Jacques Becker’s final film depicts a tension-filled Parisian jailbreak.
John Seal
Freelancer John Seal is Berkeleyside’s film critic. A movie connoisseur with a penchant for natty hats who lives in Oakland, John writes a weekly film recommendation column at Box Office Prophets, as well as a column in The Phantom of the Movie’s Videoscope, an old-fashioned paper magazine, published quarterly. He also writes regular film reviews for IMDB, which can be read here.
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New film ‘Living’ casts light on the fine art of dying
Bill Nighy delivers a masterclass in understatement in the movie based on Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Ikiru.’
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Our movie critic’s favorite films of 2022
OK, some of them aren’t technically films, but the rise of streaming and the loss of commercial theaters has scrambled notions of what counts as a movie.
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‘Hole in the Head’ festival celebrates films obscure, outré and out there
Whether you live on a farm or with a murderous doll — or both! — the SF Indiefest festival has something for everyone.
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7 films by Pasolini playing this month at Pacific Film Archive
‘The Hawks and the Sparrows’ — screening at 7 p.m. Saturday — reveals a sense of humor not always evident in the masterful Italian director’s work.
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Well-timed ‘Call Jane’ tells of pre-Roe feminist abortion service
The film opens Friday in Berkeley. Following an assured and sensitive screenplay, Elizabeth Banks stars as a well-heeled woman who finds herself in an awkward and unexpected situation.
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Documentary about idealistic gene-editing scientist is edge-of-your-seat Frankenstein stuff
‘Make People Better,’ screening at the Roxie Saturday as part of the Green Film Festival, is as much a mystery as it is a documentary.
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Buster Keaton’s silent masterpiece to air Thursday at Elmwood theater
You can watch ‘The General’ and another silent classic on the big screen at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood for National Silent Movie Day.
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Salute to Jean-Luc Godard is highlight of South Asian Film Festival
Indian director Amartya Bhattacharyya’s film ‘Adieu Godard’ is more than just a tribute. It stands on its own as a beautifully crafted piece of narrative cinema.
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Who’s been plundering pharaonic tombs? Long-lost Egyptian film is full of surprises
Director Shadi Abdel Salam’s 1968 film ‘Al Momia’ (The Mummy) is screening Saturday at the Pacific Film Archive.
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Discomforting film adds sound, dialogue to footage of Germany’s 1941 invasion of Soviet Union
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s ‘Babi Yar. Context,’ showing at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, is the one documentary you must see in 2022.
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Pacific Film Archive spotlights films of Márta Mészáros, one of Hungary’s finest directors
A film about a wealthy couple who hire a Jewish surrogate mother in pre-World War II Hungary is airing Wednesday, the latest in the Pacific Film Archive’s series on Márta Mészáros.