A screening room to call home

his wife, Audrey, cinema and collecting art. So it only seems natural that UCLA Film & Television Archive’s new home, titled the Billy Wilder Theater and made possible by a $5-million donation from his widow, is inside the Hammer Museum in Westwood.

“Also, Billy lived a few blocks east,” says Oscar-winning writer-director Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”), honorary chair of the archive. “And in fact is buried a few blocks south. I’m sure he would get a kick out of it.”

Last December, there was a grand opening gala for the theater -- the archive and the Hammer will share the space -- but the archive officially begins programming Friday. “Welcome to the Billy Wilder Theater” kicks off with a screening of Wilder’s 1960 Oscar-winning best film, the dark comedy “The Apartment.” Hanson will discuss the film with star Shirley MacLaine, whom he directed in 2005’s “In Her Shoes.”

Wilder’s 1959 hit, “Some Like It Hot,” is on tap for Saturday, and a double bill of romantic films, 1954’s “Sabrina” and 1939’s “Ninotchka,” which he co-wrote for director Ernst Lubitsch, is set for Valentine’s Day.

Also scheduled during the first 10 days of programming are the first “Art of Light” evenings, celebrating the work of cinematographers, as well as the initial “First Mondays,” a showcase for advance screenings of new films. The archive’s monthlong retrospective of Italian neo-realist master Roberto Rossellini arrives Feb. 16.

Robert Rosen, dean of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, says acquiring a new theater for the archive’s programming has long been a top priority. For years, the archive’s presentations were held at the intimate James Bridges Theater on campus at Melnitz Hall.

But the on-campus screenings, Hanson says, often proved confusing. “It seems so silly in a way, but people had such trouble figuring out the concept of where the theater was on the UCLA campus, understanding the parking and that the screenings were not part of a class.”

“The idea of having something very close to the campus that is still fully accessible to students and faculty but is very user-friendly, will, I think, bring many, many more people to our programs,” says Rosen. “It also means that UCLA will provide a kind of cultural nucleus for the redevelopment of Westwood in a way that is appropriate for being on the edge of a great university.”

Designed by Michael Maltzan, the 295-seat Billy Wilder Theater is capable of projecting every kind of format, from nitrate to digital. In fact, one of the upcoming programs is “From Nitrate Through Digital” -- “where you can see how the different technologies have an impact on the nature of the work that’s created,” says Rosen.

Rosen points out the site lines are improved over the Bridges’. “This is stadium seating, so every seat is a great seat,” he says.

“Where you see a movie helps to create a conceptual frame for the spectators. This is a beautiful frame.”

susan.king@latimes.com

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‘Welcome to the Billy Wilder Theater’

Where: The Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

When: Friday through Feb. 18

Price: $7 to $9

Contact: (310) 206-8013 or go to www.cinema.ucla.edu

Schedule

Friday: “The Apartment,” 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: “Some Like It Hot,” 7:30 p.m.

Next Sunday: “Art of Light: An Evening With Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond,” 7 p.m.

Feb. 12: “First Mondays” presents “Operation Homecoming,” 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 14: “Sabrina,” “Ninotchka,” 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 16: “Rome Open City,” “The Man With the Cross,” 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 17: “Paisan,” “Escape by Night,” 7 p.m.

Feb. 18: “Germany Year Zero,” “A Foreign Affair,” 2 p.m.