Print_header

Film
If...

When

Thursday May 22 (6:30pm)

Saturday May 24 (1pm)

Where
SFMOMA (151 3rd St, 415.357.4000)
Price
FREE w/ museum admission
Details
http://www.sfmoma.org/calendar/calendar_event.asp?eventid=1198&etype=11&func=repeat
If_large

If… channels the anarchic current of 1968 with its bold switches between color and black-and-white, pillorying of authority, and violent climax. Director Lindsay Anderson marries kitchen-sink drama with flamboyant revolution posturing; while the latter hasn't aged particularly well, the film's shrill partisanship is undeniably forceful. At the center of the storm is Malcolm McDowell, glowering and dangerous in his premiere film role as Mick Travis. Fans of 1971's A Clockwork Orange may be surprised to see how much this boarding-school drama presages McDowell's iconic performance in Stanley Kubrick's "ultra-violent" symphony.

Max Goldberg