Tag Archives: Dennis Hopper

ALAIN DELON AND JEAN GABIN AT THE AERO

As a centerpiece of the fifth edition of its The French Had a Word for It festival of noir, the American Cinematheque presents 35mm prints of three Alain Delon crime thrillers, two of them opposite Jean Gabin as the embodiment of the term “OG à la française.”

But first Gabin plays on the right side of the law as inspector Maigret and commandant Lequévic in, respectively, MAIGRET AND THE ST. FIACRE CASE (1959) and PORT DU DESIR (1955).

Long before Dennis Hopper or Matt Damon, John Malkovich or Barry Pepper, Delon was the archetype of Patricia Highsmith’s indelible passive-aggressive villain Tom Ripley, and his star turn in PURPLE NOON (1960) brought Delon to the world’s attention. The film—beautifully directed by René Clément—screens on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night brings the double bill of MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL(1962)—a highly stylized casino caper set in Cannes—and THE SICILIAN CLAN (1969), in which criminal heavies Delon and Gabin must contend with the gravitational pull of Lino Ventura. Both films were directed by Henri Verneuil.

MAIGRET AND THE ST. FIACRE CASE and PORT DU DESIR

Friday, September 6, at 7:30

PURPLE NOON

Saturday, September 7, at 4 pm.

MÉLODIE EN SOUS-SOL and THE SICILIAN CLAN

Also screening, all 7:30 pm double features:

QUAI DES ORFÈVRES and THE SLEEPING CAR MURDER—the feature debut of Costa-Gavras—on Thursday, September 5.

PANIQUE—directed by Julien Duvivier—and NON COUPABLE on Sunday, September 8.

Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.

From top: Alain Delon in Purple Noon; Jean Gabin in Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case; Port du desir poster; Delon in Purple Noon (2); Mélodie en sous-sol poster; Delon in Mélodie en sous-sol; Les clans des siciliens poster.

RIVER’S EDGE

On a weekend of UCLA Film and Television Archive screenings curated by Sandi Tan—publisher, film critic, and director of the acclaimed doc Shirkers (2018)—a standout is Tim Hunter’s cult eighties noir RIVER’S EDGE.

Favorably compared to In Cold Blood by Roger Ebert, the film centers on the non-reaction by a group of teens to a dead body in their midst, and stars Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Crispin Glover, and Dennis Hopper. (Skye will join Tan for an onstage discussion.)

RIVER’S EDGE will be preceded by Leos Carax’s 1999 shocker POLA X.

POLA X and RIVER’S EDGE

Friday, June 21, at 7:30 pm.

Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

From top: Keanu Reeves in River’s Edge (1986); Ione Skye; Crispin Glover; River’s Edge cast; Dennis Hopper.

ORSON WELLES — THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Part Barefoot Contessa, part Nashville, part psychedelic head trip—a sixties hangover shot in the seventies, abandoned in the eighties, and finally edited down from over 100 hours of footage to a two-hour cut—Orson Welles’ final film, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, is a fascinatingly crass long day’s journey into night: the last fevered hours of Jake Hannaford, a past-his-prime Hollywood director played by John Huston with his signature leer and sense of exhausted disdain.

Surrounded by an entourage of enablers and trailed by a scrum of paparazzi and video documentarians, Hannaford makes his merry way out to Palm Springs to watch the rushes from his latest attempt at a cinematic comeback, which—as many early viewers have noted—plays like a Welles parody of Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point.

(The hyper-erotic film-within-a-film stars Welles’ partner Oja Kodar, and Robert Random—both frequently nude and both the objects of Hannaford’s obsession.)

Shot in multiple film stocks, this propulsive blend of coercion, abuse, and overwhelming cynicism teeters on and off the rails from its opening scene, but you won’t be able to divert your eyes from the action.

“More acutely than any other work attached to Welles, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is built—in form and content—of thrown voices, feints, false fronts, and tall tales leading to and from Welles’ idea of himself as a public figure, as the performance of a lifetime, drawn at maximum clarity then cracked apart and squirreled within shadows of such depth as to permit only flashes, glimpses, and whispers of that self-image.

