You Have the Right to Remain Silent

In the week after the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) ended, I saw two additional silent films.

The Oyster Princess starring Victor Janson & Ossi Oswalda; directed by Ernst Lubitsch; silent with intertiles; live accompaniment by Rodney Sauer & Britt Swenson; (1919)
Battleship Potemkin; directed by Sergei Eisenstein; silent with intertiles; live accompaniment by Cameron Carpenter; (1926)

The Oyster Princess was preceded by a short film.

Cops starring Buster Keaton & Virginia Fox; directed by Edward F. Cline & Keaton; silent with intertitles; (1922)

Rodney Sauer & Britt Swenson are two-fifths of the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.  Sauer plays electronic keyboard and Swenson plays violin.  The Oyster Princess played at the Smith Rafael Film Center the day after the SFSFF ended.

Battleship Potemkin played at Davies Symphony Hall the weekend after SFSFF ended and was presented by the San Francisco Symphony.  Carpenter played the pipe organ in Davies Hall.  It was the first time I had heard the organ or seen a “film” in Davies although I'm 99.99% certain they screened a DVD.  I should also mention I received a discount (50%?) on the ticket price from a San Francisco Independent Film Festival (Indiefest) promotion.

The subtitle for The Oyster Princess was “a grotesque comedy in 4 acts.”  Actually, on IMDB, the film is listed as My Lady Margarine.  The director of the film, Ernst Lubitsch, was known for the “Lubitsch Touch.”  That phrase means many things to many people but for me, the closest definition comes from  Roger Fristoe.  I quote from The Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch:  “A subtle and souffle-like blend of sexy humor and sly visual wit.”  If “a grotesque comedy” seems incompatible with "a subtle and souffle-like blend of sexy humor and sly visual wit," that's because it was.  Oyster Princess was made in 1919 and I can only assume Lubitsch was not yet aware of his touch.  He would go on to direct films for an additional 30 years after Oyster Princess.

The plot deals with caricatures of American wealth & avarice and a case of mistaken identity.  Mr. Quaker (Victor Janson in a flashy, over-the-top performance) is the obscenely rich American businessman who made his fortune in canned oyster. That makes his daughter, Ossi (Ossi Oswalda, aka The German Mary Pickford), the titular Oyster Princess - spoiled, sheltered and single.  When Ossi reads that a friend of hers has married a count (in real life, Oswalda was married to a baron), she demands from her father, a prince for her husband.  Through a matchmaker, they find Prince Nucki (Harry Liedtke) who is deep in debt.  He is anxious to marry when told his potential fiancée is incredibly wealthy.  He sends his friend Josef (Julius Falkenstein) to act as his intermediary.

When Josef arrives at the Quaker mansion, he is mistaken for the prince.  Ossi is in such a rush to top her friend, she drags Josef to the altar and she won't let him get a word in edgewise (even “I do”).  Ossi marries “Prince Nucki” and returns home to inform her father who is “not impressed.”  That is Mr. Quaker catch phrase throughout the film.  Hosting a lavish but hastily arranged wedding reception, Quaker reluctantly introduces his son-in-law, Josef gets drunk and Ossi seems to have little interest in consummating her marriage.  Meanwhile, the real Prince Nucki become restless waiting for Josef and goes out with his friends where he proceeds to get drunk as well.

The next morning, Ossi hosts a breakfast for Multi-Millionaires’ Daughters Association Against Dipsomania.  Dipsomania was the medical term for alcoholism at the time.  Nucki, still inebriated, shows up at the Quaker mansion where the women assume he is a dipsomaniac in need of treatment.  Ossi literally wins a fistfight with the prize being the privilege to treat the handsome, young dipsomaniac.  Ossi decides to begin treatment in her bedroom.  Although mightily attracted to each other, Ossi takes her wedding vows seriously and Nucki doesn't want to risk his nuptials with pre-marital infidelity.  At this point, Josef rouses from his alcohol induced slumber and notices a stranger in his wife's bedroom.  When he realizes it is Prince Nucki, he lets them in on the his true identity and makes the legally dubious claim that Nucki & Ossi are already married since he signed the marriage license under Nucki's name.  Later, Nucki & Ossi sneak off to assert their conjugal rights.  Later, the ever curious Mr. Quaker checks in on his daughter in her bedroom and finally exclaims, “Now I'm impressed!”

