Author: Sean Gilman

SIFF 2016 Preview Week Three and Beyond

~ Sean Gilman ~ 2 Comments

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The Seattle International Film Festival races into it’s third week (has it really only been fifteen days? With only a mere ten to go?) and here we have some titles you won’t want to miss. We’ll link to our reviews of the titles listed here as we write them, as we’ve been doing with our Week One and Week Two Previews. We previewed the festival back on Frances Farmer Show #6 and discussed it at its midway point on Frances Farmer #7. We’ll have a complete wrap-up of the SIFF just as soon as it ends.

Continue reading “SIFF 2016 Preview Week Three and Beyond” →

SIFF 2016 Report #2: The Big Road, The Island Funeral, Heaven Can Wait, The Final Master and My Beloved Bodyguard

~ Sean Gilman ~ 2 Comments

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Brief accounts of a handful of films from the SIFF’s second week as it rolls into its third.

The Big Road (Sun Yu, 1935) – Something like an amalgam of Our Daily Bread and Mrs. Miniver for the Anti-Japanese War, by which I mean it’s a propaganda film celebrating first the communal virtues of collectivist rural life (the hard work of uniting the nation through literal road-building) and then the bold heroism of that collective as it stands against Imperialist aggression, in the form of the traitorous land-owning, but not land-working, class (relics of Old China, these rulers wear 19th Century clothes, and live in Qing mansions, the feudal system in opposition to the power of the Modern Industrial Worker). It ambles, plotless for most of its length, but it’s accumulated enough power that by the end, as its hero (eight characters combine to form one hero, a communist Voltron) is smashed to bits by advanced machines of war, it resembles nothing less than “Guernica” in its devastation.

Continue reading “SIFF 2016 Report #2: The Big Road, The Island Funeral, Heaven Can Wait, The Final Master and My Beloved Bodyguard“ →

The Frances Farmer Show #7: SIFF 2016 Midpoint Report

~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

Almost halfway through the marathon that is the Seattle International Film Festival, we take a break to talk about some of the films we’ve seen so far. Movies discussed include: Chimes at Midnight, Sunset Song, Love & Friendship, Long Way North, Our Little Sister, Alone, The Island Funeral, Concerto, A Bride for Rip Van Winkle, Cameraperson, Women He’s Undressed, In a Valley of Violence, The Final Master, Lo and Behold, The Lure, Tiny, The Seasons in Quincy and A Scandal in Paris.

You can listen to the show by downloading it directly, or by subscribing on iTunes or the podcast player of your choice.

Some corrections:

The woman in The Island Funeral takes a trip with her brother, not her sister.
The Seasons in Quincy starts in the winter and ends in the autumn, not summer, because that’s how seasons work.

Friday May 27 – Thursday June 2

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

The Seattle International Film Festival, Week Two

The second week of SIFF brings new films from Sammo Hung and Sylvia Chang, old films from China and Ernst Lubitsch, documentaries from Werner Herzog, Yo-Yo Ma, Kirsten Johnson and the makers of Streetwise, and Sion Sono being Sion Sono. Check out our Week Two Preview, along with our continuing coverage and a Festival Midpoint episode of The Frances Farmer Show coming early next week.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Central Cinema:

Predator (John McTiernan, 1987) Fri-Sun, Tues
Spaceballs (Mel Brooks, 1987) Fri-Sun, Tues
Dune (David Lynch, 1984) Thurs Only

SIFF Egyptian:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Century Federal Way:

Saadey CM Saab (Vipin Parashar) Fri-Thurs

AMC Gateway:

Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Grand Cinema:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review
High-Rise (Ben Wheatley) Fri-Thurs
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
Sing Street (John Carney) Fri-Thurs
Colliding Dreams (Joseph Dorman & Oren Rudavsky) Tues Only
Track 01: Local Music Video Showcase (Various) Weds & Thurs Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley) Sat, Mon-Thurs
The Case of the Three-Sided Dream (Adam Kahan, 2014) Fri-Thurs
Her Sister’s Secret (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1946) Sun Only 35mm

Landmark Guild 45th:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program
Idhu Namma Aalu (Pandiraj) Fri-Thurs
Brahmotsavam (Srikanth Addala) Fri-Thurs

Regal Meridian:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Sing Street (John Carney) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940) Fri Only 35mm
Silver Ochre: Who Are US 2016 Sat Only
Destiny (Fritz Lang, 1921) Starts Weds
Raiders! and The Adaptation – Double Feature Thurs Only Directors in Attendance
Sweet Bean (Naomi Kawase) Starts Thurs

