Hitchcock 9 Part 2

The Hitchcock 9 returned to the Bay Area with a two week run at the PFA in August.  I saw six of the nine films in June at the Castro Theater.  That series was organized by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.  I was able to watch the three remaining films during the PFA series.

One film in the Hitchcock 9 gets a third screening in the Bay Area in the upcoming months.  The Lodger plays at the San Francisco Symphony on Halloween.

The Farmer’s Wife starring Jameson Thomas & Lilian Hall-Davis; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Judith Rosenberg; (1928)

Downhill starring Ivor Novello; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Judith Rosenberg; (1927)

Champagne starring Betty Balfour; silent with intertitles; live accompaniment by Judith Rosenberg; (1928)

Alfred Hitchcock directed all three films.

Immediately after seeing each of the three films, I was left unimpressed.  One good thing about waiting (or more accurately procrastinating) to blog is that I am able to think about the films some more.  I am typically more charitable towards the films after some delay between seeing the films and writing about them.  Such was the case with the Hitchcock 9.

The Farmer’s Wife is a comedy.  The eponymous farmer is Jameson Thomas who plays widower Samuel Sweetland.  When his daughter gets married, Sweetland decides it is time to find a new wife.  He feels confident that his prospects are good and with the help of his housekeeper Minta (Lilian Hall-Davis), comes up with a list of suitable potential brides.  The first thing I noticed was that Hall-Davis (the lead actress in Hitchcock's The Ring) is noticeably more attractive than the would-be wives.  Not only is she more attractive but she is more well adjusted.  However, she is the housekeeper and Sweetland, a landowner, merits a wife of higher standing than a mere domestic.

With a list of four women in hand, Sweetland goes-a-courtin'.  One after another they reject him and in hilarious manner.  Humbled and dejected, Sweetland returns home and his new state of mind allows him to see Minta in a new light.  Fifth time is the charm when Sweetland asks Minta to marry him and she accepts his proposal.

The plot and ending of The Farmer’s Wife is easily identifiable from a distance.  The comedic brushstrokes are a little too broad for my tastes but three weeks later, I am still able to recall (with a smile) some of the scenes.  There must be something about the film I like.

Downhill was based on a play written by David L'Estrange which a pen name for Ivor Novello & Constance Collier.  Novello plays the lead role of Roddy Berwick, a boarding school (or was it university?) student.  The son of a wealthy family, Roddy is a popular student but it also leads to his downfall or slide downhill as the title alludes.  Roddy, due his family's wealth, is falsely accused of impregnating a local salesgirl.   Rather than deny the charge, Roddy takes the rap for his best friend.  His best friend would lose his scholarship if he accepted responsibility.  In fact, the girl was never pregnant and I wonder if the charge wasn't rape.  Hitchcock abstains from detailed intertitles during this scene.  Roddy is expelled from the school for the charge.  What about paternity and child support issues?

Roddy's father is upset with his expulsion.  It seems he could just money the issue away but instead Roddy leaves in a huff or was he kicked out?  As you can see, some of the details escape me.  Roddy takes a job as an chorus boy and falls for the star of the show.  When he comes into some money from an inheritance, the actress (Isabelle Jeans) agrees to marry him.  She quickly burns through his money and cuckolds him.  Once again, he leaves in a huff.

Next, he ends up as a "taxi dancer" in a Paris nightclub.  This scene is amazing.  I'm certain that some of the "women" were men in drag and I thought it was incredible that they would depict and a bi/gay nightclub in 1927.  I felt it was clear that Roddy was "gay for pay" with the patrons but every other source I have seen refers to this scenes as a nightclub for older women.  Regardless, he is once again taken advantage of by the madam of the club.

This sends Roddy on his final descent where he ends up delirious and homeless.  Again, it's unclear to me if the final scene where he is reunited with his father is "real" or a hallucination.

Given that Novello was gay, I once again wonder about the Parisian nightclub scene.  Somewhat simplistic in plot, Hitchcock's skill was in full display in two memorable scenes.  After being expelled and quicked out of the house, we see Roddy dressed in a tuxedo so we think he is doing well.  Then the camera pulls back and we see he is a waiter in tux; not doing so well.  Then we see him surreptitiously taking a wallet and we think he has fallen to quite a low station in life.  Then the camera pulls back even more and we see his is a chorus dancer.

