Chinese Thanksgiving

Lately, I've been forgetful.  I had a business trip where I thought I was booked at the Marriott but in fact, my reservations were at the Hilton.  For Thanksgiving, I thought I had booked a flight to visit my father on Thanksgiving Day but in fact, I had booked the flight for the day after Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, my father made me aware of this on the day before Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, that was too late to wheedle a Thanksgiving dinner invitation from anyone.  For the first time in my life, I spent Thanksgiving Day alone.  With my gym closed, I was left with few options to amuse myself.  I ended up doing laundry and going to the movie theater

I watched two Chinese films on Thanksgiving Day.  In the morning, I went to the AMC Metreon to see Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2.  In the late afternoon, I went to the Camera 12 in San Jose to see Women Who Flirt.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 starring Louis Koo, Miriam Yeung, Gao Yuanyuan & Vic Chou; with Daniel Wu; directed by Johnnie To; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (2014)
Women Who Flirt starring Zhou Xun, Huang Xiaoming & Tang Sui; directed by Pang Ho-cheung; Cantonese with subtitles; (2014)

I wasn't particularly bullish on either film but I went to see them mostly based on their pedigree.

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I saw Don't Go Breaking My Heart at the 2011 Hong Kong Cinema series presented by the San Francisco Film Society.  Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 is the sequel to that film.  When I read about 2, I wondered if I had seen the original.  I had to confirm it by searching this blog.  During the sequel, they showed some clips from the original as flashbacks which I recalled.  I can say that Don't Go Breaking My Heart was a barely memorable romantic comedy about a love triangle between Louis Koo, Daniel Wu & Gao Yuanyuan.  At the end, Wu's character (Qihong, an architect) wins the heart of Zixin (Gao) over the financier Shen-Ran (Koo).  Despite my luke warm reception, it was a major box office hit in China.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 opens with Zixin engaged to Qihong and a month out from her wedding.  Unemployed in the financial industry, Zixin is able to land a job at Yang Yang Yang's (Miriam Yeung) firm which is coincidentally across the street from Shen-Ran's new offices.  Despite Shen-Ran's womanizing, he and Yang begin a romance and form a high-powered couple.  Shen-Ran is unaware that Zixin works in Yang's office & Yang is unaware that Zixin used to be involved with Shen-Ran.  Simultaneously, Yang begins a friendship with Zixin's brother Paul (Vic Chou) that develops into something more than platonic.  Yang is unaware that Paul is Zixin's brother but after seeing him with Zixin at a bridal gown store, she mistakes Paul for Zixin's groom.  Zixin is unaware her brother is seeing Yang and Yang is, at least initially, unaware that Paul even knows Zixin.  For films like Don't Go Breaking My Heart and its sequel, half the humor is in maintaining these charades with the multiple & simultaneous exposure of the lies guaranteed.

The farce escalates in both emotions and escapades until a climactic showdown on Zixin wedding day.  In an attempt to win Zixin, Shen-Ran climbs the exterior of the high-rise building where Zixin & Qihong's wedding & reception will be held (on the top floor natch).  I won't give away the ending in case there is a Don't Go Breaking My Heart 3 but I will say that I was disappointed in the ending.  Specifically, some of the choices made by the characters seemed disingenuous with what had occurred before.

Like most HK comedies, Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 has zaniness in spades.  Miriam Yeung's Yang seemed particularly unsuited to be a CEO of a boutique trading house who hires Zixin based on her incorrect assessment of the stock market and depends on an octopus to predict stock market movements a la Paul the Psychic Octopus.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 didn't make much more of an impression on me than Don't Go Breaking My Heart.  Miriam Yeung who is quietly becoming one of my favorite HK actresses, acquits herself satisfactorily.  Actually, the entire cast is game but the plot doesn't quite serve them well enough.  I will readily admit that something may be lost in the cultural translation.

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I went to see Women Who Flirt despite a lackluster preview reel mainly on the strength of director Pang Ho-cheung's track record.  With Women Who Flirt, I've seen five of his last six films (Love in a Puff, Love in the Buff, Vulgaria & Aberdeen are the other four) and have enjoyed them all to varying degrees.  Of the five Pang film aforementioned, I enjoyed Women Who Flirt the least.

The premise of Women Who Flirt is that Angie (Zhou Xun), a young woman who has harbored a not-so-secret crush on Marco (a former classmate and current co-worker) discovers that he has a serious girlfriend.  Marco (Huang Xiaoming) has put off Angie's romantic advances for years with various excuses but at the heart of it, he thinks of her as "one of the guys."  Angie enlists the help of her best friend May (Sie Yi Lin) in launching a counterattack to win Marco's affection.  May assembles the Barbie Army, a team of young, attractive women (who look like they could be Chinese fashion models) to tutor Angie under the project codename "Women Who Flirt."

What follows is an amusing battle of feminine charms.  Marco's girlfriend Hailey (Tang Sui) is the exaggerated stereotype - baby voice, manipulative, coquettish, etc.  Angie is no match for Hailey who would be a 4 star general if she joined the Barbie Army.  Although silly and vaguely reminiscent of a Hollywood romantic comedy of the 1950s, Women Who Flirt hides a deeply cynical view.  It's clear that Angie is the only adult in the film and her efforts to transform herself into a sexualized and infantilized entity are offensive for both the attempt and the end goal.  Why she would want to be with a slacker and idiot like Marco is beyond me.

