San Francisco International Film Festival 2012 (year 55)

[Chris Knipp]

Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache: THE INTOUCHABLES (2011)

This French film is the biggest box office hit but one in the country's history (after Dany Boon's 2008 Welcome to the Sticks, which Americans have not gotten to see). Its story of a quadriplegic Parisian millionaire whose black caretaker from the projects livens up his life contains some hoary clichés and a fantasy of economic, racial and class boundary-crossing unlikely to happen collectively either in France or in the US (where Harvey Weinstein is distributing it and has bought the rights to a remake). But it is nonetheless irresistible because it is not only warm-hearted and fun but elegant, well made and well cast. US limited release begins May 25. SFIFF showings:

KABUKI
Tue, Apr 24, 2012 6:00 pm
Thu, Apr 26 3:30 pm


TOLEDANO & NAKACHE

[Chris Knipp]

THE DAY HE ARRIVES opened today (Fri May 20, 2012) at Lincoln Plaza in New York and got glowing reviews (Metacritic 79). Attendees of the San Francisco International Film Festival can see it today and Monday in SF and the following Wed. in Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive. In her opening day review Manohla Dargis of the NYTimes compares the film to Last Year at Marienbad because in both films "the past collides with the present [and] repetition is both a theme and a narrative device" but says, "[Hong's] characters wallow, but he doesn’t, and his film feels as light as Marienbad feels heavy. The Day He Arrives has real force and its experimentation is in the service of a moving story..."

KABUKI
Fri, Apr 20 7:15 pm
Mon, Apr 23 9:30 pm
PFA
Wed, Apr 25 9:00 pm

[Chris Knipp]

Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia: OKAY, ENOUGH, GOODBYE (2010)

This debut feature is by a couple. He's American, she's Lebanese. They made it all themselves using Attieh's friends and family in her native Tripoli. This is a coming-of-ager about a 40-year-old, which can happen because the man has lived with his mother (not so unusual in Tripoli) but she leaves him unannounced and goes to Beirut, and he must make a life of his own. This droll but serious and quite real little film uses its non-actors with documentary flair.

SFIFF showings:

KABUKI
Fri, Apr 20 6:30 pm
Sun, Apr 29 12:00 noon
PFA
Tue, May 1 8:50 pm



DANIEL GARCIA AND RANIA ATTIEH

[Chris Knipp]

Ra'anan Alexandrowicz: THE LAW IN THESE PARTS (2011)

A brilliant indictment of the Israeli legal system in which Palestinians in the occupied territories are subject to military law and though they have the right to appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court, it has never been known to rule in their favor. The film takes the form of a series of meticulously researched interrogations of retired judges of the IDF courts, with archival footage flashed on the wall beside them and edited into the film acting as a constant counterpoint representing Palestinian experience. Winner of Best Documentary award at Jerusalem and Best World Documentary at Sundance.

SFIFF screenings:

PFA
Wed, Apr 25 6:30 pm
KABUKI
Sun, Apr 29 6:15 pm
Tue, May 1 2:30 pm


FILMMAKER RA'ANAN ALEXNDROWICZ

[Chris Knipp]

Ramona S. Diaz: DON'T STOP BELIEVIN': EVERYMAN'S JOURNEY (2012)

A dream-like rock rags-to-riches story: a diminutive but magnetic 44-year-old singer in an obscure Manila cover band, Arnel Pineda, was adopted in 2007 and brought to America by founding members of the 1973-to-the-present super band, Journey, as their lead vocalist after they found him on YouTube by Googling everything to do with Journey. Raised in dire poverty, he has not only become a successful member of the band. His presence has reinvigorated the sometimes flagging ensemble and brought them and their latest albums their greatest success in years.

Though this is just a conventional rock doc, its subject is as talented as he is articulate, and this exhilarating tale has been chosen as one of the SFIFF's Big Nights features, its closing night presentation.


SCREENING
Thu, May 3 7:00 / Castro

[Chris Knipp]

Emanuele Crialese: TERRAFERMA (2011)

Crialese deals with the overflow of African illegals arriving by sea near the Italian island of Lampedusa, southwest of Sicily, the troubles of a fisherman family, and many other things in his colorful but overstuffed new film, Terraferma.


EMANUELE CRIALESE

[Chris Knipp]

Rolando Colla: SUMMER GAMES (2011)

Swiss-Italian director Colla's film depicting play and hassles of youngsters summering at a campground on the Tuscan coast was Switzerland's entry for the Best Foreign Oscar (not nominated). The fighting of the two working class brothers' parents is a drag, but there's some truth in it, and in the occasional cruelty of the children's games.

In Italian. Shown at Venice and Locarno and a few other festivals, released (to so-so reviews) in France. SFIFF screenings:

KABUKI
Mon, Apr 30 3:00 pm
Thu, May 3 7:30 pm


ROLANDO COLLA: THIS IS HIS FIFTH FEATURE

[Chris Knipp]

Today's exciting SFIFF "Scoop du Jour":

Who's In Town
The inimitable actress Judy Davis and director Fred Schepisi have arrived. Davis will be honored tonight at the Castro Theatre where she will be presented with the Peter J. Owens Award for her glorious acting career with an onstage interview with Elvis Mitchell and a screening of Schepisi's exquisite period drama The Eye of the Storm. Tickets are still available. Also in town are directors Reza Mirkarimi for the final screening of A Cube of Sugar, Eric Baudelaire for The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi, and 27 Years Without Images, Caveh Zahedi for The Sheik and I, Maïwenn for Polisse and Alison Klayman for Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

THE EYE OF THE STORM is brand new. See IMDb.http://www.imdb.com/showtimes/title/tt1600207.

