#1952 Venice International Film Festival

[tina-aumont]

August/September 1952 - Teresita Montez attending at the International film Festival in Lido, Venice. In the second picture we can see her with Bennatti (center) and Yves Manuel, they married that February and he was the father of their baby girl Raïna Paris who was born between 1956 and 1958.

Very special thanks to @74paris for sending me the second photo.

[film-classics]

Helen Hayes - First Lady of American Theater

Helen Hayes MacArthur (born in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 1900) was an American actress of Irish, Dutch, and English descent whose career spanned eighty-two years and regarded as the "First Lady of American Theatre."

Hayes made her stage debut at five with her mother's encouragement. At nine, she made her Broadway debut, and a year later, she was cast in the one-reel Vitagraph film.

She moved to Hollywood in 1931 when her husband became a screenwriter for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she also became a contract player. She made her film debut in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), for which she received an Academy Award. Although she made a number of later films, within four years she returned to Broadway for the greatest success of her career: Gilbert Miller's production of Victoria Regina.

Hayes would return intermittently to Hollywood with featured roles in films, television, and radio, including a film comeback in disaster film Airport (1970), earning her a second Oscar. She retired in 1985 and spent her remaining years in her longtime home of Pretty Penny, in Nyack, New York, where she died of congestive heart failure at 92.

Legacy:

Was the first woman and second person to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (an EGOT)

Was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting - the highest awards recognized in American film, television, and theater

Won two Academy Awards: Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Best Supporting Actress for Airport (1970)

Won the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1953 and nominated for for nine more (1951, 1952, 1958, 1959, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1978)

Has three Tony Awards: two for Best Actress in a Play for Happy Birthday (1947) and Time Remembered (1958); and the Lawrence Langer Award  for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre

Won the Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album for Great American Documents (1977) and nominated for the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Anastasia (1956) and the Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Herbie Rides Again (1974)

Selected as Most Favorite Actress at the 1932 Venice International Film Festival for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Won the Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League of New York Awards in 1936

Is one of the original inductees in the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972

Received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1972

Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973

Selected as one of 10 artists to be commemorated with the American Arts Commemorative Series gold medallions issued by the Treasury Department in 1980

Was the winner of the 1981 Kennedy Center Honors

Is a founding member of the Board of Advisors of the Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City in 1981

Co-founded the National Wildflower Research Center in 1982 with Lady Bird Johnson

Won the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, given annually by Jefferson Awards, in 1983

Is the namesake for the annual Helen Hayes Awards, which has recognized excellence in professional theatre in Washington, D.C. since 1984

Received the Women's International Center Living Legacy Award in 1985.

Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the Ellis Island Honors Society in 1986

Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan in 1986

Awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1988

Honored with a US postage stamp in 2011

Has a Broadway theatre named after her: the Helen Hayes Theatre on 44th Street

Served for 49 years on the Board of Visitors for the Helen Hayes Hospital, a physical rehabilitation hospital

Wrote three memoirs: A Gift of Joy, On Reflection: An Autobiography, and My Life in Three Acts

Has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: 6258 Hollywood Boulevard for motion picture and 6549 Hollywood Boulevard for radio

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Lea Padovani by Truus, Bob & Jan too! Via Flickr: Italian postcard by Nannina, Milano. Lea Padovani (1923-1991) was an Italian stage and film actress. She appeared in 60 films between 1945 and 1990. She starred in the French crime film Le Dossier noir/Black Dossier (André Cayatte, 1955) which was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Lea Padovani was born in Montalto di Castro, in 1923. Against her father's advice, Lea enrolled at L'Accademia d'Arte Drammatica, the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome, which she left in 1944. She made her debut as a soubrette in Garinei and Giovannini's revue 'Cantachiaro'. The following year, she was part of Erminio Macario's company in 'Febbre azzurra'. She demonstrated excellent acting skills and enjoyed great success. Her meeting with Macario led to work in the film industry. She made her film debut with the female leading role in the comedy L'innocente Casimiro/The Innocent Casimiro (Carlo Campogalliani, 1946) starring Erminio Macario. In 1946 she began her long and successful career as a theatre actress with Armand Salacrou's 'Un uomo come gli altri' and with Jean Cocteau's 'I parenti terribili' in Luchino Visconti's Milanese revival. In 1953, she was alongside Ruggero Ruggeri on a tour to London and Paris with 'Enrico IV' and 'Tutto per bene'. In 1954 she was awarded a special Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon award) for her theatrical performances. From 1947 Lea Padovani appeared in international films, such as Una lettera al Alba/Letter at Dawn (Giorgio Bianchi, 1948) and the British social drama Give Us This Day (Edward Dmytryk, 1949) with Sam Wanamaker. Orson Welles originally cast Lea as Desdemona in his 1952 film production of Othello back in 1948. After Welles began the filming in Venice, producer Montatori Scalera informed Welles that he wanted to make Verdi's opera, not the Shakespearean play, so the money ran out and the film was shelved. By the time the film was made years later, Lea had been replaced by Suzanne Cloutier. She starred in the French crime film Le Dossier noir/Black Dossier (André Cayatte, 1955) which was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. A big hit was the comedy Pane, amore e...../Scandal in Sorrento (Dino Risi, 1955) in which she co-starred with Sophia Loren and Vittorio De Sica. In the 1950s, Padovani also took part in several TV dramas, including Piccole done (Anton Giulio Majano, 1955), Il romanzo di un giovane povero (Silverio Blasi, 1957) and Ottocento (Anton Giulio Majano, 1959-1960). During the 1960s, the stage and television became more important than her film career. In 1990, she made her last film, La putain du roi/The King's Whore (Axel Corti, 1990) with Timothy Dalton and Valeria Golino. Shortly before her death, the actress told writer Renzo Allegri about her encounters with Padre Pio in the late 1950s, asking for help for one of her lovers, who was terminally ill with cancer. She died in 1991 of a heart attack. In 2006, director Oliver Parker directed the film Fade to Black, based on the novel Fade to Black by Davide Ferrario, inspired by a fictional story involving the actress, played in the film by Paz Vega, and the director Orson Welles, played by Danny Huston. In 2012, a theatre named after Lea Padovani was inaugurated in Montalto di Castro by Mayor Sergio Caci and Culture Councillor Eleonora Sacconi. Sources: Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb. And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

[brookston]

Holidays 1.10

Holidays

Aerial Photography Day

Bangabandhu Homecoming Day (Bangladesh)

Common Sense Day

Cross the Rubicon Day

Dawn Appreciation Day

Dial 110 Day (Japan)

Fête du Vodoun (Benin)

45 Record Adapter Day (a.k.a. 45 RPM Day)

Gypsum Day (French Republic)

Houseplant Appreciation Day

Inner Wheel Day

International Take the High Road Day

International Tintin Day

Laughing Day

League of Nations Day

London Underground Day (UK)

Margaret Thatcher Day (Falkland Islands)

Martyrs’ Day (Panama)

National Cut Your Energy Costs Day

National Day of Loneliness

National Guard Day (Kazakhstan)

National Police Day (China)

National Prank Day

National Shareholders Day

National Voodoo Day (Benin)

Peculiar People Day

Rasputin Day

Recorder Day (Germany)

Rubicon Day

Save the Eagles Day

Sinulog begins (Philippines) [Through 20th]

Sluzzle Tag (from “Gumball”)

Speck Day

Sturdy Flat-Heeled Shoes Appreciation Day

Unicycle Day

Working Journalists’ Day (Turkey)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bittersweet Chocolate Day

Champagne and Fries Day

Fritkot Day

Indian Tea Day (UK)

National Booch (Kombucha) Day

National Oysters Rockefeller Day

Where's the Beef Day

2nd Wednesday in January

National Take the Stairs Day [2nd Wednesday]

Independence & Related Days

Hanseatic and Confederate States of Achsen (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Majority Rule Day (Bahamas)

MYCUS Republic (Declared; 2018, Dissolved 2019) [unrecognized]

Thomaland (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Festivals Beginning January 10, 2024

Michigan’s Great Beer State Conference & Trade Show (Kalamazoo, Michigan) [thru 1.12]

Potato Expo (Austin, Texas) [thru 1.11]

Feast Days

Agatho, Pope (Roman Catholic)

Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs (Armenian Apostolic Church)

Bodhi Day (Buddhism; China) [8th Day of 12th Lunar Month]

Doge of Venice (Christian; Saint)

Eldzier Cortor (Artology)

The Fairy Lunch (Shamanism)

Geraint of Dumnonia Feast Day (Wales)

Gonzalvo (Christian; Saint)

Gregory of Nyssa (Christian; Saint)

Heinrich Zille (Artology)

The Hungry Family (Muppetism)

Ilithyia’s Day of the Midwives (Pagan)

Johannes Zick (Artology)

Leonie Aviat (Christian; Saint)

Mao Tse Tung Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Menu (Positivist; Saint)

Mid-Winter Festival (Ancient Rome)

Obadiah (Coptic Church)

Peculiar People Day (Pastafarian)

Peter Orseolo (Christian; Saint)

Pope Agatho (Roman Catholic)

Sacred Bath (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Vaudoun Day (Vodoo Festival; Benin)

William Laud (Anglican Communion)

William of Donjeon (Christian; Saint)

World Hindi Day

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Rosh Chodesh Sh’vat [29 Teveth-1 Shevat]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Binary Day [101] (2 of 9)

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [6 of 32]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [5 of 60]

