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'The Doll' with Ossi Oswalda and Hermann Thimig: Early Ernst Lubitsch satirical fantasy starring 'the German Mary Pickford' has similar premise to that of the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy 'Seven Chances.' 'The Doll': San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented fast-paced Ernst Lubitsch comedy starring the German Mary Pickford – Ossi Oswalda Directed by Ernst Lubitsch (So This Is Paris, The Wedding March), the 2017 San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation The Doll / Die Puppe (1919) has one of the most amusing mise-en-scènes ever recorded. The set is created by cut-out figures that gradually come to life; then even more cleverly, they commence the fast-paced action. It all begins when a shy, confirmed bachelor, Lancelot (Hermann Thimig), is ordered by his rich uncle (Max Kronert), the Baron von Chanterelle, to marry for a large sum of money. As to be expected, mayhem ensues. Lancelot is forced to flee from the hordes of eligible maidens, eventually...

Director: Sergei Eisenstein Writers: Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ilya Kravchunovsky, Valeryan Pletnyov Starring: Maksim Shtraukh, Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Gomorov, I. Ivanov, Ivan Klyukvin, Aleksandr Antonov, Yudif Glizer, Boris Yurtsev In 1924, the Proletcult Theater decided to commission a series of eight films; entitled Toward the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the films were to trace the rise of the Communist Party from the late 19th century to 1917. The director of the Proletcult Theater, Valeryan Pletnyov, invited Sergei Eisenstein to collaborate with him on what was intended to be the fifth film in the series: Strike. The only of the eight films that ever achieved fruition, Eisenstein claimed that Strike was the most significant story of the series because it contained "the most mass action." Clocking in at 82 minutes, Strike was released as Eisenstein's first full-length feature film in 1925 (he made the immortally famous The Battleship Potemkin later in the same year). The...

Thor (12A)

(Kenneth Branagh, 2011, Us) Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba. 114 mins

Let the silly season commence with this expensive comic-book movie, which takes full advantage of its second-tier superhero, free casting rein and Asgard-sized budget to deliver some premium disposable spectacle. Hemsworth's beefy, impetuous thunder god is literally brought down to earth, where thanks to mortal hotties like Portman, he learns there's more to life than swinging a hammer around, but not much more.

Cedar Rapids (15)

(Miguel Arteta, 2011, Us) Ed Helms, John C Reilly, Anne Heche. 87 mins

The corruption of Helms's naive smalltown nerd via a debauched midwest insurance convention is as broadly amusing as you'd expect, striking a filthy-sweet tone somewhere between the Us Office and The Hangover.

Tracker (12A)

(Ian Sharp, 2010, Nz) Ray Winstone, Temuera Morrison, Andy Anderson. 102 mins

Credit to Ray for straying off home turf, as a Boer veteran...