You can read the program essay for our 2006 screening of Pandora's Box here Pandora’s Box got off to a bad start. When the film premiered in Berlin in February of 1929, critics and the moviegoing public were largely dismissive of the much anticipated work. Reviews at the time were mixed, even … [Read more...] about Pandora’s Box
The Overcoat
On December 5, 1921, at Petrograd’s Theater of Free Comedy, three young artists delivered their “Manifesto of the Eccentric Theater.” Among other upheavals, they called for the elevation of circuses and clowns, comic strips and boxing rings, gaming tables and carnivals, vaudeville and slapstick to a … [Read more...] about The Overcoat
Napoleon
Presented March 24, 25, 31, April 1 2012 at the Paramount, Oakland with live music by Carl Davis conducting the Oakland East Bay Symphony "A MAJOR EVENT! Don't wait for it to come to a theater near you — getting Gance's magnum opus on the screen is a Herculean task!" — Martin Scorsese, Vanity … [Read more...] about Napoleon
The Mark of Zorro
“Suddenly he whirled the captain forward, darted into the darkness, and started toward his horse with the whole pack at his heels and pistol flashes splitting the blackness of night …. His laughter came back to them on the stiffening breeze that blew in from the distant sea.” This description of the … [Read more...] about The Mark of Zorro
Mantrap
Released in 1926, smack in the middle of the Jazz Age—the time of Bohemian free love and high-living, high-society flappers, of Bessie Smith’s earthy blues artistry, and the popular embrace of female suffrage—Mantrap celebrates woman’s sexuality as a life force. It also established its star Clara … [Read more...] about Mantrap
The Loves of Pharaoh
German director Ernst Lubitsch is best remembered for his sleek, insinuating American comedies of the 1920s and ’30s. In those films, he demonstrates his “Lubitsch Touch,” that lighter-than-a-soufflé comedy style that remains fresh even 80 years later. But the Lubitsch who made his fame in Germany … [Read more...] about The Loves of Pharaoh
Little Toys
In a small village in the early 1920s, Ye, a mother of two, makes intricate, hand-carved toys, which are sold at the market by her husband. Ye and her family’s rural idyll is destroyed by a series of tragedies brought about by the Japanese invasion and the simultaneous development of a capitalist … [Read more...] about Little Toys
James Wong Howe: Painting With Light
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of The Spanish Dancer at SFSFF 2012 What do Mantrap (1926) and The Spanish Dancer (1923) have in common with The Thin Man (1934), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Hud (1963), and Funny Lady (1975)? All these … [Read more...] about James Wong Howe: Painting With Light