week(s) in review – 04/02 – 05/13/12

So as I expected Memories of the Future was forced into a temporary hiatus in consideration of academic priorities, but I turned in my last paper of the semester this evening, and I’m eager to channel my focus towards several exciting projects that have presented themselves, and I’ve jotted down notes on a number of topics I’d like to post on here, starting with my forthcoming contribution to this year’s Film Preservation Blogathon, which kicked off yesterday.

To say nothing of all the films in store for Bay Area cinephiles this summer: the first weekend of the Roxie’s film noir series “I Wake Up Dreaming” was amazing, the Crossroads Festival for experimental film next weekend looks mind-blowing, the Silent Film Festival has announced an impressive lineup, the PFA has several programs this summer I’m eagerly awaiting (Dorsky!  Greenaway!  Czech New Wave!), Frameline will be here in several months, and the list goes on and on…

As usual, first viewing unless otherwise noted.

Theatrical Viewing

The Penal Colony (Ruiz, Chile, 1970) – PFA, 16mm

A TV Dante: Cantos 9–14 (Ruiz, UK, 1991)  – PFA, 3/4″ Video

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Greenaway, UK, 1989) – Castro Theatre, 35mm

Zabriskie Point (Antonioni, USA, 1970) – Castro Theatre, 35mm

Whores’ Glory (Glawogger, Austria/Germany, 2012) – PFA, 35mm

Workingman’s Death (Glawogger, Austria/Germany, 2005) – PFA, 35mm

Kill Daddy Good Night (Das Vaterspiel) (Glawogger, Germany, 2009) – PFA, Digital Projection

Megacities (Glawogger, Austria, 1998) – PFA, 35mm

The Day He Arrives (Hong, South Korea, 2012) – SFFS Cinema, 35mm

Galaxie (Markopoulos, USA, 1966) – SFMOMA, 16mm

The Big Combo (J. Lewis, USA 1955) – Roxie Theater, 35mm

The Scar (Hollow Triumph) (Sekely,  USA, 1948) – Roxie Theater, 16mm

Knock on Any Door (N. Ray, USA, 1949) – Roxie Theater, 35mm

The Royal Tenenbaums (W. Anderson, USA, 2001) – Castro Theatre, 35mm

Une si jolie petite plage (Such a Pretty Little Beach) (Allégret, France, 1949) – Roxie Theater, Digital Projection

Detour (Ulmer, USA, 1945) – Roxie Theater, Digital Projection from a 35mm print; 2nd viewing

The Pretender (W.L. Wilder, USA, 1947) – Roxie Theater, 16mm

Home Viewing

The Blue Gardenia (Lang, USA, 1953) – Amazon Instant Video

Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich, USA, 1955) – Projected Blu-ray; 2nd viewing

Making the Boys (Robey, USA, 2011) – Netflix Instant

Paranormal State: Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 5 (2007 – 2010) – Netflix Instant (one of my great guilty pleasures)

In Concert

St Vincent with tUnE-yArDs – Fox Theatre

Upcoming Possibilities

Storm Over Lisbon (Sherman, USA, 1944) and Shadow of Terror (Landers, USA, 1945) – Roxie Theatre, 05/16

Killer’s Kiss (Kubrick, USA, 1955) and Female Jungle (VeSota, USA, 1956) – Roxie Theatre, 05/18

To Have and Have Not (Hawks, USA, 1944) and Sergeant York (Hawks, USA, 1941) – Stanford Theatre, May 18 – 20

As much as the Crossroads Film Festival as possible – Victoria Theatre, 05/18 – 20

week(s) in review, 03/19 – 04/01/2012

I blame midterm craziness for the lack of updates, and as I’m diving headfirst into final papers I’m not sure if the situation is going to change much in the upcoming six weeks or so.  And I have so many updates I’d like to make–particularly regarding the epic experience that was seeing Napoleon.  2012 viewings also memorably kicked off over the last two weeks.  As usual, first viewing unless otherwise noted.

Theatrical Viewing

Napoleon (Abel Gance, France, 1927) – Paramount Theatre, 35mm (x3!)

