2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (4 of 2)

Every year, I notice several films screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) get a general distribution deal.  Frequently, their distribution deal is signed at the time of the festival and there is a flyer at the information desk with a listing of these films.  It makes me wonder if I should see so many films at the SFIFF since I will be able to see them at a more leisurely pace later in the year.  The problem is that I don't know all of the films which will be distributed at the time I buy the tickets.  If I waited until the festival started to make my better informed choice, I may not get tickets to the films I want.

Since the 2013 SFIFF ended in May, I have seen eleven films which screened at the festival.  The number may be higher as I didn't fully cross-reference every film in the program.

I have already written about

The East
Frances Ha
A Hijacking
Much Ado About Nothing
The Spectacular Now
Venus and Serena
The Way, Way Back
What Maisie Knew

I saw another three films in August which were on the 2013 SFIFF program.

Blackfish; documentary; directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite; Official Website
Computer Chess; directed by Andrew Bujalski;  Official Website
Twenty Feet From Stardom; documentary; directed by Morgan Neville; Official Website

I saw Blackfish at the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley, Computer Chess at the Landmark Opera Plaza and Twenty Feet From Stardom at the Balboa.

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Before I say anything about Blackfish, I should admit that I am of the opinion that zoos and marine parks like SeaWorld are inhumane.  Keeping wild animals in enclosures is a form of animal cruelty.  Some parks keep them in large enclosures which I suppose is akin to being kept in a large and spacious prison cell at as opposed to a small and cramped prison cell.  These organization do animal research so there is some benefit but I don't think the scales are equal.

However, I am also of the opinion that when human development encroaches on areas where dangerous wildlife exist, we have to eradicate those animals for human safety.  Those two positions may seem diametrically opposed but I am able to feel comfortable with both.  I guess I could go a step further and say that I think humans have developed enough land to live safely but housing developments mean money so I don't expect massive urban infill developments.  My father lives in Las Vegas.  When he first moved into his house, it was two blocks from desert wilderness.  He says he saw coyotes in the area.  As development grew in the area, the desert gave way.  The desert area closest to my father is now elementary and jr. high schools.  There is no place for a coyote in the area which would be safe for children.

That's a long way to say that before I saw Blackfish, I was predisposed to being against holding orcas captive.  The film focuses on the orca or killer whale named Tilikum.  As an aside, several years ago, I spent a very enjoyable summer afternoon at Tillicum Village on Blake Island in Puget Sound near Seattle.  The salmon they served for dinner was delicious.  I highly recommend the cruise to the island.  In fact, if I was in the area, I would get there early so I would have more time to walk/hike around the island.  I like the Pacific Northwest...

Any Tilikum is an orca that was captured at young age and has lived most of its life in captivity.  He first resided at a small independent marine park in British Columbia with two female orcas.  One of the trainers was killed during a performance although there are conflicting reports as two of the whales attacked her.  Soon after that, Tilikum was sold to SeaWorld where he has literally become the stud.  The film displayed a family tree which shows that most of the orcas held by SeaWorld at their various park can trace their lineage back to Tilikum.

While at SeaWorld Orlando, a second death occurred which Tilikum was involved in.  A naked man was found dead in Tilikum enclosure.  It appears the man hid in the park after closing.  What he was attempting to do in the orca enclosure or how and why he came to be naked is up for speculation.  It was suggested the man was mentally unstable.

The film really picks up steam when covering Tilikum's fatal attack on Dawn Brancheau in February 2010.  Brancheau was an experienced and respected orca trainer at SeaWorld.  By that point, they had established higher order behavior by orcas and some of the specifics of Tilikum's captivity.  They document that Tilikum's was attacked at a young age by other orcas and that he has spent long period in darkness and solitary confinement.  The films suggests that Tilikum may be suffering from similar to those found humans that are abused and kept in solitary confinement.

Blackfish definitely appears to have an agenda.  I think it is to expose SeaWorld's lies about Brancheau's and other trainers' deaths and attacks.  The film has a litany of incidents (with associated video footage) to back up its supposition that orcas should not be kept confined and that it is dangerous for humans to be in such close proximity to them.  Typically, such an overt bias in documentary would turn me off of the film. However, as I mentioned this film happens to coincide with my view.

That's not really the meat of the film though.  The film is set up much like Fruitvale Station.  It starts off with a clip which makes clear that someone is going to die.  Then the film proceeds to give the backstory of Tilikum in particular and orcas and their captivity in general.  Along the way, the talking heads talk about appalling incidents involving the treatment of the whales or the deaths and injuries of trainers.  This has the effect of ratcheting up the suspense of not the "what" but the "why."  I thought the film attributed too many human qualities to the orcas but that's kind of trivial.

The story of Tilikum and orcas in captivity is fascinating in a morbid way so Blackfish was likely to succeed as an engaging film.  Once you bite on that bait, you're hooked for the entire film.