However, I must admit that as a broad comedy, Women Who Flirt has its moments.  Zhou & Huang as Angie & Marco have tangible screen chemistry and the Barbie Army's machinations are absurd enough invoke laughter.  At times, Sie Yi Lin as May came close to stealing the film.  Her caterwauling of "I hate you!" was memorable indeed.

At its heart, Women Who Flirt displays a palpable contempt for the women who behave like these women and by extension, the men who are attracted to them.  I guess that is understandable but the film makes it appear as though this behavior is the norm or the standard to which young Chinese women aspire and that may be the real object of the film's contempt.

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I notice the Camera Cinemas is showing a few Chinese films in the upcoming weeks.

On December 12, Back in Time (Congcong Nanian) is opening.

On Christmas Day, Love on The Cloud (Wei Ai) is opening.

Women Who Flirt's run at Camera 12 has been extended through at least December 11.

Sacramento - Changes at the Crest

I'm not a big fan of Sacramento.  It reminds me too much of Texas.  With that said, I've grudgingly come to admit it's not all bad.  Business trips and the Crest Theater are my primary reasons for going to the River City.  I've attended the Sacramento French Film Festival and the Sacramento Japanese Film Festival for the past few years.  It was through an email from the former that I learned that the Crest Theater was undergoing a change in management.

The company which managed the Crest for 28 years lost their lease on November 1.  The owner of the building and his fiancée are running the theater now.  This can be seen from the website.  The old website for the Crest Theater is still valid but it makes clear the old management is out and there is no referring URL to the new website.  I take that to mean they couldn't come to an agreement to transfer the URL.

The change in management raised concerns from Sacramento film festivals.  From what I gather there is lingering hard feelings between the old management led by Sid Garcia-Heberger and the building owner Robert Emerick.  I note that the Sacramento French Film Festival's next event on February 21 (8th Winter French Short Film Screening) is not being held at the Crest.  In addition, the venue for 2015 Sacramento French Film Festival (June 19 to 28) is not listed on their webpage.

Heberger is also affiliated with Trash Film Orgy whose programs have been almost exclusively at the Crest since its inception.  After 14 years, TFO is leaving the Crest.  "While [TFO] will continue to do shows elsewhere, it will never be the same as the Crest" said TFO co-producer Christy Savage in a Sacramento Press article from October.

The situation at the Crest reminds of me of the situation at the Castro Theater several years ago when Anita Monga was let go.

The Crest has a large auditorium on the street level but as recently as 2013 had two additional auditoriums in the basement screening films daily.  The new management is planning on opening the Empress Tavern in that basement space this month  The name refers to the original name of the movie theater on the site (opened in 1912).  The same article states that Joel Goulet (currently manager of the Balboa Theater) will program films for the Crest.

I like the Crest because it is conveniently located.  There is a Hyatt two blocks away where I could take refuge if I was skipping a screening at one of the festival.  I'll keep attending the Sacramento French and Japanese Film Festivals regardless of their venues.  I'll likely return to the Crest if their film programming appeals to me.

I never got to see a TFO screening there.  Their next event is the Miss Trash 2014 Pageant on December 5.  The event will be held at On the Y which is a well known bar in Sacto.

A couple of blocks down from the Crest (1013 K Street) is the Esquire (1211 K Street) which has an Art Deco exterior design.  It wouldn't surprise me if the Esquire was a 1920s movie theater converted into a multiplex.  I've long wanted to stop in there.  I am surprised that it has a functioning 70 mm film projector.  I knew it was an IMAX theater but I assumed it was digital IMAX.  The Esquire is currently screening Interstellar in 70 mm IMAX...one of of only three locations in Northern California.  The others are the Metreon & the Tech Museum in San Jose.  The other films on the Esquire's lineup appear to be digital.

2014 Hong Kong Cinema

The San Francisco Film Society presented the 2014 Hong Kong Cinema series from November 14 to 16 at the Vogue Theater.  There were 8 films in the series and I saw 5.  I had already seen one of the films (The Golden Era) and another film did not appeal to me (The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom).  The film which I would like to have seen but my schedule did not permit was Uncertain Relationships Society and even that seemed aimed at younger demographic than me.

From Vegas to Macau starring Chow Yun-fat, Nicholas Tse & Chapman To; directed by Wong Jing; Mandarin & Cantonese with subtitles; (2014)
Chungking Express starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai  & Faye Wong; directed by Wong Kar-wai; Cantonese with subtitles; (1994)
The Midnight After starring Simon Yam & Suet Lam; directed by Fruit Chan; Cantonese with subtitles; (2014) - Official Facebook
Aberdeen starring Louis Koo, Gigi Leung, Miriam Yeung & Eric Tsang; directed by Pang Ho-cheung; Cantonese with subtitles; (2014)
Overheard 3 starring Sean Lau, Louis Koo & Daniel Wu; directed by Alan Mak & Felix Chong; Mandarin & Cantonese with subtitles; (2014)

The series was mixed bag for me.  I greatly enjoyed two films while the other three left me in various states of boredom.

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SFFS programmed a 20th anniversary screening of Chungking Express which I had not previously seen.  With Chungking Express, I have now seen 8 of Wong's 10 feature directorial efforts.  The two missing links are My Blueberry Nights (Wong's only English language film from 2007) and As Tears Go By (Wong's 1988 directorial debut).

It's not very original for me to say I greatly enjoyed one of the most celebrated films of the past two decades but that is the fact.  Chungking Express is an unabashed romantic comedy or at least 90%.  Regardless, it has more quirky humor than his other films.

