George Chakiris chats about career — in the Los Angeles Times 1
“Gracious Dance” Los Angeles Times, Nov 11, 2013 An excerpt from Susan King’s article here: “It was groundbreaking choreographer-director Jerome Robbins who gave Chakiris his first big break when he cast him as Riff, the leader of the Jets, in the London stage production of “West Side Story.” Years later, Robert Wise, who co-directed the ...
Koehler Clips: An Impossible Choice
Like a few of the world’s other major movie-going cities, Los Angeles often presents impossible choices for the exploring cinephile. And tonight, Sunday, provides a doozy. Where to go? To Westwood, to the Billy Wilder Theater, where UCLA Film & Television Archive continues its remarkable “A Century of Chinese Cinema” survey with two exceptionally rare ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
A new James Benning movie is enough news in itself and enough for a simple request: Just stop everything and see it. Now, Benning’s “Nightfall” (Los Angeles Filmforum, Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, Sun. 7:30 p.m.) isn’t exactly new. It was digitally shot in 2011 in the Sierras, near his property where he built exact ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
It may well be, as one Los Angeles cinephile said to me last week, “the year’s most important film series.” UCLA Film Archive’s “A Century of Chinese Cinema,” unlike the archive’s recent survey of contemporary Chinese cinema curated by former archive programmer Cheng-Sim Lim and REDCAT film series co-director Berenice Reynaud, takes a more historical ...
George Chakiris honored @ UCLA Film & Television Archive 1
UCLA Film & Television Archive salutes the extraordinary career of actor, singer and dancer in “An Evening with George Chakiris,” an exciting screening and discussion on Saturday, November 16, 2013. Trained in Los Angeles, Chakiris first distinguished himself as a dancer in Hollywood films, displaying an athleticism and grace that helped bring renown to West Coast ...
3-D Wizard of Oz at the Chinese 1
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We’re pleased to re-publish this wonderful essay by guest writer, Jan-Christopher Horak, Director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive, who first wrote it for his blog at the Archive. * * * Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. is an iconic landmark of the studio era. Any day of the week you can find ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
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 ...
Koehler on Cinema: Clips
Film writer Robert Koehler’s latest feature, “Clips,” offers tips & tidbits for the harried cinephile. Speaking of Criterion’s two-disc DVD/Blu-ray edition of “l’Avventura,” Barnes and Noble is currently offering its semi-annual 50% sale on titles in this most distinguished of video catalogues. Usually, due to the expenses incurred with restorations, research and the considerable background ...
Fox to release “The I Don’t Care Girl” (1953) on DVD 1
We just learned, courtesy of our good friends at Polly O Entertainment, personal managers to Mitzi Gaynor, the wonderful news that Twentieth Century-Fox will release arts·meme favorite, “The I Don’t Care Girl” on DVD April 8, 2013. The biopic, a relatively turgid mid-century look back at vaudeville hottie Eva Tanguay (pictured above with Mitzi who ...
Ornette Coleman via Shirley Clarke via Ross Lipman
arts·meme friend Ross Lipman, a primo art-film restorationist, clues us into a very cool screening of a documentary directed by the feminist filmmaker Shirley Clarke (Lipman is an expert and advocate of her work) next weekend at the Billy Wilder Theater. It’s “Ornette: Made in America,” to be screened in the mid-stream days of UCLA ...