Special Effects Maestro Phil Tippett at the PFA
Phil Tippett, founder of Berkeley’s renowned Tippett Studios, is a contemporary master of effects animation who has worked on The Empire Strikes Back, Jurassic Park (for which he won an Academy Award), andStarship Troopers, among many other movies. He joins us to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of his craft and to introduce two films that embody the past and present of special-effects wizardry.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2011
7:00 Phil Tippett: Illustrated Talk, followed by Starship Troopers
(Paul Verhoeven, U.S., 1997).
Join special-effects legend Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park; Robocop; Empire Strikes Back) in a wide-ranging discussion on the movies, special effects, and his influences, followed by Verhoeven’s intergalactic bug-attack epic Starship Troopers. (129 mins, plus lecture)
7:00 The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
Nathan Juran (U.S., 1958). Introduced by Phil Tippett.
For this fantastical tale from a 1,001 Nights, Ray Harryhausen perfected the integration of three-dimensional animated figures and live actors, and inspired generations of filmmakers and special-effects artists to come. (88 mins)
The Pacific Film Archive Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Bowditch) in Berkeley. Advance tickets are available by calling (510) 642-5249 or visiting http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/tickets
UCLA Festival of Preservation at PFA
They write: “One of our great pleasures is sharing what our colleagues at other film archives are doing to preserve cinema’s heritage, allowing us to experience cinema as it was meant to be seen—and heard. The biennial Festival of Preservation from the UCLA Film and Television Archive showcases their masterful restoration and preservation achievements with a broad sampling of the works they have rescued over the past few years. A Cecil B. DeMille epic, vintage episodes of This Is Your Life, a Paul Strand-photographed docudrama, early Douglas Sirk in blazing black-and-white, silent star Leatrice Joy in a cross-dressing role, Zero Mostel in Waiting for Godot, and the premiere of a resurrected gem, Barbara Loden’s Wanda, are among the pristine prizes from the Festival of Preservation. Preserved, now projected!”
For more information: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/uclapreservation
PFA screening series The Outsiders: New Hollywood Cinema in the Seventies
September 2 – October 27
Our series presents a cross-section of this new wave, focusing on filmmakers who made their first film in this period, often with their own production company. A majority of the filmmakers represented are little known: they made just one, two, or a few films before opportunities closed down for boundary-pushing filmmaking. The series ranges from films by two of the few female filmmakers of the New Hollywood era, Barbara Loden and Elaine May, to the radical reflections of Robert Kramer and Haile Gerima and the biting visions of Hal Ashby and Larry Cohen. It also includes early films by well-known directors Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, and Terrence Malick. They changed the way movies were made.
New PFA Pagnol Season
BAM/PFA and Alice Waters present
The Timeless Cinema of Marcel Pagnol
August 12 – 31, 2011
Cigalon, August 27
BAM/PFA joins in celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Chez Panisse with this series devoted to the poignant 1930s dramas of French filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Filmed on location in the director’s native Marseilles or the surrounding countryside, with local actors (their regional accents intact), and highlighting timeless social rituals (including the production and consumption of earthy meals featuring local ingredients), Pagnol’s warm and comic depictions of life among the gens de Provence bring the region alive.
For full series information: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/timelesspagnol
PFA Animation screenings
BAM/PFA presents
Bay Area Animation
August 24 and August 28
Fetch, August 28
Please note, these two animation programs contain adult content. Not recommended for children.
Animation specialist, professor, and author Karl Cohen presents two programs featuring over forty years of Bay Area animation, with many artists in person. Cohen has selected a wide range of inventive short works, including the abstract, the political, the whimsical, the psychedelic, and, of course, the humorous.
For more information: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/bayareaanimation
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24
7:00 p.m. Twentieth-Century Animations
Introduced by Karl Cohen. Filmmakers in Person.
Guest curated by animation specialist Karl Cohen, this program showcases a wide range of inventive work made in the Bay Area between 1968 and 1996. Includes Thank You Mask Man by Jeff Hale and John Magnuson, Sally Cruikshank’s Quasi at the Quackadero, John Lasseter’s Luxo Jr., and Marcy Page’s Paradisia.
(70 mins)
SUNDAY AUGUST 28
7:00 p.m. Twenty-First Century Animations
Introduced by Karl Cohen. Filmmakers in Person.
Guest curated by animation specialist Karl Cohen, this program features Bay Area animation since 2000. Includes works by Nina Paley, Tom Gibbons, John Jota Leaños, Michael Langan, David Chai, and others. (72 mins)
The Pacific Film Archive Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Bowditch) in Berkeley. Advance tickets are available by calling
(510) 642-5249 or visiting http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/tickets
PFA Outdoor Screening: “It Conquered the World”!
This looks like cheesy fun:
Bring a blanket and picnic on the BAM/PFA sculpture garden lawn—but be prepared to be scared out of your wits by a gigantic winter squash with a gaping fanged mouth, two horns, and arms like lobster claws: the star of Roger Corman’s It Conquered the World. Preceded by surprise shorts!
For more information: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/outdoorscreening11
THURSDAY AUGUST 25
8:30 p.m. It Conquered the World
Roger Corman (U.S., 1956)
It couldn’t happen here but it will! And what is this unspeakable terror from beyond? The eponymous It of It Conquered the World is like a gigantic winter squash with a gaping fanged mouth, two horns, arms like lobster claws, and a serrated torso. The “Cucumber Critter,” as it’s fondly called, lands on earth and then proceeds to extrude flying stingrays from its body that can control the minds of humans. No cuddly E.T., this Venusian vegetable is bent on world domination. And when It succeeds what do you get?—emotionless earthlings who want everyone to be like them, bad hair, fifties fashion, and all. The original astroturfers. Lee Van Cleef plays the disillusioned scientist who aids the alien invader and becomes “the greatest traitor of all time,” according to his pro-human pal, Peter Graves, who discovers he has a Stepford wife. Midfifties convertibles, mindless bureaucrats, flying saucers: It’s everything you’ve wanted from a movie and more.
Plus surprise shorts!
New PFA Film Noir Program
As I’m sure most of you already know, The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley runs imaginative screening programs all year round. Next month they will be featuring the 
work of Bertolucci and Skolimowski amongst others, but what caught my eye was a short series, Going South: American Noir in Mexico. There will be a few obvious choices like the great Touch of Evil and Out of the Past, but also a rare opportunity to see lesser known films such as Ride the Pink Horse directed by and starring Robert Montgomery from a Ben Hecht script and Anthony Mann’s The Great Flamarion with Erich von Stroheim.
Do yourselves a favor and take a look:
