In my opinion, Rita Hayworth is the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Her grace, warmth and sexiness lights up the screen. I am super excited for the New Beverly’s Rita Hayworth double feature on February 10th and 11th - You Were Never Lovelier & Cover Girl. In the first Rita co-stars with Fred Astaire, in the second Gene Kelly.

As many of you know, I am a hard core Xanadu fan. I love it without shame, and I love that Gene Kelly lends the same amount of charm to it that he does to every other one of his movies.

A little known fact about Xanadu is that it is based on two Rita Hayworth films – Down to Earth and Cover Girl. In the first Rita plays the muse Terpsichore come down to help a young man put on a show (sound familiar?) and in the second she is a dancer working at a nightclub owned by Gene Kelly named after his character, Danny Maguire. That’s right, the SAME Danny Maguire he plays in Xanadu!

 This little character cross over makes me love Xanadu even more. So Saturday, February 11th, you have the opportunity to come watch Cover Girl  at 9:30, and then stay for the midnight show of Xanadu – seeing  Gene Kelly play this character in 1944 and again in 1980. Genius!!

As charming as Olivia Newton John is, she ain’t no Rita Hayworth. Come check out the incandescent Rita tonight and tomorrow and see what I mean! 

Aside from some automotive trouble, and the usual dire financial straits I am always in, I am finding myself frustrated frequently. 

I always dreamed of being a revolutionary, a la Abbie Hoffman, or some such sixties cool cat. But I am not confident or violent enough to challenge “the man” in such a way. Now I feel like I have become a revolutionary – albeit in a very very small way – in the fight to keep 35mm available. I should be over the moon, but instead I feel confused and conflicted. 

Lots of people have accused me of thinking digital is stupid, which I certainly don’t. I think it is an incredible medium for the independent filmmaker. The plain fact that anyone now has the ability to pick up a camera and shoot a film for pennies, and not have to worry about buying or developing film stock is astounding. I know that I can’t stop the future from happening, and that the future of cinema is digital. I am powerless against that fight, and that is something I have accepted. 

However, I DO believe that 35mm is a superior format to watch movies in a theater. That is my personal opinion, and according to my petition, one that over 8,000 people share. All I am asking is to let 35mm prints remain available to screen indefinitely. Little theaters are struggling all over the country, and I know I can’t save all of them, as much as I would like to. The destruction of independent businesses and the mono-globalization of large businesses makes me sad. When I drive past countless shopping centers with the same stores in them in hundreds of cities, it depresses me. I know this is something that I will only be seeing more and more of in the future, so I am trying very hard to get past it. 

I will always enjoy going to a single screen movie house over a multiplex. I will always prefer seeing a movie for the first time, on the big screen, in 35mm. While large corporations charge exorbitant amounts for movie tickets and audiences members become more and more inconsiderate of their fellow movie goers, independent theaters just become more and more precious. Thank god for the Alamo Draft House and their stringent no texting policy. Thank god for the Nuart, continuing to show Rocky Horror Picture Show weekly. Thank god for the Cinefamily, willing to take chances on films that no other theater will. 

The point is, if I have one, that I am more than happy to be the face of this revolution, or whatever it is, if people will actually listen to what I am saying and understand what it is I am really fighting for. Just embrace and preserve our past.  That is all. I thought it was a battle I could get everyone I know behind, but I was wrong. And though it is silly, it hurts. I love film and the New Beverly Cinema so so much, and when either of these things are threatened, I will do everything I can to fight back.  I’m afraid this position I have taken is going to have larger consequences than I first bargained for. But if movies have taught me anything, it is that I have to speak up for what I believe in and what is important to me – lets just hope this particular film has a happy ending. 

Rarely does a film come along where we are afforded the luxury of knowing absolutely nothing about the plot. I find this to usually be my preferred method of watching a movie, so I can be completely open-minded and surprised. When Never Let Me Go came out in September 2010, the only thing I knew was that it starred Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield, two of my favorite actors. I went in completely blind, and was incredibly and absolutely blown away.

When the film ended, I didn’t want to leave the theater because I didn’t want to break the spell the film had created, nor disturb the emotional effect it had on me – and I was crying buckets. I truly think this film was the best of 2010, and was shocked and outraged when it was overlooked, not only by viewers, but by the awards. Both Golden Globes and Oscars completely snubbed the incredible performances given by all three leads. 