Premieres

Alice the Golf Bug (Disney Cartoon; 1927)

Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring (Play; 1941)

The Back-Seat Drivers or Mashed Landing (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 13; 1960)

Baton Bunny (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

Bullwinkle’s Water Follies or Antlers Aweigh (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 14; 1960)

The City and the Pillar, by Gore Vidal (Novel; 1948)

Common Sense, by Thomas Paine (Pamphlet; 1776)

Crying Wolf (Terrytoons Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1947)

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (Animated Film; 2014)

Far From Heaven (Film; 2003)

The Feud (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

Fraggle Rock (TV Series; 1983)

The Greatest Show on Earth (Film; 1952)

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Film; 1992)

Her (Film; 2014)

Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence (Play; 1955)

Introducing… The Beatles (Album; 1964)

The Lamp Lighter (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1938)

Man and His Symbols, by C.G. Jung (Science Book; 1963)

Metropolis (Film; 1927)

The Missing Mouse (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1953)

1917 (Film; 2020)

Paradise City, by Guns ’N’ Roses (Song; 1989)

Problem Pappy (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1941)

Recess: School’s Out (Animated Film; 2001)

Silly Symphony (Newspaper Comic Strip; 1932)

Silvertone, by Chris Isaak (Album; 1985)

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats (Children’s Book; 1962)

The Sopranos (TV Series; 1999)

Timber (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, by Hergé (Graphic Novel; 1929) [Tintin #1]

Underwater (Film; 2020)

The Villain’s Curse (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

What a Little Sneeze Will Do (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1941)

Today’s Name Days

Leonie, Paulus (Austria)

Agaton, Aldo, Dobriša, Dobroslav (Croatia)

Břetislav (Czech Republic)

Paul (Denmark)

Talva, Talve, Talvi (Estonia)

Nyyrikki (Finland)

Guillaume (France)

Leonie, Paul (Germany)

Melánia (Hungary)

Aldo (Italy)

Dorisa, Karmena, Tatjana (Latvia)

Agatonas, Ginvilas, Ginvilė, Palemonas, Vilhelmas (Lithuania)

Sigmund, Sigrun (Norway)

Agaton, Dobrosław, Jan, Nikanor, Paweł, Wilhelm (Poland)

Antipa, Grigorie (Romania)

Dáša (Slovakia)

Gonzalo, Nicanor (Spain)

Sigbritt, Sigurd (Sweden)

Bethany, Darby, Derby, Dermot, Kermit, Kermore, Rhett (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 10 of 2024; 356 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 2 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 16 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 29 (Gui-You)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 29 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 28 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 10 White; Threesday [10 of 30]

Julian: 28 December 2023

Moon: 0%: New Moon

Positivist: 10 Moses (1st Month) [Menu]

Runic Half Month: Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Day 1 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 21 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 20 of 31)

Calendar Changes

Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Half-Month 2 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 1.24)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 1.10

Holidays

Aerial Photography Day

Bangabandhu Homecoming Day (Bangladesh)

Common Sense Day

Cross the Rubicon Day

Dawn Appreciation Day

Dial 110 Day (Japan)

Fête du Vodoun (Benin)

45 Record Adapter Day (a.k.a. 45 RPM Day)

Gypsum Day (French Republic)

Houseplant Appreciation Day

Inner Wheel Day

International Take the High Road Day

International Tintin Day

Laughing Day

League of Nations Day

London Underground Day (UK)

Margaret Thatcher Day (Falkland Islands)

Martyrs’ Day (Panama)

National Cut Your Energy Costs Day

National Day of Loneliness

National Guard Day (Kazakhstan)

National Police Day (China)

National Prank Day

National Shareholders Day

National Voodoo Day (Benin)

Peculiar People Day

Rasputin Day

Recorder Day (Germany)

Rubicon Day

Save the Eagles Day

Sinulog begins (Philippines) [Through 20th]

Sluzzle Tag (from “Gumball”)

Speck Day

Sturdy Flat-Heeled Shoes Appreciation Day

Unicycle Day

Working Journalists’ Day (Turkey)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bittersweet Chocolate Day

Champagne and Fries Day

Fritkot Day

Indian Tea Day (UK)

National Booch (Kombucha) Day

National Oysters Rockefeller Day

Where's the Beef Day

2nd Wednesday in January

National Take the Stairs Day [2nd Wednesday]

Independence & Related Days

Hanseatic and Confederate States of Achsen (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Majority Rule Day (Bahamas)

MYCUS Republic (Declared; 2018, Dissolved 2019) [unrecognized]

Thomaland (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Festivals Beginning January 10, 2024

Michigan’s Great Beer State Conference & Trade Show (Kalamazoo, Michigan) [thru 1.12]

Potato Expo (Austin, Texas) [thru 1.11]

Feast Days

Agatho, Pope (Roman Catholic)

Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs (Armenian Apostolic Church)

Bodhi Day (Buddhism; China) [8th Day of 12th Lunar Month]

Doge of Venice (Christian; Saint)

Eldzier Cortor (Artology)

The Fairy Lunch (Shamanism)

Geraint of Dumnonia Feast Day (Wales)

Gonzalvo (Christian; Saint)

Gregory of Nyssa (Christian; Saint)

Heinrich Zille (Artology)

The Hungry Family (Muppetism)

Ilithyia’s Day of the Midwives (Pagan)

Johannes Zick (Artology)

Leonie Aviat (Christian; Saint)

Mao Tse Tung Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Menu (Positivist; Saint)

Mid-Winter Festival (Ancient Rome)

Obadiah (Coptic Church)

Peculiar People Day (Pastafarian)

Peter Orseolo (Christian; Saint)

Pope Agatho (Roman Catholic)

Sacred Bath (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Vaudoun Day (Vodoo Festival; Benin)

William Laud (Anglican Communion)

William of Donjeon (Christian; Saint)

World Hindi Day

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Rosh Chodesh Sh’vat [29 Teveth-1 Shevat]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Binary Day [101] (2 of 9)

Perilous Day (13th Century England) [6 of 32]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [5 of 60]

Premieres

Alice the Golf Bug (Disney Cartoon; 1927)

Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring (Play; 1941)

The Back-Seat Drivers or Mashed Landing (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 13; 1960)

Baton Bunny (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

Bullwinkle’s Water Follies or Antlers Aweigh (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S1, Ep. 14; 1960)

The City and the Pillar, by Gore Vidal (Novel; 1948)

Common Sense, by Thomas Paine (Pamphlet; 1776)

Crying Wolf (Terrytoons Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1947)

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (Animated Film; 2014)

Far From Heaven (Film; 2003)

The Feud (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

Fraggle Rock (TV Series; 1983)

The Greatest Show on Earth (Film; 1952)

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Film; 1992)

Her (Film; 2014)

Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence (Play; 1955)

Introducing… The Beatles (Album; 1964)

The Lamp Lighter (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1938)

Man and His Symbols, by C.G. Jung (Science Book; 1963)

Metropolis (Film; 1927)

The Missing Mouse (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1953)

1917 (Film; 2020)

Paradise City, by Guns ’N’ Roses (Song; 1989)

Problem Pappy (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1941)

Recess: School’s Out (Animated Film; 2001)

Silly Symphony (Newspaper Comic Strip; 1932)

Silvertone, by Chris Isaak (Album; 1985)

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats (Children’s Book; 1962)

The Sopranos (TV Series; 1999)

Timber (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, by Hergé (Graphic Novel; 1929) [Tintin #1]

Underwater (Film; 2020)

The Villain’s Curse (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

What a Little Sneeze Will Do (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1941)

Today’s Name Days

Leonie, Paulus (Austria)

Agaton, Aldo, Dobriša, Dobroslav (Croatia)

Břetislav (Czech Republic)

Paul (Denmark)

Talva, Talve, Talvi (Estonia)

Nyyrikki (Finland)

Guillaume (France)

Leonie, Paul (Germany)

Melánia (Hungary)

Aldo (Italy)

Dorisa, Karmena, Tatjana (Latvia)

Agatonas, Ginvilas, Ginvilė, Palemonas, Vilhelmas (Lithuania)

Sigmund, Sigrun (Norway)

Agaton, Dobrosław, Jan, Nikanor, Paweł, Wilhelm (Poland)

Antipa, Grigorie (Romania)

Dáša (Slovakia)

Gonzalo, Nicanor (Spain)

Sigbritt, Sigurd (Sweden)

Bethany, Darby, Derby, Dermot, Kermit, Kermore, Rhett (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 10 of 2024; 356 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 2 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Beth (Birch) [Day 16 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Jia-Zi), Day 29 (Gui-You)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 29 Teveth 5784

Islamic: 28 Jumada II 1445

J Cal: 10 White; Threesday [10 of 30]

Julian: 28 December 2023

Moon: 0%: New Moon

Positivist: 10 Moses (1st Month) [Menu]

Runic Half Month: Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Day 1 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 21 of 89)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 20 of 31)

Calendar Changes

Peorth (Womb, Dice Cup) [Half-Month 2 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 1.24)

[tbraithwaitefilmfestivals2022]

Research notes on: "Films for the intelligent layman: the origins of the Sydney and Melbourne film festivals (1952-58)" by Cathy Hope and Adam Dickerson

"The first principle is that the festivals have their own institutional identity and history, and their own position in a network of other organisations and institution.”

