THE BEST PROGRAMMING IN TOWN: French Noir

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.    

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More Loudly Anticipating the San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Part Two- What I Will Be Seeing

By Meredith Brody

May 4, 2022

I learned my lesson early with the San Francisco Silent Film Festival: GO TO EVERYTHING.

The first year I attended, I cherry-picked only the movies I hadn’t seen before.  The ones I went to were such a revelation – both in the presentation and the group experience – that my heart hurt as I walked away.  What a MAROON I was. Even a movie I thought I knew well would be a fresh experience, featuring as it did not only live music, but one of the world’s great audiences. There’s a kind of euphoria that sets in when you commit to seeing everything on offer. Continue reading

FUR, FEATHERS, AND FILOSOPHY: In Search of Snow Leopards

By Gaetano Kazuo Maida

Ignore the misleading title. The film opens with what appear to be two Chinese military observers speculating on the work and fate of an expedition that they have been watching from afar through telescopes. One says, “There was a pack of wolves at the summit… he went to photograph them, the wolves were following him. I thought they’d gobble him up, but he came back. I have no idea what they’re doing…” And we are truly and deeply hooked.

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IT ALL STARTED WITH A HOT PLATE

By Joyce Goldstein

Julia McWilliams had an idyllic childhood in Pasadena California, raised in a conservative family with conventional American food.  When World War two broke out she enlisted and went to work at the OSS hoping to become a spy but ending up as a clerk typist. 

How did this start lead to being one of the world’s most beloved chefs?

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RECIPES FROM JULIA CHILD

 

To celebrate the opening the new documentary Julia EatDrinkFilms is pleased to offer our readers four of Julia Child’s favorite recipes: Coq au Vin, Gratin Dauphinois and for dessert, La Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin. Plus one of her most famous dishes, Boeuf Bourguignon. We have some videos of Julia cooking on her own show and on David Letterman, the SNL spoof which Ms Child loved and more. Bon Appetit.

Julia opens exclusively in theaters throughout November, 2021. For more information go to the Official Website.

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“THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT 2021” Salutes Robert Hossein

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.

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My Voyage with Chefs: A Reflection

By Cari Borja

“tell me and i forget, teach me and i may remember,

involve me and i learn.

~ xun kuang

from salon #58 in Berkeley, CA studio, from SF Chronicle article

Ahh, the idea of being in a kitchen again ~ not mine, but someone else’s with others, (or even the kitchen I once had in my design studio in Berkeley, above) ~ apprenticing, learning, collaborating in the same tactile real space as other human beings (that I’m not related to)… making things and tasting things and giving others something they never knew they even wanted? I didn’t think I would actually have to imagine this, crave this even, as much as I do right now.

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ORSON’S BELLY: Day and Night

by Julie Lindow

01 posters

Film posters of Mon Oncle by Jacques Tati and of course Citizen Kane by Orson Welles

Have you ever dreamt of opening a café or bar that would be the medley of everything you love? Have you ever worried that San Francisco is losing its creative venues because high rents demand investors who demand tried-and-true (i.e. boring) business formulas so that they can be assured of a return?

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