There are several scenes from this film which stand out in my memory.  Most of them have to do with the wealth and excesses of the Quakers.  They have an army of servants and at one point, a regiment of maid bathe and dress Ossi like a factory assembly line.  As I mentioned, Victor Janson seems to be having a ball as the crass, cigar chomping, fat cat.  Curt Bois who lived to be 90 and whose final film appearance was in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire turns up as a Cab Calloway-like band leader whose toe-tapping music induces "a foxtrot epidemic" at Ossi's wedding reception.

There was humor in the film but I came in expecting “The Lubitsch Touch” and this was anything but that in my opinion.  I won't say I disliked the film but will say I was disappointed.

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I saw Cops at the Red Vic in 2010 when Dennis Nyback came to town.  Dennis Nyback seems to have gone silent as his blog has not been updated since last year.  I recall that program at the Red Vic and enjoyed it although I didn't say anything about Cops in my post at the time.  I recall some of the scenes when I watched it the second time but I don't feel Cops is one of Keaton's better two-reelers.  The most memorable scene involves Keaton being chased by hundreds of policemen and was impressive for the number of extras used in the scene.

I guess once again, I've seen too many films for my own good.  Compared with the three Keaton films screened by the SFSFF in February at their winter event, Cops came up short. It's the same set of characters - Keaton's porkpie hat character, Virgnia Fox as the girl, Joe Roberts as the foil and co-director Edward F. Cline but Keaton in Cops did not inspire the same sense of empathy or sympathy as the February films.  In addition, the gags weren't as funny.  Oh well...even a subpar Buster Keaton film is worth a trip to San Rafael.  I'd much rather see Cops a third time than many of the films I've seen since starting this blog.

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Battleship Potemkin was the first film I have seen at Davies Symphony Hall.  As I mentioned, I'm pretty sure it was digitally projected.  What the medium, the picture quality was not very good.  However, organist Cameron Carpenter was quite entertaining.  Sporting a partially grown-out mohawk and a sequined jumpsuit, Carpenter looked more like a rock star.  Carpenter isn't your father's silent film accompanist.  Compared to the Castro or Stanford, the Davies organ appears to have more foot pedals.  Maybe it was because the organ was elevated so that you could clearly see Carpenter's movement.  At the Castro & Stanford, the organ descends into the orchestra pit so it's clear what the organist is doing with his feet.  Carpenter's feet were move frantically and the sequins were reflecting light during the opening piece which did not accompany the film and I do not recall the title or the composer.

After a short introduction which focused on the musical pieces and during which Carpenter admitted to not knowing much about the film, the grainy images of Battleship Potemkin commenced.  I've seen Battleship Potemkin before.  It was a very memorable night as the screening was hosted by the San Francisco chapter of the Freedom Socialist Party.  The music from the DVD gave the scenes on the battleship a certain grandeur.  I originally likened it to Victory at Sea.  The scenes didn't seem so memorable this time.  For all of Carpenter's showmanship, his performance fell short of the standard set by SFSFF.

At SFSFF screenings, the music truly accompanies the film.  The change in tempo or volume is timed with the images on the screen.  Carpenter was simply playing a set piece with the film images seemingly an afterthought.  The music was primary and the film secondary.

Battleship Potemkin stood up well to a second viewing.  The number of extras used in the filming is staggering.  Essentially revolutionary propaganda, Battleship Potemkin makes little effort to personalize the characters.  In contrast, The Weavers at the 2013 SFSFF spent more time humanizing the revolutionaries.  However, Battleship Potemkin has a crucial advantage over The Weavers - Eisenstein's genius with imagery and montage editing with the highlight being the Odessa Steps sequence.

After seeing Battleship Potemkin at Davies, I'm not sure if I'll see additional films presented by the SF Symphony.

2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival

This post has taken unusually long to write due to other time constraints.  I wish I had time to see all the movies I wanted to.  I also wish I had time to write on this blog about all the movies I've seen in a timely manner.  Of course, if I had time to see all the film I wanted and immediately write about them, I probably wouldn't have a job or the money to see all the movies I wanted to see.

The 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) ran from July 18 to 21 at the Castro Theater.  I saw 13 of the 17 programs.

Prix de Beaute starring Louise Brooks; directed by Augusto Genina; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; silent with intertitles; (1930)
The First Born starring Miles Mander & Madeleine Carroll; directed by Miles Mander; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; silent with intertitles; (1928)
Tokyo Chorus starring Tokihiko Okada & Tatsuo Saitô; directed by Yasujirō Ozu; live accompaniment by Günter Buchwald; silent with intertitles; (1931)
The Patsy starring Marion Davies; with Marie Dressler, Dell Henderson & Jane Winton; directed by King Vidor; live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; silent with intertitles; (1928)
The Golden Clown starring Gösta Ekman; directed by A.W. Sandberg; live accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble; silent with intertitles; (1926)
Legong: Dance of the Virgins starring Goesti Poetoe Aloes, Njoman Nyong Nyong, Goesti Bagus Mara & Njoman Saplak; directed by Henry de la Falaise; live accompaniment by Gamelan Sekar Jaya & the Club Foot Orchestra; silent with intertitles; (1935)
Gribiche starring Jean Forest & Françoise Rosay; directed by Jacques Feyder; live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; silent with intertitles; (1925)
The House on Trubnaya Square starring Vera Maretskaya; directed by Boris Barnet; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; silent with intertitles; (1928)
The Joyless Street starring Asta Nielsen & Greta Garbo; directed by G.W. Pabst; live accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble; silent with intertitles; (1925)
The Outlaw and His Wife starring Victor Sjöström, Edith Erastoff & John Ekman; directed by Victor Sjöström; live accompaniment by Matti Bye Ensemble; silent with intertitles; (1918)
The Last Edition starring Ralph Lewis, Lila Leslie & Ray Hallor; directed by Emory Johnson; live accompaniment by Stephen Horne; silent with intertitles; (1925)
The Weavers starring Paul Wegener; directed by Friedrich Zelnik; live accompaniment by Günter Buchwald; silent with intertitles; (1927)
Safety Last! starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis & Bill Strother; directed by Fred Newmeyer & Sam Taylor; live accompaniment by Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra; silent with intertitles; (1923)

I didn't see any short films before the features this year.  Prior to The Weavers (or was it Safety Last!?), festival programmer Anita Monga mentioned that someone from the Alloy Orchestra had emailed her about Dziga Vertov's The Eleventh Year.  They screened the trailer for it.  She hinted it may be on next year's program.

Speaking of next year, the SFSFF has moved the 2014 festival from its traditional July timeframe to May 29 to June 1.  I was told by a fellow festival goer that it was because hotel rates are cheaper in May and the SFSFF has to book several hotel rooms for its musicians and other assorted guests.  By July, San Francisco hotels raise their room rates to summer levels.

The Patsy played at 2008 San Francisco Silent Film Festival.  I didn't recognize the title but realized within a few minutes after the start of the film that I had seen it before.

I had just seen Tatsuo Saitô in Sacramento the previous weekend in Every Night Dreams although I did not recognize him or his face in Tokyo Chorus.

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Two comedies topped the list of my favorites this year.  I mentioned that I saw The Patsy five years ago but that did not diminish my enjoyment of the film.  Marion Davies was delightful as the long put-upon younger sister.  She showed considerable comedic skills and screen presence.  I wonder how her career would have progressed if she was not William Randolph Hearst's mistress.

Harold Lloyd is indisputably a comic genius and Safety Last! his masterpiece.  One of the most iconic images of Hollywood films is that of Lloyd hanging from the hands of a large clock several stories above the street which is the capstone of Safety Last!.  Although there are several amusing scenes before the grand finale, it is the extended sequence where Lloyd is forced to climb the exterior of a building which elevates the film to the spectacular.  The audience at the Castro went crazy for the gags; both laughing uproariously and gasping in fear that Lloyd would fall.

Prix de Beaute was a showcase for Louise Brooks.  More so than any other silent film star I am familiar with Brooks is a phenomenon unto herself.  Her radiance is spellbinding in all the films which I have seen her in.  I'm racking up quite a collection of her greatest films - Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, Beggars of Life and A Girl in Every Port.  I won't say that the bloom is off the rose after seeing Prix de Beaute but I will say that if you look closely, Brooks seems to look older than her 24 years of age.  That's not surprising given the life she lived but her appearance combined with the knowledge that this film was her last hurrah give Prix de Beaute a bittersweet quality.  The film ends badly for her character which only reinforces the tinge of melancholy throughout.

