arts•meme glimpses Francis Ford Coppola’s soon-coming ‘Megalopolis’

Film

Our first glimpse, in single photo, above, of Megalopolis, a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined modern America, a soon-coming motion picture directed, written, produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

It goes like this, or so it is said to: The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.

Cast: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Kathryn Hunter, Grace VanderWaal, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D.B. Sweeney, and Dustin Hoffman

Image courtesy of: American Zoetrope / Megalopolis / Mihai Malaimare

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Melvin Kaminsky lives. [slideshow]

Film

Melvin Kaminsky (born June 28, 1926) aka Mel Brooks was in fine fettle interviewed at age 97 by Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz during the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival in its 15th annual staging in Hollywood, California.

He explained to an audience gathered at TCL Chinese Theatre for a screening of “Spaceballs” (1987) that two things got him going in show business. The first was his imitation of a screeching cat — Brooks then made a sound so far from “meow” that everyone present agreed he was the go-to screeching-cat guy; the other was his imitation of Hitler, and to demonstrate that, he pulled a little black mustache from his pocket, stuck it on his upper lip and started babbling German sounds. He told a story about his luncheon with Alfred Hitchcock in which he (Mel Brooks) ate a grilled cheese sandwich and Hitch devoured a nine-course meal. He described a young fan telling him recently about having just seen “Star Wars”; the kid liked it, but said it wasn’t nearly as funny as “Space Balls.”

Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for TCM

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Rosie, her cat Buttermilk, and her creator Maurice Sendak, at Skirball Center

Visual arts
Maurice Sendak, Rosie and Buttermilk, her Cat , character studies for Really Rosie animation,1973, watercolor and ink on paper, 13 ¾ x 15 5/8”©The Maurice Sendak Foundation Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) is much known as the artist/creator of acclaimed children’s books Where the Wild Things Are (1963), In the Night Kitchen (1970), and Outside Over There ...

Hilarious! Quentin Tarantino directs ‘Pulp Fiction’ dance number

Dance · Film
An on-set devil captured footage as Quentin Tarantino directed Uma Thurman and John Travolta in their iconic twist to a Chuck Berry song. It does beg the question: Is that how John Ford directed? Tarantino demonstrated on a British talk show host his inspiration for the choreography. artsmeme interviews a dancer/choreographer who did not do ...

Neutra’s quiet revolution in residential design: Silverlake’s Ohara House (1959)

Architecture & Design
Los Angeles is a living museum of mid-Century modern architectural design, those notably pared- down geometrically driven homes that interact copacetically in nature. So the house on view here is one of many. But it’s special. It’s historic. It’s one of the nine homes built on the edge of Silver Lake as a “Neutra Colony,” ...

Pre-Code movies rediscovered in Los Angeles (TCM Fest) & New York (MoMA)

Film
loretta young, spencer tracy, man’s castle At the fifteen annual Turner Classic Movies TCM Fest, just completed in Hollywood, we most enjoyed two marvelous movies, Only Yesterday (1933) in which Margaret Sullavan bucks the stigma of her single motherhood and The Good Fairy (1935) with Sullavan, again, playing a young innocent entangling with marital norms, ...

Attend New York City Ballet — in a sensitive way 1

Dance
On a day when five highly sensitive creatures — a cluster of the British monarchy’s beautifully bred military horses — got “spooked” (an actual term for when horses react and skitter and scamper) and proceeded to throw their riders and gallop around London causing havoc, it’s time for human beings face the limits of our ...

Pas-de-deux in perpetuity: Travolta & Thurman in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ at TCM Fest 2024

Dance · Film
At the conclusion of the witty dance duet between Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), on the dance floor of a kooky retro coffee-shop-style restaurant, the full auditorium of TCM Fest 2024‘s opening night gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre broke into spontaneous applause. The occasion was the screening of Pulp Fiction ...

Hooray for the ‘Discoveries’: lesser-known gems of TCM Fest 2024

Film
by 
When the TCM Classic Film Festival opens its 15th year in Hollywood this week, you may well choose to see some of the high-profile events at the festival—the star-studded opening night screening of Pulp Fiction, Lady Sings the Blues with co-star Billy Dee Williams in person, North by Northwest introduced by filmmaker Nancy Meyers, or ...

R&B today, in Los Angeles festival

Music
Smooth sounds and infectious beats of rhythm and blues music, shortcode R&B, will fill the Los Angeles skyline in a one-day extravaganza for music enthusiasts. The line up of R&B royalty will include artists Ashanti, Ja Rule, Omarion, and Bow Wow, joined by a plethora of R&B sensations including Pretty Ricky, Fabolous, Ginuwine, Mya, Keri Hilson, Lloyd, Ray J, ...