At the press conference this morning, in advance of the 46th annual San
Francisco International Film Festival, guest programmer Michel Ciment,
director of "Positif" magazine, participated from Paris through a video
link.

On Ciment's desk: small French and US flags, side by side, tacitly
reminding the audience of the long-term, indestructible links between
the artists and people of the two countries, even - or especially - at
a time of global madness.

The festival, running April 17 through May 1, is honoring Robert Altman,
Dustin Hoffman, and Pat O'Neill. Featured categories include contemporary
French cinema, "world cinema" and "extreme cinema," with music playing
a significant role.

- As reported here last month, the festival will screen Penny Woocock's
2003 film version of John Adams' opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer," in
the Castro on April 20, at the Pacific Film Archive on April 21. Woolcock
is interspersing the performance with scenes of actual locations across
the Middle East. Adams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in a
performance for the soundtrack; the cast includes Christopher Maltman,
Dean Robinson, Tom Randle, Vivian Tierney and Kamel Boutros.

- Opera director Patrice Chereau is represented by his eighth feature
film, the 2003 "Son frere," winner of the best director prize at this
year's Berlin Film Festival. (Kabuki, April 20, 23.)

- A.R. Rahman, of "Bombay Dreams," is the composer for Mani Ratnam's
2002 "A Peck on the Cheek," described as "Rodgers and Hammerstein
serenading the Tamil Tigers, or Shirley Temple with a pipe bomb."
(Kabuki, April 29.)

- Even more bizarre, the Michel Reilhac "Polissons et galipettes" (with
the pitiful English title of "The Good Old Naughty Days"), a collection
of French pornographic shorts from the 1920s, includes an X-rated parody
of "Madama Butterfly." The "Miss Butterfly" segment, says the program,
depicts lonely Cio Cio San "finding relief with Suzuki," and Pinkerton
in dalliance with one of the male servants. (Castro, April 21.)

- Among 21 films from Asia at the festival, the great Chinese director
Chen Kaige, is represented by the 2002 "Together," about the struggles
of a teenage violinist to have a career in contemporary Beijing. The
music is by Zhao Ling. (Kabuki, April 26, 28.)

- Music is the focus of Bahman Ghobadi's 2002 "Marooned in Iraq," about
the adventures of three Kurdish musicians during the Iran-Iraq war.
(Kabuki, April 20; PFA, April 25.)

- "We Are the Music" is one of five films from Cuba, featuring performances
in the early days of the Castro regime. It is screened with a short,
"Strings Over My City," about the all-female Baroque-music ensemble
Camerata Romeu. (Kabuki, April 28; PFA, April 30.)

The festival's opening-night feature is Alan Rudolph's 2002 "The Secret
Lives of Dentists," the closing event is Mark Decena's 2003 "Dopamine."
The festival Website is at http://www.sffs.org/

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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