Freaks was released in 1932, and it's as disturbing as any film you'll see today. A feature about love and deception set within a carnival sideshow, it stars real freaks -- people of varying deformities who whose integrity and sense of honor is matched only by their loyalty and determination to protect their own. The Ramones were so moved by the film they borrowed the lines "Gabba gabba! We accept you! We accept you! One of us!" for the song "Pinhead." It screens Saturday at the Roxie as part of a series called "Hollywood Before the Code: Nasty-Ass Films for a Nasty-Ass World."
Shot in black and white for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the story was created by Tod Browning, who had produced and directed Dracula the year before for Universal. It's a cavalcade of wrongness that might have kickstarted any subsequent film that exploited deformity for horror kicks, but it's also a film in which the contemporary viewer may enjoy such logic-defying feats as a half-man, half-caterpillar rolling and lighting his own marijuana cigarette. It was released with appropriately hysterical taglines: "The Strangest ... The Most Startling Human Story Ever Screened ... Are You Afraid to Believe What Your Eyes See? The Love Story of a Siren, a Giant, and a Dwarf!"
We read about BarBot 2012 online a few weeks ago and immediately sent the organizers a "radical clarity" question: "So, at this event, robots are serving drinks?" And the reply was clear: "Yes. Robots are serving drinks."
That bears repeating: "Robots are serving drinks."
Tonight. (Friday.) At PariSoma.
That's more than enough to make us show up, but there's more to tell.
The neighborhood movie theater has a lot in common with the neighborhood bookstore. Both are being edged out of business by technology. Those that stay in business need a unique draw -- something people can't get on a smartphone or e-reader. San Francisco has seen its share of neighborhood theaters go dark over the years (the Alexandria, the York, the Mission, and the Crown), but the city retains a few that providing locals with programming and events such as the Oscar Parties we mentioned last week.
One such theater is the Balboa, which turns 86 this year and throws itself a birthday party Sunday. The theme is the Jazz Age, inspired by the film that won Best Picture and also current feature at the theater, The Artist.
We sat down shortly after the Balboa's Oscar party with co-owner Adam Bergeron to discuss the future of the theater and the industry. He and his wife Jaimi Holker recently took over the theater from Gary Meyer, who stepped down after 10 years to focus on his ongoing work with the Telluride Film Festival. When we arrived, Adam was out front chatting with a painter who was working to replace those old, weather-worn tiles on the front façade with a fresh coat of paint.
Do you have to understand a show in order to like it?
SF Weekly theater critics Benjamin Wachs and I emerged from Tontlawald, at the Cutting Ball, with this question in mind. We agreed that the production, an experimental rendering of an Estonian fairytale, is both beautiful and enigmatic (okay, maybe one of us would say "baffling"). But we disagreed as to how much it succeeds. Listen to us duke it out--and get a taste of the production's stunning a cappella music--in this podcast produced by Benjamin Wachs.
