Out There :: It's Malcolm McDowell's World

We're just living in it. Actor Malcolm McDowell is perhaps best-known for his work in director Stanley Kubrick's classic film "A Clockwork Orange." Who can forget the poster of him looking both sinister and oddly jolly in his rampaging get-up? But the range of McDowell's career over more than four decades is truly astonishing, encompassing many different genres, from time travel ("Time After Time") to the future ("Star Trek: Generations"). His long list of films includes "O Lucky Man," "If," "Aces High," "The Passage" and "Get Crazy."

In a Mostly British Film Festival special event next month, movie-lovers will have a chance to hear McDowell, a noted raconteur, discuss his varied career, including working with iconic directors Kubrick and Lindsay Anderson , and talk about his memories of shooting Time After Time almost entirely in San Francisco. The event will take place on Fri., Feb. 20, at the Century Club of California, 1355 Franklin St. in SF, an elegant house designed in classical-revival style that was personally remodeled by the great architect Julia Morgan. A reception in the grand dining room begins the evening at 6 p.m., followed by a talk with McDowell in the upstairs screening room and a showing of "Time After Time." Two more films will screen on Sat. & Sun., Feb. 21 & 22, at 11 a.m. The same ticket gets you into all events. Here are a few capsule descriptions of these three films.

Time After Time (2/20, 8 p.m., Century Club) McDowell plays H.G. Wells as he pursues Jack the Ripper throughout Victorian England, and then, courtesy of a time machine, through San Francisco circa 1979. The film was shot all over town, including in Cow Hollow, at the California Academy of Sciences, in Ghirardelli Square, Huntington Park and Marina Green. (USA, 1979)

If (2/21, 11 a.m., Vogue Theatre) McDowell plays a student at a private British boarding school who, with his buddies, may or may not be plotting a revolution. Controversial when it came out, the film still packs a wallop, especially the surrealistic effects put to good use by director Anderson. (UK, 1968)

Aces High (2/22, 11 a.m., Vogue Theatre) In this strongly anti-war movie set during WWI, McDowell plays a disillusioned squadron leader resisting indoctrination. The amazing cast includes Christopher Plummer, Ray Milland and Trevor Howard. (UK, 1976)

Ticket info on these films and the rest of the Mostly British Film Festival (Feb. 12-22) is available at mostlybritish.org.

Symphony Party

McDowell was also part of the program in San Francisco Symphony subscription concerts this past weekend, playing the Devil in composer Igor Stravinsky 's The Soldier's Tale, with multi-talented pop star Elvis Costello narrating and maestro Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the home orchestra. Find our coverage of the concert elsewhere in these pages.
(Left to right:) Yuja Wang, Michael Tilson Thomas, Marc-Andr� Hamelin, Emanuel Ax, and Jeremy Denk, five of the six pianists performing Hexameron at Davies Symphony Hall. Photo: Moanalani Jeffrey Photography

Davies Symphony Hall was also home to MTT's glamorous 70th Birthday Gala last Thursday night, and Out There was in the house to celebrate. It was a most unusual concert, with a plethora of world-class pianists performing individually and then, after intermission, in a coup de theatre, on six grand pianos all at once, with the orchestra accompanying, in composer Franz Liszt's Hexameron, Grand Bravura Variations on the March from Bellini's I puritani, for Six Pianos. Of course, Liszt was all about the showmanship, and these six stellar musicians - Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jeremy Denk , Yuja Wang, Marc-Andr� Hamelin, Emanuel Ax, and MTT himself - are the very definition of virtuosos. We never thought we'd see them performing on the same stage at the same time, and we probably never will again.

The whole evening was full of just such spectacular arrangements. Just prior to intermission, six rock stars - Drew Zingg , Phil Lesh, Boz Scaggs, Elvis Costello, Lars Ulrich and Karl Sevaride - performed a special rendition of the Beatles ' "Birthday" ("You say it's your birthday") for MTT. And after the Hexameron, MTT donned a party jacket with his initials emblazoned in rhinestones on the back, then re-positioned himself in a director's chair to contemplate and enjoy the SFS playing the spots off the Overture to his mentor, the late great gay composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein's Candide. By any measure, this was one extraordinary evening in the symphony hall. We wore a blue oxford shirt in honor of the maestro's favorite color. The hall was festooned with festive blue balloons. Attendees included CA Gov. Jerry Brown , Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi , SF mayor Ed Lee , State Sen. Mark Leno , and many other luminaries. Thanks to the SFS press relations department - Louisa Spier, Oliver Theil, Nate Bourg, Amelia Kusar and Lisa Petrie - for letting Out There be a part of it all.

Pronoun Watch

Award-winning, San Francisco-based queer writer/illustrator and educator Maya Christina Gonzalez has just released a new bilingual picture book for children titled Call Me Tree that contains no gender-specific pronouns, so the main character's gender is never indicated. Gonzalez wanted to create a gender-neutral book that would be as inclusive as possible. Avoiding gender pronouns "leaves it open to be used for multiple gender expression beyond the binary," Gonzalez said. "It provides an inclusive perspective of the world." Just right for children growing up in the 21st century.

It's always a challenge for progressive children's books to receive attention in the mainstream media, yet the Call Me Tree book was recently included in the prestigious Kirkus Reviews list "Best Children's Books of 2014."

End Note

Continuing word on the 13th Noir City film festival at the Castro Theatre, "Til Death Do Us Part" (through Jan. 25), is that it's the queerest year ever for the festival. In its final weekend, films feature bisexual or gay actors including actors Rock Hudson and Dirk Bogarde, writer Cornell Woolrich , and directors Mitchell Leisen and Luchino Visconti . We are and always have been everywhere. Look for our Noir City coverage elsewhere in these pages.