Those who are not at the Castro Theater will have to wait till September 7 for the US release.

I read Elvis Mitchell's reviews from 1999 to 2004 when he wrote them for the NYTimes. Judy Davis's career runs from 1979 (at least that was the first notable one, My Brilliant Carreer) til today, but I'm guessing her glory days were the 80s and the 90s, which may be true of Elvis Mitchell too. Davis was in Naked Lunch and Barton Fink, both in 1991. I remember her dry, ironic delivery. However there are stories about her behavior toward River Phoenix on the set of Dark Blood, his last film, in 1993, that makes her sound like a #1 b--ch, and from then on she lost my admiration. Maybe it's a good thing she's "inimitable." Judging from the number of times he's been fired or quit in a flurry, maybe Elvis Mitchell is "inimitable" too -- this could be a good pairing.

[Chris Knipp]

Further SFIFF 2012 special event material. Bill Proctor, SF Film Society Publicity Manger, informs us that Jonathan Lethem's State of the Cinema address is available in a video online in its entirety:

https://vimeo.com/41023441

[Chris Knipp]

Bill Proctor, SF Film Society Publicity Manger, informs us that Jonathan Lethem's State of Cinema address is available in a video online in its entirety:

https://vimeo.com/41023441

A "Wired" blog called MISTER BITdi Matteo Bittanti gives a detailed summary of Lethem's speech at the Castro: http://blog.wired.it/misterbit/2012/...aesthetic.html

[Chris Knipp]

Johnnie To: LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (2011)

Grinding up a gangster flick with an account of the global financial crisis To amusingly keeps a ridiculous number of narrative threads going and clear, but the effect is slapdash and the glamor and moodiness of the prolific Hong Kong action director in his prime are not to be found here.


JOHNNIE TO

[Chris Knipp]

From today's "Scoup du Jour" (Thurs. April 26, 20112):

'Who's In Town
Tonight brings one of the most anticipated annual events of the Festival: Film Society Awards Night. Judy Davis, Kenneth Branagh, director Benh Zeitlin and screenwriter David Webb Peoples will be feted at the Warfield Theater, with special guests Peter Coyote, Delroy Lindo, Fred Schepisi and Elvis Mitchell.'

I am glad to see Delroy Lindo is getting some publicity. I remember him as being a strong and underrecognized character actor. Obscure film I like that he shines briefly in: the 1990 Bright Angel.

Judy Davis, who yesterday's Scoup called "inimitable," today is "indomitable." If she stays one more day she might become "invincible." She and Fred Schipisi chatted on the stage of the Castro Theater in San Francisco where their new picture was previewed and Davis got the Peter J. Owens Award, which "honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity."


JUDY AND FRED (SCHEPISI) APR. 26 AT THE CASTRO THEATER

[Chris Knipp]

Michale Boganim: LAND OF OBLIVION (2011)

In a strong debut feature, documentary filmmaker Boganim creates an uneasy portrait of Chernobyl survivors focused on the psychological toll of the nuclear disaster, as observed during the horrific event, and ten years later. The filmmaker is Israeli and was educated at the Sorbonne. Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and the National Film School in London.

SFIFF SCREENINGS
KABUKI
Mon, Apr 23, 2012 1:00 pm
Fri, Apr 27 9:30 pm
Sun, Apr 29 3:15 pm


DIRECTOR BOGADIM

[Chris Knipp]

Jamie Melzer: INFORMANT (2012)

This one is really new, locally produced, and the world premiere. A companion piece to Better This World (SFIFF 2011), about the two young men whom an FBI informant sent to federal prison for respectively two and four years for making (not using) Molotov cocktails in Saint Paul at the time of the Republican National Convention in 2008. The FBI informant was Brandon Darby, a macho, charismatic activist hero for all his work in Common Grounds Relief in helping people after Katrina. Why did he go from being a revolutionary activist to informing for the feds? This film may help you understand, but the leftists Darby betrayed (including the two young men who looked up to him and were spurred to their action by his presence, if not his words) are not ever going to forgive this rather twisted but clearly seductive man. Melzer teachers documentary filmmaking at Stanford. And he knows his craft.

[Chris Knipp]

(This may be my last review of the SFIFF. I am stopping early because leaving town soon, but I have covered over 40 films counting what I saw at other venues.)

Yourgos Lanthimos: ALPS (2011)

This is very similar to Kineta, Dogtooth, as well as Yorgos (AKA "Giorgos") Lanthimos' close associate's Attenberg, in its emphasis on a very odd, hermetic set of people (not a single family this time), and its peculiar premise -- impersonating dead people to help the bereaved deal with their grief. But the screenplay this time takes a step further out into the larger world, and also desptie the cruelty and dominance-submission behavior, there is more kindness and softness. Having tended to reject Dogtooth, and also (but less so) Attenberg, one may find one's resistance fading this time and be led to to play Yourgos' games. And in doing so one may get more out of this one, both intellectually and emotionally. Dogtooth was very much talked about and honored. This one seems more capable of touching people. A film that should be seen if you like challenging movies.


LANTHIMOS