AMC Oak Tree:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
Sing Street (John Carney) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Kaptaan (Mandeep Kumar) Fri-Thurs
This Time (Nuel C. Naval) Fri-Thurs
Sing Street (John Carney) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

AMC Southcenter:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs

Sundance Cinemas:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Sing Street (John Carney) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Varsity Theatre:

Pelé: Birth of a Legend (Jeff & Michael Zimbalist) Fri-Thurs

SIFF 2016 Preview Week Two

~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

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The Seattle International Film Festival rolls along into its second week and here are some titles to look out for. We’ll link to our reviews of the titles listed here as we write them, as we’ve been doing with our Week One Preview. We looked ahead to the festival in general on The Frances Farmer Show, and we’ll have another episode coming up early next week on SIFF at its halfway point.

Continue reading “SIFF 2016 Preview Week Two” →

SIFF 2016 Report #1: Sunset Song, Concerto: A Beethoven Journey, A Scandal in Paris, A Bride for Rip Van Winkle and Love & Friendship

~ Sean Gilman ~ 2 Comments

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Here’s a quick run through some of the movies I’ve seen so far at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival.

Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015) – Out of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic novel, performed in that book’s hybrid Scots-English dialect (with mostly superfluous subtitles for the Americans), Davies fashions a gorgeous inversion of Hollywood women’s melodrama. Sure, his heroine Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn) suffers considerably, but where the Golden Age classics trafficked in schadenfreude at the sufferings of their independent women, Davies finds absolution in Chris’s determined resistance to the patriarchal psychoses that possess first her father (Peter Mullan, a Davies father-monster recalling no less than Pete Posthlewaite in Distant Voices Still Lives) then her husband (Kevin Guthrie). An Old World rebuke to American solipsism: tomorrow is not another day–only the land endures.

Continue reading “SIFF 2016 Report #1: Sunset Song, Concerto: A Beethoven Journey, A Scandal in Paris, A Bride for Rip Van Winkle and Love & Friendship“ →

Friday May 20 – Thursday May 26

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

The Seattle International Film Festival, Week One

The first week of SIFF promises a plethora of interesting cinema, from well-known auteurs like Terence Davies and Whit Stillman, to more obscure finds from Thailand, Japan, China and the wilds of Portland, and established classics from Orson Welles and Douglas Sirk. We previewed the festival on the last episode of The Frances Farmer Show and here we take a closer look at Week One.

Playing This Week:

Central Cinema:

Drop Dead Gorgeous (Michael Patrick Jann, 1999) Fri-Tues
Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) Fri-Tues

SIFF Egyptian:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Century Federal Way:

Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Lassie Come Home (Fred M. Wilcox, 1943) Sat Only Free
How to Let Go of the World: and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change (Josh Fox) Sat Only Director in Attendance
White Lies (Dana Rotberg) Tues Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley) Fri-Thurs
VHS Über Alles presents Hawkeye (Gordon Chung, 1988) Fri Only VHS
The First Legion (Douglas Sirk, 1951) Sun Only 35mm

Landmark Guild 45th:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
It’s So Easy and Other Lies (Christopher Duddy) Thurs Only

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program
24 (Vikram Kumar) Fri-Thurs In Tamil
Brahmotsavam (Srikanth Addala) Fri-Thurs
Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) Sun & Weds Only

Majestic Bay:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Regal Meridian:

The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams) Fri – Thurs Our Podcast 

Northwest Film Forum:

Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Men in War (Anthony Mann, 1957) Fri Only 35mm
Moomins on the Riviera (Xavier Picard & Hanna Hemilä, 2014) Sat & Sun Only In English

AMC Pacific Place:

A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino) Fri-Thurs
The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Kaptaan (Mandeep Kumar) Fri-Thurs
This Time (Nuel C. Naval) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (Claude Sautet, 1996) Thurs Only

SIFF Film Center:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Sundance Cinemas:

Tale of Tales (Mateo Gerrone) Fri-Thurs
The Family Fang (Jason Bateman) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

The 2016 Seattle International Film Festival Fri-Thurs Full Program

Varsity Theatre:

Manhattan Night (Brian DeCubellis) Fri-Thurs
How to Let Go of the World: and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change (Josh Fox) Fri-Thurs Q&A Friday

In Wide Release:

Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater) Our Review Our Other Review

SIFF 2016 Preview Week One

~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

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The latest edition of the Seattle International Film Festival begins Thursday, May 19 and we at Seattle Screen Scene are once again planning on some extensive coverage. We discussed the festival and some of the films we’re looking forward to on the last episode of The Frances Farmer Show, and here are some more titles to look out for over the week ahead. We’ll add links to our reviews here as we write them.

