American Cinematheque at the Egyptian It’s a Wonderful Life Thursday, 1/1/09, 7:30 pm
Price: Free with my badge. Concessions: Just some Red Vines, which I am making my way through. Audience: Approximately 100 or so in this 600+ seat theater. Trailers/advertising: Just one ad for KCRW, the one with the headphones with hundreds of vine-like cables coming out of them. We also got an intro, as with all shows at the Cinematheque, letting us know about upcoming shows (their Disasters series opens tomorrow) and encouraging us to become members. Projection: 35mm changeover.
The American Cinematheque is one of the essential cinemas in Los Angeles, and I’m fortunate that I live and work nearby; not really near enough to walk, but near enough to make it easy to decide to go whenever I feel like it. Their noir festival, which I’ve attended for the last three years, is always a great week of classics and new discoveries, and they always manage to have interesting guests year-round. I’ve seen actors (Eric Idle, Robert Loggia) and directors (David Gordon Green) on stage, and have sat next to folks just as interesting in the audience (Curtis Hanson at a noir film, Jeff Lynne at the Rutles movie). After its multi-million dollar renovation, the theater has been turned into a modern, stadium-seating sort of place, and I’ve always enjoyed good projection and sound thanks to Paul Rayton and the rest of the staff there.
The audience is always fascinating mix of film geeks, single men with their plastic bags, young couples, strange, muttering types, and, in this and other cases, families, with kids who aren’t always as patient with the film as their parents might hope. It’s the sort of place where people do a very L.A. sort of thing, applauding when a name they like comes up in the credits or an actor they love makes an entrance on the screen. The big names always get applause, but there are also those who like to show their stuff by cheering for the obscure ones, too.
The print tonight was great, and the film, which I haven’t seen since I saw it at the Brattle with Ray Magliozzi from “Car Talk” sitting (and laughing) behind me in December of 2002, is still great, for a whole bunch of reasons. I’ve only seen it these two times, now, and it’s still fresh and interesting and stranger than I expect, each time. Zuzu’s petals!
