Around Town: Ray Charles and the Hollywood Film Festival
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Long-lost concert footage of Ray Charles, a tribute to Disney concept designer Mary Blair and the Hollywood Film Festival are among this week’s highlights.
Considered lost for 50 years, the footage compiled in “Ray Charles — Live in France 1961,” filmed at the 1961 Antibes Jazz Festival in France, screens Thursday evening at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre. David Ritz, Charles’ biographer, will moderate a panel that includes Ray Charles catalog authority James Austin and producer Tom Gulotta. www.americancinematheque.com
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Marc Davis Celebration of Animation Thursday evening at the Samuel Goldwyn presents “Mary Blair’s World of Color — A Centennial Tribute.” Charles Solomon hosts the evening honoring the late visual color stylist and welcomes panelists including “Up!” director Pete Docter and animator Eric Goldberg. www.oscars.org
The 2011 Hollywood Film Festival gets underway at the ArcLight in Hollywood Friday evening with a screening of the romantic comedy “Dorfman,” starring Sara Rue and Elliott Gould. The festival continues through Monday evening at the ArcLight. Among the features, documentaries and shorts to be screened include “And They’re Off,” “Dispatch,” “The Trouble With Truth,” “The World of Z,” “A Journey With Purpose” and “sexting.” The festival’s Hollywood Film Awards take place Monday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. hollywoodawards.com/festival
Film Independent at LACMA serves up a “Live Read” of the 1985 John Hughes teen flick “The Breakfast Club,” directed by Jason Reitman, Thursday evening at the Bing Theater. The evening is sold out, but there will be a standby line. “Behind the Scenes: Bringing Burton’s World or Life” is set for Friday evening. In addition to a rare 70-millimeter screening of Tim Burton’s 1990 “Edward Scissorhands,” there will be conversation among the filmmaker’s major collaborators: composer Danny Elfman, costume designer Colleen Atwood and art director, sculptor, installment designer and production designer Rick Heinrichs. Ron Magliozzi, associate curator with the Museum of Modern Art’s department of film and co-organizer of the current “Tim Burton” exhibition at LACMA, will moderate. Tuesday’s matinee screening at LAMCA is the 1957 Jacques Tourneur British thriller “Night of the Demon,” with Dana Andrews. Scheduled for Tuesday evening is 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme do’Or winner, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. www.lacma.org
UCLA Film and Television Archive’s “L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema” enters its third week at the Billy Wilder Friday evening with several shorts including 1981’s “Shipley Street” and 1982’s “Brick by Brick” and “Rich.” Filmmakers in attendance include Shirikiana Aina, S. Torriana Berry and Carroll Parrott Blue. Saturday’s offering are restoration premieres of two films by Billy Woodberry: the 1984 feature “Bless Their Little Hearts’ and the 1980 short “The Pocketbook.” Woodberry is scheduled to attend. Filmmaker Haile Gerima will be on hand for two of his films, 1982’s “Ashes and Embers” and the 1971 short “Hour Glass.”
On Wednesday, the archive is celebrating the comic genius of Laurel and Hardy with a screening of their 1937 comedy “Way Out West,” as well as their 1932 Oscar-winning short “The Music Box.” Also on tap for Wednesday at the Million Dollar Theatre downtown are the archive’s screening of Mel Brooks’ 1974 spoof “Young Frankenstein” and the 1979 “Dracula” sendup “Love at First Bite.” www.cinema.ucla.edu
The epic World War II action adventure “The Guns of Navarone” has a 50th anniversary screening Friday at the Egyptian. It’s the L.A. premiere of a new digital restoration. Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle and James Darren star.
Saturday’s offerings at the Egyptian are a double bill of western comedies: Mel Brooks’ classic 1974 spoof “Blazing Saddles,” followed by a free presentation of the 1972 farce “Evil Roy Slade,” starring John Astin, Dick Shawn, Mickey Rooney, Milton Berle and Dom DeLuise.
“The Scenes Where We Live: Art Directors Film Society Series 2011” screens the 1955 Cinemascope costume epic “Land of the Pharaohs” early Sunday evening. The film, which stars Jack Hawkins and Joan Collins, was co-written by William Faulkner. Following the screening will be a discussion with art director and set designer Jim Hewitt; production designer John Muto moderates.
Both the Egyptian and the Cinemathque’s Aero Theatre are host to the German Currents 2011 festival, which opens Wednesday at the Egyptian with the L.A. premiere of “Almanya: Welcome to Germany,” a 2011 Turkish-German immigrant comedy.
