The art of going to the movies, courtesy of Laemmle Theatres
The community-minded, venerable Los Angeles art-house theater chain, Laemmle Theatres, invites us to join them this Thursday, April 24, for the opening of an art exhibit by painter Taylor Negron. The evening will include a presentation about the artist as well as wine and cheese. Pop into a movie afterward and it sounds like a ...
TCM Fest: The rise and rise of digital restoration 1
Last weekend’s unveiling of seven digital restorations (five of them world premieres) at the fifth annual TCM Classic Film Festival came at an interesting moment. I saw four of them, and had previously seen a fifth, Hitchcock’s half-silent/half-sound 1929 “The Lodger,” at LACMA’s “Hitchcock 9” program. It was impossible to see all of them due ...
Oh, COL•COA!
Apr
18
2014
The wonderful French film festival in Los Angeles turns 18 this year. A big draw amongst the 41 feature films on view in the festival: Roman Polanski‘s riveting direction of “Venus in Fur” with a killer courageous performance by Emmanuelle Seigner. A little disappointing that it’s not a truly auteur film; instead, it’s based on ...
Let’s go bowling with Chris Nichols
Apr
16
2014
These evocative photos speak reams to arts·meme friend Chris Nichols, a mid-century-modern architecture/culture expert and founder of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee, the infamous “Modcom.” So much so that Chris has organized an entire museum exhibit to celebrate the design universe of bowling alleys … the show just opened at the A + D ...
Four actors and “The Heiress”
Because so much of the programming for TCM Classic Film Festival 2014 focuses on Classical Hollywood, any given day of viewing during the four-day event (suitably enough, located on Hollywood Blvd., with the Chinese Theatre complex as epicenter) is an immersion in acting. Champions of auteurism argue that the story of Hollywood studio movies from ...
A keeper: Quincy Jones photo-portrait for TCM Fest
At arts·meme, we like it when art begets art. That’s why we respond so positively to photographer Stefanie Keenan’s outstanding photo-portrait of an artist — Quincy Jones — that came across the transom from Turner Classic Movies this morning. The prodigious Jones gave a fascinating, free-wheeling interview to movie (and jazz) maven Leonard Maltin at ...
Author Scott Eyman to discuss “John Wayne – The Life and Legend” Apr 14
Just because TCM Classic Film Festival will be ramping down on Hollywood Boulevard next Monday does not mean that fantastic film events will disappear! Indeed, April 14 offers a stellar and intimate conversation with one of the nation’s leading scholars and writers of Hollywood history, discussing his latest oeuvre, his biography of John Wayne. That ...
Our critic’s game plan for TCM Fest 2014
Ramping up for the opening night of TCM Fest, we heard from our intrepid film critic Robert Koehler, who plans his festival as follows: I’m putting an emphasis on the world premiere restorations.The festival happens to slotting a few of these directly opposite each other on Saturday, when the vast majority of them are screening. ...
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 ...