This is the heart of the serious filmgoing season, when a thoughtful (and glory-seeking) studio film opens every Friday. Buffeted by heart-pounding survival sagas (Gravity, All is Lost, Captain Phillips, 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club), we live in the adrenalized moment. (A pleasant side effect is we can pretend that the usual overblown, family-stalking Christmas releases aren’t a mere seven weeks away.) November is the gluttonous month for movies as well as meals, so make room for an appetizing array of films from American indie directors, European auteurs, South Asian storytellers and genre enthusiasts of all stripes and nationalities. It’s a smorgasbord of festivals.
The ongoing embarrassment over the nickname of the NFL team in the nation’s capital is not necessarily good news for the 38th annual American Indian Film Festival (through November 9 at Delancey Street Theatre, wrapping Nov. 10 at the San Francisco Jazz Center with the American Indian Motion Picture Awards Show). If you mistakenly view the fest as a spotlight for social issues rather than a cultural event, the latest controversy over “Redskins” adds fuel to that fire. Although movies often have morals, a compelling story is the first priority — and this year’s AIFF brims with them. The Lesser Blessed (November 7), a moving coming-of-age saga of a Canadian teenager of First Nations ancestry, boasts a solid supporting turn by Benjamin Bratt. For more information visit festival.aifisf.com.
The Great Beauty
As a counterbalance of sorts to its S.F. International Film Festival in the spring, the S.F. Film Society rolls out a slew of series every fall that capture and reflect the state of cinema in several foreign locales. French Cinema Now (November 7-10 at the Clay) offers eye candy galore with Mads Mikkelsen (Michael Kohlhaas), actress-writer-director Valeria Bruno Tedeschi (A Castle in Italy), Chiara Mastroianni (Claire Denis’ disturbing Bastards) and the latest by the marvelous documentary maker Nicolas Philibert (House of Radio). The Great Beauty, the latest work by that gifted original, Paolo Sorrentino, graces New Italian Cinema (November 13-17 at the Clay), along with his 2001 feature debut, One Man Up. For more information visit sffs.org. Across the bay, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley brings an oft-overlooked national cinema to our attention with Arrested History: New Portuguese Cinema (November 13-17). For more information visit bampfa.berkeley.edu.
Shuddh Desi Romance