Just beautiful: ‘Summer 1993,’ Catalan film soon opening
May
22
2018
The movies I like most are the ones that slowly win you over. I started Summer 1993 somewhat doubtful, as its opening moments felt scattershot, disjointed. I didn’t know where I was, or who I was looking at. But in a way, it’s this story’s challenge. How do you plunge viewers into an experience as ...
Ain’t there anyone here for love? Ladies, let’s do this! 1
Okay, Messrs Weinstein, Schneiderman, R. Kelly, Richard Meier, Charlie Rose and the rest of you sexual predator power-guys! Formidable glamazon Marilyn Monroe, in Jack Cole’s “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) wants to share her version of gender politics. A big boomerang of woman power heading your way, back at ...
Female choreographers to receive ‘guidance and feedback’ from ABT 11
May
10
2018
It’s become a meme: “You can’t make this stuff up.” That was my reaction to American Ballet Theatre’s late-in-the-day scramble, yesterday, onto the #metoo bandwagon. The company’s bumbling response to being called out for nearly 30 years of institutional sexism resulting in the marginalization — if not exclusion — of women from the artistic and ...
Whatever happened to Robert Aldrich? FEUD’s pattern of distortion 2
Breaking news: On May 6, 2018, the California Supreme Court received a petition to review the California appeals court decision to dismiss Olivia de Havilland’s lawsuit against television network FX and Ryan Murphy which reversed her original legal win that she had grounds to pursue her fight against how she was depicted in FEUD. The ...
Farber on Film: the strong cinematic women of TCM Fest 2018
In the year of #MeToo, it seems only appropriate that some of the most resonant films shown at the TCM Classic Film Festival had strong women front and center. Both onscreen and off, 100-year-old Marsha Hunt has long been an inspiring figure. Known for her principled stand against the Hollywood blacklist, which damaged her career, ...
Dancer/activist/organizer Joanne DiVito honored with PDS Gypsy Robe 1
Watching her react from across the huge ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the honor appeared to come as a total shock to Joanne DiVito. The Professional Dancer’s Society bequeathed to the diminutive-but powerhouse DiVito, a much loved and respected member of the Los Angeles dance community, its “Gypsy Robe” for 2018, an honor of ...
Doing the mashed potato with Dee Dee Sharp … and Steve
Apr
19
2018
When we last left our friend Steve Vilarino, he was 15 years old and doing the pony at “Hollywood A Go Go,” a teen dance-party broadcast, behind Marvin Gaye singing (er …lip syncing) “Can I Get A Witness.” Steve pops up again, this time doing the mashed potato, appropriately enough to “Mashed Potato Time” sung ...
A Giselle for the 21st Century
Seen above, the tragic-heroine, “Giselle,” in a contemporary re-make of a woman’s story dating from the 19th century and transferred (rightfully in the 21st century) to the choreographic reins of a woman. The role is delivered with great pathos by the work’s creator/lead dancer Dada Masilo in her “Giselle” on view this weekend at The ...
Aline Mare’s resplendent body art @ Beyond Baroque
Apr
11
2018
Los Angeles-based artist Aline Mare grew up in New York City and began her career as an image maker and performer in the thriving avant-garde arts scene of downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s – her collaborators and close friends included Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Nam June Paik, and Richard Serra. Mare first met ...
Spirited actress/director Ida Lupino showcased @ UCLA Film Archive
Apr
4
2018
This one is for Kelly Anne Graml, the longtime publicist at UCLA Film & Television Archive who has been a joy to work with and who will retire from the Archive soon. * * * Calling all me-too’ers and enough-is-enough’ers! Now’s the time to march across Wilshire Boulevard and get-thee to a round-up of films ...