TRANSLATION-CONSIDER FILM FESTIVALS WITH THEIR INDIVIDUALITY IT IS SO EASY TO CONSDEER THEM TOO CLOSELY WITHT EHFILM INDSYRY AND AS THEY SAY “VEHICLES FOR PARTICULAR FILMS” (E.G comparing this to the MIFF it has an anti-institutional origin as it was self-funded throughout the 

“the organisational history of the two film festivals is best seen as involving a continuous negotiation between the demands of ‘culture’ and the demands of ‘industry”

TRANSLATION- I HAVE TO CONSIDER THESE FILM FESTIVALS WITHIN THEIR CULTURE THAT THEY WERE SET UP IN AND THE DEMAND OF THE THE INDUSTRY AT THE TIME OF THEIR CREATION. 

“Films shown at olinda we not current Hollywood feature productions, they included documentaries, public relations films, animation, instructional films, feature films and amateur productions of every-day life. “

They covered topics from arena s as broad as science, religion and art and were either made or sponsored by extraordinarily diverse range of organisations. e.g. he Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the Australian Army, Films of Africa, the International Realist Unit for the UK Ministry of Health, the North-Eastern Film Studio of the Central Film Bureau (China), Shell Oil, the United Nations Film Bureaus, and Walt Disney.

Olinda 1952 programme, passim

”Throughout the Olinda programme, terminologies are employed that assigned such value both to the Festival films themselves, and to the Festival audience. Such phrases as ‘good film’, ‘films of merit’, and ‘quality film’ are used repeatedly to refer to the films themselves, whilst the generic audience member is referred to as ‘the intelligent layman’”

Olinda 1952 programme, passim

The festival also included a range of lectures, seminars and discussion sessions, which were designed to allow the audience to reflect actively on the social and cultural value of film.In particular, 

Olinda 1952 programme, 1-11.

the committee debated at length whether to turn Melbourne into a competitive festival like Venice and Cannes – a debate that clearly reveals the opposition between ‘culture’ and ‘industry’.

MFF – Min., 1 July 1953, Box No. 1.

the cultural note of the festival should be maintained and improved, and that trafficking in awards for commercial films was not a step towards this”. -Alfred Heintz.

MFF – Min., 1 July 1953, Box No. 1. 

announced in the 1955 programme introduction that the Melbourne Film Festival existed primarily to show films that would not receive commercial screening in Australia.

Melbourne Film Festival – 1955 programme, 1.

QUOTE FROM ALAN K STOUT, written in the olinda programme: ”The problem of the cinema is that it is both “big business” and at the same time one of the most powerful influences on character and outlook the world has known. But those who run the commercial cinema are not interested in education, in affecting people’s outlook, and in changing their habits of thinking and feeling and acting … [rather, the] box office is the criterion by which films are judged, and the only influence movie moguls want films to have is to preserve a social and political order in which the industry can flourish.” 

Olinda was considered by its organisers to be a surprising success. Originally estimating that the attendance at the Festival would be no more than eighty, they invested the entire funds of the FVFS (a total of £15) in hiring one “rambling old wooden guest house”.[15] However, in the end, Olinda attracted more than eight-hundred film enthusiast

Heintz, “Miracle at Olinda,” Walkabout 30 (1964): 28.

Heintz, 29; see also “Olinda Film Festival,” Guardian, 9 February 1952.

The Aims of Melbourne film festival:

a. To integrate films into programmes of significance, and each programme will be discussed by a relevant authority; b. To hold discussions on controversial subjects … making the Festival a sounding board for public opinion as represented by a diverse panel of experts; c. To enable people to enjoy and appreciate films which they otherwise could not see, but [sic] it will show educationalists and others how to go about making and using visual aids to the best advantage.

Melbourne Film Festival – 1953 programme, 3.

“Olinda was considered by its organisers to be a surprising success. Originally estimating that the attendance at the Festival would be no more than eighty, they invested the entire funds of the FVFS (a total of £15) in hiring one “rambling old wooden guest house”.[15] However, in the end, Olinda attracted more than eight-hundred film enthusiasts”

A. Heintz, “Miracle at Olinda,” Walkabout 30 (1964): 28.

the anti-Hollywood focus, quality international (primarily European) features,

[thekimonogallery]

Winner of the International Award at 1952’s Venice Film Festival, The Life of Oharu proved Japanese cinema did not start and stop with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, grand prize winner at Venice a year before.

[faces-of-7th-art]

Akira Kurosawa (Japanese: 黒澤 明, Hepburn: Kurosawa Akira, March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in film history.

Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata. After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films.

Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. The commercial and critical success of that film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957) and Yojimbo (1961). After the 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including two of his final films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to receive great acclaim.

In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Posthumously, he was named "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited there as being among the five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His career has been honored by many retrospectives, critical studies and biographies in both print and video, and by releases in many consumer media.

Some directors influenced my photographic career and at the same time an attitude toward life that I hid deep inside me. One of the great creators was Akira Kurosawa. From his first to the last, aesthetics was always evolving, as was his cinematic art.. I made his portrait in Cannes in 1991 when he presented his out-of-competition film "Rhapsody in August".

[livesunique]

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (July 1, 1916 – July 25, 2020)

Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films, and was one of the leading actresses of her time. 

Ms. de Havilland first came to prominence as a screen couple with Errol Flynn in adventure films such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). One of her best-known roles is that of Melanie Hamilton in the classic film Gone with the Wind (1939), for which she received her first of five Oscar nominations, the only one for Best Supporting Actress.

Ms. de Havilland departed from ingénue roles in the 1940s and later received acclaim for her performances in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949), receiving nominations for Best Actress for each, winning for To Each His Own and The Heiress. 

Ms. De Havilland lived in Paris from the 1950s, and received honours such as the National Medal of the Arts, the Légion d’honneur and the appointment to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

In addition to her film career, Ms. de Havilland continued her work in the theatre, appearing three times on Broadway, in Romeo and Juliet (1951), Candida (1952), and A Gift of Time (1962). She also worked in television, appearing in the successful miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and won the Golden globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Movie or Series. 

During her film career, Ms. de Havilland also collected two New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress, and the Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ms. de Havilland in 2018 at 101. Credit Julien Mignot for The New York Times,

Captain Blood (Warner Brothers, 1935), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Warner Brothers, 1935), Gone With the Wind (MGM, 1939), The Dark Mirror (Universal International, 1946), In This Our Life (Warner Brothers, 1942), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner Brothers, 1938), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (20th Century Fox, 1964), The Heiress (Paramount, 1949), The Snake Pit (20th Century Fox, 1948).

“Let us raise a Mint Julep to a Star”

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Peter Fonda who Died: August 16, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a part of the counterculture of the 1960s. Fonda was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Easy Rider (1969), and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Ulee's Gold (1997). For the latter, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Fonda also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999).

Fonda was born on February 23, 1940, in New York City, the only son of actor Henry Fonda (1905–1982) and his wife Frances Ford Seymour (1908–1950); his older sister was actress Jane Fonda (born 1937). He and Jane had a half-sister, Frances de Villers Brokaw (1931–2008), from their mother's first marriage. Their mother committed suicide in a mental hospital when Peter, her youngest, was ten. He did not discover the circumstances or location of her death until he was 15 years old.

On his eleventh birthday, he accidentally shot himself in the abdomen and nearly died. He went to the Indian hill station of Nainital and stayed for a few months for recovery. Years later, he referred to this incident while with John Lennon and George Harrison while taking LSD. He said, "I know what it's like to be dead." This inspired The Beatles' song "She Said She Said".

Peter attended the Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and was a member of the class of 1954. He then matriculated to Westminster School, a Connecticut boarding school in Simsbury, where he graduated in 1958.

Once he graduated, Fonda studied acting in Omaha, Nebraska, his father's home town. While attending the University of Nebraska-Omaha, Fonda joined the Omaha Community Playhouse, having been recruited by Marlon Brando's mother.

By the mid-1960s, Fonda was not a conventional "leading man" in Hollywood. As Playboy magazine reported, Fonda had established a "solid reputation as a dropout". He had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long and took LSD regularly, alienating the "establishment" film industry. Desirable acting work became scarce. Through his friendships with members of the band The Byrds, Fonda visited The Beatles in their rented house in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in August 1965. While John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Fonda were under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead." Lennon used the phrase in the lyrics for his song, "She Said She Said", which was included on their 1966 album, Revolver.

In 1966, Fonda was arrested in the Sunset Strip riot, which the police ended forcefully. The band Buffalo Springfield protested the department's handling of the incident in their song "For What It's Worth". Fonda sang some and in 1967 recorded "November Night", a 45-rpm single written by Gram Parsons for the Chisa label, backed with "Catch the Wind" by Donovan, produced by Hugh Masekela.

Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was as a biker in Roger Corman's B movie The Wild Angels (1966). Fonda originally was to support George Chakiris, but graduated to the lead when Chakiris revealed he could not ride a motorcycle. In the film, Fonda delivered a "eulogy" at a fallen Angel's funeral service. This was sampled by Psychic TV on their 1988 LP recording Jack the TAB. It was later sampled in the Primal Scream recording "Loaded" (1991), and in other rock songs. The movie was a big hit at the box office, screened at the Venice Film Festival, launched the biker movie genre, and established Peter Fonda as a movie name. Fonda made a television pilot, High Noon: The Clock Strikes Noon Again, filmed in December 1965. It was based on the film High Noon (1952), starring Gary Cooper, with Fonda in the Cooper role. However, it did not become a series.

