The stars rocked as cameras rolled

By Susan King

Aug. 24, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

THE American Cinematheque celebrates the rock documentary at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica with several seminal examples of the genre, including a brand-new print of D.A. Pennebaker’s brilliant 1967 “Don’t Look Back,” which follows Bob Dylan on his 1965 concert tour of Britain, accompanied by his manager, Albert Grossman, and folk singer Joan Baez. Screening at 7:30 tonight, the film also features Donovan, Allen Ginsberg and Marianne Faithfull.

Pennebaker also directed 1968’s “Monterey Pop,” which screens Friday. The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was the granddaddy of all rock festivals and featured such legendary performers as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Who, Otis Redding and Simon & Garfunkel at the peak of their talents. Because no print of the film exists, “Monterey Pop” will be screened from a DVD.

The evening’s second feature is Albert and David Maysles’ disturbing 1971 documentary “Gimme Shelter,” focusing on the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane’s free concert in December 1969 at the Altamont Speedway, which culminated in violence and at least one murder.

Screening on Saturday is the director’s cut of the Academy Award-winning “Woodstock,” the milestone 1970 documentary about the rock festival that took place the summer of 1969.

Directed by Michael Wadleigh -- a young Martin Scorsese was an assistant director and editor on the film -- “Woodstock” features incendiary performances by such trendsetting rockers as the Who; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Sly & the Family Stone; Richie Havens; Joan Baez; and Carlos Santana.

Scorsese directed the lauded PBS “American Masters” documentary “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan,” which receives its Los Angeles theatrical premiere Sunday at the Aero.

The 201-minute film explores Dylan’s transformation from a Woody Guthrie-esque performer to a bona fide rock star. The film includes rare footage of Dylan, circa 1961-66, including his 1966 tour of Britain.

Gail Zappa, the widow of maverick rocker Frank Zappa, will be on hand next Thursday to discuss 1979’s “Baby Snakes,” her husband’s offbeat documentary of his 1977 New York City concert.

Frank Zappa spent two years editing and reshooting sequences for the rarely seen two-hour-plus documentary.

Film rarities

Rare silent films and appearances by veteran performers Tab Hunter and Coleen Gray are among the highlights of the Cinecon 42 Classic Film Festival, which begins next Thursday and continues through Sept. 5 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

Among the rediscoveries among the cinephile festival’s gems are the 1922 Mabel Normand comedy “Head Over Heels,” directed by Victor Schertzinger; William S. Hart in the 1917 western “Selfish Yates”; a 1925 adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim,” directed by Victor Fleming (“Gone With the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz”); a 1929 comedy talkie “One Hysterical Night,” starring Reginald Denny; 1931’s “Graft,” a crime melodrama that brought its star, Boris Karloff, to the attention of “Frankenstein” director James Whale; and 1931’s “The Cheat,” a remake of the Cecil B. DeMille classic silent starring Tallulah Bankhead.

Gray will appear Thursday evening after a screening of her gripping 1950 film noir “The Sleeping City,” which also stars Richard Conte.

Hunter will participate in a Q&A; session after the Sept. 3 presentation of his 1959 melodrama “That Kind of Woman,” directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sophia Loren.

Keyboard Keaton

The Los Angeles Theatre Organ Society is presenting the 1925 Buster Keaton comedy classic “Seven Chances” on Sunday at the Sexson Auditorium at Pasadena Community College.

Keaton plays a young attorney who needs money to save his partner from jail. He learns on the morning of his 27th birthday that he will inherit $7 million if he is married by 7 p.m. “Seven Chances” was poorly remade in 1999 as “The Bachelor” with Chris O’Donnell.

Organist Ken Rosen will be accompanying the film on the J. Ross Reed Memorial Wurlitzer theater pipe organ.

Curves ahead

“AFI’s 100 Years ... 100 Movies” screening series at the ArcLight gets down and dirty Wednesday with the screening of the ribald 1933 sex comedy “She Done Him Wrong.”

Nominated for the Academy Award for best picture, “She Done Him Wrong” put curvy Mae West on the map as a movie superstar.

West, who purrs such signature lines as “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?,” plays a sultry singer named Lady Lou; a young Cary Grant plays a pious preacher named Capt. Cummings.

Screenings

Rock documentaries

* “Don’t Look Back”: 7:30 tonight

* “Monterey Pop” and “Gimme Shelter”: 7:30 p.m. Friday

* “Woodstock”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

* “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan”: 7:30 p.m. Sunday

* “Baby Snakes”: 7:30 p.m. next Thursday

Where: Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica

Info: (323) 466-3456, americancinematheque.com

Cinecon

When: next Thursday through Sept. 4

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood