‘The Brutalist’ leads crop of Oscar hopefuls exploring Jewish-American experience

As awards season heats up in Los Angeles, The Brutalist seems to be a likely (arguably, the likely) frontrunner for Best Picture at the upcoming Oscars on March 2, certainly for those who’ve seen it. But that last bit is an important caveat. For, with a running time of three hours, twenty minutes (and a ...
Hollywood’s favorite rosé celebrates ‘National Rosé Day’ courtesy of Bodvar

Bodvar model, Bodvar, Ann Hafstrom Cannes, May 2018. photo: Erick Seban-Meyer What the world needs now is — National Rosé Day. And courtesy of the Swedish-based wine and luxury good purveyor, Bodvár – House of Rosés, that’s coming our way June 9. Fêted each year on the second Saturday in June, National Rosé Day was ...
Agnes Varda’s Oscar picnic
Nov
17
2017

Flowers and an Oscar? What more could a woman want? These mementos so richly deserved by the French woman of cinema, Agnes Varda. On Nov. 11, 2017, at the 9th annual Governors Awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Varda received an honorary Oscar. Varda’s artful, thought-provoking, highly personal auteur ...
Georgeous & Rita-licious

As Oscar Sunday approaches, we turn to the year when two beautiful young singer/dancers both won Academy Awards for West Side Story. George Chakiris and Rita Moreno, respective winners for Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role, appeared stunningly beautiful at the ceremony April 9, 1962 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. This is ...
Life is sweet: “La Dolce Vita” turns 55 1
Feb
6
2016

Laemmle Theatres celebrates one of the first foreign films to figure prominently in the Academy Award voting. La Dolce Vita earned four Oscar nominations in 1962, including Best Director Federico Fellini and Best Original Screenplay and it won the Oscar for Piero Gherardi’s elegant costumes. Fellini’s sardonic epic about the decadence of modern Rome was ...
God dances. Bow down!
Mar
4
2015

At arts·meme, the words ‘Fred Astaire’ are not necessary. We believe the short code, “god,” will suffice. Here the 70-year old hoofer (now hoofer-in-heaven) gets pulled, ever modestly and reluctantly, into a solo performance by Bob Hope, at the 1970 Academy Awards show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The brilliant solo (we love his ‘do-the-swim,’ ...
Oscar party a la francaise
Feb
24
2015

Generous pours of crisp Sancerre. Platters of gooey cheese. Smoked salmon and fresh shrimp cocktail. A complement of pristine patisserie. Perhaps not your typical luncheon fare for a workaday Monday. But on the day following the Academy Awards, it proved a bountiful buffet at a plein air reception for the cream of the crop of ...
Fun pre-Oscar events at the Academy
Feb
4
2011

Beginning on Tuesday, February 22, through Saturday, February 26, the eve of the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present five public events celebrating the 83rd Academy Awards. Shorts! Hosted by Kenneth Branagh, actor, writer, director, producer and four-time Oscar nominee. Features screenings of the 2010 Oscar-nominated films in the Animated ...