Brooks plays Lucienne "Lulu" Garnier, a typist with dreams of competing in the Miss France beauty pageant.  Her boyfriend Andre (Georges Charlia) is adamantly opposed to beauty pageants so Lulu submits her application and photos in secret.  Eventually she wins the title and must travel to compete in the Miss Europe contest.  Andre finds out and rushes to stop her at the station but just misses the train.  Lulu goes on to win the Miss Europe title and begins to socialize with the rich and famous.  All the while Andre is tracking her down and when he is finally able to confront her, he gives an ultimatum.  Despite her doubts, she chooses him and settles back into a life of domesticity.  When one of her previous admirers appears with an offer of a film contract, Lulu is once again irresistibly drawn to the limelight.  Sadly, when Andre track her down once again, he ends the relationship permanently...with a bullet in Lulu's back.

I was surprised at how the depiction of Andre highlighted several hallmarks of abusive spouses - the apologies, the controlling nature, the need to isolate, etc.  I thought these signs were categorized years after the film was made but I guess even in 1930s France, they knew an abusive husband when they saw one.

I don't want anyone to believe I didn't enjoy film.  It was quite good although Brooks plumbed darker waters in Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. If anything, my knowledge of Brooks' life distracted me from the film itself.  If Brooks didn't look like a million bucks (as she had in her previous films), she certainly lit up the screen Prix de Beaute as few others ever have. 

The Golden Clown was a Swedish tragedy.  Gösta Ekman, whose son and grandson are prominent Swedish actors, plays Joe Higgins (an oddly Anglicized character name).  Higgins is the star clown in a small travelling circus.  He is in love with Daisy (Karina Bell), the circus owner's daughter.  Soon after their engagement, Higgins receives an offer to perform in Paris.  With his new wife and parents-in-law, Higgins settles into the high life of Parisian society.  A critical and financial success, Higgins is living the good life until his wife falls prey to a philandering couturier.  Her affair destroys their lives and leads to her death.

I have noticed that the Matti Bye Ensemble excels in mood music to accompany misery and tragedy.  Their accompaniment of The Golden Clown was the musical highlight of the festival.  Ekman has a memorable scene where he is performing musical number with identically dressed clowns (they look like Pierrot) on a steep staircase.

Gribiche was a fun film about a young boy, eponymous Gribiche (Jean Forest) although that is his nickname.  Raised by a single mother in a modest neighborhood, Gribiche's honesty attracts the attention of a wealthy American dowager (Françoise Rosay, the director's wife).  She proposes to Gribiche's mother that she take guardianship of the boy and to the mother's surprise, Gribiche agrees to the arrangement.

Most of the film depicts the boy as a fish out of water.  Awed by the lavishness and wealth of his new surroundings and overwhelmed by the structured studies which are forced upon him, Gribiche begins to reconsider his choice.  It doesn't help matters that Rosay's character begins to embellish the circumstances of Gribiche's former life.  Gribiche becomes a badge of her altruism to her friends and corroboration of her theories on social hygiene although Gribiche's previous station in life was not so debased.  Gribiche was a pleasant if not particularly memorable comedy about class differences.

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This year's festival had a palpable theme of class warfare.  The Joyless Street was set during the post-WWI deprivations in Vienna.  In a poor neighborhood, the two wealthiest people are the butcher who gouges people for his meat and the owner of a fashion boutique who runs a speakeasy/whorehouse in the back.  The film follows two poor women from the neighborhood - Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo.  Their plotlines are not tightly interwoven.  Nielsen resorts to prostitution and witnesses a murder.  Garbo's father loses his pension in the stock market and Garbo makes nice with an American Red Cross worker (or was he an US Army officer?).  The plot was difficult to follow (perhaps due to the film be edited so many times) and what I could follow didn't make great use of Nielsen and Garbo's screen presence or acting skills.  The butcher and his large dog were the most memorable characters in the film which summarizes what I didn't like about The Joyless Street.

The Weavers was heralded as the German Potemkin (reference to Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin).  That's quite a stretch.  I saw Potemkin prior to the festival and I saw Potemkin a week after the festival and Potemkin has an unmistakable grandeur resulting from the crowd scenes and the scenes upon the battleship.  The Weavers is cut rate agitprop by comparison.  The eponymous weavers are Silesian (where the heck is Silesia?) weavers who sell the cloth fabrics for sustenance wages.  The weavers' wages are forced down because of machine looms.  They rise up in revolt, smash the looms, send the wealthy scurrying before their enraged mob and stand up to the Army troops who are sent to quash them.  There are obviously parallels to today's economic conditions but the film was told with its political message preeminent and character development lagging far behind.  I was never able to empathize with the characters and the film's cinematography did not impress me.  The Weavers left me bored.