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I'm very mild on Andrew Bujalski.  However, earlier this year I saw several Joe Swanberg films at the Roxie.  Swanberg is also associated with the mumblecore movement of which Bujalski is called the godfather.  One of my favorite films from the Swanberg retrospective was Hannah Takes the Stairs in which Bujalski acted in and contributed to the screenplay.  Based on this positive experience, I decided to give Bujalski another chance with his latest film, Computer Chess.  I have to admit that I like to play chess which partially rationalized my choice.  Also, despite not liking the film, I can recall a scene in Funny Ha Ha where Bujalski attempts to teach chess to Kate Dollenmayer's character.  The stars seemed to align so I gave Computer Chess a chance.

Computer Chess is set in the early 1980s.  Bujalski nails the era - the costumes and the clunky computers remind me of my youth.  I read that Bujalski used period specific video recorders to "film" Computer Chess.  Part faux-documentary and part nerds gone wild, Computer Chess is set at a weekend computer chess tournament.  Various computer programming teams compete against each other for a $7,500 prize.  Bujalski uses non-professional actors which results in awkward performance than perfectly match the awkward characters.  The film gets a lot of mileage from interactions between the various socially inept interactions.  One character even performs the knight's tour although I think he landed on the same square several times.

For most of the film, Computer Chess is an interesting if not inspiring film.  If 1980s fashion and technology is not one's milieu, I would think the film would grow tiresome quickly.  Just as Computer Chess ran out of steam for me, it took weird turn into artificial intelligence and technological singularity.  An old school, text-only RGB monitor displays a sonogram and a man has sex with a woman who reveals herself to be a cyborg.  The questions and implications are valid and interesting within the context of the film and in real life but the film completely stepped out of reality for the period.  Bujalski had spent the entire film recreating the 1980s and then he broke from that convention at the end which left me bewildered.

I didn't really like Computer Chess that much but I will say that if I was forced to watch a Bujalski film, I would pick Computer Chess.

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I love Darlene Love.  Perennial guest on David Letterman's final show before his Xmas vacation, Danny Glover's wife in the Lethal Weapon movie series, ghost singer on several Phil Spector produced songs including "He's a Rebel" and singer on one of my all-time favorite Saturday Night Live skits.

Darlene Love figures prominently in Twenty Feet From Stardom, a documentary about rock-n-roll backup singers.  Mostly black females, the backup singers profiled in the film have incredible singing talent but for reasons that vary, they are backup singers.  Some accept their role with grace while others (including Love) aspire to be front and center.  The movie features musical clips from some my favorite songs including the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter and David Bowie's Young Americans.

Love's story is particularly inspiring.  Signing with Phil Spector, she was relegated to backup vocals with her band.  She sang lead on He's a Rebel but Spector released the song under The Crystals and Love's contribution was kept secret.  This would happen repeatedly as Spector would release Love's vocals under another band's names (usually The Crystals).  When her contract ended and she signed with another record label, Spector simply bought the contract from the other label and brought Love back into the fold.  At that point she quit to start family.  Years later, while working as a maid, she heard one of her songs on the radio and decided she had to return to singing.  Since then, her career has flourished.

Other singers featured in the film have different stories.  Some "settled" for backup singing, others could crack the barrier to stardom.  In the film, Sting states that luck plays a large role in determining who becomes famous and who becomes a backup singer.

Twenty Feet From Stardom was a very enjoyable film which told the story of a group of people whose contributions to music and even existence are frequently overlooked.

2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (3 of 2)

In the 2 months since the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) wrapped, a number of its film selection have been generally or limited released.  I was aware that several of the films were getting theatrical releases so I skipped a number of films figuring I would catch them when played elsewhere.  The "3 of 2" in the title refers to realization that I've watched so many of the SFIFF films in the two months since the festival closed that is almost like another 3 or 4 days of the festival.

Among the 2013 SFIFF films that I have seen since the festival:

Frances Ha starring Greta Gerwig; directed by Noah Baumbach; (2012) - Official Website
Venus and Serena; documentary; directed by Maiken Baird & Michelle Major; (2012) - Official Website
The East starring Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Toby Kebbell & Ellen Page; with Julia Ormond & Patricia Clarkson; directed by Zal Batmanglij; (2013) - Official Website
What Maisie Knew starring Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan & Onata Aprile; with Alexander Skarsgård & Joanna Vanderham; directed by Scott McGehee & David Siegel; (2012) - Official Website
A Hijacking starring Søren Malling, Pilou Asbæk & Abdihakin Asgar; directed by Tobias Lindholm; Danish, Swedish & English with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Much Ado About Nothing starring Amy Acker & Alexis Denisof; with Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Jillian Morgese & Fran Kranz; directed by Joss Whedon; (2012) - Official Website

I saw Frances Ha, The East and A Hijacking at the Landmark Embarcadero.  I saw Venus and Serena and What Maisie Knew at the Landmark Opera Plaza.  I saw Much Ado About Nothing at the Stonestown Cinema.  I saw A Hijacking on Wednesday, June 26, the day before the Embarcadero Cinema closed for renovations.  The Embarcadero Center Cinema will be closed until early November if all goes according to plan.  I had really started to see quite a few films at the Embarcadero this year.  It's the closest movie theater to my workplace.

On Tuesday afternoons, Rubio's sells their delicious Original Fish Tacos® for $1.50.  I can attest to their tastiness.  On many Tuesdays, I have gone to Rubio's (Four Embarcadero Center, Street Level) after work for an early dinner consisting of three (sometimes four) Original Fish Tacos® and then to Embarcadero Cinema (One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level) to catch a movie during the 7 O'clock hour.  I'll miss the Embaradero CInema because I won't have an excuse to go to Rubio's.

