Up-Coming: San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2018

I'm looking forward to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which this year expands to 23 screenings over 5 days, from classics to rarities to recent discoveries, all with live musical accompaniment. It opens this Wednesday night at the Castro Theatre, with the grandiosely melodramatic The Man Who Laughs, starring Conrad Veidt as the grotesque title character. The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will perform their original score, recreating the experience of top-class film-going in the 1920s.

The festival's offerings are so uncommon that it's frustrating not to be able to take in everything. I'm always fascinated by the informative Amazing Tales from the Archives, showcasing the work of film preservationists & historians, which is offered free on Thursday, May 31st, at 10am. The avant-garde program on Friday, June 1st at 2pm looks intriguing. It includes films by Marcel Duchamp & Sergei Eisenstein & is accompanied by the stark, eerie music of the Matti Bye Ensemble.

Photo of Kevin Brownlow taken by Pamela Gentile

Venerated film historian Kevin Brownlow, whose book The Parade's Gone By gave me my mental image of the competitive, pioneering silent era, will attend the festival & celebrate his 80th birthday at the screening of Mare Nostrum on Saturday, June 2nd, at noon. Newly discovered footage of the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, probably shot in the last week of April 1906, will be shown at the Saturday, June 2nd, 2:45pm screening of the Italian comedy Trappola.

Greta Garbo fans should note that the version of The Saga of Gösta Berling playing on Saturday, June 2nd at 7p, is advertised as 200 minutes long. The Pacific Film Archive offers a supplementary program of Greta Garbo Rarities on Wednesday, May 30th at 3p. The delightful Serge Bromberg will present a program of early shorts from his Lobster Films archive on Sunday, June 3rd, at 10am. I'm excited to see that his list includes some of the startling "accidental 3D" films by Georges Méliès.

Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals joins the Donald Sosin Ensemble to accompany The Ancient Law on Sunday, June 3rd at 2:25pm. This 1923 German film is apparently a source for The Jazz Singer. The salon-style Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra accompanies Battling Butler, starring Buster Keaton, to close out the festival on Sunday, June 3rd at 8p.

§ The San Francisco Silent Film Festival
May 30 - June 3, 2017
Castro Theatre

§ Festival Site | Schedule & Tickets | Festival Pass

Frameline 41 Festival Preview

The 41st Frameline Film Festival starts his week, running June 15-25 at the Castro, Roxie & Victoria Theatres, as well the Elmwood in Berkeley & the Piedmond in Oakland. Last month, I attended the festival's convivial launch party, as a friend's plus-one. Frances Wallace, Executive Director, announced that this year's festival has 147 films, 40% of them by women directors. Ms. Wallace & programmers Peter Stein, Des Buford, Harry Vaughn & Kevin Schaub were joyful as they presented a quick run-through of some festival highlights.

Opening night is the new documentary The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, with Mr. Maupin in attendance. Closing night is the drama After Louie, starring Alan Cumming, who will be present to receive the festival's Frameline Award. The centerpiece film in world cinema is I Dream in Another Language (Sueño en Otrea Idioma), an art film about a linguist who tracks down the last 2 speakers of a dying language, only to find that they won't talk to each other. I was intrigued by mention of Apricot Groves, a film in Armenian & Farsi, about a young Armenian-Iranian man, raised in the US, who travels to Armenia to make a marriage proposal.

One of the programmers was genuinely enthusiastic about My Friend Dahmer, a movie portrait of the teenage Jeffrey Dahmer. Ross Lynch, who portrays Dahmer, is expected to attend the screening. The programmers also touted the festival's Episodic category, comprising multi-part series originally intended for on-line or TV viewing.

The event attendees were a friendly crowd, & I enjoyed learning about Gay Days at Disneyland & chatting briefly with one of the programmers, who discussed the trickiness of making selections for a San Francisco audience.

§ Frameline 41 Festival Launch Party 
Tuesday, May 23, 5:30PM
The Oasis

§ Frameline 41
San Francisco International
LGBTQ Film Festival
June 15-25, 2017
Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater, Victoria Theatre
Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Landmark Theatres Piedmond

22nd San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Thursday is the 1st night of the SF Silent Film Festival, running June 1 - 4 at the Castro Theatre. This year's festival presents 36 musicians providing live accompaniment for 18 films from 9 countries. DJ Spooky is new to the festival this year, & on Friday night he accompanies Body and Soul, a 1925 feature by African-American director Oscar Micheaux, starring Paul Robeson. On opening night the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra performs their original score for Harold Lloyd's The Freshman, & Sunday at noon the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra accompanies Silence, a 1926 American crime drama based on a stage play, restored with recently discovered footage from the Cinémathèque Française.

The festival has 2 films directed by women, including The Dumb Girl of Portici, a high-budget epic directed by Lois Weber & starring Anna Pavlova in her only screen role. Dorothy Arzner is the director of Get Your Man, a comedy with Clara Bow & Buddy Rogers. It plays with a fragment of Now We're in the Air, a lost comedy with Louise Brooks & Wallace Beery.