The second scene which is memorable is at the Parisian nightclub.  Just when Roddy appears to have made a genuine connection, the nightclub curtains are pulled open revealing sunlight.  Like vampires, the grotesque patrons are exposed and go scurrying off.

In Champagne, Betty Balfour plays "The Girl," an American heiress who, with her pilot, flies her "aeroplane" on a one-way trip midway across the ocean to catch the ocean liner carry "The Boy" (Jean Bradin).  The Boy happens to be the boyfriend.  Betty wants to marry The Boy seemingly to spite her father who is concerned that The Boy is only interested in Betty's money.  The father concocts a ruse and tells Betty that the family fortune (made in the champagne business or bootleg liquor) has been wiped out in the stock market.  The film was released about a year before the 1929 stock market crash.

As  a result of a separate quarrel, Betty and The Boy are taking a break from their relationship.  Betty finds work at a swanky nightclub as a flower girl (one of those women who sells rose or carnations to patrons for the lapel buttons).  It's not lost on Betty or the audience that this the type of club she would have frequented as a patron and now she is working there.

Since the beginning of the film, there has been a suspicious looking man (Ferdinand von Alten credited as The Man) hanging around Betty.  He shows up at the nightclub and his intentions are unclear.  Betty fears the worst but he appears to have Betty's best interests at heart.  The Boy shows up and once again argues with Betty over her job and he storms out.  Betty and The Boy have a volatile relationship.  Later, The Boy and The Father return.  The Father reveals to Betty his deception.  Betty is angry at both of them although I'm not sure of The Boy's complicity.  In a moment of pique, Betty asks The Man to take her back to America since he is traveling there the next day.  He agrees and they drive from Paris to the Normandy coast to board the ocean liner.  Once on board, The Man locks Betty up in her cabin (although there were two beds) from the outside but conveniently leaves the key in the lock.

A few minutes later, The Boy arrives in the cabin and Betty conks him on the head before realizing who he is.  They reconcile again but The Man returns and interrupts the couple.  This time The Father is with the The Man.  It turns out The Man is some sort of detective who has been hired to look after Betty.  The good news is that The Father now approves of The Boy and Betty marriage to him.  As the couple discuss wedding plans, another argument ensues.

Of the three films, my opinion of The Farmer’s Wife has improved the most.  My opinion of Champagne has changed the least.  I didn't think it was that funny and to say it was contrived would be an understatement.  Betty Balfour was definitely game but I found the film limp and lacking.

From the entire Hitchcock 9, my favorite film was The Manxman with honorable mentions for Blackmail and The Lodger.  My opinion of The Pleasure Garden also improved considerably in the 2.75 months since I watched it.

2013 San Francisco International Film Festival (4 of 2)

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

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

I have already written about

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2013 San Francisco Japan Film Festival

The 2013 San Francisco Japan Film Festival was held at the Viz from July 27 to August 4.  This was the inaugural year for this festival.  The film festival was held in conjunction with the annual J-Pop Summit.

Lesson of the Evil starring Hideaki Ito; directed by Takashi Miike; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website

Helter Skelter starring Erika Sawajiri; directed by Mika Ninagawa; Japanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website

Himizu starring Shôta Sometani & Fumi Nikaido; directed by Sion Sono; Japanese with subtitles; (2011) - Official Website

The executive director of the festival is Manami Iiboshi.  I think she has been programming at the Viz since day one.

The three screenings were well attended.  My only logistical recommendation is to line the film patrons up outside the building.  As I exited one film, they had queued the audience for the next film on the stairwell leading to the basement theater.  The audience that was exiting had to go up the same stairway.  A third line of people were trying to walk down the stairs to buy tickets.  It was very crowded and chaotic.

Lesson of the Evil is a return to form from prolific director Tatashi Miike.  In other words, Lesson of the Evil is violent and bloody.  In a nutshell, a sociopathic high school teacher (Hideaki Ito) kills his students one-by-one at school.  The film reminded me of those 1980 slasher films.  In this case, the school is having some sort of festival so the students are there all night to decorate their exhibit.  The teacher locks the doors and kills them to cover his own botched murder while framing another teacher.  Stylish but lacking some of the dark humor I would have liked in a film like this, Lesson of the Evil wasn't bad for what it was.

