There are a lot of highly regarded movies filmed in San Francisco, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 noir masterpiece, “Vertigo” and the 1968 slow-burn, groundbreaking action thriller, “Bullitt,” starring Steve McQueen as a brooding but honest police lieutenant. Every cinephile has seen those classics. I’d rather explore a few other significant (and more recent) films, where San Francisco does more than provide a dramatic, textured backdrop. The City is actually a supporting character.
Nearly one year ago, on March 30, 2022, a few days after its release, I watched “Everything Everywhere All at Once” for the first time at a matinee film screening in a sparsely filled theater with a friend. Since then, the movie has continued to worm its way into the deepest crevices of my being and leave a lasting impression.
Continuing on with the list of Mick LaSalle’s 10 masterpieces, (see last month’s column), I tried in vain to find “After Midnight” on Roku. I searched on Norma Shearer and they had a dozen of her films available but “After Midnight” was not one of them. It will remain an unknown silent masterpiece, at least to me.
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” still remains fresh, however, and has something for everyone: Adventure, romance, action, humor, drama, a great score (there is a full-on musical number and album soundtrack) and a unique visual animated style to boot.
Please help us Keep the Castro Theatre for the community. Landmark the sloped floor and seats to ensure that it can continue as the only historic movie palace in San Francisco, as it has for the past 100 years.
A reader asked San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle, “If you hosted ‘Mick’s Masterpieces Film Festival,’ what films would you include in your program?” Here are his suggestions.
“Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” made in 1975 and written and directed by Chantel Ackerman “has become required viewing for informed cineastes, after topping the most recent Sight and Sound poll of the greatest movies of all time,” according to Mick LaSalle, film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle’s (Sunday Datebook, Jan. 8, 2023).
As my passion for film grew and I was blessed to write movie reviews and feature stories, I became aware that each year, there’s an award season that begins with a fall film festival circuit, followed by a series of award ceremonies (Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards [SAG], British Academy of Film and Television Awards [BAFTA], among others), culminating with the Academy Awards.
By Noma Faingold Longtime partners in life and in documentary filmmaking, Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow sat cozily close together, sipping frothy coffee drinks and sharing a pastry in a covered café […]
The (videotape) box you carried home had a paragraph or two explaining the plot of the movie. San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District is home to Cary Pepper, the person who made a living writing many of those descriptions
Wong, 45, who last directed the 2019 indie comedy “Come as You Are,” was approached by producer Ben Odell to be the cinematographer on “The Valet,” a remake of a 2006 French film that had been in development for at least eight years with star and co-producer Eugenio Derbez attached.
“The Creative High,” directed by Adriana Marchione of Noe Valley and produced by Dianne Griffin, a longtime resident of the Outer Richmond, follows nine artists with widely varying styles in their individual paths of recovery.
‘I feel represented’: What San Francisco-based “Shang-Chi” means for Asian Americans of the City
Inner Sunset resident Victoria B. Fender is one of the editors of “Bad Attitude: The Art of Spain Rodriguez,” one of the films to be featured at in the Mill Valley Film Festival.
Our short doc profiles Stephanie, the owner of San Francisco’s oldest independent bait and tackle shop. Stephanie is full of jokes and charisma. She embodies what it means to be a San Franciscan.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 