I am told that the Saturday afternoon showing of Filibus, an Italian adventure film featuring sky pirates, is a must-see. Preceding the screening, the festival will present an award to the the Dutch EYE Filmmuseum, for its commitment to the preservation of silent film. Films from the EYE's Desmet Collection will be shown in the free, & always fascinating, Amazing Tales from the Archives presentation on Friday morning.

The festival will also honor David Shepard, a film preservationist who died this year, with a Saturday morning program of shorts selected by the delightful Serge Bromberg. The classic Battleship Potemkin is on the schedule, as well as the the avant-garde A Page of Madness, which I have always wanted to see. Two Days, a Soviet film set during the Civil War in the Ukraine, looks intriguing.

I got to attend the festival's informal media preview event last month & had a chat with a fellow who does the sound for the Silent Film Festival, which sounds like an oxymoron, but isn't. He said The Freshmen is one of his favorites & assured me that The Three Musketeers show that closes the festival would be the most fun.

§ The 22nd San Francisco Silent Film Festival
June 1 - 4, 2017
Castro Theatre

§ Festival Site | Schedule & Tickets | Festival Pass 

The Salesman

A couple of weeks ago I got to see a preview screening of The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi's taut new film about personal revenge. It plays at the Mill Valley Film Festival next week & then in Bay Area theaters in January. The story presents us with a cultured, well-educated husband & wife living in Tehran. They are about to star opposite each other in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In the gripping opening scene, which is in one long take & appears to be an over-stated MacGuffin, they are forced to evacuate their apartment building. They move to another apartment, previously inhabited by an elusive woman who may be a prostitute. When the wife is alone in the apartment one evening, she is assaulted by an intruder. The specific details of attack are never made explicit, but the wife is too traumatized to talk to the police, & the husband, out of a chivalrous instinct, sets out to track down the assailant himself.

Though the plot is calculated & takes many contrived side trips, the movie has an immediacy & sense of urgency. I was never sure where scenes were headed, & I liked the way that things left unsaid or unseen loomed large. In the subplot involving Death of a Salesman, it's nice seeing realistic glimpses of the production, which appears quite faithful.

Farhadi often trails the characters with a hand-held camera, & always felt like I was right in the middle of the action. Shahab Hosseini as the husband Emad is a likable & charismatic actor. It is easy to keep identifying with Emad even as his behavior becomes increasingly disappointing. There's a stage-like quality to the tension underlying every scene, & the film is unsettling. Right through its last moments, I kept re-evaluating what I thought about its moral dilemmas.

§ Forushande (The Salesman) (2016)
Asghar Farhadi, dir.
Iran, France, 125 mins.

§ Mill Valley Film Festival 39
Rafael 1, Fri, Oct 7, 7:30 PM
Rafael 2, Wed, Oct 12, 12:00 PM

The Eagle Huntress

Last week I got to see a preview screening of The Eagle Huntress, a beautifully photographed documentary set in Mongolia which will play at the up-coming Mill Valley Festival. The film introduces us to Aisholpan, a joyful 13-year old Kazakh girl who is learning to hunt with eagles, a traditional tribal skill customarily practiced only by men.

In the film's 3 parts, we see her training her eagle, competing as the only female in the region's annual Golden Eagle Festival, & finally testing her ability out in the wild, fox hunting in a tough winter landscape. Aisholpan is wonderfully confident, & the relationship between her & her father tremendously trusting. In a sequence that will frighten any parent, she rappels down a cliff to an eagle's nest & steals the eaglet she will train for the competition.

The imagery is gorgeous, with soaring crane shots & spectacular aerial views shot with a drone. No doubt the stark beauty of the mountains & snowy landscapes belies the difficulty of filming, as well as the arduousness of actually living there. The inhabitants' clothing & homes are depicted in sumptuous detail. I enjoyed seeing glimpses of Aisholpan at school, where the atmosphere seems surprisingly cozy.

The storytelling is basic. I liked the film's prologue, which shows the father freeing an eagle after its 7-year service. A recurring montage of skeptical tribal elders provides a touch of humor. The filmmaker does not get too personal with his subjects, & I did not feel that anything was at stake, but I was grateful to see a family film not in the Pixar/Disney mode. The movie is in Kazakh, apart from the minimal narration delivered by Daisy Ridley.

§ The Eagle Huntress (2016)
Otto Bell, dir. UK, Mongolia, USA. 87 mins. 

§ Mill Valley Film Festival 39
Sun, Oct 9 11:15 AM, Sequoia 1 
Mon, Oct 10 12:45 PM, Rafael 1

Mill Valley Film Festival 39 Press Announcement

Last week I attended the press announcement for the 39th Mill Valley Film Festival, which takes place October 6-16 at venues in Mill Valley, Larkspur, Corte Madera & San Rafael. Founder & Executive Director Mark Fishkin, Director of Programming Zoe Elton & Senior Programmer Janis Plotkin gave an informal rundown of the program & showed trailers for some of the films.