“To be a wreck is, it seems, a certain sort of freedom.” — Phil Coldiron in Cinema Scope.

Tonight, THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD—the Morgan Neville documentary on Welles and his struggle to make his last opus—will screen at LACMA. Tomorrow night at the same venue, producer Frank Marshall will present the Welles picture, followed by a Q & A.

(Later this week, Marshall will also present Welles’ film at UCLA.)

 

THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD

Monday, October 29, at 7:30 pm.

Bing Theater, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Tuesday, October 30, at 7:30.

Bing Theater, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Thursday, November 1, at 7:30 pm.

James Bridges TheaterUCLA, 235 Charles E. Young Drive North, Los Angeles.

 

Through November 8:

Noho 7, 5240 Lankershim, North Hollywood.

From Friday, November 9:

Glendale, 207 North Maryland Avenue, Glendale.

And on Netflix.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND features screen appearances by Mercedes McCambridge, Paul Stewart, Norman Foster, Susan Strasberg, Edmond O’Brien, Lilli Palmer, Claude Chabrol, Dennis Hopper, Stéphane AudranPaul Mazursky, and Welles intimate Peter Bogdanovich, whose efforts in the assembly and release of the film were significant.

From top:

Oja Kodar(left) and Orson Welles (right) in the set of The Other Side of the Wind.

Kodar (2).

Robert Random and Kodar.

Credit for all images: Netflix.

WIM WENDERS’ EARLY WORK

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The Polaroids and black and white photographs Wim Wenders took on his cinematic road trips while making The American Friend, Paris Texas, Alice in den Städten, etc., are now on view – many for the first time – in London.

 

WIM WENDERS – EARLY WORKS, 1964-1984, through May 5.

BLAIN SOUTHERN, 4 Hanover Square, London.

blainsouthern.com/wim-wenders

Above: Wim Wenders, Time Capsules: By the Side of the Road. C print (from a Polaroid).

Below: Wim Wenders, Dennis Hopper, Hamburg, 1976. C print (from a Polaroid). Image credit: Wim Wenders and Blain/Southern.

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PARIS PHOTO LOS ANGELES: REVIEW

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Stephen Shore, Winslow, Arizona, September 19, 2013, 2013 (printed 2014), Chromogenic color print, 16 x 20″
303 Gallery, New York

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Stephen Shore: From Galilee to the Negev, monograph by Phaidon
303 Gallery, New York

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Stephen Shore book signing at 303 Gallery

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top: Bruce Conner, MABUHAY DRESSING ROOM: BROKEN WALL, JULY 1978
bottom: Bruce Conner, EMPTY BOTTLES, UNUSED EQUIPMENT, NOV 19, 1979
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco

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New York City backlot at Paramount Pictures!

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Miroslav Tichý
Guido Costa Projects, Turin

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William Eggleston, Untitled, 1960-1972, 16 x 20 inch Gelatin Silver Print
Rosegallery, Santa Monica

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Aperture in a storefront in the New York City backlot at Paramount Pictures

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Brian Bress, Nicks’ Other Knickknacks, 2012
Collage on archival inkjet print, 19.5 x 13 inches
Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

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Punk and i-D
Librairie 213, Paris

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Man Ray, Photographies 1920-1936, Editions Cahiers d’Art Paris
Librairie 213, Paris

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Moi Ver, Paris, Editions Jeanne Walter, Paris, 1931
Librairie 213

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Jason Evans, Pictures for looking at
Printed Matter, New York

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Jason Evans, Pictures for looking at
Printed Matter, New York

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Printed Matter, New York

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plantlife / los angeles by Amanda Marsalis
Miniature Garden, 2014
Printed Matter, New York

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Taryn Simon book signing
Gagosian Gallery

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Dennis Hopper, Jasper Johns, 1965
Silver Gelatin Print, 24 x 16 inches
Gagosian Gallery
Dennis Hopper: Tribute