Helter Skelter wasn't a great film but it was certainly memorable.  I'm not sure why they chose a title so closely associated with the Charles Manson murders but this Helter Skelter had nothing to do with those events.  Lilico (Erika Sawajiri) is Japan's most popular fashion model who is branching out into films.  Her beauty is the result of experimental plastic surgery which requires her to return for additional treatments or her body will rot away.  That plot device was actually unnecessary but I suppose the rot on the outside is indicative the rot on her inside or on her soul.

Lilico is extremely manipulative and abusive towards her assistant (nice performance by Shinobu Terajima) but also a victim of her exploitive modeling agency and own insecurities.  As her surgical enhancement break down, so does her mental state as we watch her descent.  It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Director Mika Ninagawa (a well regarded fashion photographer in Japan) does tell the story in a conventional narrative.  Instead, we have this fevered film which bounces from the colorful, outlandish and garish set pieces.  Ninagawa makes great use of color and a classical music soundtrack.  I recall several scenes vividly - Lilico having a nervous breakdown on television while hallucinating blue butterflies, Lilico in a bathtub full of colorful pills, Lilico in all white stabbing herself in the eye and her red blood splattering against the white, etc.

Along the way, the film offers social commentary on society's obsession with youth and beauty and the media's need to create and destroy personalities.

To put Helter Skelter in baseball terms, Ninagawa took a mighty swing and sent the ball to the warning track.  Helter Skelter was almost something great.  The film was a little too rococo to focus on more than the images.  Erika Sawajiri lets goes for broke as well.  Maybe a little more restraint by the director and lead actress would have served the film better but as the title indicates, there is little place for restraint or subtlety in Helter Skelter.  I have no regrets or complaints though.  I'm glad I saw this film and look forward to the next film by Ninagawa or Sawajiri.

Himizu is the 5th film directed by Sion Sono which I have seen.  It's different from the previous films.  Himizu is set in a post-tsunami wasteland.  That's similar to The Land of Hope which was released a year after Himizu.  For long stretches, Himizu takes place in the lead character's mind as he seems to be having a psychotic episode.  That gives Himizu a disjointed feel which was not quite as prominent in his previous which were bizarre and at fantastical but hewed closer to a more traditional narrative structure.

Shôta Sometani is Yuichi Sumida, a junior high boy whose personal credo is "Normality Rules!"  Fumi Nikaido is Chazawa, a female classmate whose crush on Sumida borders on stalking.  Early on Sumida's mother abandons him.  He lives in a shack on the shore of some body of water and there is a small camp of squatters living in tents and shanties on his land who are his de facto family.  Along with the ever present Chazawa, the group forms an extended family and life is relatively happy if not bizarre.  Sumida's long absent father shows up looking for money.  He owes the yakuza money and when he skips town, the yakuza hold Sumida personally responsible for his father debt.

At this point, Sumida's train goes off the rails.  He gets a gun and there is a parallel subplot involving a teenage boy who stabs some people on a train.  It's unclear (and unimportant) if that is "real" or a figment of Sumida's imagination.  It's clear that Sumida is full of anger and frustration and he is not willing to let those who care about him help.  This sense of isolation is emblematic of teenage angst as well as the physical isolation created by the Fukushima nuclear accident.  The effects of the tsunami and radiation leak are constantly in the background.  Sono layers on his typical flourishes of oddballs, hyper-intense characters and random acts of violence and other crimes.

Himizu is obviously a Sono film but is off kilter which is saying a lot for Sono film.  Off kilter of off kilter does not make normal but two degrees of bizarre but no one goes to a Sono film expecting normalcy.  Sometani gives an impressive performance as Sumida; it looks like it was hard work.  Nikaido steals the show with her quirky, equally unstable character.

Himizu means mole in Japanese; as in a small, furry rodent, not as in a skin growth.

