing a Mamie Van Doren double feature at the Camera 3. The two films are Untamed Youth (1957) and Sex Kittens Go To College (1960). I didn't think I've ever seen a Mamie Van Doren film. Looking at her IMDB filmography, I notice Francis Joins the WACS (1954). I watched quite of the Talking Mule films and Francis Joins the WACS actually registers in my memory.

At this year's Hole in the Head Film Festival, they screened Sex Galaxy which consisted exclusively of footage from a Mamie Van Doren film called Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) with new voice over that didn't match the original film (a la Mystery Science Theater 3000). Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, incredibly, was Peter Bogdanovich's first feature film credit as a director (under the Alan Smithee of "Derek Thomas"). I think the film was so bad that it's copyrights lapsed so it's in the public domain.

Mamie Van Doren is oft referred to as "the poor man's Jayne Mansfield." Of course, Mansfield was referred to as "the poor man's Marilyn Monroe." I guess that makes her the bankrupted man's Marilyn Monroe. To my surprise, Maime Van Doren is not just alive but has her own website, still makes appearances and photographs incredibly well for a 78 year old woman.