With the New Year freshly ushered in, a look at the San Francisco arts calendar shows the first film festival of the year to be German Gems 2012 on Saturday, Jan. 14 at the Castro Theatre.

The mere thought that you can dominate others (or that you are at someone's beck and call) can provide the spark which leads to something more intense than makeup or revenge sex.

Whether experimenting with sexual freedom or being obsessed with a forbidden type of love, it helps to keep certain basic guidelines in mind.

Aspiring writers are often encouraged to "write what you know." But when dramatists and screenwriters reach a certain level of success, they sometimes opt to vent their professional frustrations in a creative work that bears an uncanny resemblance to their personal lives.

From biblical temptresses to blood-sucking vampires, from the sirens of Greek mythology (whose seductive singing lured many a sailor to his death) to the succubi who appear in men's dreams, women have been portrayed as man-hungry predators throughout the history of literature.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a new musical quite as much as Bring It On: The Musical, which played San Francisco as part of an extended pre-Broadway tour.

It's been fascinating to see how critics have reacted to The Iron Lady, a new film inspired by Margaret Thatcher that has been directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Meryl Streep stars as the former British Prime Minister in a script written by Abi Morgan.

Few actors, when asked during an audition "What else can you do?" can honestly answer "I can tap dance dressed as a gorilla."

This month, the Berkeley Rep presented the regional premiere of Ghost Light, a fascinatingly messy and mesmerizing dramedy that becomes curiously courageous and cathartic as its protagonist bounces back and forth between moments of insight and intransigence.