San Francisco Film Society Oral History Project Interview with ...

MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Before we leave 1972 let’s talk about some of the films. Two English
Girls was Truffaut’s film; Chloe in the Afternoon; a Godard film. Was there any feedback from the
audiences about these films?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Well, probably the most popular films out of Europe were the French films during
those days, with Chabrol and Louis Malle, Truffaut—they were just very, very popular. They were
making some good films.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: So you were optimistic about the future. Syufy also gave a press
conference; he was pessimistic. He said other sponsors might resign because of the deficit.
CLAUDE JARMAN: I don’t believe we had that big of a deficit. I don’t know where Ray was getting
his information. No underwriter ever had to come up with any money.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: He claimed there was a $50,000 deficit.
CLAUDE JARMAN: I don’t think so. We may have had $25,000, but we didn’t have $50,000.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: What steps did you take to deal with that?
CLAUDE JARMAN: We were soliciting some of the film companies that were shooting. Quinn Martin,
producer of The Streets of San Francisco. He gave us $25,000 a year, which was very helpful. Later
on, when Clint Eastwood was making a film here, he contributed $15,000. So that was an extra source.
And later on we moved to the Castro.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: That was ’77.
CLAUDE JARMAN: OK. Anyway, in ’73 we had Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams; Gil Cates.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: That was the year George Gund took over as chairman.
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