‘Exuberant’ Peter Fonda, remembered by film historian Scott Eyman
Aug
19
2019
peter fonda, scott eyman, tcm fest 2015 Ed. note: A personal reminiscence of the recently departed actor by the biographer of his father, Henry Fonda. Scott Eyman contributes this anecdote to the blog: I was drinking a Coke in the Green Room when Peter Fonda walked in with a drink – a martini with an ...
Strong women of Los Angeles dance set to unfurl at Ford 1
Aug
13
2019
ed. note: This excerpt of a story by artsmeme’s Debra Levine was first published by Ford Theatres A peevish story in The New York Times started the ball rolling for Los Angeles dance producer Deborah Brockus. When Brockus read a lengthy #metoo article decrying the dearth of female choreographers, she felt fired up. But not ...
REVIEW: A ‘Royal’ August at the Joyce Theater
Calvin Richardson, Joseph Sissens in Christopher Wheeldon’s “Within the Golden Hour” The Royal Ballet has come to town – or rather, a small but potent ensemble of eight Royal Ballet dancers, who have taken up residence at the intimate Joyce Theater for the first of four Joyce Ballet Festival programs. Curated by RB artistic director ...
Tarantino & Toni
Toni Basil at home in Los Angeles.Credit Amy Harrity for The New York Times LOS ANGELES — When Toni Basil’s agent told her that an anonymous filmmaker from an unidentified production company wanted to chat, she was intrigued. It was something about the 1960s, she was told, so she mopped her dance-studio floor in case ...
Cinematography & editing enhance Toni Basil choreography for ‘Head’
I have found a new obsession in this brilliant “ear worm” song and early music video, “Daddy’s Song.” This extraordinary dance-film number was choreographed by Toni Basil who appears in the video in tandem with Davy Jones, of the Monkees. It’s from the cult-favorite movie Head (1968) co-written by Jack Nicholson, directed by Bob Rafelson ...
Carmen de Lavallade remembers Rudi Gernreich, Lester Horton dancer
artsmeme’s exclusive interview with the peerless modern dancer Rudi Gernreich with Peggy Moffitt modeling the “Marlene Dietrich”pantsuit, 1964.Photograph © William Claxton, LLC, courtesy of Demont Photo Management & Fahey/Klein Gallery Los Angeles, with permission of the Rudi Gernreich trademark. Rudi Gernreich papers (Collection 1702). Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA. The establishment, ...
Cool blues fuel philanthropy at Fire Island Dance Festival
It sure looks like summer, doesn’t it? The swanky seaside affair had the ultimate emcee, Joel Grey, introducing not the girls of the Kit-Kat Klub, but the Fire Island Dance Festival in its 25th year — an enduring charitable fundraising event on Fire Island Pines Great South Bay on July 19-21. The roster was replete ...
Dear Hollywood Boulevard … love, The Lare
Jul
22
2019
boulevard of dreams … and nightmares ed. note: a letter contributed by artsmeme’s friend Jeff Mantor of Larry Edmunds Bookshop on the cusp of the opening of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Dear Hollywood Boulevard, You are a short street, but a long road. A place & idea. A dream & a dirty nightmare ...
Can it possibly be fifty years since ‘Goodbye, Columbus’?
Jul
22
2019
One of the landmark comedies of the 1960s and perhaps the best screen rendition of the work of Philip Roth was the adaptation of the author’s National Book Award-winning novella, Goodbye, Columbus. The movie launched the careers of its two stars, Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw, who will both join Laemmle Anniversary Classics host Stephan ...
Jets ‘do the hustle’
The filmmakers behind the re-do of WEST SIDE STORY (1961) did not win a lot of internet love upon the release of a production still of Steven Spielberg’s redux filming of Jerome Robbins/Robert Wise’s iconic WSS “Prologue,” with menacing gang members dance-trawling the streets of Manhattan. It’s hard to give fewer points for either the ...