I have been championing the film since its release, begging friends and neighbors to see it. I wanted to play it at the New Beverly as soon as possible, but Fox Searchlight told me that out of all of the hundreds of prints made, only two remained. One was irreparably damaged, and the other on long-term loan to a cruise ship. Whether they were telling the truth or not, I can’t say, but I will say that I am completely overjoyed that we will finally be showing it at the New Bev on January 11th and 12th with (schedule permitting) director Mark Romanek in attendance both nights.

If I have ever implored you to attend a film I have booked at the theater, and you haven’t come, you owe me one. Please come see this film. Please tell everyone you know to come. It is beautiful, masterfully shot and performed, disturbing, the most interesting use of science fiction I have seen and completely heartbreaking.

This is the kind of film I hope to be seeing more of, and the kind that I hope one day to star in myself.

Romanek himself picked the doubles’ second feature, Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451. I have read the book, but never seen the film and am very excited to see it, especially to compare the similarities to Never Let Me Go.

You’ll notice I haven’t discussed the plot of the film at all, and I have done so on purpose. I hope you will come to the show knowing only what I have told you, and trust me. You might walk away from it with your heart broken, but there is no way to walk away from this film without admitting its brilliance and beauty. 

Here are the links to all of the articles written about it so far – and thank you to all of the authors, of course!!

Let’s keep fighting the good fight!! Long Live 35mm!

Movieline

Fearnet

AV Club

Aint It Cool News

Indiewire

Schofizzy

Fatblog

Borned to be Hanged

Cinematica

50 Westerns 

Kine Artefacts

All About Jazz

Carole & Co

Campus Circle 

Reel Speak

Tumblr 

Smithsonian

Badass Digest

2 Pop

Docspace

Sergio Leone and The Infield Fly Rule

Row Three

Sunscreen Film Festival

Film at the Paramount

Classic Film School

Flannel Owl

Cinemacord

Little White Lies

Leopard 13

The L Magazine

The Guardian

The Short Goodbye

Flagpole Magazine

Theatre Historical Society

Motion Within Motion

The Atlantic 

Cinema Treasures

Screen Comment 

Reddit

We only show films on 35mm. 

The major film studios have decided that they eventually want to stop renting all archival 35mm film prints entirely because there are so few revival houses left, and because digital is cheap and the cost of storing and shipping prints is high. 

I firmly believe that when you go out to the cinema, the film should be shown in 35mm. The digital capabilities currently available for theatrical presentation are no more advanced than the blu-rays you watch at home. The average theater ticket in Los Angeles is $14 – so you are basically paying just to watch the same thing you could watch on your own TV on a bigger screen. 

At the New Beverly, we have never been about making money – a double feature ticket costs only $8. We are passionate about cinema and film lovers. We still use a reel to reel projection system, and our projectionists care dearly about film, checking each print carefully before it screens and monitoring the film as it runs to ensure the best projection possible. With digital screenings, the projectionists will become obsolete and the film will be run by ushers pushing a button – they don’t ever have to even enter the theater. 

The human touch will be entirely taken away. The New Beverly Cinema tries our hardest to be a timeless establishment that represents the best that the art of cinema has to offer. We want to remain a haven where true film lovers can watch a film as it was meant to be seen – in 35mm. Revival houses perform an undeniable service to movie watchers – a chance to watch films with an audience that would otherwise only be available for home viewing. Film is meant to be a communal experience, and nothing can surpass watching a film with a receptive audience, in a cinema, projected from a film print. 

I feel very strongly about this issue and cannot stand idly by and let digital projection destroy the art that I live for. As one voice I cannot change the future, but hopefully if enough film lovers speak up, we can prove to the studios that repertory cinema is important and that we want 35mm to remain available to screen. 

Please sign this petition and forward it to any cinephiles you know. Let’s fight for 35mm!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/fight-for-35mm/

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”

Hunter S. Thompson.  Just his name will immediately garner a response.  Genius?  Madman?  Freedom Fighter?  Selfish Bastard?  I think all of these terms are correct.  The New Beverly Cinema recently played a double feature of Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” starring Johnny Depp and  the documentary “Gonzo:  the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson”. Two of the several films made  about the same man – a writer, no less – in the last 20 years —not usual  Hollywood fodder.  What was it about the infamous Dr. Gonzo that made him so appealing in just about every medium?

Before he became the drug-addled, cigarette holder-chomping, Hawaiian shirt-wearing weirdo he was known to be, Hunter was a member of the United States Air Force.  Not surprisingly, he was discharged, and they noted that “he will not be guided by policy.”  The military and the complete lack of respect for authority do not go hand in hand.  He found his niche after shadowing the Hell’s Angels for a year and writing an expose about them (promptly getting “stomped” by the Angels after its release).

