Make it a Nancy Meyers weekend, plus the best films to see in L.A.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Last week when spotlighting a 35mm screening of Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls” with star Elizabeth Berkley in attendance, I noted that I was on the fence about whether to go myself. Readers, I am here to tell you I am so glad I did, as it turned into an unexpectedly emotional event.
The Academy Museum’s David Geffen Theater was completely sold out Wednesday night, with just under a 1,000 people in the theater and a standby line outside. K.J. Relth-Miller, the museum’s director of film programs, said the last weeknight screening in the Branch Selects series to sell out was a 70mm showing of “Lawrence of Arabia.”
In the film Berkley plays Nomi Malone, who hitchhikes her way into Las Vegas and achieves her dream of becoming a star dancer, but also comes to know the bitter truths behind the fantasy. The film, written by Joe Eszterhas, is an uncanny mix of sincerity and cynicism. For all its nudity and vulgarity, and there is plenty of that, it is at its core a classic tale of ambition and the price of success.
Berkley, who saw her career derailed by the film’s failure, received three separate standing ovations from the audience. One was when she first took to the stage, another when she strode to center stage and hit some of her iconic dance poses before leaving, but also once while she was speaking, as she became visibly emotional and audience members rose to their feet to lift her up.
“In this moment of feeling your love and appreciation for this film, it’s hard not to reflect back to fall of 1995 when the movie was met with such ridicule,” said Berkley. “And the critics wrote such vitriol and personal attacks. And I had my head handed to me on a national level, and my heart wanted to know why.”
As she continued, she said, “The greatest gift of playing Nomi and the moment now is that through the years, Nomi is a character that I was lucky enough to play that I fought for, that I brought every cell of my being to, the little girl from Michigan who came here with a big dream that everyone at home said would not happen. I’d like for them to see me here today with you all.
“If I had to go through that at that time in order to bring you all the joy of this movie all these years, I would do it again,” Berkley said. “For anyone that has told you to play small in your life, I’m grateful you had Nomi to hang onto, to remind you and to whisper in your ear, you are enough. Go for it. Be bold in life. Throw your French fries when you need to. Let someone know, I’m a dancer. And if you ever forget it, darlin’, I’m here to remind you.”
Berkley noted that before the movie came out and ahead of the savaging it received in the press, her mother asked her then-agent, who dropped her soon after, if the role might possibly win her an Oscar.
“Every girl in Hollywood had fought for this role,” Berkley said, “so it was not a strange thing to ask.”
To a rousing cheer from the crowd, Berkley took in her surroundings to say, “So tonight I’d like to thank the Academy,” and after a playful pause added, “Museum.”
A weekend of Nancy Meyers movies
Honestly, just about any weekend could be / should be a Nancy Meyers weekend, but the American Cinematheque is celebrating the writer-director-producer with three of her films this weekend.
A 35mm screening of 1991’s “Father of the Bride,” starring Steve Martin, which Meyers co-wrote with her then-husband, Charles Shyer, who also directed the film, is Friday. Sunday there will be a 35mm screening of Meyers’ feature directing debut, 1998’s “The Parent Trap,” starring Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson and Lindsay Lohan.
My colleague Meredith Blake once interviewed actor Elaine Hendrix, who played the villain in “The Parent Trap,” a soon-to-be stepmother also named Meredith Blake.
Saturday night has a screening of 2003’s “Something’s Gotta Give,” written and directed by Meyers and starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Given a boost by her previous film, 2000’s “What Women Want,” at the time the most successful film ever directed by a woman, “Something’s Gotta Give” allowed Meyers to fully realize the mix of comedy, drama, style and sophistication that has become her signature.
The film would also go on to be a box office hit and Keaton would be nominated for an Academy Award for her role a playwright forced to care for the ailing playboy who circumstances land in her house. How Meyers herself wasn’t nominated for screenplay (or director) is perhaps a separate conversation.
A profile of Keaton at the time by Dana Kennedy featured a lunch at the Polo Lounge as well as quotes from Meyers, Nicholson and Warren Beatty. Though Keaton repeatedly declared herself done with romantic relationships in the article, as Meyers said, “I think Diane has more of a chance of men falling in love with her than anyone I know. … The men on my set all fell for her. Between takes, Jack would never leave her side. Keanu [Reeves] was wild about her. She’s like a magnet for these guys. She may be done, but the men are not done.”
A tribute to Doug Jones
When film programmer and curator Doug Jones died last November, there was a spontaneous outpouring of emotion from the local film community, speaking to his quiet power as someone who connected many people over the years.
During the awards ceremony at the recent SXSW Film and TV Festival, festival head Claudette Godfrey paid tribute to Jones, saying, “When I was first starting out in the industry, he was one of the kind people that I met at a festival who extended his hand and said, you belong here, this can be fun. And really invited me into the community.”
Godfrey added, “We just wanted to make sure we had a moment to talk about him. And he was universally beloved for a reason because he was the f— best. He was genuine, the nicest, the most caring, the kindest, most helpful, loyal person that was always there to help and support anyone on the team. And nothing will ever really be the same without him.”