The Outlaw and His Wife was directed by and starred Victor Sjöström.  His real-life wife, Edith Erastoff, was the female lead.  Sjöström plays Ejvind, a stranger who is looking for work. He gets a job at Halla's sheep ranch and farm.  Halla is a wealthy widow being courted by her portly brother-in-law who also happens to be the local constable.  Ejvind is a fugitive and when his identity is discovered, he makes a run for it.  Halla, who has fallen in love n Ejvind, decides to accompany him.  They take refuge high in the mountains and make a happy life for themselves; even having a child together.  The isolation, the harassment from the police, filicide, a love triangle and the bitter cold have negative effects on Ejvind & Halla.  Eventually, they freeze to death which mercifully ends their suffering as well as the audiences'.  Whereas The Joyless Street was ponderous and difficult to follow and The Weavers was boring, The Outlaw and His Wife had its share of strong scenes.  The plot was difficult to overcome.  Sending Halla & Ejvind up the mountain and isolating them stopped the film dead in its tracks.  The plot has them living up on the mountain for 16 years and Sjöström extends the film to tortuous length to depict their lives on the mountain.  The film ran over two hours but would have been much more palatable at closer to 90 minutes.

Frankly, I don't recall much about the plot of The House on Trubnaya Square.  A woman comes from the countryside to a big city to find her uncle or something.  She brings her duck or chicken for some reason.  Eventually, she finds work as a maid in a dilapidated tenement building which by any objective standard should be condemned.  Eventually she gets elected to some Communist Party committee but its someone else with the same name?  I don't know.  The House on Trubnaya Square was a Soviet film which so alien to me that I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing.  Combining Gogol-esque absurdist humor with slapstick comedy; director Boris Barnet doesn't quite eschew plot like Vertov but does seem more interested in the visual images.  While watching the film, I kept thinking about Russian humor or Soviet humor.  If you can make a joke out of waiting in line for 7 hours in winter to get a roll of toilet paper, then I suppose The House on Trubnaya Square is a Soviet comedy.

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I enjoyed the remaining films to varying degrees.

Miles Mander was memorable in The Pleasure Garden which played at the Hitchcock 9 in June.  He plays a similar character in The First Born which he also directed.  Alma Reville was credited with half the screenplay.  In fact, I noticed the pre-screening slideshow recycled a lot of material from the Hitchcock 9.  You would have thought Hitchcock directed The First Born.  Anyway, Mander is once again a cad as he was in The Pleasure Garden although he doesn't kill anyone in The First Born.  Madeleine Carroll (who would star in Hitchcock's The 39 Steps) plays Mander's long suffering wife.  The plot is pure melodrama and there is a tidy ending involving Mander's illegitimate son which cheapens the film a bit but for the most part The First Born is an opportunity for Mander to strut his stuff front and center instead of in supporting role.  Mander has more than enough acting skills to carry the film.

Yasujirō Ozu is the director of Tokyo Chorus but it doesn't feel like an "Ozu film."  In 2011, the SF Silent Film Festival screened Ozu's I Was Born, But... (1932).  I was impressed with that film but Tokyo Chorus (1931) was not quite as impressive.  Ozu relies more on humor than his later film and the humor feels forced.  His trademark pathos isn't quite as evident in Tokyo Chorus. Tatsuo Saitô performance as the strict school instructor cum restaurateur throws off the pacing of the film.  There is a scene where Reikô Tani as the company CEO and Tokihiko Okada as protagonist match each other, movement for movement, with hand fans which was amusing.  The young children are also present to serve as a foil and conscience for Okada as their father.  I can't say I disliked Tokyo Chorus but I wish I had seen it before I Was Born, But...  The latter film shows a natural progression for Ozu when compared to Tokyo Chorus.

