Take Two

"Waltz with Bashir": autobio-animation and the horrors of war

By Dennis Harvey

Just as the graphic novel has in recent decades completely altered the once strictly-kidstuff landscape of the “comic book,” so now animated features are beginning to embrace more grown-up stories and audiences than anything in the long history of “cartoons” before them. Last year there was the striking Persepolis, which adapted Marjane Satrapi’s tragicomic memoir about growing up a Western-leaning liberal in increasingly fundamentalist Iran. Now there’s Waltz with Bashir, another autobiographical Middle Eastern story, albeit a very different one in both form and content.

A veteran Israeli director of both nonfiction and narrative works, Ari Folman has created an “animated documentary” that expands the definition of that lattermost term.

topics: animation, political film, san francisco film society, world cinema

Platform

Debra Chasnoff goes back to school with "Straightlaced"

By Judy Stone

In eighth grade, Debra Chasnoff was already a tall, attractive brunette with beautiful blue eyes, who yearned to be noticed by a boy named Sammy but he didn’t have eyes for her. Although she had a crush on him, what he saw and wrote in the class yearbook was "To the girl who gets As in French class. I don’t know how or why."

Now a 51-year old prize-winning filmmaker and the mother of two boys, 14 and 20, Chasnoff laughed as she recalled being "devastated" by Sammy’s comment. "The thing he had noticed about me was that I was really smart and not that I was someone appealing to him. I felt a lot of pressure because I was smarter than you were supposed to be if you were a girl."

topics: bay area, directors, documentary film, film history, gay lesbian cinema, oscars, political film

Critic's Notebook

The Year in Film 2008: Oscar odds

By Dennis Harvey

The critic’s groups have weighed in now. The drumbeat of awards speculation has been gradually thumping for months already—yet the Oscars remain months away. Hey, what else have we got to think about? It’s not like there are worries re: the economy, environment, or international unrest. But seriously, handicapping the prize doings for this year might turn out to be as interesting as 2008s big-name movies themselves.

Hollywood put out precious few kudos-baiting items until the annum’s last inning. Several of those hopefuls— Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Benjamin Button, The Reader, Valkyrie—have gotten more muted-to-mixed reviews than the studios were likely expecting. (I’m actually a fan of the first four, but not everyone is.) The year’s bulk of excellence may lie amidst indie, foreign and documentary features. But don’t expect the Academy to suddenly grow too adventurous in those directions, a few acting nominations and Slumdog Millionaire aside.

topics: awards, bay area, critics, critics year end polls, genre films, hollywood, independent film

Critic's Notebook

The Year in Film: What did women want?

By Matt Sussman

Two thousand eight was the year Hollywood wanted to woo women badly. Two of the year’s biggest blockbusters, Sex and the City: The Movie and Mamma Mia!, were both heavily marketed towards female demographics whom the studio execs hoped would identify with the strong female characters at each film’s center. That both films were also based on highly popular and lucrative pop cultural franchises probably didn’t hurt either. In a strange moment of synchronicity, there was also Diane English’s long-belabored remake of George Cukor’s 1939 classic ensemble comedy, The Women.

So what, if any, spurious conclusions can be drawn from these three faces of Eve? To some extent, all three films are examples of what I call "aspirational cinema."

topics: actors, critics, directors, genre films, hollywood, women filmmakers

Report

The Year in Film, 2008: Ideas, experiences, innovations

By Susan Gerhard

There’s certainly no shortage of ideas about the films and film trends of 2008 from the select crew of Bay Area filmmakers, critics and industry pros SF360.org polled for our Year-in-Film series. One respondent reasonably called for a device that would vaporize anyone who dared text message during a screening. Many asked for the end of shaky camerawork and comic book adaptations. Most had thoughts, fears or hopes about the oncoming era of digital distribution. The questions we asked were: What were the most/least auspicious trends of 2008? What was your favorite San Francisco-made film? Film-related event? Innovation? We also asked what films were most eagerly anticipated for 2009. As it turns out, there’s a lot to look forward to as we ring in the New Year.