The Search for General Tso

On January 21, I took a partial break from Noir City to see a film at the 4 Star.

The Search for General Tso; documentary; directed by Ian Cheney; English & Mandarin with subtitles; (2014) - Official Website

The Search for General Tso traces the history of the ubiquitous dish called General Tso's Chicken.  The film can be broken down into three parts - Who was General Tso?  Who created General Tso's Chicken?  How did General Tso's Chicken come to be on just about every Chinese  restaurant menu in America?

Before I forget, I should note that I was the only person in the theater.  I believe that is only the third time that I have been the sole attendee for an entire film.  Maybe I should also note that I don't like General Tso's Chicken.  The taste is not to my liking.  I cannot recall the last time I had it.  I much prefer Kung Pao Chicken or Sesame Chicken.

It turns out there was a General Tso.  He was a 19th century general, "the hero of Hunan Province."  The filmmakers visited Hunan and were shown statues, museums and other memorials to General Tso.  Interestingly, none of the mainland Chinese interviewed had tasted or even heard of General Tso's Chicken.  When shown a photo, one lady thought the dish was frog meat.  Alas, General Tso never tasted the dish which bears his name.

Rather than venture into the origins of the dish, the film next explores the history of Chinese in America.  After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese were effectively limited in the jobs they could obtain.  One common job was restaurant worker.  In order to survive, Chinese restaurants would adapt to the tastes of local (i.e. Caucasian) customers.  The dish called chop suey (which I have never seen offered in a Chinese restaurant I have been to) became popular around this time.  The filmmakers were assisted by a gentlemen who had the Guinness World Record for largest menu collection.  Searching through his collection, we see that General Tso's Chicken did not appear on any menus until the 1970s whereas as Chop Suey's prevalence declined after the 1950s.  This corresponds with a culinary movement to bring more authentic flavors and dishes to Chinese restaurants in the US.

Michael Tong, owner of New York's Shun Lee Palace, claims his restaurant was the first to serve the dish in the US (in 1972).  This claims goes largely undisputed by the filmmakers.  Implicit in the filmmakers' narrative is that Tong or one of his kitchen chefs learned of the dish from a trip to Taiwan where Chef Peng Chang-kuei invented it.  Chef Peng was a native of Hunan who fled to Taiwan with Chang Kai-shek's Nationalist government for whom he was the official banquet chef.  Chef Peng & his son recall American visitors sampling his creation in the 1960s.  Not a traditional dish, Chef Peng's chicken recipe blended classic Hunan flavors in new ways and Peng named it after the well known general from his province.  Peng even moved to New York to open a restaurant.  Although the restaurant soon closed and Peng returned to Taiwan, the popularity of his chicken item is undisputed.

Whether Peng was first or Tong was first in the US is not really important.  The important point is that in the early 1970s, General Tso's Chicken was haute cuisine in NYC.  How did it find it's way to so many Chinese restaurants in the US?  According to the film, the Chinese family associations provided restaurant training to immigrants and had territorial agreements with each other.  When a Chinese immigrant would come to New York (or SF), they would be trained on how to run a restaurant and given some stake money to set up a Chinese restaurant in the hinterlands.  That is how it came to be that small towns with no significant Chinese population came to have at least one Chinese restaurant.  Since General Tso's Chicken was modified to suit American tastes (it's sweeter than the original recipe), it was taught to the would-be restaurateurs who, like Chinese Johnny Appleseeds, spread the dish to all parts of America.

The Search for General Tso was entertaining enough.  For better or worse, it had the look and feel of a PBS documentary.  At 71 minutes, it seems to have been constructed to be easily edited into a 60 minute television spot.  The filmmakers keep a light touch on a minor subject while touching briefly on the racism and other difficulties encountered by Chinese immigrants.  The film is a solid effort by an experienced documentary film director.  Ian Cheney directed King Corn (2007) which made a big splash on film festival and indie theater circuit.

The Spirit of Noir City...and This is Not a Story for Little Boys

I did not attend the Noir City Xmas Kickoff event at the Castro on December 17.  I had seen both films on the program.  I don't know what Eddie Muller said during the evening.  The theme for this year's Noir City is unholy matrimony.