This year's guests include actors Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Gael García Bernal & Aaron Eckhart, as well as filmmaker Julie Dash, the 1st African American woman to direct a theatrically released feature film. Each appears in a special event featuring a screening & an onstage conversation. The closing night film is Loving, based on the story of Richard & Mildred Loving, the interracial couple who fought Virginia's anti-miscegenation law all the way to the Supreme Court. Director Jeff Nichols & stars Joel Edgerton & Ruth Negga are scheduled to attend. James Franco is expected at the premiere of his film In Dubious Battle. In commemoration of the closing of the Century Cinema in Corte Madera, the festival will show the original Star Wars trilogy there on October 8th.

There will be a film focus on Culinary Cinema, as well as clusters of films from Germany & Latin America. The mention of a 1-day schedule of films & events about cannabis caused the press conference audience to laugh. As part of the Mind the Gap series, a panel discussion will feature women technologists from the Disney animation studio. Other films highlighted at the press announcement include the German comedy Toni Erdmann, which apparently caused a sensation at Cannes, Aquarius, starring Sônia Braga, & the animated feature The Red Turtle. The trailer for Do Not Resist, a documentary about the militarization of the police, was frightening all on its own. California Typewriter, a documentary about devotees of the typewriter, sounds sweet. The slapstick Lost in Paris was intriguingly compared to a Jacques Tati film.

Times for Fire at Sea in the printed program have been changed, & a screening of Moulin Rouge! has been added on October 7th at the Century Cinema, Corte Madera.

§ Mill Valley Film Festival Press Conference 
Monday, September 12, 2016 at 6:00PM
Dolby Laboratories, San Francisco, CA

§ Mill Valley Film Festival 39
October 6 - 16, 2016
Century Cinema, Corte Madera
Century Larkspur, Larkspur
Cinearts Sequoia, Mill Valley
Lark Theater, Larkspur
San Rafael Film Center, San Rafael

Merola Grand Finale 2016

I was remiss in not keeping up with the Merolini this summer, but last weekend I did attend the Merola Grand Finale & heard all of them in one go, in a program of 19 opera excerpts, a sort of graduation exercise for all 29 participants. The concert was semi-staged, with just a few props & pieces of furniture on a bare stage, plus occasional lighting changes.

The performances were uniformly forthright & extroverted. Mezzo Tara Curtis received a shout of "Brava!" for her solemn interpretation of Cassandra's monologue from Les Troyens. Her voice was weighty & often penetrating, & it felt like she had even more in reserve. I probably spent too much time, though, wondering why she popped a balloon full of confetti at the beginning of the scene.

Countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen sounded steadfast & neat in "Che farò senza Euridice?" & ornamented the repeats tastefully. His Orfeo was frustrated rather than sorrowful. Soprano Chelsey Geeting's voice was full & warbling as well as a bit dusky in Antonia's song from The Tales of Hoffman, & her rendition felt aptly remote.

In a duet from Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict, tenor Amitai Pati was a dapper Bénédict. He has a pleasing, smooth voice & an appealing stage presence. Soprano Alexandra Schenck as Béatrice sounded bright & youthful. Bass Matthew Anchel sang his prayer scene from Nabucco standing on a couch & sounded soft-edged & benign.

The audience applauded loudly for bass-baritones Josh Quinn & Nicholas Boragno in a duet from La Cenerentola, in which both characters acted clownishly. I liked Mr. Boragno's hearty singing & acting & Mr. Quinn's tight, clear patter. The audience also clearly enjoyed Mr. Pati & baritone Andrew G. Manea in "Au fond du temple saint" from The Pearl Fishers. Mr. Pati's voice was lyric & dreamy, & Mr. Manea's had a nice grittiness & masculinity.

A 3 tier wedding cake was brought on stage right before the scene from Anna Bolena featuring soprano Mary Evelyn Hangley & mezzo Taylor Raven. Ms. Hangley's voice was muscular & solid, & it was nice to hear her sing high notes both loudly & softly. Ms. Raven had a distinctive, somewhat metallic, sound that was open & consistent throughout her range. Their performance was loud & dramatic & received enthusiastic applause.

Soprano Yelena Dyachek sang "Letzte Rose, wie magst du" from Martha with a substantial & commanding sound. Soprano Sarah Cambidge was an aggressive Donna Anna, with an ear-filling voice & big high notes in "Don Ottavio, son morta!"

In Rienzi's prayer scene, tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven's clear & open high notes were immediately striking, & his voice had unusual timbres. He was accompanied by a silent chorus line of women who promenaded behind his back then posed themselves on either side of him. I'm sure bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum sang his strutting aria from Trouble in Tahiti wonderfully, but all I can remember is that he flamboyantly unwound his man bun during it.

