It’s hard to know where to start with a film as rich as A Christmas Tale (trailer), which opens tonight, November 21^st at the Bridge Theater for an exclusive one-week run. It’s under consideration for one of France’s top film honors, the Louis Delluc prize, and no wonder: in two and a half hours that never drag or bore, director Arnaud Desplechin explores every aspect of a crazy dysfunctional family, and takes us on a journey that, for all its length, almost feels a bit too short.

The heart of the story is Junon (Catherine Deneuve) and Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon), whose three adult children have been locked for years into a state of passive-aggressive feuding. Overshadowing their lives is the fate of their oldest child Joseph, who died of leukemia forty years earlier at the age of seven. When Junon develops the same disease — and there is a chance that one of her children may be able to donate marrow to save her life — they all return to the family home to be tested, and for the holidays. Merry Christmas!

It sounds like a depressing film — as Desplechin himself said of it, everything “in the scenario should scare a producer half to death” — but in fact it’s often quite hilarious, and all the tragedy is treated with a light touch that somehow doesn’t trivialize it. But in the end that’s very true to life. Add in the wonderful cast — Mathieu Almaric, Emmanuelle Devos, Hippolyte Girardot, and Chiara Mastroianni (the only actress I can’t stop thinking about and Deneuve’s real-life daughter) — and it’s a film you just can’t miss.

Desplechin visited San Francisco back in October to attend a screening of the film at the San Francisco Film Society’s French Cinema Now festival. We chatted in his hotel suite; his accommodations delighted him so much that he took us out onto the balcony to share the amazing view he had of downtown and the bay. We enjoyed a rich, wide-ranging discussion about this and his other films, about his process, his opinions about various films ranging from Fanny and Alexander to The Royal Tenenbaums to The Outsiders, his plans to make a film about the birth of hip-hop in France, and why he refuses to think about casting while working on a script — even if, as with the case of Catherine Deneuve in this film, there’s really nobody else who could do the role.

It’s a lengthy interview but well worth your time, if you’d like to get a glimpse into the mind of one of the finest directors working in France today. Full text after the jump.

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TheStreet.com, a financial news website, is shutting its San Francisco office, reported Portfolio.com. The announcement doesn’t say how many jobs that would mean, but surely not that many compared with the 5000 worldwide job cuts announced last week by Sun, which has its HQ in Silicon Valley. The announcement follows that of Six Apart last week, where 18 lost their jobs.

Meanwhile CNet links to who’s firing, who’s hiring.

I wonder if the folks at TheStreet.com followed the advice they printed last month about layoff do’s and don’ts.

Updated to clarify the suspect in this case was not laid off.

Friday a 47-year-old engineer who had been canned earlier in the week allegedly killed his company’s CEO, the operations VP, and the HR lady, before fleeing. Yesterday police arrested Jing Hua Wu, former test engineer at a semiconductor company called SiPort Inc. and were holding him in the Santa Clara County jail pending arraignment on three murder charges.

Update: An earlier version of this post implied that the alleged shooter might have snapped after being laid off. But a recent report on Valleywag states the suspect was fired, and that the company has never laid people off. A report on KCBS radio Monday morning said the suspect was fired for poor performance, though a profile on the station’s website still says he was laid off.

As I mentioned last week, this weekend is so stuffed full of book events — oddly enough, most of them on Thursday — that this post covers only the next three days. Highlights are Bizarro, Ben Ratliff, Chip Kidd, Opium’s Literary Death Match, and the final SF in SF event for the year. Get all the details after the jump.
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Following up from last weeks insanely successful “let’s all show up at a bar at the same time and get drinks” we thought we’d do another one this week! Tonight’s overhyped event includes Felicia Day and Kim Evey of The Guild, George Ruiz of ICM and Scott Beale of Laughing Squid and whoever else decides to show up. The unimaginable excitement begins around 7pm at Lucky 13, and like any good event you can find it on Upcoming as well. Come hang out, it’ll be fun. Or at least not suicidally boring!

With the Attorney General’s of 40 states breathing down their necks, the folks at Craigslist have succumbed to pressure and have revised their policies on sexual service adverts. Not only will the ads no longer be free (with proceeds supposedly going to charity), but the once cute and cuddly Cole Valley based website whose pages have become a haven for sex traffickers & pimps have removed much of the anonymity factor from posting. Sex ad posters must now verify a phone number and have valid ID, which has pared down the prurient listings by about 80% so far.

CEO Jim Buckmaster told the NY times some of the ads were “crossing the line,” and that “We resolved to see what we could do to get that stuff off the site.”

Craigslist’s legal travails don’t end there, as the site has lawsuits flying between itself and eBay, who were able to buy a chunk of the biz from a former partner of Craig Newmark’s and they announced plans last week to sue several companies that provide services which help users circumvent the site’s abuse protections. They’ve been involved in blocking and/or prosecuting the offenders by enlisting the aid of ISPs and police.

Today and tomorrow, Stacey’s Books is continuing their semi-annual License to Save for Literary License holders (it’s the store card). That’s 20% off anything in stock except periodicals. Now’s your chance to stock up on those Best American anthologies at a discount!

No book events (to my knowledge) are going on tonight.