2013 CAAMFest San Jose

In March, during the 2013 CAAMFest, festival programmer Masashi Niwano mentioned CAAM would have San Jose screenings later in the year.  This year's CAAMFest (formerly San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival) did not have any screenings in San Jose which they have had every year I have gone.  I forgot about it until receiving an email from CAAM announcing CAAMFest San Jose from August 16 to 18 at the Camera 3.

Although there were 11 films on the program, I couldn't spare the time to spend all weekend in San Jose.  I only watched two of the eleven.

Go Grandriders; documentary; directed by Tian-Hao Hua; Mandarin & Taiwanese with subtitles; (2012) - Official Website
Best Friends Forever starring Brea Grant & Vera Miao; directed by Brea Grant; (2013) - Official Website

Go Grandriders was extremely well attended.  After the screening, it was announced that the Grandriders were riding from San Jose to Los Angeles with a local motorcycle club.  Several of the people in attendance were affiliated with the motorcycle club.

Grandriders is about a group of senior citizens who ride motorcycles or mopeds around the perimeter of Taiwan.  The ride was organized by a senior citizens organization and appeared to have government blessing since they frequently had police escorts.  The whole felt partially like a tourism board product combined with some elder care infomercial.

The group of riders, collectively known as the grandriders, were certainly entertaining.  However, the film really didn't delve too much into their lives.  There were obligatory vignettes into the major participants but I really didn't get a sense of who these people were.  They were, without exception, upbeat and spirited.  Even when the team captain falls ill or another member has a road accident, the film rarely stayed far from the buoyant mood exhibited throughout.

After the film, the grandriders entered the theater to great applause and high fives from the audience.  Through an interpreter, they answered questions from a greatly appreciative audience.

Go Grandriders was a lightweight and lighthearted film.  That's not necessarily a criticism although my tastes in films tend towards darker or raunchier films.

After getting a latte at Psycho Donuts, I looked for someone to take my ticket at the theater entrance.  No one was there so I peaked my head in and saw Niwano introducing the film to a near empty theater.  I entered as he was walking off stage.  No one ever did take my ticket.

Best Friends Forever is a hybrid film - gal pal road movie cum post-apocalyptic nightmare.  All that was missing were the zombies.  Screenwriters Brea Grant & Vera Miao also starred as Harriet and Reba.  Grant was also the director.  Harriet and Reba are best friends who are drifting apart.  Harriet is moving from LA to Austin for grad school or maybe to become a librarian.  I recall which.  She has just gotten out of psychiatric hospital.  She talks Reba into taking the road trip with her and the isolation in the car on the long highways serve to reopen old resentments between.

Just when you think this is going to be one of "those movies" you see a mushroom cloud appear behind them.  They don't see it.  What Harriet & Reba don't realize is that Los Angeles has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb.  That's quite a plot twist and I wondered where they were going to take it.  The two women meet up with a trio of hipsters who carjack them.  Still unaware of the catastrophe, they have more adventures before recovering their stolen car from the hipster (Reba running one over in the process).  By this point, Harriet has learned about the explosion but doesn't tell Reba since her mother is likely dead from the blast as is most of the resident of the Southland.

Eventually, the pair show up at Harriet's sister's house where there is a weird end-of-the-world party going on.  At this point, Reba discovers the fate of LA and strangely angry at Harriet.  By that point, the film had meandered too far off the reservation for me to be fully engaged.  They both leave the party on foot despite there being a curfew and martial law.  If I recall correctly, Reba is nearly gang raped by cops before Harriet saves her; getting shot in the process.  They take refuge in the library Harriet was going to work in (oh I forgot to mention Harriet didn't actually get accepted to the grad school so the whole trip was a ruse).  At the end of the film, they emerge from the library looking like a post-apocalyptic, post-feminist ass-kicking duo which is only reinforced as their images morph into comic book art.

As you can read, this film was a pastiche many different genres.  It never quite found its footing in my opinion.  I think it was too ambitious for its budget and screenplay.  At its heart, as the countdown intertitles point the audience to, is a female friendship put to the test.  If they stripped away the nuclear bomb, I thought the film had the possibility of being a solid buddy film without a Y chromosome for miles.  Both of the lead actresses have that quirky, indie film vibe though and I give them credit for trying something different.  I'd be interested in seeing both of them in future projects or even checking some of their previous work.

