Thank you, Gene Allen

Dance · Film · Visual arts
Saddened to learn today that the great Hollywood art director Gene Allen, the man who converted director George Cukor’s vision to rich mise-en-scene, died October 7 of natural causes in Newport Beach. Allen, who lived a long life, perished at 97. Yes, Gene Allen, the much hallowed Academy Award-winning art director of MY FAIR LADY ...

Great movies meet great graphic design: Saul Bass

Architecture & Design · Film · Visual arts
An illustrated lecture by Jan-Christopher Horak, director, UCLA Film & Television Archive, presents a selection of film titles, shorts and commercials by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Saul Bass (1920–1996). Best known as the designer behind the iconic, era-defining title sequences for such films as The Man with the Golden Arm (dir. Otto Preminger, 1955), Vertigo (dir. ...

Jack Cole choreography for GILDA set to sizzle on UCLA Film Archive big screen 1

Dance · Film
Do you enjoy this classic image of Rita Hayworth as GILDA? It’s a capture from  Hayworth’s iconic high-end striptease, “Put the Blame on Mame,” choreographed by Jack Cole, the brilliant dance maker who rocked Hayworth’s world at Columbia Pictures in the 1940s. Cole’s dance numbers (“Put the Blame on Mame,” “Amado Mio“), taken together, raise ...

Julie Christie, in message, remembers Omar Sharif, David Lean

Film
A highlight of Wednesday night’s wonderful Laemmle Theatres “Anniversary Classics” series screening of DR. ZHIVAGO (1964) had host Stephen Farber delivering a personal message from actress Julie Christie sent especially for the occasion. The note concerned her dashing leading man, Omar Sharif, whose death on July 10, 2015 the screening was dedicated to memorializing. Sharif ...

Oh, Omar. ‘Doctor Zhivago’ on big screen. 2

Film
As a tribute to the late Omar Sharif (1932 – 2015), Laemmle Theatres presents a 50th anniversary screening of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965). The lush romance directed by David Lean was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 1965 and won five — best adapted screenplay (Robert Bolt), cinematography, art direction, costume design, and music (Maurice Jarre). ...

Meet Marilyn Meme•roe

Dance · Film · Ideas & Opinion
From Wikipedia: Memetics is a theory of mental content based on an analogy with Darwinian evolution, originating from the popularization of Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Proponents describe memetics as an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer. The choreographer Jack Cole, a creative genius, had the ability to perpetuate the meme ...

Hollywood ‘pioneers, dreamers & misfits’ delight Landis, Beauchamp

Film · Ideas & Opinion
Pioneers, dreamers and misfits: this perspicacious trio of descriptors Hollywood historian Cari Beauchamp has selected to characterize the actors, artists, directors, and assorted fruits and nuts who arrived in early Los Angeles to populate the burgeoning film industry. Burgeoning may be an overstatement. This was a place where the welcome mat sometimes read, “No actors, ...

“Sunset Boulevard”‘s Nancy Olson to appear @ Laemmle ‘Reel Talk’

Film
The one surviving leading-cast member of SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), actress Nancy Olson Livingston, will honor the film’s 65th anniversary when film critic Stephen Farber interviews her as part of Laemmle Theatres’ Anniversary Classics and Reel Talk screening of Billy Wilder’s mordant classic on July 21 at the Royal on Santa Monica Boulevard. One of the greatest inside-Hollywood ...

Buy me! Marlon Brando’s 1969 Harley Davidson

Film
Shopping for a chopper with a pedigree? Buy one from the guy who starred in “The Wild One” (1953). On Saturday, June 27, 2015, collectors and the transportation-challenged will have a chance to bid on Marlon Brando’s personally owned Harley Davidson FLH Electra-Glide at Julien’s Auctions Beverly Hills (Lot #791, Estimate: $200,000-$400,000). Hollywood Legends Auction  ...

How “Girl Shy” was Harold Lloyd? Find out at the Villa Aurora.

Film
What a nice notion … that Harold Lloyd was “Girl Shy” (1924). At an upcoming screening, we’ll learn more from Lloyd’s granddaughter, Suzanne. (Her very existence a clear indication that Lloyd wasn’t totally girl shy!) She’ll appear at a wonderful silent-movie night with live organ accompaniment by Michael Mortilla pumping the pipe organ at the ...