But tomorrow November 8th is a big day:

First, Kathi Kamen Goldmark will be honored as the recipient of the 2008 Women’s National Book Association Award at the Century Club of San Francisco, in an event from 4:30 to 6:30 PM. Tickets or RSVP (for members) here. Amy Tan will be a guest speaker.

Kemble Scott says of Ms. Goldmark:

It would be tough to find a person who’s contributed more to the local literary scene. Kathi Kamen Goldmark helped launch Litquake, Book Group Expo, and The Rock Bottom Remainders - and her work as a literary escort means she has some of the best author anecdotes in publishing. She’s an accomplished writer and musician herself, making her one of the jewels in the Bay Area’s literary crown. Bravo!

Another event Saturday is at 7:00 PM at Book Bay Fort Mason (Building C). The San Francisco International Poetry Festival presents Vietnamese Poets of the Diaspora. Free event.

Your third option is something involving a little more booze and perversity. If that’s your thing, head out to the Make Out Room (22nd at Mission, don’t act like you’ve never been there) at 7:30 PM for Writers in Drag, featuring Michelle Tea, Austin Grossman, Stephen Elliott, Annalee Newitz and Jaime Cortez. The doorkeepers will exact a teensy-tiny cover charge of $3 to $5.

Sunday the 9th at 3 PM, Glen Park’s Bird & Beckett features Jeff Kaliss discussing his book I Want To Take you Higher: The Life and Times of Sly and the Family Stone. B&B owner Eric says: “Author Jeff Kaliss is a local hero, and for his book he scored the first face-to-face interview Sly has granted in 20 years! He even got Sly to write the intro and George Clinton to write the preface! Don’t miss this one!”

Funny thing, Sly’s been in the news lately. (Thanks for that item, Allan!)

Monday, November 10th has its own slate of literary events to watch out for, including Alison Bechdel (author of Dykes to Watch Out For) at the Booksmith on Haight at 7:30 PM.

Also, Lambda Literary Award finalist Sarah Schulman, author most recently of The Child, will appear at 7:30 at Books Inc. in the Castro.

Note: the John Hodgman/Dave Eggers event at the Herbst Monday night is already sold out, and I’ve been advised that rush tickets are not likely to become available for this one, considering the great fame of both authors. But if you’re a total Hodgman nut, fear not:

John Hodgman will make his next appearance on Tuesday night the 11th at 7:00 PM, at Book Passage in Corte Madera, which is just over the Golden Gate Bridge, at 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. The event is free, and if you show up early enough, you’re likely to get a good seat.

Wednesday the 12th at 7:00 PM, City Lights brings Charles Robinson & Al Young, who offer Jazz Idiom, a book of photography by Robinson and commentary by Young. Knowing these two, it’s bound to be a cool night, and it looks like a beautiful, fun book.

There are so many great events next Thursday and Friday, I’ll have to prepare a special edition of the Word Nerd early next week. Til then!

If you’ve spent any time in the Mission lately, you’ll have noticed these babies with microchips and gumballs for brains wheatpasted up all over the place. Well, they’re by London-based street artist Paul Insect and he’s got a three-week show opening tonight at FIFTY24SF, 7:00 PM. [via Juxtapoz]

Also, in other art-plus-booze news, tonight is the monthly Gallery Crawl downtown, AKA First Thursdays. A whole bunch of galleries open their doors to the public from 5:30 to 7:30, though 49 Geary is most famous for the event, and it’s where you’ll probably want to start. Quoth Yelper Jill S.: “First Thursday is a fun time to go check this place out. Go early to avoid the drunk girls over-imbibing on all the free wine.” I don’t know, might be bad advice for some… [thanks, SFist!]

It’s tonight, and the exclamation point is mandatory. It’s the last event until next year for the Asian Art Museum’s Matcha series, and I think you can probably guess what the focus will be: “the food, music, and dance of Afghanistan.” The AAM continues:

[This grand finale is] In celebration of the highly anticipated, critically acclaimed special exhibition, Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. See what the press is saying about this “at once revelatory and heart-rending” show (New York Times).

The Bay Area’s own Ballet Afsaneh, a dynamic ensemble whose repertory focuses on Silk Road regions in Central Asia, will perform colorful, kinetic traditional dance. See Afghanistan, go on a guided tour, make jewelry inspired by the ancient Bactrian gold on view, nibble on tasty bites, mingle with friends over cocktails from the cash bar, and much more.

The museum is on Larkin, next door to Main Library. As always, the event runs from 5-9 PM and admission to it is $5. Plus, for that awesome wallet-friendly price, you can check out any exhibit you like. The full evening schedule is here on the event page.

I was walking back from the David Chiu headquarters, from Polk Street & Bush over Russian Hill, through Chinatown to North Beach, basically diagonally across the district, and looking in at shops and chatting with tourists, I realized my greatest fear this supervisor election: that people who don’t know the issues will vote for a name that they know, Alioto. He’s not a bad man, but I feel he’s out of touch.

I wrote up a comparison on all of the nominees, if you’re interested in the issues. Basically, David Chiu takes the bus, wants the plywood gone, and has a serious plan on crime (as an ex-prosecutor). His parents were working the phones when I stopped by, and they’re adorable.

p.s. my iPhone camera is on the fritz, but in a funky way