Around Town: Celebrate Easter with Jimmy Stewart and Harvey
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The American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre is going rabid for rabbits Easter Sunday -- just don’t expect the Easter Bunny. The evening begins with 1950’s ‘Harvey,’ starring Jimmy Stewart in his Oscar-nominated performance as Elwood P. Dowd, a sweetly crazy guy whose best friend is an invisible 6’3’ white rabbit named Harvey. Josephine Hull earned an Oscar as Elwood’s frazzled sister. The evening concludes with the 2001 cult fave ‘Donnie Darko,’ with Jake Gyllenhaal and a rabbit a lot less friendly than Harvey.
On Easter Sunday evening, the Cinematheque’s Egyptian will screen the 1933 version of ‘King Kong,’ starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot and featuring the groundbreaking stop-motion special effects of Willis O’Brien. www.americancinematheque.com
Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater presents a week-long engagement of Noel Black’s 1968 cult favorite, ‘Pretty Poison,’ beginning this Friday. Black will be on hand Friday evening for the screening of this dark comedic-thriller starring Anthony Perkins as a young disturbed man on parole from a mental institution who meets his match in the form of a beautiful high school cheerleader (Tuesday Weld) who also happens to be a sociopath. For years, only a 16mm print of the film was available, but Cinefamily is showing a new 35mm print. www.cinefamily.org
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is celebrating its current exhibition, ‘In Wonderland’ with the new movie series, ‘Adventures in Wonderland: Alice and Other Lost Girls in Fantastic Worlds’ at the Leo S. Bing Theater. The festival begins Friday evening with 1988’s ‘Alice,’ Jan Svankmajer’s first feature, which blends live-action with puppets, and Jaromil Jires’ 1970 coming-of-age story, ‘Valerie and her Week of Wonders.’ Screening late Saturday afternoon is Paramount’s 1933 all-star version of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ starring Charlotte Henry as Alice and practically every player under contract to the studio from Gary Cooper to Cary Grant to Charles Laughton. The evening concludes with a double feature from Czech New Wave director Vera Chytilova: 1966’s ‘Daisies’ and 1970’s ‘Fruits of Paradise.’
LACMA’s Tuesday matinee series feature Douglas Sirk’s 1959 racial drama ‘Imitation of Life’ with Lana Turner and Oscar-nominated Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner. www.lacma.org
The Aero ushers in the weekend Thursday evening with Bela Tarr’s 2011 film, ‘The Turin Horse,’ while the Egyptian screens Norman Jewison’s lavish 1971 adaptation of the beloved musical, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ with Topol.
On Friday evening, Egyptian Theatre presents two fantasies from Jim Henson-1982’s ‘The Dark Crystal,’ which he co-directed with Frank Oz, and the 1986 fantasy ‘Labyrinth,’ with David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly in one of her first film roles.
The Aero’s ‘Wednesdays with Robert Altman’ series continues with the 20th anniversary screening of the sharp Hollywood satire, ‘The Player,’ with Tim Robbins, Peter Gallagher and tons of cameos. www.americancinematheque.com
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continues its ‘Inside the Booth: A Journey Through Projection’ Thursday evening at the Linwood Dunn with ‘The Gold Age,’ which look sat the rise of film and sound formats and movie palaces. There will be film clips and demonstration explaining such topics as optical and digital multichannel sound.
And on Wednesday, the Academy presents the 50th anniversary screening of the classic ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ based on Harper Lee’s book, featuring Gregory Peck in his Oscar-winning performance as a honest, dedicated Southern attorney in the 1930s who agrees to defend a black man (Brock Peters) accused of raping a white woman. Tavis Smalley will introduce the screening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater; Mary Badham , who earned an Oscar nomination at 10, playing his daughter Scout, will be on hand to talk about the film. www.oscars.org
The New Beverly screens Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 romantic thriller ‘To Catch a Thief’ with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly and the 1991 box office disaster ‘Hudson Hawk’ with Bruce Willis on Friday and Saturday. The Saturday midnight movie is the 1991 best picture Oscar-winner ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ with Oscar-winners Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.
Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel collaborated together on five films and the New Beverly is showing two of their earliest works-1968’s ‘Coogan’s Bluff,’ which marked their first pairing, and the lighthearted 1969 ‘Two Mules for Sister Sara,’ also starring Shirley MacLaine. www.newbevcinema.com
Sharon Lockhart shows her latest film, ‘Double Tide,’ which was shot at Seal Cove, Maine, Monday at Film at Redcat. Lockhart will appear in person to discuss her work. www.redcat.org
The Skirball’s ‘Through a Glass Brightly: A Paul Mazurksy Retrospective’ continues Tuesday afternoon with a free screening of his 1989 film, ‘Enemies: A Love Story,’ starring Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin based on the Holocaust-themed novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer. www.skirball.org
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-- Susan King
