Highlights of this week’s film events, revivals, festivals and series.
Laemmle Anniversary Classics The 1982 musical-romantic-comedy Victor/Victoria was the best film collaboration between director Blake Edwards and wife, actress Julie Andrews. As a down-on-her-luck singer in 1930s Paris, Andrews’ Victoria transforms into “Victor,” who becomes the toast of the cabaret world as a female impersonator. The superb cast includes James Garner as a nightclub owner who falls for Andrews’ enigmatic character, a platinum blond Lesley Ann Warren as Garner’s moll girlfriend, and Robert Preston as Victoria’s mentor. The message amid the farcical tangle: love is love. Discussion to follow with Warren, who received an Oscar nomination. Ahrya Fine Arts, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310) 478-3836. Sept. 19,7:30 p.m. $15. www.laemmle.com
Stephen Frears Double Feature Eddie Muller moderates a discussion with the British director between a screening of Frears’ new film, Victoria & Abdul, and his 1990 crime drama, The Grifters. Judi Dench reprises her Oscar-nominated role as Queen Victoria from the 1997 drama “Mrs. Brown” in the new comedy-drama based on the elderly monarch’s real-life friendship with one of her young, Indian-born secretaries (Ali Fazal). “The Grifters” is set in sun-drenched Southern California locales, but the characters are pure noir. John Cusack plays a small-time con man who is brutally out-matched by both his mother (Anjelica Huston in one of her best performances) and his alluring girlfriend (Annette Bening in one of her earliest films). American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation, Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana, Ave., Santa Monica. (310) 260-1528. Sept. 20,7:30 p.m. www.americancinematheque.com
Resistance Isn’t Futile A collection of short films about people and groups who could be described as activists, radicals, subversives, civil-rights leaders, and even entertainers. The program includes a 1969 short about the Black Panthers, a mockumentary about the controversial McCarran Act by Penelope Spheeris, and a five-minute 2012 animation based on online interviews with Chelsea (then known as Bradley) Manning. Los Angeles Film Forum, Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 377-7238. Sept. 17,7:30 p.m. $10; $6 for students and senior citizens; free for Filmforum members. www.lafilmforum.org
L.A. Confidential A 20th-anniversary rooftop screening of Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland’s Oscar-winning adaptation of James Ellroy’s cool noir novel may be the perfect way to end the summer outdoor movie season. Set in 1950s Los Angeles, the film has good cops, bad cops, sleazy tabloid journalists, gangsters, fall guys, and call girls with hearts of gold. It made a star of New Zealand-born leading man Russell Crowe, but Kim Basinger won an Oscar for her role as the Veronica Lake look-alike prostitute he falls hard for. Rooftop Cinema Club, Level, 888 S. Olive St., Los Angeles. Sept. 22, rooftop opens at 6:30 p.m.; film at 8 p.m. $19-$35. www.rooftopcinemaclub.com
The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille The legendary film director built and then buried a massive Egyptian “city” in the sand dunes of Guadalupe-Nipoma on California’s Central Coast once he was done filming his less famous 1923 silent version of “The Ten Commandments.” Documentarian Peter Brosnan’s quest to find, excavate, and film the legendary set was itself a quest that was almost, well, biblical. Where better to watch as a team of archaeologists unearth statues of Ramses and more than a dozen sphinxes in the sands of California than at Hollywood’s own Egyptian Theater? Discussion to follow with Brosnan, archaeologist Colleen Hamilton, who was the project director for the excavation, and others. American Cinematheque, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. (323) Sept. 23,2 p.m. $12; $8 for Cinematheque members.
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