Filed under: Uncategorized
You will fall in love with writer Sholem Aleichem and primatologist Jane Goodall, if you haven’t already. The way you did with Bill Cunningham if you saw that movie here this past spring. They are true originals: light-hearted, deep-souled and brilliantly perceptive documenters of… well, we’re all primates, so let’s just be inclusive and say primate nature.
You might not fall in love with John Huston. Or if you do, you might be sorry. Lauren Bacall, who knew the type, described him as ”daring, unpredictable, maddening, mystifying and probably the most charming man on earth.” Trouble. Also an unsparing deconstructor of the brutality and opportunism that a hostile environment can breed. Here, as among the chimps, it’s survival of the fittest. But while Goodall’s vision of human evolution has compassion at it’s center, Huston’s survivors are shrewd, unflinching, cool. Meet Sam Spade.
A monument that captures Sholem Aleichem's style and wit, both brimming in his writing. He is also remembered in streets and schools that bear his name in Russia, Argentina, Australia and Israel. And an impact crater on the planet Mercury bears his name. For real.
SHOLEM ALEICHEM: LAUGHING IN THE DARKNESS starts 9/9. On 9/10, filmmaker Joseph Dorman joins us by Skype for an audience conversation. Dorman says of his subject: “I never get tired of talking about him. He’s an unqualified joy. It’s like a marriage where you find for the rest of your life why you fell in love in the first place. He’s great. How do you ever get tired of someone like him?… There’s a whole bookshelf of literature he created, with so much richness and depth…. He took Yiddish and transformed it into a rich literary language, in the way Shakespeare did with English.”
Aleichem’s first venture into writing was an alphabetic glossary of the epithets used by his stepmother. He went on to write the stories on which FIDDLER ON THE ROOF was based. He was often called “Yiddish Mark Twain.” Twain called himself the “American Sholem Aleichem.”
A monument that captures Sholem Aleichem’s style and wit, both brimming in his writing. He is also remembered in streets and schools that bear his name in Russia, Argentina, Australia and Israel. An impact crater on the planet Mercury also bears his name. For real.
"To be with Jane Goodall is like walking with Mahatma Ghandi." - Boston Globe
JANE’S JOURNEY opens 9/30. Jane Goodall needs no introduction. Her work in animal research and conservation is legendary. An inspiring portrait of the person behind the icon, this documentary features spectacular footage from her private collection. Here she is in a TED Talk, worth watching for her chimpanzee call alone.
“To be with Jane Goodall is like walking with Mahatma Ghandi.” – Boston Globe CAPTION
"All we've got is that maybe you love me and maybe I love you." - Sam Spade
On Monday 10/3 we’ll show THE MALTESE FALCON, John Huston’s instantly iconic directorial debut, considered by many to be the first Film Noir. Humphrey Bogart plays Sam Spade. Muscular, stylish, daring – forever a cinematic thrill. Jeffrey Meyers, author of the new Huston biography “Courage and Art,” joins us to introduce the film.
Sunday’s Women’s World Cup soccer Final between USA and Japan is going to be amazing, thrilling, historic. What do you need to know to be fully swept up in the excitement? A little background never hurts.
Let’s start with the home team. USA has long been a superpower in women’s soccer.
An iconic moment from 1999. Chastain says Sunday's final will be “a clash of cultures in both game plan and philosophy.”
They broke onto the world stage in 1999, when 90,000 people filled the Rose Bowl to watch USA play China in the final. The score was tied 0-0 at full time and remained so until a nail-biting penalty kick shootout resulted in a USA win. Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain became stars, and the game brought huge attention to women’s soccer and athletics.They haven’t won a World Cup since, and they’re ready.
USA’s playing style has been characterized as a relentless hustle, never-say-die approach. This team bristles with talent. Hope Solo might be the best goalkeeper in the tournament. Star forward Abby Wambach’s late-game goal against Brazil last Sunday was the stuff of legend.
