Leonard Maltin hosts the festivities, which include the comic's grandson Ron Fields, historian Joe Adamson, veteran writer Hal Kanter and four of Field's costars Gloria Jean, Jane Withers, Delmar Watson and Jean Rouverol Butler. Also at the academy this week, as part of its "Great to Be Nominated" series on Monday, is 1980's "Raging Bull." When the curtain rang down on the 1980s, the majority of critics agreed that Martin Scorsese's operatic biopic about pugilist Jake LaMotta was the greatest film of the decade.
Robert DeNiro won the best actor Oscar for his bravura performance as LaMotta he took Method acting an extra level by gaining 60 pounds to play the older boxer; and Thelma Schoonmaker received the Academy Award for her poetic editing. Scheduled to appear for a discussion are producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and makeup artist Michael G. Westmore.
This Wednesday the academy is throwing A Centennial Tribute to Barbara Stanwyck, which features a heavy dose of clips from several of her films, as well as special guests Kirk Douglas, Army Archerd and Nina Foch. (The evening also kicks off UCLA's Film and Television Archive festival of Stanwyck films that begins May 18.) Stanwyck, who was born Ruby Stevens and had a hard-knock early life, could do it all tough, tender, wild, comedic and occasionally demure.
She made a name for herself in the early 1930s in a series of ribald pre-Code films including "Baby Face," was the muse of director Frank Capra ("Miracle Woman," "The Bitter Tea of General Yen"), excelled in such comedies as Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve" and Howard Hawks' "Ball of Fire," and was the ultimate femme fatale in Billy Wilder's landmark 1944 film noir "Double Indemnity." Tonight the American Cinematheque is bringing back the thought-provoking 2005 film "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," which despite glowing reviews met a quick demise at theaters last year.
Romanian director Cristi Puiu's dark comedy about a man's last night alive is receiving a four-day engagement at the Egyptian Theatre. Ion Fiscuteanu plays the title role a hard-drinking older man who lives with his cats in an old apartment. He's taken from overcrowded hospital to overcrowded hospital by an eager ambulance driver (Luminita Gheorghiu) until he finally dies.
"Mr. Lazarescu" received more than 20 awards, including the 2005 Un Certain Regard at Cannes and best supporting actress for Gheorghiu from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. Elsewhere: The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival ends tonight with a screening of "The Rebel"; and the Silver Lake Film Festival closes out on Saturday with "X: The Unheard Music.
" "The Old Fashioned Way": 7:30 p.m. Friday "Raging Bull": 7:30 p.
m. Monday A Centennial Tribute to Barbara Stanwyck: 8 p.m.
Wednesday "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu": 7:30 p.m.
today and Friday, 6 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.
m.
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