Soprano Teresa Castillo & tenor Josh Lovell had good ensemble in a bubbly duet from Le Comte Ory. Ms. Castillo's singing was pretty, sparkling & precise, & Mr. Lovell's high notes were controlled & secure. He agilely bounded around the stage, & the wedding cake finally came into play when Ms. Castillo lifted its top tier & smashed it in her partner's face.

During the final ensemble for the entire cast, it was very cute to see photos of them taken throughout the summer projected on stage. Conductor Rory Macdonald led with lively gestures, but the orchestra sounded slack & there were synchronization problems between stage & pit. The audience applauded each number supportively, & many gave the performers a standing ovation at the end. The 3-hour show had a start time of 7:30pm, but the lights didn't go down until past 7:40pm, & people were still being seated during the overture.

§ Merola Grand Finale 2016

Conductor - Rory Macdonald
Stage Director - Aria Umezawa

Musical Preparation - Jonathan Brandani, John Elam, Noah Palmer, Nicolò Sbuelz, Jennifer Szeto
French Diction - Patricia Kristof Moy
Italian Diction - Alessandra Cattani

Overture from Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss
Orchestra

"Quando avran fine omai ... Padre, germani, addio!" from Idomeneo by Mozart
Ilia - Shannon Jennings
Fortepiano - Jonathan Brandani

"Linda! Linda! ... Da qual di che t'incontrai" from Linda di Chamounix by Donizetti
Linda - Adelaide Boedecker
Carlo - Isaac Frishman

"Les Grecs ont disparu! ... Malheureux roi! Dans l'éternelle nuit" from Les Troyens by Berlioz
Cassandre - Tara Curtis

"Ecco novel tormento! ... Che farò senza Euridice?" from Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck
Euridice - Teresa Castillo
Orfeo - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen
Fortepiano - Nicolò Sbuelz

"Elle a fui, la tourterelle!" from Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Offenbach
Antonia - Chelsey Geeting

"Comment Ie Dédain pourrait-il mourir?" from Béatrice et Bénédict by Berlioz
Béatrice - Alexandra Schenck
Bénédict - Amitai Pati

"Vieni, o Levita! ... Tu sul labbro de' veggenti" from Nabucco by Verdi
Zaccaria - Matthew Anchel

"Se all' impero" from La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart
Tito - Boris Van Druff

"Ma dunque io sono un ex ... Un segreto d'importanza" from La Cenerentola by Rossini
Dandini - Josh Quinn
Don Magnifico - Nicholas Boragno
Fortepiano - John Elam

"C'est toi, toi qu'enfin je revois ... Au fond du temple saint" from Les Pêcheurs de Perles by Bizet
Nadir - Amitai Pati
Zurga -Andrew G. Manea

"Durch Zärtlichkeit und Schmeicheln ... Ich gehe doch rate ich dir" from Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart
Blonde - Jana McIntyre
Osmin - Matthew Anchel

"Dio, che mi vedi in core ... Sul suo capo aggravi un Dio" from Anna Bolena by Donizetti
Anna Bolena - Mary Evelyn Hangley
Giovanna Seymour - Taylor Raven

"Or dove fuggo io mai? ... Ah, per sempre io ti perdei" from I Puritani by Bellini
Riccardo - Josh Quinn

"Nancy! Julia! Verweile! ... Letzte Rose, wie magst du" from Martha by Flotow
Lady Harriet - Yelena Dyachek
Lionel - Brian Michael Moore

"Don Ottavio, son morta! ... Or sai chi l'onore" from Don Giovanni by Mozart
Donna Anna - Sarah Cambidge
Don Ottavio - Isaac Frishman
Fortepiano - Noah Palmer

"Allmächt'ger Vater, blick' herab" from Rienzi by Wagner
Rienzi - Kyle van Schoonhoven

"There's a law" from Trouble in Tahiti by Bernstein
Sam - Cody Quattlebaum

''Ah, quel respect madame pour vos vertus m'enflamme" from Le Comte Ory by Rossini
La Comtesse Adèle - Teresa Castillo
Le Comte Ory - Josh Lovell

"Herr Chevalier, ich grüsse sie! ... Brüderlein, Brüderlein und Schwesterlein" from Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss
Eisenstein - Kyle van Schoonhoven
Frank - Cody Quattlebaum
Rosalinde - Mary Evelyn Hangley
Adele - Jana McIntyre
Ida - Teresa Castillo
Orlofsky - Taylor Raven
Falke - Andrew G. Manea
Chorus - tutti Merolini

Saturday, August 20th
War Memorial Opera House

The Lady in the Van

Yesterday I saw a preview screening of The Lady in the Van, a charming film written by Alan Bennett, directed by Nicholas Hytner & starring Maggie Smith. The movie is based on the play based on the memoir by Bennett, about the elderly homeless woman, Miss Mary Shepherd, who lived in a van parked in the author's driveway in North London for 15 years. The nearly plotless script is drily humorous, the drama coming from the gradual revelation of Miss Shepherd's stranger-than-fiction backstory. Classical music plays an important part, particularly Chopin's Piano Concert No. 1, & the Catholic church is the film's bad guy. Although it's clear that Miss Shepherd is filthy, humorlessly self-aggrandizing & generally unpleasant, Maggie Smith portrays her captivatingly & makes the case that she is admirably strong-willed, obdurate & self-sufficient.

