James Mitchell, who danced “Dream Curly” in OKLAHOMA! 1
We just lost Marc Platt, his strong dancer’s heart finally giving way, at age 100, on March 29, 2014. Platt originated the role of “Dream Curly,” a dancing doppleganger to the dramatic actor who plays the same role — the dancer picks up the plot line in choreographer Agnes deMille’s acclaimed “dream ballet” sequence created ...
Dueling divas on Hollywood Blvd: Divine vs. Shirley Jones
Apr
7
2014
Can’t make it to TCM Fest 2014 opener, screening “Oklahoma”? Got sold out? Then trundle across Hollywood Boulevard to where the real party people will be celebrating the DVD release of “I am Divine,” sub-titled, “The True Story of the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” Docu concerns the great drag-queen actor, otherwise known as ...
“Oklahoma!” choreographer, Agnes deMille, appreciated 2
TCM Classic Film Festival 2014 opens Thursday April 10, 2014, with a screening of “Oklahoma!” at Grauman’s TCL Chinese Theatre. Shirley Jones, the film’s star, will be honored. Let’s learn about “Oklahoma!”‘s great choreographer who transferred groundbreaking stage choreography to the screen in 1955. AGNES (George) deMILLE b. Harlem, New York, Sept 18, 1905 d. ...
Story of Tanaquil
We are so looking forward to Dance Camera West‘s special screening of “Afternoon of a Faun” at the Aero Theatre next Thursday evening, co-presented with the American Cinematheque. I will be interviewing Nancy Buirski, the documentary film’s director, after the screening. It portends to be an amazing event, mixing and matching a crowd of dance ...
Cameron Carpenter, accompanying “Caligari,” pulls out stops 1
London’s Southbank Centre dearly loves a party. Give it any excuse and the architecture that some have characterized as brutalist is festooned with banners, murals and all manner of colorful whirligigs, giving this hitherto cultural bunker the air of Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island-on-Thames. The return of the Southbank’s 7,866-pipe Harrison organ after six years of restoration ...
British invade Noir City film festival
Mar
24
2014
IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY 1947, Rialto, 92 min, UK Dir: Robert Hamer A former barmaid, now the harried matriarch of a family in impoverished Bethnal Green, jeopardizes everything to shelter the escaped fugitive who was once her lover. A slice-of-life noir and prototype of British “kitchen sink” drama. BRIGHTON ROCK 1947, Rialto, 92 min, ...
Cherbourg umbrellas pop with panache, fifty years later
The delicious, the divine, the delectable and digitally restored, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, opens Friday at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles for a one-week big-screen viewing engagement. If you’ve not yet seen Jacques Demy’s candy-colored all-song French classic — yes, it’s an operetta à la française — on the big screen doing so at ...
Kosloff, unfurled
He worked for two of the greatest arts titans of the 20th century: Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev and Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille. After a long career as a silent movie actor, Theodore Kosloff made his final film appearance in DeMille’s “Madam Satan,” DeMille’s failed movie musical created on the cusp of the Depression. ...
Meet Fanchon, a successful Los Angeles woman of dance
To pair with his biographical sketch on Fanchon published in the adjacent blog story, dance historian Larry Billman kindly provided arts·meme with photos of this slender and beguiling lady of arts and commerce. According to Billman, Fanchon, in her day, was an “industry” of Los Angeles dance: a successful Hollywood choreographer, producer, businesswoman and dance ...