USA has flourished under the coaching of Swede Pia Sundhage. Hope Solo, pictured here, says of Sundhage's coaching style, "She said, 'You guys are creative, you are soccer players.' She wanted us to think and read the game for ourselves.... She lets the game come to us.”
Japan has displayed discipline, savvy and skill throughout the tournament. But there’s something more. Shortly before Japan faced two-time defending champion Germnay in the quarterfinals, Coach Norio Sasaki gave showed his players slide-show images of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, killing more than 15,000 people.
“They touched us deep in our souls,” midfielder Aya Miyama told reporters.
Hope Solo sums it up: “They’re playing for something bigger and better than the game. When you’re playing with so much emotion, that’s hard to play against.”
We’ll see how they do on Sunday. Join us. Details here.
Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell. Don't get her mad.
We’ve talked about THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and THE CHERRY ORCHARD here, so, thrilled as we are to be bringing them to our huge screen from Broadway and London, we won’t go on about it. But: once you’ve seen EARNEST on 6/6, you will want to join us for a TONY AWARDS PARTY on 6/12, if only to root for Brian Bedford as Best Actor for his brilliant turn as Lady Bracknell.
So here’s something else exciting. The Metropolitan Opera’s amazing program of satellite transmissions, The Met: Live in HD, is very popular here at the Lark, with most live broadcasts selling out. But we know there’s an audience we’ve yet to reach: people who maybe love theater and musicals but haven’t quite made it over to opera yet, or people on fixed incomes for whom the ticket prices pose a challenge.
Is this you? Then you’ll want to know that starting in June we have the Met’s Summer Encore Series, six of the most popular and accessible shows from the past season, for only $15 each.
Simple gestures movingly convey a child's curiosity, concern and tenderness.
We start with Puccini’s MADAMA BUTTERFLY on Sat, 6/18 at 10am. The insanely beautiful, colorful staging of Anthony Mighella’s production and the music – you’ve heard the heart-piercing aria “Un bel di vedrema,” even if you don’t know it – make this a great introduction if you’re new to opera, or new to opera onscreen. Film-goers know Minghella from THE ENGLISH PATIENT). The production is also graced by the astonishing work of London’s Blind Summit Theatre, which created Cio-Cio San’s puppet child. Read about the production here.
Cio-Cio San and her puppet son. Puppeteers are fully visible but go unnoticed.
Zoe Wanamaker as Ranyevskaya in the Cherry Orchard from London's National Theatre. At the Lark 6/30 & 7/9.
Every young acting student has this conversation with a teacher at some point, on being assigned a Chekhov scene. You go off full of purpose, your little yellow Samuel French script in hand. The cover says “Uncle Vanya, A Comedy, by Anton Chekhov.” Or “The Three Sisters, A Comedy, by Anton Chekhov.” Or “The Cherry Orchard, A Comedy, by Anton Chekhov.” You read the play, read it again to see what you missed, go back and say, “Um – I don’t get how this is a comedy.” And the answer invariably comes back: “It’s the human comedy.”
Fast forward a decade or two, maybe you’ve had your heart broken, seen your ideals collide with reality, faced foreclosure – whatever. You’ve come out with a more nuanced, less grandiose idea of your place in the universe. And presto! You get it. It’s a comedy!
Chekhov was a doctor, and he treats his characters the way a good doctor treats patients – with an unsparing eye for disorders like pomposity, hypocrisy, and our tendency to waste our lives by sitting around worrying about whether we are wasting our lives. But also with tenderness and a non-judging, all-encompassing humor.
Just look at this face.
Then there’s Oscar Wilde, for a whole different (equally unsparing) take on human foolishness. This stuff is just flat-out hilarious, and no one has to tell you why. We are very happy to bring Broadway to our screen for the first time. I’m going to let the actors speak for themselves here. I’ll only say that Brian Bedford (brilliant classical actor) plays Lady Bracknell, in what is already being called a legendary performance.