From there, Hunter’s “gonzo” writing style blew up his stories, and they appeared in Esquire and The New York Times, among others.  I really admire Hunter, along with his contemporaries Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, for completely marching to his own drum and being completely true to himself.  While working, Thompson was more often than not on a variety of drugs and alcohol.  He was known to carry a loaded gun with him at all times, and of course he was famously associated with a 300-pound, Samoan attorney.  He refused to live by any of society’s rules, and became not only a fantastic writer, but also a pop culture icon and a character within his own stories.

As with any talented artist, the line between genius and insanity is thin.  Hunter rode that line better than any artist before or since.  He ran for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado, in 1970, under the Freak Power ticket, and shaved his head so he could call the Republican candidate “my long-haired opponent.”

He almost won, garnering 44% of the votes.  I sure as hell would have voted for him.

As he predicted to all throughout his life, Thompson shot and killed himself in 2005, and his ashes were shot out of a cannon to Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”.  His death, like his life, was strange and ridiculous.

I long for journalism to regain the courage and individuality that Hunter S. Thompson brought to the field. I want to read stories by reporters stoned out of their mind, getting paid to destroy hotel rooms and cover events they may not even make it to.  The thought of there never being another writer like him makes me sad, and makes me yearn for an era where being a little bit out of control was mysterious and supported.

I offer myself to fill that gap. I am not usually an advocate of drugs or alcohol, but If anyone would care to pay me to take a highly irresponsible trip and completely go out of my mind, I’m up for it.   For Hunter.

A few weekends ago, inspired by a random photo we came across, my boyfriend David and I decided to try a little artistic experiment. I bought some canvases from Blick, some crayons, super glue and some lighters. We unwrapped and arranged the crayons atop the canvas to our liking, then glued them on.

We tried two methods of melting the crayons: lighter and hair dryer. The hair dryer was not terribly effective, having too large of a surface area and too difficult to control the air flow. This was my hair dryer painting:

This was David’s:

The lighter turned out way way better, but hurt the hell out  my hand after holding it down for so long.

After the success of the small lighter painting, I was confident and curious to try again, so i bought a bigger canvas and came up with this masterpiece.

I’m really excited to continue with these “paintings”. They are pretty bitchin.  But i switched from glue to tape, because of the residue, and i bought a butane torch, so I don’t have to hold down the lighter anymore.  Who knows where this mad experiment will lead?

All of it reminds me of this Sesame Street gem from our youth: 

As I have mentioned here several times before, I have been obsessed with the 60′s for pretty much my entire life – case in point, one of my favorite movies growing up was John Waters’ Hairspray. I longed to have the amazing hair, the delicious dresses and the ability to dance my ass off on The Corny Collins Show. I loved John Waters because he made this movie, and had no idea of his sleazy past. 

At 15, one of my best friends in high school decided that we should watch Pink Flamingos for New Years Eve. Hearing John Waters was the director, I readily agreed, not realizing that my innocent eyes and soul were about to become irreparably corrupted. I blanched almost immediately when I understood what the next 90 minutes or so would entail, and have still not had the courage to re-watch it. I was shocked and appalled – John Waters would have been thrilled. 

Older, and a lot more used to crazy films, I now can fully understand and appreciate the sum of all of John Waters’ work. I have all of his books and read them repeatedly. The thing that I love so much about him is that he revels in what most people try their entire life to avoid. Dirt. Sleaze. Filth. These things make him happy, and for that reason he is one of my heroes. I love that he has always been his true self, that he loved his misfit friends with an open heart, and that he isn’t afraid to embrace what he honestly loves about life. In one of his books, John recounts what he calls “the greatest moment of my life” in which, sitting on a bus stop in Baltimore, he was hit full in the face by a carton of chinese food that a passing car had thrown out of the window. Amazing. 

I finally met John Waters this past weekend at the Aero at a screening of Female Trouble. The place was packed and the audience was eating up the movie with a plastic spoon. He participated in a Q&A afterwards and snarkily answered every question the audience posed. He said that he feels like his films are made for the people who are outsiders within their own minority and talked about how he feels that people are trying too hard to be weird now, that it should be something that naturally comes from inside yourself. I asked if he had a favorite sleazy place to go in Los Angeles, and he said that now that the Spotlight had closed, he did not.

I, of course, asked him to program at the New Beverly, and he told me to send him the information through Atomic Books in Baltimore – but did mention that he loved the theater. Wouldn’t you LOVE to see what he would choose to program? We played Pink Flamingos at midnight at the Bev for countless years, so it would be a fitting place for a Waters festival. And if we show Pink Flamingos again, I think this time I will be able to laugh and cheer along.