The Aero’s Thursday evening program is a selection from Ashbury Shorts NY —a mixture of indie comedy, drama and animation shorts. Among the 12 films are “Love Does Grow in Trees” and “Our Time Is Up,” the latter a 2005 Oscar nominee for best live-action short.
The Aero gets its Boo! on with “The Price Is Right: Vincent Price Centennial,” which kicks off Friday evening with two of the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations he did for director Roger Corman: 1963’s “The Raven,” which also stars Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, and 1964’s “Masque of the Red Death,” with Hazel Court and Jane Asher. William Castle’s over-the-top 1958 “House on Haunted Hill” serves up the scares on Saturday evening, along with 1971’s “The Abominable Dr. Phibes.” Terry Castle, the daughter of the filmmaker, will sign copies of “House on Haunted Hill-The Annotated Screenplay” before the screenings. The retrospective concludes Sunday with the 1973 favorite “Theater of Blood” and 1968’s gothic horror chiller “Witchfinder General.” The latter film was directed by Michael Reeves, who tragically died at 25 from an overdose of barbiturates.
On hand to discuss the Hammer Films horror double bill at the Aero Wednesday evening will be Bela Lugosi Jr., publisher and artist Kerry Gammill, editor and screenwriter Sam F. Park, writer Robert Tinnell and filmmaker Mike Hill. The films on view will be of 1958’s “Horror of Dracula,” starring Christopher Lee as the bloodthirsty count, and 1961’s ‘The Curse of the Werewolf,” Hammer’s only werewolf film and Oliver Reed’s first starring role. www.americancinematheque.com
Thursday evening the New Beverly Cinema concludes its weeklong engagement of Alberto Cavalcanti’s 1942 British film “Went the Day Well?’ Also screening is the 1947 British gangster flick “Brighton Rock,” with Richard Attenborough. The Grindhouse Film Festival at the New Bev presents midnight screenings Friday and Saturday of the 1979 Italian horror film “Zombie,” with Tisa Farrow. Set for Friday and Saturday evening’s are two South Korean films from Kim Ji-woon, 2003’s “A Tale of Two Sisters” and 2010’s I Saw the Devil.”
Wes Craven’s 1984 thriller “Nightmare on Elm Street,” with Robert Englund and a very young Johnny Depp, and the filmaker’s 1994 “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” are set for Sunday and Monday at the New Beverly. On Wednesday, the theater is offering a free advance screening of Depp’s new film, “The Rum Diary” — check out the website for details on how to get tickets — as well as Terry Gilliam’s 1998 “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Both films are based on novels by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. www.newbevcinema.com
Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre present a “When Animals Attack” triple bill Friday night consisting of 1971’s rat classic “Willard,” Franco Prosperi’s 1984 “Wild Beasts” and 1990’s “Shakma” with Christopher Atkins and a feisty baboon. Saturday and Sunday’s offering are “A Celebration of Homemade Horror.” Later in the afternoon on Sunday, Cinefamily will host a a pumpkin carving party as well as a screening of the creepy 1983 Disney film “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” based on Ray Bradbury’s tale.
On Monday evening, Doug Benson and his funny friends will be offering comments from the front row of the theater during a screening of Wes Craven’s 1986 flick “Deadly Friend.” Director Ti West will be in attendance Tuesday for a screening of his 2011 horror film, “The Innkeepers.” Rounding out the bill is Steve Miner’s 1986 film “House.” Wednesday brings a live performance from Nilbog, a horror film score tribute band, as well as the Italian-made 1971 “Goodbye Uncle Tom.” www.cinefamily.org
Echo Park Film Center’s Cinema Indigène Saturday evening presents contemporary native-made movies. www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
The ArcLight Cinemas are presenting vintage musicals this month. On tap for Monday at the ArcLight Hollywood is the 1963 pop musical “Bye Bye Birdie,” with Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret and Janet Leigh. The ArcLight Sherman Oaks serves up Joel Schumacher’s 2004 version of “The Phantom of the Opera” on Tuesday, while on Wednesday evening the ArcLight Pasadena presents John Huston’s 1982 adaptation of “Annie” and ArcLight Beach Cities presents the 2007 Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration on “Sweeney Todd.’ www.arclightcinemas.com
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ John Huston Lecture on Documentary Filmmaking Wednesday evening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater presents “The Rise of the Non-Fiction Film.” R.J. Cutler, director of 2009’s “The September Issue,” moderates the panel that includes Amir Bar-Lev (2010’s “The Tillman Story”), Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim (2006’s “An Inconvenient Truth”) and Ricki Stern (2010’s “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”). www.oscars.org
Related:
A Colorful Tribute to Disney’s Mary Blair
Vincent Price screenings at Aero, LACMA
— Susan King