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Raúl Ruiz, France, 1979) – PFA, 35mm; 2nd viewing

Le colloque de chiens (Dog’s Dialogue) (Raúl Ruiz, France, 1977) – PFA, 35mm; 2nd viewing

The House of Pleasures (Bonello, France, 2012) – SF Film Society, 35mm

The Deep Blue Sea (Davis, UK, 2012) – Embarcadero Landmark; 35mm

Friends with Kids (Westfeld, USA, 2012) – Century SF, Digital Projection

Crazy Horse (Wiseman, 2012) – Roxie Theatre, Digital Projection

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Gelb, USA, 2012) – Embarcadero Landmark; Digital Projection

Upcoming Possibilites

The Penal Colony (Ruiz, Chile, 1970) with A TV Dante: Cantos 9–14 (Ruiz, UK, 1991)  – PFA, 04/04

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Greenaway, UK, 1989) – Castro Theatre, 04/05

week in review, 03/05 – 03/18/2012

This last week was devoted to midterms so I missed last week’s update (and the lack of updates in general).  The following accounts for the last two weeks.

Theatrical Viewing

The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, UK, 1992) – SF Film Society, 35mm; 2nd Viewing

Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, France, 1946) – Castro Theatre, DCP; 2nd Viewing

Time Regained (Le temps retrouvé)
(Raúl Ruiz, France, 1999) – PFA, 35mm; 3rd Viewing

Home Viewing

The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise & Gunther von Fritsch, 1944) – Projected DVD; 2nd Viewing

Finished Reading

Build My Gallows High by Geoffrey Homes
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Hidden Hand, or, Capitola the Madcap by E.D.E.N. Southworth

[The links are to my reviews at Goodreads.]

Possibilities for This Next Week

Red River (Howard Hawks, USA, 1948) – PFA, 03/20

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Raúl Ruiz, France, 1979) with Le colloque de chiens (Dog’s Dialogue) (Raúl Ruiz, France, 1977) – PFA, 03/23

Napoléon(!!!) (Abel Gance, France, 1927) – Paramount Theatre, 03/24

week in review, 02/27 – 03/04/12

What a week!  It might be my record for seeing films theatrically in a non-festival context.  First viewings unless otherwise noted.

Theatrical Viewing

A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) (Powell & Pressburger, UK, 1946) – Castro Theatre, 35mm; 3rd viewing

The Music Lovers (Ken Russell, UK, 1970) – Castro Theatre, 35mm

Freaks (Tod Browning, USA, 1932) – Roxie Theater, 16mm; 2nd viewing

Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, USA, 1932) – Roxie Theater, 35mm

Three Lives and Only One Death (Raúl Ruiz, France /Portugal, 1996) – PFA, 35mm

Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, USA, 1932) – Stanford Theatre, 35mm; 2nd Viewing

One Hour With You (Ernst Lubitsch, USA, 1932) – Stanford Theatre, 35mm; 2nd Viewing

Other

An Evening with Claude Lanzmann – JCCSF

Looking Forward to This Next Week

The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, UK, 1992) – SF Film Society, 03/08

Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, France, 1946) – Castro Theatre, 03/10

And however many of the Pre-Code films at the Roxie I can get myself to!

“down endless corridors”… again

Raúl Ruiz’s Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (L’hypothèse du tableau volé) (France, 1979) seems to be one of the very few films that truly kept exploring territory opened up by Last Year at Marienbad a decade or so before, as the monotone narration, sumptuous rooms populated by living mannequins, the ethereal, shimmering black and white images composed of shadows gradations, lines and light (master cinematographer Sacha Vierny was behind the look of both films) all seem to bear the external influence of Resnais’s landmark film…

But beneath the glassy, elegant surfaces both films share an uneasy, all-consuming desire to arrange the pieces of the present into a past that (most likely) never was. If Marienbad remains the superior film it’s only because Hypothesis seems too distanced from “life” while there’s something about Marienbad that seems to keep cutting through the artifice into something real, something elusive but almost tangible… no, for all of Hypothesis‘s many stunning qualities it never manages to quite overcomes the sensation of being an sophisticated parlor game, a beautiful, almost miraculous little trick of words, paint and celluloid that seems only capable of existing in its own rarified little world of cinema, literature, and art itself.

And if that sounds like a knock, I don’t intend it to be (one of my favorite quotes: “it was art; though remote from life, it enhances life’s values…” E.M. Forster, Howard’s End); it just lacks a certain substance—it’s as fragile, diaphanous as a half-remembered dream. It might be slight, and all things considered it’s rather minor, but I still consider it a treasure.