Summer fun at BAMPFA
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive has unveiled a sizzler of a summer program that spotlights global filmmaking from today and yesteryear and throws in some indelible classics as well.
The season begins with “The Films of Marta Meszaros” running from Friday through July 20. Now 90, the Budapest-born director-screenwriter has been a creative force ever since her debut feature, 1968's feisty “The Girl.” Appropriately, it is the first of 11films to screen, and rewards audiences with the presence of a distinctive female antihero — played by singer Kati Kati Kovacs stars in Kovacs — a rebel who decides to dig up her family roots. It screens at 7 Budapest-born director p.m. Friday. The series also serves up 1969's “Binding Sentiments,” about Marta Meszaros' first film, a fraught relationship between a widow, her son and his girlfriend (7p.m. 1968's “The Girl,” which Sunday); and 1973's bristling look at the divide between the haves and screens Friday at Berkeley have-nots, “Riddance,” which follows a female textile worker who impersonates Art Museum and Pacific a student once she falls for an upper-crust college student (7p.m. Film archive. June 15).
There is also a treasure trove of gems to watch, including Jean Vigo's 1934romance “L'Atalante” (7p.m. Saturday), considered by some to be a French masterpiece; and Charlie Chaplin's classic “The Gold Rush” from 1925, which will not only play at the Barbro Osher Theater (2p.m. June 25) but also outdoors (Aug. 4).
Details: Most screenings $10-$14; full schedule and more information are at bampfa.org.