Legong: Dance of the Virgins was advertised as a pseudo-documentary shot on location in Bali in present-day Indonesia.  Accompanied by the Club Foot Orchestra and the enormous Gamelan Sekar Jaya (they must have had 30 people or more on stage), the Castro was packed for Legong.  Rather than having the detachment of a documentarian's lens, I though Legong was closer to a Paul Gauguin paining.  Director Henry de la Falaise appeared to have a great affection for the Balinese people which mixed the exotic with a vague sense paternalism.  The plot centered on a young man in a gamelan.  A young maiden is in love with her but he has eyes for her half-sister.  Why they bothered to make that distinction is beyond me.  Many of the characters had the same name as the "actor" portraying them so maybe the two women were half-siblings.  This love triangle has a backdrop of the daily minutiae of Balinese life.  In one scene, one of the women rhythmically and gracefully pound grain or rice with a staff and it was hypnotic to watch.  Legong is a tragedy so by the end, someone dies.  Legong was far from a great film but the exotic location and arresting score were enough to keep my interest.  There were several scenes of young women (and girls) topless.  Rather than exploitative, the scenes depict the lifestyle which existed in Bali at the time.  Actually, there is not time reference which I recalled so the film may have been set in contemporary times or centuries ago.  The score began to grate of my ears as the film went on.  It was a constant cacophony of noises which although pleasing at times, became mildly annoying at the end.  More variation in the score would have suited my tastes better.

The Last Edition was also a sellout...undoubtedly due to its being filmed in San Francisco.  If it were set anyplace else, I think I would categorize the film lower.  The plot involves a young lawyer in the San Francisco DA's office and his father who works the printing presses at the San Francisco Chronicle.  The younger man is framed for a crime he did not commit and a Chronicle reporter helps him clear his name.  It was a run-of-the-mill film with a plot that has been used many times before and since.  The attractions were the exterior shots in San Francisco and recognizing the locations.  The scenes where the paper is being "put to bed" were also interesting to me.  Apparently, the Chronicle's masthead hasn't changed in 80+ years.

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This year's festival had an odd dynamic for me.  From opening night through Saturday afternoon, I enjoyed seven consecutive films.  Then it was quite a slog to get through four of the next five films and even the exception (The Last Edition) wasn't really that good.  It was because I had not enjoyed those films that I stayed for Safety Last! which proved to be my favorite of the festival.  Typically, the films I like and dislike are more evenly spread out through the festival.

The Ones that Got Away and The Ones That Are Coming Up

I will note that I completely skipped this year's DocFest (June 6 to 23) and Frameline (June 20 to 30) film festivals.  I saw 28 film screenings in June so it's not as though I had a lot of time to squeeze those two festivals into my itinerary.

I considered buying a six pack for DocFest but never pulled the trigger.  This is the first year that DocFest is in June so I'll have to work on making time to see it.  I have long supported Jeff Ross and the Indiefest team.

I plan on seeing several films at the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival starting on Thursday and running through Sunday, July 21.  I'm also eyeing a few screenings at the 2013 San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 25 to August 12).  I just purchased tickets to some of the screenings at the Japan Film Festival (July 27 to August 4) at the Viz.

I also read there was a shooting on the same block as the Roxie Theater.  I have written before about how that area of the Mission is becoming more dangerous.  The latest shooting occurred outside the Double Dutch bar, an establishment that Indiefest has had events at before.  I've never been there but I have been to Doctor Bombay's (Bewitched reference) the previous bar in that location.

2013 Sacramento French Film Festival

I returned to Sacramento in June to see the 2013 Sacramento French Film Festival (SFFF).  I attended the 2012 SFFF.  As in 2012, this year's SFFF was held at the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento.  As an aside, the Crest stopped daily movie screenings earlier this year but its main auditorium remains available for "one off" film & live events as well as most of Sacramento's film festival screenings.

Three Worlds starring Raphaël Personnaz, Clotilde Hesme & Arta Dobroshi; directed by Catherine Corsini; French with subtitles; (2010) - Official Facebook
Adieu Berthe starring Denis Podalydès, Valérie Lemercier & Isabelle Candelier; directed by Bruno Podalydès; French with subtitles; (2012) - Official Facebook

Going Places starring Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere & Miou-Miou; directed by Bertrand Blier; French with subtitles; (1974)

Starbuck starring Patrick Huard; directed by Ken Scott; French with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website

Each feature film I saw was preceded by a short film.

Les Meutes; directed by Manuel Schapira; French with subtitles;  14 minutes; (2012)
Les Lézards; directed by Vincent Mariette; French with subtitles; 14 minutes;  (2012)
Tram; animation; directed by Michaela Pavlatova; 7 minutes; (2011)
Bad Gones; directed by Stéphane Demoustier; French with subtitles; 13 minutes; (2011)

Les Meutes (The Hounds) preceded Three Worlds.  Les Lézards (The Lizards) preceded Adieu Berthe.  Tram, which had no dialogue, preceded Going Places.  Bad Gones precedes Starbuck.