I will likely see more films at the Landmark Opera Plaza while the Embarcadero Cinema is closed.  I don't like the Opera Plaza theater very much.  There are some sketchy characters on the walk from Civic Center BART/Muni to Opera Plaza.  I have to add time to account for Muni and the walk from the station to the theater.  One nice thing is the theater is close A Clean Well Lighted Bookstore (Hemingway reference) or whatever the place is called now.  I also recall reading that the McDonald's across the street designed their building differently to get the local permits.  It certainly doesn't look like the standard McDonald's building design.

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Frances Ha has been likened to Annie Hall.  Greta Gerwig plays the titular character whose full name is Frances Halladay.  At 27 years old, Frances is having trouble adjusting to post-collegiate life.  Now that seems a little late in life to be encountering these issues but Frances is an "artist" and lives in NYC.  Having never lived in NYC, I don't know how it "really" is but in the movies it seems as though artistic types can scrape by because there are so many outlets for arts and entertainment.  I'm reminded of quote from Indiefest where a director said (paraphrasing) that Mumblecore started with a bunch of overeducated, underemployed people in New York.  In Frances' case, she is a dancer and graduate of Vassar College.

Technically, Frances is not a professional dancer.  She is part of the auxiliary or some non-paid position.  Frances' life consists of quirky confusion about the trajectory of her life and money troubles.  In fact, it's unclear how Frances makes money.  What is clear is that she and her best friend from college are drifting apart.  As the film starts, they are living together (they even sleep in the same bed sometimes) but Sophie (Mickey Sumner) soon moves out to live with her boyfriend which hits Frances hard.  This seemed very true to life as I have known women who develop intense friendships which are strained when one becomes serious with her boyfriend or gets married.

In addition to the unraveling of her most valued friendship, Frances is beginning to realize that a dancing career is not in the cards for her.  In fact, the director of her dancing troupe urges her to take a job as a secretary in the company.  Finally, Frances must deal with friends and family who are moving on with their lives and achieving traditional signs of success.  An awkward dinner party makes clear how out-of-step Frances is with some of her peers.

There is a bittersweet undercurrent running throughout Frances Ha which I interpreted as the end of her youth.  As portrayed by Gerwig, Frances has an ebullient nature which makes you want to root for her despite (or perhaps because of) her insecurities.  A running gag throughout the film is Frances' numerous changes of address.  Each chapter of the film is titled by her address.  In the final section, Frances is writing her name on the slip of paper for her mailbox and can't fit it in.  So she folds the paper so it will fit and hence "Frances Ha."

Frances Ha was also filmed in black & white which gives it a unique look and style.  I very much enjoyed Frances Ha.

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Venus and Serena is not a hagiography but fails to ask the really tough questions of its subjects.  I have a passing knowledge of the Williams sisters so much of the film was not new to me.  In fact, I wonder if the best subject of a documentary would be Richard Williams - Venus and Serena's controversial father.  At one point, Serena is informed that a young man accompanying her father is, in fact, Richard's son or her half-brother.  She seems unaware that she has a half-brother and frankly, it doesn't really seem phase her much.

Of the two sisters, Serena is the better subject for a documentary.  The documentary was filmed well before Serena's comments in Rolling Stone about a teenage girl being raped and a competitor's boyfriend.  Acknowledging her mercurial nature and occasional temper tantrums, Serena doesn't seem to feel the need to control her behavior.  Being the top ranked player in the world has certain privileges.  At one point, John McEnroe urges Serena to apologize for her outburst at the US Open; Serena declines.  What does it say when John McEnroe is the voice of reason?

It's also clear that the two sisters have a very tight bond.  They share a house in Florida although they train separately.  It's understandable that the two would bond since the professional tennis tour can be stressful.  It also seems to point to something dysfunctional in the Williams family that they are still that close.

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The East is a tense thriller about eco-terrorists.  Brit Marling (who co-wrote the script) is Sarah, a former FBI agent who is now working for a private security firm.  Her boss (Patricia Clarkson) sends her undercover to infiltrate the East, a shadowy anarchist group who is targetting the CEOs of companies they judge to have committed environmental crimes.  By infiltrating the group, Sarah's company can better sell their services since they will have advance intelligence on the targets.

With surprising ease, Sarah does indeed join the East.  The main members are Benji (Alexander Skarsgård) who is the leader, Doc (Toby Kebbell) and Izzy (Ellen Page) the most militant.  As Sarah begins to develop feelings for Benji, she becomes more sympathetic to the cause and the members of the East.  Izzy for example is the daugher of an industrialist.  They target his company because it regularly (as in 3 AM every morning) dumps industrial waste into a lake.  Izzy's commitment to the cause seems to be a cry for attention from her father.

Ultimately, Benji & Sarah have to confront each other and their true agendas.  There is more to Benji than meets the eye.

