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| Our Art Saturday programs are free and meet above the waterfall in Yerba Buena Gardens (Mission between 3rd and 4th Streets) between 10:45 and 11:15. No need to RSVP. Students tour downtown art galleries and museums to take in the very latest in contemporary art before they are treated to a picnic lunch. After lunch we go see a new release film. A cultural education unlike any other! Cine/Club is free and is held on Friday nights. These events are free to students, their guests, mentors, parents and friends of Art & Film. No need to RSVP. Screenings are held at the Randall Museum (199 Museum Way) and at Dolby Labs (100 Potrero Avenue). Refreshments are served at 6:30 and the film begins at 7 unless otherwise noted. Discussions are held after each film, led by Ronald Chase, director of Art & Film, and guest moderators such as Heather Woodward of SotA and Jeanne Finley of CCA. |
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Friday 2: Cine/Club: Dolby Labs Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN (1974, USA) Sleazy characters and their double dealings are a hallmark of “film noir” and this film has some of the sleaziest. Corrupt policemen, two-faced politicians and perverted power-brokers are pulling the strings as our hero, the hard-boiled detective, tries to untangle a mysterious murder. This film sports fine performances, stunning atmosphere and a gripping story with tragic consequences. One of the best of the neo-film noir. PARENTAL WARNING |
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| WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? Chinatown is the finest of the new film-noir films that came out in the 70's and 80's. It's bolstered by an almost perfect script that places its characters in the water scandals of Los Angeles during the 1940’s. It gives you a tremendous portrait of the seedy side of Hollywood and follows the general pattern of a film-noir that starts with a simple murder only to morph into a much darker tale of human greed and perversion. Also, this is Jack Nicholson at his best. We think you will admire this film as much as we do |
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| ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Polish director Roman Polanski’s first film, Knife In The Water, made him an international star, but his life in Hollywood brought him great pain, and Chinatown caused him even more trouble. Polanski has hands down the most harrowing life story of any director in history. He escaped from the Warsaw ghetto (the one in “the Pianist”) and spent his childhood hiding in the countryside filled with events that led to his being the subject of Kozinski’s novel, The Painted Bird. At the war’s end he sold newspapers in the street and spent the money going to the cinema. |
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| At 14 he became an actor and worked in theater for six years, then entered the famous film school in Lodz . He won the Berlin Film Festival with Repulsion, and won Hollywood’s approval with Rosemary's Baby and ultimate acclaim with Chinatown. Tragedy follows tragedy. His wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson gang. Shortly after Polanski was involved sexually with a teenager, was arrested, then let free on bail to finish a film in Europe, and never returned. He continued making films and winning awards, including The Pianist. In 2009 he was arrested again to be extradited back to the USA, but once again was set free. |  |
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Saturday 3: Art Saturday |
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| Friday 9: Cine/Club: Randall Museum Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK (2009, UK) A vivid look at the life of the underclass in England is also a portrait of a teenager who struggles to understand the world and her place in it, and fight for options in her future. We think you’ll be gratified by the fresh look at young person’s struggles. |
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| WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM? Often there is a really good film that stands out from others for its director’s vision and tremendously good performances by actors but still manages to go largely unnoticed. This film approaches the lonely life of a teenage outcast with unflinching honesty and we think it deserves to be seen. |
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| ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Andrea Arnold isn’t a stranger to Cine/Club because we show her excellent short film Wasp (which won her an Academy Award) every few years. Her feature length film debut came in 2006 with Red Road, a film about security officer who spies on a man from her past through security camera footage. This was followed by Fish Tank. Both films were critically acclaimed in Europe and won several awards, but were sadly ignored by American critics and the Fish Tank quickly vanished from the movie theaters. Here's your big chance to see it! |
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| Friday 16: Cine/Club: Randall Museum Bergman's FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1972, Sweden) This film is both a fairy tale and a swansong to theater life. Bergman’s last film was a surprise hit everywhere. Two children lose their father and must go live with an evil stepfather who banishes them to a tower and tortures them with Puritan ideals. Filled with great imagery, vivid performances and an astonishing love of life. |
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| WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM Not only is this one of the great films, it is absolutely the greatest Christmas movie ever. It begins at Christmas and ends at Easter, with a wonderful fairy tale unfolding in between that takes our hero and heroine on adventures unprecedented. There is a miracle, yes, and lots of mood and atmosphere, and some unforgettable imagery and incident. With all this, we can’t think of one reason we shouldn’t choose this film. It’s a must-see, and we show it as often as we can. |
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| ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Two directors define the middle half of 20th century film: FELLINI and BERGMAN. Their influence on filmmakers has been enormous, and they are the staple of film studies courses in college. During the late 30’s and early 40’s Bergman directed theater. He was hired to write only one screenplay called Torment, which was made by Alf Sjoberg. He then made his first film called Crisis and continued from there. It was with The Seventh Seal, which won Cannes and threw him into international fame, he began producing a yearly output of thoughtful, visually bold and psychologically profound works that kept him at the head of the class. His best films were made when he decided to produce them himself and to free himself from the studio system. |
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| In 1976 however, a crisis came, when he was arrested for tax evasion. It was a traumatic event which left him hospitalized with a nervous breakdown. He left Sweden for a number of years and made films abroad. Long past his zenith as a filmmaker he surprised everyone with his last film Fanny and Alexander, a film that was an enormous critical and popular success throughout the world. Bergman retired from film and took over as head of the Royal Theater in Stockholm, where he directed plays and was considered one of a handful of the finest stage directors in the world until his death in 2007. |  |
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Saturday 17: Art Saturday |
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