Celebrating classic film at LACMA 1

Film
We spun in classic film heaven at LACMA this weekend. The first installment of curator Ian Birnie’s final series — his last picture show —  which is devoted to “audience favorites,” offered four stellar international films — one, each, by directors from Germany (Murnau), the U.K. (Powell/Pressburger), again Germany via France (Ophuls) and Italy (Antonioni). ...

Bird watching

Dance · Film
by 
New York dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer contributes this review to arts•meme: BLACK SWAN aced its opening weekend, albeit one of the slowest box-office weekends of the year; The New York Times on December 6 reported that in the art-house category, playing at only 18 theaters, it grossed $1.4 million, a record for Fox Searchlight, which released it. The ...

Aronofsky’s BLACK SWAN: Raw deal for Odile 6

Dance · Film
Seconds into Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller BLACK SWAN, the hyperkinetic camera zooms in on a pink pointe shoe. A woman is dancing, but we don’t see her. We see only the impeccable chop-chop of her shoes. It’s a smart directorial move. Cinephiles and foot fetishists are primed for a good time, but dance lovers’ hearts ...