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What Maisie Knew was the opening night film at the 2013 SFIFF.  Based on a Henry James novel, What Maisie Knew focuses on a young girl (Onata Aprile) whose parents (Julianne Moore & Steve Coogan) are getting divorced.  Becoming a pawn in her parents increasingly antagonistic relationship, Maisie is shuttled back and forth between the parents.  Moore plays a hot headed rock & roller who wants to recapture her past glory.  Coogan is an art dealer who constant travels and self-absorption pushes everyone away.  Coogan ends up marrying the nanny (Joanna Vanderham) and Moore marries a young bartender (Alexander Skarsgård looking much different than he did in The East).

The new spouses are drawn into Maisie's life and troubles as Moore & Coogan make clear that their marriages had to do with gaining custody of Maisie and not actually providing a good home for her.  As the film progresses, Maisie becomes attached to her step-parents and realizes the collateral damage that her parents' acrimony have inflicted on her and her new step-parents.  

The film was a heartbreaking exploration of how a little girl's life is thrown into turmoil by her parents' divorce.  The ending stretched credibility but is a) consistent with James' novel and b) heartwarming.  The cast was excellent; Onata Aprile (6 years old at the time of filming) delivered a performance that seemed well beyond her years.

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A Hijacking was a tremendous film.  The plot is simple - a Danish cargo ship is captured by pirates and its crew held for ransom.  The film focuses on a few of the characters.  Mikkel (Pilou Asbæk) is the ship's cook and becomes the go-between for the pirates because he speaks English as does the pirates.  Søren Malling is Peter, the CEO of the shipping company.  Abdihakin Asgar is Omar, the pirates' negotiator.

The film establishes early that Peter is supremely confident in his own negotiating skills.  Against the advice of his hijacking response consultant, Peter decides to negotiate with the pirates himself.  Several of the cast members are non-actors and have experience with ship hijackings.  This leads to palpable authenticity in the film.

These three men will be stressed in different ways the film proceeds.  Mikkel is obviously held captive but is subjected to death threats and other deprivations and humiliations.  Peter who begins the film as self-confident, has bitten off more than he can choose.  He must stay at the office around the clock to take the phone calls from the pirates.  In addition, to the personal sense of responsibility he has towards his employees on the ship, he also is getting pressure from his board of directors as the negotiations drag on for months.  Omar is presented not as a pirate but as a negotiator who is negotiating with both the pirates and Peter.

The stress of the situation takes it toll on all three which makes resolution of the problem slower to materialize.  To give some sense of the distance need to be bridged, the pirates initially demand $15 million and Peter's initial counteroffer is $250,000.  The consultant's suggestions have the effect of prolonging the negotiations and the crisis in an attempt to wear down the pirates but it also has the effect of wearing down Peter.  The scenes where Peter & the consultant strategize has an "inside baseball" feel to it which is understandable because the consultant was played by Gary Skjoldmose Porter, an actual hijacking response expert.

A Hijacking is one of my favorite films on the year.

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Much Ado About Nothing marks my return to the Stonestown Cinema which is operated by Regal Entertainment.  I had not been there since 2011 despite it being the second closest movie theater to my residence.  I went to the 9:45 PM screening on June 28 and there were only 10 or so people in the cavernous auditorium (seating capacity equals 452 if I recall the placard correctly).

Much Ado About Nothing is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's play of the same name.  The actors recite the exact lines as Shakespeare wrote with little modification.  Despite its modern setting and modern costumes, the actors are reciting 15th century dialogue.  One problem I always have with Shakespeare is understanding the dialogue.  The phrasing and cadence is foreign to my modern experience.  I have to concentrate very intently to follow the plot of a Shakespeare play.  Such was the case with this film.  Fortunately, I have seen the play before and read a summary of it before attending this screening.

With that said, I thought the film could have used a little more retooling. There are curious plot points which are incongruous with modern day Southern California.  Putting that aside, I never lost myself in the film.  It felt like a chore to get through...like in school when I had to read a book I didn't enjoy.

Much Ado About Nothing had a very nice soundtrack; it reminded me a little of Norah Jones at times.

2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (2 of 2)

As I mentioned, I enjoyed most of the films I saw at the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF).  Let me get the ones I didn't like out of the way.

Outrage Beyond was the sequel to Outrage which I saw at the 2011 SFIFF.  I was luke warm about the original but decided to give the sequel a try based on largely on Takeshi Kitano's reputation.  I think he was credited as Takeshi Kitano as director and Beat Takeshi for his role as an actor or vice versa.  Much like the first film, Outrage Beyond dragged at times.  Takeshi doesn't really cover much new ground in the sequel and he does so with less violent panache than the original.

Cold War is a big budget Hong Kong action/thriller with Aaron Kwok & Tony Leung Ka-fai in the lead roles as two high ranking cops with an eye on the Chief Superintendent job.  With a big cast and lots of twists and turns, I lost track and ultimately lost interest in the film.

Big Sur was the second Jack Kerouac film I had seen in as many months.  In March I saw On the Road.  On the Road was written when Kerouac was in his 20s.  Big Sur was written as Kerouac was closing in on 40.  The narrative structure of both films left me a little confused.  As I write this two months after seeing the film and with no notes of that particular film, I struggle to remember the film.  I do recall the scenes at the cabin the woods but overall the film did not leave a lasting impression on me..