The film is divided into two parts which (upon first viewing) have nothing to do with each other.

The film starts with Takeshi Kaneshiro as a HK cop who is despondent over breaking up with his girlfriend.  He gives the separation 30 days; if at the end of that time, they have not reconciled, he will move on.  He marks the days off by purchasing canned pineapples (one per day) with an expiration date identical to the 30 day deadline (May 1 if I recall correctly).  Meanwhile, Brigitte Lin plays a drug smuggler who constantly wears sunglasses and a blonde wig.  When the Indian immigrants she hires to mule her smack rip her off, she is in deep trouble.  The two of them crisscross HK and each other until a fateful meeting in a bar leads to a one night stand.  As a postscript, Lin's character shoots a man (a white guy to boot) to apparently take care of her problem.

Although the 1st half of the film has its moments, it was the 2nd half of the film which burnished Chungking Express' reputation.  Another HK cop (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is also depressed about breaking up with his girlfriend.  He stops in at a all-night restaurant to get coffee and meets the owner's niece and new employee Faye (Faye Wong).  With her pixie cut, insouciant manner & expressive face, Wong is the breakout star in what was her first lead acting role.

I don't think they ever mentioned names on screen although IMDB lists character names.  In the film, I recall that Kaneshiro & Leung were referred to by their characters' badge numbers.  I don't recall Lin's character ever being addressed by name.  Faye Wong's character is called Faye.

Anyway, Tony Leung's ex-girlfriend (an airline stewardess) stops by the restaurant to leave a note for him.  Everyone in the restaurant steams open the note to read it.  More importantly, she leaves his apartment keys with the note.  Leung is not anxious to read the note so he keeps putting off picking it up.  Leung is also transferred to the dayshift.  When Faye sees Leung on duty, she rushes to his apartment with the keys and cleans, explores, buys new goldfish, fantasizes and generally acts in an outrageous manner which would be called stalking today but was oddly endearing in 1994 HK.  All the while, Leung senses something is off at home.  It isn't until he comes home early that he literally bumps in Faye coming out his apartment.

The second half of Chungking Express was delightful and as enjoyable as any movie experience I've had in a long time.  Faye Wong even sings a memorable Cantonese cover version of the Cranberries' Dream.  Unlike many films, I thought Chungking Express lived up to its reputation and is still fresh after 20 years.

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I was also impressed with Pang Ho-cheung's Aberdeen.  I have to admit that my working knowledge of HK geography is embarrassing.  I couldn't identify Kowloon, the New Territories, Aberdeen, Repulse Bay, etc. on a map.  Aberdeen (aka Little Hong Kong) is a town on the south side of Hong Kong Island.  The film is set in Aberdeen although the setting is only relevant in one scene which I can remember.

Aberdeen is a slice of life film about three generations of the Cheng family.  Pang regular Miriam Yeung plays elder sister Wai Ching, a tour guide for old British fortifications.  Her husband Yau (Eric Tsang) is a doctor.  Louis Koo is Tao, her younger brother is a motivational speaker.  His wife, Ceci (Gigi Leung) is a fashion model & actress.  Their daughter Chloe is a precocious girl.  Wai Ching & Tao's father  (Ng Man Tat) is a widower and Taoist priest who has taken up with bar hostess (Carrie Ng).

Each family member faces their own challenges.  Wai Ching has unresolved issues with her late mother that she cannot get past.  Her husband Yau is having an affair with a nurse in his office.  Ceci is struggling with her age, lack of work and the pressures of the casting couch.  Tao is growing increasingly concerned about his daughter; worried that her weight & appearance will work against her in the future and also feeling guilt about a young girl he bullied for those very reasons during his youth.  Dong (the patriarch) mourns not just the loss of his wife but the loss of fishing which has been his family's way of life for generations.

Pang successfully juggles these disparate threads.  Whereas there was an element of the juvenile in his previous films, Aberdeen deals with universal issues that adults face.  It's not about guys making porn movies, people coping with a cigarette sales ban in HK or the self-detracting behavior of 20something women in China.  Instead, people get old, people have to deal with dead loved ones, people have to confront their own transgressions, etc.  These issues elevate Aberdeen to something memorable.  I won't say Aberdeen has gravitas but it is Pang's most more mature work to date.  It shows a leap in ambition from his previous films.  By ratcheting down the humor and focusing on the bittersweet lives on the Cheng family, Pang has made the best movie of his career so far or at least of the half dozen or so films I have seen.

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From Vegas to Macau boasted an all-star cast and was described in the program guide as "genre-twisting."  I thought it was an action-comedy.  As I was leaving the theater, a couple was walking directly in front of me.  The man said to the woman, "I don't get Chinese humor."  Me neither.  From Vegas to Macau (aka The Man from Macau) relied on too many plot twists and broad humor.  It's one of those films where you see a car drive through a wall & explode.  Then the action rewinds and you see the real reason the car through the wall & exploded.  Another thing I notice about HK films I don't like is that they overly rely on technology to advance the plot.  In this case, Chow Yun-fat had an X-ray sensor attached to his fingernail which then sent the image to his brain via some cybernetics.  This was so he could cheat at cards.  He also had a deck of gold playing cards that he could toss with lethal accuracy.

Fruit Chan's The Midnight After was genre-twisting.  A bus full of people drive through a tunnel and when they come out, everyone else in HK has disappeared.  I don't recall the reason ever being explained.  There are hallucination of guys in Hazmat suits.  Some people turn into sand or dirt.  By the end, it rains blood.  To be honest, I don't know what I saw.  At times the film bored, at other times it was frustratingly vague and on the occasions it caught my attention, the film quickly lost it.