Fonda next played the male lead in Corman's film The Trip (1967), a take on the experience and "consequences" of consuming LSD, which was written by Jack Nicholson. His co stars included Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper. The movie was a hit. Fonda then traveled to France to appear in the portmanteau horror movie Spirits of the Dead (1968). His segment co-starred his sister Jane and was directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim. For American television, he appeared in a movie, Certain Honorable Men (1968), alongside Van Heflin, written by Rod Serling.

Fonda produced, co-wrote and starred in Easy Rider (1969), directed by Dennis Hopper. Easy Rider is about two long-haired bikers traveling through the southwestern and southern United States where they encounter intolerance and violence. Fonda played "Wyatt", a charismatic, laconic man whose motorcycle jacket bore a large American flag across the back. Dennis Hopper played the garrulous "Billy". Jack Nicholson played George Hanson, an alcoholic civil rights lawyer who rides along with them. Fonda co-wrote the screenplay with Terry Southern and Hopper.

Fonda tried to secure financing from Roger Corman and American International Pictures (AIP), with whom he had made The Wild Angels and The Trip, but they were reluctant to finance a film directed by Hopper. They succeeded getting money from Columbia Pictures. Hopper filmed the cross-country road trip depicted almost entirely on location. Fonda had secured funding of around $360,000, largely based on the fact he knew that it was the budget Roger Corman needed to make The Wild Angels. The guitarist and composer Robbie Robertson, of The Band, was so moved by an advance screening that he approached Fonda and tried to convince him to let him write a complete score, even though the film was nearly due for wide release. Fonda declined the offer, instead using Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild", Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" sung by The Byrds' Roger McGuinn, and Robertson's own composition "The Weight", performed by The Band, among many other tracks.

The film was released to international success. Jack Nicholson was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Fonda, Hopper and Southern were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film grossed over $40 million.

After the success of Easy Rider, both Hopper and Fonda were sought for film projects. Hopper directed the film The Last Movie (1971), in which Fonda co-starred along with singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas. Fonda directed and starred in the Western film The Hired Hand (1971). He took the lead role in a cast that also featured Warren Oates, Verna Bloom and Beat Generation poet Michael McClure. The film received mixed reviews and failed commercially upon its initial release, but many years later, in 2001, a fully restored version was shown at various film festivals and was re-released by the Sundance Channel on DVD that same year in two separate editions. Fonda later directed the science fiction film Idaho Transfer (1973). He did not appear in the film, and the film received mixed reviews upon its limited release. Around the same time, he co-starred with Lindsay Wagner in Two People (also 1973) for director Robert Wise, in which he portrayed a Vietnam War deserter.

Fonda starred alongside Susan George in the film Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), a film about two NASCAR hopefuls who execute a supermarket heist to finance their jump into big-time auto racing. The film was a box-office hit that year. It led to Fonda making a series of action movies: Open Season (1974), with William Holden; Race with the Devil (1975), fleeing devil worshippers with Warren Oates; 92 in the Shade (1975), again with Oates, for writer-director Thomas McGuane; Killer Force (1976) for director Val Guest; Futureworld (1976), a sequel to Westworld (1973), financed by AIP; Fighting Mad (1976), a reuniting with Roger Corman, directed by Jonathan Demme.

Outlaw Blues (1977) was a drama, with Fonda playing a musician opposite Susan Saint James. After some more action with High-Ballin' (1978), Fonda returned to directing, with the controversial drama Wanda Nevada (1979), wherein the 39-year-old Fonda starred as the "love" interest of the then 13-year-old Brooke Shields. His father, Henry Fonda, made a brief appearance as well, and it is the only film in which they performed together.

His final portrayal was in the Vietnam War movie The Last Full Measure. The director of that film, Todd Robinson, has recounted that Peter Fonda was able to view that film in its entirety, and got emotional upon viewing it.

Fonda died from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on August 16, 2019, at the age of 79.

Following Fonda's death, his sister Jane Fonda made the following statement: "I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing."

[foryourart]

Lina Bo Bardi, Bardi House (Casa de vidro), São Paulo, Brazil, 1949-1952, view from the northeast, photograph by Nelson Kon, 2002, Courtesy Nelson Kon. Image courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum. 

Thursday, October 19

LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS IN THE MARCIANO COLLECTION, Marciano Art Foundation (Mid-Wilshire), 11am–5pm. 

CULTURE FIX: HEATHER SHIREY ON THE BAIANA AND AFRO-BRAZILIAN IDENTITY, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 12–1pm.

Paul Brach Visiting Artist Lecture Series: Dorit Cypis, CalArts (Valencia), 12pm.

Psychedelic Cello by Justin Lepard, CalArts (Valencia), 12–1pm.

Chicana Photographers L.A., WEINGART GALLERY (Westchester), 5–8pm.

Albert Frey and Lina Bo Bardi: Environments for Life, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 5pm.

Architects for Animals® Giving Shelter, HermanMiller Showroom (Culver City), 5:30–9:30pm. $50–500.

Artist and scholar walkthroughs: Micol Hebron, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 6pm.

THE CUT | EL CORTE: A Fitness Class & Papel Picado Workshop, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 6–8pm. $20.

Alan Gutierrez: INTRO, Artist Curated Projects (Echo Park), 6–8pm.

San Pedro House History Workshop, Angels Gate Cultural Center (San Pedro), 6pm.

Climate Change and the Shaping of Asia, Getty Center (Brentwood), 7pm.

Bayard & Me Documentary Screening followed by a shorts program and Q&A, Vista Theater (Los Feliz), 7pm.

Adriana Varejao: Transbarrocco, Lloyd Wright Sowden House (Los Feliz), 7–9pm. Through October 21. RSVP here.

Dis Miss: Performing Gender, USC (Downtown), 7pm.

Film Night: Seven Cities of Gold, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 7pm.

Rodrigo Valenzuela Lecture, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Film: Free Screening | 11/8/16, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7:30pm.

Film Night: Seven Cities of Gold, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 7:30pm.

Oscar David Alvarez, PØST (Downtown), 8pm.

Modernism week fall preview weekend, various locations (Palm Springs), various times. Through October 22.

Friday, October 20

Symposium – Art from Guatemala 1960 - Present, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara), 10am. $15.

International Orchid Show & Sale, The Huntington (San Marino), 10am–5pm. Through October 22.

School of Music Visiting Artist Series: Pascale Criton with Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker, CalArts (Valencia), 10am–12pm.

STORY TIME AT THE FOWLER, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 11:30am–12:30pm.

Charles Phoenix: Addicted to Americana Live Comedy Slide Show Performance, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 3–5pm. $40.

Christopher Michlig and Jan Tumlir in Conversation, 1301PE (Miracle Mile), 5pm.

Inès Longevial: Sous Le Soleil, HVW8 Gallery (Fairfax), 6–9pm. 

Stepping into the Radiant Future, LAST Projects (Lincoln Heights), 7–11pm.

Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (Beverly Hills), 7:30pm. $45–125. Through October 29. 

Latin Rhythms: Cha Cha Cha Dance Class, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 7–9pm.

Mark Edward Rhodes & Jeanete Clough, Beyond Baroque (Venice), 8pm.

Book Launch: PLAYING MONSTER :: SEICHE by Diana Arterian, Human Resources (Chinatown), 8pm.

Princess Diana in Auschwitz, CalArts (Valencia), 8pm. Through October 24.

WHAP! Lecture Series: 'in/ibid./form', West Hollywood Public Library (West Hollywood), 7:30pm.

PST: LA/LA Santa Barbara Weekend, various locations (Santa Barbara), various times. Through October 22. 

Saturday, October 21

UCLA ART HISTORY GRADUATE SYMPOSIUM, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 9am–5pm.

12th annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar, USC (Downtown), 9am–5pm.

An Ephemeral History of High Desert Test Sites: 2002-2015, High Desert Test Sites (Joshua Tree), 9am. Continues October 22.

Family Festival, Getty Center (Brentwood), 10am–6pm.

The Beverly Hills Art Show, Beverly Gardens Park (Beverly Hills), 10am–5pm. Also October 22.

Frederick Hammersley: To Paint without Thinking, The Huntington (San Marino), 10am–5pm. 

Modern Masters from Latin America: The Pérez Simón Collection, The San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego), 10am–5pm.

A Generative Workshop: Gathering Imagery from the Internal Well with Holaday Mason, Beyond Baroque (Venice), 11am–3pm.

Fall Yoga Series, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 10:30am–11:30am. $12–15.

Fall 2017 Brewery Artwalk, the Brewery (Downtown), 11am–6pm. Continues October 22.

Print making with recycled materials, Side Street Projects (Pasadena), 11am–1pm.

Strike a Pose: Improv Comedy in the Portrait Gallery, The Huntington (San Marino), 12:30, 1:30, and 2:30pm.

Festival For All Skid Row Artists, Gladys Park (Downtown), 1–5pm. Continues October 22.

The 3rd Space: Political Action Workshop, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 1–4pm. $5–10.

EXHIBITION TALK & TOUR: Eva J. Friedberg, Daria Halprin & Edward Cella, Edward Cella Art+Architecture (Culver City), 1:30pm.

ARTIST TALK: KAJAHL: Unearthed Entities, Richard Heller Gallery (Santa Monica), 3–5pm.

