Month of Female Filmmakers at the New Beverly–
New Beverly Cinema 7165 Beverly Blvd
The New Beverly Cinema is devoting their May calendar to films directed by women.
Selections range from the enshrined to the obscure, and likewise run the gamut from comedy to romance to drama to all points in between. Alongside a spotlight on pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner, highlights include a trio of two-night double bills, including, on May 8 and 9, the under-recognized Claudia Weill films Girlfriends and It’s My Turn; on May 15 and 16, Elaine May’s 1976 masterpiece Mikey & Nicky, with Peter Falk and John Cassavetes in the title roles, followed by Joan Micklin Silver’s 1977 journalism drama Between the Lines; and, on May 17 and 18, Martha Coolidge’s iconic ’80s feature Valley Girl, featuring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman, and Sofia Coppola’s luminous debut The Virgin Suicides.
The Wednesday matinees are given over to female-scripted or authored musical-dramas from mid-century Hollywood and will include two Vincente Minnelli classics, Gigi (May 1) and The Band Wagon (May 22); George Cukor’s 1954 version of A Star Is Born (May 8); Jean Negulesco’s How to Marry a Millionaire (May 15); and last but certainly not least, Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (May 29).
Cassavetes and Scorsese at the Egyptian
The Egyptian 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Over nine evenings in May, the American Cinematheque will present a series of double features pairing films by two of America’s most revered directors, John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese, at the Egyptian Theatre. Longtime influences on one another, Cassavetes and Scorsese each started making forays into independent filmmaking just as the studio era of Hollywood was collapsing in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The series — presented largely on 35mm — begins on May 2 with Cassavetes and Scorsese’s respective debut features, Shadows and Who’s That Knocking at My Door, and proceeds to touch on a majority of their major works along the way. Each of the nine programs is wholeheartedly recommended, but for those who may think they’ve become immune to these directors’ talents, it would behoove you to make time for at least a few of the final evenings — such as May 23, which pairs the underrated After Hours with Gloria (and will feature actresses Rosanna Arquette and Julie Carmen in person), or the May 24 bill of Raging Bull and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, or the May 30 closing night program of Cassavetes’ final (and arguably greatest) film Love Streams and Scorsese’s curiously undervalued gangland epic Casino.
