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A Fillmore film premieres at the Clay
Posted on August 4, 2018 by editors
Kabuki, mon amour
Posted on September 4, 2017 by editors
The theater in its heyday as the Sundance Kabuki, when it was Robert Redford’s place.
FILM | DAVID THOMSON
People call it “the Kabuki” still, as if clutching at something and hoping it will stay there. It is, or has been, our neighborhood movie theater, with a front onto Post Street, a parking garage, an alleged restaurant — and a certain dejected character.
I’m being as generous as possible because I want it to remain. But I have my doubts now, and I understand if people still think of it as Sundance, Robert Redford’s place, Carmike, AMC or the longtime home of the film festival.
Over the years, there were rumors: Were the Coen Brothers really thinking of taking it over? No, those guys were too shrewd for that. Our Kabuki feels like a place people are waiting to unload.
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Val Kilmer is Mark Twain at the Clay
Posted on December 20, 2016 by editors
FILM | ANDREA CHASE
The last generation or two thinks of Hal Holbrook when it comes to one-man shows about Mark Twain. Not to take anything away from Holbrook’s dry wit and perfect timing when performing Twain’s words, but Val Kilmer with Citizen Twain makes a compelling argument to join him as another master interpreter of those words. He will be presenting the piece one night only in San Francisco, December 22, at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore Street.
In Kilmer’s telling, the voice is deeper than Holbrook’s, the performance more physical, but the delivery is just as spot on. Kilmer is also more sardonic, yet finds an almost self-deprecating way with Twain’s take on humanity, making it clear that he doesn’t spare himself when passing judgment. He brings a contemporary vibe to Twain’s reminiscence about a particularly sadistic schoolteacher he enjoyed taunting, despite the teacher’s liberal use of corporal punishment, his still prescient take on politics and his unabashed love of adulation.
Distilling a lifetime of Twain’s splendid writings into a 90-minute piece cannot be easy, but Kilmer — who wrote and directed the play now filmed from a live performance for cinematic presentation — has made choices that are equally splendid, leaving viewers tickled and wanting more.
“Citizen Twain” is a thoroughly engaging reminder of why Twain is still a pleasure to revisit for both his biting satire and his uncanny insight about what makes people tick.
Instead of a general release, Kilmer is presenting his film one city at a time, hosting the screenings he calls Cinema Twain, and making himself available for a Q&A with the audience. More information about the December 22 screening at the Clay here.
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When the stars came out at the Clay
Posted on January 30, 2016 by editors
IN THE SPRING of 1985, the Clay Theatre on Fillmore hosted the premiere of the spaghetti western parody Lust in the Dust. It starred Tab Hunter, Divine and Cesar Romero, who were at the Clay for the screening.
After years of tales about the event, photographic evidence has now surfaced, courtesy of Tab Hunter’s partner, producer Allan Glaser.
Hunter and Glaser came to the Clay last year for a Q&A session about the new film, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star. When he walked through the door of the theater, Hunter said: “I was here 30 years ago — what a great place.” During the interview, Hunter spoke about the years he lived in San Francisco’s Richmond District, including a stint working at the Bull Pup enchilada stand at Playland.
Glaser remembered they had photos from the premiere of Lust in the Dust at the Clay, and recently shared the images with the theater staff. They show the crowds lining Fillmore Street as the actors arrived in a black limo. Film lovers were excited to see Tab Hunter and Divine share the screen again; they had starred together four years earlier in John Waters’ film Polyester.
After introducing the film, the actors took seats in the back row and watched the movie with the audience. Beforehand, they planted their handprints and footprints in cement outside the theater in the style of the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
“We have no clue where the prints ended up,” says Michael Blythe, who works at the Clay. “We would love to find them.”
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New plan to revamp the Clay
Posted on January 1, 2016 by editors
A NEW PLAN is in the works to remodel the historic Clay Theatre on Fillmore Street by expanding the concession area in the lobby and offering additional food and beverage options, including beer and wine.
