SFIFF, Week 2.

Picking up where we left off, the Bay Guardian presents its guide to the second week of the San Francisco International Film Festival, running through May 8. Also: D Scot Miller insists that you see Medicine for Melancholy (and for good reason, too), while Erik Morse calls up Guy Maddin to talk about My Winnipeg.

Updated through 5/6.

"If any one thing unites the 22 winners so far of the SF Film Society's Founder's Directing Award, it's that they're all unique cinematic voices whose signature viewpoints and styles could never be mistaken for another's," writes Dennis Harvey. "Over four decades as a writer-director whose film, TV and stage work have created a distinctive ongoing insider's portrait of working-to-middle class English life, Mike Leigh now seems a natural 23rd addition."

Also at SF360, Michael Fox talks with graphic designer Someguy and director Andrea Kreuzhage about 1000 Journals.

Jeffrey M Anderson opens his current roundup for Pixel Vision with a bit of background on 10 + 4, Mania Akbari's sequel, made with Abbas Kiarostami's blessing, of Ten. Meanwhile, at Cinematical, Jeffrey reviews Just Like Home.

Michael Guillén was at the Q&A with Catherine Breillat when The Last Mistress opened the festival - and he's got notes.

Update, 5/2: Jeffrey M Anderson in Pixel Vision: Go Go Tales and I Served the King of England; also, Touching Home.

Updates, 5/4: Jeffrey M Anderson at Cinematical on A Girl Cut in Two: "I loved it. It's another superbly-made, highly enjoyable Chabrol film, but you probably won't see it on any top ten lists, nor will Chabrol be collecting any awards for it. I think 'consistent' is a bad word among film people; we're more easily impressed by change and diversity, or by the newest, latest thing. Actors like John Wayne were routinely overlooked in favor of actors like Marlon Brando, though Brando could never in a million years have pulled off what John Wayne accomplished in The Searchers. Brando could do lots of things, but John Wayne was the best at being John Wayne. That's my standard rant, and that's how I feel about Chabrol."

"The diners at Film Society Awards Night this past Thursday - including Warren Beatty, Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, Maria Bello, John Burton and Dede Wilsey - saw a mash-up of two opposing approaches to the art of great filmmaking in awards to Mike Leigh and Robert Towne," writes Susan Gerhard at SF360. "One shuns Hollywood, one helped create it. Leigh builds screenplays after a long collaborative process with an acting crew. Towne writes screenplay masterpieces he begrudgingly alters at the request of directors and actors, often (though certainly not always) to the detriment of his original vision. Both, of course, are keen observers of humanity, a fact that can be observed not only in their filmmaking, but also in their speechmaking."

For Pixel Vision: Jeffrey M Anderson on Cachao: Uno Más and Umbrella. More on that one, too, from Johnny Ray Huston.

Updates, 5/5: E Steven Fried rounds up the first week for the Siffblog.

Susan Gerhard talks with "film festival superfan Sue Jean Halvorsen... Her tastes are eclectic, from bleak nihilism to political nonfiction to big-budget entertainment to specific ethnic/national cinema niches. She calls the International 'my window on the world (cheaper than airfare),' adding, 'I love seeing the international community show up for various films - no matter how remote.' SF360.org sat down over a slice to find the method behind Halvorsen's madness in putting together a cinemaniacal film festival viewing schedule."

Updates, 5/6: When Mike Leigh received the Founder's Directing Award, some were surprised that he chose to screen Topsy-Turvy. At the House Next Door, Fernando F Croce recalls asking him why, "and he told me the film, uncharacteristic as it may appear in his oeuvre - 'the cuckoo in the nest,' he fondly dubbed it - had the festive spirit the event called for. Incidentally, it is this seemingly uncharacteristic quality that makes Topsy-Turvy my own favorite of his films."

At Hell on Frisco Bay, Sean McCourt looks back to the night Black Francis performed his new soundtrack as The Golem screened at the Castro and notes: "There is talk of the soundtrack possibly getting a future release, either with the film on DVD, or as a stand-alone album, both of which would be most welcome."

At SF360, Cathleen Rountree talks with Alex Gibney about Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson. More.

Posted by dwhudson at April 30, 2008 3:21 PM