Alan Bennett also uses the story to explore how his writing intersects with his life. Alex Jennings portrays the author pleasingly & impersonates Bennett's drawn-out accent & meek manner without parody, coming across as wry, benign & oddly cute. At the start of the film he posits that "Writing is talking to oneself," & seamless special effects allow him to interact with his imaginary double as he commentates on his telling of the story.

The film was playfully shot in the actual street where the events occurred & is peopled with bright cameo performances. I especially enjoyed Roger Allam as a snooty, opera-going neighbor. Members of the original cast of The History Boys pop up in various guises, as does Alan Bennett himself.

The Lady in the Van opens in San Francisco on January 22nd & in other Bay Area location on January 29th.

§ The Lady in the Van (2015)
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Written by Alan Bennett From His Memoir
UK, 103 mins

§ Opens January 22
Landmark Clay Theater in San Francisco
Century 9 in San Francisco
   
§ Opens January 29
Landmark Albany Twin in Berkeley
Camera 7 in San Jose
Century 16 in Pleasant Hill
CineArts @ Palo Alto Square in Palo Alto
CineArts @ Santana Row in San Jose
Regency Cinemas Six in San Rafael

NCCO: Holiday Program Rehearsal

Wednesday morning I attended the open rehearsal for New Century Chamber Orchestra's holiday concert this week. The mood was festive, & right before the rehearsal, Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg asked the orchestra to play "Happy Birthday" for a cellphone video she sent to a certain "Mastah G."

The morning started with the program's 2nd half, featuring Klezmer clarinettist David Krauker, performing traditional songs in his own arrangements. His playing was immediately arresting, exuberant & jazzy. Audience members compulsively nodded their heads to the beat & frequently broke into applause. His arrangement of "Wedding Dance" asks the orchestra to improvise slides, pizzicatos & slaps to accompany his raucous yet steady solo. Mr. Krakauer encouraged the musicians to be playful, & he was confident with the results. "Hanukkah O Hankukkah" was contrastingly slow & waltz-like, & Mr. Krauker played with swing.

We were lucky to hear his "Synagogue Wail" solo improvisation, which he said he usually doesn't do in rehearsal because he likes to surprise the orchestra. His piercing, energetic solo employed extended clarinet techniques & a lot of circular breathing which looked deceptively natural. We also got to hear his encore, a duet on a popular tune with Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg. At the end of it, she asked the audience, "Was that fun or scary?" It was interesting to hear Mr. Krakauer explain his intentions using analogies to things like boiling water or a traditional New Orleans marching band. Mr. Krakauer was often upstaged by the presence of 3 preschool girls in the audience who naturally became more rambunctious as the morning progressed.

After the coffee and donuts break, the orchestra rehearsed 2 Bach arrangements by Clarice Assad, which Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg prefaced by asking the audience, "You've heard of the phrase 'And now for something completely different'?" The musicians gave "Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring" a soft, lilting mood, & there was a lot of discussion about tempos, dynamic levels, & whether or not to use mutes. The arrangement of "Sheep May Safely Graze" felt romantic rather than Baroque, & its opening reminded me of the Barber Adagio. There was more discussion about ensemble & working out of cues. A cellist questioned the contrast between the opening notes played without vibrato vs. the sweet, rapid vibrato of Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg's solo.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus participates in the program as well, but they were in school this morning.

§ New Century Chamber Orchestra
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Music Director

Program 2: Holiday Lights
San Francisco Girls Chorus
David Krakauer, Clarinet

Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring from Cantata 208
(arr. Clarice Assad)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze from Cantata 147
(arr. Clarice Assad)
Traditional/John Jacob Niles: I Wonder as I Wander
Various: Medley of Christmas Carols
Baldassare Galuppi: Dixit Dominus
Charles Gounod: O Divine Redeemer
Traditional: Hanukkah O Hankukkah
(arr. Kathy Tagg)
Traditional: Wedding Dance
(arr. David Krakauer)
Traditional: Der Gasn Nign (The Street Song)
(arr. David Krakauer)
David Krakauer: Synagogue Wail for solo clarinet
Traditional: Der Heyser Bulgar (The Hot Bulgar)
(arr. David Krakauer)

Open Rehearsal
Wednesday, December 16, 2015, 10am, Kanbar Performing Arts 

Berkeley
First Congregational Church
Thursday, December 17, 2015, 8pm

Palo Alto
First United Methodist Church
Friday, December 18, 2015, 8pm

San Francisco
Herbst Theatre
Saturday, December 19, 2015, 8pm

San Rafael
Osher Marin Jewish Community Center
Sunday, December 20, 2015, 5pm

Up-Coming: A Day of Silents

This coming Saturday the SF Silent Film Festival presents a special 1-day festival at the Castro Theatre. The 5 programs range from star vehicles for Douglas Fairbanks, Harry Houdini & Anna May Wong to a documentary & a French avant-garde fantasy. All are accompanied by live music.

