Respected film biographers converse @ TCM Fest
A Friday panel discussion—one of many such interesting events at “Club TCM,” a special gathering place for attendees of TCM Classic Film Festival—tapped the minds, memories and methodologies of three prominent film biographers: Donald Bogle, Scott Eyman, William J. Mann, with smart moderation by TCM’s Alicia Malone. Invited by Ms. Malone to consider their careers ...
La vache! French moooo-vies with cows @ COLCOA
Fans of French movies are familiar with seeing scenes from the nation’s rural paysage, the countryside to which Parisians repair for weekends and summer holidays. The usual trope is the stone country-home where, seated ’round big outdoor tables, city dwellers slurp soupe, quaff wine, and discuss in non sequitors the meaning of it all. There they ...
Farber on Film: TCM Fest 2018 brings home the power of the press
This year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, which opens in Hollywood tomorrow night, is divided into several theme-related programs. One of the most intriguing—and certainly the timeliest—is called “Power of the Press” and celebrates movies about journalists. All the President’s Men was the Festival’s opening night film in 2016, so this year’s selections are not such ...
Terence Blanchard’s jazz message, in cabaret seating, at The Soraya
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard has been visiting this part of the country for years. Starting in the ’80s, he shared the valedictory frontline of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with alto saxophonist Donald Harrison. Leaving the venerable drummer (“Our father, who art Blakey” quipped trumpeter Valery Ponomarev), Blanchard and Harrison co-led a good mainstream jazz band. They ...
Our town and its city dwellers, by David Hockney @ LACMA 2
Apr
24
2018
Friend of arts·meme, the arts publicist Caroline Graham, poses with her portrait painted by her long-time friend, the British-born artist David Hockney. Caroline’s likeness occupies a prominent corner of “82 Portraits and 1 Still Life,” the new Hockney exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In the photo, Graham wears the elegant ...
Dancer/activist/organizer Joanne DiVito honored with PDS Gypsy Robe 1
Watching her react from across the huge ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the honor appeared to come as a total shock to Joanne DiVito. The Professional Dancer’s Society bequeathed to the diminutive-but powerhouse DiVito, a much loved and respected member of the Los Angeles dance community, its “Gypsy Robe” for 2018, an honor of ...
Brush up your franglais! It’s time for COLCOA.
Apr
20
2018
Not Coca-Cola©, but COLCOA, the annual French film festival in Hollywood that joins the City of Lights and the City of Angels at the cinematic-hip. 2018 COLCOA French Film Festival launches next Monday evening at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, and features 86 films, television series, digital series and VR programs. An exclusive ...
Doing the mashed potato with Dee Dee Sharp … and Steve
Apr
19
2018
When we last left our friend Steve Vilarino, he was 15 years old and doing the pony at “Hollywood A Go Go,” a teen dance-party broadcast, behind Marvin Gaye singing (er …lip syncing) “Can I Get A Witness.” Steve pops up again, this time doing the mashed potato, appropriately enough to “Mashed Potato Time” sung ...
Robert Dornhelm, who directed two prominent dance docs, to get award
Apr
18
2018
Director Robert Dornhelm, a contemporary filmmaker of great range and versatility who has worked across genres and formats, is slated to receive the 2018 SEEfest Legacy Award. The award will be granted at the 12th annual South East European Film Festival‘s opening night, April 26, at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. A ...
I love you, Leigh Taylor-Young! 1
Apr
18
2018
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the hit Peter Sellers comedy from 1968, ‘I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!‘ The Establishment meets the counterculture in this topical and often uproarious satire that poked fun at many of the conflicts dividing the country during the tumultuous 1960s. Sellers plays ...