24 February - SFO Film Festival screens GLADIO!!

Miami Blues Deranged ex-con Alec Baldwin steals the film neatly away from grizzled policeman Fred Ward, which is exactly what Orion had in mind when it released this Hollywood shelfnik after the success of Baldwin's The Hunt for Red October. Things have obviously taken a turn for the worse in Miami since Don Johnson left town. Glib bad guy Baldwin drops writer-director George Armitage's nifty dialogue and hapless citizens in equal measure in his entertaining-but-creepy one-man crime wave. Jenifer Jason Leigh shines as his dim-bulb girlfriend, with the dependable Charles Napier and Nora Dunn as cops. Whatever the reason for its belated release, it's a welcome return for Armitage, who made Private Duty Nurses and Vigilante Force for Roger Corman in the '70s (99 min., 1980). – K.V. (PFA, 6:30)

Black Angel A down-and-out vaudeville player (Dan Duryea) is enlisted by June Vincent in an effort to clear the woman's husband of the charge of murdering his secretary. With Peter Lorre and Broderick Crawford. Directed by Roy William Neill (80 min., 1946). (PFA, 8:45)

San Francisco Independent Film Festival Two features — Morris County and Ex-Drummer —kick off the 2009 SF Indiefest's four-day series of screenings in the East Bay. (S, 7:15)

Friday, February 20

The Devil Is a Woman Marlene Dietrich's last fling with director Josef von Sternberg (whose black and white photography is among the finest technical work ever done in Hollywood). She's a beauty in a Spanish cigar factory who ruins a pompous Guardia Civil, but the story, as usual, takes a back seat to the chemistry of light, shadow, and Dietrich's face. Curiously enough, this film was banned by the Spanish Republican government (79 min., 1935). — K.V. (PFA, 6:30)

Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky's famous novel gets transposed to contemporary Helsinki, where director and co-writer Aki Kaurismäki sets up the murder as an example of class antagonism between a slaughterhouse worker (named Rahikainen instead of Raskolnikov) and a rich businessman (93 min., 1983). (PFA, 8:30)

San Francisco Independent Film Festival SF Indiefest returns with two more features: Harrison Montgomery and Home Movie. (S, 7:15)

Sat., February 21

The Secret Garden A 1949 British suspense drama about two children who discover a secret paradise. With Margaret O'Brien. Directed by Fred M. Wilcox (92 min.). (PFA, 3:00)

Phantom Lady Director Robert Siodmak maintained his German Expressionist style in his American films, and particularly in this model 1940s film noir. Atmospheric lighting and distorted camera angles impel the story of a man wrongly suspected of murder, and his search for the mysterious lady who was the sole witness to his alibi. Ella Raines is his resourceful girlfriend, Franchot Tone is elegantly sinister as a colleague, and Elisha Cook Jr. brings his special tawdry, touching intensity to the role of a jazz drummer in a low-down dive (88 min., 1944). — N.W. (PFA, 6:30)

Série noire A sweaty, nervous little sketch of a film about the self-destruction of a hapless door-to-door salesman who starts off doomed and ends up even worse when he lets a pretty young woman convince him to rob a house. Actor Patrick Dewaere (who committed suicide soon after this film) turns in a truly remarkable performance as the lethally pathetic Frank Poupart, dancing jerkily along to unknown inner rhythms. The supporting cast comes across just as beat-out and discouraging as the suburban Paris location. A black, bleak comedy of ill manners, directed by Alain Corneau from an adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel A Hell of a Woman (110 min., 1979). — K.V. (PFA, 8:30)

San Francisco Independent Film Festival Day three of four in the East Bay features Automorphasis and The Full Picture. (S, 7:15)

Sun., February 22

Paris selon Moussa Guinean villager Moussa (played by director Cheick Doukouré) heads to Paris to secure a new water pump for his village, but finds himself hardly welcome (96 min., 2003). PFA, 4:30)

The Saga of Anatahan The story of a group of Japanese sailors marooned for years on an obscure island in the Marianas following World War II. Directed by Josef von Sternberg (94 min., 1953). (PFA, 6:30)

San Francisco Independent Film Festival SF Indiefest 2009 concludes in the East Bay with a final pair of feature films: The Men's Story Project and Deadgirl. (S, 7:15)

Monday, February 23

The Decalogue Director Krzysztof Kieslowski made this ten-part series for Polish TV. In each episode, a different one of the Ten Commandments is broken. This screening features parts one and two (55 min., 1987). (Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, Berkeley, 1:15)

Tuesday, February 24

Gladio Allan Francovich's 1998 documentary exposé blows the cover off a secret organization of European operatives — trained by the CIA — responsible for bombings and other terrorist acts, including the kidnapping of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro (143 min.). (PFA, 7:30)

GLADIO MUST READ ARTICLES:

• INDIA GLADIO - state terror has means and motive

• HELP!! Massacre in Progress!! DO SOMETHING!

• u2r2h blog: GLADIO and MEDIA-DOCTRINE

• u2r2h blog: GLADIO - carnage in Bologna by CIA

• u2r2h blog: Turkey Gladio NATO staybehind False Flag Terror

• Gladio mentioned in US press .. well, sort of
  

Wed., February 25

Aparajito The second and least-seen chapter of Satayajit Ray's famous "Apu Trilogy." The pace picks up somewhat from the first, as the young Apu grows away from his parents and their traditional ways, entering school in Calcutta. Ray's relaxed, open style (some would say sluggish and confused) had a tremendous influence on the film world of 1956, but time has made it into something of a cliché (127 min.) — D.D. (PFA, 3:00)

To See if I'm Smiling Israel's Tamar Yarom directed this film about the experience of young Israeli women in the military (59 min., 2007). Preceded by a short: Deadly Playground (23 min., 2007). (PFA, 6:30)

Secrecy A documentary from directors Peter Galison and Robb Moss on the distribution of knowledge and political intelligence (85 min., 2007). (PFA, 8:30)

Arusi Persian Wedding Political hostilities surface and cultures clash when Iranian Alex and American Heather plan a Persian Islamic wedding in Iran. (Oakland Museum of California, 6:30)

The Land Speaks Arabic A 2007 documentary by Palestinian filmmaker on the late 19th century birth of Zionism. Followed by 33 Days, which takes a look at the daily face of war in Lebanon. (Humanist Hall, Oakland)