Recommended: “Never Stand Still” on Great Performances Friday night
An award-winning documentary on the influence and importance of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival will broadcast on PBS Friday night. Legendary dancers and choreographers appear alongside new innovators to reveal the passion, discipline, and daring of the world of dance in Never Stand Still, directed by Ron Honsa. This documentary, filmed at the Pillow and narrated by Bill ...
Fabulous: Gary Lucas to accompany Spanish “Dracula” @ Cinefamily
Jul
19
2013
The uncannily talented virtuoso guitarist Gary Lucas keeps coming up with amazing projects. The latest to arrive in Los Angeles is Gary’s guitar-plus accompaniment of “Dracula” (1931)—not the Tod Browning/Bela Lugosi blood-sucking variety, but “Dracula”‘s Spanish-language doppelganger. Unbeknownst to many film fans, a second, alternate, version of “Dracula” was filmed at Universal, by night, using ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
Film writer Robert Koehler’s latest feature, “Clips,” offers tips & tidbits for the harried cinephile. Speaking of Criterion’s two-disc DVD/Blu-ray edition of “l’Avventura,” Barnes and Noble is currently offering its semi-annual 50% sale on titles in this most distinguished of video catalogues. Usually, due to the expenses incurred with restorations, research and the considerable background ...
Koehler on Cinema: L’avventura
When asked last year by Sight & Sound magazine, the venerable film journal of the British Film Institute that publishes a once-per-decade list of the best films of all time (from polls of critics, filmmakers, scholars and programmers), to contribute my own list, it was a struggle. Where to place one of the Anthony Mann/James ...
Kung fu collateral still kicking @ AMPAS
In 2011, producer and screenwriter Stephen Chin donated his collection of more than 800 kung fu film posters and related materials to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. An exhibition featuring selections from Chin’s exceptional poster collection hangs now through in the lobby of the Academy’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters. If you are cruising ...
Gene Kelly’s witty number in “It’s Always Fair Weather” 5
We enjoyed watching “It’s Always Fair Weather” (MGM, 1955, co-dir: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen) recently on Turner Classic Movies. The song-and-dance number in the video above, Thanks a Lot, But No Thanks, bears much influence of Jack Cole (he, too, worked with Gray, coaching the non-dancer in “Kismet” and “Designing Woman,” both at MGM). So ...
Remembering Rudi
July’s onset has us excited about a special event taking place in the City of Lights in a week. A new documentary “La Passion Noureev,” directed by Fabrice Herrault, will have its premiere in Paris. The venue is the Cinéma le Balzac on the Champs-Élysées. Herrault clarifies, via email, that “La Passion Noureev” is not ...
“Un Flic,” c’est fantastique
Jun
25
2013
A cool flick … concerns un flic. Alain Delon plays a French cop (“un flic”) who spends his days and nights chasing criminals, but doesn’t see the crook right under his nose. Simon (Richard Crenna) a smooth nightclub owner, works with a small crew to execute daring heists with big payoffs, while the la belle ...
Fred & Cyd march on tippy toe in “The Band Wagon”
In this publicity still for “The Band Wagon” (MGM, 1953), Cyd Charisse marches on gorgeous gams while her partner Fred Astaire embodies a human exclamation point. In the movie, Cyd dons a different frock. Costumes were by Mary Ann Nyberg, who has a wonderful film-costume portfolio. Nyberg ran into problems dressing Judy Garland in “A ...
Koehler on Cinema: “Between Us”
As Roman Polanski’s decidedly awkward “Carnage,” his 2011 adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage” reminded, faithfully transferring plays to the screen more often than not fails. Dan Mirvish’s “Between Us,” his not-so-obeisant screen version of Joe Hortua’s play (commissioned but never produced by Costa Mesa-based South Coast Repertory), also deals with two married couples ...