Overheard 3 is the third in a popular series of films.  I have not seen Overheard or Overheard 2.  Overheard 3 had something to do with the New Territories & how residents could inherit the right to build homes.  There are gangsters that want to build there.  The meat of the 131 minute film is that Louis Koo has just gotten out of prison (I presume this was covered in Overheard 2) after taking the rap for murder.  The four Luk brothers are gangsters & owe Koo a debt of gratitude.  Koo, with the help of hacker (Daniel Wu), is out to take the Luk brothers down.  The slips them a Mickey Finn, installs spyware on their cellphones and then manipulates them into turning on each other.  Perhaps something was lost in the translation but the complex criminal & interpersonal relationships, deceptions & betrayals & high tech surveillance just couldn't generate interest from me.  Frankly, these Chinese action films seem to be stuck in a rut.  It seems like I've seen a bushel full of these types of films which leave me mild at best.  They almost all have some memorable scenes or character but very few of them keep my attention throughout the film.

The Magick Lantern Redux

I mentioned that the Magick Lantern Theater in Pt. Richmond closed a few months ago.

I recently received an email which stated:

 As many of you know, “The Magick Lantern” has recently closed its doors.  This little theater had brought marvelous artistic and quality films to our community, filling a cultural and entertainment need for all.

    Since then, a core group of residents has rallied to resurrect this theater.  We have formed a non-profit corporation.  We need your donations and memberships for start-up costs such as theater seats, screen, projector, Blu-Ray DVD players, amplifier, snack bar, license fees, film rentals, plus other incidentals.

    The Magick Lantern is holding an Open House on Saturday December 6th, between 1-4 (see flyer below).  Please come to the Open House to learn more about how the Magick Lantern will be run, its membership and fundraising activities.  We would like to hear from you.

    Each donor will receive a letter from The Magick Lantern as a qualified non-profit and for which his or her donation would be considered tax-deductible.

    Hope to see you on the 6th of December.

Apparently, the Magick Lantern is going the non-profit route in an effort to resurrect itself.  They seem confident enough in their reopening that they imply they will screen Boyhood, Cinema Paradiso & Gone With the Wind soon.

I wish them well.   I notice the contact person is "Fred" whereas the previous owner was Ross Woodbury.  Also, their message has a laundry list of start-up costs which I imagine would be available on a rent/donation basis if Woodbury is involved in the "new" Magick Lantern.  I am curious how much this reincarnated Magick Lantern compares to the original one

2014 Chinese American Film Festival

The 2014 Chinese American Film Festival (CAFF) was held at the 4 Star Theater from November 19 to 25.  It conflicted with the San Francisco Film Society's New Italian Cinema series at the Vogue and The French Had A Name For It Redux at the Roxie.

There were nine films on the CAFF program.  Two of the films (The Golden Era & The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom) were presented the prior week at the SFFS' Hong Kong Cinema series.  Oddly, The Golden Era had already gotten a limited release as I saw it at the Camera 12 a few weeks before the Hong Kong Cinema screenings.  SFFS typically does not program films which have already been released.  I had little desire to see The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom.

Another strange thing is that the 4 Star started screening American Dreams in China five days before CAFF opened.  On November 14 I went to the Roxie to see La vérité but it was sold out so I went to the 4 Star and saw American Dreams in China instead.  Anyway, the point is that I saw The Golden Era and American Dreams in China before CAFF started.

American Dreams in China screened at CAAMFest San Jose on September 6 and the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival in April/May.  Although I did not see the film at either of the festivals, I recall favorable buzz about them from the festivals and read a positive review in the Chronicle on the morning of Novembe 14.

In addition to the two films I saw before the festival, I watched three films during the festival:  The Seventh Lie, Brotherhood of Blades & No Man's Land.

The Golden Era starring Tang Wei &Feng Shaofeng; directed by Ann Hui; Mandarin with subtitles; ( 2014)
American Dreams in China starring Xiaoming Huang, Dawei Tong & Deng Chao; directed by Peter Chan; Mandarin & English with subtitles; (2013)
The Seventh Lie; directed by James Hung; Cantonese with subtitles; (2014)
Brotherhood of Blades starring Chang Chen, Wang Qianyuan & Ethan Li; directed by Lu Yang; Mandarin with subtitles; (2014)
No Man's Land starring Zheng Xu; directed by Ning Hao; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)

The program guide said admission was $10 but I was charged $10.50 to see The Seventh Lie.  A few days later when I saw No Man's Land, I was charged $10.  I don't know why the minutiae of life like a 50 cent price discrepancy sticks in my mind.

The three films I saw at CAFF were in the little auditorium and using the word "auditorium" is a stretch if you have been in that room.  For reasons unclear to me, American Dreams in China started a late.  As a consolation, 4 Star owner Frank Lee told the people in line for American Dreams that they could stick around for the film after that (Brotherhood of Blades) for free admission.  I was the only person who did so.

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The Golden Era was the closing night film for this year's Venice International Film Festival and director Ann Hui is an acclaimed HK New Wave figure.  I greatly enjoyed her film A Simple Life which screened at the 2012 Hong Kong Cinema series.