Dom: A Russian Family was an interesting study about a family on the Russian steppes.  A little melodramtic, Dom was marred by a ridiculous ending involving a old man in a wheelchair.  The ending was so bad that it eclipsed anything good that came before it.

Chimeras was a documentary about two Chinese artists - one established and successful, the other trying to make a name for himself.  I never really got into the film; the subject matter, the pacing, the cultural differences were more than I could overcome.  I also saw the film towards the end of the festival so there was some cinematic fatigue on my part.

Byzantium was director Neil Jordan's return to the vampire genre (he directed Interview With the Vampire).  Nice performances by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan as the mother-daughter duo but ultimately I found the plot to be ho-hum.

I guess The Mattei Affair should go here.  As I mentioned, the screening I attended was marred by subtitling issues.  I couldn't follow the plot which made it the most frustrating film experience of the festival.  I would very much like to see the film again (contingent on the subtitling working properly). There was one remarkable scene I can remember vividly.  A journalist interviews oil magnate Enrico Mattei as he travels around the world.  The interview is strung together as they change locales from offshore oil platforms to Arabian deserts, etc.  The effect was a bravura directorial and editing performance.

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I am hard pressed to choose one film as my favorite of the 2013 SFIFF.

Penance is an addictive, five hour, Japanese film about a young girl whose unsolved murder affects her four childhood friends.  Originally, a five part miniseries, the film focuses on each of the four in their adulthood while the fifth hour focuses on the victim's mother and her attempts to find the killer.  The final hour was a bit of letdown but the four hours which preceded it were inspired melodrama.  The four girls have coped with the trauma in different ways.  One is sexually repressed, another uses self-discipline to mask her inner pain, the third girl has shut herself off from the world and the final girl is sexually aggressive (sleeping with her brother-in-law).  Sakura Ando (Sion Sono's Love Exposure) was especially memorable as the semi-reclusive young woman who discovers something unsettling about her older brother.  Yu Aoi, Eiko Koike & Chizuru Ikewaki also acquit themselves well in portraying the young women dealing with the emotional fallout of their childhood friend's murder.

The Daughter is a very powerful film about Inna (outstanding performance by Mariya Smolnikova), an adolescent coming of age in a small town in Russia.  She becomes friendly with a free-spirited girl (nice performance by Yana Osipova) who has just moved to town.  Tragedy strikes when the new girl is found murdered but the situation goes from bad to inconceivable when Inna's father is revealed to be a serial killer (and rapist?).  Adding to the complexity is that Inna has a crush on the town priest's son but the priest has taken Inna's father's confession but is bound by clergy-penitent confidentiality.  The film focuses more on Inna than her father or his crimes so we get the coming-of-age story through the perverse prism of being the daughter of a serial killer.

Populaire has a ridiculous premise but its late 1950s savoir-faire and winning performances by the leads carry the film.  Romain Duris is Louis, a successful small businessman who sponsors and trains his secretaries to compete in speed typewriting competitions.  His latest protégé is Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François), a small town girl who dreams of escaping her father's general store and becoming a secretary.  After some initial bumpiness, Louis and Rose hit their stride - as coach and "athlete" as well as romantically.  "Delightful" is the word which most comes to mind in describing this comedy.  Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) is très chic as Louis' childhood sweetheart who ended marrying an American paratrooper she met on D-Day.  Mélanie Bernier is also memorable as the self-assured French speed typewriting champion cum crowd sensation.

Our Homeland is a fictional account of a strange but true period of North Korean history.  In the 1970s, North Korea was viewed as utopian by some diasporic Koreans living Japan.  Unstated in the film was that most of the Koreans were likely living in Japan due to forced labor during WWII.  Sonho (Arata Iura) is a North Korean repatriate.  Sent back to North Korea as a teenage boy, Sonho has returned to Japan to seek medical treatment for a brain tumor.  Reunited with his family during his stay, Sonho has been profoundly affected by his time in North Korea.  Sakura Ando (Penance) shines as Rie, Sonho's younger and free-spirited sister.  Although his medical condition is real, Sonho's primary (if not voluntary) mission is recruit spies from his former circle of friends and family.  Heartbreaking but filled with impressive performances, Our Homeland struck a chord with me.

Juvenile Offender is a South Korean film about the pernicious inter-generational effects of poverty and poor parenting.  Young Ju Seo is the eponymous teenager and Jung-hyun Lee is his mother whom he thought dead.  Both are beset with personal troubles and their reunion only adds to their problems.  Immature and unable to keep a job, the mother offer little in the way of stability which could benefit the young man.  Neither mother or son seem capable of helping themselves much less each other due to their economic circumstances and emotional immaturity.  Understandable and even forgivable in the boy, the mother is proof the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Jung-hyun Lee is stupendous as the likable and vexing mother and Young Ju Seo holds his own as the troubled teen.  There was nothing exploitative in the film which the title may imply but the criticism of the two lead characters and Korean society in general was loud and clear.  I found the film to be very thought provoking.

