French Crime Wave Hits Los Angeles

Art meets the underworld at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is featuring French crime thrillers this weekend through June 20. Série Noire depicts 1950s/60s/70s French society and its trench-coat, fedora-wearing denizens: gangsters, gunslingers, gamblers, rogue cops, bank robbers, jewel thieves, thugs, bar flies, tricksters dangerous dames... 

See the mean streets through the eyes of Jacques Becker, René Clement, Alain Corneau, Jules Dassin, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Claude Sautet, Bertrand Tavernier, and François Truffaut. This dark celebration includes films based on work by Jim Thompson, David Goodis and August Le Betron (who did time!), so grab your moll, leave the gun, and go see the series.

May 29  7:30 pm  Série Noire

May 29  9:30 pm  The Clockmaker

May 30  7:30 pm  Police Python 357

June 5  7:30 pm  Bob le flambeur

June 5  9:20 pm  Le Doulos

June 6  7:30 pm  Touchez pas au Grisbi

June 6  9:10 pm  Rififi

June 12  7:30 pm  Le cercle rouge

June 13  7:30 pm  Purple Noon

June 13  9:35 pm  Elevator to the Gallows

June 19  7:30 pm  Classe tous risques

June 19  9:20 pm  Garde à vue

June 20  7:30 pm  Coup de torchon 

June 20  9:45 pm  Shoot the Piano Player

LACMA  |  5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036  |  323 857 6000  |  http://www.lacma.org/

Memorial Day : : My Dad

Born: May 6, 1922

WWII

Korea

Vietnam

Died: March 18, 1975

Dalton Trumbo at The Egyptian

The Egyptian is screening four films by blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, including a premiere of the digitally remastered Johnny Got His Gun, today through Sunday.

A few facts about Trumbo:

* Wrote for Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Saturday Evening Post...

* Published his first novel, Eclipse, in 1934

* Started on the road to quick Hollywood screenwriting success in 1937

* Won an American Booksellers Award (now the National Book Award) for his 1939 novel, Johnny Got His Gun

* Saw everything go south in 1950

* Named one of the Hollywood Ten for refusing to give testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities

* Served one year in a federal penitentiary for contempt of Congress

* Followed it up with a reportedly boozy exile in Mexico

* Wrote under various pseudonyms while still under blacklist

* Won Oscars anyway (“Robert Rich,” The Brave One, and “Ian McLellan Hunter,” Roman Holiday)

* Everything started looking up again

* Credited as “Dalton Trumbo” for Exodus and Spartacus, helping to break the blacklist stranglehold

* Died in September, 1976

* Awarded a posthumous Oscar as “Dalton Trumbo” for Roman Holiday in 1993

Thursday, May 21, 7:30 pm

Johnny Got His Gun (1971) and Lonely Are The Brave (1962)

Between films, join a discussion with Trumbo’s son Christopher, his daughter and unit photographer, Mitzi, DP Jules Brenner, and actor Timothy Bottoms.

Friday, May 22, 7:30 pm 


Spartacus (1960)

Join a discussion with Christopher Trumbo before the film.

Saturday, May 23, 7:30 pm 


Exodus (1960)

Join a discussion with Christopher Trumbo before the film.

The Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028

(Between Las Palmas and McCadden, just east of Highland Avenue)

Click here to read an article by Christopher Trumbo on HuffPo.

Gluttony

May 20, 1799 is the birth date of Honoré de Balzac,

the creator of the original Ugly Betty. His novel,

La Cousine Bette, is the delicious tale of an old maid* who has an appetite for destroying her wealthy relations, and enlists the services of a prostitute in fulfilling her vengeful schemes.

Balzac understood enormous appetites because he had one himself. According to A Literary Book of Days,** a typical meal for Balzac included “a hundred oysters, twelve lamb cutlets, a ducking with turnips, two roast partridges, sole á la Normande, fruit, wines, coffee and liquers.”

Who saved room for cake?

* Played with relish by Jessica Lange in the film version.

** A Literary Book of Days, Crown Publishers, researched and edited by Timothy Murphy, 1994

The Devil Inside

Tuesday, May 19, is National Devil’s Food Cake day. 

If you’ve never considered what sets Devil’s Food apart from other chocolatey cakes, here are some specific differences:

* The use of cocoa, instead melted chocolate

* The use of hot or boiling water as the primary liquid, rather than dairy

* The inclusion of more baking soda

Since baking soda reacts with cocoa and creates a reddish cast when baked, early Devil’s Food cakes made with unprocessed cocoa were often referred to as Red Velvet. Modern recipes made with processed cocoa result in a cake that’s less red, so modern cooks include beets or red dye to create Red Velvet.

Although Devil’s Food is traditionally served with a thick white frosting, Martha Stewart’s chocolate glazed Devil’s Food cake with chocolate ganache is a dark, delicious delight that will lead you into temptation. If it does, remember what Oscar Wilde said about temptation: the best way to get rid of it is to yield to it. 

Strangers In A Strange Land

Obit-mag.com’s Died On The Same Day juxtaposes lives and deaths to fascinating effect. 

Consider these legends who died on the same day:

February 20: Good girl Sandra Dee and wild man Hunter S. Thompson

March 9: Petite cigar-chomper George Burns and xxx-large cigar-chomper Notorious B.I.G.

July 18: Cultural icon who died young, Nico, and cultural icon who died young, Jane Austen 

December 8: Activist/leader Golda Meir and activist/lead singer John Lennon

Today’s May 18 match-up:

Gustav Mahler, the 19th century late romantic composer. His wife, Alma, claimed Gustav said that “as a Bohemian in Austria, an Austrian among Germans and as a Jew throughout the world,” he felt like an intruder. 1911

Ian Curtis, the 20th century lyricist and singer of Joy Division. His music helped to define a generation focused on alienation. 1980

Let The Sun Shine In

Here’s another stunning image by Mark Shaw at Svenska Möbler’s Andrew Wilder Gallery. The Swedish modern showroom features fashion images by Shaw, who was renowned as the Kennedys’ “unofficial” photographer and for work featured in Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Mademoiselle.

Left: Shaw’s Model on the Beach, Deaville, ca. 1950 — it’s one of his early works. Numbered digital prints from Shaw’s original negatives, using archival paper and inks, are available from The Andrew Wilder Gallery at Svenska Möbler.

Svenska Möbler, 154 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036

To view the entire series of Mark Shaw images, including Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot, click here.

To learn more about Mark Shaw, visit markshawphoto.com