Tag Archives: Michelle Williams

AFTER THE WEDDING

After a recent Film Independent Presents screening of AFTER THE WEDDING, Julianne Moore said something that revealed a uniquely generous approach to acting:

What I love about what we do is, regardless of age or experience, we all meet as peers. It doesn’t happen in a lot of professions, but it happens with acting.

In her new drama, the great accomplishment of Moore and two of her remarkable peers—Michelle Williams and Abby Quinn—is delivering memorable performances in the service of a schematic script about privilege and legacy among the one-percenters.

Moore plays Theresa, a nouveau-riche start-up billionaire ready to cash out. One of the loose ends that needs tying up is Isabel (Williams), an American-in-India who helps run an underserved aid facility for thousands of Calcutta street kids. Theresa would like to donate a very large sum to the program and—just before the Hamptons wedding of her daughter (Quinn)—Theresa summons Isabel to Manhattan for a meeting. Since she’s in town, Isabel also attends the wedding, where she meets Oscar (Billy Crudup), Theresa’s husband.

This comes as a shock to Isabel, since the last time she saw Oscar was twenty years ago, when they were both in their late teens…

AFTER THE WEDDING is Moore’s fourth feature collaboration with her husband, writer and director Bart Freundlich.

AFTER THE WEDDING

Now playing.

Arclight Hollywood

6360 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Playhouse 7

673 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena.

After the Wedding, from top: Michelle Williams (left), Billy Crudup, and Julianne Moore; Vir Pachisia and Williams; Film Independent Artistic Director Jacqueline Lyanga (left), Moore, Abby Quinn, and Bart Freundlich, July 30, 2019, The Landmark cinema, photograph by Araya Diaz, courtesy of Getty Images and Film Independent; Williams and Moore; Quinn and Williams; Williams. Film images courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

FOSSE, VERDON, AND ALL THAT JAZZ

In anticipation of the upcoming limited series FOSSE/VERDON—the story of the personal and professional collaboration between director-choreographer Bob Fosse (1927–1987) and dancer-actor Gwen Verdon (1925–2000)—LACMA presents a screening of Fosse’s extraordinary “semi-autobiographical” film ALL THAT JAZZ (1979), featuring a tour de force performance by the late Roy Scheider.

Three nights later, the museum hosts a big-screen presentation of “Life is a Cabaret,” chapter one of FOSSE/VERDON, which stars Sam Rockwell as Fosse and Michelle Williams as Verdon. The series will air on FX from April 9.

Fosse was one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century dance, and the footprints—and indelible attitude—of his choreography in Cabaret, Chicago, Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, and Sweet Charity are still apparent in works being created today.

ALL THAT JAZZ

Monday, April 1, at 7:30 pm.

FOSSE/VERDON

Thursday, April 4, at 7:30 pm.

Bing Theater, LACMA

5955 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

From top: Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon and Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse in Fosse/Verdon(2019); Roy Scheider in All That Jazz; Fosse backstage at New York’s City Center during the 1963 production of Pal Joey; Tab Hunter and Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958), courtesy New York Library for the Performing Arts; Liza Minnelli and Fosse on set, Cabaret (1972); Rockwell and Williams in Fosse/Verdon.

DAY AT ZENITH

Is THE PAJAMA GAME (1957) the “first left-wing operetta,” as Jean-Luc Godard once famously called it? What’s not in doubt is that Doris Day is at her peak in this, the last of her great musicals for Warner Bros.

The film was directed by Stanley Donen and George Abbott, and co-starred Broadway powerhouse John Raitt as a factory superintendent to Day’s union team leader.

Bob Fosse choreographed the musical numbers—“Steam Heat” is an early triumph for this master of dance—and this weekend the UCLA Film and Television Archive will present a 35mm print screening of the film as part of their series Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! A Retrospective.

(DAMN YANKEES—directed by the same two filmmakers and starring Tab Hunter and Fosse’s wife Gwen Verdon—fills out the double-bill. Fosse and Verdon will be played by Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams in an upcoming FX series.)

 

THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Saturday, August 18, at 7:30 pm.

BILLY WILDER THEATER, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles.

cinema.ucla.edu/pajama-game-damn-yankees

cinema.ucla.edu/fosse-a-retrospective

See: artforum.com/melissa-anderson-on-the-pajama-game

Above: Doris Day and John Raitt. Publicity photo for The Pajama Game.

Below: Day (center) in The Pajama Game. Image credit for both: Warner Bros.