Afternoon Delight appears to be a sex comedy but slowly morphs in a character study.  Kathryn Hahn is Rachel, a good-natured, upper middle class, Jewish mother.  Her life revolves around volunteer activities at her daughter's school.  Having sexual problems with her husband, Rachel is seeing a therapist (very funny supporting role by Jane Lynch) but ultimately decides to spice up her sex life by visiting a strip club with her husband, best friend Stephanie (Jessica St. Clair) and Stephanie's husband.  While having a lap dance with stripper McKenna (Juno Temple), Rachel becomes very uncomfortable.  I thought she had latent homosexual tendencies but in fact, McKenna has stirred sexual feelings in Rachel which will lead to very painful repressed memories.  Eventually, Rachel invites McKenna to live with her and her family...much to the dismay of her husband and Stephanie.  Thinking McKenna's job and lifestyle will reinvigorate her own libido, Rachel forms an unusually close relationship with the younger woman.  Ultimately, Rachel reveals being raped in college in a funny and painful drunken baby shower scene.  At the same time, Rachel's attitude towards McKenna has shifted to one of contempt.  Picking up on Rachel's change in attitude, McKenna reacts in a drunken, hypersexualized seduction of group of middle-aged men including Rachel & Stephanie's husbands.  Afternoon Delight takes a pretty dark turn about 75% of the way in which for me, elevated the film immeasurably.  Strong performances by the lead actors and an innovative variation of a familiar theme made this one of my favorites of the festival.

The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay is a documentary about magician Ricky Jay.  My earliest memories of Ricky Jay are from Boogie Nights and an episode of The X-Files.  The X-Files was one of my favorite television series.  Anyway, Ricky Jay has been around a lot longer than the late 1990s.  The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay showed a clip of Jay on Dinah Shore's talk show.  That clip was so old that Steve Martin had dark hair in the clip.  In fact, Ricky Jay (real name Richard Jay Potash) was a child performer who made his first TV appearance at age five.  As much a raconteur as a magician, Jay is an appealing performer and clearly a master of his craft.  As the title of the film eludes to, much of the screen time is dedicated to magicians who befriended Jay in youth and taught him how to be a magician.  The film is definitely about the magician...not the magic but Jay is such an interesting character that I was riveted throughout.  At the end of the film, Jay recites a poem written for him by children's book author Shel Silverstein.  As delivered by Jay and written by Silverstein, the poem was worth the price of admission alone.

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Just a notch below in enjoyment and esteem are the following films.

The Kings of Summer - quirky comedy about three teenage boys who runaway from home to live in the nearby woods.  A little uneven but highlighted with offbeat performances by Nick Offerman as the father of one of the boys and Moises Arias as the oddest of the three boys.

Thérèse - Audrey Tautou as I've never seen her before.  As the dissatisfied but wealthy housewife in 1920s France, Tautou as Thérèse seeks to escape her stultifying and intellectually unchallenging life.  What begins as an accident eventually becomes attempted murder by arsenic poisoning.

Pearblossom Hwy - I think this was a sequel to Littlerock which played at the 2010 SFIFF.  The director (Mike Ott) is the same for both films; the screenwriters (Ott and Atsuko Okatsuka) are the same; the lead actors (Okatsuka & Cory Zacharia) are the same; etc.  However, there are slight differences which makes me wonder.  Okatsuka & Zacharia who plays characters with the same first name as the actors, are friends in a small California town.  Along with Cory's older brother, they take a road trip to San Francisco to meet Cory's estranged father.  Atsuko is living with a Japanese family but pines to return to Japan to visit her grandmother.  For reasons unstated, her family does not want her to return to Japan.  Atsuko makes money on the side by prostitution; presumably to save money for her return to Japan.  Cory has an ambiguous sexuality (and ingratiating voice) as well unresolved issues with his "father."  Light on plot, long of character study, Pearblossom Hwy is less than fully satisfying but not without its moments.

Key of Life - a contrived but effective Japanese comedy about a loser actor and successful assassin who exchange identities when the actor takes advantage of the hitman's amnesia.  Too clever by a couple of plot twists, I still laughed quite a bit.

You're Next - a slasher film with a cast of notable independent film actors and directors (including Joe Swanberg).  With some dark comedy and metareferences, I'll call You're Next a postmodern Scream.  

Fill The Void - I chose this film strictly because it filled the time slot between Cold War and Our Homeland.  The story is about an orthodox Jewish rabbi's family who must cope with the death of their eldest daughter.  When the widower hints that he will remarry and move away with his daughter, his former mother-in-law conspires to have her youngest daughter marry him.  I'm not sure how realistic that is.  It kind of reminds of biblical stories of the younger brother marrying the elder brother's widow.  The film provided fascinating glimpse into this foreign world of orthodox Jews.  

Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time features an incredible performance by Choi Min-sik, a mid-level, South Korean customs officer who uses his family connections and chutzpah to climb the ladder of organized crime.  The plot was a little confusing but I couldn't take my attention away from Choi.

Eight Deadly Shots - a Finnish television miniseries presented as 5+ hour program at the request of 2013 Mel Novikoff Award winner Peter von Bagh.  Alcoholism, moonshining, harsh conditions and small town attitudes create a deadly environment which results in the death of four policeman.  Director Mikko Niskanen also stars as the killer.  There is a memorable scene where Niskanen struggles for 15 minutes to get his horse unstuck from the snow.  The film proceeds at a measured pace but never bores.

