Let's All Go to the Movies
Theatrical Releases April 6th, 2007
You already know about The Reaping, and Firehouse Dog and you’d have to live under a rock not to know about Grindhouse but there are two film events starting this week that you MUST NOT MISS. The first is part of PFA’s “Closely Watched Film” series. This week they’ve brought Thai legend Apichatpong Weerasethakul for Q&A after screenings of his films Tropical Malady (Friday) and Blissfully Yours (Saturday). He’s coming from Thailand! You can’t miss that!
Another great import you might not have heard of is Ken Loach’s newest The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Released via Landmark this film looks at the earliest days of the IRA through the story of two brothers. Wind is as beautiful as it is tragic and thought it takes pace in 1920, it’s view of civil and international struggle is timely. Loach is famous for his social realism and his interest in gritty subjects like class issues and turf wars. The film is such a work of genius and valor; it’s certainly going to be recognized as important in Loach’s body of work. And it stars Cilian Murphy and who doesn’t think he’s fun to look at?
After the jump, your local picks...
By SFist Sara
LOCAL WISDOM
Artist Television Access (922 Valencia St.) Sunday will be for music at the ATA with Mount Eerie, and Thursday they’ll hold an Open Screening.
The Balboa is showing Blades of Glory and The Namesake.
FREE ADMISSION on your birthday! Discount Cards: 5 admissions for $30.00 now on sale. SCHOOL NIGHT –Every Monday is School Night. $6.00 for Students, Faculty and school Staff (with School ID) .
The Castro (429 Castro St.) is curating two screenings for the PFA’s Antonioni Series: Story of a Love Affair, and Il Grido, to play Friday and Saturday (respectively) at 8pm at the PFA. On Saturday and Sunday at 2 see Natalie Wood (our fav!) dress up like a Latina in a sing-a-long screening of West Side Story. On the 10th see Liz and Dick duke it out in Mike Nichol’s film based on Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And the 11th and 12th, the Castro teams up with the PFA again for Antonioni’s Blow Up and Zabriskie Point (SCOPE) – neat thing about Zabriskie, there are still tons of people in Berkeley who were extras for the film. Neat tidbit, eh?
The Cinematheque is screening its third installment of Oppositional and Stigmatized, this program entitled: Cinema Obsessed. Central to the program is a film by Takahiko Iimura, called 24 Frames Per Second. Iimura was, with Annie Hershey, the first of the female camerawomen in KRON in the 60’s. I think that station is right. If we're wrong, comment!
Other Cinema Saturday at ATA, Other Cinema has a series of footage captured by SF filmmakers on their travels to current Sudan, Darfur and Iraq. If you were captured by imagery of life as seen in Iraq in Fragments or even the dramatized “ground floor” of the middle east as shown in The Situation, this is some real live experience of the nations discussed abstractly on the nightly news. This week, $7 of your $10 entrance fee will benefit Doctors without Borders.
Pacific Film Archive (2575 Bancroft Way)
Special Programs:
Friday and Saturday, PFA has films by Thai great Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Friday they will screen Tropical Malady and Saturday it will be Blissfully Yours. Both films will be followed by a special appearance and discussion with the director.
Sunday the Tribute to SFIFF’s 50th continues with a double bill at 2 and 3:30 of Seasons of Arthur Peleshian and Pastorale.
Tuesday the 10th at 6 and 7:30, preservationist and filmmaker Bill Brand will be present to instruct on the topics of Self Preservation for Film and Video Makers (6pm) and Optical Printing and Preservation Work (7:30pm).
PFA is showing four Antonioni screenings as part of it’s tribute (see Castro above).
The Wednesday film Screening and Lecture will be The Purple Rose of Cairo presented by Marylin Fabe.
The Red Vic screens Little Children. Friday and Saturday, City of Lost Children Sunday and Monday, and Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday, they’ll play Pan’s Labyrinth .If you haven’t seen this on the big screen yet, take this chance. It’s an incredible film and a real ride!
Check out at the Guardian our interview with Guilllermo del Torodian’s Blog at
The Roxie New College Film Center plays a fascinating pic called Police Beat. A big hit at Sundance 05, Police Beat was written by a Seattle Journalist who writes a regular column called “Police Beat” in Seattle’s weekly The Stranger. The story concerns a republican Muslim vice cop from Africa who’s so obsessed about his girlfriends’ possible infidelity that he only sees the crimes around him through the lens of his own insecurities. He’s humorously detached from the world at large but also sadly alone. Rather beautiful.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission Street) As a supplement to the Weerasethakul events at PFA, YBCA is holding three screenings of Syndromes and a Century by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. A somewhat abstract and clearly personal film inspired by the filmmaker’s parents, Syndromes will play Friday through Sunday. The filmmaker may attend but we’ve read no promises.