Critic's Notebook

Kubrick and Altman's fear, desire, delinquency--all on film

Legal-rights issues, lost or deteriorated negatives, and sheer disinterest can be reasons for movies becoming unavailable, despite all proliferation of DVD, Internet, and pirated-copy exposure inside and outside the realm of strict legality. (The studios might sue your butt off for downloading Wolverine, but odds are they won’t notice, or care, if somehow you got hold of a tenth-generation dupe of a forgotten B-grade feature from 1955 with no perceived remaining commercial value.) But it’s unusual these days for a film numerous people really do want to see to remain isolated from view.

Ergo the Film on Film Foundation’s program at the Roxie this Sunday is many a film buff’s dream come true, as it presents 35mm prints of extremely rare first features by two late, great American directors: No less than Stanley Kubrick and Robert Altman. Both were micro-budgeted 1950s independent productions, and for differing reasons both have been exceedingly hard to find in any but the poor-quality bootleg form for decades.

topics: actors, directors, film, roxie

Platform

Stephen Parr's Oddball Films

Stephen Parr licenses film and video footage, and currently presents some of the best film screenings in town with his Oddball Films series. He has also invented a wide variety of after-hours venues, owned a small press and run burlesque shows. I shouldn’t be surprised that entering Parr’s office at Oddball Films is not quite, well—normal. Upon arriving at his Capp Street office, and having been instructed NOT to ring the bell, I call a cell phone number and someone happens to be leaving the building. I am told to walk in and go to the top of the stairs. As the outside door closes, I find myself in pitch darkness. Stairs? After feeling the walls, I fumble my way up to a carpet-covered door. One step in and I am surrounded with 6,000 sq feet of floor-to-ceiling films cans and the ’30s era 17 Reasons sign. Parr’s work is currently being appreciated in the Bay Area Now 5 series at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in a screening of Euphoria this coming Thursday.

topics: archives, directors, exhibitions, film