Il Futuro - I'm not sure what to make of this film.  An orphaned teenage boy and his older sister come into the sphere of two bodybuilders/petty criminals in Rome.  They plot to rob a blind recluse, Rutger Hauer as a former sword-and-sandal movie star.  In order to gain his trust, the older sister (Manuela Martelli) prostitutes herself as she looks for the key to the locked room with his riches.  She didn't count on developing feelings for the older man.   The ending was abrupt as the criminal scheme is just dropped.  Nice performance by Martelli who calls Hauer's character "Maciste" ...a reference I am familiar with from attending the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

Big Blue Lake - a Chinese actress returns to Hong Kong to visit her mother but discovers the older woman is beginning to suffer from dementia.  While dealing with her own stalled career and her mother's condition, the woman reconnects with friends from her youth and reconsiders her past and future.

Rosie - in this gentle comedy, a successful gay author returns home to care for his ailing mother whose ailment appears to be excessive alcohol consumption.  Dealing with his stubborn mother and a young one-night stand who won't go away are more difficult than he imagined.  

Memories Look at Me - blurring the lines between fiction and documentary; actress/director Song Fang "cast" her actual parents as her on-screen parents.  Similar to Big Blue Lake, Memories Look at Me deals with the inevitable aging of one's parents and by reflection, oneself.  Somber and honest, I was impressed by Memories Look at Me.

2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (1 of 2)

The 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival ran from April 25 to May 9.  I saw 26 films although I bought tickets to 27.  I inadvertently bought tickets to two different screenings of Chimeras.

This year's festival was marred by some technical difficulties.  Two screenings were delayed by 20 to 30 minutes.  The April 26 screening of Rosie at the Kabuki was delayed 20 to 30 minutes while they sorted things out.  The April 28 screening of Populaire (also at the Kabuki) was also delayed 20 to 30 minutes due to aspect ratio problems.  The subtitles were being cropped.  They started the film three times before the subtitles were fully visible.  Fortunately, both screenings were during the last time slot of the day.  If they had been earlier, it may have caused audience members to leave early or be late for the next screening.

The April 27 screening of The Mattei Affair at the PFA was the most frustrating film experiences I can recollect.  Prior to the screening, Susan Oxtoby mentioned a new DCP projector had been installed at the PFA a few days earlier and that The Mattei Affair was the first film to be projected on it.  I was tremendously enjoying The Mattei Affair when the subtitles froze about 30 minutes in.  The film continued in Italian but the subtitles were frozen.  This continued for 10 minutes; perhaps longer.  It felt like an eternity.  The projectionist could never rewind the film to point where the subtitles crapped out.  Seemingly giving up on the task, s/he continued the film (with the subtitles working properly) but the 10 or so minutes were lost to the non-Italian speaking members of the audience.

After restarting the film, I began to enjoy it once more.  With about 20 to 30 minutes left, the subtitles froze again (or maybe they stopped appearing).  Once again, people complained but slowly, in ones and twos, the audience left the theater.  I lasted another 10 minutes hoping the subtitles would work but eventually gave up and left.  I was very frustrated because from what I saw, The Mattei Affair was a great film.  The two extended periods of indecipherable Italian left me lost on some of the plot points and I felt I was doing myself a disservice if I watched the film any longer.  However, my greatest frustration is that the festival had a 35 mm print of the film and the PFA didn't use it.  I hope The Mattei Affair screens somewhere in the Bay Area again.

Finally, the Korean film Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time had two watermarks during the May 2 screening at the Kabuki.  Festival Director of Programming Rachel Rosen announced beforehand that the key to the digital lock on the film had not worked so they were screening a standard definition "print" with watermarks on the upper left and lower right corners.  She offered refunds or ticket exchanges.  Interestingly, no one seemed to take her up on the offer; everyone appeared to remain for the entire screening.  Fortunately, the film was very traditional in its visual composition.  Most of the action took place in the center of the frame so the watermarks were not intrusive but I won't say I was able to ignore them completely.  The presence of the watermarks definitely detracted from the viewing experience.

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The 26 films I saw were:

