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BEN BURTT, the Oscar-winning “Star Wars” sound designer who gave Chewbacca his distinctive bellows and snorts and R2D2 its endearing trills, toots and whistles, is a host of this evening’s “The Sound Behind the Image” presentation by the film academy’s Science and Technology Council.
Burtt will be joined by Oscar-nominated sound mixer Kevin O’Connell for the celebration of the art of sound in action-adventure films. Among the movies to be featured are 1926’s “Don Juan,” the first film with a synchronized musical score, and, of course, “Star Wars,” which revolutionized sound design 30 years ago.
Also tonight is the kickoff of the fourth annual Pacific Palisades Film Festival, which starts with a screening of “LA Blues,” starring Anthony Michael Hall, and a lifetime achievement award for “Eight Is Enough” star Dick Van Patten. Other films in the festival, which runs through Saturday, include the documentaries “Bad Boys of Summer” and “Uganda Rising.”
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is walking on the dark side with its “Lonely America: The Noir Cinematography of Burnett Guffey,” a two-week homage to the Oscar-winning cinematographer who brought a stark realism and shadowy menace to the black-and-white film noir of the 1940s and ‘50s.
The festival opens Friday with Nicholas Ray’s quintessential 1950 thriller “In a Lonely Place,” starring Humphrey Bogart as a temperamental Hollywood screenwriter accused of murdering a hat check girl, and Edward Dmytryk’s 1952 thriller “The Sniper.”
On tap for Saturday is 1949’s riveting “The Reckless Moment,” the last American film by German director Max Ophuls, starring Joan Bennett and James Mason, and Jacques Tourneur’s 1957 “Nightfall,” with Aldo Ray and Anne Bancroft.
On Monday, Santa Monica’s Unurban Coffeehouse will host maverick writer-director William Richert (“Winter Kills”), who will present free screenings of two of his films: the 1972 documentary “A Dancer’s Life” and the 1981 comedy “Success,” with Jeff Bridges.
Wednesday, the AFI at the ArcLight will present the hard-boiled 1938 gangster film “Angels With Dirty Faces.” James Cagney earned his first best actor Oscar nomination for his indelible turn as a powerful gangster who returns to his New York tenement neighborhood where he becomes an idol to the teenage boys, a.k.a. the “Dead End Kids,” much to the chagrin of his childhood friend who is now parish priest (Pat O’Brien).
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Screenings
Motion Picture Academy
* “The Sound Behind the Image”: 8 p.m. today
Where: Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills
Info: (310) 247-3600, oscars.org
Pacific Palisades Film Festival
* “LA Blues”: 7 p.m. today
* “Bad Boys of Summer”: 7:30 p.m. Friday
* “Uganda Rising”: 3:15 p.m. Saturday
Where: Theater Palisades, 941 Temescal Canyon Road, Pacific Palisades
Info: www.friendsoffilm.com
‘Lonely America’
* “In a Lonely Place” and “The Sniper”: 7:30 p.m. Friday
* “The Reckless Moment” and “Nightfall”: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.
Info: (323) 857-6010, lacma.org
William Richert films
* “A Dancer’s Life” and “Success”: 7 p.m. Monday
Where: Unurban Coffeehouse, 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica
Info: (310) 315-0056
AFI at the ArcLight
* “Angels With Dirty Faces”: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: 6360 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A.
Info: (323) 464-1478, arclightcinemas.com
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