I’m in a reflective mood with the turning of the calendar, and what I’m reflecting on is the beginning of the end of my long love affair with movies marinated in nihilism, cynicism, fatalism, cruel reality, contrived conflict, blood-soaked philosophy, righteous comeuppance and (the hardest to give up) withering jibes. My new year’s resolution is to seek out and savor humanistic directors, who highlight common ground rather than differences, and regard empathy as a superior manifestation of strength. Jean Renoir, Yasujiro Ozu, Heddy Honigmann, the Dardennes brothers and Hirokazu Kore-eda immediately come to mind. Let’s see who fills this bill in January, shall we?
The Gold Rush
Well, Charlie Chaplin, for starters. Cinema’s ultimate everyman, Chaplin repeatedly gutter-dived into the harshness and heartlessness of the modern metropolis and emerged with a glowing ember of decency. Sure, he was prone to sentimentality, which might be defined as taking optimism to the breaking point. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival marks Chaplin’s 1914 debut in moving pictures with three shows on Saturday, January 11 under the heart-swelling rubric, The Little Tramp at 100: A Charlie Chaplin Centennial Celebration. A program of timeless shorts gets the party started at 1pm, followed by The Kid at 4pm and The Gold Rush at 7:30pm, all with live music and all at the Castro Theatre. Wait a second, I’ve got something in my eye. For more information visit silentfilm.org.
Normal Love
Provocateurs are often narcissists, and the queer actor, writer and filmmaker Jack Smith answered to both names. (He was also a generous collaborator, so there.) It’s hard to grasp exactly how bravely theatrical he was in the early ’60s, flaunting the “norms” of gender and sexuality and, in so doing, sending a smoke signal to The Cockettes in San Francisco. Flaming Creatures (1962-63) was banned on obscenity charges; you won’t find anything shocking about it today, just fun, fun, fun. Ravishing, Radical and Restored: The Films of Jack Smith also features new prints of Mary Jordan’s kaleidoscopic documentary portrait Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, Smith’s flamboyant satire No President (1967-70), the late Ron Vawter’s acting tour de force Roy Cohn/Jack Smith (1995) and Smith’s epic ode to Maria Montez, Normal Love (1963-65). The S.F. Cinematheque and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts co-present at the latter’s house January 16-30, 2014. For more information visit ybca.org.