"This year's festival presents an extraordinary range of films all centered around how the bonds of matrimony affect an array of characters—those who crave a perfect and permanent union, those who'll stop at nothing to preserve it, and those who will do anything to escape it."

I also noticed that "this year's [Noir City] poster has a surprising back story."  However, the back story of the poster is replete with mystery.  Unlike every other film festival I have attended, Noir City selects a spokesmodel each year (aka Miss Noir City).  Czar of Noir Eddie Muller is a little cagey in describing the selection process but I have noticed that all the Miss Noir City winners look incredible in a tight skirt and even better when they wear less than that.

If the theme of the films of the 2015 Noir City is unholy matrimony then the theme to the 2015 Noir City poster is "lustful lesbian pulp."  Miss Noir City 2014 was Evie Lovelle and Miss Noir City 2013 was Audra Wolfmann.

Ms. Wolfmann's poster featured her as a sexy, sweaty, Rosie-the-Riveter type working an old-school 35 mm projector while (presumably) the projectionist is out cold with his hands bound behind his back.  I particularly liked the saddle shoes she is wearing and the motto "Keeping It Reel" emblazoned on the projector.

Ms. Lovelle's poster had her partially reclined on a chaise lounge in an unidentified Islamic city.  There is a globe & airplane statuette which I think I've seen in a film before.  It may be a reference to the Universal Studios logo, but the three vertical stabilizers on the tail section of the plane makes me think that is not the case.

This year's poster features two women whom I believe are Mses. Lovelle & Wolfmann.  The poster has a lot of interesting aspects to it.  First, I notice it is missing the Film Noir Foundation logo.  Second, the poster is actually a paperback novel cover.  The creases on the upper and lower right corners and along the left edge are meant to give the impression of a well-worn paperback.  Under the "N" of Noir City is a logo (not the FNF logo) and beneath the logo is the price of 35 cents...the approximate price of a pulp paperback in 1951.

However, by far the most interesting aspect to this year's poster is the alleged back story.  The 2013 poster features Ms. Wolfmann as Connie Slubowski, a film projectionist during WWII who lost her job when the theater's pre-war projectionist returned from military service.  Slubowski snuck into the projection booth (on the day The Postman Always Rings Twice premiered), knocked out the projectionist and projected the film for four days before being discovered.  The president of the theater chain paid off the projectionist for his silence and promptly married Slubowski.

The 2014 poster features Ms. Lovelle as Linda Loring, an Oxford educated "jewel thief, art forger and con artist."  After a some trouble in Istambul, Loring absconded to Southern California where she passed herself off as a divorce lawyer.  It was in LA where Loring was hired by Stanley Bates to handle his divorce and make sure his wife got nothing from the settlement.

The 2015 poster features Ms. Lovelle as Loring, Ms. Wolfmann as Connie Bates (née Slubowski) and that's probably Eddie Muller as the recently departed Stanley Bates, the victim of a double cross conspiracy  involving his attorney and his wife.

It's an entertaining story and I believe Muller actually had a three year plan when he created the posters.  If so, that's as impressive as the back story.  As for the back story, it seems as though Muller borrowed from multiple sources.

First, there is Linda Loring...that is the name of a love interest and eventual wife of Philip Marlowe, the fictional detective created by Raymond Chandler and portrayed most famously by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep.

Loring's nom de guerre is P'Gell.  P'Gell is an Istambul-based femme fatale character from The Spirit, a comic strip/book written by Will Eisner from 1940 to 1952.  Note the similarities between the 2014 Noir City poster and the cover of the October 6, 1946 issue of The Spirit.

2014 Noir City Poster 

October 6, 1946 Issue of The Spirit

Seeing that last year's poster was based on a comic book cover and that this year's poster was explicitly referenced as "lustful lesbian pulp," I decided to peruse the covers of various cheap crime novels to see if I could find a similar one.

2015 Noir City Poster 

I didn't find any that matched but it was a lot fun to look at them.  Among my favorite titles were:  Never Love a Man, By Love Depraved, Warped Women (Marilyn Monroe must have been the inspiration for the cover art), Tutor from Lesbos, Campus Kittens, Sin Sucker (Mary Wanted More Than Her Husband Could Give) & 69 Barrow Street (Their Love Was Right! But Their Sex Was Wrong).  With all due respect to the Czar of Noir, the cover art for several of the lesbian pulp novels put his poster (and me) to shame.

