May 16, 2012
SFFILM
The Story of Film: An Odyssey (Scotland 2011), Mark Cousins’ extraordinary 15-hour film series-comprehensive, yet idiosyncratic-packed with luscious film clips and judicious interviews, will play for eight consecutive Saturdays, June 2-July 21 at San Francisco Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street).
Adapted from his book of the same name, Mark Cousins’ epic exploration of film-its distant and recent past, and even its future-has something of interest for everyone from the mildly curious to the hardcore cineaste. Cousins’ film is designed to be a history of ideas and innovators rather than a charting of money and business, focusing on the development of cinematic language around the world. Comprehensive yet idiosyncratic, the series is packed with luscious film clips and judicious interviews with directors both beloved and underappreciated (many of them veterans of SFIFF) as well as lesser-known figures in the history of the medium. Aiming to redress what he considers racism by omission in many official cinema histories, Cousins illustrates the importance and innovation of filmmakers and films from Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East-without in any way dismissing the importance of mainstream commercial cinema. Guiding the journey with a lilting voice-over, whispering his version of cinema history in viewers’ ears, Cousins moves us through a travelogue of images of current locations and cities that have been important to the story of filmmaking. All together, it adds up to an ambitious, wide-ranging, provocative look at the evolution of the medium. Written by Mark Cousins. Photographed by Mark Cousins. 8 parts, 122 min each part. Distributed by Music Box Films.
June 2: Part 1 “Birth of the Cinema” (1900-1920); “The Hollywood Dream” (1920s)
June 9: Part 2 “Expressionism, Impressionism and Surrealism: Golden Age of World Cinema” (1920s); “The Arrival of Sound” (1930s)
June 16: Part 3 “Postwar Cinema” (1940s); “Sex & Melodrama” (1950s)
June 23: Part 4 “European New Wave”; “New Directors, New Forms” (1960s)
June 30: Part 5 “American Cinema of the ’70s”; “Movies to Change the World” (1970s)
July 7: Part 6 “The Arrival of Multiplexes and Asian Mainstream” (1970s); “Fight the Power: Protest in Film” (1980s)
July 14: Part 7 “New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia, Latin America”; “New American Independents & the Digital Revolution” (1990s)
July 21: Part 8 “Cinema Today and the Future” (2000s)
Showtime 12:00 pm only, Saturdays, June 2-July 21
Individual tickets $8; $48 for special eight-film package. Box office opens May 21 online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema.
To request an interview contact hhart@sffs.org.
To request screeners contact bproctor@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
At SF Film Society Cinema, the stylish state-of-the art theater located in the New People building at 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan) in Japantown, the San Francisco Film Society offers its acclaimed exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs and events on a daily year-round basis.
More upcoming San Francisco Film Society programs
Through May 17: Here
Through May 17: Michael
Opening May 18: Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle and Le Rayon Vert (Summer)
Opening May 25: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Opening June 1: Hide Away
June 2 only: An Evening of Wholphin Love Shorts from the latest issue of Wholphin, plus preview of the next.
Opening June 8: The Wages of Fear New 35 mm print of one of the greatest thrillers ever committed to celluloid, a white-knuckle ride from France’s legendary master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot, and the winner of the 1953 Cannes Palme d’Or.
Opening June 15: The Woman in the Fifth An unsettling thriller adapted from Douglas Kennedy’s international bestseller.
June 21: The Politics of the Cutting Room Floor
Opening June 22: Found Memories Júlia Murat’s disarming meditation on memory, aging and letting go of the past, was a hit at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival.
Opening June 29: Corpo Celeste Alice Rohrwacher’s assured first feature mixes neo-realism with a touch of Buñuelian satire.