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Gary Meyer
Co-Director
Telluride Film Festival
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Next Balboa Birthday Bash – Feb. 28
More Coming Soon!
Gary Meyer's Blog
February 11, 2010
Sad News About a Great Lady
When I was a teenager in the early sixties I came to the San Francisco Film Festival and there I met Irving “Bud” and Irma Levin, who founded the festival. My first real job was booking theaters for United Artists Theatre Circuit who were partners with the Levins in the Coronet, Alexandria, Vogue, Metro, Stonestown and Coliseum theaters. I booked those theaters and was asked to also book the Balboa that the Levins operated themselves.
In 2001 Irma called me to say she was closing the Balboa because the competition from the new downtown theaters was too much. “But, “ she said, “if you are interested, the family would lease to you.” Foolishly perhaps I agreed to step in. Irma kept tabs on what we did. She came to the movies often, always offering a critique of the film and raves for the staff after.
I spent time with her hearing wonderful stories about the film business; (she designed hats for Paramount Pictures in the 1930s), her brother Walter, who worked at the Balboa, produced A HARD DAY’S NIGHT and HELP! Starring the Beatles, running theaters, starting the film festival and all the details of San Francisco’s society highlights and scandals.
She kept going strong until a fall was difficult to fully recover from a year ago. On the phone I could tell her spirits, while higher than most 94-year-olds, were dampened because she couldn’t get out. But Irma lived a full life and the legacy she and Bud created is being carried on by her kids, Fred, Larry and Nancy.
For an insightful interview done for the San Francisco Film Festival’s history site go to history.sffs.org/our_history/ and scroll down to Irma Levin.
The upcoming Balboa Birthday Bash will be dedicated to Irma Levin.
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BRRRLIN
I have arrived in Berlin for the 60th Anniversary of the Film Festival. Festival director Dieter Kosslick (a regular visitor to the bay area) has gone all out to make it a memorable eleven days. There will be hundreds of new films to see (I’ll probably see about 50-60) plus retrospectives. A centerpiece will be the premiere of a newly restored version of Fritz Lang’s science fiction masterpiece METROPOLIS. With 30 minutes of new footage unseen since 1927, the film will be accompanied by a live performance of the original score by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
While the fancy folks sit inside a warm auditorium, anyone willing to brave the very cold weather (and projected blizzard) can see it simultaneously streamed and projected on a huge screen at the Brandenberg Gate. The screen has been created by Christina Kim, an LA based artist who reuses materials to create new art installations. She has created a special way of framing the screen and based on other shows of hers, I can’t wait.
The Film Museum has a large exhibit on METROPOLIS.
The Berlinale also has special art installations by filmmakers all over the city and it is great fun to take a tour led by local actors and filmmakers. Called Forum Expanded, the actress who led my group last year was also a cook and we had a different course at each gallery.
San Francisco author David Thomson has programmed a selection of films from the past 60 years festivals called “Play it Again” and they are most intriguing. Here David writes about programming the series.
There is much more you can read about it Here
And as if that weren’t enough, the European Film Market also presents hundreds more screenings.