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Before I forget, the Sacramento Japanese Film Festival (SJFF) is running from July 12 to 14 at the Crest Theater.  For as long as I have known of its existence, the SJFF has conflicted with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF).  However, this year the SFSFF is one week after the SJFF.  The SFSFF will be from July 18 to 21 at the Castro Theater.

To the best of my knowledge, Sacramento has four film festivals.  I've already mentioned SFFF and SJFF.  There is also the Sacramento International Film Festival which was held April 20 to 28 and the Sacramento Jewish Film Festival which was held March 9 and 10.

In addition to those Sacramento film festivals, there is an organization called Trash Film Orgy which holds midnight screenings during the summer with live stage shows before their screenings.  They kick off their season on July 13 at the Crest (same venue & weekend as the SJFF).

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Back to the SFFF.

Three Worlds is the story about three people whose worlds would typically not intersect.  Al (Raphaël Personnaz) is a manager at a car dealership who is out partying with two of his friends from work.  Driving while drunk, Al hits and kills a man. The man who is a Moldavian immigrant leaves behind a widow named Vera (Arta Dobroshi).  The third person is a medical student named Juliette (Clotilde Hesme) who witnesses the hit & run and can identify the driver.

When Al discovers the man has died, he feels guilt but his friends from work tell him to keep quiet.  Al is marrying the owner's daughter in a few days and a DUI hit and run death might put the kibosh the wedding.    Al is marrying above his social station as his mother used to be his boss' maid.  Unwilling to risk everything he has worked for, Al decides to keep the "accident" from his fiancée and future father-in-law.

Meanwhile, Vera's relatives are investigating the accident.  The police are largely (if not completely) absent from the film.  I assumed the death of (illegal?) immigrant doesn't rate high.  Juliette is contacted by Vera's relatives and she takes an unusual interest in the victim who survives the accident for a few days.  Actually, now that I think about it Juliette goes to considerable lengths to find the identity of the victim and contact his employer and family.

Al visits the hospital to check on the victim and is spotted by Juliette.  Juliette keeps the fact that she saw the driver of the car which hit Vera's husband from Vera and her family.  Later, she tracks down Al and shows up at his car dealership which puts him at unease.  The stress of the man's death, his upcoming nuptials and a desire to pay some money to Vera is causing Al to behave erratically.

I won't continue recounting the plot because the film is not quite up to snuff.  Although the plot sets everything up and the actors dutiful perform their roles, something feels flat in Three Worlds.

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If Three Worlds felt flat, Adieu Berthe (aka Granny's Funeral) felt hyper energetic.  Denis Podalydès (the brother of the film's director) plays Armand.  Adieu Berthe is a comedy centered around the death and funeral of Armand's grandmother.  Armand and his wife Hélène (Isabelle Candelier) are pharmacists who run a small drugstore.  Armand also has a mistress, Alix (Valérie Lemercier).  Both wife & mistress of the other but Armand seems to have settled into his dual life...how very French.

Anyway, we get some gags as he makes funeral arrangements.  One funeral parlor is New Age ridiculous.  Another seems to specialize in animal funerals.  His father has Alzenheimer's Disease.

A lot of gags and contrived situations does not a comedy make.

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Going Places was scheduled to start at 11:20 PM.  It started a little late but there was an introduction from festival director Cécile Mouette Downs, then the festival trailer and finally the short film.  The point I am making is that the film didn't start until close to 11:45.  I think I feel asleep around 1:15 AM. At nearly 2 hours, Going Places kept on going.  I recall the bars across the street from the Crest were closing down as I exited the theater.  I completely missed 20 year old Isabelle Huppert's appearance

A young Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere (who would commit suicide in 1982) play two roguish drifters.  "Drifters" is not the right word.  Punks, thugs, rapists, killers, nihilists, bisexuals, ne'er-do-wells, etc.  They seem to drift through life looking for sex, crime and trouble.  For example, they end up having a menage-a-trois with Jeanne Moreau who ends up killing herself in the next room by shooting herself in the vagina.

If you had to classify the film, you would call it a comedy but it has a misanthropic streak to it.  Imagine if Jean-Luc Godard had made Natural Born Killers and you get some sense of type of film Going Places is.  Despite that less than stellar commentary, I cannot say I disliked the film.  There was certainly some artistic vision at play.  I'm just not sure if I agree with the direction or scenery.