Continue reading “SIFF 2016 Preview Week One” →

The Frances Farmer Show Ep. 6: SIFF Preview, The Long Day Closes and Tokyo Sonata

~ Sean Gilman ~ 4 Comments

With the Seattle International Film Festival fast approaching, we discuss earlier films by two prominent directors whose films will be bookending this year’s SIFF. Terence Davies will be kicking the festival off with his Sunset Song, while Kiyoshi Kurosawa will bring it to a close with Creepy, and so we talk about Davies’s 1992 masterpiece of poetic memory The Long Day Closes and Kurosawa’s 2008 surreal domestic melodrama Tokyo Sonata. We’re joined as well by Melissa to preview this year’s festival, running down some new obscurities, interesting documentaries, much-anticipated archival presentations and more. All that, plus cameo appearances from TS Eliot and Paul Verlaine.

You can listen to the show by downloading it directly, or by subscribing on iTunes or the podcast player of your choice.

Friday May 13 – Thursday May 19

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

SPL 2: A Time for Consequences at the Pacific Place

A sequel in name only to the 2005 Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung hit, Soi Cheang’s SPL 2: A Time for Consequences is being released here in North America as Kill Zone 2 by the WellGo organization, opening Friday at the AMC Pacific Place. The two greatest martial arts performers of their generation, Tony Jaa and Wu Jing, team up with Simon Yam to take on an international organ-trafficking ring led by the always-degenerating Louis Koo. With an outlandishly interconnected plot, Cheang, as in his brilliant 2009 film Accident, pushes Milkyway Image’s metaphysics of coincidence beyond the most daring ploys of Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, and what are quite simply the best hand-to-hand combat scenes of the decade, whatever you call it, SPL2 is without a doubt one of the most vital and necessary martial arts films since Jackie Chan and Jet Li went Hollywood. We talked about it on the last episode of The Frances Farmer Show, along with Edward Yang’s classic A Brighter Summer Day.

Playing This Week:

Central Cinema:

Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001) Fri-Tues Japanese on Tues Only
The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2077) Fri-Tues

SIFF Egyptian:

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley) Fri-Weds

Century Federal Way:

2 Bol (Vinnil Markan) Fri-Thurs
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Sweet Bean (Naomi Kawase) Fri-Thurs
Francofonia (Alexander Sokurov) Tues Only Our Review 
Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) Weds Only Our Ancient, Disjointed Musings

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Mad Tiger (Jonathan Yi & Michael Haertlein) Fri-Thurs
The Crime of Doctor Crespi (John H. Auer, 1935) Sat Only 35mm
Bachelor’s Affairs (Alfred L. Werker, 1932) Sun Only 35mm

Landmark Guild 45th:

Harmony (Michael Arias & Takashi Nakamura) Tues (Subtitled) & Weds (Dubbed) Only
The First Monday in May (Andrew Rossi) Fri-Sun, Tues-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

24 (Vikram Kumar) Fri-Thurs In Tamil or Telugu, check showtimes
Azhar (Tony D’Souza) Fri-Thurs
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986) Sun & Weds Only

Regal Meridian:

Phantom of the Theatre (Raymond Yip) Fri-Thurs
The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams) Fri – Thurs Our Podcast 

Northwest Film Forum:

Spring Night, Summer Night (J.L. Anderson 1967) Fri Only 35mm
I Am Thalente (Natalie Johns) Mon Only
Under the Cherry Moon (Prince, 1986) Thurs Only Live Score

AMC Oak Tree:

Love Addict (Charis Orchard) Fri-Thurs
Finding Mr. Right 2 (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (Soi Cheang) Fri-Thurs Our Podcast
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Finding Mr. Right 2 (Xue Xiaolu) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Just the 3 of Us (Cathy Garcia-Molina) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Others (Claude Sautet, 1974) Thurs Only

SIFF Film Center:

The Huntington’s Disease Project presented by “We Have a Face” (James Valvano) Sun Only

Sundance Cinemas:

Viva (Paddy Breathnach) Fri-Thurs
The Family Fang (Jason Bateman) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

L’Attesa (Piero Messina) Fri-Thurs
Songs For The Firmament (Chris Mathews, Jr.) Sat Only

Varsity Theatre:

How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town (Jeremy Lalonde) Fri-Thurs
SCUFF – The Seattle College and University Film Festival Sun Only
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986) Weds Only

In Wide Release:

Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater) Our Review Our Other Review