Meet Natalie Portman’s evil twin, body double Kimberly Prosa 2
I enjoyed my chat with dancer Kimberly Prosa, one of two body doubles for actress Natalie Portman in Darren Aronofsky’s BLACK SWAN. The film, a psychological thriller with dazzling special effects, opens nationwide December 3. Reports Prosa on her amazing and unexpected first-ever movie experience: “I went to audition at an open call looking for extras to ...
A heady evening with Hedy Lamarr 2
Nov
16
2010
While he was growing up in Ottawa, Illinois, the film writer Stephen Shearer’s mother told him that in 1939 she and a girlfriend went to the local cinema to see Charles Boyer in “Algiers.” Co-starring with the Frenchman was MGM’s latest European import, Hedy Lamarr. In her first appearance in the film, cinematographer James Wong ...
Jack Cole & Marilyn Monroe reunite at Jacob’s Pillow
It was my great honor to join a panel at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival on Saturday, August 14, 2010, to honor the peerless jazz choreographer Jack Cole, whom I revere and about whom I have written. As a former Denishawn dancer, Cole had a distinct history at “The Pillow.” Here I contribute a snippet about Cole’s choreography for Marilyn Monroe ...
USC festival to screen historic LA experimental films
Oct
31
2010
Professor David E. James asks arts•meme to announce this upcoming event,Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945 – 1980, a three-day symposium aims to expand understanding of how experimental film making evolved in Los Angeles and to contextualize its place in postwar art history. The project places focus on the community of filmmakers, artists, ...
Ballet is dead. Long live ballet. 1
In the October 13, 2010 issue of The New Republic, dance critic Jennifer Homans queries, “Is Ballet Over?” In her essay, Homans notes: “Ballet has always and above all contained the idea of human transformation, the conviction that human beings could remake themselves in another, more perfect or divine image. It is this mixture of ...
Breaking news from Peter Blogdanovich ….
Oct
23
2010
This just in from one of our smartest film maker/writer/critics: This is just to let you know that I now have a blog on older films. It’s called Blogdanovich, of course, and it is under the umbrella of indieWire, so if you want to read the entries you can go to indieWire—Blogdanovich and it’ll come ...
Bob Hope roasts C.B DeMille in 1953
Oct
20
2010
While performing research in the DeMille archive at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, I came across this transcript of gags that Bob Hope zinged at Cecil B. DeMille. The occasion was the “Great American” dinner. The date, November 30, 1953. Cecil’s been in this business a long time I don’t know exactly when he ...
Film Foundation tribute gears up @ LACMA
Oct
7
2010
arts·meme guest writer Doug Cummings previews LACMA’s upcoming film series: Martin Scorsese is a valued friend of the film program at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); he’s also a friend to cinephiles everywhere through his pioneering organizations devoted to film preservation, The Film Foundation (formed in 1990) and the World Cinema Foundation (formed ...
Charles Chaplin covered the waterfront — in China
Oct
6
2010
It’s kind of an ongoing joke in Los Angeles that every neighborhood boasts a building or location that Charles Chaplin supposedly built, or invested in. Alternately, in that place, Chaplin lived, shot a movie, or (most probable) partied. The guy got around! He was at every social event, every film opening, each great hostess’s soiree. He was L.A.’s ...
Fred Wiseman, documentary film’s wise man
Last fall, we were spared the euro:dollar exchange rate and whisked back stage at the Paris Opera Ballet via Frederick Wiseman’s glorious — and rigorous — documentary “La Danse.” Months later, I saw Wiseman’s “Meat” at REDCAT. Amazing. Mr. Wiseman will be honored with a lifetime achievement award from Loyola Marymount College’s School of Film ...