Featured events- 03/13/2012 - Hari Kunzru: Gods Without Men
- 03/10/2012 - Ton Koopman & The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
- 02/27/2012 - Classical at the Freight: Rossini Birthday Celebration
- 02/23/2012 - Michio Kaku: Physics of the Future, How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
- 02/23/2012 - 2012: a Turning Point? And If So, Which Way?: A Talk by Robert Reich
Category Archives: Big Screen Berkeley
Big Screen Berkeley: Even the Rain
Mary Poppins taught us that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Tambien la lluvia (Even the Rain), a new Spanish film opening at the Shattuck Cinemas this Friday, February 18, features its own digestive aid: a tiny bottle of water. It arrives late in the game and doesn’t exactly transform the film from angry political polemic to feel-good movie of the year, but it will make it a bit more palatable for viewers in need of a happy ending.
Directed by Iciar Bollain, whose 2003 feature Te doy mis ojos (Take My Eyes) examined the literally tortuous relationship between a woman and her abusive husband, Even the Rain is similarly provocative stuff. The film reunites Bollain with Take My Eyes star Luis Tovar, here cast as Costa, a film mogul whose current production is an historical drama about the conquest and enslavement of indigenous South Americans by Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Empire.
Costa is a cold-blooded realist: all he cares about is completing the film on time and for as little money as possible. Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal), the film within a film’s director, is an idealist: he hopes to create something that will be important both politically and artistically. The two have brought their crew to Cochabamba, an Andean city run by a racist mayor who tells them, “If we give one inch, the Indians will drag us back to the stone age.” It seems that the centuries old struggle between Anglos and Indians hasn’t quite ended yet. … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley Double: The Illusionist & Nuremberg
It’s only January, and I shouldn’t be resorting to the use of superlatives this early in the year. I’m going to go out on a limb anyway: in my humble opinion, you are unlikely to see a more charming film in 2011 than The Illusionist, a new animated feature opening this Friday, January 21, at the Shattuck Cinemas.
Directed by Sylvain Chomet, whose delightful The Triplets of Belleville was an art-house hit and multiple Academy Award nominee in 2004, … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Brute Force
Producer Mark Hellinger died young in 1947 — he was only 44 — but he left behind a handful of pictures that remain highlights of American cinema. His penultimate production was director Jules Dassin’s drama Brute Force (screening at Pacific Film Archive this Saturday, November 27 at 7:00pm, as part of their new series “Grin, Smile, Smirk: The Films of Burt Lancaster”). Brute Force is an examination of the rot at the heart of America’s justice system: overpopulated prisons operated by … Continue reading »
Big Screen special: test your Berkeley film knowledge
This week we bring you Big Screen Berkeley with a difference — a chance to test your knowledge of movies, movie stars and movie locations with a Berkeley connection. Berkeleyside film writer John Seal has crafted a list of 20 tricky questions for all film or quiz buffs out there. The person with the most correct answers — emailed to Berkeleyside by Sunday, October 3, 5 p.m. — will receive a $25 gift certificate to … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Invaders from Mars
Some images stick with you for a lifetime: here’s one that’s been haunting me since the 1970s. The alien brain from 1953’s Invaders from Mars gave me quite the scare when I was ten, and now you can experience the same frisson of fear thanks to Pacific Film Archive’s Friday night L@te program.
Helmed by William Cameron Menzies, Invaders from Mars screens at 7:30 pm this coming Friday, May 28 in the Berkeley Art Museum’s Gallery … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Locally Grown Produce
Sometimes you’ll find locally grown produce in the most unexpected and unusual places.
Take, for example, a little industrial film entitled Tear Gas in Law Enforcement. Recently aired late one night on television’s best channel — Turner Classic Movies — this 25-minute film was (according to its prologue) ‘designed to supplement planned classroom and field training in the use of Tear Gas’.
Produced in 1962 on behalf of the Lake Erie Chemical Corporation of Wickliffe, Ohio, the film begins with … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Up close in North Korea
On rare occasions, the North Korean government has granted European filmmakers permission to film inside The Hermit Kingdom, and the results are almost always fascinating. In Austria’s Hana, dul, sed, a new documentary screening at Pacific Film Archive this coming Thursday at 7:00 pm as part of the ongoing San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, four members of the North Korean women’s national soccer team get the up close and personal treatment—but their country’s pariah status … Continue reading »
Tagged Hana dul sed, Kim Jong-il, Kim-il Sung, North Korea, PFA, women's soccer
Big Screen Berkeley: In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee
The 28th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival gets under way this Thursday, March 11, with a gala opening at the Castro Theatre. Though the focus of this year’s festival is on Filipino cinema, it also features an impressive selection of films from other Asian countries, while the Asian diaspora is well represented by productions from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
And, as in years past, East Bay residents will be able to enjoy many … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Pick of the flicks
If you’re in the mood for an old-fashioned drama bereft of flashy gimmicks and nausea-inducing shaky-cam, you may want to plan on spending the evening of Thursday March 4 at Pacific Film Archive. The Archive will be screening director Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments, a Scandinavian co-production with primary funding supplied by Copenhagen’s Final Cut Productions.
Troell is best known for his pastoral tales of Swedish immigrant life in late nineteenth century Minnesota, The Emigrants and The New Land, which … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Locally grown produce
Filmmaking has a long, rich history in the East Bay, extending from the World War I-era silent comedies produced at the Essanay-West Studio in Niles (now incorporated in Fremont) to the present-day animated blockbusters created by Emeryville’s Pixar Studios. Despite the best efforts of the Wayans Brothers, however, Oakland has never had its own film studio (though films ranging from Erich von Stroheim’s magisterial silent epic Greed to Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness have been shot there), and … Continue reading »
by Email