2013 Noir City Poster

I firmly believe "Connie Slubowski" is a reference to a fictional character but I cannot find the source material.  Maybe I can pick up some clues at Noir City which begins in less than two weeks (January 16 to 25).

The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's January 2015 Calendar

The January 2015 Castro Theater calendar shows that the theater is only closed two days during the month.  It's holding private events on two other days.  As far as the puzzle is concerned, there only two clues; on the days the theater closed.

When I look at these calendars and try to solve the puzzle, I categorize my attempts into four general levels.  The first level is when I recognize the actor and am so confident that I do not seek verification.  The second level is when I recognize the actor but am not so confident and do seek verification on the internet.  The third level is when I do not recognize the actor but can infer a name or association from the other clues and search the internet using the other clues.  The final level is when I have no idea about the actor, clip the photo from the calendar and use Google Image Search to search on the image.

It's only the fourth level which I consider "cheating."  By those criteria, I did not cheat in identifying the actors this month

January 12 - I immediately recognized Robert Mitchum; Level 1.

January 6 - suspecting the clues pointed to Noir City (January 16 to 25) and already knowing Robert Mitchum was the actor shown on January 12, I started looking for films in the 2015 Noir City program with Robert Mitchum.  Finding none, I started looking through Mitchum's filmography to find noir films.  The first film I recalled was Out of the Past which is one of the seminal film noir entries.  Mitchum's co-star in Out of the Past was Jane Greer.  She was readily identifiable from her photos.  In fact, her Wikipedia entry features the photo shown on January 6.  Level 3.

The combination of Mitchum & Greer point to Out of the Past and that title, I believe refer to the films being screened at Noir City - 60 year old films are "out of the past."

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Obviously the highlight of the Castro's January line-up is the 2015 Noir City film festival.  Playing second fiddle, Berlin and Beyond runs from January 29 to February 1 at the Castro.  The two festival have swapped places on the calendar.  Berlin and Beyond has traditionally preceded Noir City on January calendar.

The January calendar is full of interesting non-festival screenings.

Tonight, Midnites from Maniacs screens Snowpiercer & Runaway Train.  I notice Snowpiercer showed up on some "Best of 2014" lists but I wasn't so impressed with it.  I haven't seen Runaway Train and am anxious to see the film written by Kurosawa (Stray Dogs), directed by Konchalovskiy (Uncle Vanya) who went to film school & collaborated with Tarkovsky (Solaris).  Unfortunately, I have other plans tonight so I cannot attend.

January 7 - St. Vincent.  This film has been on my "To See" list for a month.

January 10 - Rear Window & Road Games.  Read Window is one of my favorite Hitchcock films.  Rear Window, Vertigo & North by Northwest form my triumvirate of Hitchcock films.  I think I saw Road Games many years ago but this Stacey Keach/Jamie Lee Curtis Aussie grindhouse film is not ingrained in my memory so it is as good as new for me.

January 14 - Planet of the Apes & Escape from New York.  We're talking about the original Charlton Heston PotA (Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!).  A younger version of myself would have made this double bill a priority but the middle-aged version is only penciling it in on my calendar.

January 28 - Lost Highway & Videodrome.  I saw Videodrome as a teenager and it made quite an impression.  I don't think I've even seen a clip from Videodrome since the early 1990s.  I'm not sure if I have seen Lost Highway.  They had a Barry Gifford series at the Balboa about a decade ago.  I may have seen it then but I cannot remember.

Other films which look interesting are a backdoor Ingmar Bergman double shot: Persona (January 8) & Hour of the Wolf (January 9) and a thriller called White of the Eye (January 11).

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Castro Theater Calendar - January 2015

2014 The French Had A Name For It: Crème de la Crème

Never let it be said that the Roxie doesn't know a good thing when it sees it.  First, the Roxie presented The French Had A Name For It, a 12 film series from November 14 to 17.  It was so successful that they presented The French Had A Name For It - Redux! from November 21 to 26.  From December 13 to 18, the Roxie presented Crème de la Crème of The French Had A Name For It.