With The Golden Era, Hui strives for epic but I don't think the subject is quite up to the task...at least not for Western audiences.  The film follows the life of Chinese author Xiao Hong (Tang Wei).  She is an author I have never heard of but I'd be hard-pressed to name five Chinese novelists.  After watch 179 minutes of The Golden Era I not sure if I really understand Xiao any better.  The film (if historically accurate) touched all the bases of Xiao's short & tragic life but didn't really give any insight into her work or her character.

Xiao was a progressive in the 1930s.  She tried to escape her arranged marriage but upon getting pregnant, her fiancé  (were they married at the time) abandons her at the hotel.  Unable to pay the bill, she is kept prisoner at the hotel and nearly sold into forced prostitution.  She is rescued by her compatriot Xiao Jun, an author, political writer & newspaperman.

I could recite the rest of Xiao Hong's particulars according to the film but I get the sense that the intelligentsia she was part of is more familiar to Chinese audiences than Western ones.  It would be something akin to saying someone was an acolyte of Ayn Rand.  If you don't know who Ayn Rand was, the context of what it means to be a follower of Rand is lost.  Much of the movie felt that way to me.  I didn't have any context of who these people were that were moving in and out of Xiao Hong's life.

For me, the most moving scenes were at the end of the film (as well as Xiao Hong's life).  Living in Hong Kong during the Fall of Hong Kong, her final days were spent shuttling from hospital to hospital during the battle and ensuing Japanese occupation as she succumbed to illness.

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American Dreams in China spans a twenty year period.  College friends Meng (Deng Chao), Cheng (Huang Xiaoming) and Wang (Tong Dawei) experience different versions of the American Dream which in China is to be influenced by American culture and/or travel to the US.  Cheng desperately wants to get a visa to the US but is repeatedly denied with no explanation.  Wang loves American films (even citing On the Waterfront in one scene) and has a American girlfriend but a breakup with said girlfriend sends into a funk.  Meng graduate with an advanced degree in biology at Columbia before losing his university job and working as a busboy in a Chinese restaurant.

Eventually, Cheng loses his teaching position in China and stumbles upon the idea of tutoring students on English and standardized exams to gain admission to US universities.  After initially teaching his students in a KFC, he begins squat in an abandoned factory as his classes become more popular.  He recruits Wang to his endeavor to handle the additional students and provide some instruction on American popular culture glommed from his ex-girlfriend and hour spent watching American movies.  When Meng returns home from US in defeat, he is recruited into the company which is christened New Dreams and formed as a private university with the three friends as partners (but with Cheng retaining the majority stake).

The film bounces back and forth in time.  The audience sees the success of New Dreams and the struggles the three partners have in maintaining their friendship.  In particular, Meng wants to take the company public via an IPO whereas Cheng resists this idea at every turn.  A crisis occurs when an US company sues New Dreams for copyright violation & unauthorized use of their materials.  The finale occurs when the three partners fly to New York to meet for a settlement with the US company.

I enjoyed the conflicted attitudes of the three lead characters in the film.  I think the vacillating views towards the US reflect the general attitude of the government of China and Chinese people towards the US.  I recall listening to an NPR segment on China and the speaker noted that although the Chinese government may have to provocative policies towards the US, the government also seeks to emulate the US on a number of fronts.  Regardless of the government attitudes, the Chinese are emulating the US in the actions.  Chinese people come to the US to buy houses, go to school, make real estate investments, etc.  They increasingly dress in Western clothes and consume Western products & merchandise.

The film captures this dichotomy nicely.  The three leads want the American Dream but become disillusioned and frustrated by the process of attaining it.  The Americans they want to impress treat them disdainfully but yet they still hope to attain success by US standards in the form of a NYSE IPO.

As they say, the 19th century was the British century, the 20th century was the American century and the 21st century will be the Chinese century.  Currents events reflected in films like American Dreams in China indicate that the Chinese seem to aspire to American ways.

At times the film was a little confused and lightly developed but overall, I enjoyed the film and found it thought provoking.

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I've never heard of the seven types of lies.  According to the opening credits of The Seventh Lie, the 7th type of lie is self-deception...I think.  There were all types of lies being told in The Seventh Lie so I'm not sure where self-deception fits into some of the stories.  The Seventh Lie was like an anthology film where there was a flashback within a flashback...etc.  There was a driver who dabbles as a hitman who has amorous intentions towards his employer's wife who may have her own agenda.  There is a runaway bride whose reasons for running away are not what they may seem.  Finally, there is a man who tries to frame a peeping tom for the murder of his wife.  I'm forgetting about the bellhop looking to scam hotel guests.

The stories have varying degrees of craftsmanship and enjoyment.  This was the centerpiece film but it felt kind of lightweight...like a 90 minute marathon of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The Seventh Lie is worth a look but not worth a special trip.  All said, I wish I had been at the Roxie watching La vérité.

After The Seventh Lie, I stuck around for Brotherhood of Blades.  BoB was a wuxia/martial arts film about 3 palace guards or royal bodyguards who are sent to assassinate someone.  It turns out to be a conspiracy but then the three guys have their own secrets.  The program write-up didn't appeal to me and the film lived up to my expectations.  If it hadn't been for the free admission, I wouldn't have attended and even with the free admission, I regret wasting my time.

No Man's Land was filmed in 2009 by up & coming director Ning Hao (Mongolian Ping Pong, Crazy Stone & Crazy Racer).  It's release was delayed because the film ran afoul of Chinese censors.  Ning allegedly re-edited the film twice to no avail.  With no explanation, No Man's Land was released in mainland China last year and box office was strong.  It's hard for me to imagine what was cut from the film.

