Posts tagged ‘Library of Congress’
Pictorial Palette: Lucy
Lucille Ball in "DuBarry Was a Lady" (1943)
The DuBarry Palette: #FF1B3A, #73B70C, #53B4DF, #FFB72F
Gosh. Isn’t she lovely?
Our Pictorial Palette of the week is inspired by this delightfully whimsical piece of poster art from the 1943 film adaptation of Cole Porter’s DuBarry Was a Lady starring Red Skelton, Gene Kelly, and the woman of the hour: Lucille Ball.
Lucy’s centennial is tomorrow, something made even sweeter by the fact that 2011 also marks the 60th Anniversary of I Love Lucy, and celebrations are in full swing– both online and off, all over the globe. Proving, in a collective laughing voice, that the world will always love Lucy.
Because of Lucy, our fractured world has the rare, precious gift of a unified, collective memory. Laughter blurs the edges of race, class and creed, which make Lucy so much more than an actress-comedienne-pioneer-entrepreneur. She is an emotional thread in the fabric of who we are as a society. Which is why it is hardly surprising that the tributes to her are dizzying in their number.
Tune into Turner Classic Movies for a full ay of laughs with Lucy, in conjunction with their ever-popular “Summer Under the Stars” program, and the Hallmark Channel will host a 48-hour I Love Lucy marathon. (And yes, the Europe and Hollywood episodes will be heavily featured!) The web is awash with henna all weekend in celebration of everyone’s favorite not-so-natural redhead: True Classics is hosting a Lucille Ball Blogathon (of which we are proud participants) and tributes abound. Among them, a must-see is Life.com’s special gallery of never-before-published photos of the immortal comedienne. And meanwhile, back on terra firma, CBS Video has released 14 classic I Love Lucy episodes; the Warner Archive has released several of Lucy’s lesser known film comedies; the Hollywood Museum has opened a special exhibit , “Lucille Ball at 100 and I Love Lucy at 60,” which honors the Queen of Comedy with memorabilia from I Love Lucy all the way to Here’s Lucy; and the Library of Congress presents “I Love Lucy: An American Legend” which explores the show’s history through the family scrapbooks, photographs, scripts, and other documents from the Library of Congress.
All of this rather gives credence to a quote by Diane Sawyer that I’ve never forgotten: “It may be that during business hours, God and the angels sit around watching six hour documentaries. But in the back family room? They’re watching I Love Lucy.”
The Film Foundation: 20 Years of Preservation
The Red Shoes, 1948
In many respects, The Film Foundation is more than just the leader in film preservation. It IS film preservation.
There isn’t an organization out there that has been more instrumental in raising awareness and support for film preservation than The Foundation. For the past twenty years, the non-profit spearheaded by Martin Scorsese and a roster of distinguished colleagues, has forged partnerships with the world’s most important film archives and has funded the restoration of well over 500 films. The Library of Congress, BFI, Cineteca di Bologna, UCLA Film & TV Archive and the Academy are among the archives that have contributed to the Foundation’s tireless rescue and restoration of both American and World cinema treasures—pieces of history that would have otherwise been lost forever.
“Movies touch our hearts,” says Scorsese. “[They] awaken our vision and change the way we see things. They take us to other places. They open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime. We need to keep them alive.”
And not just keep them alive, but promote the awareness of their inescapable and incalculable importance. “Films are both works of art and cultural and historical documents, representing the collective memories and dreams of the twentieth century,” says the Foundation. “Many Americans are not aware that these valuable artifacts of America’s cultural heritage are highly unstable and vulnerable to deterioration. “
To help bring awareness to this issue, The Foundation launched a truly one-of-a-kind educational program called The Story of Movies which provides educators with a curriculum to teach middle-school students how to understand the significance of film in a cultural, artistic and historical sense, and how to interpret its visual language.
In celebration of the Foundation’s 20th anniversary, LACMA is presenting a retrospective of restored Foundation films throughout the month of October.
The Film Foundation’s race against time has certainly paid off and among the films slated to be screened at the LACMA are John Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven, Michael Powell’s The Red Shoes, Satayajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, Luchino Visconti’s Senso, Joseph Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa, Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, Otto Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse and Elia Kazan’s Wild River and Baby Doll.
We urge to you make every effort to attend and support this event. A full program schedule and ticket information can be found on the LACMA website.
And also please check out this very informative short film about The Foundation.
Shadow of a Doubt, 1943
Wild River, 1960
Baby Doll, 1960 (copyright BFI Archives. All Rights Reserved.)
Leave Her to Heaven, 1945 (Copyright BFI Archives. All Rights Reserved.)
Pather Panchali, 1955 (Copyright BFI Archives. All Rights Reserved.)
Bonjour Tristesse, 1958