West Coast Repertory Cinema

[Lowry_Sam]

Has anyone been able to pick up resale tickets for the Pacific Film Archive on the day of a sold out screening? All screenings of the Tsai Ming-Liang retrospective have been sold out for a while and I was wondering if it would be worth it to try showing up earlier to see if someone might have changed their mind.

[senseabove]

I usually have very good luck with the rush line at PFA as long as I'm 30 minutes early. I don't think I've ever not gotten in those times. That said, the Tsai screenings sold out within a half-day of going on public sale, so the line might form unusually early for these. PFA might/will probably have a few tickets for sale morning of the show so I'd check the website frequently then, but if you miss those, if you get there ~40 minutes early, I'd say you'd be fairly certain to get in.

PFA doesn't do resale tickets per se, but sometimes folks call in and either donate their tickets if they chose will call, in which case they'll give them to the next rush line person, or just tell them the won't make it if they chose print-at-home, and in the latter case they'll let someone from the rush line purchase one.

[beamish14]

By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

[beamish14]

By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

I am in the same boat as you. It’s sad how they program 2K DCPs of the same titles endlessly and the Beyond Fest stuff is incredibly stupid. They’ve really leaned into AI schlock recently as well from what I’ve heard.

The New Beverly has become a total joke as well, with horrible looking first-run films and the same titles playing on a seasonal rotation.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

I am in the same boat as you. It’s sad how they program 2K DCPs of the same titles endlessly and the Beyond Fest stuff is incredibly stupid. They’ve really leaned into AI schlock recently as well from what I’ve heard.

The New Beverly has become a total joke as well, with horrible looking first-run films and the same titles playing on a seasonal rotation.

Where did you hear about the AI schlock? Is it in the programming itself or in how they run the organization?

New Bev has been rough lately. It's really in recession mode as it seems mostly interested in just programming films that will sell out rather than anything exciting or risky. And the new films are all substantially questionable.

My last thought on the American Cinematheque, but I find their grotesque desire to program a dozen 2K DCPs around the death of any celebrity morbid. It's like they're always waiting for someone to drop in order to fill their calendar up.

[beamish14]

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

I am in the same boat as you. It’s sad how they program 2K DCPs of the same titles endlessly and the Beyond Fest stuff is incredibly stupid. They’ve really leaned into AI schlock recently as well from what I’ve heard.

The New Beverly has become a total joke as well, with horrible looking first-run films and the same titles playing on a seasonal rotation.

Where did you hear about the AI schlock? Is it in the programming itself or in how they run the organization?

New Bev has been rough lately. It's really in recession mode as it seems mostly interested in just programming films that will sell out rather than anything exciting or risky. And the new films are all substantially questionable.

My last thought on the American Cinematheque, but I find their grotesque desire to program a dozen 2K DCPs around the death of any celebrity morbid. It's like they're always waiting for someone to drop in order to fill their calendar up.

Beyond Fest apparently had a ton of AI-generated bumpers and short films. Even at least one feature that used it extensively. This is according to people on the AC’s subreddit

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I remember hearing years ago that UCLA Film and Television Archive had acquired a massive collection of Taiwanese and Hong Kong films and trailers found in the basement of a former theater in Chinatown. They're finally pulling a few select films saved from this theater out for a small series including films directed by Sylvia Cheng, Ann Hui, and Stanley Kwan. This might be the most excited I've been for a film series in Los Angeles in at least a year as I've never seen any of these films and have only heard of Passion.

[afilmcionado]

I remember hearing years ago that UCLA Film and Television Archive had acquired a massive collection of Taiwanese and Hong Kong films and trailers found in the basement of a former theater in Chinatown. They're finally pulling a few select films saved from this theater out for a small series including films directed by Sylvia Cheng, Ann Hui, and Stanley Kwan. This might be the most excited I've been for a film series in Los Angeles in at least a year as I've never seen any of these films and have only heard of Passion.

Amazing! Thanks for posting this.

