‘Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad’ with Barrie Chase in person 1

Film
It’s a macabre but nonetheless resolute fact — and it came directly, unprompted, from Chase, a friend of artsmeme (F.O.A.M.). (She is also one of artsmeme’s favorite subjects.) Barrie Chase, one of Hollywood’s most precious jewels as a dancer, now 90 and fit as a fiddle, admitted it herself. Speaking of It’s a Mad, Mad, ...

Make ’em laff, virtually! Palm Springs International Comedy Festival 2020

Film · Theater
mad, mad, mad, etc. made in palm springs For those of you having trouble eking out a grin behind a face mask, we have just the solution. Laff, guffaw, giggle, chuckle, and bray like a hyena in your mask-free living room from October 11 – 18. That’s when the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival offers ...

Make ’em laff, ladies, at Palm Springs International Comedy Festival

Film
We all need a laff. Pardon my French, but I laughed my a** off watching the exquisite comic timing of Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant in delivering the brilliant script of CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME. A very funny movie with a woman director — highly recommended. I am equally pleased to see Kathy ...

How Eugene Loring ‘got sold’ on working for producer Stanley Kramer 1

Dance · Film
Fascinating commentary from dance maker Eugene Loring who choreographed the whimsical The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, a Dr. Seuss-derived cult movie dating from 1953. Loring, the creator of “Billy the Kid” ballet for American Ballet Theatre and founder of Hollywood’s American School of Ballet, ports impressive film credits that include Ziegfield Follies (1945), Yolanda ...

Fred, seriously

Dance · Film
Hollywood’s great dancing man, always jolly and carefree, here displays a different aspect. Fred Astaire in a somber mode, in Stanley Kramer’s ON THE BEACH (1959). Photo credit: theroadshowversion.com

Koehler on Cinema: Clips

Film
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UCLA Film Archive’s edition of the traveling retrospective of Pier Paolo Pasolini (minus my favorite Pasolini, his oh-so-naughty n’ nasty “Teorema”) is rounding the corner and heading for home. If you haven’t caught up with the late 20th century’s most ribald filmmaker-poet recently, there are these three wildly divergent works to explore: From the final ...