The day starts with a splash with Douglas Fairbanks in the swashbuckling, technicolor The Black Pirate. The BFI National Archive will present a compilation of travelogues & newsreels of pre-war China, which ought to be an interesting time capsule. Harry Houdini stars in The Grim Game, a film until recently thought to be lost, in a restoration that premiered earlier this year. It is famous for footage of an unintended airplane crash which was then incorporated into the plot. In the evening the festival presents L'Inhumaine, a fantastical French melodrama, & Piccadilly, a British drama featuring Anna May Wong.

§ A Day of Silents | Films & Tickets | Passes
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Castro Theatre

§ Schedule at a Glance

11:00 am
THE BLACK PIRATE 
1926, USA, 84 min
Live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra

1:00 pm
AROUND CHINA WITH A MOVIE CAMERA
Filmed 1900–1948, 68 min
Compiled in 2015 by the BFI National Archive
Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin

3:00 pm
THE GRIM GAME
1919, USA, 73 min
Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin

6:30 pm
THE INHUMAN WOMAN (L'INHUMAINE)
1924, France, 122 min
Live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra

9:15 pm
PICCADILLY
1929, UK, 92 min
Live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin

Up-Coming: Mill Valley Film Festival 38

Tuesday evening I was at the press announcement for the 38th Mill Valley Film Festival. Executive Director Mark Fishkin, Director of Programming Zoë Elton, & Senior Programmers Karen Davis & Janis Plotkin gave an overview of the festival, which runs October 8 - 18. 107 features & 76 shorts will play on 13 screens in 4 Marin County cities, with over 300 filmmakers in attendance. The 1st announcement was that Ian McKellen will receive a tribute on Sunday, October 11, though they have not yet determined the film they will show at his appearance.

The 2 opening night films are The Danish Girl, an historical drama starring Eddie Redmayne as one of the 1st people to receive gender reassignment surgery, & Spotlight, a drama about The Boston Globe investigation of child molestation within the Catholic church. Closing night is Suffragette, a British drama about the early members of women's suffrage movement, with Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst.

Many selections come from the Cannes & Berlinale Festivals. I'm excited that Andrew Haigh's new film 45 Years is playing, as well as Taxi, another covert film by banned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. The programming panel was enthusiastic about 2 films from Iceland, Rams & Virgin Mountain, & I'm intrigued by Ixcanul, a Guatemalan film in the Mayan language, & Mardan, a film from "Iraqi Kurdistan" directed by Batin Ghobadi, a younger brother of Bahman Ghobadi.

Films with big names include Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Spielberg & starring Tom Hanks; Youth, directed by Paolo Sorrentino & starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Jane Fonda; Wondrous Boccaccio, an adaption of the Decameron by the Taviani brothers; & Greenery Will Bloom Again by Ermanno Olmi. Documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls will receive a tribute along with a screening of his Ain't Misbehavin'. The Sorrow & the Pity will also be shown. Senegalese author & filmmaker Ousmane Sembène is remembered by the documentary Sembène! & a screening of his film Black Girl.

In response to the dismal underrepresentation of women directors in Hollywood, the festival is highlighting films & panels under the rubric "Mind the Gap," as well as offering a tribute to director Catherine Hardwicke. 2 films, Son of Saul & The Sorrow & the Pity, will be shown in 35mm. Non-film events include 9 nights of live music at the Sweetwater Music Hall, a nature hike & an exhibit celebrating Ingrid Bergman.

§ Festival Web Site | On-line Brochure | Films | Venues | Ticket Info | Festival Pass

§ Mill Valley Film Festival
October 8-18, 2015

§ Press Conference for the 38th Mill Valley Film Festival
Tuesday, September 15, 6p
Dolby Labs

Curious Flights 2015-2016 Season

Curious Flights, the amiable concert series founded in 2013 by clarinetist Brenden Guy, returns this weekend for a 2nd season, with a concert of English vocal & chamber music at the SF Conservatory of Music. Past programs have featured genial performances from local & international musicians of new & rarely-presented works, & the new season is ambitious & pleasingly varied. This Saturday's concert looks charming & features soprano & Adler Fellow Julie Adams & piano whiz Keisuke Nakagoshi, as well as the Choir of St. Dominic's.

Future events include a recital by British violinist Madeleine Mitchell, performing works by mid-20th century American & UK composers, & a cutting-edge program of new music from Mason Bates, Samuel Adams & Simon Dobson, a British composer who seems to specialize in pieces for brass bands. The final concert of the season presents the West Coast premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Airborne Symphony, a massive cantata about the history of flight, requiring full orchestra, men's chorus, soloists & a narrator. The splashy program also has music by Erich Korngold, Aaron Copland & Samuel Barber. Marin Symphony's Alisdair Neale will conduct, & tenor Brian Thorsett & baritone Efraín Solís are the 2 soloists.