When it was all said and done, the trip to San Jose was not quite satisfying.  I hope the attendance at Best Friends Forever was the exception and not the norm.  CAAMFest San Jose had a slapdash feel to it and it wasn't well advertised.  I hope it continues and thrives.  It's nice to have screenings by them in the summer.

Three Troubled Young Men

I recently watched three outstanding films about young men having difficulties in their lives.

The Way, Way Back starring Liam James; with Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell; directed by Nat Faxon & Jim Rash; (2013) - Official Facebook
Fruitvale Station starring Michael B. Jordan; with Melonie Diaz & Octavia Spencer; directed by Ryan Coogler; (2013) - Official Website
The Spectacular Now starring Miles Teller & Shailene Woodley; directed by James Ponsoldt; (2013) - Official Webiste

I saw the The Way, Way Back at the Landmark Guild in Menlo Park, Fruitvale Station at the 4 Star and The Spectacular Now at the UA Stonestown.

All three of these films are associated with the San Francisco Film Society.  The Way, Way Back & The Spectacular Now screened at the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival.  Fruitvale Station (at one point, wasn't the title simply Fruitvale?) was awarded $200,000 by SFFS and KRF (Kenneth Rainin Foundation) for production and post-production expenses.

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The Way, Way Back is the gentlest of the three.  Liam James is 14 year old Duncan.  His mother Pam (Toni Collette) is recently divorced and has a new boyfriend, Trent (Steve Carrell).  Trent is a piece of work.  He actively alienates and bullies Duncan while trying to isolate Pam or drive a wedge between mother and son.  Pam appears desperate to pair up; much to the disbelief of Duncan and the audience.  Trent, Pam, Duncan & Trent's daughter Steph spend the summer at a beach house in Cape Cod.  How can they afford to take the entire summer off?  I don't know.  If I recall correctly, Pam is caterer.  I'm not sure what Trent does.  He or his family owns a primo beach house within walking distance of the ocean or maybe the bay side.  I don't think they specified the body of water.

Duncan is miserable.  His parents are divorced, he has no contact with his father, he hates Trent, he is shy and awkward and he has a hard time making friends.  He finds a girl's bicycle in the garage and it is lifeline to freedom.  He explores the town and eventually falls in with Owen (Sam Rockwell), the manager (maybe owner) of Water Wizz, the local water park.  Why an ocean-side community would need or support a water park is confounding but I ignored a lot of these illogical plot points.  Eventually getting a job at Water Wizz, Duncan finally finds acceptance and friendship among the staff as well as a father figure in the laid back, under-ambitious Owen.  In addition, Duncan is making inroads with the pretty girl next door, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb).

Life is on the upswing for Duncan until Trent intervenes again.  In addition to the failings I listed above, Trent also cheats on Pam with Amanda Peet's character.  As an aside, I have always found her terribly sexy.  Although Duncan overhears their conversation and could reveal the affair, he keeps his mouth shut for his mother's sake.  It isn't until his affair become undeniable to Pam that Duncan confronts his mother very publicly at a BBQ.

Rather than breaking up with Trent, Pam decides to give it another shot which seemingly signifies her choice of Trent over Duncan.  They hastily leave town without giving Duncan time to say goodbye at Water Wizz (he's kept his job there a secret).  At a gas stop across the street, Duncan jumps from the car to run to Water Wizz and bid his farewells.  When Trent, Pam and Steph follow him, they discover his secret life.  Duncan was employee of the month so his photo is on the wall and Owen indirectly confronts Trent over his behavior towards Duncan.  On the drive home, the pecking order is re-established as it was at the beginning of the film on the rid to Cape Code:  Trent driving the car, Pam in the passenger seat, Steph laid out on the backseat and Duncan in rear-facing back seat with the luggage.  The film ends on an upbeat note as Pam reasserts her independence by climbing back to sit with Duncan despite Trent's protests.

The Way, Way Back has a lot of good things going for it.  Although Liam James gets most of the screen time, much like his character, his performance fades into the background.  He delivers a fine performance going from depressed and confused young man to finding some measure of happiness.  His scenes with Carrell and Rockwell are the most memorable.  That's probably because Carrell & Rockwell got the best roles.