Excellent and insightful New York Times review here.
Now comes the really good stuff. Warning: off-color language. The actors, in full costume and character, performing text from Jersey Shore. Don’t say I never gave you anything.
Jersey Shore Gone Wilde part 1 ~ part 2 ~ part 3 ~ part 4 ~ part 5.
And, as if all that wasn’t enough, here’s the brilliant Stephen Fry (you may know him as part of the defunct British comedy duo, Fry and Laurie – yes, Dr. House – or from a thousand other things). Click here to read his musings on Wilde and Chekhov, and for recordings of him reading Wilde’s fairy tales and Chekhov’s short stories.
The 2011 Sixth Annual Youth Film Festival was held on Sunday, April 3rd. The festival featured twenty-nine juror-selected films, and was well attended by young filmmakers (ages 10-18) as well as their friends, families and supporters.
Our thanks and congratulations to those selected to compete in this year's festival. Submissions came from all over the state, as well as from NYC, Boston, Maryland and Indiana.
Congrats especially to this year's winners!
Although all of the films were worthy of praise, prizes were awarded in the following categories:
Best Music Film (ages 14-18) “Sleeping Lessons”
Kendra Bradanini (Urban School of San Francisco)
Best Documentary (ages 10-13) “Chinese Invention Express”
Joseph Osborn, Davidson Middle School, San Rafael, CA
Best Documentary (ages 14-18) : “Independence In Sight”
Lauren Lindberg & Bonita Tindle (Bay Area Video Coalition-BAVC)
Best Narrative Film (ages 10-13) “Lemonhood”
Kellen Abend, Luca Evans, Danni Hone, Leo Levy, Ben Olizar, Jadon Seitz, Benjamin Share, Jacob Share, (Future Filmmaker Workshops)
Best Narrative (ages 14-18): “Driven”
Colin Patty (Cardinal Newman High School, Santa Rosa, CA)
Honorable Mentions: Best Narrative (ages 14-18):
“Roadkill” Alex Herz, Hall Middle School, Larkspur, CA
“Vantage” Cameron Billingham, (Bear River Valley School, Auburn, CA)
We would like to thank our jurors Jenna Capozzi, James Hirsch, Alexandra Mende, and Henrik Rutgersson.
We would also like to thank Best Buy, California Academy of Sciences Museum, Central Marin Rotary, Disney Museum, San Francisco Film Society, Stefano’s Solar-Powered Pizza, and the Twin Cities Police Authority for their support and generous donations of prizes for the festival.
We look forward to another great festival next year!
"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be..."
So many sinewy themes run through Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN – given raw new life at the National Theatre in a sold-out production from Oscar-winner Danny Boyle – that it’s hard sort them out. But you’ll feel compelled to, if only to do justice to this stark, intensely creative production (NY Times review here) and to the brilliance of the 19-year-old girl who wrote the original novel.
Let’s just toss out a few…
Fathers and sons.
Scientific progress outstripping ethics, or, if you prefer, Man vs. God.
Our human fear of difference and the cruelty it breeds.
Artificial intelligence.
Real love.
The bitter and violent fruits of childhood neglect.
The perils of repression.
The limits of control.
Bioengineering.
Social engineering.
What makes a human?
What makes a monster?
And on and on. Please let me know what I’ve missed.
Oh and of course the divided self. Danny Boyle plays with this idea by casting two thoroughly talented actors as Dr. Frankenstein and his Creature – and requiring them to switch roles for every performance.
Now we have big news for those who were awe-struck by the performances when we showed Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature and Johnny Lee Miller as Frankenstein. We’ve got the swap. Personally I cannot see how Mr. Miller could top Mr. Cumberbatch’s jaw-dropping turn. But critics are saying he does, and that Mr. C brings special nuance to the role of the flawed Doctor.
Cool steam punk train symbolizing man's domination of natural forces. Or the brutal thrust of progress. Or something.
