Category Hollywood

BY ANDRE SOARES. LOS ANGELES (CINEMA MINIMA) — A screening of a new print of THE GAUCHO (1927) will be the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s celebration of Hollywood’s biggest action-adventure star of the silent era, Douglas Fairbanks. The event will take place 2008 November 6 Thursday, at 7:30 p.m., at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California.

This new print (from the Museum of Modern Art) of Fairbanks’ penultimate silent film will be accompanied by music composed and conducted by Michael Mortilla, performed by a quintet. The screening will be preceded by outtakes shot in two-strip Technicolor.

THE GAUCHO is presented in conjunction with the publication of the Academy’s new book, Douglas Fairbanks, by Jeffrey Vance (with Tony Maietta and photo editor Robert Cushman). All three contributors will be on hand signing books before and after the screening.

This screening will be an excellent chance to watch a major silent — or rather, dialogue-less — production the way it was meant to be watched: a great print, on the big screen, with live musical accompaniment. Not to be missed by those interested in the development of the art of cinema.

BY ANDRE SOARES. LOS ANGELES (CINEMA MINIMA) — The 1992 Oscar-winning documentaries THE PANAMA DECEPTION and EDUCATING PETER, will be screened as part of “Oscar’s Docs, Part Four: Academy Award-Winning Documentaries 1988–1997″ on 2008 October 20, Monday, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

Producer-director Barbara Trent and producer-writer-editor David Kasper of THE PANAMA DECEPTION — about the untold story behind the events that led to the US invasion of Panama in the late 1980s — will take part in a post-screening discussion.

BUY The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide: A Down & Dirty DV Production, at Amazon.com

Register by 2008 October 17, get 2 seminar tix

BY ANDRE SOARES, LOS ANGELES. (CINEMA MINIMA) — At the 29th American Film Market — 2008 November 5 - 12 in Santa Monica, California — movie makers can:

• Meet more than 400 production companies.
• See more than 500 films.
• Preview more than 100 world premieres.
• Network with 8,000 industry professionals.
• Attend seminars from more than 100 industry leaders.
• Learn about the future of the industry.

Registration fees go up after 2008 October 24: Register now at www.AmericanFilmMarket.com. Even better: Register by 17 October and receive two free seminar tickets.

More than 500 films will screen at the 2008 AFM, including 102 world premieres and 376 market premieres. The Film Catalogue shows the complete schedule, including cast, synopses and more, with updates. [The American Film Market is produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance]

International versions of Hollywood movies from the 1930s

BY ANDRE SOARES. LOS ANGELES (CINEMA MINIMA) — The little-seen 1934 melodrama NADA MAS QUE UNA MUJER | NOTHING MORE THAN A WOMAN by Harry Lachman, a unique example of the many Spanish-language versions of Hollywood films made in the 1930s, will be screened 2008 October 19, Sunday, 7:00 PM at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood in Los Angeles.

NADA MAS QUE UNA MUJER will be followed by the 1933 romantic comedy NO DEJES LA PUERTA ABIERTA | DON’T LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN by Frank R. Strayer and Miguel de Zárraga, starring Raul Roulien of FLYING DOWN TO RIO. Both restored, 35mm prints will be screened with English subtitles.

This will be a great opportunity to become acquainted with “foreign-language” (international) versions of Hollywood movies made during the first decade of talking pictures, a time — before adequate dubbing and subtitling — when Hollywood studios and independent producers were doing what they could so as not to lose their “foreign” (international) markets.

NADA MAS QUE UNA MUJER is particularly important because it marks one of the rare film appearances of legendary Argentinean stage performer Berta Singerman, a poetry interpreter who has been compared to Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. [The Alternative Film Guide]

Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution

The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930, by Scott Eyman. Nowadays the “talkie” seems, like some other technological breakthroughs, to have obliterated its less-advanced predecessor, the silent movie, in one fell swoop. The reality, of course, is more complex. As Scott Eyman writes in his prologue to The Speed of Sound, “To examine this period of unparalleled industrial change, it is necessary to reverse the perspective, to give a fair, detailed idea of what silents were like to the people who made and watched them, and how talkies permanently changed the creative and personal equations.” Eyman’s eye-opening book fulfills this mission. He focuses on just five years — 1926 through 1930 — but tells the story on many levels. We learn about the technology, the details of actors’ and technicians’ lives, the elaborate business machinations associated with the rise of sound, and the resulting transformation, of not just the movies, but of Hollywood itself. Your purchase at Amazon.com through this link supports Cinema Minima.

BY ANDRE SOARES. LOS ANGELES (CINEMA MINIMA) — The American Cinematheque and the Santa Monica Puppetry Center pay homage to Leslie Caron this weekend in Santa Monica, California.

2008 October 11 Saturday 7:30 PM at the Aero Theater, Ms Caron will be the guest of honor at the inaugural Santa Monica Puppetry Festival with “A Celebration of Puppetry,” starring Mallory Lewis — daughter of the late ventriloquist Shari Lewis — with puppet Lambchop.

2008 October 12 Sunday 7:30 PM at the Aero, Leslie Caron will return for a screening of her 1953 classic LILI. Film historian Leonard Maltin will chat with Caron after the movie.

Two books tell histories of innovation in Hollywood but reach very different conclusions.

The story of Hollywood is a story of successful technical innovation

Inventing the Movies a new book by journalist Scott Kirsner, advances this thesis: “From Edison to the iPod, from the Warner Brothers to George Lucas, the story of how the movies became America’s favorite form of escapist entertainment — and retained their hold on our imaginations for more than a century — is a story of innovators prevailing again and again over skeptics who prefer to preserve the status quo.

“In Inventing the Movies, Scott Kirsner unspools a never-before-told story of innovators who shaped Hollywood:

• How a chance meeting at the Saratoga Race Track led to the end of black-and-white movies;
• How Bing Crosby brought you the VCR;
• How Walt Disney tamed television;
• How a shotgun blast signaled the end of hand-made models and the beginning of digital special effects;
• And how even the almighty Morgan Freeman had trouble persuading theater owners that the Internet wasn’t their mortal enemy.

“Inventing the Movies is an important read, not just for fans of Hollywood’s history, but for innovators trying to make change happen — in any industry.” The author, journalist Scott Kirsner, blogs Hollywood at Cinema Tech. [Inventing the Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo, from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, by Scott Kirsner]

To the contrary: Misunderstanding Media

For a contrary history, which holds that Hollywood has prospered by successfully retarding innovation for as long as possible — read Misunderstanding Media by Brian Winston.

BY ANDRE SOARES. LOS ANGELES (CINEMA MINIMA) — From 2008 October 7–November 25, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts‘ will present the series, Bob Hope: Thanks for the Memories, programmed by Joseph Yranski.

Among the screening films in the series are several of Bob Hope’s hard-to-find television appearances of the 1950s and 1960s, and half a dozen or so of little-seen Hope vehicles, including THE IRON PETTICOAT, with Katharine Hepburn, and THE CAT AND THE CANARY, with Paulette Goddard. Admission is free.