Last Saturday night I got to go see Sean Penn give a Question-and-Answer as part of the "Noir City Film Festival" which ended last weekend in San Francisco. The venue was the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, a sort of neo-classical monument at the outskirts of Presidio park (not far from the Golden Gate). Previously, I had seen bikini-clad female bodybuilders posing there in front of the Romanesque columns for photographers. Last weekend, there were just pot-smokers hanging out, so nothing so entertaining ... darned! Anyways, I heard about this event on the radio that same morning, so I wasn't sure I could get tickets. I took along a new friend I'd met on a plan ride to Chicago over Christmas. She reads this blog, too, so no more about her on these pages ... :) She and I stood in line for about 45 minutes before we were told we could get into the theatre. Our wait paid off - we got in! The movie we saw was called "The Pledge" and, quite honestly it wasn't the best movie I'd ever seen. It wasn't the worst, either, so fine, ok, we went to a nice Theatre to see an average movie and then watch some famous guy speak on stage. That's not bad entertainment for $10! The wine at $7 a (plastic) cup was much more outrageously priced. One thing I noticed, and that was the numbers of young women ages 24-early 30s dressed to kill and waiting to see and hear Penn. Many of them left after he finished and before the "midnight screening" began. That's right, they showed us a "freebie" after the event, just for those real "Noir" fans. It was a really old movie with Kirk Douglas called "Out of the Past". Loaded with plot twists and fast-talking dialog, not to mention a bunch of look-alike actors wearing fedora hats and trenchcoats, it was pretty hard to follow. But I guess, a classic, and for the first hour or so (till I had to get a little shut-eye) it was a refreshing change from the usual Hollywood hits I see at the theatre.
In case you were wondering, Sean Penn looks and talks like the Sean Penn I was used to watching movies (my favorite movie he was in was "Carlito's Way", followed probably by "21 Grams"). He is a little shorter than I imagined, and talks sort of like a tripping college professor. Who knows, maybe he was tripping. Well, anyways, Penn is nothing if not interesting to watch and listen to, even if you don't like him.