Alison Blickle: Supermoon, Five Car Garage (Santa Monica), 3–5pm. RSVP to info@emmagrayhq.com. 

The 2017 Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation, REDCAT (Downtown), 3, 5, and 8pm.

Jeffrey Schultz & F. Douglas Brown, Beyond Baroque Foundation (Venice), 4pm.

Jaime Guerrero & Bradley Hankey Artist Talks, Skidmore Contemporary Art (Santa Monica), 4pm.

Film: Mapa Teatro’s Project 24, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 4pm.

Los Angeles Filmforum presents Three screenings with Argentinian filmmaker Claudio Caldini, USC (Downtown), 4pm.

When Ice Burns: New works by Diane Best, Porch Gallery (Ojai), 5–7pm; artist talk, 4pm.

Astrid Preston: Upside Down World and Rose-Lynn Fisher: The Topography of Tears, Craig Krull Gallery (Santa Monica), 5–7pm.

VICTOR ESTRADA (IN CONJUNCTION WITH PACIFIC STANDARD TIME), MARTEL SPACE: RICHARD HAWKINS, MARTEL WINDOW PROJECT: MALISA HUMPHREY, Richard Telles Fine Art (Fairfax), 5–8pm.

ARCHAEOLOGY REINVENTED, R.B. Stevenson Gallery (La Jolla), 5–8pm.

The Xenomorph's Egg, Patrick Painter Gallery (Santa Monica), 6–8pm.

The Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum, Klowden Mann (Culver City), 6–8pm.

Personal Vacation and 3 Solo Shows, Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 (West Hollywood), 6–9pm.

FRAY: Art and Textile Politics, Craft and Folk Art Museum (Miracle Mile), 6–8pm. $20.

Mike Kelley: Kandors, Hauser & Wirth (Downtown), 6–9pm.

Homeward Bound, Nicodim Gallery (Downtown), 6–8pm.

Kelly McLane: PECKERWOODS and Augusta Wood: PARTING AND RETURNING, DENK Gallery (Downtown), 6–8pm.

In Order of Appearance and Luke Butler: MMXVII, Charlie James Gallery (Chinatown), 6–9pm.

Jennifer Precious Finch (L7) & KRK Dominguez, Red Pipe Gallery (Chinatown), 6–10pm.

Open Studios, Keystone Art Space (Lincoln Heights), 6–10pm.

The Very Best of OMA Artist Alliance 2017, L Street Fine Art (San Diego), 6–8pm.

Dany Naierman: PORT CAPA, Angels Gate Cultural Center (San Pedro), 6pm.

Arco Iris, Giant Robot Store + GR2 Gallery (Sawtelle), 6:30–10pm.

South of the Border, The Loft at Liz’s (Mid-City), 7–10pm.

Killer Bees at MAR-A-LAGO, Tieken Gallery LA (Chinatown), 7–10pm.

Art Moura, The Good Luck Gallery (Chinatown), 7–10pm.

Rafael Cardenas - From The Holocene, Exhale Unlimited (Chinatown), 7–10pm.

Story Tellers: a DIA de los MUERTOS, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach), 7–11pm.

Yare: One More Dance by Cristobal Valecillos, Timothy Yarger Fine Art (Downtown), 7:30–10pm.

Laurel Atwell and Jessica Cook: Debris, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 8–10pm. $15. 

Sunday, October 22

Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Downtown), 11am–5pm. 

Healthy Urban Living Team Building, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 11am–1pm.

Origin Stories Workshop with Nicole Rademacher & Jerri Allyn, Self-Help Graphics & Art (Downtown), 12–3pm.

2017 A.G.Geiger Art Book Fair, 502 Chung King Plaza (Chinatown), 1–7pm.

Community Celebration, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara), 1–4pm.

Talk: Conversation & Book Signing: Michael Govan and Walter Isaacson on Leonardo da Vinci, Lacma (Miracle Mile), 2pm.

Nature Deficit Disorder Workshop, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 2–6pm. $60–75.

BORDERS and NEIGHBORS screening and panel discussion, Los Angeles Central Library (Downtown), 2pm.

Lecture: Jens Hoffman, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 2:30–4pm.

PUBLIC WALKING TOURS: Lawrence Halprin: Reconnecting the Heart of Los Angeles, various locations, 2:30pm. Also November 5 and 19 and December 17.

Constellations and Connections: A Panel Discussion on Axis Mundo, West Hollywood Council Chambers (West Hollywood), 3pm.

Neighborhood Walk and Draw, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 4–5:30pm.

Akio Suzuki and Aki Onda, Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook (Culver City), 4pm.

For Us By Us, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 6:30–10:30pm. $5 donation.

GALLERY TALK | Peter Frank with Robert Standish, KM Fine Arts (West Hollywood), 5–7pm.

FALL IN LOVE WITH FREY, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 6–9pm. $125–175.

Claudio Caldini, Echo Park Film Center (Echo Park), 7:30pm. $5.

Monday, October 23

Yare: One More Dance by Cristobal Valecillos, Timothy Yarger Fine Art (Beverly Hills), 10am–6pm. 

Kellie Jones, Art + Practice (Leimert Park), 7pm.

Fantasmas Cromáticos: 8mm Visions of Claudio Caldini, REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm. $6–12.

Tuesday, October 24

The Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, 101/EXHIBIT (West Hollywood), 10am–6pm.

Movement and Landscape: Celebrating the Halprin Legacy, Central Library (Downtown), 12pm.

PUBLIC DANCE PERFORMANCE: Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, Central Library (Downtown), 12pm.

Film: The Invisible Man, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles, The Artform Studio (Highland Park), 6:30–9pm.

FLAVORS OF MEXICO, Skirball Cultural Center (Brentwood), 7:30–9pm. Also November 14 and December 12.

No Mas Bebes, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

El Automóvil Gris, Skirball Cultural Center (Brentwood), 8pm.

Sounding Limits: The Music of Pascale Criton, REDCAT (Downtown), 8:30pm. $12–20.

Wednesday, October 25

FOWLER OUT LOUD: SAMANTHA BLAKE GOODMAN, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 6–7pm.

LAND's 2017 Gala, Carondelet House (MacArthur Park), 6–11pm. 

Screening and Conversation with Filmmakers Ben Caldwell, Barbara McCullough, and Curator Erin Christovale, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 7–9pm.

We Wanted a Revolution, Black Radical Women 1965–85 curatorial walkthrough, Lezley Saar: Salon des Refusés, California African American Museum (Downtown), 7–9pm.

Making Athens Great (Again?): Modern Lessons from the Age of Pericles, Getty Villa (Pacific Palisades), 7:30pm.

Kellie Jones: South of Pico, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Soundbath With Chakra Crystal Singing Bowls Series, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7:30–8:30pm. $16–20.

Performance: Live/Work, Honor Fraser Gallery (Culver City).

[elizabethkarr]

Discovery Productions restoration of Dennis Hopper's OUT OF THE BLUE @outofthebluefilm premieres @labiennale in #veniceclassics 2019! @jasimon100 and I are honored to be included in this prestigious slate of films in this year's Venice international film festival. "Among the newly restored classics will be Hopper’s 1980 film “Out of the Blue”; Cronenberg’s 1996 movie “Crash”; a double bill of Bernardo Bertolucci pics – “The Grim Reaper,” the director’s feature debut, which bowed in Venice in 1962, and “The Spider’s Stratagem,” presented at Venice in 1970; Federico Fellini’s “The White Sheik,” which premiered at Venice in 1952; and Bunuel’s 1955 film “The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz.” - @Variety #dennishopper #outoftheblue #outofthebluefilm #outofthebluemovie #restoration #venicebiennale #labiennaledivenezia#venicebiennale #BiennaleCinema2019 #VeniceClassics #biennaleteatro2019 #cinema #cinemahistory #cine #classics #variety @labiennale #Hopper #Scorsese #cronenberg #bertolucci #fellini #bunuel Repost from @outofthebluefilm https://www.instagram.com/p/B0WnK7QJqYV/?igshid=rt6dpp0pok7u

[southeastasianists]

This is the first of a two-part essay on origins and rise of  biennales within the context of Malaysia’s aspirations for a world-class international visual art mega-exhibition. Read Part II here.

Part I

News that Kuala Lumpur will stage its first biennale in November this year have been circulating amongst Malaysian art insiders since 2015. The biennale: that mega-exhibition of contemporary art which some might say is the pinnacle of international art exhibitions, and which has become an increasingly popular strategy for cities striving to put themselves on some sort of global map. When the intention was first announced in late 2015, the appointed organiser, the National Visual Arts Gallery, held a small programme of advocacy and discourse with members of the arts community; and from December 2016 to January 2017, the Gallery staged an exhibition demonstrating the ‘biennale history’ of Malaysia, presumably for the purpose of making known Malaysian artists’ prior involvement in biennales around the world. Normally, for a show of the scale as most biennial exhibitions tend to be, formal announcements of dates and other details would have been made known by now, but by the 1st of February 2017, there was still nothing confirmed about the status of the planned KL Biennale. There had been little to go on apart from industry talk, insider gossip. At a recent symposium on the future of biennials in Singapore, an audience member who revealed himself to be a member of a discussion group in communication with the KL organizing committee, said that the KL Biennale would be a great event that everyone should come to, making the analogy of a biennale to a fashion week.*

However, a countdown has now appeared on the website of the National Visual Arts Gallery, indicating November 1 as the start of the KL Biennale. So we now officially have a date, and await further details to be announced such as curatorial theme or direction/director. Why does it matter, though, whether or not KL stages a biennale? Most Malaysians will not know a biennial from a perennial, and it is arguable that even within the art circles of Kuala Lumpur, the hows and whys of these spectacular exhibitions remain fuzzy. Does anyone even care about contemporary art apart from a small circle of elite collectors, the galleries that service them, and the artists who jostle for space in the construct that is the art market? I would make a case, however, that we should care. Cities from Sydney to Sharjah, Shanghai to Singapore are all organisers of biennials, and in the Asian region, one of the younger kids on the block is the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, taking place in Kochi, India, and launched in 2012. It seems that KL is determined to not be left behind. But I ask what relevance a Biennale is going to be for a city like Kuala Lumpur.

