6/19/2015
San Francisco Film Society’s festival awards night is a hit ­ San Francisco Chronicle
Trying
2:44 PM to get
back in step 'I
Provocative
after
feeling
Am Michael'
disconnected
opens
Frameline fest
on
challenging...
2:43 PM
A radiant
outdoor
extravaganza
for Ojai North
Noah Cowan (left), Francis Ford Coppola and Richard Gere.
The Little Man hangs around elsewhere in this section, but not this page, so instead of
picturing him jumping, I’ll just give the Film Society Awards Night party a plain old four
stars. Bravo for holding the event at the Armory, because:
(1) The building is HQ for Kink.com,
and speculating on what was going on
in rooms unseen was the subject of
unusually lively small talk.
Furthermore, the location gave Film
Society director Noah Cowan the
chance to proclaim it an auctionless
event by saying, “We’re not going to
raise any paddles ... we’ll leave that to
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6/19/2015
San Francisco Film Society’s festival awards night is a hit ­ San Francisco Chronicle
our friends at the Armory”; (2)
Howard Roffman, longtime Lucasfilm executive, said that the site had been the set for
shooting the explosion of the Death Star, a major moment in movie history; (3) There
were 500 people present, but the room remained navigable, and guests could cross the
room from cocktails to dinner/program and then back to drinks and after­party revelry
without security check or corridor crush; (4) The open space had no apparent VIP lounge,
a happy state­of­party that leaves every guest feeling equally VIP­ish, and allowed all to
glimpse the star power.
That said, the people who attend such events are movie lovers, and although it’s a
sophisticated crowd — the sort of people who don’t subscribe to People magazine but are
happy to find a current copy in the dentist’s waiting room — everyone likes to ogle the
movie folks. Gov. Jerry Brown, on hand to introduce his pal, Maurice Kanbar, who
received the George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award (for his support of filmmakers and
filmmaking), was probably highest in official pecking order. But with no disrespect to the
majesty of government, I daresay there were more necks craned to get a glance of Isabella
Rossellini than of the gov. Rossellini didn’t have a role in the program but was at the
festival with “Green Porno Live.” (Also at the gala: Marisa Tomei.)
In the middle of the dinner, a herd of standing well­wishers crowded around the power
table, where Francis Ford Coppola sat with Nancy and Paul Pelosi and Richard Gere.
No one seemed to mind the breach of propriety. The excitement, said my dinner neighbor,
Bill Andereck, was like that of “young boys in a baseball card store.”
Pick hit fragments from the speeches:
Brown praised Kanbar for having “patented a knife that cuts cheese very well.” Kanbar
said he is “very short but I like women that are taller than me.”
Director Guillermo del Toro, winner of the Irving M. Levin Directing Award, talked
about the roots of his affinity for horror films. One night when he was a child, still wetting
the bed, he got up needing to pee. He asked the monsters who had been scaring him for
permission to go to the bathroom, saying, “If you allow me to go, I will be your friend
forever.” And that’s how he came to make monster movies.
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6/19/2015
San Francisco Film Society’s festival awards night is a hit ­ San Francisco Chronicle
Richard Gere, winner of the Peter J. Owens Award for acting, called it “pretty wonderful
and emotional, that I’m allowed still to do this.” He particularly praised Nancy Pelosi for
supporting his efforts for a free Tibet. Director Chris Columbus showed his movie tribute
to Robin Williams (whose son Zak was there), talked of his affection for Williams, and
said, “When he left, the world stopped.”
Simplest speech of all was from Paul Schrader, recipient of the 2015 Kanbar Award for
storytelling: “You know, sometimes it works out.”
•Mark Ritchie says that an “oligeek” is a member of the new oligarchy of Pacific
Heights.
•At Crunch on Polk Street, Ruthe Stein noticed a sign in the women’s locker room
advising clients “Don’t forget to put on clothes before exiting.”
•PUC sign for the public good, spotted by Ken Maley at Crissy Field: “Brown is the new
green.”
Blind item: Who’s getting married in the Bay Area this weekend, in a wedding expecting
such high­profile guests that air space is being cleared for their arrival? With guests being
so pampered that they’re each being given vouchers for daily spending money? With
neighbors who might complain about loud music being offered chits for two­night stays in
other hotels? And finally, Miss Manners, is a bride obligated to spend the first few years
of her marriage writing thank­you notes to 500 guests?
Open for business in San Francisco
at (415) 777­8426. E­mail: [email protected] Twitter: @leahgarchik
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING
“I make
2½ times what my mom
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4/5