Of the 12 films screened in the original series, I saw two during original series, four during the Redux! and three during the Crème de la Crème edition.  In addition, I had seen two films in the series previously at the PFA.  That means I've seen 11 of the 12 films screened.  The missing link was Les Maudits which I missed at Redux! and didn't screen at Crème de la Crème.  The Roxie added a new film to Crème de la Crème:  Le Monte-Charge.

Summarizing the films I saw during Crème de la Crème,

Le Monte-Charge (Paris Pickup) starring Robert Hossein & Lea Massari; directed by Marcel Bluwal; French with subtitles; (1962)
Chair de poule (Highway Pickup) starring Robert Hossein & Catherine Rouvel; directed by Julien Duvivier; French with subtitles; (1963)
La Vérité (The Truth) starring Brigitte Bardot & Sami Frey; directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; French with subtitles; (1960)
Un témoin dans la ville (Witness in the City) starring Lino Ventura; directed Eduard Molinaro; French with subtitles; (1959)

As long as I'm writing about film noir, I should mention that the 2015 Noir City schedule has been announced.  This year's theme is "unholy matrimony."  Of the 25 films on the program, I have seen four (Suspicion, The Bigamist, The Thin Man & Clash by Night) of them although I need to check my records more closely.

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Le Monte-Charge - Robert Hossein plays a parolee who returns to his Paris neighborhood just before Christmas.  He meets the mysterious Lea Massari who somehow manages to seduce him with barely a word and with her young son in tow.  She is married to a wealthy man and lives in a flat above his warehouse.  When he arrives there to bed her, he quickly encounters her dead husband.  He runs out of the apartment but against better judgment, he returns...and follows the woman to midnight mass...and helps take her back home after she faints.

It is the type of the film where the protagonist acts in self-destructive ways.  Even after finding out Massari's nefarious scheme, he helps her cover up the crime.  Their ultimate fate is more a comedy of errors than tragic.  Filled with long, pregnant pauses and imagery of steam engine train belching smoke, I thought the film was a little pretentious.  Le Monte-Charge was out of place with the other films in the series.

Highway Pickup was a much better vehicle for Hossein.  He plays a safe cracker who escapes prison and hides out as a car mechanic at remote gas station.  The owner Thomas (Georges Wilson) is eager to have a worker so he can take his wife Maria (Catherine Rouvel) out on the town.  It's hinted that she was a prostitute and her behavior doesn't dissuade anyone from that conclusion.  It just so happens that Thomas has a safe and Maria is very anxious to access the contents of the safe.  Once she gets her hooks into Hossein, the film travels down the noir highway at breakneck speed.

Like most of his films, Chair de poule is an exceptionally well made film.  Rouvel stands out as a particularly memorable femme fatale but all the actors are solid and the plot keeps twisting so you never quite sure how its going to end.  Highway Pickup was one of my favorite films from the series (or three series).

La Vérité was the most anticipated film of the series; at least it was for me.  As backstory, Brigitte Bardot had given birth only a few months before filming La Vérité and it most certainly didn't show.  Although married at the time of filming, Bardot began an affair on the set with her co-star Sami Frey.  Unable to choose between her husband & Frey, Bardot sought refuge in a secluded seaside village.  When the press found her, she slashed her wrists.  This is suspiciously similar to the plot of La Vérité where Bardot plays Dominique Marceau who is on trial for the murder of her lover Gilbert Tellier (Frey).  The trial and examination of witnesses allows the story of their relationship to be told in flashback.  In the end, Marceau slashes her wrists.

All that makes for a juicy prelude to the film but La Vérité is an outstanding film without knowing anything about Bardot's personal life.  It's also well known that Bardot & director Henri-Georges Clouzot clashed on the film.  I first became aware of Clouzot's mistreatment of actors and compulsive behavior from a documentary on his unfinished Inferno.  Bardot was struggling with press reports about her relationship with Frey & her jealous husband.  Clouzot allegedly drugged her drinks to calm her down and it didn't stop Bardot from allegedly slapping Clouzot's face on the set.