§ Curious Flights | 2015-2016 Season | Tickets

An English Portrait
Saturday, August 29, 2015, 8 p.m.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco

Recital Masters: Violinist Madeleine Mitchell
Wednesday, November 11, 2015, 7 p.m.
The Century Club of California, 1355 Franklin Street, San Francisco

Transatlantic Crossings
Saturday, March 19, 2016, 8 p.m.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music

The Age of Flight
Saturday, May 28, 2016, 8 p.m.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Up-coming: ABS Festival & Academy

American Bach Soloists begins its 6th summer Festival & Academy this Friday, running August 7th to 16th, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The festival presents ABS musicians, guest artists & students in performances, master classes & lectures. Many of the events are free. This year's theme is “Versailles & The Parisian Baroque,” & the festival opens with a 2-concert survey of French music, including Jean-Féry Rebel's ballet music for Les Élémens, which depicts the emergence of order out of chaos. Vocal works by André Campra & Quirinus van Blankenburg feature in the 2nd evening.

A 2-day Baroque Marathon, August 10th & 11th, includes French motets & chamber music by Zelenka, Telemann & others of the German Baroque. There will be plenty of Bach vocal works too, & a complete performance of cantata BWV 131, Aus der Tiefen ruf ich, Herr, zu dir. The Distinguished Artist Series concert spotlights Baroque trumpeter John Thiessen in a program of Italian & English works, along with soprano Kathryn Mueller.

The festival is proudly touting their concert version of Marin Marais’s 1709 opera of Sémélé as the 1st complete performance outside of Europe. Demand for tickets was so high that an additional performance has been added for August 13th. We also get the traditional 2 performances of Bach's Mass in B Minor, which are frequent sell-outs as well.

§ American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy
Versailles & The Parisian Baroque
August 7 - 16, 2015
San Francisco Conservatory of Music

§ Festival Website | Schedule | Tickets

§ 2015 ABS Summer Festival at a Glance
August  7, 5:00 pm | Opening Night Gala Dinner: Dobbs Ferry of San Francisco
August  7, 8:00 pm | Versailles & The Parisian Baroque - Part I
August  8, 2:30 pm | Public Colloquium - "The Culture of Versailles" (FREE)
August  8, 8:00 pm | Versailles & The Parisian Baroque - Part II
August  9, 7:00 pm | Bach's Mass in B Minor
August 10, 3:00 pm | Academy-in-Action "Baroque Marathon" Concert I
August 10, 8:00 pm | Academy-in-Action "Baroque Marathon" Concert II
August 11, 3:00 pm | Master Class: Harpsichord (FREE)
August 11, 5:00 pm | Lecture: Kenneth Slowik (FREE)
August 11, 8:00 pm | Academy-in-Action "Baroque Marathon" Concert III
August 12, 3:00 pm | Master Class: Violin & Viola (FREE)
August 12, 5:00 pm | Lecture: Robert Mealy (FREE)
August 13, 3:00 pm | Master Class: Violoncello, Viola da gamba, Violone, Contrabass (FREE)
August 13, 5:00 pm | Lecture: Corey Jamason (FREE)
August 13, 8:00 pm | Marais's Sémélé (Added performance)
August 14, 3:00 pm | Master Class: Winds & Brass (FREE)
August 14, 5:00 pm | Lecture: Judith Malafronte (FREE)
August 14, 8:00 pm | Marais's Sémélé
August 15, 3:00 pm | Master Class: Voice  (FREE)
August 15, 5:00 pm | Lecture: Debra Nagy (FREE)
August 15, 8:00 pm | Distinguished Artist: John Thiessen, Baroque trumpet
August 16, 2:00 pm | Bach's Mass in B Minor

Up-coming: NCCO Plays Schubert, Stravinsky & Bermel

Wednesday morning I attended the open rehearsal for this week's New Century Chamber Orchestra concerts, the last of the current season. Music director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg kept checking the time & moving things along, so it was more a run-through than a working rehearsal. We got to hear the entire program. Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg, standing in front of the orchestra, was the soloist & leader for Stravinsky's Suite Italienne. She & the orchestra gave the piece a variety of colors, & each movement had a clear, contrasting mood. The performance was energetic & emphatic. In the 4th movement, she humorously told the orchestra, "You sound like you're burping."

Composer Derek Bermel was present & explained to the audience that his piece Murmurations was based on the movements of flocks of birds he saw in Rome. It's in 3 movements, fast-slow-fast, & runs about 20 minutes. The orchestra did a good job maintaining the non-stop tremolos depicting fluttering wings in the 1st & last movements. A duet for 2 violins in the 1st movement clearly depicts 2 birds swooping around one another. The attractive 2nd movement features a long, suspended melodic line over arpeggios & pizzicatos in the low strings. Mr. Bermel followed along with a score & gave the orchestra notes after each movement. He interrupted the start of the 2nd movement, because he thought it was too slow.

