Eames Film’s NorCal Debut

They’re California’s best-known design couple of the mid-century—a magical husband-and-wife team that designed homes, modern chairs we’ve all admired and relaxed in, movies some of us have seen, and more. Now a feature-length film about Charles and Ray Eames is coming this week to local theaters.

Eames: The Architect and the Painter opens this Friday December 2 at San Francisco’s Balboa Theatre for an undefined run, Berkeley’s Rialto Elmwood for a week, and San Rafael’s Rafael Film Center through December 7. Filmmakers Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey will attend the Balboa showings December 2 and 3.

None of these shows convenient? The DVD will be released in mid-December. Look for it at firstrunfeatures.com/eames.

Narrated by James Franco, the documentary features archival footage and appearances by Eames’ relatives, former employees, and designers who have felt their influence.

Cohn and Jersey’s film deals with the people as well as their designs, focusing attention on Charles’ habit of hogging all the credit and on his infidelities.

The Eames film, critic Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “is as close as we are likely to get to the lives of people who lived their belief that ‘eventually everything connects.’”