Tony Manero screening

<i>"Long before 9/11 became a synonym with the World Trade Center, it was the date of another tragic anniversary. On September 11th, 1973, the democratically-elected socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown by a C.I.A.-backed military coup that lead to the totalitarian dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and subsequently, the death and disappearance of thousands of Chileans... and the exile of many others." [Juan Data, SF RMEZCLA]</i>

<b>On September 11th, The San Francisco Film Society</b> is showing a special screening of <i>Tony Manero</i>, a Chilean film that takes place during Pinochet's dictatorship in Santiago de Chile, 1978, where Chilean citizens are coping with a nightly curfew, constant military patrols and the omnipresent threat of violence. In the midst of it, a middle-aged man named Raúl (Alfredo Castro) is obsessed with the idea of impersonating Tony Manero, John Travolta’s character from Saturday Night Fever. On the outskirts of the city, he leads a small group of devoted dancers who have set their sights on an upcoming “Tony look-alike” television competition. Raúl’s immoderate desire to win, coupled with an obsessive need to recreate the glass dance floor from the movie, leads him to commit a series of crimes and thefts and to act increasingly autocratic and cruel with his fellow hoofers. Shot on 16mm, Tony Manero has a purposefully murky look and a frantic feel. The ultra-Dardenne camera follows Raúl as he darts through Santiago’s empty alleys and vacant lots, only pausing when he raptly watches Saturday Night Fever or attempts to imitate Tony's stomp-and-point rhythmic flailing. Feasting on this bizarre fascist posturing, director Pablo Larraín suggests that, with his sordid charisma, Raúl is a miniature Pinochet—reproducing the brutality of the state in his willingness to steal, exploit, betray and kill in the service of a fantasy.

September 11th show times: 1:45; 4:20; 7:15; 9:25
Running at the Kabuki through September 17th

Visit http://www.sffs.org for more information and ticketing.