By Susan JAMES A new exhibition of costume sketches from the Golden Age of Hollywood in the collection of Christian Esquevin has just opened at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Running through Nov. 1, over 100 original sketches of costumes from the late 1920s through the ‘60s created by such […]
By Susan JAMES On a spring day in April 1229, a Greek Orthodox priest named Johannes Myronas wrote his name carefully on the first page of a prayer book that he had created as a presentation gift. Myronas lived in a monastery in Jerusalem where parchment for his prayer book was scarce. So Myronas recycled. […]
By Susan JAMES In the fantasy world ruled by the Disney-Marvel combine there has been a trend of late to reshape fairy tales for a contemporary audience. Working from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton, director Robert Stromberg’s “Maleficent” is a signature example. As most little girls know, fairy tales in their original form are […]
By Susan JAMES Full disclosure: I lived in India for several years. The sound of a sitar or a camera panning across an orange sunset behind the Taj Mahal can make me cry. So I was predisposed to like Disney’s new family, feel good film “Million Dollar Arm.” But here’s the good part: You don’t […]
By Susan JAMES Director Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” is not your parents’ Bible story. It’s a grim, hard-edged science fiction take on a merciless super-being bent on genocide called the Creator and his superhero henchman. The childlike vision of jolly giraffes rolling two-by-two into a wooden boat is far from Aronofsky’s own stylized vision of violence, […]
By Susan JAMES Running through April 26, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles is presenting the 22nd annual exhibition of Oscar-nominated costumes featuring all five Oscar nominees. In addition, costumes from 17 other hit movies will be on display, over 100 costumes in all. As with previous Oscar races, the […]
By Susan JAMES Billed as ‘the greatest art heist in history’, ‘The Monuments Men’ is the story of the five million works of art looted by the Nazis in World War II and a small unit of historians and scholars drafted into the army and sent to Europe for the purpose of getting them back. […]
By Susan JAMES After a publicity blitz that has seen Will Ferrell as his alter-ego Ron Burgundy pop up on a dozen television shows, including a real life news broadcast from KXMB in Bismarck, N.D., the big R finally opens on the big screen. Sequel to the 2004 cult classic, “Anchorman,” director Adam McKay, who […]
By Susan JAMES On stage now at Hollywood’s Theatre Asylum on Santa Monica Boulevard, “What We Don’t Say” is a play that probes the most intimate thoughts of a group of friends regarding themselves and their relationships with women. Well-staged and never static, this is a beautifully nuanced ensemble piece that incorporates filmed interviews together […]
By Susan JAMES On the page and on the screen, Mary Poppins is a ray of sunshine dispensing happiness among dysfunctional families like the Banks family of No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Her creator, P. L. Travers, was the opposite: a sad, acerbic, bitterly lonely woman clinging to the only thing she loved, her fictional […]