Set in China's western Xinjiang province (which borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India), the region resembles a lawless frontier like Deadwood or perhaps more aptly something like Robert Rodriguez's Desperado.  I was surprised at how much the Gobi Desert looks like deserts of the Western US and Mexico.

Pan Xiao (Zheng Xu) is a hotshot, big city lawyer who comes out to the desolate area to defend a falcon poacher.  When payment is delayed, Pan "borrows" a car as a deposit while he drives back to the big city (I can't recall which).  Along the way, he meets crazed truckers, swindlers, a prostitute desperate to leave her life behind and more.  It reminded me of Mad Max, that film where Dennis Weaver is stalked by a trucker, the aforementioned Desperado and other films I cannot recall.

No Man's Land makes me want to see Ning's earlier films.

I should note that the subtitling for Brotherhood of Blades and No Man's Land was extremely small.  I could not read them from the back of the small theater at the 4 Star.  I had to move up several rows in order to make out the words.  Even then, the pacing of the subtitles was uneven.  They flashed some subtitles so fast I didn't have time to completely read them.  Poor subtitling or poor eyesight?

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2014 The French Had A Name For It: French Film Noir 1946-1964

The Roxie had a 12 film series from November 14 to 17 called The French Had A Name For It.  For the second time in memory, I went to the Roxie and it was sold out.  I think the previous time was a Midnites For Maniacs screening.  Reportedly, the entire four days drew large crowds undoubtedly encouraged by an article written by San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle.

The series conflicted with the San Francisco Film Society's Hong Kong Cinema so I only saw the two films on November 17:  La Putain respectueuse (The Respectful Prostitute) and J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Spit on Your Graves).

The series was so successful that they re-screened 8 of the films from November 21 to November 26 under the series title The French Had A Name For It Redux.  I saw four films during the encore session:  Dédée d'Anvers (Dedee of Antwerp), Toi, le venin (Blonde in White Car), Une manche et la belle (A Kiss for a Killer) & En cas de malheur (Love Is My Profession).

The Respectful Prostitute starring Barbara Laage; directed Marcel Pagliero & Charles Brabant; French with subtitles; (1952)

I Spit on Your Graves starring Christian Marquand & Antonella Lualdi; directed by Michel Gast; French with subtitles; (1959)

Dédée d'Anvers starring Simone Signoret; directed by Yves Allégret; French with subtitles; (1948)

Blonde in White Car starring Robert Hossein, Marina Vlady & Odile Versois; directed by Robert Hossein; French with subtitles; (1958)

A Kiss for a Killer starring Henri Vidal, Mylène Demongeot & Isa Miranda; directed by Henri Verneuil; French with subtitles; (1957)

Love is My Profession starring Jean Gabin & Brigitte Bardot; directed by Claude Autant-Lara; French with subtitles; (1958)

I had previously seen two of the 12 films in the series at the PFA:  Manon & Voici le temps des assassins (Deadlier Than the Male) directed be Henri-Georges Clouzot & Julien Duvivier, respectively.

That left four films in the series which I did not/have not seen:  La Vérité, Les Maudits, Un témoin dans la ville (Witness in the City) and Chair de poule (Highway Pickup).   La Vérité with Brigitte Bardot was the film I wanted to see the most from the series.  I would also have liked to have seen Lino Ventura in Witness in the City.

The two films I saw on Monday, November 17 played to a packed house.  However, the Redux did not draw the same crowds.  I skipped the Redux screenings in the Little Roxie.  I would characterize the crowds in the four Big Roxie screenings as sparse.

The program for 2014 The French Had A Name For It: French Film Noir 1946-1964 was unusually nice.  It was printed on heavier cardstock and the equivalent of three 8.5x11 sheets of paper (front & back).  In addition to the synopses of the films, it had a French Film Noir timeline that was interesting.  They also sold merchandise.  I bought some notecards with movie poster images from the series.

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According to the film notes, Barbara Laage (the star of The Respectful Prostitute) was Orson Welles first choice to play the lead in The Lady From Shanghai.  I find that very interesting considering that Rita Hayworth, Welles' wife at the time of production, landed the role.  How do you tell your own wife that she is the second choice for the part?  I also recalled Welles' controversial decision to ask his famously red-haired wife to dye her hair blonde for The Lady From Shanghai.  Laage looked to be a bottled blonde in The Respectful Prostitute.

The Respectful Prostitute was an interesting film.  Set in the United States, the film represents the French viewpoint of race relations in the US.  We all can recall US films set in foreign countries where the locals speak English in the film but would assuredly be speaking a foreign language in real life.  Typically, the actor speaks with a local accent to make it more palatable although I think it is ridiculous.  The Respectful Prostitute turns that around.  All the actors speak French (even the character of a US Senator).  I'm not sure if they spoke French with an American accent.

The film is noteworthy just for its incendiary dialog which actually seems over-the-top today.  The word "nigger" is used repeatedly in the subtitling.  The casual and overt racism are also jarring.  These impressions are not so surprising give the fact that the film is based on a Jean-Paul Sartre play and his intentions were likely more political than artistic.

Barbara Laage plays Lizzie MacKay, a "hostess" traveling on a train as the film begins.  She is being harassed by Yvan Desny as the drunken, racist, loutish son of a US Senator.  Seeking refuge, MacKay causes a stir by decamping in the segregated train car.  The drunk follows her and an argument ensues between the drunk & one of the black passengers that ends with the black man hitting his head and dying.