[yoloswegmaster]

BAMPFA is hosting a 9-film Truffaut series (all being screened on 35mm), which will have introductions and post-screening interviews with Laura Truffaut.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

After some months of relatively safe programming, the New Beverly is doing an entire month of erotic films and pornography. Some very rare prints are playing and I’m sure many supplied by Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin.

[Drucker]

And The American Cinematheque is doing a Nitrate Film Festival this month. I'll be in town in a few weeks and had a friend buy us tickets for My Man Godfrey on Nitrate.

[beamish14]

After some months of relatively safe programming, the New Beverly is doing an entire month of erotic films and pornography. Some very rare prints are playing and I’m sure many supplied by Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin.

I would like to believe that my email to the producers of Caligula’s restoration helped get it booked at the New Beverly. I saw a 3-D anaglyph adult film at the Nuart decades ago, and that was a lot of fun

Mikio Naruse in nitrate at the Egyptian is pretty big.


Meanwhile, Secret Movie Club still wants to know if you’re interested in their podcast and $50 poster that may or may not arrive to your home.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Not a theatrical setting exactly, but Marian Goodman Gallery in Hollywood has a show for the work of Tacita Dean opening next week that will feature her diptych work on 35mm, Geography Biography, where anamorphic lenses are installed sideways to create a taller image rather than wide. I don’t predict this work ever returning to Los Angeles and is a special opportunity to see synchronized 35mm projections in a gallery setting. There will be a few other film works (16mm and 35mm) and non-film works as well, but worth highlighting this special opportunity. She’ll also be at 2220 Arts + Archives next Thursday presenting her film, Event for a Stage, on 16mm.

LA Filmforum is doing a night of the works of Morgan Fisher this Sunday. I’ve seen all but one of the shorts and think they’re all wonderful, simple dissections of the rudimentary and mechanical functions of filmmaking and projection.

[Lowry_Sam]

Ben-Hur: A Tale Of Christ (1925) is screening as part of Cinequest at California Theatre, San Jose on March 13 with Dennis James on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

[Lowry_Sam]

BAMPFA's Fassbinder & The New German Cinema series starts this month. Some interesting non-Fassbinder/Herzog/Schlöndorff/Wenders choices: a 4K restoration of Far From Home (provided by Arbelos), Abschied von Gestern/Yesterday Girl (Alexander Kluge), & the 7-hour Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland/Our Hitler (Syberberg). Program notes describe the last one as

The third film in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s Wagnerian trilogy—preceded by Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King (1972) and Karl May (1974), about the founding of modern Germany—Our Hitler uses a series of stylized tableaux before back projections, filled with references to German history and mythology. With one of the most varied and ambitious soundtracks ever made, we hear strains of Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart, Nazi marches, American radio shows, and Hitler’s broadcasts. Der Führer is identified with such figures from film history as Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator, Dr. Caligari, Napoleon, Wagner’s ghost, and Peter Lorre’s child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M.

[Lowry_Sam]

Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre turns 100.

[beamish14]

My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw that the Vista is screening a 35mm Technicolor print of Porgy and Bess over four days between March 16 and 19. Maybe it’s finally been cleared for home video?

[Lowry_Sam]

Damn! If only it extended into the weekend I would drive down for it. Unfortunately I'm on jury duty.

[Drucker]

My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw that the Vista is screening a 35mm Technicolor print of Porgy and Bess over four days between March 16 and 19. Maybe it’s finally been cleared for home video?

Lincoln Center played it several years ago as well.

[beamish14]

My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw that the Vista is screening a 35mm Technicolor print of Porgy and Bess over four days between March 16 and 19. Maybe it’s finally been cleared for home video?

Lincoln Center played it several years ago as well.

UCLA did well over 15 years ago, I think. This is the first multi-night engagement I can recall ever seeing of it

[Lowry_Sam]

Cinerama dome protest shut down by police.

[yoloswegmaster]

American Cinematheque will be screening La Maison des Bois starting next week (which is part of a Maurice Pialat retrospective). I'm praying to the lord that it plays in Toronto soon.