In conjunction with the exhibition Japan’s Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto, the Getty presents a film series reflecting the Shōwa Era (1926–89) of Japan. The films chosen feature the magnificent city of Tokyo, a metropolis that before the war was in transition, and after became a city that rebuilt itself like no other in modern history. This film series is intended for teen and adult audiences. Featuring directors Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Hiroshi Shimzu, and other noted filmmakers, the series surveys Tokyo’s diverse inhabitants, including sharp-dressed yakuza, the elderly and their grown children, and prostitutes…
Author: Robin Menken
Robin Menken
Robin Menken Robin Menken lives in Los Angeles. She was the Artistic Director of the Second City Workshops, taught at UC Berkeley, USC, Barcelona\'s Ateneu and the Esalin Institute. She was Roberto Rossellini\'s assistant, and worked with Yevgeny Vevteshenku, Glauber Rocha and Eugene Ionesco. She sold numerous screenplays and wrote the OBIE winning The FTA SHow (touring with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Ben Vereen.) She was a programming consultant and Special Events co-ordinator for numerous film festivals, including the SF, Rio, Havana and N.Y Film Festivals. Her first news outlet was the historic East Village Other.
The fourth annual Turner Classics Film Festival returns to Hollywood April 25-28. Cinematic Journeys: Travel in the Movies, the theme for the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival, will explore how movies can carry viewers beyond their hometowns to distant or imaginary locales, where they can be transformed by great storytelling. Often, the mode of travel provides the filmic inspiration, whether it’s planes, trains, or automobiles. At other times, the trip itself serves as the central narrative, as in the case of many “road movies.” With Hollywood as the starting point, TCM’s cinematic excursion will take festival attendees on a fascinating…
Prolific director Francois Ozon won’t be pinned down by genre. Just consider: a whodunit musical “8 Women”, a paean to parenthood “Ricky”, the steamy ‘Swimming Pool” and the gentle feminist “Potiche”. His latest, “In The House” based on a play by Juan Mayorga, plays with the ideas of the voyeurism of literature. Let’s call it a literary thriller.Bored with his sullen, useless high school students, French teacher Germain (Fabrice Luchini) discovers a talented pupil. Claude Garcia (Ernst Umhauer) turns in a surprising writing assignment. He befriends sheltered classmate Rapha Artole (Bastien Ughetto), in order to insinuate his way into the…
If all Bert Stern had done was direct “Jazz On A Summers Day”, the best Jazz film ever shot, he would have made his mark, but the private Mr. Stern, who’s had the camera turned on him for a change, also crafted some of the edgiest images of Mid-century fashion, fun and frolic.He grew up in Brooklyn in a basement apartment. His green-eyed mother was beautiful. She was the eternal optimist; his father was a failed suicide.He dropped out of school and worked as a soda jerk during the depression, His dad sent him and his brother across the bridge…
The 27th Israel Film Festival, the largest showcase of Israeli films in the United States, return to the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills and the Laemmle Town Center in Encino, with special events at the historic Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills.This year’s edition presents 30 dynamic titles, including award-winning features, thought-provoking documentaries, animated and student shorts.Opening night gala festivities at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills will honor Sherry Lansing with the IFF’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award and Martin Landau will the Career Achievement Award. Iff will also bestow the Cinematic Achievement Award on Israeli actor…
Violeta Went To Heaven”, Chile’s official 2012 Oscar Entry, delves into the psychological process of the artist who rediscovered Chile’s folk arts. Based on a book by her son, Angel Parra, Wood’s atmospheric film is an intimate portrait of the Mother Of “Nueva Cancion Chilena”.Ever since “La Fiebre del loco” (“Loco Fever”), Chilean director Andrés Wood has been delivering fascinating films about Chilean culture. Working with his frequent screenwriter Eliseo Altunaga (“Machuca”, “Post Mortem”) Woods creates a delicate portrait of the conflicted gifted artist. Cinematographers Miguel Abal and Miguel Ioann Littin Menz’s moody cinematography verges in surrealism at moments. Black…
Brit Sally El Hosaini’s first feature “My Brother the Devil” mixes, class, race and gender issues in it’s dark coming-of age story set in the disadvantaged council estates in the Hackney area of London.Good student Mo (Fady Elsayed) lives with his traditional Egyptian family, hard-woeking immigrant Abdul-Aziz (Nasser Memarzia) and mother Hanan (Amira Ghazalla). He shares a room with bad-boy older brother Rashid, who runs drugs for the neighborhood gang DMG (Drugs, Money, Guns). Rashid, a promising boxer, saves his money for college and ritually slips some of his filthy lucre into his mother’s wallet for groceries. He doesn’t know…
The 11th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) celebrates the Centennial of Indian Cinema. Recognized as the premiere showcase of groundbreaking Indian cinema globally, IFFLA will run April 9 to 14 at ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles, the festival’s home since its inception.This year’s program reflects the rich diversity of Indian cinema, which is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year, as well as the future of Indian filmmaking, with cutting-edge filmmakers bringing their acclaimed films to Los Angeles.The festival will showcase more than 35 films from the Indian filmmaking community across the globe, host the highly anticipated opening…
Pablo Berger’s ravishing silent film “Blancanieves”, Spain’s official 2012 Oscar submission, is a must SEE. The moody, darkly comic fairytale, reset in a Bunuelesque gothic setting is full of silent film techniques, expressive multiple exposure images that harken back to early silent experimental films, and oneiric visual vignettes. Berger, a supreme stylist, always maintains an emotional through line. One of the best films of the year. I interviewed him during the Oscar Foreign films campaign. Robin Menken: I’m a major fan of “Torremolinos 73”, totally crazed for that film and I waited and waited for you to make another film.…
Filmforum pays tribute to the late great George Kuchar with an evening of his video work. While his decades of films are most often screened, George played and made remarkable works on video for many years, most notably his Weather Diary series, but also much more. This program was curated by Abina Manning of Video Data Bank, which distributes videos by the Kuchar Brothers. Quite a few are probably Los Angeles premieres!Los Angeles Filmforum partners with the Free Form Film Festival this weekend to present Mike Kuchar in person for both evenings, appearing with Tom Colley, from VDB, who has…