Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s winter program provides a treasure chest of movie gems, from well-known features such as John Ford’s tarnished Western “The Searchers” to Cheryl Dunye’s rarely seen women-prison drama “Stranger Inside.”
Our cinematic taste buds are salivating already. Here’s a look:
“G. W. Pabst: Selected Films 1925-38” (Through Feb. 28): Bay Area fans’ passion for silent films is guaranteed to pack theaters, so jump on scoring tickets for the 10 remaining films in this series featuring Austrian actor-turned-director Georg Wilhelm Pabst, whose breakout directorial feature was 1925’s gritty, groundbreaking post-World War I drama “The Joyless Street.” Set on a scrappy street in Vienna, it features Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen as two women facing uncertain futures who mingle with the rich, looking for a good time. It screens at 7 p.m. on Dec. 20. Two other titles that struck my interest are the little seen “The Love of Jeanne Ney,” at 7 p.m. Dec. 12, Pabst’s 1927 adaptation of a popular novel by Russian author Ilya Ehrenburg from that period; and the bold 1929 showgirl triumph “Pandora’s Box” at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 19. Many screenings include Judith Rosenberg on the piano. Visit bampfa.org/program/gw-pabst.
“Marcello Mastroianni at 100” (Dec. 15 through Feb. 27): One of Italy’s most hard-working and revered actors (170 films to his credit) died in 1996 at 72, but his legacy and impact in film history live on. The 11-film program reflects his diversity and his evolution as an actor who nimbly jumped from comedy to drama. His collaborations with the influential Federico Fellini netted classics such as “La dolce vita” (screening at 6 p.m. Dec. 21 and 7 p.m. Jan. 22); and “8 ½” (at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 11 and 7 p.m. Jan. 22). But he’s also remembered for often fiery on-screen romances in Vittorio De Sica’s “Marriage Italian Style” (at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 22) opposite Sophia Loren, and Pietro Germi’s frisky “Divorce Italian Style” (at 7 p.m. Dec. 19) as a married and cheating aristocrat, a role that landed him one of three best actor Oscar nominations. Visit bampfa.org/program/marcello-mastroianni-100.
“Landscapes of Myth: Westerns After The Searchers” (Jan. 10 through Feb. 28): In a novel approach, PFA explores how Westerns have changed over the years and how they presented varied viewpoints. The series begins and is anchored by the 4K digital restoration of Ford’s iconic “The Searchers,” screening at 7 p.m. Jan. 10 with an introduction by film scholar and curator Leila Weefur (who appears multiple times in the series) and at 7 p.m. Jan. 25. John Wayne stars as a hate-filled Civil War Confederate veteran bound to draw blood as he looks for his kidnapped niece. Following are films that tweaked the macho-driven, often problematic Western formula, ranging from Sydney Poitier’s directorial debut “Buck and the Preacher” (at 7 p.m. Jan 23); Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” (6:30 p.m. Feb. 15) with Michelle Williams; the Robert Altman classic “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (7 p.m. Feb. 7) starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie as an enterprising duo; and Zacharias Kunuk’s “Searchers”-inspired “Maliglutit” (7 p.m. Feb. 28), to name a few. The film I’m most excited about seeing is Glauber Rocha’s “Antonio das Mortes,” a 1969 sequel to his “Black God, White Devil.” It carries on the story of a Brazilian assassin signing up to take on another hit, and discovering he’d have to rub out someone who wants to do good. Visit bampfa.org/program/landscapes-myth-westerns-after-searchers.
“Masc II: Mascs plus Muchachas” (Jan. 17 through Feb. 23): Buy tickets now for any of the screenings in this impressive follow-up to last year’s sold-out series “Masc: Trans Men, Butch Dykes, and Gender Nonconforming Heroes in Cinema” curated by Berkeley filmmaker and LGBTQ cinema historian/preservationist Jenni Olsen and film critic and author Caden Mark Gardner. (Also: Get a copy of Gardner and coauthor Willow Catelyn Maclay’s exceptional book “Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema.”) Olsen, the sole curator of this year’s program, will be featured in conversation during the series, which is co-presented by Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. Olsen again spotlights and celebrates AFAB (assigned-female-at-birth) masc movies. Spanish trans philosopher Paul B. Preciado’s 2023 acclaimed debut “Orlando, My Political Biography” (screening at 7 p.m. Jan. 17) is a novel visual essay that springboards from Virgina Woolf’s influential novel as it ponders on the trans experience. Others I don’t want to miss are a free screening of “The Watermelon Woman” director Cheryl Dunye’s 2001 drama “Stranger Inside” (at 5 p.m. Jan. 19 with Dunye and Frameline Executive Director Allegra Madsen in a post-screening conversation) featuring Yolonda Ross as the butch Treasure who is on a quest while incarcerated to find her mom; and Sérgio Toledo’s “Vera” (at 7 p.m. Jan. 29), a 1986 Brazilian drama about that country’s trans poet Anderson Bigode Herzer. Visit https://bampfa.org/program/masc-ii.
The post Pass the Remote: BAMPFA series serve up G.W. Pabst, Marcello Mastroianni, Westerns, gender nonconforming characters appeared first on Local News Matters.