And good news for those who haven’t see it at all, yet: FRANKENSTEIN rides again. April 14, 7:30. General seating, $24.
Opening April 8: BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK and ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS.
Joanna Macy describes ECONOMICS OF HAPPINESS succinctly: “This film connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown, and our own personal suffering–stress, loneliness, and depression. It presents the localization movement as a systemic alternative to corporate globalization, as well as a strategy that brings community and meaning to our lives.”
If you see this film and it inspires you – or if you are already inspired – to go local and live green, don’t bother with woodsy outposts or far-flung villages. You’re better off in the West Village, NYC, where Bill Cunningham can be seen keeping excellent balance on a ricketly old bike, in spite of the shifting weight of the giant camera hanging around his neck. New York City is the greenest place to live in the United States. But Bill isn’t following fads, however enlightened. He’s not even following fashion. His mission is to chronicle personal style, and he’s been doing it for decades for his “On The Street” and “Evening Hours” columns in the New York Times.
Mr. Cunningham doesn’t accept a penny in payment from the Times: “If you don’t take their money, they can’t tell you what to do.” This is not because he is independently wealthy. He lives in a tiny space, sleeps on a cot with a milk-crate for a bedside table surrounded by files containing the negatives to his millions of pictures, having been for 60 years a resident of the artists’ studios above Carnegie Hall (in recent years the artists have been evicted). On bike or at the swankiest soirees, Cunningham moves fluidly through the social strata.
Filed under: Big Screen, Classics, Film Appreciation, Lark Odds & Ends, Musings
She was the living embodiment of beauty, of glamor – perhaps more than anything, of romantic passion. She survived lifelong stardom, scandal, addiction, a host of serious illnesses, a handful of near-death experiences. She never had sex with a man she didn’t marry, and “how many girls can say that?” When her beauty no longer made her the white-hot centrifugal center of Hollywood, she used her still-unparalleled fame to fight HIV/AIDS at a time when its sufferers were being stigmatized and ignored. She packed more life and love into her 79 years than most of us can begin to imagine.
We love you, Elizabeth.
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March is Member Madness at the Lark. We have a cluster of wonderful, award-winning documentaries coming up on environmental topics (see last post), with director screenings that are open to the public and FREE to members at all levels. Become a member at our affordable Individual level ~ $75/year ~ and attend director screenings for PLASTIC PLANET (3/18, Werner Boote joins us by Skype) and QUEEN OF THE SUN (3/26 & 3/29). See both and it’s like getting $20 off your already low membership dues! And there will be more special screenings to come.
Best of all, you’re supporting the Lark. We wouldn’t be here without community support, and we appreciate your help in keeping us aloft!
Our members do not resemble penguins, this being a casual environment, but nice linocut from Nicole Antrobus.
Filed under: Documentary
Documentarians have always been a feisty lot, risking life, limb and credit scores to bring ugly realities to the screen. And then it’s up to the rest of us. The theme of our current spate of wonderful, searching and accomplished docs might be waste: its perils, prevention, and some unexpectedly creative approaches. Oscar nominated WASTE LAND, Oscar winner INSIDE JOB and the wonderful CARBON NATION are now showing. Coming to our screen next week is PLASTIC PLANET; director Werner Boote joins us over Skype from Vienna for an audience talk-back on 3/18. And QUEEN OF THE SUN starts 3/25. This exploration of the bee crisis
The bee problem is worse than you think.
is from director Taggart Siegel, whose last film (THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN) won 31 international film festival awards. Three of our QUEEN screenings will include talks and panel discussions with local bee and environmental experts.
Here in the office, we haven’t had this many impassioned phone calls in support of such films since WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. People who see them are coming away sometimes angry, sometimes sad, but always energized and inspired to become agents for change, whether that means writing their representatives in Congress or buying local honey and throwing away their non-biodegradable drinking cups once and for all.