In Malaysia, developments in the local art world go mostly unnoticed by the general populace. One has to consider the state of the arts in Malaysia in order to assess the benefits a biennial may or may not bring us; and the question of benefit is necessary. Organised by the National Visual Arts Gallery, and promoted, one has no doubt, by the Ministry of Tourism, this is an event that will be funded by public money. It also plays a significant role in the positioning of Malaysia on a global stage, and the reputation of the country and how it seeks to be perceived should be of matter to its citizens. It also presents an opportunity to reflect on the developments – or lack thereof – of the arts in Malaysia, an unfortunately rather cheerless prospect.

This essay is in two parts: in the first, to help in our assessment, I will first look briefly at the history of biennials, paying attention to three in particular that are close to us in geography and offer some constructive points for comparison and reflection. In part 2, I return to the spectre of the KL Biennale and what this could mean given the context in Malaysia. Throughout, I consider the ways in which biennials are useful to governments, which justify their expense and the often considerable efforts of the organisers, as well as the benefits they may or may not bring to the arts community and wider society of a city or country.

Some background on biennales

Till this point it might seem that the words ‘biennale’ and ‘biennial’ have been used interchangeably. They do, in fact, carry the same meaning, but the term ‘biennial’ shall be used as an encompassing term to refer to the recurring large-scale exhibitions that take place every two years (or even three and five years); while ‘biennale’ is used to refer to the exhibitions which have chosen to call themselves by the Italian term, after the Venice Biennale, which is the archetype of these grand international art exhibitions.

The Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, in that famed historic city-state that had been a major commercial centre in the middle ages, teeming with artists, artisans, and craftsmen, and wealthy patrons who could commission works of astounding architecture and art. At the time of the Biennale’s founding, the city of Venice was part of a still young unified Italy, and also part of a larger European (and American) worldview. In the mid-19th century we also saw the rise of the phenomenon of World’s Fairs, the precursors to the giant exhibitions and festivals of art that have become the norm in our current age. Showcasing scientific innovations, ethnographic curiosities (both inanimate objects and living human beings), and works of art and cultural artefacts from around the world, the fairs were products of post-Enlightenment thinking and demonstrations of Euro-American desires of collecting, labelling and ordering, and of colonial ambition. They also set early ground rules for perceiving the world through the medium of culture and creative expressions.

By the mid-1950s the World’s Fairs were on the decline, but the Venice Biennale had by now established itself as a platform for the celebration of art that included music, cinema and theatre (architecture only acquired its own distinct forum in 1980). As Federica Martini and Vittoria Martini have described in their study of the history of the Biennale,

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Venice opened itself to the world while still retaining its tradition of an ancient cosmopolitan Republic… Venice, with its rich past, but lack of industrial development, strove for internationality, and once again became the centre not of politics and commerce, but of art and culture. (143)

This desire for internationality is central to most, if not all biennials: the desire to be a platform for modes of global exchange, to enable the coming together of artists and intellectuals, as well as a powerful elite of the commercial and political classes with the aim of building geopolitical relationships. A cultural diplomatic event at a grand scale.

Gardner and Green, in their work focusing on the biennials in the Global South, i.e. the developing countries of the world, identify the politically charged effects of biennials in countries that do not lay claim to hundred-year old legacies as cosmopolitan city states, or as newly minted cities of a booming bourgeoisie with cultural monuments built by 20th century industrialists as one sees in the history of the U.S.A. With examples that include the São Paulo Biennial (1951) and the Biennale de la Méditerranée, founded in 1955 in Alexandria, Egypt, and focused explicitly on artistic co-operation amongst the participants who came from countries along the Mediterranean, the authors describe a reordering of center-periphery relations, and the establishment of a critical platform for regional discourse.

Indeed, if the catalogue for the second Biennale de la Méditerranée is anything to go by, with its frequent references to liberation and new nationalisms along the shores of the Mediterranean, it was precisely the cultural development of decolonizing states – of the new evolving regional identities that could challenge old colonial and new Cold War decrees – that was a primary concern. And it was the medium of the large-scale international biennial that was considered one of the best ways to manifest that regional amicability and transcultural potential. (85)

We see, hence, the geopolitical role that international exhibitions can play. The biennial is a format that can realise this in a particular way, which will, it is hoped, be made clearer with the examples to follow.

From the 1990s there was a surge in the founding of biennials in Asia, though earlier examples do exist such as the Tokyo Biennale (est.1952), New Delhi’s Triennale-India (1968) and the Fukuoka Asian Art Show (1979). In Indonesia, the Pameran Seni Lukis Indonesia was founded in 1974 as a national level exhibition and held on a bi-annual basis; in 1982 it adopted the term Biennale and is now known as the Jakarta Biennale. Australia’s Asia-Pacific Triennale was founded in 1993, followed by Gwangju, Korea (1995), Shanghai, China (1996), Busan, Korea (1998), Taipei, Taiwan (1992/1998), Jogjakarta, Indonesia (1998), the Guangzhu Triennial, China (2002), Singapore (2006), Colombo, Sri Lanka (2009), Kochi-Muziris, India (2012). This is just a partial list; there are several more cities and biennial exhibitions that go by other names. By 2011, there were over 100 biennials across the world.

Parallel to the rise of biennials, we also see a proliferation of art fairs (sales oriented large-scale expositions with the art market as its primary objective over the exhibition of art) and of art festivals – music, film and the performing arts. Governments, in waking up to the realisation of the economic benefits of the arts and the spread of theories of the creative class and creative city, have embraced the idea of a large arts event for its tourism and economic potential and for the role it plays in global city branding.

This is particularly evident in Singapore, with its Renaissance City Plans (RCP) and policies for turning Singapore into a “global city for the arts”[1]. The government’s goals were twofold: to position Singapore as a top city in the world in which to live, work and play; and for nation-building. The Singapore Biennale is specifically mentioned in the 2002 Creative Industries Development Strategy, produced by the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Economic Review Committee’s Workgroup on Creative Industries:

It is recommended that the Singapore Art Series be transformed into Singapore Biennale to become the most important national visual arts event showcasing top local and international artists. It should aim to be on par with other Biennales such as Shanghai Biennale and Kwangju Biennale, within the larger network of international biennales and triennales. Aside from emphasising excellence, innovation and originality, this proposed biennale should be an international event framed in an Asian and Southeast Asian context. (p.18)

The regional emphasis in Singapore exemplifies the geopolitical disruptions described by Gardner and Green, enabling discourse on identity and culture that originates from a newly oriented centre, but also illustrates Singapore’s ambition to be a regional capital of culture. Other scholars such as John Clark have highlighted the role of Asian biennials in drawing contemporary art from other Asian countries into an inter-regional circuit of comparison and circulation of goods, of production and the art market (2006/7). The Singapore Biennale both offers opportunities for multi-nation relationship strengthening, as well as provides a platform by which to further establish its own art industry in relation to others in the region.

By contrast, the Jogja Biennale and Jakarta Biennale of Indonesia harbour rather different ambitions. The history of biennials in Indonesia is recognised as a tumultuous one, with vocal protestations and challenges to its organisation mounted throughout the years by the local arts community, with their disagreements centering mainly on exclusionary practices in selection of artworks and artists[2]. By 2010 this led to the founding of the Jogjakarta Biennale Foundation and in 2013 the Jakarta Biennale Foundation, shifting organisation of the exhibition to an independent, non-governmental agency comprising artists, curators, cultural activists and arts practitioners. The emphasis of the biennales here is on the development of the arts in Indonesia via the community of artists and their practice, while developing arts audiences through extensive art education programmes. The biennales also stand out for a system of greater artist agency in shaping the form and purpose of the events and the biennale institution; particularly significant given the lack of government led initiatives for the development of the arts ecosystem. The Jogja Biennale further defines itself by a distinct kind of new regionalism, ignoring the north-south relationships entirely, and fostering a new set of bilateral engagements that purposefully seeks to create dialogue and exchange with a single specific country or region at a time. This is underscored by an intellectual premise of re-picturing the idea of the equator and their relationship with countries along this latitude. In 2011 the Biennale focused on Indonesia and India, in 2013 Indonesia-Arab Region, and 2015 Indonesia-Nigeria. The Biennale includes curatorial exchanges and artist residencies as well as forums to accompany the culminating exhibition.

Gardner and Green have observed that often in the case of the biennials of the South, the artworks can be secondary to the significance of the exhibition as a whole: ��the importance of (these biennials) lay less in the assemblage of artworks than in the gatherings of artists, commissioners, writers and publics from within and outside a given region” (450)[3]. This is especially evident in a format such as that employed in Jogjakarta, that frames a South to South discourse and engages with countries which might otherwise be on the periphery of the global art world conversations, and less able to participate in a direct and sustained exchange with each other of ideas and cultural practices.