The senator dispatches his nephew Teddy Barnes (Walter Bryant) to clean up the mess.  Barnes' strategy is two pronged:  seduce MacKay and convince her to recant her witness statement and hunt down and lynch the black man who also witnessed the murder.

Although earnest, I couldn't help but guffaw at times.  The contradictions and literalness of some of the situations are amplified by the 60+ years since the film was made.  At one point, I believe MacKay says to Sidney "I have nothing against niggers."  I couldn't help but think of a Sarah Silverman joke which caused much controversy several years ago.  The punchline was "I like Chinks."  In addition, after having been toyed with by Barnes and being set up for a false prostitution arrest, the senator is able to convince MacKay to recant her statement by invoking patriotism and the memory of George Washington.

As a historical artifact to document French (or at least Sartre's) views on race relations in the US during the period, The Respectful Prostitute is worthwhile.  Compared to Hollywood's treatment of race relation from the same period, the film and play must have been provocative.  Her voice was grating at times and I thought acting-wise Laage was in over her head in some scenes but she had a definite sexuality that suited the role.  I can quite articulate the type of sexuality she has but as the series title conveys, I'm sure the French have a word for it.

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Playing on the double bill with The Respectful Prostitute was I Spit on Your Graves (not to be confused with the 1970s grindhouse classic I Spit on Your Grave).  Another movie set in a US where everyone speaks French, I Spit on Your Graves boasts a backstory that cannot be beat.  The film was based on a novel by the same name by French author Boris Vian but published under the nom de plume Vernon Sullivan.  Vian claimed to be the translator for Sullivan's works.  A fictitious biography made Sullivan a light-skinned African American passing as white whose works were too controversial to be published in his native land.  Eventually, the hoax was revealed and the resulting controversy made I Spit on Your Graves was one of Vian's most popular works.  The ironies are too delicious to pass without comment.  Vian (a white man) pretended to be a black man who pretended to be a white man who wrote a novel about a black man pretending to be a white man.

That's not the end of the story though.  Vian was not excited by the prospect of his novel being turned into a film.  He had fought with the filmmakers over their adaptation of his novel.  At the premiere of the film, Vian rose during the screening and yelled "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!"  He then had a heart attack and died.  He was 39 years old at the time of his death.

As a postscript, the recent film Mood Indigo was based on Vian's novel L'Écume des jours.

The term "passing" is one I was not familiar with until the last year or so.  I read about Oscar Micheaux, a novelist and silent film director.  Many of his works concerned the practice of passing which is when a light skinned Negro would pass him/herself off to be a white person.  I'm not sure if passing still occurs.  It would seem that the incentives to do so are largely diminished.  It would also be considered impolite to ask or offer such information.  Recently, I read that San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick is black.  I was surprised to read that.  I knew he was adopted and I thought his birth parents were Hispanic.  It turns out his mother was white & father was black.  In today's multi-ethnic society, I wonder if there are still people passing at least based on their ethnicity.

I Spit on Your Graves is the story of  Joe Grant (Christian Marquand), a light-skinned African American who relocates from Memphis to Trenton after his brother is lynched for attempting to marry a white woman.  I assumed Trenton was Trenton, New Jersey but an audience member told me that it was set in Trenton, Ohio.  I think he was under that impression because the the finale involves a dash to the Canadian border and New Jersey & Canada do not share a border whereas Ohio & Canada are adjacent

Regardless of which Trenton the film is set, I Spit on Your Graves has this fevered quality of a US not previously seen in film or reality.  The film seems to have been influenced equally by The Wild Ones and French New Wave.

Joe Grant sets himself up via a modern day Underground Railroad.  An acquaintance in Memphis helps blacks pass as white with the help of a bookstore owner in Trenton.  Joe Grant situates himself quickly...in no small part because he is so damn sexy that the white women in town can't help themselves.  Despite seeing his brother lynched for being with a white woman, Joe can't help himself with the wealthy Shannon sisters (Antonella Lualdi & Renate Ewert)...presumably because black men can't resist white women.  

Whereas The Respectful Prostitute played it straight, at times I thought I Spit on Your Graves was veering into satire.  The only black people in Trenton are servants at the Shannon household and they are dressed like 18th century valets.  The elder Shannon sister is engaged to the town crime boss who has a motorcycle gang as his enforcers.

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Dédée d'Anvers stars Simone Signoret as a Antwerp prostitute with an abusive pimp.  She meets a smuggler (Marcel Pagliero who would go on to direct The Respectful Prostitute) and falls in love.  Only in the movies does it seem like an upgrade for a woman to go from a pimp to a smuggler.  The pimp (Marcel Dalio in a nice performance) isn't going down easy and that's bad news for Dédée and the smuggler.  There are some interesting exterior shots of post-WWII Antwerp & Signoret lights up the screen with her beauty but otherwise Dédée d'Anvers wasn't particularly noteworthy.

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Blonde in White Car & A Kiss for a Killer were screened as a double bill and was my favorite night of the festival & redux.

Robert Hossein is walking down the street one night in Blonde in White Car.   A car pulls up one night and the female driver offers him a ride.  He can't see her face because it so dark.  He can only make out her blonde hair.  They drive to a secluded place, have sex and then she kicks him out of the car and tries to run him over.  Still, he never see her face but catches the license plate number.  He tracks down the owner, shows up her mansion and is escorted in.  To his surprise there are two beautiful blonde sisters and either one could be the driver from the previous night.  What delightfully perverse situation.  Did I mention one of the sisters is in a wheelchair?

