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beamish14 wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 1:51 am By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 3:18 pm

beamish14 wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 1:51 am By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

beamish14 wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 3:56 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 3:18 pm

beamish14 wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 1:51 am By 2027, the American Cinematheque will now be running 4 screens throughout Los Angeles. I’d feel better about this if they still had adventurous programming, and one nonprofit exerting so much control over repertory screenings is a bit much

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

I am in the same boat as you. It’s sad how they program 2K DCPs of the same titles endlessly and the Beyond Fest stuff is incredibly stupid. They’ve really leaned into AI schlock recently as well from what I’ve heard.

The New Beverly has become a total joke as well, with horrible looking first-run films and the same titles playing on a seasonal rotation.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 5:47 pm

beamish14 wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 3:56 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Wed Nov 19, 2025 3:18 pm

Hearing the news that they were taking over the Westwood Village actually made me sad. I worked in Westwood for years and would often just walk over to see a first-run film after work especially when traffic was bad. I think there’s been a noticable drop in quality with the Cinematheque programming the last two years to the point I find myself rarely going. I find them functioning more and more as another advertising platform for upcoming Neon and Netflix releases than an earnest cinematheque. And the retrospectives recently are truly anti-cinema. Who gives a shit about the films of Ruben Fleischer, a footnote to cinema history? And I hate the ethos and style of Beyond Fest and Bleak Week with all my heart where they turn my favorite art form into kitsch. I finally caved in and bought a dual-membership when the Seijun Suzuki retrospective happened nearly three years ago, but it’s increasingly getting no use.

I am in the same boat as you. It’s sad how they program 2K DCPs of the same titles endlessly and the Beyond Fest stuff is incredibly stupid. They’ve really leaned into AI schlock recently as well from what I’ve heard.

The New Beverly has become a total joke as well, with horrible looking first-run films and the same titles playing on a seasonal rotation.

Where did you hear about the AI schlock? Is it in the programming itself or in how they run the organization?

New Bev has been rough lately. It's really in recession mode as it seems mostly interested in just programming films that will sell out rather than anything exciting or risky. And the new films are all substantially questionable.

My last thought on the American Cinematheque, but I find their grotesque desire to program a dozen 2K DCPs around the death of any celebrity morbid. It's like they're always waiting for someone to drop in order to fill their calendar up.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Mon Nov 24, 2025 11:04 pm I remember hearing years ago that UCLA Film and Television Archive had acquired a massive collection of Taiwanese and Hong Kong films and trailers found in the basement of a former theater in Chinatown. They're finally pulling a few select films saved from this theater out for a small series including films directed by Sylvia Cheng, Ann Hui, and Stanley Kwan. This might be the most excited I've been for a film series in Los Angeles in at least a year as I've never seen any of these films and have only heard of Passion.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Thu Jan 29, 2026 4:28 pm After some months of relatively safe programming, the New Beverly is doing an entire month of erotic films and pornography. Some very rare prints are playing and I’m sure many supplied by Vinegar Syndrome’s Joe Rubin.

The third film in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s Wagnerian trilogy—preceded by Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King (1972) and Karl May (1974), about the founding of modern Germany—Our Hitler uses a series of stylized tableaux before back projections, filled with references to German history and mythology. With one of the most varied and ambitious soundtracks ever made, we hear strains of Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart, Nazi marches, American radio shows, and Hitler’s broadcasts. Der Führer is identified with such figures from film history as Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator, Dr. Caligari, Napoleon, Wagner’s ghost, and Peter Lorre’s child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M.

beamish14 wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2026 1:56 am My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw that the Vista is screening a 35mm Technicolor print of Porgy and Bess over four days between March 16 and 19. Maybe it’s finally been cleared for home video?

Drucker wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2026 2:29 am

beamish14 wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2026 1:56 am My heart literally skipped a beat when I saw that the Vista is screening a 35mm Technicolor print of Porgy and Bess over four days between March 16 and 19. Maybe it’s finally been cleared for home video?

Lincoln Center played it several years ago as well.