The last example mentioned here is the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The idea for an international art event in Kochi was first mooted by the state, which led to the founding of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale by two Kerala-born though Mumbai-based artists, Bose Krishnamachari and Riyaz Komu. We see an alignment in objectives here, to bring tourism and economic stimulus to a specific region of India, and to challenge the dominance of Mumbai as the art centre of India –a local repositioning of centre-periphery power dynamics. The latter is a significant point in most creative city or cultural city initiatives, to regenerate declining secondary, often post-industrial, cities. In the case of developing Asia and other parts of the world, this can also be a strategy to create an attractive global identity for an emerging city or one that lacks other forms of viable industries or distinguishing characteristics.

Like their Indonesian counterparts, the organisers of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale see their role as filling a void in the development of the arts ecosystem in their specific locale. While international in scope and profile, and attracting increasing numbers of global arts ‘tourists’, the Biennale positions itself as a festival of local relevance, deeply rooted in the city and its communities. Partly fueled by necessity due to the lack of dedicated arts venues, the exhibitions take place in multiple borrowed spaces throughout the city such as disused warehouses and former historic buildings, relying on teams of people to put together including local tradesmen and architecture students, with the refurbishment of these venues adding to the city’s burgeoning cultural infrastructure. Speaking at a symposium on biennials in Singapore earlier this January and citing the excitement and new life it brings to the city, artist and curator of the Biennale 2014, Jittish Kallat, attests to the benefit that the biennale brings to the city of Kochi.

That large festivals of art can and do make some impact on the city in which they take place is undeniable. However, the exact benefit – whether economic, social, cultural, reputational – is difficult to measure. Basic metrics exist and may be employed by governments or event organisers such as audience numbers, hotel room occupation figures, or even satisfaction surveys, but these are inadequate to ever fully capture the true effects of an arts event. In addition to the more easily quantifiable, there is the reputational benefit to be gained through the presentation of these events, both in the country or city, and outside of it. Immediate evidence of this can be gained from press coverage (both number of and reporting content); however, a more revealing measure would emerge only over time. This is a similar case in point for the building of cultural diplomatic relations. A biennale or even a one-off large cultural event provides a convenient platform at that moment for presidents to officiate, ministers of culture to make speeches while trade officials hover in the background – or in some cases take centrestage – and it offers a range of hosting opportunities of foreign delegations from countries with which one wants to do business or to impress. It is also a display of confidence and sovereignty, exemplified through art. It is all of this, however, which creates a tension with arts practitioners and many who are uneasy with the over-instrumentalisation of arts and culture for state gain.

It is apparent how the biennial as a format for an international art exhibition can be useful to both city-state and artist community for a range of reasons that may or may not have artistic advancement and enlightenment as a central agenda. What the motivating forces might be for the KL Biennale shall be explored in Part II of this essay.

[1] In 2000 Singapore released the first Renaissance City Plan, outlining its vision and six strategies for transforming Singapore into a world-class city for art and culture. This was updated in 2005 with Renaissance City 2.0 (RCP II) and RCP III in 2008. The Arts and Culture Strategic Review was commissioned in 2010 and released in 2013, and included an outline of the government’s vision for arts development till 2025.

[2] This is described on the website of the Jakarta Biennale and has also been spoken about by Indonesian curators in public fora such as the recent Southeast Asia Forum at Art Stage Singapore 2017, and the symposium, ‘Why Biennale at All?’ organized by the Singapore Art Museum and Singapore Management University.

[3] Anthony Gardner & Charles Green (2013) “Biennials of the South on the Edges of the Global”, Third Text, 27:4, 442-455

Guest Contributor Sunitha Janamohanan has been working in the arts in Malaysia since 1999 and has been an arts manager, producer, curator, and heritage manager. Since 2015, she has been teaching in the Programme in Arts Management at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Her research interests include regional community or socially engaged arts practice, and how cultural policy is implemented – or not.

*Editor’s Note: This essay was amended on 9 March to note that the speaker was not a member of the organising committee as originally stated,  and to reflect his use of the idea of fashion week as an analogy.

[brookston]

Holidays 7.15

Holidays

Arctic Sea Ice Day

Be A Dork Day

Cigarette Warning Day

Day of Democracy and Freedoms (Turkey)

Day of Ukrainian Peacekeepers

Developmental Disability Professionals Day

Disability Awareness Day (UK)

Dog Days end

Elderly Men Day (a.k.a. Unimwane Day; Kiribati)

Festival of Santa Rosalia (Sicily)

Garlic Day (French Republic)

Gorestnici begins (Fire Festival; Bulgaria; until 17th)

Hakata Gion Yamagasa (Fukuoka, Japan)

Hold a Rat Day

Hundadagar (Dog Days of Summer; Iceland) [Thru August 23]

I Love Horses Day

International Stamp Out Spiking Day

John Fogerty Day (El Cerrito, California)

Manitoba Province Day (Canada; 1870)

Manu’s Cession Day (American Samoa)

National Captain’s Hill Day

National Clean Beauty Day

National Donna Day

National Dork Day

National Give Something Away Day

National Leiomyosarcoma Awareness Day

National Pet Fire Safety Day

No-Hitter Day

Plastic Surgery Day

Respect Canada Day

St. Swithin's Day

Social Media Giving Day

Sultan’s Day (Brunei)

World Firefox Day

World Youth Skills Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Black Currant Day

California Craft Beer Week begins

Gummi Worm Day

Margarine Day

National Tapioca Pudding Day

Orange Chicken Day

3rd Saturday in July

Alberton Railroad Day (Montana) [3rd Saturday]

Celebration of the Horse Day (Texas) [3rd Saturday]

Festa del Redentore begins (Venice, Italy) [3rd Saturday; thru Sunday]

National Bridal Sale Day [3rd Saturday]

National Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day [3rd Saturday]

PADI Women’s Dive Day [3rd Saturday]

Parks Day (Canada) [3rd Saturday]

Railroad Day [3rd Saturday]

Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day [3rd Saturday]

Woman’s Dive Day [3rd Saturday]

Woodie Wagon Day [3rd Saturday]

Independence Days

Chowolia (Declared; 2020) [dissolved; 2021]

Island of Vancouver (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Permaria (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Abhai (Syriac Orthodox)

Anne-Marie Javouhey (Christian; Saint)

Bernhard II, Margrave of Baden-Baden (Christian; Saint)

Bonaventure (Christian; Saint)

Bon Festival (Kantō region, Japan)

Confuflux (Discordian)

Day of Rauni (Finnish Mother Goddess)

Dispersion of the Apostles (No longer officially celebrated by the Catholic Church)

Donald of Ogilvy (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Polesworth (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Wilton (Christian; Saint)

Feast of Rowana (patron of secret knowledge of the runes; Druid/Flemish)

Ferret Down Your Trousers Day (Pastafarian)

Festival of Castor and Pollux (Ancient Roman)

Forgetful Jones & Buster (Muppetism)

Helpful Hilma (Muppetism)

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (Christian; Saint)

Ides of July (Ancient Rome)

St. Louis (Positivist; Saint)

Neil Gaiman Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Plechelm (Christian; Saint)

Quriaqos and Julietta (Christian; Saint)

Rembrandt van Rijn (Artology)

Rosalia (Christian; Saint) [Palermo, Sicily]

Solstitium X (Pagan)

Swithin (a..k.a. Swithun; Christian; Saint)

Vladimir the Great (Eastern Orthodox; Catholic Church)

Whamo the Rental Magician (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [27 of 53]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [40 of 71]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [33 of 60]

Premieres

Belle (Anime Film; 2021)

Bullet Train (Film; 2022)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Film; 2005)

Creedence Clearwater Revival, by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Album; 1968)

Dangerous Dan McFoo (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)

Die Hard (Film; 1988)

A Fish Called Wanda (Film; 1988)

Gangnam Style, by Psy (Song; 20912)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Film; 1953)

Ghostbusters (Film; 2016)

The Gray Man (Film; 2022)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (US Film; 2011) [#8]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (US Film; 2009) [#6]

A Hole in the Head (Film; 1959)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, recorded by Jimmy Boyd (Song; 1952)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1989)

Mandatory Fun, by Weird Al Yankovic (Album; 2014)

The Man from Monterey (Film; 1933)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Animated Film; 2022)

Pirates of Penzance, starring Linda Ronstadt (Musical Play in Central Park, NY; 1980)

Porky’s Picnic (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)

The Rebel Without Claws (WB LT Cartoon; 1961)

Staying Alive (Film; 1983)

Stranger Things (TV Series; 2016)

There’s Something ABout Mary (Film; 1998)

True Lies (1994)

Twitter (Social Media App; 2006)

Wedding Crashers (Film; 2005)

Whisper of the Heart (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 1995)

Winnie the Pooh (Animated Film; 2011)

Zelig (Film; 1983)

Today’s Name Days

Balduin, Bonaventura, Egon, Waldemar (Austria)

Vlada, Vladena, Vladimir (Bulgaria)

Bonaventura, Bono, Dobriša, Vlado (Croatia)

Jindřich (Czech Republic)

Apostlenes Deling (Denmark)

Ragne, Raina, Raine, Raini (Estonia)

Rauna, Rauni (Finland)

Donald, Vladimir (France)

