In the documentary Marlene, Dietrich herself phoned in some last interviews to director/actor Maximilian Schell, while refusing to be seen on camera because "I've been photographed enough." Mark Mori's labor of love documentary Bettie Page Reveals All also doesn't show us the iconic model as she was in her last years, but we hear Page narrate her life story. In hundreds of pictures Page looks at us levelly under her straight, lustrous black bangs. "I'm an illusion," Page says over the phone, age having hoarsened what must have been a honeyed Southern drawl. » Read More

It's narratively fractured, and only in moments does the familiar WWII metaphor emerge. That happens when raffish boatman Bard (Luke Evans, proving that a mullet can be workable) tries to warn the medieval-Baltic city of Laketown of the flying wrath to come. (He gets no help from the city's poncy, gouty Master, played by Stephen Fry.) Yet The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a huge improvement over An Unexpected Journey—it's a well-filled smorgasboard without much starch. » Read More

The weather outside may be somewhat frightful-at least by Bay Area standards-but the December edition of South First Fridays offers some holiday cheer, and even some chances to get some holiday shopping done. Galleries, shops and restaurants host art shows, receptions and art activities throughout the SoFA district and other downtown neighborhoods. Here's a small sampling of shows and activities going on around downtown » Read More

As the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) goes on the road during its own phase of inner-reconstruction, its collections are appearing at various partner institutions throughout the Bay Area. One such collaboration has emerged at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center, where students helped curate "flesh and metal." » Read More

As you read this, a transition is occurring on multiple levels. On the macro level, the San Jose State University Art Department is celebrating its centennial. That is, through various institutional moniker changes at the university level, college level, department level and concentration level, a 100-year continuous milestone of instruction has now been reached. » Read More

Freakin' hipsters. I've only just met him, but already Hamilton is so over me. When I walk in, he's sitting near his "study"-an armchair, desk, globe and house plant. I reach out to pet him, but he arches back and hisses before darting behind the fake ficus tree. Only after I ignore him for a beat and retreat to the couch does he spring up to his mini navy-and-white polka dot armchair and drape a paw over the armrest. He glances at me, the intruder, with his patented more-dapper-than-thou gaze. Fine. » Read More