sfiff '07

as if we didn’t have anything better to do with our time, the sf international film festival starts today. and of course, being as we’re practical rational people, we’re, uh, still going to films:

Friday 4.27.07
The Phantom Carriage Jonathan Richman, Victor Sjöström (Sweden, 1921, 107 minutes) @ The Castro 7:00 pm
Death’s wheels are driven by the last sinner to die before year’s end in master Swedish director Victor Sjöström’s surrealistic silent film classic, which rides again with a new score composed and performed live by local music icon Jonathan Richman.

The Heavenly Kings Daniel Wu (Hong Kong, 2006, 86 minutes) @ The Castro 9:45 pm
Bay Area born Hong Kong movie star Daniel Wu’s directorial debut is a witty account of a boy band’s rise to the top and a clever, tuneful, insider’s look at the entertainment industry’s comically bizarre operations.

Saturday 4.28.07
The Iron Mask - Novikoff Award & Afternoon with Kevin Brownlow Alan Dwan (USA, 1929, 104 minutes) @ The Castro 2:00 pm
The gallant Douglas Fairbanks must save the French crown from black-hearted schemers in this lavish version of The Three Musketeers, filled with chivalry, derring-do and impressive pre-special effects stuntwork. Made at the end of the silent era and considered the summation of the swashbuckling genre.

amour-LEGENDE Wu Mi-sen (Taiwan/Japan, 2006, 118 minutes) @ SFMOMA 9:00 pm
An adulterous couple flees Taipei for a vacation somewhere in South America, but their idyll turns bizarre and ominous within hours as they rumble across a surreal landscape populated by underground royalty and suicidal squirrels.

Sunday 4.29.07
Kevin Brownlow: Introduction To Silents @ PFA 5:30 pm
Silent-film archivist and preservationist Kevin Brownlow—recipient of this year’s Mel Novikoff Award—will present a lecture on the pre-talkie era and screen excerpts from silent gems including Bronco Billy’s Adventure, Scaramouche, The Chess Player and Fire Brigade.

Tuesday 5.1.07
Private Fears In Public Places Alain Resnais (France/Italy, 2006, 120 minutes) @ PFA 7:00 pm
Falling snow is not the only reason for the chill in wintertime Paris, as despair mingles with hope for six lonely, loosely connected people searching for love and human connection in French trickster Alain Resnais’s latest beguilement.

Wednesday 5.2.07
Hana Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan, 2006, 127 minutes) @ Kabuki 6:45 pm
A movie about a samurai from the director of After Life and Nobody Knows. Filled with Kore-eda’s characteristic moments of quiet beauty, this tale of a hapless samurai seeking vengeance but finding acceptance is a celebration of pacifism and a tribute to Japanese cinema history.

Vanaja Rajnesh Domalpalli (India/USA, 2006, 111 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:15 pm
The spirited young daughter of a poor fisherman, Vanaja hopes to become a great dancer. Flirtation with her landlady’s son soon hurls her up against the walls of class, gender and family. A powerful coming-of-age film, both modern and graceful.

Saturday 5.5.07
Notes to a Toon Underground @ The Castro 8:30 pm
Eleven musicians including Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy), avant-garde legend William Winant, Marc Capelle and Devin Hoff and Ches Smith (of Good for Cows) play newly composed scores to the short animated films of Emily and Georgia Hubley, David Russo, Kelly Sears, Wladyslaw Starewicz and Jim Trainor.

(here is where i go to vegas for the week on “business”. plus we’ll be hypothetically moved by then! that frees up hmc to see…)

Sunday 5.6.07 The Day at The Clay
Vitus Fredi M. Murer (Switzerland, 2006, 120 minutes) @ Clay 12:00 pm
Boy genius and piano prodigy Vitus just wants to be a normal kid. He escapes the daily pressures his parents place on him by spending time with his loving, eccentric grandpa (veteran actor Bruno Ganz), who encourages him to find his own way with his exceptional gifts.

Lady Chatterley Pascale Ferran (France, 2006, 168 minutes) @ Clay 5:30 pm
D.H. Lawrence’s controversial novel detailing the affair of an upper-crust woman and a virile gameskeeper benefits from a sensual French update in this luxurious reflection on sexuality, class and female empowerment. Winner of Best Film and four other Césars, it’s intelligent, gorgeous and quite hot.

Once John Carney (Ireland, 2006, 88 minutes) @ Clay 9:30 pm
Two struggling Dublin musicians fall in love with and through each other’s music in this sublime charmer that puts mainstream romantic comedies to shame. Featuring a superb lead performance by Glenn Hansard, lead singer of the Frames.

Monday 5.7.07
7 Years Jean-Pascal Hattu (France, 2006, 85 minutes) @ Kabuki, 7:00 pm
A devoted young woman stands by her incarcerated husband but starts an affair with his prison warden in Jean-Pascal Hattu’s behind-bars bizarre love triangle that explores the lengths people go to maintain at least the illusion of freedom.

How Is Your Fish Today? Xiaolu Guo (China/England, 2007, 83 minutes) @ Kabuki, 9:45 pm
Ruminating on urban isolationism in a rapidly expanding China, Xiaolu Guo’s debut narrative feature follows a Beijing-based screenwriter as he obsessively rewrites a rejected script about a murderer on the run.

Tuesday 5.8.07
Gardens In Autumn Otar Iosseliani (France/Russia/Italy, 2006, 122 minutes) @ Kabuki 9:15 pm
In Otar Iosseliani’s hilarious satire, middle-aged French minister Vincent loses his job, his apartment and his wife. Luckily, he has a rich, doting old mother (Michel Piccoli in drag), and decides to reacquaint himself with old friends, former mistresses, his passion for music and the pleasures of alcohol.

Wednesday 5.9.07
The Yacoubian Building Marwan Hamed (Egypt, 2006, 172 minutes) @ Kabuki 1:30 pm
Residents of a historic apartment complex in Cairo fatefully cross paths in this sprawling epic, an ambitious mix of soap opera intrigue and sociopolitical critique. Featuring numerous icons of Arab cinema, this tragicomic treat is the biggest-budget Egyptian film in history.

Thursday 5.10.07
Love For Sale: Suely In The Sky Karim Aïnouz (Brazil/Germany/France/Portugal, 2006, 90 minutes) @ PFA 9:10 pm
A young Brazilian woman turns to prostitution to support her newborn baby. But far from being a depressing or cautionary tale about victimhood or social injustice, Karim Aïnouz’s feisty follow up to Madame Sãta (SFIFF 2003) is an unapologetically sexy ode to women’s liberation.

Posted at April 27, 2007 10:56 AM