Female filmmakers find voice at German Currents Film Festival 2024
Oct
1
2024
The German Currents Film Festival in the year 2024 has a surprising surfeit of films directed by women. The Festival opens on October 11 with a Los Angeles premiere of a comedy/drama by a multi-award-winning woman writer-director Sonja Heiss. It’s the German box office and festival favorite, WHEN WILL IT BE AGAIN LIKE IT NEVER ...
Going! Panorama’s Mexico City screening-series continues with ‘Tivoli’
Sep
15
2024
A legendary vaudeville and burlesque theatre in Mexico City is slated to be torn down by developers, so a troupe of dancers, novelty performers and operators promiscuously mobilize to save their beloved theatre from demolition. That’s the subject of this cool documentary which will be screening Saturday September 28 at the Velaslavasay Panorama in Los ...
Let’s watch YouTube reactions to Jack Cole’s ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’
Well, I’ve studied it, screened it, spooled it, summarized it, synopsized it. I’ve analyzed, advocated, argued and addressed it. Glowed and kvelled over it, enjoyed and celebrated it. So it’s fun, for a change, to let YouTube queen, “India Reacts” take the reins as she watches (her first time, ever) a video of “Diamonds Are ...
Be a Yankee Doodle Dandy with BalletX — and call it ‘Macaroni.’
Two distinct takes on Yankee Doodle’s ‘Macaroni’ We all sang it as kids, didn’t we, and we loved it — the borderline-bombastic patriotic song with oom-pah-pah rhythm and funny lyrics. The alliterative “doodle-dandy” pays no rent in our ears ad infinitum. The opening stanza is custom made for those who don’t question the deep meaning ...
Bernardo forever, aka George Chakiris at 92 1
I’ve spent a good deal of time watching the multiple Academy Award-winning West Side Story (1961), and have reached certain conclusions — you may have your own. First, if you haven’t seen West Side (as insiders shorten it) on a big screen, you haven’t seen it. This movie-musical is an operatic experience that needs total ...
Top this, Hollywood! The making of ‘Top Hat’ (1935) 2
artsmeme is lucky to have good friends who collect fabulous Hollywood dance photos like the one above, given to us by Bison Archive’s Marc Wanamaker. It’s a soundstage shot of the making of the superlative movie-musical from RKO, “Top Hat” (1935). In our photo, director Mark Sandrich, in his own swank chapeau, directs a brief ...
Film review: ‘Meanwhile on Earth,’ a celestial odyssey of grief & hope
French writer/director/animator Jérémy Clapin‘s first live-action film, Meanwhile on Earth, presented by Metrograph Pictures, is a cinematic gem that defies genre expectations. It’s actually a science-fiction movie for the science-fiction averse. The film blends realism with celestial wonder, crafting a haunting, familiar, and profound alien world. This intimate film, penned by Clapin, unfolds as a ...
Mexico City streetcars at heart of Buñuel film in Saturday screenings 1
Aug
20
2024
It’s a film by Luis Buñuel, minus the eye-slicing; it’s Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1954) by the Spanish cinema master of surrealist films, but this time, a beautifully made neo-realist black-and-white drama of peripatetic ur ban existence rolling the streets of Mexico City. A trio of friends who care for a streetcar soon to be ...
Twin titans of terror to add Festival shivers at Cinecon 60
Aug
8
2024
Labor Day could mean lazing around, eating hot dogs, and reading the funny papers — all pleasures of the working man and woman’s holiday. But for the past sixty years, cinephiles have gathered on this end-of-summer weekend for a five-day “deep dive” — and that means morning-till-night — to imbibe a banquet of rarely seen ...