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With three near misses on Saturday, was hoping Sunday would be better.  I only had time to see one film before driving back to the Bay Area.

Starbuck is the story of David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) who lives French Canada (Montreal?).  Twenty years earlier, David made money by providing samples to sperm bank.  Through a procedural error, the sperm bank used his sample to impregnate many women resulting in his "fathering" 533 children.  About 100 of them have sued the sperm bank to learn their father's identity.  David signed a confidentiality agreement so his identity is protected.

However, he receives the biographical background of the plaintiffs and can't help himself.  He begins to meet some of his children but does not divulge his identity to them.  They just think he is a nice guy.  When his interactions with them become to coincidental he explains his presence by saying he is the step-father of one of the plaintiffs...the one who has Lou Gehrig's disease and therefore cannot communicate.

This proxy paternalism plays out against David's life which consists of his cop girlfriend being pregnant and he has shown no desire to assume parenting responsibilities to date.  As his friend and lawyer (outstanding performance by Antoine Bertrand) battles on his behalf in court and he clandestinely contacts his kids, David keeps the paternity suit secret from his friends and family even as the case become newspaper fodder.

As the bonds between David and his children deepen, David finds he is the one benefiting from knowing his children.

The title refers to the nom de guerre  David assumed at the sperm bank.  Also, Starbuck is being remade into Hollywood film with Vince Vaughn in the role of David.

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Although the features were not completely satisfying, the short films were particularly strong.

Les Meutes was about a party and some guys trying to crash it.  There is a fight and this was my least favorite short film.

Les Lézards is about two men hanging out in a Turkish bath while one waits for his blind date.  They talk about love & life.  It was very funny.

Tram is an animated film about a zaftig female trolley driver who likes her job quite a bit.  The vibrations of the ride excite her and the in-and-out motion of ticket punch becomes a metaphor for the sexual act.  By the end, she is fantasizing about the male commuters while driving & masturbating.  I thought it was laugh out loud funny.

Bad Gones - not sure what the title means or if it is a bad translation.  The short reminded me a little of The Bicycle Thieves.  A boy and his father go to a professional soccer match but the man hasn't pre-purchased the tickets.  All that are left are the most expensive seats which he cannot afford.  When he informs the boy, his son starts sulking.  Eventually, the man compromises with his own conscience and steals some tickets from a distracted person.  The boy is unaware or doesn't care about the provenance of the tickets.

The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's July Calendar

A new month, a new Castro Theater calendar. The calendar came out last week but I've been so busy that...same old excuse - too busy to blog.

This was an easy one although I have yet to solve one of these puzzles without help.

July 8 - Redd Foxx was immediately recognizable despite looking younger than the Sanford and Son days when h I first saw him.

July 9 - I did not recognize this woman.  When I showed my co-worker the calendar, he immediately recognized Betty White.  I would guess the photo is from around the time White was on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.  I watched that show during its original network broadcast as a child but didn't recognize White.  I'd like to think I would have made the connection but my co-worker was too quick in identifying White for me to make that claim.

July 15 - I immediately recognized Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi as the Blue Brothers.  Obviously there was a film called The Blues Brothers (1980) staring Ackroyd & Belushi but the Blues Brothers released several albums and performed live at many venues including the final show at Winterland.  When performing, Ackroyd & Belushi did not break character and they developed intricate backstories and biographies of the characters.  They also hired top-notch musicians for their band.

Redd, White and Blues can only mean Red, White and Blue in celebration of Independence Day.

I drew a blank on the guy sitting on the wall in the July 4 rectangle.  I'm not sure if the July 4 item is part of the puzzle.

As for the films, July looks like a good month at the Castro.  I'm a big fan of Jaws (July 3).  Robert Shaw gave a great performance.  I've long wanted to see Night of the Hunter (July 11).  Another favorite of mine is The Exorcist (July 12).  Mercedes McCambridge's voice performance is incredible.  The Craft (July 13 with Peaches Christ) is one of my guilty pleasures.  It's the first time I saw Fairuza Balk.  On July 17, they are screening a pair of Jim Jarmusch's anthologies - Mystery Train and Night of Earth.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival occupy much of the  rest of the Castro's July calendar.

Castro Theater Calendar - July 2013

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.