The plan abandons earlier efforts to carve the Clay into three smaller screening rooms and build townhouses above the theater and an adjacent building, with a garage excavated underneath.
“We’ve been trying to figure out a way to get the theater revitalized and bring some life back to the boulevard,” said architect Charles Kahn, who is collaborating with the owner of the building, Blagobind Jaiswal. Jaiswal also owns the building next door housing the Alice + Olivia boutique and the Cielo clothing boutique a few doors south.
“This is all about saving the theater,” Kahn said. “It’s a much more modest project than where we started.”
A public hearing on the plans will be held on Monday, January 4, at 7 p.m. in Calvin Hall of the Calvary Presbyterian Church at 2515 Fillmore.
Kahn said the new plan calls for relocating the restrooms now in the lobby to the back of the theater behind the screen. That would free up space for an expanded food and beverage operation. Seating would also be upgraded and accessibility improved.
Kahn said no changes are planned to the facade of the theater.
UPDATE: The public hearing on January 4 left local supporters of the Clay Theatre optimistic about the future of the 110-year-old movie house. The owner of the building, Blagobind Jaiswall, and his architect, Charles Kahn, said they were “absolutely committed” to renovating and continuing the theater.
Film fans at the meeting questioned plans to move the restrooms inside the theater behind the screen, but no one objected to other renovations, including an expanded concession area serving beer and wine.
“We’re trying to figure out ways to increase the hours the building is open,” Kahn said after the hearing. “I collected some very valuable information.”
Staffers from the Clay attended the meeting and offered a number of suggestions. Afterward, the head of Landmark Theatres, which operates the Clay, said he was encouraged by his talks with the owner and architect.
“So far, so good,” said Landmark CEO Ted Mundorff. “I think it’s the beginning of a plan. If we can get a better theater out of this, then it’s a great plan.”
The question remains how to pay for it.
“That’s gonna be the rub,” said Mundorff. “There’s not this big cash cow that walks in the door when you sell beer and wine.”
Kahn said he will bring detailed plans for remodeling the Clay and expanding its offerings before the city Planning Commission in the coming months.
Landmark announced in August 2010 it would close the Clay, but a last-minute deal kept the theater in operation.
EARLIER: “How the Clay dodged a bullet“
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Sundance sells Kabuki cinemas
Posted on December 3, 2015 by editors
Sundance revamped the Kabuki complex when it took over in 2007.
ACTOR-DIRECTOR-PRODUCER Robert Redford and his investors have sold their five Sundance movie houses — including the eight-screen Kabuki cinemas at Fillmore and Post.
The new owner, Carmike Cinemas, based in Columbus, Ga., is the fourth-largest theater chain in the U.S., now with 274 theaters in 41 states and ambitions to expand further. A Carmike official said no immediate changes are planned in the operation of the Kabuki cinemas.
Robert Redford at the Kabuki in 2012.
Sundance revamped the Kabuki complex when it took over in 2007, upgrading the decor, seating and sound and adding expanded food and beverage options.
“We have no intention of eliminating the popular beer, wine, cocktail and food programs offered at Sundance Kabuki,” said Brian Dobson, director of restaurant operations for Carmike. “The current arrangement works.”
Dobson said his company will continue Sundance’s reserved seating program, which allows tickets to be purchased online in advance, and will continue to show no ads before screenings. Sundance’s “custom content” messages projected before films begin will remain, said Dobson.
Ticket prices won’t change, Dobson said, but there may be more “alternative programming” — ballet, theater, opera and small indie films of the type that first put Redford’s Sundance Film Festival on the cinematic map.
Carmike bought all five Sundance theaters — the others are in West Hollywood, Seattle, Houston and Madison, Wisconsin — for $36 million in cash. Carmike will continue to operate the five theaters under the Sundance name, but may not expand the Sundance brand, according to statements both firms issued announcing the deal.
Neither local Sundance spokesperson Nancy Gribler nor Kabuki general manager Michael Spring responded to repeated requests for information about any effects of the sale on the Kabuki’s operations. Spring was said to be on a long conference call with his new bosses in Georgia.
