This upcoming movie-packed weekend at Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (2575 Bancroft Way) should be enough to drive cinephiles wild.
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Beginning at 7pm tonight, Friday/21, PFA continues its series of great epics by the German new wave pioneer Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Last weekend, PFA had a great turnout for its screening of “World on a Wire,” the 1973 made-for-TV miniseries that recently saw an international revival thanks to a new print. Tonight is the second installment of “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” Fassbinder’s 1979 magnum opus (such a cliche term, but it’s really the only way to describe this massive work). Last Sunday, PFA showed parts one through three of the nearly sixteen-hour-long cinema poem. Tonight, hours four through seven will screen, featuring an intermission. Even if you missed last Sunday’s screening, it’s still not to late to immerse yourself in “Berlin,” based on Alfred Doblin’s novel.
Fassbinder, who died at 37 and completed over 40 films in just over two decades, is your go-to guy for bold and beautiful melodrama, poetic ruminations on the human condition, garish visual style and a bellyful of cinematic references. “Berlin Alexanderplatz” will continue with all fourteen episodes screening over the next week. Check out the PFA website for dates and times.
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Oh, and, another thing. Tomorrow night (Saturday/22), PFA hosts a double bill of Altman and Bogdanovich. First is Robert Altman’s little seen “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” (1982). I haven’t seen this film, but any Altman buff like myself wouldn’t miss it. It features the signature Altman ensemble style, with a cast including Sandy Dennis, Kathy Bates and Cher. Dennis won an Oscar in 1966 for her performance as Honey in Mike Nichols’ “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Remember, she’s the lush who passes out early? Should be a great film.
Secondly, as part of PFA’s New Hollywood Cinema in the 70s series, the decidedly anti-Production Code 1971 masterwork “The Last Picture Show” will screen. This features stellar performances from young and then-budding stars like Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ellen Burstyn and Timothy Bottoms, as well as a totally crazy Cloris Leachman, who won an Oscar for this performance. A coming-of-age tale set in 50s Texas, “Picture Show” is your answer to young and now-fashionable existential malaise, featuring plenty of bored (but never boring) and depressed (only in the best way) people in the quest for meaning. This is an unsung dark horse of 70s cinema that, alongside “Hud” (163), ushered in a whole new vision of the west in American cinema. Don’t miss this achingly gorgeous movie.
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