for whom it may concern, here’s our san francisco international film festival schedule so far:
Friday 4.21.06
Lower City Sérgio Machado (Brazil, 2005, 100 minutes) @ Kabuki, 7:30pm
A steamy ménage à trois among two lifelong friends and a tempestuous prostitute is fraught with passion and violence in this sensual melodrama set along the gritty waterfront of Salvador, Brazil’s “lower city” of sin and, just maybe, salvation.
Saturday 4.22.06
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai Mitsuru Meike (Japan, 2004, 90 minutes) @ Kabuki, 11:15pm
In this riotous amalgam of political satire, apocalyptic comedy and steamy erotica, an escort specializing in teacher-student scenarios acquires a mysterious cylinder that could cause nuclear havoc. A fervid example of the Japanese pinku eiga genre, for mature audiences only.
Sunday 4.23.06
The Eagle Clarence Brown (USA, 1925, 82 minutes) @ Castro 7:00pm
The dashing Rudolph Valentino rides roughshod over Russia’s dastardly villains while seducing its lovely daughters—and its jealous queen!—in this risqué Zorroesque adventure, with a new score composed and performed by Alloy Orchestra.
The Wayward Cloud Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan/France, 2005, 112 minutes) @ Castro 9:30pm
A genuine masterpiece and the most audacious work to date from visionary director Tsai Ming-liang, this provocative and humorous film is about a porn actor and the woman who enters into a strange relationship with him.
Monday 4.24.06
They Chose China Shui-Bo Wang (Canada, 2005, 52 minutes) @ Kabuki 6:45pm
A revealing documentary exploring the courage of American dissidents who, as POWs at the end of the Korean War, opted against repatriation to McCarthy’s America and instead chose to make Communist China their home. With short, Thornton Dial.
Viva Cuba Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti (Cuba/France, 2005, 80 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:00pm
Eleven-year-old Malú runs away from home with her best friend Jorgito on a quest to find her father in this charming, fairytale-like story that was Cuba’s candidate for the Oscars.
Wednesday 4.26.06
An Evening With Werner Herzog: Directing Award w/ The Wild Blue Yonder Werner Herzog (Germany, 2005, 78 minutes) @ Castro 7:30pm
This unclassifiable, luminous and at-times comic science fiction/fantasy blends Herzog’s trademark romanticism with an ecological tale of space travel, both true and false. Like Kubrick’s 2001, it’s a space oratorio of sounds and visions, earthly and unearthly.
Drawing Restraint 9 Matthew Barney @ Kabuki 11:30pm
Matthew Barney is expected to be in attendance to introduce the film. Those familiar with Barney’s landmark Cremaster cycle can expect to immerse themselves in similar extraordinary visuals, with the added pleasure of a soundtrack of new songs by the always-enchanting art-pop singer Bjork.
Friday 4.28.06
An Evening With Ed Harris: Peter J. Owens Award w/ A Flash of Green Victor Nuñez (USA, 1984, 122 minutes) @ Castro 7:30pm
Ed Harris gives a nuanced, true-to-life performance as a small-town newspaper reporter bribed into helping an unscrupulous land developer in this atmospheric, Florida-set character drama.
Saturday 4.29.06
Three Times Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan, 2005, 131 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:30pm
Three different time periods, two lead roles and one eternal love: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s romantic new film moves across the history of Taiwan—and the arc of the director’s career—to explore the memory of love in 1966, 1911 and today.
Sunday 4.30.06
Belle de Jour Luis Buñuel (France, 1967, 101 minutes) @ PFA 5:00pm
In this subversive erotic fantasy cowritten by Jean-Claude Carrière and Buñuel, Catherine Deneuve plays a frigid housewife who indulges her masochistic desires by working in a Paris brothel. However, nothing is quite as it seems…
Princess Raccoon Seijun Suzuki (Japan, 2005, 111 minutes) @ PFA 8:00pm
“We are all raccoons!” Glory in the spectacular design and exuberant wackiness (plus the stunning Ziyi Zhang as the Princess) of this madcap anything-goes pop opera by Japan’s premiere film trickster.
Monday 5.1.06
Favela Rising Jeff Zimbalist (Brazil/USA, 2005, 80 minutes) @ Kabuki 6:30pm
In one of the toughest barrios in Brazil, a drug trafficker turned social revolutionary musician leads his community into an art-inspired war against the drug trafficking army holding them captive. An inspiring story of redemption and survival within a battleground of drugs and violence. With short, Phoenix Dance.
Clouds of Yesterday Takushi Tsubokawa (Japan, 2005, 95 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:15pm
This impressive and original debut feature tells the story of a reel of silent film hidden by a young boy in the 1930s. Now a grandfather, he searches for the missing reel in order to complete his life.
Tuesday 5.2.06
Executive Koala Minoru Kawasaki (Japan, 2005, 85 minutes) @ Kabuki 4:15pm
A dutiful employee with a giant koala head must contend with complex office politics while worrying that he may be responsible for his girlfriend’s death in this unforgettable genre hybrid from Japan’s leading director of meatball, off-the-wall comedies.
See You in Space József Pacskovsky (Hungary, 2005, 91 minutes) @ Kabuki 8:45pm
Four tales of love unfold over a multinational terrain, including a space station orbiting Earth. Peppered with moments sensual, contemplative, bleak and surreal, the lovers attempt to suppress their desires until their attractions become incendiary.
Comments are now closed for this entry. Thank you for playing.