Philip Glass on Cocteau’s “La Belle et La Bete”
Our friends at the Center for the Art of Performance (CAP-UCLA) have shared with us an essay by Philip Glass concerning his musical reconfiguring of Jean Cocteau’s “La Belle et La Bete” (“Beauty and the Beast”) to be screened this Friday night, May 2, one night only, at Royce Hall. The film will have live ...
Claude Lelouch on the friendship in “We Love You, You Bastard” 1
French film director Claude Lelouch, whose seventh film, A Man and a Woman (1966), catapulted an international career, persists in his cinematic exploration of the perils of the human heart — not just in love but in friendship. LeLouch’s 44th feature, “We Love You, You Bastard,” which opened the 18th annual COLCOA French film festival ...
Savion Glover, sole survivor
I’ve been paying attention to Savion Glover since he incandesced onto the theatre scene in The Tap Dance Kid at age 12. His level of virtuosity, enhanced by a cheeky grin and genuine joy at being up there just doin’ it! as impossible to resist as a warm sunny day (I live in London, remember). ...
COL·COA tickets still available this weekend, says Francois Truffart
Apr
24
2014
Midstream through COL·COA [City of Lights · City of Angeles], the inimitable week-long film festival showcasing the best of new French cinema in Los Angeles premieres, we chatted with Francois Truffart earlier this afternoon. And the Festival director wants to spread the word. “We still have tickets,” said Truffart, speaking during the annual COL·COA luncheon ...
Weaving magic to the Bard: The Royal Ballet in “The Winter’s Tale”
I don’t get to Covent Garden all that often lately. Downstairs to the Linbury Studio experiments, yes, but upstairs? Elegant always, but stately for my current tastes — my dance fix is generally fed by Sadlers Wells these days. Last season’s Royal Ballet encounter with Mayerling — my favorite narrative by far — had been ...
Historic Raleigh Studios to host “Photo Independent”
Photo Independent, the artist-only fair for photographic artists, collectors and art professionals, rolls out this weekend at an unusual venue: Hollywood’s Raleigh Studios. An amazing and charming movie complex that dates to the ‘teens and comprises fourteen sound stages, Raleigh occupies a distinct niche of Hollywood dream-factory history. Paired with Paramount Studios, which sits to ...
Cool arts happening along Melrose Avenue: Photo Independent
Apr
23
2014
Photo Independent, a first-time fair in which photographic artists self-present, opens at historic Raleigh Studios this weekend concurrent to Paris Photo Los Angeles which rolls out also at a film studio, the venerable Paramount Studios. It all transforms several massive blocks of Melrose Avenue, steeped in film history, into a fine-arts juggernaut. The ambitious and ...
Hallyday, in Hollywood not on holiday but at COL·COA
French rock star Johnny Hallyday, who resides in Los Angeles, manly, subtle and sensitive in director Claude LeLouch‘s latest, “Salaud, On t’Aime” (“We Love You, You Bastard” its less charming English title) seen last night, with Lelouch and Hallyday in the house, at opening night of the 18th annual COL*COA, French film festival. In the ...
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 ...