“What a dump!” SF Intnl. Film Fest: Now & Then
The 51st edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival opens April 24th (with Catherine Breillat‘s The Last Mistress, starring 21st century diva Asia Argento) and continues through May 8th.
One of the top festivals in the world, the SF International has hosted some of the greatest cinematic luminaries of all time — many of whom can be heard at length in podcasts on the history section of the SFIFF website. Highlights include Truman Capote receiving his tribute award in 1974 and answering audience questions about everything from breaking Humphrey Bogart‘s arm to the real-life Holly Golightly. Or listen to the amazing Bette Davis (who jokingly begins her November, 1969 tribute with her legendary line: “What a dump!”). She reminisces at wildly entertaining length about her career (with the audience full of many obviously gay fans). She talks about her feelings about the trend of nudity in film (“I would NEVER have stripped in front of a camera.”), Barbra Streisand getting $1 million as an actor, how lucky she was that Claudette Colbert’s back injury resulted in her getting the Margo Channing role in All About Eve, how she regretted not getting the lead in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and she even gives generous props to drag artiste Arthur Blake for being the original Bette Davis impersonator (“For many years noone imitated me and it frightened me to death.”)
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