Koehler on Cinema: Anti-piracy finds a hero in “Captain Phillips”
It had to happen. Sooner or later, Hollywood’s breathless, unending campaign against piracy was sure to find movie expression, its ideally useful metaphor. Coinciding roughly with the industry’s propaganda war against the netherworld of downloaders and other ne’er-do-wells, pirates of the classic seafaring variety from Somalia have raided and taken ransom commercial freighters. Sometimes, they’ve ...
Cool Hollywood jazz feted in festival
Jazz has been such an integral component to American motion picture soundtracks for so long, we sometimes forget it wasn’t always so. Try to think of modern motion picture soundtracks without jazz and it’s, well, unthinkable. Don Ellis’s vibrant, taut music to “The French Connection,” Johnny Mandel’s poignant songs like ”The Shadow of Your Smile” ...
Life achievement award for jazzman Hubert Laws
Oct
8
2013
In the photo, famed jazz and classical music flutist and saxophonist Hubert Laws, who will be presented with the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Society’s 30th Anniversary Jazz Tribute Awards Dinner and Concert on October 27. Laws, a graduate of the Julliard School and a forty-year jazz professional, an NEA jazz ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
African cinema is the most commonly overlooked in almost every corner of the world except France and Italy, where a combination of a tradition of cinephilia along with cultural and colonial ties make these movies a real presence. Here in the U.S., African movies are often treated as beyond exotic, which is ridiculous. The new ...
“Gravity” and the Spirit of Sandra Bullock 1
For all of its ominous forecasts of artificial intelligence run amok, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a response to an era of great optimism for the prospects of manned space flight and exploration. There was no reason to feel otherwise: the U.S. Apollo missions, ongoing during the making and release of “2001,” and ...
Cheech, sans Chong, pairs with painter John Valadez
Oct
2
2013
From our friends at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College an invitation to join an afternoon of activity surrounding its current exhibition Santa Ana Condition: John Valadez (through December 7, 2013). A foremost collector of Chicano art, Cheech Marin, will be present in support of the Valadez show. . 1 pm book signing: Valadez ...
Flying high, then down to earth: dance at LAX
A highlight of “Everywhere Nowhere,” choreographer Sarah Elgart’s rich installation presented this weekend in a courtyard at Los Angeles International Airport, was the dance maker in a Hitchcockian cameo-role. Dressed as a peasant, a field laborer, in hobbled Elgart, her back bent beneath the weight of a huge thatch of wheat, a vision of pathos ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
Two of the year’s most interesting film series are either underway or just about to launch, and for no clear reason, the local Los Angeles arts media is ignoring both. Already underway since last weekend is LACMA’s “The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema,” a 13-film survey of the work of the great Mexican cinematographer Gabriel ...
Koehler on Cinema: Porn Yesterday
I’m told that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s 2009 short, “Sparks,” based on Elmore Leonard’s brilliant short story of cat-and-mouse-as-dialogue, is terrific and sharply cast. Gordon-Levitt’s feature debut, “Don Jon,” (The Landmark, Laemmle NoHo 7, Laemmle Claremont 5) lacks a writer of Leonard’s mastery (because the director made the mistake of writing his own script) but confirms that ...
Koehler on Cinema: The Big Idea Movie, Robert Reich Edition
When it comes to big ideas, movies are usually a poor substitute for books. A few movies are able to put them across in new and meaningful ways; the best in the past decade are David Barison’s and Daniel Ross’ astounding essay film, “The Ister,” on the cultural and intellectual history of the Danube river, ...