Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

5 May 2004

This Week in SF

Most of the people who visit this site don't live in San Francisco, but as long as I'm updating my personal calendar each week with potential screenings, I might as well dump a few of the highlights here.

Coming up in the next week, a little something for everyone:

Millennium Mambo — This is the first of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films to get a U.S. release, and although the distribution has been very limited since it played in New York last December, the movie will be in my neck of the woods for a week starting this Friday, playing at Landmark's Opera Plaza. We're now several years into the new millennium, and the movie did play here once in 2002 at the film festival, but that's not enough. Even though it's one of Hou's minor works, I argue that it's been unfairly dismissed, and anyway this is a rare opportunity to see one of Hou's movie's projected.

The Triplets of Belleville — In case you missed this fun and clever animated feature from France, the Red Vic is giving you a few more chances, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Godzilla — Playing uncut for the first time in the U.S., the original Godzilla is making the rounds. It gets a two-week engagement at the Castro, starting Friday. Here's the dramatic trailer.

My Architect — The Red Vic will be showing Nathaniel Kahn's personal journey to understand his father, architect Louis Kahn, on Sunday and Monday.

Distant — Nuri Bilge Ceylan's acclaimed movie continues through Saturday at The Roxie. I haven't seen it, yet, but it comes highly recommended, and I'm hoping to catch it before it's gone.

Chronicle of a Summer — The PFA remembers Jean Rouch with a single screening on Thursday of his man-on-the-street film from 1960, plus a short. Rouch's movies are very difficult to see anywhere, so this is a rare treat.

Four by Ozu — The PFA is also showing four of Yasujiro Ozu's lesser known movies on Friday and Sunday, all of them about mothers. These were part of the Ozu retrospective that played in several cities last year, and we're lucky to get a second peek. I've seen a couple of them; A Hen in the Wind is particularly devastating.

Films From Along the Silk Road — The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is running a series in May, starting this Friday, that highlights movies from Central Asia that have been lost in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Holy cow, even without setting foot in a multiplex, it's impossible to see everything, but it's hard to go wrong with any of the above. I'll be spending most of my weekend riding roller coasters, literally, so I'm not sure what I'll be able to squeeze in. We'll see.

And don't forget that Sunday is Mother's Day.

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

May 6, 2004, 06:45 AM

acquarello

If you're taking suggestions on the Films From Along the Silk Road program, I'd say the best of the bunch is Darezhan Omirbaev's Ka?rat and Ardak Amirkulov's The Fall of Otrar. The odd part is, the program was named from a Marat Sarulu film called My Brother Silk Road (at least when it played at Lincoln Center) - they kept the program name, but not the film. :)

May 6, 2004, 10:22 AM

davis

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I'm not familiar with anything in the series, so that helps. My brother recently adopted a baby from Kazakhstan so I've been on the lookout for movies from there, not having seen a single one. That's how this series showed up on my radar in the first place. It's funny that I'd identified the same two movies, but for entirely different reasons. :-)

May 6, 2004, 04:57 PM

acquarello

Oh, that kid must be adorable! I really like the Eurasian aspects of their culture; it seems so harmonious. :)

This has nothing to do with the films but it's a great story about Kazakhstan anyway so I thought I'd share it. ;) Before the screening of Revenge, the filmmaker Ermek Shinarbaev got up to praise profusely the author of the novel on which the film based, a popular contemporary Russian author named Anatoli Kim. He then went on to talk about how, under Joseph Stalin, all Koreans living in Russia were sent on a forced march to central Asia during the height of winter in a kind of indirect attempt at genocide. So, when they got to Kazakhstan, they were surprised to find that these Soviet people welcomed them wholeheartedly into their community. Anyway, there is now a thriving Korean population in Kazakhstan, and Anatoli Kim is a product of that community.

The film itself was also quite illuminating because it showed a pre-Soviet aspect of central Asia where the the intermingling between the East and West was more organic, it seemed like such a great cultural melting pot before the formation of the Soviet Union.

BTW, you may also be interested in Kent Jones' online article for the Central Asian program at Film Comment.

May 7, 2004, 04:42 PM

davis

That's a great story, acquarello. I relayed it to my brother who said that another group of people that Stalin sent to Kaz were feared intellectuals, so small communities of authors, poets, and other artists rose up in Kazakhstan in towns like Almaty, which became a kind of "second Moscow" for some people, so it has an opera house, ballet, and lots of universities.

Interesting place.

Other Recent Posts

Other Recent Episodes

Favorite Films