Category: Diary

Diary

Capelle on Composers: Back to Back

Back to music.

I have some friends that were in a Sub Pop band that pre-dated Nirvana. They were known as the Dwarves. Their music is and was a snotty suburban unholy mixture of the Sonics, the Orlons, the Stooges and a vat of amphetamines. Their record covers usually featured midgets and half-naked woman covered in either blood or some sort of Nestle syrup of some sort. Here is one of their lines.

[Editor’s note: For the San Francisco International’s 51st edition, SF360.org has asked Bay Area musician/composer/cineaste Marc Capelle to blog his thoughts on movies, music, and the films showing in the Festival. This is the third of three installments.]

topics: authors, awards, bay area, cult cinema, genre films, music, san francisco international film festival

Diary

Nights on the Towne: Film Society Awards Night and a refreshing "Shampoo"

You know a film festival is beginning to work its way into your brain when, in a landscape of intersecting ideas, you begin to witness the collisions. The diners at Film Society Awards Night this past Thursday—including Warren Beatty, Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, Maria Bello, John Burton and Dede Wilsey—saw a mash-up of two opposing approaches to the art of great filmmaking in awards to Mike Leigh and Robert Towne. One shuns Hollywood, one helped create it. Leigh builds screenplays after a long collaborative process with an acting crew. Towne writes screenplay masterpieces he begrudgingly alters at the request of directors and actors, often (though certainly not always) to the detriment of his original vision. Both, of course, are keen observers of humanity, a fact that can be observed not only in their filmmaking, but also in their speechmaking.

[Editor’s note: Visit SF360.org’s Blogs page for Judy Stone’s 1975 interview with Warren Beatty.]

topics: actors, bay area, directors, san francisco international film festival

Diary

Capelle on Composers

For the San Francisco International’s 51st edition, SF360.org has asked Marc Capelle to blog his thoughts on movies, music and the Festival. Below are his first two entries, in reverse order. For more Capelle and other local writers on films, visit SF360.org’s blogs page

Marc Capelle is a native San Franciscan composer and musician. He writes music for films, television, commercials, web spots, toys, and billboards. He has most recently worked with Tommy Guerrero, American Music Club, Tipsy, and Virgil Shaw. He also performs monthly as musical timekeeper at the Porch Light story telling series.

Errol Morris has a giant brain. Anybody who wants to argue against that thesis does not have a giant brain. So let’s move on.

When Morris spoke with B. Ruby Rich Tuesday at the SF premiere screening of Standard Operating Procedure, he also has some very nice casual khaki pants and olive, drab, immaculate low-top lace-up Keds. He also makes a very good living making commercials and, when not doing that, manages to consistently make distinctly American films that are unrivaled in their quality of cinematography, sound, sound editing, musical composition and music editing.

topics: bay area, documentary, music, san francisco international film festival