And we’re back! It’s been a hectic few (several) months since the last one, but we’re hoping to do this more regularly by doing it more simply. Instead of trying to capture everything, we’re trying to direct you to one event per night.
Complicating that mission, somewhat, is the recent closing of Cinefamily. It was closed after Executive Director Hadrian Belove was outed as something of a sexual predator towards female volunteers with the theater, a transgression he and other senior board members actively hid for years. It was quite a blow, and thanks to their horrific actions, we’re now down a rep venue.
Additionally, the New Beverly will be closed for some unspecified period that began a couple of days ago. They’re embarking on various improvements that will hopefully include better seating. Fingers crossed!
So what’s left? Plenty, I hope.
FRIDAY
The UCLA Film & Television Archive starts an excellent retrospective on Michael Curtiz, organized by the Noir Foundation’s Alan K. Rode, who just wrote a biography of the great filmmaker. Friday begins with what else but Casablanca (1942, 35mm)? Well, Kid Galahad (1937, 35mm), that’s what else, but I haven’t seen Kid Galahad yet (hoping to make it for this), but I’ve seen Casablanca probably a dozen times and I don’t seem to have yet exhausted it. Five of those times was in a college class where we watched it once a week, just pulling out every detail we could. And Galahad, well, any movie with Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart is good enough for me.
SATURDAY
The retrospective continues with Female (1933, 35mm) and The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932, 35mm), neither of which I’ve seen, but I’ve yet to regret watching any Curtiz films.
SUNDAY
Wake up bright and early for an 11:00am screening of Alamar (2009, 35mm), a really great documentary/fiction hybrid about a father and son bonding with one another for the first time.
MONDAY
Most of the week, but notably Monday at 7:30, the Royal in West L.A. is playing Rhinoceros (1973, DCP) from the short-lived, but quite remarkable, American Film Theatre series, which aimed to present important plays in their entirety for audiences that would be unlikely to ever see them. This one sees Tom O’Horgan direct Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel in a cine-staging of Eugene Ionesco’s legendary, and legendarily unusual theater of the absurd play.
TUESDAY
LACMA’s Tuesday Matinee series focuses on Dorothy Arzner, unsung hero of the golden age of Hollywood, this month, with her Katharine Hepburn collaboration Christopher Strong (1933, 16mm) playing this week. Hepburn plays a pilot! Also Colin Clive as her love interest, I gather, wtfiu.
WEDNESDAY:
Quiet day, but here’s something the whole country can get in on – The Room (2003, DCP) plays at numerous mainstream theaters nationwide. I maintain that for those of us who go to the movies to see a reflection of someone’s inner life, The Room is actually quite a good film. It’s certainly leagues better than The Disaster Artist.
THURSDAY:
The Egyptian’s been on a real giallo kick these past few months, which looks to continue with What Have You Done to Solange? (1972, 35mm) and House of Psychotic Women (1974, 35mm). I’ll be recording an episode for you guys that night, but otherwise I’d be there in a heartbeat.
