DECEMBER
Saturday 1
Art Saturday @ A Day Of Silents
A full day of silent films! Join us and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro Theater for any of the silent films (with live musical accompaniment!) beginning at noon.
12 noon - THE RED KIMONA (1925) The story of a small-town teacher lured into prostitution.
2:15 - EXIT SMILING (1926) A backstage crew member is determined to break into the limelight.
4:30 - COEUR FIDÈLE (1923) An ill-fated love triangle played out on the streets and docks of Marseilles.
6:00 - Quick dinner break!
7:00 - 7TH HEAVEN (1927) Nominated for Best Picture at the very first Academy Awards, the story of a couple brought together by chance but separated by war.
9:30 - FROM MORN TO MIDNIGHT (1920) One of the very few truly expressionistic films: a small-town bank teller who decides his own life is paltry and steals a large sum of money from his bank in order to flees to the big city and pursue fulfillment!
Join us for one or all of them! Email Ronald at rchase@chaseartfilm.com to reserve tickets.
Friday 7
Cine Club @ SF Art Institute
Wong Kar Wai's FALLEN ANGELS (1995, Hong Kong)
This Hong Kong crime drama follows the lives of a hitman, hoping to get out of the business, and his elusive female partner is a both a visual and a stylistic tour-de-force. Come see why Art & Film students have been falling in love with this director’s films for over two decades!
Warning: several scenes of gun violence.
Why we show this film:
Wong Kar-wai's films all have a special collection of characters, all caught in their own worlds. This one acts as the second, darker part of Chungking Express. Like that film, it has two protagonists, a hit man and a thief. Both are trying to move on, move out of the world they’re in. A kaleidoscope of alienation and longing, its violent scenes are so impressionistic it makes them into a visual ballet. It’s cast is a collection of unrequited souls, mooning for solitude, mystery and love. But most of all, it’s thrilling - full of motion, color, light, music, and sound which has made it a great favorite and it continues to influence younger filmmakers worldwide.
About the director:
Wong Kar Wai is another director with a terrific track record in film. His first films from the 80’s and early 90’s captured an international audience of young enthusiasts—his mixture of romance and gangster violence, of an unusual color palette, radical framing, marvelous movement has made him one of the most influential of the film makers to come out of Hong Kong. His work caught the eye of Quentin Tarantino who helped Chunking Express get distributed in America. His later films, including 2046, Eros, and My Blueberry Nights illustrated his evolving technical brilliance. Since then he has largely taken a break from filmmaking, releasing only short films every few years, but in 2017 he announced a TV series, Blossoms, was in development.
Friday 14
Cine Club @ SF Art Institute
Altman's GOSFORD PARK (2001, UK)
England 1932: the lives of upstairs guests and downstairs servants during a weekend at a country estate. Social norms are broken when one of the family are found murdered and everyone has something to hide. This film highlights the brilliance of Altman’s direction with an ensemble cast of 32 characters played by many of the most famous British actors in film history. Join the party!
Why we show this film:
Let’s end the year with a smorgasbord of a film, packed with stars, laughs, music and murder. In the 60’s America fell in love with a BBC mini-series called Upstairs, Downstairs about the English upper classes and their servants (...downstairs). Its fans never tired of the ups and downs of the class system before WW 1, something confirmed by the massive popularity of the more recent Downton Abbey. Altman etches these characters with delight, throws in a murder mystery, and comes out with one of the finest films of his long career. As a bonus it will help you understand the forces of class that molded people’s lives long before your parents were born.
About the director:
Robert Altman’s films have a unique and original style; he is the master of orchestration, weaving and molding dozens of characters into one big social tapestry. With early successes like Mash, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville he gained international fame, but a series of flops led him to move to Europe where he continued to direct. In 1992 he surprised his critics with a big hit The Player about Hollywood, closely followed by Short Cuts. He is one of the few directors in his late 70’s who continued to make fine films right up until his death.
Saturday 15
Art Saturday @ Downtown Art Galleries
Change of Plan!
We’re postponing our De Young trip until Spring.
11 am Meet inside SFMOMA (the Howard Street entrance by the Richard Serra sculpture)
11:15 Walking tour of downtown galleries including the Berggruen Gallery, the Gagosian Gallery, and the Fraenkel, Koch and Haines galleries at 49 Geary.
1 pm We’ll treat you to lunch near Yerba Buena Gardens