Pioneering film producer Saul Zaentz consistently elevated the art of storytelling throughout his brilliant career, and many of his remarkable, memorable achievements are adaptations of acclaimed books and plays.
The three-time Oscar winner (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Amadeus,” “The English Patient”) left an indelible mark on American cinema, also exerting influence in other arenas.
The Berkeley FILM Foundation and the California Film Institute are spotlighting four of his greatest films in the “Saul Zaentz Film Celebration,” running Nov. 15-17 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Since the screenings likely will sell out, we’re providing information about them a bit early, as well as details about another big film event not to miss this week.
First, though, a bit of background on the iconic Zaentz:
The New Jersey native moved to San Francisco in 1948. In addition to being a cinematic force, Zaentz has a rich legacy in music. He managed tours for Duke Ellington and Concord native Dave Brubeck, and in 1955 began work at Berkeley’s Fantasy Records, where he was credited with bolstering the career of Creedence Clearwater Revival, a partnership that deteriorated into a litigious battle with frontman John Fogerty. Zaentz went on to buy the label.
In 1980, Zaentz founded Berkeley’s Saul Zaentz Film Center, a bustling creative hub and spark plug for indie filmmakers, who flocked there for post-production work, among other things. Some of his finest works had their finishing touches applied there. It was sold in 2007.
Zaentz died in 2014 in San Francisco at 92.
The Rafael program begins with 1996’s visually, emotionally arresting “The English Patient.” Director Anthony Minghella’s handsome adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s celebrated romantic World War II epic stars Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas (all collected Oscars), telling a sweeping story about the intersecting lives of a severely burned pilot (Fiennes), a nurse (Binoche) tending to him and a torn-between-two lovers mapmaker (Scott Thomas). The feast for the senses took home nine Academy Awards. It screens at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 15, including an introduction from Ondaatje and a post-screening conversation with associate producer Paul Zaentz, Saul Zaentz’s nephew. An extended conversation with Ondaatje and award-winning radio producer-podcaster Davia Nelson is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Nov. 16, also at the Smith Rafael.
Bay Area filmmaker Philip Kaufman’s sexually charged 1988 “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is a classic, and profound in many ways. With tour-de-force acting by Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin and Binoche, it captures nuances and conflicts in intimate relationships and how they can change the course of fate. Kaufman’s erudite drama takes Milan Kundera’s acclaimed, wholly un-cinematic novel and gives it an erotic charge, as handsome philandering surgeon (Day-Lewis) alternates between his own “being” with very different women: his buttoned-up wife (Binoche) and sexually adventurous mistress (Olin). Shaped around Czechoslovakia’s liberated 1960s and more oppressive 1970s, the stimulating, metaphysical drama serves as a wistful reminder of just how fragile life can be. It screens at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 16, with introduction by editor Vivien Hillgrove.
Director Miloš Forman’s 1975 Oscar-winning “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” took Ken Kesey’s novel about the clash between an authoritative figure who doesn’t budge from rules and orders (cool, severe psychiatric Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher) and the rebellious patient who thumbs his nose at her and convention (unforgettable Randle McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson) and turned it into an unforgettable classic that retains its power decades later. There are strong supporting players (Danny DeVito, Brad Dourif and Christopher Lloyd), but Nicholson’s and Fletcher’s culture-defining performances are forever seared in our minds. The movie screens at 6 p.m. Nov. 16, with a conversation featuring literature professor Robert Faggen, author of the forthcoming book “Ken Kesey: An American Life.”
The staggering genius of unorthodox composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) makes 18th century Italian composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) fume with envy and cunning as he pretends to be his friend, not foe, in Forman’s 1984 “Amadeus,” a magnificent film version of Peter Shaffer’s play. The multiple-Oscar winner is a visual and auditory feast, and the story packs a huge emotional punch as the two unlike men (one seen as uncouth and not representative of the times, the other seemingly restrained and respectable) play a dangerous game in which no one comes out a victor. It screens at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 17 and features a conversation with sound designer, editor and mixer Mark Berger.
For tickets ($12.50-$16) and more details about the series, go to: https://rafaelfilm.cafilm.org/saul-zaentz-film-series/.
Here’s a film not to miss this weekend:
“I Am My Own Woman,” German director Rosa von Praunheim’s influential movie, screens at the 4 Star Theater in San Francisco at 7 p.m. Nov. 7, with an appearance from film historian, critic and author Caden Mark Gardner. The 1992 docudrama is truly nonconformist, like its subject, breaking the fourth wall as it relates with creative flair the true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a trans activist who survived the Nazi reign and was instrumental in starting the German gay liberation movement. “I Am My Own Woman” is touched upon in Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay’s exceptional book “Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema.” The event is co-presented by Green Apple Books, and copies of “Corpses, Fools and Monsters” will be available for purchase.
For more information, visit https://www.4-star-movies.com.
The post Pass the Remote: Spotlight on producing great Saul Zaentz, ‘I Am My Own Woman’ appeared first on Local News Matters.