Marguerite (2016; Xavier Giannoli) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens tomorrow at the Embarcadero Center Cinemas in San Francisco, the Albany Twin in Berkeley, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the Camera 3 in San Jose and the Aquarius in Palo Alto. A major award winner […]
The New Girlfriend (2015; Francois Ozon) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens today at the Clay Theatre in San Francisco, the Piedmont Theatre in Oakland, the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley. Popular and prolific French auteur Francois […]
Assault on the Pay Train (1962; Roberto Farias) Grade: B+ By Mike Dub Almost every heist movie ever made invests half its time depicting the expertise and professionalism involved in the detailed planning of the caper, then leads to an ostensibly heart-pounding climax in which the crime is […]
Claire’s Knee (1970; Eric Rohmer) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes In my review of La Collectionneuse last week, I made this admission about French auteur Eric Rohmer, a director whose work I had never seen before this festival: “Rohmer makes movies that I want to kick off my […]
Suzanne’s Career (1963; Eric Rohmer) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Shot on a shoestring and never released theatrically, the 60-minute featurette Suzanne’s Career is a technically abysmal early effort. Most professional filmmakers would look to bury it, as Quentin Tarantino did with My Best Friend’s Birthday. The film […]
Le Silence de la Mer (1949; Jean-Pierre Melville) GRADE: A- By Mike Dub “This film has no pretension of solving the problem of Franco-German relations, for they cannot be solved while the barbarous Nazi crimes, committed with the complicity of the German people, remain fresh in men’s minds.” – […]
