52nd San Francisco International Film Festival to Present Two Restored Masterpieces, John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence and Michelangelo Antonioni's Le Amice

Partnership with The Film Foundation and Gucci Brings New Prints of Classics to the Castro Theatre, Gena Rowlands Expected to Attend

February 23, 2009

San Francisco, CA – The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23–May 7, 2009), under the auspices of an exciting partnership with The Film Foundation and Gucci, will present new prints of two masterpieces of world cinema Sunday, April 26 at the Castro Theatre. One of the first screenings of the UCLA Film & Television Archive restoration of John Cassavetes’ astonishing marital drama, A Woman Under the Influence (USA 1974, SFIFF 1984) will play at 5:45 pm. Gena Rowlands, who was nominated for an Oscar for her searing performance as a working-class wife suffering from a nervous breakdown, is expected to attend this screening. The North American premiere of the Cineteca di Bologna restoration of Le Amiche (Italy 1955, SFIFF 1995), Michelangelo Antonioni’s vivid portrayal of feminine anxiety, will play at 3:00 pm.

Mabel Longhetti (Gena Rowlands) and her husband, Nick (Peter Falk) love each other, but are very different people. Nick is a loud and outgoing construction crew chief who doesn’t think twice about bringing the whole gang home unexpectedly for a spaghetti dinner. Mabel is a shy, insecure woman who tries hard to please her husband. In fact, her identity as an individual seems to have disappeared behind the roles she plays as wife and mother. But when others are around, her little eccentricities and nervous ticks become more pronounced. She talks too much and laughs too much and makes people very uncomfortable. Eventually, friends and family begin to question her mental health. Nick’s mother pressures him to have her committed to an institution, and he reluctantly agrees. When she returns six months later, she has clearly changed. The strange mannerisms are gone, but so is the woman Nick knew and loved. Cassavetes’ penetrating look at a woman beset by mental illness echoes feminist accusations that many women were trapped in lives of claustrophobic domesticity. Long takes and close-ups heighten the emotional impact of Mabel’s increasingly bizarre behavior and its effect on her marriage and family. A key movie of the early 1970s, A Woman Under the Influence stands today as one of the foremost examples of Cassavetes’ unsparing realism. The seeds of today’s family dramas, and indeed, of the contemporary independent film movement, can be found here and in Cassavetes’ other works. Written by Cassavetes. With Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Katherine Cassavetes, Lady Rowlands, Fred Draper. The UCLA Film & Television Archive carried out a painstaking restoration process to create this not-to-be-missed new print.

The international breakthrough of Michelangelo Antonioni in the 1960s, which made him the world’s most notorious cult filmmaker, also largely overshadowed his earlier films, including this gem, which has rarely been shown in this country. Yet in this tale of desperate upper-class Italian housewives are to be found all of the great artist’s concerns embodied in his later, better known works. In Le Amiche, Antonioni explores the inner lives of female characters with a story that centers around Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago) who comes from a working class background but now holds an important position in a fashion salon. While on a business trip to Turin, in the hotel room next door, a young woman has attempted suicide. Clelia befriends her, thus becoming introduced to the circle of her socialite girlfriends, including the cynical Momina (Yvonne Furneaux) and the more sympathetic Nene (Valentina Cortese), with their serial affairs and charming but distanced take on life. Nowhere else in Antonioni’s films has an ensemble of characters woven a more complex web of relationships. Antonioni’s genius for visual storytelling is in evidence here too, especially in the famous scene at the seashore that involves all the characters, their complex relationships echoed in the camera movements, composition and positioning of the actors, the techniques that have set Antonioni apart as a peerless cinematic craftsman. Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Alba de Cespedes. Starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Valentina Cortese, Yvonne Furneaux, Madeleine Fischer, Anna Maria Pancani. The Cineteca di Bologna has made a new, digitally restored print from the original black-and-white 35mm camera negatives, creating the best possible circumstances for rediscovering this underappreciated classic.

A Woman Under the Influence and Le Amiche will be presented as part of the Cinema Visionaries program, a traveling screening series created to celebrate motion pictures that have been preserved or restored with funding from The Film Foundation and Gucci.

Tickets for each of these premiere screenings at the Castro are $10.00 San Francisco Film Society members/$12.50 general/$11.00 seniors, students and persons with disabilities. For tickets and information go to www.sffs.org or call 925-866-9559.

The San Francisco Film Society
San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts and education organization dedicated to celebrating the world of film and media in four core areas: Internationalism and Cross-Cultural Exchange; Educating and Inspiring Bay Area Youth; Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture; and Exploring New Media.

SFFS shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas and presents the San Francisco International Animation Festival, New Italian Cinema and French Cinema Now annually in the fall. In all, the Film Society presents more than 300 days of programming each year, reaching a total audience of more than 100,000 people. Its acclaimed youth education program introduces international cinema and media literacy to more than 7,000 teachers and students annually.

The Film Society publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, with broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film culture and provides crucial support to the Bay Area filmmaking community through SFFS filmmaker services including grants & residencies, fiscal sponsorship, production assistance and development, networking and conference events, and professional-level filmmaker classes and workshops.

The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival
The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 23–May 7, 2009 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre and Landmark’s Clay Theatre in San Francisco; and the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring 25 juried awards, 200 films and live events with upwards of 100 participating filmmakers and diverse audiences of 75,000+ people.

For tickets and information, visit www.sffs.org.

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