The premise of La Vérité is that a gold digger/tramp killed a promising symphony conductor.  As the trial unwinds, we see that the truth is more complex as the Bardot is a confused young woman swept up in Paris cafe culture and the upstanding young man is less than innocent.  The root of the problem is this intense sexual desire between the two and Clouzot captures Bardot's ample sexuality with gusto.  If nothing else, La Vérité should be seen to see Bardot at the height of sexiness.  Bardot's performance is noteworthy as well.  She continually layers complexities on to Dominique's seemingly vapid and venal character until the end when I felt her torment as acutely as any movie experience.

On top of the backstory & Bardot's performance, Clouzot adds a cynical and entertaining commentary about the French system of jurisprudence through the machinations and rivalries among the attorneys and other legal participants.  I was very impressed by La Vérité.

Witness in the City wasn't a bad film but it certainly suffered in comparison to Highway Pickup and La Vérité.  Lino Ventura plays a cuckold who kills his wife's lover & murderer.  Unfortunately, a taxi driver witnesses the murder so Ventura must kill again.  He doesn't count on the rather unified cabal of lethal taxi killers.  It was a little absurd towards the end but I can't complain too much.  I became a little bored by the extended end chase.  It was nice to see a young Lino Ventura.

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2015 Noir City Poster

The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's November 2014 Calendar

This month's Castro calendar was hit and miss.

I immediately recognized Rock Hudson on November 17.  After a little bit of staring, I recognized Richard Burton on November 10.

I was drawing a blank on the two females.  Searching the internet in an attempt to tie Hudson & Burton together, I noticed Hudson was born on November 17 and Burton on the 10th.

Looking for actresses born on November 3 & 4, I quickly found Monica Vitti & Linda Haynes.

Summarizing the images:

November 3 - Monica Vitti

November 4 - Linda Haynes

November 10 - Richard Burton

November 17 - Rock Hudson

I could not find the link between the four actors.  November 11 is Veterans Day (previously Armistice Day) which is the anniversary of the end of WWI.  The Best Years of Our Lives which played on Veterans Day premiered on November 21, 1946 but its hard to find that link.

I give up...

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The private event on November 16 was a SFFS screening of Selma.

The TBA for November 24 has been changed to closed. The Castro will have been closed six days in November once Thanksgiving is complete.

The TBA for November 25 will be Boyhood (directed by Richard Linklater).

Some December screenings are already known.

Midnites for Maniacs is screening a double feature with the theme "LA: Out of the Past" on December 12.  It consists of Who Framed Roger Rabbit & Ed Wood.  I am told that the Maniac was inspired to program this double bill by the same screening of Los Angeles Plays Itself which I was impressed with.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut is screening on December 15 & 16.  I named this blog (dansmovieblog.blogspot.com was taken) after a character in Blade Runner but I don't believe I have seen the film since starting this site.  I think it is time I see Blade Runner for the 18th or however many times I have seen it.

Although not on the Castro Theater website, Eddie Muller is holding his annual Noir City Xmas/kickoff event on Wednesday, December 17 at 7:00 PM.  The films have not been announced for December 17 nor Noir City.

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That reminds me:  several 2015 film festivals have already announced their dates.

Another Hole in the Head will be December 5-14, 2014 at the Viz.  The schedule is up and tickets are available for purchase.

Noir City will be January 16-25, 2015 at the Castro.

Berlin and Beyond will be at the Castro (Jan 29-Feb 1), Goethe-Institut (Feb 1-2) and Landmark California Theater in Berkeley (Feb 3).

The Mostly British Film Festival will be February 12-19, 2015 at the Vogue.  I've seen a flyer with a partial listing of films but I cannot recall any of the films.

Cinequest will be from February 24-March 8, 2015 in San Jose.

CAAMFest will be from March 12-22, 2015.

The only film festival missing firm dates from the 2015-Q1 lineup is Indiefest and they most likely have announced the dates but I cannot find them listed on their website.

Finally, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival has added a fifth day to its 2015 run. Originally scheduled for May 28-31, the festival will now conclude on Monday, June 1.

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Castro Theater Calendar - November 2014