Charlie Was My Co-Pilot- Celebrating Chaplin Days

Posted on by

By Gary Meyer. (May 13, 2025)

“A day without laughter is a day wasted” -Charlie Chaplin

I can’t imagine a more wonderful spring weekend than the Charlie Chaplin Days in Niles (Fremont), California, May 16-18. Starting with a tour of Eugene O’Neill’s house where Chaplin’s wife Oona grew up, the celebration includes plenty of restored Chaplin films made by the Essanay Studio on the big screen  with audiences laughing uncontrollably at times. There are live presentations, rare footage and photos seen for the first time since they were made, walking tours, rides on a vintage diesel train, and the annual Charlie Look-Alike Contest. Continue reading →

LIVE CINEMA by Pamela Gentile

Posted on by

Live Cinema is the contemporary revival of experiential cinema with a live element.
Celebrating her fortieth year shooting major film festivals in San Francisco and beyond, Gentile shares her love of world cinema, her capture of silver screens with live musical accompaniment that exemplifies and preserves the inimitable cinematic theater experience.

Continue reading →

“Pandora’s Box” – A Stunning Film on the Big Screen at the Spectacular Paramount

Posted on by

By Nancy Friedman

(April 25, 2023)

Maligned, misunderstood, and mercilessly censored when it was released in 1929 – and virtually forgotten for the next three decades – Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) is today acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of silent cinema. That honor is attributable in part to the artistry of director Georg Wilhelm Pabst and cinematographer Günther Krampf, two giants of German film. But the film’s real magic resides in the indelible performance of its American star, Louise Brooks, whom the film historian David Thomson has called “one of the most mysterious and potent figures in the history of the cinema.” The British film critic Pamela Hutchinson has said that Brooks – with her impish smile, dancer’s lithe body, and gleaming black helmet of bobbed hair – “both defines the Roaring Twenties and stands outside it. She is timeless.” 

Continue reading →

SECRET HORRORS OF THE CASTRO THEATRE: A True Story

Posted on by

by Julie Lindow

(Updated October 30,2022)

One would never expect such real-life horror to happen at the gorgeous, historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco. That fateful night, I was slinging candy and popcorn. The air was thick with that hot buttery scent as I salted the last bag of popcorn and patrons scurried into the theater. The manager clunked the heavy double doors closed. The calm after the storm. It was also the calm before the storm of Hallows’ Eve that was a few nights off.

c.jpg

Continue reading →

GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE- A brief history of Spooky Stage Shows and a Personal Encounter

Posted on by

by Gary Meyer

Magic and “live” ghosts, goblins and other creatures of the night go back a long way. What we refer to as “augmented reality” today is hundreds of years old.  In 1584 Reginald Scot wrote in his study to debunk beliefs in witchcraft, magic and other superstitions, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, that people dressed in sheets had fooled believers certain they had seen ghosts.

Screen Shot 2019-09-28 at 2.09.02 PM.png

Interpretation of Robertson’s Fantasmagorie from F. Marion’s L’Optique (1867)

Continue reading →

FINALLY FEELING FESTIVE – Looking Forward to the 2022 Mill Valley Film Festival, October 6 through 16

Posted on by

By Meredith Brody

October 6, 2022

In the past I have written, once or twice, thinking it was something of a joke, that if you wanted to see a movie beautifully projected on huge big screens with a full attentive audience who were all watching the BIG screen instead of their little screens, you had to go to a film festival.

Sir Ian McKellen’s 2015 Tribute; Photo by Drew Altizer Photography

And now, after nearly three years of not going to movies, whether in theaters or at festivals, and becoming increasingly used to – but not happy about — seeing movies via streaming services at home, I find that my little joke rings increasingly true.

Continue reading →

Welcome To My Movie, Won’t You Come In?

Posted on by

By Steve Segal

May 23, 2022

Ever since audiences fled for their lives seeing the Lumière’s Train Entering the Station in 1895, filmmakers have been trying to bring cinema audiences into the action. I recently saw two such examples. 

Gone Gone Beyond is a one-hour 360-degree cinema collage presented by Recombinant Media Labs CineChamber. It is showing in San Francisco at the Gray Area through Friday, May 27.

Continue reading →

THE CZAR OF NOIR MAY NOT RING TWICE BUT HE ALWAYS DELIVERS THE GOODS

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading →

CITY LIGHTS at the Paramount: The Little Tramp Meets the Orchestra

Posted on by
February 18, 2022

By Nancy Friedman

Its running time is just 87 minutes. It has only three main characters. Its filming locations were confined mostly to downtown Los Angeles and studio soundstages. 

But in its way Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 film City Lights qualifies as an epic—and so does the story behind the San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s one-night-only presentation of this silent masterpiece, accompanied by the Oakland Symphony under the direction of Timothy Brock, at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre on Saturday, February 19. 

Continue reading →

Watch CITY LIGHTS Shine: A Gallery of Art

Posted on by

Curated by Gary Meyer

Charles Chaplin might be the most recognizable person in the world. His iconic Little Tramp image can be found everywhere. I am guessing that more books have been written about him than any movie star.

One of the many beauties of his work is that they communicate with people who speak any language.

And on Saturday, February 19, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents Chaplin’s 1931 masterpiece, CITY LIGHTS accompanied by the Oakland Symphony under the direction of Timothy Brock, at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. This is a must see experience for all ages.

Continue reading →