San Francisco International Film Festival 2011 (year 54)

[Chris Knipp]

April 21 to May 5, 2011

The Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread for the 2011 festival begins here.

March 29, 2011. The San Francisco International Film Festiva has announced its program today with the usual press conference on the beautiful top floor of the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, with Graham Leggett, Executive Director of the SFFS, presiding in his fifth year at the Society's helm.

The full program of the festival films begins here.

I will plan to attend and review films.

There are 189 films from forty-odd countries. I've already seen around 18 of them, which gives me a slight headstart.

Opening night film is Mike Mills' Beginners with Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer. Centerpiece is Azarel Jacobs' Terri. Closing night film is Matthieu Amalric's On Tour (Tournée).

Special awards are going to legendary screenwriter Frank Pierson; Persist ence of Vision Award to artist Matthew Barney; the Mel Novikoff Award for contribution to public appreciation of film goes to film restorer/showman Serge Bromberg (whose Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno was in the SFIFF last year).

[Chris Knipp]

From the short SFIFF "Miniguide," a few titles that look interesting:

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Werner Herzog 2010). I've wanted to see this about the 30,000-year-old cave paintings we will never be able to see in person. Amazing images, and an amazing filmmaker. It has been shown in NYC and is coming here to theaters, however.

CIRCUMSTANCE (Maryam Keshavarz 2011). As I've mentioned before, this is one in the new New Directors/New Films series that I missed and people said was great. It's about young women in Tehran living under the radar and won a Sundance Audience Award.

DETROIT WILD CITY (Florent Tillon 2011). Documentary by a French director about the devastated yet beautiful Detroit of today. New and amazing things may be happening there.

HA HA HA (Hong Sang-soo 2010). I have often liked the Korean director's somewhat European-inspired films. This one has two men swapping stories (and flashbacks) at the seaside (a familiar Hong venue) and it turns out the people and events are intertwined.

OUTRAGE (Takeshi Kitano 2010). The implacable and whimsical Kitano returns to the gangster genre. The VARIETY review describes it as "grisly" and "visually stunning," and says the "Tech credits are superlative."

13 ASSASSINS (Takashi Miike 2010). In a similar vein a new gangster film by the Asian cult master, recently featured at a series at Lincoln Center.

THE TRIP (Michael Winterbottom 2010) Winterbottom takes the people from his TRISTRAM SHANDY and riffs forward. The VARIETY reviewer says 'Michael Winterbottom's "The Trip" is about 20 minutes too long, but the other 90 are among the funniest in recent memory.'

This is just a first look, and might not be all movies you need to go to a film festival for. More will be revealed as I go over the list again and talk to people. I am sure there are some excellent new documentaries, which I have not gotten to yet, except for the Detroit one.

I have also seen fifteen or so of the selections at NY events. They'll be listed with links in the SFIFF 2011 Festival Coverage thread.

[Chris Knipp]

Agustí Villaronga: Black Bread (2010)

This Catalan-language coming-of-age film set in 1944 was a major prizewinner in Spain last year and it's easy to see why. In contrast to del Toro's richly surreal and expressionistic Pan's Labyrinth, which in setting and focus it resembles (also including Sergi López as a local fascist official), this film is marked by a simplicity and austerity that link it to the masterpieces of Italian neorealism, but there is a greater moral ambiguity.

[Johann]

Excellent!
Thanks for giving us something to be excited about.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. I will be posting more previews and reviews gradually from now on, though the main screenings don't start till ten days from now. This is a very good film.

[Chris Knipp]

The Arbor (Clio Barnard 2010)

Documentary and realism seamlessly blend in the portrait of a working-class playwright

Location shots, real people, and actors are deployed in a seamless amalgam in this recollection of of the talented but short-lived alcoholic working-class playwright from Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, Andrea Dunbar.

A tough ride but a very compulsively watchable one. This is just a preview. The full review will appear later after Strand's release later this month.