By Owen Field
(Including fragments of an interview with Midcentury Productions’ Don Malcolm.) (November 30, 2023)
THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT is one of the world’s best-kept open secrets, spilling out a world of film noir—or, more accurately, perhaps, a “lost continent” that has been relentlessly explored at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco since November 2014.
Lino Ventura in WITNESS IN THE CITY (UN TEMOIN DANS LA VILLE)
By Meredith Brody
(November 5, 2022)
I’ve been a film buff ever since I first saw a re-issue of Cinderella at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland when I was just a tot.
I wasn’t able to fully exercise my film buff inclinations for the next decade or so, as I was dependent on my parents for transportation. They made the movie choices, as well. Oddly, since they were both New Yorkers and went to movies weekly or more often as children, there was a joke amongst my siblings and I: “They take us to two movies a year, whether we need them or not.”
By Meredith Brody
(November 5, 2022)
San Francisco is lucky to have Donald Malcolm’s French Noir Series, “The French Had a Name for It” at the Roxie.
The upcoming festival programs 15 films over four days at the Little Roxie, and once again I will be there for all of it. It unspools on Sunday November 6 and Monday November 7, and the following on Saturday November 12 and Sunday November 13.
Part One: Not Feeling Festive
By Meredith Brody
May 3, 2022
The pandemic disrupted virtually (pun unintended, but hiya, Dr. Freud!) every aspect of my life, but none more thoroughly or dismayingly than the one that contributed most of its bliss, excitement, and travel (not to mention remuneration, once I’d written about them): attending film festivals.
By Ben Terrall
After a two-year Corona Time hiatus, the Noir City film festival will return to the Bay Area from Thursday, March 24 to Sunday, March 27 at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland. This year’s lineup, themed “They Tried to Warn Us!,” features twelve mid-twentieth century Hollywood movies that address social problems which are still all too present today.
By Pam Grady
The Stockholm Syndrome was not yet recognized in 1970, but Robert Hossein’s Falling Point (Point de chute) provides a thrilling depiction of the complex. Screening as part of Donald Malcolm’s MidCentury Productions’ “The French Had a Name For It,” his ongoing survey of French noir taking place at the Roxie, Nov. 12-14, this intimate drama stars pop star Johnny Hallyday at the height of his beauty as Vlad, a kidnapper holding teenage Catherine (Pascale Rivault) hostage at an isolated seaside cabin. While his confederates (Hossein and Albert Minski) are away dealing with the ransom, Catherine’s escape attempts perversely draw her closer to her abductor.
FRENCH NOIR GALLERY of Trailers and Posters
We have searched the Internet for evocative posters and images plus trailers and film excerpts to give you a sense of the treats in store for you at “The French Had A Name For It ‘21”
Ideas for a Political Movies Festival
By Gary Meyer
I think it is much healthier to watch reruns (WEST WING, JOHN ADAMS or VEEP) than the returns on Election Night.
Or better yet revisit some great movies.
I actually started programming a series several years ago and updated it for 2020.
I suggest some double features or make your own festival. This was done too quickly to provide details or links to most films.
These are not in any special order but let’s start with a cartoon. BETTY BOOP FOR PRESIDENT.
Stanley Kubrick’s DR. STRANGELOVE plus THE MOUSE THAT ROARED both with Peter Sellars in multiple roles.
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: two takes from John Frankenheimer and Jonathan Demme.
Preston Sturges’ THE GREAT MCGINTY with Frank Capra’s STATE OF THE UNION
BULWORTH plus BLAZE
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and THE POST
BOB ROBERTS with THE IDES OF MARCH
Plus selected short cartoon. DAFFY DUCK FOR PRESIDENT
INDEPENDENCE DAY and MARS ATTACKS
WAG THE DOG plus THE CANDIDATE
MEET JOHN DOE plus MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
THE CONTENDER and PRIMARY COLORS
IN THE LOOP plus THE CAMPAIGN
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR with GAME CHANGE
IN THE LINE OF FIRE plus PARALLAX VIEW
FAIR GAME and NO WAY OUT
IDIOCRACY with TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
THE LAST HURRAH and BEAU JAMES
Make your own Nixon Follies Film Festival from: NIXON, DICK, SECRET HONOR, ELVIS AND NIXON, and FROST/NIXON.
Before he was President Barack Obama, he had a bad story and these two fictionalized films explore that time in SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU and BARRY.
President Kennedy selection: JFK, PT 109, THIRTEEN DAYS, EXECUTIVE ACTION.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: SUNRISE AT CAMPEBELLO, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, HELL-BENT FOR ELECTION ( a UPA allegorical cartoon directed by Chuck Jones designed to inspire voting for FDR) ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN and sequel ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN:THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS, WARM SPRINGS (and and exception to my docs rule: Ken Burns’ marathon THE ROOSEVELTS).
Abraham Lincoln inspired numerous films including
LINCOLN, YOUNG MR, LINCOLN, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN-VAMPIRE HUNTER, and THE CONSPIRATOR.
And there are other celluloid presidents to consider.
LBJ, , GIVE ‘EM HELL, HARRY!, and WILSON are a few.
I suspect Olive Stone and Michael Moore will take on Trump and I plan to stay far away.
Let’s take a break for BALLOT BOX BUNNY. Watch here.
To see what actors played real Presidents take a look here.
Try Ranker’s Best Political comedies, The Best Movies about Presidents, and The Best Political Movies. There are several more lists at the bottom of each group.
By Gary Meyer
One of the challenges for any film festival is finding the perfect opening night movie.
A curator wants a terrific movie first but also it must be a crowd pleaser— Not too experimental or heavily political. You don’t want to alienate the opening night audience who may not be as adventurous as those attending many other movies during the event. They need to leave the theater in a good mood and hopefully want to return for more shows. But you want it to be a movie that also means something to people and leaves them thinking as well as entertained.
Opening Night photo by Pat Mazzera
A Date with Double Exposures: Don Malcolm’s “Gallic Evangelism”
Reaches A Fever Pitch As He Aims for 101 French Noirs in 5 Years…
AS TOLD TO OWEN FIELD
An increasing fraction of the “noiristas” who travel from the Castro Theatre (lone dowager of San Francisco’s once-abundant “movie palace” tradition) to the upstart Roxie are grasping the odd, counterintuitive idea that their favorite “genre” (don’t let’s start THAT argument here!) might have a different history than the one commonly purveyed.
Don Malcolm and Phoebe Green explain the particulars of their new French revival series to Owen Field.
The first of four films taking lovers of THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT into non-noir regions of classic French cinema will play in the intimate confines of the Little Roxie Theatre in San Francisco on April 4 at 6:30 pm, with a repeat screening on Saturday April 6 at 4:30. Consider it a “Sneak Preview” for a potentially landmark collection of cinematic discoveries rivaling the ongoing French noir juggernaut that enters Year 5 with two series later in 2019. Continue reading
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