L.A.’s artistic and cultural heritage vs. a rock 2

Film · Visual arts
Los Angeles, megalopolis, hosts a cool, vibrant and progressive art scene, an expression of its unique history and inimitable cultural mix. Many Angelenos will derive pleasure and meaning from Michael Heizer‘s Levitated/Slot Mass, a pyramidal granite boulder suspended on concrete rails above a pit carved into the northwest corner of the L.A. County Museum of ...

La belle Catherine … Deneuve

Film
The film goddess Catherine Deneuve, at 66 larger than life, still impossibly beautiful, and emanating the off-putting mix of power and femininity that characterizes French women (and intimidates me!), received the audience’s full adulation in a personal appearance tonight at LACMA’s Bing Theater. Fittingly, today is International Women’s Day. Et quelle femme! We’d just watched ...

“Black Tulip” screens @ LACMA Thursday night

Film
Chris Cole, the producer of the new “Black Tulip” film, contributes this overview to arts·meme. With all the turmoil and foreign affairs debate surrounding Afghanistan, it’s easy to forget about the millions of Afghan civilians still dealing with the consequences that have resulted from over thirty years of war. Families from all over the country ...

Catherine la Grande: Deneuve in person at LACMA 1

Film
Preparing to see Catherine Deneuve appear in person in conjunction with a screening of “Potiche,” her new film directed by François Ozon, we swung by the museum late Friday night to see Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion” . . . a perfect movie. Ian Birnie, film curator responsible for the museum’s Deneuve retrospective, shares his view on ...

Cocktail correction!

Film
arts·meme wishes to correct a regrettable error in the story below, in which we wrongly accused Ms. Fonda of not drinking. This is untrue:  She was! Concerning the beverage in question, sources at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art inform us: It was a martini in that plastic glass – take-out from the Patina ...

A martini with Jane Fonda 2

Film
“If you’d had the day I’ve had, you’d be drinking a martini,” said Jane Fonda, as she entered LACMA’s Bing Theater, speaking directly to the audience before taking her seat on stage. She was slated for a conversation prior to the screening of Alan Pakula’s marvelous thriller “Klute,” the actress’s breakthrough dramatic role from 1971. Still ...

Valentine’s Day movie date

Film
There’s a good Valentine’s Day selection at the movies this year. For the unabashedly romantic, Bogie and Ilsa will always have Paris at Cinefamily on Fairfax Boulevard — the Champs-Elysees of Los Angeles. Further down Fairfax, at LACMA, “Klute,” a hard-nosed film about a harder-nosed call girl follows film critic Kenneth Turan’s in-person Jane Fonda interview. This should ...

“Scarecrow” cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond @ LACMA

Film
Following a double bill at LACMA so soulful and affecting that the feeling was beatific [“Electra Glide in Blue” & “Scarecrow” both from 1973], the museum hosted the great cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond for a talk. Zsigmond, in tandem with his compatriot Laszlo Kovacs, introduced a palette of mittel European muted natural light to Hollywood. According to ...

Melody Kanschat retires. Film lives at LACMA.

Film
The woman who advised LACMA CEO Michael Govan when he was relatively new to Los Angeles that classic film had no role at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will leave her post, according to an oddly placed announcement in the Los Angeles Business Journal. From the Los Angeles Business Journal County Museum COO to ...

Film Foundation tribute gears up @ LACMA

Film
arts·meme guest writer Doug Cummings previews LACMA’s upcoming film series: Martin Scorsese is a valued friend of the film program at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); he’s also a friend to cinephiles everywhere through his pioneering organizations devoted to film preservation, The Film Foundation (formed in 1990) and the World Cinema Foundation (formed ...