Henri Vidal is a scheming bank clerk in A Kiss for a Killer.  He strikes it rich by marrying wealthy widow Isa Miranda but he can't take his eyes of the secretary (Mylène Demongeot).  This film was more a true noir as Vidal & Demongeot conspire to murder but there are a couple of nice plot twists in this film which elevate it above the average film noir.  The three leads were excellent and although Demongeot had sex appeal to spare, I was most impressed in Miranda's performance as the spurned wife.

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Love is My Profession features Brigitte Bardot as a déclassé prostitute whose poor judgment gets her involved in armed robbery & assault.  Jean Gabin is the famed lawyer who takes on her case for personal reasons.  He gets her acquitted of the charges by staying just on the legal side of suborning perjury.  After the trial Gabin (despite his wife's knowledge, tacit approval & pleas for caution) takes Bardot as his mistress.  However, her continued ill-considered action dog the couple.  I should note there is a hot-headed young student who also fancies Bardot.

Actually, there is more going on in the relationship between Gabin & Bardot's characters - less than sexual, more than platonic.  Love is My Profession is worth a second look if I get a chance.  I saw it at 9:15 PM on the day before Thanksgiving and between work & films, I don't think I gave the film the viewer attention it deserves.

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2014 New Italian Cinema

The 2014 New Italian Cinema was presented by the San Francisco Film Society at the Vogue Theater from November 19 to 23.  New Italian Cinema is organized by New Italian Cinema Events and presented in collaboration with SFFS.

I had tickets to three films but skipped one so I only saw two films this year.

Remember Me (aka Ti ricordi di me?) starring Ambra Angiolini & Edoardo Leo; directed by Rolando Ravello; Italian with subtitles; (2014)

Human Capital (aka Il capitale umano) starring Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Gifuni, Matilde Gioli & Guglielmo Pinelli; directed by Paolo Virzi; Italian with subtitles; (2013)

I skipped the November 23 screening of In the Snow to go to the gym and get to Berkeley in time for Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flowers of Shanghai at the PFA.

Remember Me is a romantic comedy about narcoleptic amnesiac Beatrice (Ambra Angiolini) & kleptomaniac Roberto (Edoardo Leo).  They begin a hesitant romance which is complicated by the fact that Bea is engaged to be married.  When placed in exciting or stressful situations Bea falls asleep and if the stress is great enough, she awakens with amnesia.  This plot device neatly divides the film into three acts.

In the first act, Roberto & Bea meet and fall in love.  It ends with Bea discovering her fiancé in flagrante delicto.  She runs out of the bedroom and into the park where she collapses.  She awakens in mental institution with no recollection of who she is.  In the second act, Robert randomly meets Bea, re-romances her and they get married have a son.  This act ends with Bea happening upon her ex-fiancé in a bookstore and collapsing.  She wakes up with no recollection of her past but this time the fiancé romances Bea and they get married.  In the third act, Roberto fruitlessly searches for Bea until his friend in the passport office sees Bea's application come through.  Roberto travels to Switzerland to find Bea working at her fiancé's watch/clock factory.  Not willing to put her through a third bout of amnesia, Roberto is willing to let Bea be but she senses the connection between them and pursues Roberto as the film ends.

Remember Me is a crowd pleasing film.  The screening I went to at 4 PM on a Saturday was sold out.  I'm surprised at how large the audience was.  I thought it was overly contrived but once I put away that quibble, I enjoyed the film as much as the rest of the audience.

Remember Me director Rolando Revello is also an actor and had a supporting role in Balancing Act which played at the 2013 New Italian Cinema.  Edoardo Leo also starred in I Can Quit Whenever I Want which played at the 2014 New Italian Cinema and at the 2014 Mill Valley Film Festival (where I saw it).

Human Capital is also a three act film.  Each act covers roughly the same events but told from three different perspectives.  The film opens with a caterer riding his bike on a cold winter night.  A car takes a turn and crashes into him.  He is sent into a ditch.  The rest of the film reveals who was driving the car and the backstory up until that moment.

Human Capital is the story of the Bernaschi & Ossola families.  Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is the patriarch of the Ossola family.  His second wife Roberta (Valeria Golino) is pregnant with their first child together.  Dino's teenage daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) is dating Massimiliano Bernaschi (Guglielmo Pinelli), the troubled teenage son of a wealthy family.  His father Giovanni (Fabrizio Gifuni) is a hedge fund manager and his mother Carla (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) has a pet project renovating a local theater.  Dino thinks he has hit it rich by buying into Giovanni's hedge fund at the minimum level.  

As the film progresses, the relationships between these characters are revealed and the mystery is unraveled.  For the most part, the people are less than noble.  Dino is a buffoon, Serena is misguided, Giovanni is a bully, Carla is insecure, etc.  The exploration of human nature is played out from the viewpoints of Dino, Serena & Carla.  All the while, the mystery of who hit the caterer is ratcheted up as the police begin their investigation.  At key points where the characters' plot lines intersect, it is revealed that the obvious explanation is not the actual motivation for their actions.

I liked Human Capital quite a bit.  The post-script explanation of the title seems to be an afterthought criticism of the insurance industry but I was riveted by the story for its entirety.  Fabrizio Bentivoglio as the venal & cowardly Dino was particularly memorable.  Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is always memorable and has a knack for showing the endearing nature of her characters' insecurities.