Tonight Feb.10 - HAROLD AND MAUDE Kicks off Valentine's Day Weekend @ The American Cinematheque.

It's that time of year again - the time when we're reminded of all the bliss, ecstasy, contentment (and, yes, uncertainty and even misery) that goes arm-in-arm with romance. And what better way to celebrate this roller coaster of a holiday than to go to the movies and see the power of love beautifully and cathartically magnified on the big screen?

Join The American Cinematheque Valentine's Day weekend for films both classic and contemporary that celebrate amour in its many forms, including CASABLANCA, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, HAROLD AND MAUDE, GONE WITH THE WIND, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE PRINCESS BRIDE and THE NOTEBOOK.

Thursday, February 10 – HAROLD AND MAUDE, Producer Robert Evans fought hard for non-conformist editor-turned-filmmaker Hal Ashby to be allowed to direct this wildly offbeat romance between suicidal youngster Bud Cort and eccentric, 80-year-old Ruth Gordon. The result is one of the most poignant and subversive films of the New Hollywood era. - 1971, Paramount, 91 min, 35mm
7:30p


Saturday, February 12 – Double Feature: Digitally Restored! THE AFRICAN QUEEN, 1951, Gin-soaked captain Humphrey Bogart decides to take pity on skinny, psalm-singing spinster Katharine Hepburn after her brother is killed in a German attack during WWI - and instead, winds up falling in love, and ferrying her downriver to launch a suicidal assault on a German warship! - Paramount, 105 min. Dir. John Huston.
7:30p

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, - Digitally Restored! This 1953 Oscar winner (for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography and others) remains a timeless combination of war movie and love story that's as smart and adult as it is entertaining. James Jones' novel about military life at a Hawaiian army barracks on the brink of America’s entering World War II is the source for a riveting drama starring Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift and many others. 1953, Sony Repertory, 118 min. Dir. Fred Zinnemann. 35mm

Sunday, February 13 – The second of four Sunday matinees, running monthly at the Egyptian Theatre. Join The American Cinematheque in the coming months for LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR and LA BOHEME, screening in beautiful digital format on the really big screen.
1:00p


THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, Donizetti's charming comedy is a celebration of innocence, so what setting could be better than a small Italian-American community in Napa Valley, circa 1915? In this ingenious update, the naive Nemorino believes a love potion will win him Adina's heart. Blossoming from a shy Italian immigrant to a plucky entrepreneur, he captures both his sweetheart and the American dream over the course of this delightful opera buffa. Tenor Ram�n Vargas superbly embodies the role of the lovesick Nemorino. The beautiful but aloof Adina is sung by soprano Inva Mula. Sung in Italian with English subtitles. In two acts with one 10 minute intermission. 158 min.

Sunday, February 13 – DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, This story of Tsarists, revolutionaries, two beautiful women in love with the same man, a nation in upheaval and, above all, the poet physician (Omar Sharif) who witnesses and remembers it all - is one of the most lyrical, visually breathtaking films in the history of the medium. Co-starring Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Tom Courtenay and Alec Guinness, with sublime music by Maurice Jarre. 1965, Warner Bros., 193 min. Dir. David Lean. 35mm
5:00p


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@ The EGYPTIAN Theater Friday July, 9th - Vittorio de Sica's BICYCLE THIEVES (LADRI DI BICICLETTE)

New 35 mm print!

BICYCLE THIEVES (LADRI DI BICICLETTE)

This landmark Italian neorealist drama became one of the best-known and most widely acclaimed European movies, including a special Academy Award as "most outstanding foreign film" seven years before that Oscar category existed. Written primarily by neorealist pioneer Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio DeSica, also one of the movement's main forces, the movie featured all the hallmarks of the neorealist style: a simple story about the lives of ordinary people, outdoor shooting and lighting, non-actors mixed together with actors, and a focus on social problems in the aftermath of World War II. Lamberto Maggiorani plays Antonio, an unemployed man who finds a coveted job that requires a bicycle. When it is stolen on his first day of work, Antonio and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) begin a frantic search, learning valuable lessons along the way. The movie focuses on both the relationship between the father and the son and the larger framework of poverty and unemployment in postwar Italy.

B/W - UMBERTO D, 1952, Rialto Films, 91 min. The last of director Vittorio de Sica’s Neorealist films, UMBERTO D is the poetic and touching story of an old man dealing with retirement and loneliness in postwar Rome.

1948, Corinth Films, 93 min. Dir. Vittorio de Sica.

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JIM HENSON FAMILY DAY @ The Egyptian Theater Saturday Afternoon 5.22.

JIM HENSON FAMILY DAY: One of the world's most visionary puppetry artists, Jim Henson brought an original combination of playful fun and artful sophistication to his groundbreaking film and television works that widely appeal to children and adults alike.

