Fright Night

Fear of a Milky Planet: Mattias Muller's Alpsee.

Related Content

• David Lynch's St. Vincent, Another Philz Coffee, and Goodbye Cala Foods
  November 21, 2011
• What's It All About?
  May 25, 2011
• Max's on the Square Slated to Shut, Basque's Bask, and Souvlaki
  January 19, 2012
• That Little Something, er, Extra
  February 16, 2011
• Two Heads Are Better
  March 9, 2011

More About

• Janie Geiser
• Rudolph Giuliani
• Waco
• Stan Brakhage
• Visual Arts

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

What with Y2K, runaway rents, Waco, Rudy Giuliani as art critic, and a thousand other scary forces, fear and trembling -- once the exclusive province of existentialists and the paranoid -- have become a standard part of Everyman's MO. The thoughtful folks at the S.F. Cinematheque have arranged two programs around this ever-popular theme, "Facing Fear I & II," and the entries run the gamut from Hitchcock and David Lynch to Stan Brakhage and Beth B. Alfred. Hitchcock's undeservedly obscure Breakdown (1956) is the weightiest entry. In one of Hitch's most harrowing works, car wreck victim Joseph Cotton is slowly stripped of his clothes and defenses, events gruesomely recorded in the actor's unhinged voice-over. On a sweeter note is Mattias Muller's widely acclaimed Alpsee (1994), which colorfully revisits '50s repressions as viewed by a little boy. Most charming image: Mother pouring milk from a bottomless pitcher, which results in a milk-flooded world, thanks to some amusing miniatures. In Clepsydra (1992), optical printing whiz Phil Solomon uses degraded found footage to construct a mysterious melodrama involving a little girl and a huge, ominous clock. Of course, paranoia isn't just for people, as Janie Geiser's Immer Zu (1997) proves. Geiser atmospherically renders a noir universe of entrapped paper dolls, jerkily moving through a dark papier-mâché world toward an unknown destiny. The second program -- described as "an interdisciplinary performance plus 'Crimes of Courage and Fear'" -- promises to be even stranger. Watch that exit door! "Facing Fear I & II" start at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17 and 24, respectively, at the San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut (at Jones), S.F. Admission is $4-7; call 558-8129.