Björn, Egon, Jakob (Germany)

Ioulitta, Kerykos, Kirykos (Greece)

Henrik, Roland (Hungary)

Bonaventura, Giacobbe, Vladimiro (Italy)

Egija, Egmonts, Egons, Rūta (Latvia)

Gerimantė, Mantas, Rozalija, Rožė (Lithuania)

Oddmund, Oddrun (Norway)

Daniel, Dawid, Dawida, Egon, Henryk, Iga, Ignacja, Ignacy, Lubomysł, Niecisław, Włodzimierz, Żegota (Poland)

Angelina (Russia)

Henrich (Slovakia)

Buenaventura (Spain)

Ragnhild, Ragnvald (Sweden)

Volodymyr, Volodymyra (Ukraine)

Baldwin, Don, Donald, Donalda, Donna, Donnell, Donnie, Dunn, Dunne, Uriel (USA)

Don, Donald, Donalda, Donaldo, Donaldson, Donita, Donell, Donn, Donnell, Donnie, Donny, Kona, MacDonald, McDonald (Universal)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 196 of 2024; 169 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 28 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 6 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Wu-Wu), Day 28 (Jia-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 26 Tammuz 5783

Islamic: 26 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444

J Cal: 16 Lux; Twosday [16 of 30]

Julian: 2 July 2023

Moon: 4%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 28 Charlemagne (7th Month) [St. Louis]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 2 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 25 of 94)

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 25 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 7.15

Holidays

Arctic Sea Ice Day

Be A Dork Day

Cigarette Warning Day

Day of Democracy and Freedoms (Turkey)

Day of Ukrainian Peacekeepers

Developmental Disability Professionals Day

Disability Awareness Day (UK)

Dog Days end

Elderly Men Day (a.k.a. Unimwane Day; Kiribati)

Festival of Santa Rosalia (Sicily)

Garlic Day (French Republic)

Gorestnici begins (Fire Festival; Bulgaria; until 17th)

Hakata Gion Yamagasa (Fukuoka, Japan)

Hold a Rat Day

Hundadagar (Dog Days of Summer; Iceland) [Thru August 23]

I Love Horses Day

International Stamp Out Spiking Day

John Fogerty Day (El Cerrito, California)

Manitoba Province Day (Canada; 1870)

Manu’s Cession Day (American Samoa)

National Captain’s Hill Day

National Clean Beauty Day

National Donna Day

National Dork Day

National Give Something Away Day

National Leiomyosarcoma Awareness Day

National Pet Fire Safety Day

No-Hitter Day

Plastic Surgery Day

Respect Canada Day

St. Swithin's Day

Social Media Giving Day

Sultan’s Day (Brunei)

World Firefox Day

World Youth Skills Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Black Currant Day

California Craft Beer Week begins

Gummi Worm Day

Margarine Day

National Tapioca Pudding Day

Orange Chicken Day

3rd Saturday in July

Alberton Railroad Day (Montana) [3rd Saturday]

Celebration of the Horse Day (Texas) [3rd Saturday]

Festa del Redentore begins (Venice, Italy) [3rd Saturday; thru Sunday]

National Bridal Sale Day [3rd Saturday]

National Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day [3rd Saturday]

PADI Women’s Dive Day [3rd Saturday]

Parks Day (Canada) [3rd Saturday]

Railroad Day [3rd Saturday]

Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day [3rd Saturday]

Woman’s Dive Day [3rd Saturday]

Woodie Wagon Day [3rd Saturday]

Independence Days

Chowolia (Declared; 2020) [dissolved; 2021]

Island of Vancouver (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Permaria (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Abhai (Syriac Orthodox)

Anne-Marie Javouhey (Christian; Saint)

Bernhard II, Margrave of Baden-Baden (Christian; Saint)

Bonaventure (Christian; Saint)

Bon Festival (Kantō region, Japan)

Confuflux (Discordian)

Day of Rauni (Finnish Mother Goddess)

Dispersion of the Apostles (No longer officially celebrated by the Catholic Church)

Donald of Ogilvy (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Polesworth (Christian; Saint)

Edith of Wilton (Christian; Saint)

Feast of Rowana (patron of secret knowledge of the runes; Druid/Flemish)

Ferret Down Your Trousers Day (Pastafarian)

Festival of Castor and Pollux (Ancient Roman)

Forgetful Jones & Buster (Muppetism)

Helpful Hilma (Muppetism)

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (Christian; Saint)

Ides of July (Ancient Rome)

St. Louis (Positivist; Saint)

Neil Gaiman Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Plechelm (Christian; Saint)

Quriaqos and Julietta (Christian; Saint)

Rembrandt van Rijn (Artology)

Rosalia (Christian; Saint) [Palermo, Sicily]

Solstitium X (Pagan)

Swithin (a..k.a. Swithun; Christian; Saint)

Vladimir the Great (Eastern Orthodox; Catholic Church)

Whamo the Rental Magician (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [27 of 53]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [40 of 71]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [33 of 60]

Premieres

Belle (Anime Film; 2021)

Bullet Train (Film; 2022)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Film; 2005)

Creedence Clearwater Revival, by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Album; 1968)

Dangerous Dan McFoo (WB MM Cartoon; 1939)

Die Hard (Film; 1988)

A Fish Called Wanda (Film; 1988)

Gangnam Style, by Psy (Song; 20912)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Film; 1953)

Ghostbusters (Film; 2016)

The Gray Man (Film; 2022)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (US Film; 2011) [#8]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (US Film; 2009) [#6]

A Hole in the Head (Film; 1959)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, recorded by Jimmy Boyd (Song; 1952)

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (Animated Film; 1989)

Mandatory Fun, by Weird Al Yankovic (Album; 2014)

The Man from Monterey (Film; 1933)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Animated Film; 2022)

Pirates of Penzance, starring Linda Ronstadt (Musical Play in Central Park, NY; 1980)

Porky’s Picnic (WB LT Cartoon; 1939)

The Rebel Without Claws (WB LT Cartoon; 1961)

Staying Alive (Film; 1983)

Stranger Things (TV Series; 2016)

There’s Something ABout Mary (Film; 1998)

True Lies (1994)

Twitter (Social Media App; 2006)

Wedding Crashers (Film; 2005)

Whisper of the Heart (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 1995)

Winnie the Pooh (Animated Film; 2011)

Zelig (Film; 1983)

Today’s Name Days

Balduin, Bonaventura, Egon, Waldemar (Austria)

Vlada, Vladena, Vladimir (Bulgaria)

Bonaventura, Bono, Dobriša, Vlado (Croatia)

Jindřich (Czech Republic)

Apostlenes Deling (Denmark)

Ragne, Raina, Raine, Raini (Estonia)

Rauna, Rauni (Finland)

Donald, Vladimir (France)

Björn, Egon, Jakob (Germany)

Ioulitta, Kerykos, Kirykos (Greece)

Henrik, Roland (Hungary)

Bonaventura, Giacobbe, Vladimiro (Italy)

Egija, Egmonts, Egons, Rūta (Latvia)

Gerimantė, Mantas, Rozalija, Rožė (Lithuania)

Oddmund, Oddrun (Norway)

Daniel, Dawid, Dawida, Egon, Henryk, Iga, Ignacja, Ignacy, Lubomysł, Niecisław, Włodzimierz, Żegota (Poland)

Angelina (Russia)

Henrich (Slovakia)

Buenaventura (Spain)

Ragnhild, Ragnvald (Sweden)

Volodymyr, Volodymyra (Ukraine)

Baldwin, Don, Donald, Donalda, Donna, Donnell, Donnie, Dunn, Dunne, Uriel (USA)

Don, Donald, Donalda, Donaldo, Donaldson, Donita, Donell, Donn, Donnell, Donnie, Donny, Kona, MacDonald, McDonald (Universal)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 196 of 2024; 169 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 28 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 6 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Wu-Wu), Day 28 (Jia-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 26 Tammuz 5783

Islamic: 26 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444

J Cal: 16 Lux; Twosday [16 of 30]

Julian: 2 July 2023

Moon: 4%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 28 Charlemagne (7th Month) [St. Louis]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 2 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 25 of 94)

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 25 of 31)

[japanesecinema-stuff]

Golden Age

The 1950s is regarded as the golden age of Japanese cinema. It is regarded as the golden age because many films from this time are critically acclaimed and have won awards. The movies Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story were in the top ten of Sight & Sound’s critics and director’s polls for the best films of all time in 2002. Also appeared in the 2012 list with Tokyo Story dethroning Citizen Kane at the top of the 2012 directors poll. This goes to show how well regarded the film from the golden age are. This period gave rise to the four great artists of Japanese cinema: Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujirō Ozu.  Each director dealt with the effects the war and subsequent occupation by America in unique and innovative ways.

The golden age began with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon which I discussed in an earlier blog post. This film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1952. This helped bring Japanese cinema to the world stage. This was also the breakout role for Toshiro Mifune. Mifune appeared in over 170 Japanese films. He is most notable for the roles he played in the movies directed by Kurosawa including Rashomon.

Then in the year 1954 saw two of Japan's most influential films released. The first was the Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai, about a band of hired samurai who protect a helpless village from a rapacious gang of thieves. The other movie directed by Ishirō Honda was the anti-nuclear monster-drama Godzilla. Godzilla became international icon in Japan having great success in America also. Godzilla is also the longest running film franchise in history. Godzilla also lead to a whole subgenre of monster film to be made.