Henson gave us such icons as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and a host of other memorable Muppets, not to mention the Fraggles and various Sesame Street characters. Join us for a special program of shorts from The Jim Henson Legacy and some new material from The Henson Company: A BETTER WORLD: LIVING IN HARMONY from world-touring series Muppets™, Music & Magic: Jim Henson's Legacy. Included in this wonderful, environmentally-oriented program of shorts from the beloved Henson studio is a 1983 rare episode from the "Fraggle Rock" TV show that contrasts three different communities (the musical Fraggles, the industrious Doozers and the giant Gorgs!) living in harmony in a carefully balanced underground world far below those mysterious silly creatures (the humans) who live above ground, and the short "The Song of the Cloud Forest," (1989) a beautifully colorful evocation of the rain forest and the adventures of a lovable golden toad, directed by Jim Henson. It features a blend of music, puppetry and animation resulting in a vibrant landscape of color that echoes the natural beauty found in the real world's rain forest. Starring a brightly colored cast of puppet animals, the show celebrates the beauty of this natural environment while educating the audience of the real dangers threatening the survival of both the rain forest and its inhabitants.

After the shorts program, the Henson Company will showcase exciting sneak peeks in the Rigler Theatre, and host lots of fun activities in the Egyptian courtyard until 2:30 PM. Free for ticket-holders.

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Friday @ the Egyptian Theater - New 35mm Print of Akira Kurosawa's 'RAN'

New 35 mm! RAN, In Akira Kurosawa's epic and existential samurai/Noh theater rendition of Shakespeare's "King Lear," a once-merciless and bloodthirsty Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) leaves his kingdom to his three sons. As Hidetora attempts to enjoy retirement in his twilight years, he is dropped into a nightmarish hell when filial squabbling and betrayal erupts. In Japanese with English subtitles. 1985, Rialto Pictures, 160 min.

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Saturday 2.27 @ The Egyptian Theater

The Da Camera Society Presents:

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra: CLOWN PRINCES:

L. A. Debut!

An irresistible blend of music, architecture and film, this concert joins the leading exponents of turn-of-the-century American popular music, a classic Hollywood movie palace and silent films from Hollywood's princes of comedy. Film shorts by Buster Keaton ("The Play House," 1921), Harold Lloyd ("Get Out and Get Under," 1920) and Charlie Chaplin ("Behind the Screen," 1916) are played with the original scores by a regulation orchestra of the period. Conductor Rick Benjamin. "The music is incomparably sweet and stirring. And Rick Benjamin, who founded and conducts the PRO, is a musician of wit and sensibility.

Docents will be on hand throughout the afternoon to speak about the theater and its unique place in the history of Hollywood. This concert is sponsored by Eric & Nancy Garen and is made possible in part by a grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

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TONIGHT @ the EGYPTIAN THEATER - CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE

BAARIA

The Official Italian Entry for Best Foreign Language Film, Academy Awards® 2009 U.S. Premiere.

From Giuseppe Tornatore, Director of OSCAR® Winner CINEMA PARADISO, comes a Sicilian family saga: three generations across the 20th century, their dreams, hardship, disappointments, passions. “A moving, autobiographical, nostalgic tribute to the director’s hometown of Bagheria (“Baaria” in dialect) and family,” writes Natasha Senjanovic in The Hollywood Reporter. Introduction by Director Giuseppe Tornatore actors Margareth Made, Francesco Scianna and Beppe Fiorello. Introduction begins at 7p, film at 7.30p.

Each year CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE brings a piece of Italy to Los Angeles, offering some of the finest contemporary Italian films and documentaries which have made an impact in both Italy and abroad. Films to be featured this year include: Edoardo Winspeare’s I GALANTUOMINI (THE BRAVE MEN); Davide Ferrario’s TUTTA COLPA DI GIUDA (FREEDOM); Marco Amenta’s LA SICILIANA RIBELLE (THE SICILIAN GIRL); Nico Cirasola’s FOCACCIA BLUES; Marco Filiberti’s IL COMPLEANNO (DAVID’S BIRTHDAY); Francesca Archibugi’s QUESTIONE DI CUORE (MATTER OF HEART); Michele Placido’s IL GRANDE SOGNO (THE BIG DREAM) and two documentaries, VITTORIO D. by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri (a portrait of Vittorio De Sica) and HOLLYWOOD ON THE TIBER by Marco Spagnoli.2009,


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Sunday, October 11

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

FAMILY MATINEE

In this enchanting social satire based on Roald Dahl's classic book, mysterious candy factory owner Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) croons "Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination" in this truly wondrous (and colorful) musical adaptation. Follow the five lucky holders of the Golden Tickets (Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop, Mike TV, Violet Beauregard and impoverished Charlie Bucket) as they and their parents venture inside the enchanted Wonka Chocolate Factory - for better or for worse! Oompa Loompa doom-pity-doo! Director Mel Stuart will appear in person for discussion following the film. Free admission to all children 12 and under accompanied by an adult. One child will be admitted free for each paying adult.

Screening Starts @ 4p
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