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 2: Cine/Club: Randall Museum

Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA (1940, USA)

Here is Hitchcock’s first American film, based on a best seller of the time. A governess marries a rich widower, only to discover that she is in competition with the memory of his first wife that haunts the house, her husband, and the mysterious servant, Mrs. Danvers. It’s a classic mystery-romance, filled with surprises.

 
WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM:

Rebecca was Hitchcock’s very first American film, coming on the heels of 49 Steps and A Lady Vanishes. He had perfected the romantic-adventure film, and managed to find the perfect material—a huge best seller by English writer Daphne de Maurier. This film was widely popular both critically and with the public. It is what we call a cultural icon—best representing the popular taste of the country before WWII.
   
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

Who hasn’t heard of Hitchcock? He had one of the longest and more prolific careers in film history. He began in silent-film with works that are heavy with visual concepts and colorful characters. His English films of the 30’s are filled with context and atmosphere. He was brought to Hollywood and the films he made here like Psycho and The Birds made him enormously popular. His later films and television career is less impressive, hits and misses abound, but he’s an important director and a classic unto himself.

Saturday 3: 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 9: Cine/Club: Randall

King Vidor's THE CROWD (1928, USA)

Generally considered one of the masterpieces of silent cinema, this simple tale of a country hick who comes to the city to make his fortune but finds that he must battle against the dehumanizing anonymity of the huge metropolis resonates with humor, imagination and human grandeur. We hope you’ll love it as much as we do.


 
WHY WE CHOSE THESE FILMS:

The Crowd arrived at the worst time for a film that deals with all of the real life trials of a working class couple. Sound film had just arrived accompanied by the Great Depression. Audiences weren’t interested in the realities faced in The Crowd, but throughout the 30’s the reputation of the film grew. It’s now considered one of the finest of the silent period. Vidor is very influenced by the work of F.W. Murnau, whose film Sunrise we’re also showing. It will be especially interesting to compare the styles of the two films.
   
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:

King Vidor had one of the longest careers in film, but many of his finest films were made during the silent period—The Big Parade, Show People and The Patsy. His career in the 30’s included big hits like Stella Dallas, but the films never received the critical acclaim of his early work, though he directed the Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz. His career spans from 1913 to 1980.
Friday 16: Cine/Club: Randall Museum

Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER (1976, USA)

This riveting portrait of a sociopath ranks very high in the list of American classics not only for Robert de Niro’s brilliant performance, but because the film also manages to portray the malaise of the nation’s have-nots in unique ways.

PARENTAL WARNING: Violence and nudity.

 
WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM:

There are a lot of adults who do not think this film is appropriate for young people. Yes, there’s a fair bit of violence, but the film is about an outsider who takes a deadly descent into madness and along the way you learn much about the way people pushed to the outside of society can think. Also troubling is the spot on portrayal of Jodie Foster as an underage prostitute. You get a big look into a world we hope you can avoid. The film has become such a cultural icon we think you should have it under your intellectual belt.
   
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS:

Martin Scorsese, like Coppola, and George Lucas, was among the generation of film makers to come out of film schools (Scorsese attended NYU). Like Coppola he got his professional start with B movie producer Roger Corman. (though Scorcese had produced his first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door, before Boxcar Bertha, his B movie, prepared him for Mean Streets, his first personal triumph.) After his great critical success with Taxidriver his career has been hit or miss. Raging Bull stands out, but his more recent films are either bizarrely grandiose (Gangs of New York, Shutter Island) or tend towards silly serendipity (Age of Innocence, Kundun). The Departed was his most recent critical success. In the last few years, he has been a great defender of classic films, and has sponsored a number of fine European films.

Saturday 17: 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 23: Cine/Club: Randall Museum

Akira Kurosawa's IKIRU (1952, Japan)

What can a person genuinely accomplish in life? A clerk who has accepted the drudgery of the bureaucracy, has a revelation, and sets out to affect change on the world around him before he dies. A great story told with sensitivity and a depth of feeling.

 
WHY WE CHOSE THIS FILM:

As with Fellini, Bergman and Kubrick and Tarkovsky Kurosawa has a great track record of producing memorable films. We’re happy to introduce you to Iruku, because it’s one of his most heartfelt, and it gives you so much to think about. Beautiful performances throughout, great visual ideas abound, and it’s combination of realism and invention, feeling and poetry make it one of the remarkable humanist masterworks.
   
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS:

Akira Kurosawa is Japan's most famous director, and directed 30 films in his long career. His international reputation began with his film Rashomon in 1950, and he produced almost a film a year for the next 20 years. Many of them are renowned classics, including The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Iriki. Early in his career he was strongly influenced by American film noir. Later in his life he turned to more epic films about Japanese history including Ran and Kagemusha.