Carrell always does well as the jerk but he amps it up for this film.  He's a grown man bullying his girlfriend's teenage son while cheating on said girlfriend.  Carrell plays it straight to so his character is an A#1 A-hole.  At the other end of the spectrum is Rockwell whose character by most definitions is a loser.  Underachieving and not able to commit his girlfriend (Maya Rudolph), Owen doesn't seem to be much of a role model.  However, Rockwell gets one scene to allude to his backstory which gives his character some much needed depth.  Amiable if not juvenile, Owen hints at a strength of character which isn't necessarily present in the film.  Rockwell does a great job fleshing out the bare-boned character.

Collette's character is harder to empathize with but she is game for the part which is absolutely dull compared to say Allison Janney's part as the boozy next door neighbor or the aforementioned Amanda Peet role.

The Way, Way Back was funny and poignant without being overly mawkish. I really enjoyed this film.

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Fruitvale Station tells the semi-fictionalized story of the last day of Oscar Grant's life.  I'm not sure how well known the Oscar Grant shooting is outside of the Bay Area.  My father, who lives in Nevada, was unfamiliar with the case.  I get the sense Oscar Grant was no Trayvon Martin in terms of national media coverage.

Michael B. Jordan portrays Grant as a complex young man.  The film is set on December 31, 2008.  Grant has a young daughter and live-in girlfriend (Melonie Diaz).  What he doesn't have is a job.  He's lost his job at the local grocery store and he is too embarrassed or afraid to tell his girlfriend or mother (Octavia Spencer).  He has reason to be afraid.  They are both tired of his behavior which includes multiple felony convictions and cheating on his girlfriend.  As portrayed in the film, Grant seems like a young man capable of much more if he could get himself unstuck.  He is trying to as evidenced by him emptying his rather sizable marijuana stash into the San Francisco Bay rather than selling it to someone.

Grant's fateful evening begins with a New Year's Eve dinner at his mother's house.  His girlfriend wants to go to the City.  She calls it Frisco which doesn't quite ring true.  Regardless, Grant's mother suggests they take BART instead of driving.  BART had around-the-clock service that evening.  Grant and a group of his friend's take her advice.  In the film, it is strongly implied Grant was a confidential informant or turned state's evidence while in prison although I think the film set the scenes in county lockup.  While on the BART train back home, Grant encounters someone he knew in prison and a fight ensues.  The train is stopped and the BART police come through pulling people off the train with Grant being one of the men detained.

An overly aggressive cop (Kevin Durand) escalates the matter with tactics that were bordered on police brutality.  Eventually, additional cops arrive including Officer Ingram who eventually shoot Grant in the back while police were trying to handcuff him.

The fact that the police officers' characters had different names than their real-life counterparts indicates there was some fear of a lawsuit over their depiction in the film.  Interestingly enough, I thought the film portrayed Grant's action as making him culpable in his own death.  In the film, Grant and others are told to sit on the platform with their backs to the wall.  Grant repeatedly gets up to argue with police that he should not be arrested.  Within the context of the film, Grant was desperate to avoid arrest as it was hinted that Grant was down to his last chance in terms of the love and support from his family as well as his own self-respect.  That explains the reason Grant kept getting up to argue with the officer.  However, it also gives a plausible explanation as to the officer's increasing aggressiveness and the chaos which Ingram/Mehserle encounters.

Filmed mostly in Oakland with the BART tracks and trains frequently in the background, Fruitvale Station does a masterful job in establishing Grant's character.  I take pains to recognize that Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station is fictional character.  He is based on a real person but I have no doubt artistic license was taken.  Fruitvale Station has an ace in the hole.  Anyone casually familiar with the incident knows Grant has to be shot to death by the end.  So everything Grant does in the film is tinged with fatalism from the audience's perspective and we project this onto Grant and his actions and words.  This purely a cinematic feeling; Grant certainly didn't know he was going to be shot to death that evening.

