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.



Friday 10: Cine/Club: Randall Museum

Pietro Germi's DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE (1961, Italian)

With divorce against the law in Italy, what’s a miserable husband to do? Sicilian customs are ridiculed in this comedy about a hero who dreams of murdering his wife to free himself from marriage. Little does he know, the noose he's tying is for himself!

 
WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM:

Neo-Realism is not just reserved for drama. This comedy doesn’t really fall into the Neo-Realism category, but it’s heavily influenced by it, and it allows you to experience the everyday life of a gossip filled Sicilian town. It captures the hysteria and outrageousness of false values, and sends up every virtue in sight. Germi is one of the most skilled of the comedy masters, and Mastrianni (the hero of so many Fellini films) gives a stunning turn in a playful role.
   
We love this film’s focus on character, it’s use of fantasy scenes to accent the foolishness of its characters and its general playful tone. The comedy sends up middle class Sicilian life, exposing the hipocrisy and the vicious hold public approval holds on everyone. Besides that, it’s really funny, with the comedy based on character.

Saturday 11: Art Saturday

10:30 Meet on the balcony outside Metreon 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 17: Cine/Club: Randall Museum

Jean Pierre Melville's THE ARMY OF SHADOWS (1995, France)

Another film that fills you in on some of the fascinating events of WWII that may not be covered in your social studies class. In this case, the French Resistance: a group of unusual French citizens working to sabotage the Nazis any way they can in occupied France. Unfortunately, the Nazis are slowly reducing their numbers. Who is giving them away to the enemy? Could it be one of their own?

 
WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM:

The Army of Shadows gives you a tremendous context in which to place your knowledge of WWII. Lots of ordinary citizens gave their lives to resist the Nazis, and the group of people in the film come from real life. The film acts like a thriller, but also is filled with carefully etched personalities, and a great suspenseful plot. All the major people in the film lived through these events, so they can nautrually bring them vividly to life. You’ll be on the edge of your seats.

 
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Jean Pierre Melville adopted the last name of his favorite writer, Herman Melville (Moby Dick). Much of his life follows the same unsual pattern. During WW II he worked in the French Resistance against the Nazis. Refused in his attempts to work in film, he decided to make his own films with his own money, and eventually owned his own studio. His friendship with Godard (another film maker associated with the French “new wave”) led to his habit of filming on location—but his fondness for America gangster films can be found in all his early films—the weapons,coats, fedoras dot many of his “film noirs” like Le Samurai and Le Circle Rouge. He is not very well known in the U.S.

Saturday 18: Art Saturday

10:30 Meet on the balcony outside Metreon 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 24: Cine/Club: Dolby Labs

Frederico Fellini's AMARCORD (1973, Italy)

This glorious film Fellini made about his childhood summons up atmospheres and images from the past. Amarcord recreates life in a small Italian town through the lives of a young boy. It’s magical.
   
WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM:

As many of you know, we show a Fellini film nearly every year, and usually we run the gamut of his most famous masterpieces. This is our first time showing Amacord and it’s high time. A very popular work, it captures much of the awe and wonder of life in a small Italian town with all the colorful characters in place a boy might remember. It’s one of the least aggressively bizarre films he’s made, but its rich imagery, honestly shaped scenes and big splashes of film magic make it a milestone in the later films.
   
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Along with Bergman, Frederico Fellini's career defines serious 20th century film, though in quite contrasting ways. Fellini began his career as an artist, and during the early 40’s wrote a number of radio and film scripts while being an all around help with an actor friends traveling theater company. At the end of the war, they opened The Funny Face Shop, an arcade for GI’s which specialized in quick portraits, photos, voice recordings for the folks back home. One day a visit from director Roberto Rosselini brought Fellini his collaboration on a script for Open City, and he followed this with work on Paisan, both sterling film classics.
   
After a couple of unsuccessful stabs at film, Fellini directed Il Vitelloni (the Loafers) which brought him great success.He followed this with one thoughtful success after another including La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, and La Dolce Vita, all in a familiar post neo-realist style. Out of this work emerged a new style which announced itself with 8 1/2, films driven by theme rather than plot, films filled with atmosphere, color and memorable characters and rich fantasy. From these films, the adjective “Felliniesque” entered our vocabulary. Amacord is one of the first of this later style.