The Kings of Summer starring Nick Robinson & Gabriel Basso; with Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally & Moises Arias; directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts; (2013) - Official Website
Rosie starring Fabian Krüger & Sibylle Brunner; directed by Marcel Gisler; German with subtitles; (2013)
Penance starring Yu Aoi, Eiko Koike, Sakura Ando, Chizuru Ikewai & Kyôko Koizumi; with Teruyuki Kagawa; directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
The Mattei Affair starring Gian Maria Volonté; directed by Franco Rossi; Italian with subtitles; (1972)
The Daughter starring Maria Smolnikova & Igor Mazepa; directed by Alexander Kasatkin & Natalia Nazarova; Russian with subtitles; (2012)
Big Blue Lake starring Leila Tong; directed by Jessey Tsang Tsui-Shan; Cantonese with subtitles; (2011)
Populaire starring Romain Duris & Déborah François; with Bérénice Bejo; directed by Régis Roinsard; French with subtitles;  (2012) - Official Website
Thérèse starring Audrey Tautou & Gilles Lellouche; directed by Claude Miller; French with subtitles; (2012)
Outrage Beyond starring & directed by Takeshi Kitano; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Big Sur starring Jean-Marc Barr & Kate Bosworth; directed by Michael Polish; (2013)
Pearblossom Hwy starring Atsuko Okatsuka & Cory Zacharia; directed by Mike Ott; some Japanese with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Key of Life starring Masato Sakai, Teruyuki Kagawa & Ryôko Hirosue; directed by Kenji Uchida; Japanese with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
You're Next starring Sharni Vinson; with Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz & Ti West; directed by Adam Wingard; (2011) - Official Website
Cold War starring Aaron Kwok & Tony Leung Ka-fai; directed by Sunny Luk & Longman Leung; Cantonese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Fill The Void starring Hadas Yaron & Yiftach Klein; directed by Rama Burshtein; Hebrew with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Our Homeland starring Arata Iura & Sakura Ando; directed by Yang Yong-hi; Japanese & Korean with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time starring Choi Min-sik & Ha Jung-woo; directed by Yoon Jong-bin; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Juvenile Offender starring Lee Jung-hyun & Seo Young-ju; directed by Kang Yi-kwan; Korean with subtitles; (2012)
Afternoon Delight starring Kathryn Hahn & Juno Temple; directed by Jill Soloway; (2013) - Official Website
Eight Deadly Shots starring Mikko Niskanen & Tarja-Tuulikki Tarsala; directed by Mikko Niskanen; Finnish with subtitles; (1972)
Dom: A Russian Family starring Sergey Garmash; directed by Oleg Pogodin; Russian with subtitles; (2011)
The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay starring Ricky Jay; directed by Molly Bernstein; documentary; (2012) - Official Website
Memories Look at Me starring & directed by Song Fang; Mandarin with subtitles; (2012)
Chimeras starring Wang Guangyi & Liu Gang; directed by Mika Mattila; documentary; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
Il Futuro starring Manuela Martelli; with Rutger Hauer; directed by Alicia Scherson; Italian & Spanish with subtitles; (2013)
Byzantium starring Saoirse Ronan & Gemma Arterton; directed by Neil Jordan; (2012) - Official Facebook

I believe the print of Thérèse which was screened was titled Thérèse Desqueyroux which is the original French release title of the film.

There was a gangster themed trio of films which programmer Rod Armstrong mentioned before several of the films.  The three films were Outrage Beyond, Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time and Dom: A Russian Family.

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My enjoyment of this year's films was consistently high.  Most years, there are several films which are not to my liking which I admit is more of a matter of taste than an indictment of the films.  However, this year all the films kept my rapt interest which is amazing in itself.  

Cinephilia is a Disease as Contagious as...

I often wonder how San Francisco can support so many film festivals.  More accurately, I often wonder why I feel compelled to attend so many film festivals in San Francisco.

The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) started last night.  I skipped the opening night.  I typically skip the opening night film as it will likely get a distribution deal (if it doesn't already have one).  The SFIFF kicks off a busy three months of festivals I want to attend in the Bay Area and beyond.

April 25 - May 9:  SFIFF
May 9 - May 26:  Girls! Guns! Ghosts! The Sensational Films of Shintoho (YBCA)
May 10 - May 23:  I Wake Up Dreaming 2013 (Roxie)
June 6 - June 23:  DocFest (SF IndieFest)
June 14 - June 16:  Hitchcock 9 (San Francisco Silent Film Festival)
June 21 - June 30:  Sacramento French Film Festival
July 12 - July 14:  Sacramento Japanese Film Festival
July 18 - July 21:  San Francisco Silent Film Festival
July 27 - August 2:  San Francisco Japan Film Festival (New People)

I mentioned going to the movies on 60 of 73 days earlier this year.  It was exhausting.  The aforementioned lineup of film festivals looks equally daunting.  Approximately 67 days out of 100 are accounted for in the festival schedule.  That assumes I go every day which will likely not be the case.  However, it also assumes I attend no rep house/art house films which is  likely not be the case either.

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Simon Killer, one of my favorite films from the 2013 Indiefest, opens at the Landmark Opera Plaza today.  Graceland, my favorite film from the 2013 CAAMFest, also opens today and resumes Monday (April 29) at the Roxie after the San Francisco Global Vietnamese Film Festival ends its two day run.  It was foolhardy of that festival to counterprogram the SFIFF on a weekend but I suppose they are targeting a different demographic than SFIFF.  I'd like to see Norwegian Wood on Saturday at 9:30 PM but am not sure if I will be able to get there by that time.

I have been a member of the Mechanics' Institute for several years.  When I joined, their Cinema Lit series was one of the selling points but I have yet to attend a single Friday night screening.  I am tentatively targeting the May 24 screening of Marty (1955).  Ernest Borgnine won an Academy Award for his performance in the film and I have long wanted to see it.  May is Paddy Chayefsky month for Cinema Lit.  In addition to Marty, Friday night screenings include The Americanization of Emily, The Catered Affair and The Goddess.  All four films were written by Chayefsky or based on one of his (tele)plays.

I am also anxious to see Blancanieves, a modern day silent film which sets Snow White among Spanish bullfighters.  It's playing at the Landmark Embarcadero Cinemas.

The title of this post refers to a memorable sequence in The Natural in which a motivational speaker compares the New York Knights losing streak to successively fatal diseases.  The Natural is one of those films I can and have watched over and over again.