Special event – Page 2

Upcoming screenings

August 20, 2009 Doug Cummings Special event

The two-week-plus campaign to Save Film at LACMA continues (be sure to read Time art and architecture critic Richard Lacayo’s article from yesterday), but Los Angeles’ fall film scene is beginning to promise highlights:

• “Cigarettes & Alcohol: Eight Films by Hong Sang-soo” (Sept. 11-19)
I’ve seen all of Hong’s films except for The Day a Pig Fell into the Well and his most recent two releases, which haven’t played in Los Angeles. LACMA is showing all three (Pig for free!) plus most of his other works; one of several fine examples of the kind of programming Angelenos will …

Miyazaki: Starting Point (1979-1996)

August 10, 2009 Doug Cummings Special event, Texts

Hayao Miyazaki made an appearance at AMPAS a couple weeks ago, and participated in a Q&A that included clips from his films. In general, he was soft spoken and not especially forthcoming with his answers (my wife assures me he was playing the part of the distinguished Japanese gentleman), but I found several of his comments illuminating, particularly on the subject of his multifaceted villains.

In most cases, Miyazaki’s films are notable for avoiding Good and Evil stereotypes, emphasizing instead the limited and selfish reasonings behind human conflicts. During the Q&A, he told us his primary reason for doing this …

AFI FEST 2008 Line-up

October 9, 2008 Doug Cummings Special event

With its 2008 line-up unveiled yesterday, AFI FEST has become the preeminent film festival for world cinema in Los Angeles. This is a dramatic improvement over past years, when the Palm Springs or Los Angeles festivals seemed destined to carry the torch for movies common to the critical dialogue from major festivals around the world. In addition to titles I’ve already highlighted, a brief glance at the 2008 schedule promises a lot of noteworthy films, including:

• Two films by Jia Zhang-ke, 24 City and the short Cry Me a River, plus a new film by his cinematographer, …

Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist

October 8, 2008 Doug Cummings Special event

Ran: Ichimonji Hidetora

There are currently two fantastic art exhibitions in Los Angeles that cinephiles won’t want to miss, both offered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I’ve already written about “Frédéric Back: A Life’s Drawings” in Hollywood (through November 1st). The second is “Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist” in Beverly Hills (through December 14th). The Kurosawa exhibition comes on the tenth anniversary of his death and includes two galleries, one devoted to posters and photographs from his productions, the other to “more than 100 of Kurosawa’s original pre-production drawings and paintings, art supplies, calligraphy materials, annotated …

The Exiles (1961)

August 14, 2008 Doug Cummings Film review, Special event

Forty-seven years after its premiere, Kent Mackenzie’s The Exiles (1961) has finally returned to its iconic setting of Los Angeles; a newly restored print begins a week-long run at the UCLA film archive tomorrow and is being used to promote at least one historical tour of Bunker Hill. Although the new print premiered in Marseilles and New York City, you’ll have to pardon Angelenos like myself if we act proprietary about the movie, rebirthed in the wider cinephiliac consciousness by CalArt’s Thom Andersen, whose Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) claims, “better than any other movie, [The Exiles] proves …

LACMA in October

August 13, 2008 Doug Cummings Special event

The Round-Up (1966)

Just as I was grumbling that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s recent announcement of a Rohmer retrospective in September includes less than a dozen films–all of them readily available on DVD (not even The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque?)–LACMA has unveiled its October line-up, which more than makes up for it:

• October 3
Happy-Go-Lucky, a preview screening of Mike Leigh’s new comedy

• October 4 through 25
Four Masterpieces by Edward Yang (That Day On the Beach, Taipei Story, A Brighter Summer Day, Yi Yi)

• October 7…