SFPL Film Festival

It Came From Beneath the Sea

This summer, the City is the star of our own little SFPL Film Festival.  Over the next three weeks, Thursdays at noon, the following titles will screen at the Main Library’s Koret Auditorium while additional screenings will take place throughout the system as part of Summer Read SF 2014. 

Click Here to view the upcoming system-wide film calendar. 

7/17  It Came From Beneath the Sea (released in 1955)
This mid-century view of San Francisco stars a Giant Octopus, whose feeding habits have been affected by radiation from H-Bomb tests. It rises from the Mindanao Deep to terrorize San Francisco. Breathtaking stop motion special effects by Ray Harryhausen highlight this sci-fi thriller. Be prepared for the monster's attack on the Golden Gate Bridge, the Ferry Building and other landmarks.

The House on Telegraph Hill

7/24  The House on Telegraph Hill  (released in 1951)
Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder after she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America. Upon reaching San Francisco, she discovers that she has a young son, a large fortune, and no living relatives who can identify her. The old Julius Castle restaurant on Telegraph Hill, was used for exterior shots of the house in the film. Parts of the facade were altered to hide the "Julius Castle" sign on the outside wall.

7/31  Dark Passage (released in 1947)
Humphrey Bogart, convicted of murdering his wife, escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence. Since his features are too well known, he is forced to seek some illicit backroom plastic surgery. The entire pre-knife part of the film is shot from a Bogart's-eye-view, with us seeing the fugitive for the first time as he starts to recuperate from the operation in the apartment of a sympathetic young artist, played by Lauren Bacall. The apartment used in the film still exists on Telegraph Hill.

A comprehensive list of the films screened this July as part of the series is here!

Finally, to read more on the role of San Francisco on film start with:  

Alcatraz : the ultimate movie book / Robert Lieber (Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, c2006.)

Celluloid San Francisco : the film lover's guide to Bay Area movie locations / Jim van Buskirk and Will Shank. (Chicago Review Press, c2006.)

Cinema by the Bay / by Sheerly Avni ; introduction by Michael Sragow. (George Lucas Books ; Welcome Books, c2006)  1

Fog City mavericks [videorecording] : the filmmakers of San Francisco (Distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment, c2007.)

Footsteps in the fog : Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco / Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal ; foreword by Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell. (Santa Monica Press, c2002.)

The Golden Gate and the silver screen (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ; Cornwall Books, c1984.)

Radical light : alternative film & video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000 (University of California Press : University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, c2010.)

Reel San Francisco stories : an annotated filmography of the Bay Area / Christopher Pollock. (C. Pollock, c2013) 

San Francisco noir : the city in film noir from 1940 to the present / Nathaniel Rich. (Little Bookroom, c2005.)

The San Francisco of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo : place, pilgrimage, and commemoration / edited by Douglas A. Cunningham (Scarecrow Press, 2012.)

World film locations. San Francisco. (Intellect Books ; Chicago Press 2013.)