Around Town: Marvel legend Stan Lee hosts ‘Avengers’ screening
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Marvel Comics’ guru Stan Lee will be honored with the Ronald Reagan Foundation’s “Great Communicator” award and will host a screening of “The Avengers,” which is opening theatrically this weekend, at the Catalina Film Festival. The festival, which runs Friday through Sunday at the venerable Avalon Theatre, will feature more than 75 films.
The opening night program is the North American premiere of Rob Reiner’s “The Magic of Belle Isle” with Morgan Freeman. Other films include the North American premiere of “Bel Ami” with Robert Pattinson. http://www.catalinafilm.org
The South East European Film Festival kicks off Thursday at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles with the Romanian romantic comedy “Hello! How Are You?” and the animated short “Five Minutes Each.” The festival, which continues through Monday, will feature 33 films including “Balkan Melodie” and “Do Not Forget Me Istanbul.” The closing evening feature, “Future Lasts Forever,” screens at the James Bridges Theater at UCLA. http://www.seefilmla.org
The L.A. Harbor International Film Festival at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro kicks off Thursday evening and continues through Sunday. The non-competitive festival highlights films that deal with harbor life, including shipping, fishing, water sports and sailing. http://www.laharborfilmfest.com
Three years before she became a sensation in Josef von Sternberg’s 1930 German blockbuster “The Blue Angel,” Marlene Dietrich played a wealthy party girl named Emi in the silent film “Cafe Electric,” directed by Gustav Ucicky. The film will be screening Thursday at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre with Gehard Gruber performing musical accompaniment on the piano.
Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg will discuss his late mother, actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, at the screening of two of her film noirs from 1946, “Three Strangers” and “Nobody Lives Forever,” Saturday at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre.
Veteran director Arthur Hiller will be on hand Tuesday at the Aero Theatre for a talk after the screening of his popular 1979 comedy “The In-Laws,” which starred Peter Falk and Alan Arkin. After the discussion, there will be a screening of Paul Mazurksy’s 1988 comedy “Moon Over Parador” with Richard Dreyfuss. http://www.americancinematheque.com
In conjunction with its current exhibition, “Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States,” the Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents “Female Surreal Cinema: Animation,” followed by “Female Surrealist Cinema: Performance and Montage,” Thursday evening at the Leo S. Bing Theater.
LACMA’s Tuesday matinee is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 dark comedy “The Trouble With Harry,” which marked the feature film debut of Shirley MacLaine. http://www.lacma.org
The New Beverly Cinema presents John Frankenheimer’s nightmarish 1966 thriller “Seconds,” with Rock Hudson in one of his most well-received performances, on Friday evening. James Wong Howe did the black-and-white cinematography. The second bill is John Woo’s 1997 “Face/Off” with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. Screenwriters Mike Werb and Michael Colleary are scheduled to appear in person. http://www.newbevcinema.com
The Autry presents two films Saturday afternoon starring the museum’s namesake-singing cowboy, Gene Autry: 1941’s “Down Mexico Way” and 1949’s “The Big Sombrero.” http://theautry.org
UCLA Film & Television Archive is collaborating with the California State Parks Foundation and Environmental Media Assn. to present The ParkFilm Fest, a daylong festival of movies Saturday at the Paramount Theatre on the Paramount lot in Hollywood. The festival, which celebrates the use of California state parks as locales in films, will present a marathon screening of the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films directed by Gore Verbinski. http://www.calparks.org/filmfest.
The archive’s current celebration of Universal’s centenary at the Billy Wilder Theatre features two of the studio’s silent film classics Sunday evening: 1919’s “Blind Husbands,” starring Erich von Stroheim, who also made his directorial debut with the hit, followed by the 1925 version of “The Phantom of the Opera” starring Lon Chaney in his seminal role.
The archive’s Wednesday night programming at the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown L.A. presents Billy Wilder’s classic 1959 gender-bender comedy “Some Like It Hot,” with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. http://www.cinema.ucla.edu
Hollywood Heritage Museum’s Evening @ the Barn presents a look at “Homes of the Stars in Hollywood and Beverly Hills” Wednesday evening. Author Mike Oldham will show his vintage postcards in a video presentation. http://www.hollywoodheritage.org
The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre’s Wednesday evening vintage flick is an early one from William Wyler -- the 1929 romantic comedy “The Love Trap” -- plus Vitaphone shorts. http://www.cinefamily.org
RELATED:
Stan Lee to host ‘Avengers’ screening at the Catalina Film Festival
-- Susan King