On Saturday, Vidiots will have an entire day of programming dedicated to Jones, playing movies he championed and loved. The day will begin with Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 animated film “Ponyo,” about a young boy who befriends a goldfish.
Miyazaki, who was not present when he recently won an Oscar for his film “The Boy and the Heron,” made a rare trip to the United States to promote “Ponyo.” On the film’s origins, he said, “The first idea I had for ‘Ponyo’ was about a little boy who picks up a frog. But I couldn’t work out a good character for a frog. So I turned it into a goldfish. I was lucky. It was good that I turned it into a goldfish.”
Next up will be Paul Mazursky’s 1974 film “Harry and Tonto,” which Jones programmed as part of the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. In his original review of the film, Charles Champlin wrote, “I suppose what ‘Harry and Tonto’ really is is a fable of the possible. The watcher can infer the dark side of retirement, bereavement, disappointing children, but what he actually sees, with delight, is the up side — the possibility of new beginnings and a defeating of the dark. Optimism and the deep pleasure of Carney’s company make ‘Harry and Tonto’ a cheering arrival.”
Among the first films Jones programmed to play at the revitalized Vidiots in Eagle Rock was Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s 1952 “Singin’ in the Rain,” a movie that itself is a delightful celebration of the power of entertainment and moviemaking.
The day will conclude with a screening of Jean Painlevé’s “The Sounds of Science,” featuring a soundtrack by the group Yo La Tengo that was originally commissioned by Jones to play with the film during the 2001 San Francisco International Film Festival.
Other points of interest
‘Heaven Knows What’ at Brain Dead Studios
Tonight Brain Dead Studios will be playing Josh and Benny Safdie’s 2015 film “Heaven Knows What.” For fans of their subsequent films “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems,” this has the same rough-around-the-edges feeling for street life in its tale of a doomed romantic triangle between Harley (Arielle Holmes), Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones) and Mike (Buddy Duress), with vivid imagery by cinematographer Sean Price Williams.
The story is based on Holmes’ then-unpublished memoir, an intimate, up-close depiction of the day-to-day struggles and hassles of living with drug addiction.
“I think the movie is 100% true,” Holmes said in an interview at the time. “There are things that are exaggerated or different, but we’ve all talked about how sometimes in a movie to capture the feeling of the truth you need to be more drastic. But as far as the feelings and emotions, even the things that are exaggerated are really based off the truth.”
“We went so far out of our way to make it not a documentary,” Benny Safdie said. “But the end result is people still feel like it’s real.”
The screening also serves as a tribute to Duress, who died in November.
Sapphic icons of early Hollywood
The Academy Museum is launching a series called “The Sewing Circle: Sapphic Icons of Early Hollywood.” According to the program notes by Savi Navarro, the silent film actor and producer Alla Nazimova adopted the term “sewing circle” to identify spaces open and welcome to women, especially those who identified as queer, whether publicly or not.
This series begins with Nazimova starring in Charles Bryant’s 1922 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Salomé,” with a live musical accompaniment by Sarah Davachi. Other titles include Dorothy Arzner’s 1933 “Christopher Strong,” Marc Allégret’s 1934 “Zouzou,” Rouben Mamoulian’s 1933 “Queen Christina,” George Cukor’s 1936 “Camille,” Cukor’s 1935 “Sylvia Scarlett” and Josef von Sternberg’s “Shanghai Express,” all in 35mm. A program of short films in 35mm includes David Butler’s 1936 “Pigskin Parade,” the debut of Judy Garland. King Vidor’s 1929 “Hallelujah” and William A. Wellman’s 1931 “Safe in Hell” both feature Nina Mae McKinney.
The series concludes April 4 with the Los Angeles premiere of a recent restoration of G.W. Pabst’s “Pandora’s Box,” starring Louise Brooks.
James Garner and Isaac Hayes in ‘The Rockford Files’
Starring James Garner as an ex-con who now works as a private detective while living out of a mobile home in Malibu, the television series “The Rockford Files” brought a charming slice of contemporary neo-noir Los Angeles to America’s airwaves for its six-season run beginning in 1974.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show’s debut, the UCLA Film and Television Archive on Saturday will screen three episodes of the series that co-starred actor and musician Isaac Hayes as Rockford’s former cellmate. Also showing up in the episodes are Louis Gossett Jr. and Dionne Warwick.
Before the screening, a selection of stills, scripts and other archival materials related to James Garner and “The Rockford Files” from UCLA Library Special Collections will be on display in the theater’s lobby.
Also in the news
M. Emmet Walsh dies at 88 Beloved character actor M. Emmet Walsh, known for decades of roles in films including “Blade Runner,” “Silkwood,” “Blood Simple” and “Knives Out,” died this week at age 88.
In a 1989 interview with The Times, Walsh said, “There are only nine or 10 of us who do what I do. How it happens is you get old and decrepit and bald and finally they start hiring you. It’s not that you’re good or anything. They figure if you’ve survived, you must be talented.”
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
