‘Chess of the Wind,’ lost film found in Tehran junk shop, to air at Pacific Film Archive Sunday
Unavailable for over 40 years before its rediscovery in 2015, the gothic drama details bourgeois decay and features a brief lesbian scene.
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.
Articles by John Seal
Page 1
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s final film, suffused with trick photography, has a humanist soul
Labyrinth of Cinema, opening at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater on Friday, is a fitting finale to an underappreciated auteur’s career.
Kenny G’s curly locks, acid-tongued critics get double billing in new documentary
“Listening to Kenny G” is the opening feature Wednesday night at SF Indiefest’s new music-themed festival Decibels.
Film follows The Velvet Underground’s long journey to hipness
Todd Haynes’ documentary is, surprisingly, the first feature length cinematic examination of the band. It’s screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival at noon on Sunday.
Film grants rare look at Boris Karloff, ‘the man behind the monster’
The documentary is a fabulous tribute to Boris Karloff, the man who played Frankenstein’s creature.
Chattering teeth and a hapless bear at SF Short Film Festival
The San Francisco Short Film Festival will be held from Sept. 17-26, with selected films also screening in person this weekend at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater.
Icelandic grandma chats it up with invisible elves in ‘The Seer and the Unseen’
The film makes clear the parallels between the invisible elves and the invisible hand of the marketplace that sent the Icelandic economy into a disastrous tailspin during the 2008 financial crisis.
Documentary follows bizarre journey of ‘lost’ Leonardo da Vinci painting
The painting of dubious origin attracted the attention of a wily Swiss businessman, a Russian oligarch, the CIA, and the FBI before ending up in the possession of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Documentary takes close look at 2 of California’s worst wildfires
‘Bring Your Own Brigade’ burns hot for its first 15 minutes before settling into a simmering broadside. Also reviewed: ‘Nine Days’ and ‘No Ordinary Man.’
Film gives unflinching look at rocker Lydia Lunch’s artistic path
Plus: ‘Mandibles,’ Quentin Dupieux’s latest contribution to the cinema of the absurd.
‘I Carry You with Me,’ a gay immigrant love story with a narrative curveball
‘Te Llevo Conmigo’ (I Carry You with Me) is a flashback-strewn drama currently screening at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas.
Masterpiece of Indian cinema ends in tragedy for selfless heroine
Ritwik Ghatak’s 1962 film ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ is streaming via the Pacific Film Archive. Also reviewed: ‘A Crime on the Bayou,’ documenting the 1966 trial of Gary Duncan.
At the Frameline Festival: One of those horrible everyone-has-to-go family getaways
‘Sweetheart’ is a very satisfying comedy-drama. Also at the festival: ‘North By Current,’ a doc about a religious family’s struggles to come to terms with sex, sexuality and death.
A margarine heir, lesbians in revolt and an alien on stage at San Francisco Docfest
The film festival starts today at the Roxie Theater. It runs through June 17 in person and through June 20 online.
‘Losing Ground,’ a forgotten gem full of temptation, artistic muses and summer distractions
Director Kathleen Collins, an African American poet, civil rights activist and professor, only made one feature-length film, ‘Losing Ground,’ before her untimely death at the age of 46 in 1988.
Film festival all about aging features ‘Code of the Freaks’ and a Bay Area nonagenarian
Salome Chasnoff’s ‘Code of the Freaks’ details how Tinsel Town generally forces disabled characters into one of three categories.