After a break we heard a vigorous performance of Schubert's Death & the Maiden. The orchestra played out, often digging into their strings forcefully. The 1st & 3rd movements were percussive, & the 2nd movement was dark & urgent. The final movement was fast, loud & stomping.

Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg has a lot of excess energy, & she could not resist making a few mischievous jokes at the expense of Mr. Bermel. The audience was attentive & applauded after each piece. Right before the break, the orchestra played Happy Birthday for a member of the audience, & someone even brought out a cake with yellow frosting. Coffee, donuts & slices of cake were served during the break.

§ New Century Chamber Orchestra
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Music Director & Concertmaster

Program 4. Schubert and Stravinsky Masterpieces

Igor Stravinsky
Suite Italienne, Arr. Albert Markov

Derek Bermel
Murmurations (2015)

Franz Schubert
String Quartet in D Minor D. 810, Death and the Maiden, Arr. Gustav Mahler

Open Rehearsal
Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 10am, Kanbar Performing Arts Center, San Francisco

Concerts
Thursday, May 28, 2015, 8pm, First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Friday, May 29, 2015, 8pm, First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto
Saturday, May 30, 2015, 8pm, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
Sunday, May 31, 2015, 5pm, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael

I Am Michael

This week I got to see a preview screening of I Am Michael, a first feature by director Justin Kelly, which will play on opening night of Frameline39, June 18th at the Castro Theatre. The movie is based on the New York Times Magazine profile of Michael Glatze, who lived as an openly gay man in San Francisco in the 90s, founded a magazine for gay youth, then underwent a religious conversion & in 2007 renounced his homosexuality as a sin requiring healing. He is now a heterosexual Christian pastor, living in Wyoming & married to a woman.

The film stars James Franco as Mr. Glatze, & his massively charismatic performance carries the film. In early scenes he is warm & soulful, & he does a good job depicting Glatze's increasing alienation from the cozy throuple he has with two perfect boyfriends, played by Zachary Quinto & Charlie Carver. Mr. Franco is careful not to make Glatze seem malicious, even as he becomes hurtful toward his partners.

I appreciated the movie's neat, clear storytelling & translucent, widescreen photography. The story crosses the country a few times, & it's fun occasionally seeing the streets of San Francisco. The movie probably wouldn't offend the real-life Mr. Glatze, & the director tries not to editorialize, but there may be a hint of skepticism. When the film reached its abrupt ending, I felt the story wasn't really over.

At the festival press announcement, Frameline's programmers said they hoped this would be a provocative choice for opening night. The audience will no doubt react to the parting shot delivered by Mr. Quinto in a phone call with Glatze near the end of the film. Director Justin Kelly attends opening night.

§ I Am Michael
Written & Directed by Justin Kelly
2015, USA, 99 mins.

§ San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival
Thursday, June 18, 7:00 PM
Castro Theatre

Rising from the Ashes

Thursday evening at the Presidio Officers' Club, I attended an informative & engaging presentation by film restorer Rob Byrne about the recent restoration of When the Earth Trembled, a 1913 melodrama featuring a climactic sequence taking place during San Francisco's 1906 earthquake. Mr. Byrne began with the film's ambitious producer, Siegmund Lubin, a Polish immigrant who came to America as an optician & then became an early film industry pioneer. He made his 1st movie in 1897 & proceeded to build a major film company based in Philadelphia. He produced, distributed & exhibited his own films, as well as making movie cameras & projectors. Then in 1914 a fatal film explosion started a fire that destroyed everything. Disappointingly, he closed the business & returned to being an optician. Of the over 5,000 films he produced, fragments of just 200 survive.

The current restoration combines 3 different prints, & Mr. Byrne showed us the intricate spreadsheet used to track every shot in the film across all the versions. He demonstrated the differences between the sources with a neat visualization that shows all 3 versions running side by side, revealing the gaps & variations in quality. At the end of the presentation we got to see the restored earthquake sequence. The production used collapsible sets that could only be shot once, so the destruction is quite real. The audience winced audibly when it saw Ethel Clayton, Lubin's leading lady, get hit in the face by a falling chandelier, in what appears to be an unintentional mishap.

Mr. Byrne shared many fascinating details about the reconstruction, such as intertitles that had to be translated from Dutch back into English & hidden frames specifying tint colors. When the real 1906 earthquake occurred, Lubin sent cameraman John Frawley to San Francisco, & some of Frawley's footage of the actual fire are in the film.

Everyone at the presentation received a half-second strip of film from the earthquake scene. I was amazed to learn that even though the reconstruction is all done digitally, a film negative is still made as the final archival artifact. Afterward, Mr. Byrne explained to me that film is simply cheaper & more permanent than digital storage. The restored When the Earth Trembled will play at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on May 29th.

§ Rising From The Ashes: Resurrecting the 1913 Silent Film When the Earth Trembled
May 14 at 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Presidio Officers’ Club