Archive for the ‘hollywood’ category
Roll Credits: FUNNY FACE
Here’s the thing. It takes a veritable army of people to make a film. We spend $15 for two hours of entertainment, while cast, crew and everyone from craft services to construction workers labor for weeks and months on end– for the writers, producers and directors, the time could stretch to a year and beyond. And yet, when the film is over, there is more or less and immediate stampede for the exit. Especially if you’ve finished that extra large diet coke from the concession stand.
And … that’s kinda not cool. Read more ►
2013 TCM Film Festival – My Pictorial Picks
In just over a week, Hollywood is getting, well, the Hollywood treatment with the 4th annual Turner Classic Movie Film Festival. The billboards are already up over town and, as a Hollywood local, I gotta say: forget the holidays. This is the most wonderful time of the year. For three days, I get to see Hollywood as it used to be: glamorous, sophisticated and exciting.
It’s my fourth straight year and, of course I’m looking forward to rendezvous-ing with good friends and eager to meet new film fans from all over the world. Deciding on the schedule is always torture– one I look forward to eagerly each year– and here are my picks for this year’s fest in true Pictorial fashion:
The Glamour of Grit: Classic Style in New Hollywood
This post is in conjunction with the Hollywood Revue’s 2nd Annual Film in Fashion Blogathon! Angela, the lady of the manor, has rounded up a splendid roster of participating blogs and the Pictorial is honored to be counted among them! Head on over to the Hollywood Revue and check out all of the submissions!
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, that once radiant glow of Hollywood had dulled; the grand dream machine was a Miss Haversham of its former glory. Rot had set in on the studio system and was in a state of complete disrepair. The stars that once lit the celluloid galaxy had, if not fallen, were slowly dying off. Old Hollywood had hemorrhaged from the inside and its death blow was dealt in 1967, when a film about two notorious Depression-era bank robbers challenged the very notion of filmmaking and ushered in a new approach to making movies. From 1967 until around 1975, there was a revolution in the film industry that has come to be known as “New Hollywood”. New Hollywood cinema brought radical new sensibilities to filmmaking, blazing a trail to create the framework of the film industry that we know today. The studio system that had manufactured Hollywood glamour for decades had decayed to the point of collapse and the fresh, adventurous young mavericks– Arthur Penn, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin– were pushing boundaries, challenging morality and not giving a damn.
Pictorial Palette: Natalie Wood
Long overdue doesn’t even begin to explain just how LONG long has been since our last Pictorial Palette. So long, in fact, I feel it requires a re-introduction is necessary to any who might be new to the Pictorial. From the Pictorial Palette’s inaugural post in 2010:
Henri Matisse once said, “With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.”
That being the case, I do not hesitate to say that movie color is without doubt some of the beautiful magic ever conjured. And given its proven abilities to brighten even the grayest of days, the Pictorial is implementing a weekly color palette, sampled off a film (or production) still from Hollywood’s Golden Age. One of the Pictorial’s missions is to always try and look at the world through Technicolor glasses–yes, even a world as problematic as ours– and it is our hope that these little swaths of color will provide a needed burst of energy– perhaps even inspire a smidge of creativity–to infuse and rejuvenate the weekly drudge.”
Read more ►
The Highs and Lows of being William Holden’s Neighbor
I’ve done many things for Bill Holden. Not to be small about such matters (in the words of Norma Desmond) but the man owes me one year’s tuition at a community college and a security deposit for an apartment. Obviously, not really, but the other night lying awake as my rowdy Hollywood neighbors carried their revelry into dawn (not that I sleep anyway as a confirmed insomniac but, you know, its the principle of the thing) I realized what a peaceful, quiet night I could be enjoying if I’d not insisted on living next door to Holden’s fictional flat from Billy Wilder’s classic noir Sunset Blvd. In my defense I didn’t actually move into the Alto Nido apartments (the “artist colony” community was a bit too bohemian for my blood, which is really saying something), but seeing that iconic sign each morning was a definite deal maker in signing my lease next door.
Joe Gillis, you cad, you’re mine. Read more ►