Ponti's 'Human Voice' Opens SF's New Italian Cinema Series

(San Francisco Film Society courtesy photo.)

It's always a highlight of my cinematic year catching up with the latest films from Italy, thanks to the programmers at the San Francisco Film Society.

This year's edition of New Italian Cinema opens with two shorts by Edoardo Ponti. The first is a new interpretation of "The Human Voice", a play by Jean Cocteau previously filmed by Roberto Rossellini featuring Anna Magnani. Ponti's version stars his mother beautiful mother, the legendary Sophia Loren, pictured.

The second Ponti featurette is the "The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars" and Natassja Kinski. Ponti will be present tonight for a Q and A with the audience. Only rush tickets are available for this program tonight, so get to the Vogue Theatre early if you hope to get a ticket this show. Let's hope both shorts play again soon in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Film Society reports the following filmmakers are expected to appear at the mini-festival: Rossella De Venuto, director of  "Controra - House of Shadows", Paolo Genovese, director "Blame Freud", and co-writer of "Remember Me", Alessandro Lunardelli, director of  "Up to the World", and Antonio Morabito, director of "The Medicine Seller".

A total of twelve films round out the rest of the series and it continues to November 23. Click here for program notes on each of them, along with information about showtimes and to purchase tickets.

French Film Series Kicks Off Tonight at Vogue Theatre

The days are shorter, the election is over and trees are starting to lose their leaves. What time is it? Time for the latest edition of the San Francisco Film Society's annual series, French Cinema Now. 

There are many excellent films on tap starting with tonight's opener with Isabelle Huppert appearing in "Paris Follies", and continuing with the latest work from Olivier Assayas starring Juliet Binoche in "Clouds of Sils Maria", and the Dardennes brothers' new Belgian modern neo-realism film "Two Days, One Night" with Marion Cotillard.

"Two Days, One Night" is Belgium's submission for the Oscar for best foreign language film and even though I haven't seen it, I'm hoping it receives a nomination.

All films will be shown at the historic single-screen Vogue Theatre, located at 3290 Sacramento Street. I'm very glad to see the San Francisco Film Society partnering with the management of this theatre not just for the French series but also for the surveys of recent movies from Hong Kong and Italy scheduled for later this month.

Click here for the full list of films, screening times and dates, and ticket information.