Whatever can be said about Oscar Grant (the character) is not necessarily applicable to Oscar Grant (the man).  Grant's tragedy is heightened by these cinematic techniques and skillfully so by director Ryan Coogler.  I won't go so far as to say Grant is a cipher for each audience member's attitude towards the actual incident and the associated societal problems, but Jordan's performance does not seem particularly memorable as I write this one week after seeing the film.  The film is quite memorable although I will admit that Bay Area residents may find it more memorable that others.  However, the performances do not stand out as they typically do in memorable films.  Kevin Durand's character is most memorable for me despite having very little screen time.  Melonie Diaz has built up quite an impressive indie film career and her performance in Fruitvale Station serves as an effective counterweight to Grant's less desirable tendencies.

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The Spectacular Now has an impressive cast.  Miles Teller (who looks a lot like a young John Cusack) has the lead role but it's my first time seeing him.  Shailene Woodley plays his girlfriend, Brie Larson is his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Jason Leigh is his mother, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is his sister & Kyle Chandler is his father.

Teller plays Sutter Keely, a high school senior always up for a good time.  That might be partially due to the fact that he is always sipping on large cup of soda spiked with hard liquor.  Sutter is a barely functioning alcohol.  He thinks he is fooling people but he isn't fooling anyone.  His girlfriend Cassidy (Larson) breaks up with him because she senses he isn't going anywhere.  This sends Sutter, who is still in love with Cassidy, on a downward spiral.  He wakes up from a drunken binge on the lawn of Aimee (Woodley), a shy and relatively sheltered classmate of Sutter.  Having never given Aimee a second look, Sutter feels an attraction to her based on something more deep than his usual superficial interactions.

Sutter & Aimee tentatively for a couple although throughout the film there is a sense that Sutter will drop Aimee for Cassidy at the first opportunity.  Fortunately, the film doesn't go down that well worn cinematic.  Instead, Cassidy who still has feelings for Sutter, never takes him despite a close call.  That makes for a much better film because Sutter and Aimee have much in common.  Both are being raised by their mothers and the absence of their fathers have deeply affected them.  It is the root cause of Sutter's alcoholism and Aimee's withdrawn nature.

Sutter is a great character.  He is a drunk and he is toxic.  In a very telling scene, he gives Aimee an alcohol flask as a present.  By the end of the film, Aimee is constantly sipping from her flask in order to keep up with him.  However, Sutter knows he is toxic as his "friends" and enemies keep telling him.  Sutter is a good guy if he could get off the booze.  Aimee has been overlooked by boys her entire life and in a co-dependent relationship with her mother.  Shown some interest by Sutter, she think he'll leave her for Cassidy as well.  Unbeknownst to her, Cassidy has spurned him so she interprets his continued presence as devotion and love.  She is more than willing to follow him down whatever alcohol infused path he is going.

What makes The Spectacular Now spectacular is that it treads a lot of gray areas.  Sutter may be turning Aimee into an alcoholic but he also encourages her to confront her mother and move away to college.  Sutter is pulling Aimee up as much as he is dragging her down.

The film's dénouement begins when Sutter reluctantly tracks down his long absent father.  His mother has long refused to tell Sutter where his father is.  Sutter has pieced together enough of his father's life to be concerned that he is turning into father.  Sutter & Aimee have an agreement - she would confront her mother and assert her independence while Sutter would insist his mother allow him to see his father.  His mother is resolute in her refusal but Sutter goes behind her back and gets his phone number from his older sister.  When he and Aimee meet him, they find a man more pathetic than they or the audience can imagine.  That is a great scene with Kyle Chandler in a bar where he reveals his shortcomings as a human.

From that point, Sutter pushes Aimee away.  In his mind, he is doing it to protect her and at some level, I think she even agrees.  However, Aimee feels the need to save Sutter just as he has "saved" her.  I won't give away the ending because it is inconclusive from the look on Aimee face which way she will choose.

Miles Teller gives a great performance in a great role.  The impressive supporting cast give equally impressive performances.  The Spectacular Now is a bit of a bait and switch.  It starts off as if it will be a teen comedy but gradually establishes itself as a drama.  By the end, I realized the target were not teenagers or even twentysomethings but an older demographic whose life experiences allow them to recognize the characters and their likely outcomes.

The Spectacular Now is pretty dark film which highlights the impact a father's absence can have on his children.  That was a common theme throughout all three films mentioned in this post.

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.