OSCAR TO VISIT S.D. IN RETROSPECTIVE

Summer in San Diego may not immediately bring to mind darkened movie houses offering refuge from the elements. More likely, summer in San Diego conjures up images of sailboats, sunbathers and baseball.

Baseball? OK, not this summer. This summer, San Diego shows evidence of actually being a movie town. Hollywood South? Baja Hollywood?

Why not, asks Andy Friedenberg, president of the Visual Arts Foundation, a nonprofit group based in La Jolla, dedicated to “elevating the cinematic arts” in San Diego.

With the backing of Great American First Savings Bank, specifically Gordon Luce, its chairman and chief executive officer, Friedenberg’s foundation is putting on an Academy Awards’ retrospective at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.

On six successive Monday nights starting June 22, the foundation will show Academy Award-winning movies with stars and directors from the films answering questions, acting as storytellers and bringing Oscar statuettes for display.

Friedenberg said that on June 22 Robert Wise, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will appear with a movie he directed, “West Side Story.” The film led Wise to an Oscar-winning performance as best director.

On June 29, Karl Malden is “confirmed,” Friedenberg said, as guest host of a movie he starred in, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Malden was named best supporting actor for his performance.

And on July 6, Linda Hunt, who won the best supporting actress award for “The Year of Living Dangerously,” will show that film. (On June 5, Hunt finishes a stage role in “The Matchmaker” at the La Jolla Playhouse.)

Marlee Ehrenfeld, a spokeswoman for Great American, said the bank was pleased with a directors’ retrospective co-sponsored last summer with the Visual Arts Foundation.

“At that time, we felt we were breaking new ground,” she said. “It was very successful, bringing a very valuable product to San Diegans. A lot of times, we’re just overlooked. L.A. is the media capital of the world, I suppose, and we’re kind of seen as the poor sister city. We thought the Oscar series was a great opportunity, kind of a repeat performance of what we did a year ago.”

Asked if representatives of the bank were sensitive about San Diego’s “poor sister city” reputation, Ehrenfeld said: “This is not so much an attempt to change that--though it is a nice start. It’s an attempt, on our part, to make San Diego strong culturally, to stand behind the cultural arts. We’re very excited about it.”

Great American has been active on several cinematic fronts. It recently purchased the Capri Theatre in North Park, which formerly showed pornographic films. On June 4, the theater reopens as part of the Landmark Theatre chain, showing first-run and foreign films. The Capri will thus fill the void left by the closing of the Fine Arts Theatre in Pacific Beach and become part of the same film family as the Guild, the Ken and the Cove. (The June 4 gala at the Capri will benefit the Balboa Theatre fund.)

Friedenberg--who applauded Great American’s Capri acquisition--said negotiations are continuing with a number of other stars for possible appearances during the six weeks of Oscar movies. They include Sally Field and Julie Andrews, former best-actress winners; Burt Lancaster and Charlton Heston, winners as best actors, and winners in the choreography, art direction and sound categories.

“This is the first time the academy has supported a film series of this stature in San Diego,” said Ric Robertson, program coordinator for the academy’s visiting artists program. “We think this series will help people understand film and enhance their appreciation of the art.”

Friedenberg said each show will begin at 7 p.m., preceded at 6 p.m. by a cocktail party and buffet. Tickets for the six-week series are $60, with the optional six-week buffet package costing $45. He said a UC San Diego extension course on the retrospective also is being offered, with the guest artist appearing on Tuesday mornings to further discuss the program.