“The Man You Love to Hate” Takes Charge As The French Had A Name For It Takes A Final Bow
by Owen Field
Category Archives: Films
FRENCH NOIR WITH A TWIST POSTERS AND TRAILERS
A GALLERY OF FRENCH ’24 Part Two POSTERS, PHOTOS AND TRAILERS
A collection of rare images and evocative movie art. Continue reading
Memorable and Best Forgotten Thanksgivings
Compiled by Gary Meyer (updated November 21, 2024)
The Internet can be a dangerous place to find the good, the bad and the ugly. Thanksgiving as a search subject is especially rewarding. We present a sampling, mostly from the past. We found vintage greeting cards, Hollywood stars, ads for disgusting sounding foods, awkward family photos and all around nostalgia. You won’t believe what turkeys have been put through but we hope you will laugh and be astonished.
SECRETS FROM THE MOVIE SET
An Interview with Producer Paul Zaentz
By Gary Meyer
(updated November 21, 2024)
34 Oscar nominations.
22 Wins including 3 Best Pictures.
That is only a fraction of the awards the Bay Area ‘s Saul Zaentz won for the terrific movies he brought to the international big screen.
The Berkeley FILM Foundation and the California Film Institute presented the Saul Zaentz Film Celebration, an event honoring the legacy of the legendary independent film producer, November 15-17, 2024, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, California.
Amadeus shows at Davies Hall with the SF Symphony the score live on music. on Nov. 29-30, 2024. Tickets and info here.
The San Francisco Bay Area Film Scene Goes Way Back
The San Francisco Bay Area has long played an important part in the history of movies.
A brief history compiled by Gary Meyer
(November 14, 2024)
From Film Critic to Filmmaker to Podcaster
By Gerald Peary
(Nov. 10, 2024)
A seven-part podcast, The Rabbis Go South, produced and hosted by Amy Geller and me, has launched! It tells the story of 16 Reform rabbis answering the call of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 to help desegregate St. Augustine, Florida. The rabbis were arrested and jailed, the largest incarceration to that time of rabbis in American history. A very compelling story. But like most of you, we’d never heard about this incident before we began. 
Would You Eat This? Thanksgiving Special
By Gary Meyer
(updated from the archives November 15, 2024)
This is a dessert cake!
Are you ready for candy that offers the flavors of the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner spread: Roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, green beans, ginger glazed carrots, and, for dessert, sweet potato pie?
Doc Stories Revisits 2015’s “Janis: Little Girl Blue”
The 10th edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival’s annual documentary celebration offers eleven programs of new films plus a Documentary Filmmaking & Activism Workshop for Teens and two free panel discussions.
By Noma Faingold
(October 14, 2024)
Most people have never seen Janis Joplin live. Those who have could feel her lifeforce, her pain, her palpable need to be loved, her raw bluesy delivery and her desire to be unforgettable. She died of a heroin overdose in 1970, becoming a member of the rock and roll 27 Club, along with her contemporaries Jimi Hendrix, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and Jim Morrison.
Maybe the next best thing in experiencing the essence of Joplin and learning about all aspects of her life is by watching the 2015 documentary, “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” directed by Amy Berg, being shown during the 10th Anniversary of SFFILM’s Doc Stories (October 17-20). The free community screening will be at 4 p.m. on October 17, at San Francisco’s Vogue Theatre, with Berg as a special guest.
A SNEAK PEEK AT FALL FILMS AT THE MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL
by Meredith Brody
(October 1, 2024)
You HAVE to Go to the Mill Valley Film Festival— if You Want the Vanishing Pleasures of the Communal Movie Experience.
155 RARE FRENCH NOIRS CAN’T BE WRONG
By Owen Field
THE sheer monumentality of Don Malcolm’s THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT “festival of the lost continent” has been difficult to grasp over its ten-year run. It resembles a whale obscured in a misty ocean—in this case, a mist-enshrouded history with some surprising historical suppressions.
Jean Gabin and Brigette Bardot in LOVE IS MY PROFESSION / EN CAS DE MALHEUR
Its singular insistence on a radically revised paradigm for the history of film noir is a bridge too far for those all too comfortable with either the “American exceptionalist” origin theories or the nebulous “darkness has no borders” mantra that steadfastly sidesteps Malcolm’s central insight.
My Favorite Film Festival, TIFF, Checks All the Boxes
by Meredith Brody
(September 24, 2024)
I’ve never met a film festival I didn’t like, starting with the influential and eccentric Filmex, where I worked for the late, great Gary Essert and Gary Abrahams when I was still in college.
I have heard (mild) horror stories from other people about film festivals that had projection problems and cancellations and other such glitches. The Toronto International Film Festival is the opposite of that.
eatdrinkfilms.com 