Our Saturday Programs run every Saturday throughout the school year starting September 22nd. Unless otherwise noted, we meet near the waterfall at Yerba Buena Park about 10:30 am.

Cine/Club—free screenings of classic films followed by discussion—is held on Friday nights. These events are open 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), Dolby Labs (100 Potrero Ave.) and the Delancy Street Screening Room (500 Embarcadero). Refreshments are served at 6:30 and the film begins at 7pm unless otherwise noted.

Discussions are held after each film with moderators Heather Woodward, the head of creative writing at the School of the Arts, and Ronald Chase, the director of Art & Film.




Friday 12th: Cine/Club: Dolby Labs

Monty Python's THE MEANING OF LIFE (1983, UK)

An enormous hit with our past students! Britain’s most famous comedy team ably skewer birth, school, war, death and everything in between while the film’s characters try to figure out the meaning of it all. Try not to take it too seriously. We're limited to 90 people, so come early and save your seat! Students get priority seating. PARENTAL WARNING: mild nudity and simulated sex


 
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

We try to start the year with a bang, and the Python’s film has consistently been a favorite. There’s good reason. The Python’s nonsensical look at the absurd has delighted generations of fans, but in this film, they stretch to new heights—the satires attain comic perfection–– the Mary Poppins musical about Catholics and Protestants, the conversations of fish about their fates, the sex education class that bores it’s students, and, of course, the musical climax in Heaven. Surrealism and absurdity make great bedfellows! Come laugh yourselves silly.

Saturday 13: Our FIRST Art Saturday of the year with special guest, Edith Sorel.

10:30 Meet on the balcony outside Metron overlooking Yerba Buena Park (on Mission between 3rd & 4th) and talk with Edith Sorel, international journalist. Edith has interviewed some of the brightest, most creative people in the world. Take advantage of her visit and join us.

12:00 We'll go see a couple of galleries, followed by a picnic lunch.

2:00 We'll see the Freida Kahlo show at SF MOMA
Friday 19th: Cine/Club: Randall Museum

Arthur Penn's BONNIE & CLYDE (1967, USA)

France’s new wave comes to Hollywood in this (mostly) true tale of two freewheeling gangsters whose devotion and daring made them folk heroes of the Great Depression… until they took things too far and paid the price. PARENTAL WARNING: several scenes of violence.


 
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

The French “New Wave” brought a new sensibility to the film making of the late ‘50’s, which had grown formulistic and stale all over the world. Young critics took to the cameras and brought with them a free-for-all style of hand held cameras, jump cuts, slow motion, inter-cutting, an “anything goes if it’s fun and visually exciting” attitude.

 
Hollywood was very slow to catch on. It resisted with even more lavish and boring Bibical epics –it’s extravagnza Cleopatra went down like the Titanic. Bonnie & Clyde is really the first American film that used all these “new wave “ techniques, and its popularity guaranteed that they would stay around. In following the story of two popular folk heros, it is able to bore in on the toll of violence and its place on the American landscape. You will love this film.

Saturday 20: Art Saturday

10:30 Meet on the balcony outside Metron overlooking Yerba Buena Park (on Mission between 3rd & 4th)
11:00 We'll go see galleries, followed by a picnic lunch and see a film in the afternoon.
Friday 26th: Cine/Club: Delancy Street

Jean Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION (1937, France)

Often appearing on the 10 greatest film lists, this story is set in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War I, highlights issues of loyalty, nationality and class. An original, often funny and moving portrait of men in captivity.




 
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

Great films are different from simply very well made or good films because they are usually about larger themes, and are unusually successful in wedding images, acting and story to these large themes. They attain a stature lesser films find hard to match.

The Grand Illusion has war as its subject, but deals with it through the complexities of human relationships, and shows its futileness by its absence of villains and heroes. The code of honor that existed in WW1 was formed in a world before the war (that was being ushered out) and to observe the way it’s carried out among prisoners of war from all classes reveals a large human tapestry. Central to its success is the work of actor Eric Von Strohiem, himself one of the great directors. This film gives you things to think about long after you’ve left the theater.

 
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: Jean Renoir

Jean Renior was the son of another famous Renoir: Auguste, the painter. He had a privileged childhood in the company of famous artists and writers, and was encouraged to indulge in his love of theater. He worked as an actor and married a beautiful actress who he tried to make into a movie star by starring her in his own grandiose home movies... which he’d finance by grabbing one of dad’s paintings off the wall and selling it. Slowly he gained credibility as a film maker and produced some of the most lauded films of the 30’s. They were never popular, but by the end of his life he was considered one of the great humanist directors.

Saturday 27: Art Saturday

10:30 Meet on the balcony outside Metron overlooking Yerba Buena Park (on Mission between 3rd & 4th)
11:00 We'll go see galleries, followed by a picnic lunch and see a film in the afternoon.