San Francisco Film Festival Announces Schedule

Banned films from the Soviet Union and a documentary drama about a Texas murder will be among the 75 programs from 34 nations shown in next month’s 31st annual San Francisco Film Festival, officials announced.

The festival will run from March 16 through March 27 at the Kabuki Theater, Castro Theater and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

The opening night feature will be “White Mischief,” a murder drama set in Nairobi in 1940 starring Charles Dance, Greta Scacchi, John Hurt, Geraldine Chaplin and the late Trevor Howard. Scacchi and director Michael Radford will attend the showing, which will be followed by an opening night party.

The closing night film will be “Bagdad Cafe” by West Germany’s Percy Adlon.

A special event will be the March 26 showing F. W. Murnau’s 1926 silent classic “Faust” with organ accompaniment.

Special tributes will be held during the festival for French director Robert Bresson and San Francisco film maker James Broughton.

Bresson will make his first trip to the United States to receive the festival’s Akira Kurosawa Lifetime Achievement Award March 19. The tribute to Broughton will take place March 26.

Artistic director Peter Scarlet said that among the Soviet works to be shown will be “Commisar,” banned for 20 years and only shown at the last Moscow Film Festival after director Alexander Askoldov made a public plea on its behalf.