UPDATE: Kabuki theaters sold again
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The bail bondsman is an artist
Posted on July 24, 2015 by editors
ART & FILM | PAMELA FEINSILBER
Toward the end of Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish, we see Barrish, San Francisco’s most famous bail bondsman, at his 50th high school reunion. He is shocked to find most of his Lincoln High classmates retired — “playing golf or something” — while he is still in mid-career.
Even Angels Get the Blues | Jerry Ross Barrish
That’s a phrase you hear more often in an art museum, when an artist is given a “mid-career retrospective” of his work. And, in fact, Barrish is an artist himself. Now in his 70s, he has shut down his bail bond office across from the Hall of Justice. But he is only a little past mid-career in creating his detritus-based sculpture — what the Fresno Art Museum called “Art Drecko” in its exhibition of his found-art assemblages in 2008-2009.
Barrish creates figures of people and animals from castoff plastic and other junk he scavenges, and all of a sudden it seems he’s the man of the moment.
Two dozen of his plastic sculptures are on view in a new exhibition, Sculptures from the Plastic Man, at Studio Gallery on Pacific. And William Farley’s 75-minute Plastic Man documentary is part of this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, with screenings in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Berkeley.
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A noir thriller set locally
Posted on April 2, 2015 by editors
HOLLYWOOD COMES to the neighborhood April 10 when a new film, Man From Reno, has its San Francisco premiere at the Sundance Kabuki Theater.
Actually, Hollywood is coming back to the neighborhood, since much of the film was shot nearby at the Majestic Hotel and on the streets of Japantown.
It’s the story of a famous Japanese crime novelist drawn into a murder mystery of her own while hiding out from the paparazzi. It stars Ayako Fujitani, Steven Segal’s daughter, and Pepe Serna, a veteran actor with more than 100 film credits, including Scarface. Dave Boyle directs.
“Man From Reno fascinates,” wrote a New York Times reviewer, and “nods to noirs from Chinatown to Vertigo.”
In addition to its setting, the film has other local connections. Neighborhood resident Ben Lyon is a co-producer and veteran actor Karl Heinz-Tauber, also a longtime Pacific Heights resident most known for his role in Amadeus, has a scene-stealing role.
“This will be one of the most fun things to happen in the neighborhood in a long time,” said Lyon: “an award-winning independent film made in our own back yard.”
Man From Reno will screen daily from April 10 through April 16.
NICHI BEI WEEKLY: “Identity and authenticity”
EARLIER: “The Majestic: living up to its name“
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‘The city’s most charming theater’
Posted on January 1, 2015 by editors
Michael Blythe at his frequent post behind the Clay Theater concession stand.
Q & A | MICHAEL BLYTHE
Michael Blythe has worked at the venerable Clay Theater at 2261 Fillmore Street for nearly a decade. In that time he’s had the opportunity to lavish his love of old theaters on the Clay, which is now more than 100 years old.
On New Year’s Eve he helped launch a new venture as the Oasis nightclub on 11th Street began a new life. But he’s not entirely leaving the Clay behind.
What first attracted you to the Clay Theater?
I come from a lighting background. When I was a kid I was obsessed with lights, and still am. I was a nightclub lighting director in San Francisco before I moved to Minnesota, where I honed my craft running large moving rigs for a couple of clubs downtown, including shows I did at the legendary First Avenue nightclub.
When I returned to SF I got the job at the Clay that allowed me to have the freedom to work shows, but also get into one of my other longstanding obsessions: old theaters.
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Woody Allen’s latest opens at the Clay
Posted on August 2, 2013 by editors
Director Woody Allen (center) with stars Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin.
Woody Allen’s new film, Blue Jasmine, opens today at the Clay Theater on Fillmore Street. It’s set mostly in San Francisco, and some scenes were filmed locally in Pacific Heights. Blue Jasmine “seems to me the best film Woody Allen has ever made,” says film critic David Thomson, a neighborhood resident, writing in The New Republic.
EARLIER: Woody Allen filming in Pacific Heights
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