"The French Had a Name For It" Brings Film Noir Gems Neglected for a Half-Century to Los Angeles

Rare Film Noir from France will unspool at the Aero Theatre June 19 - 22, 2015.

"The French had a Name for It: Rare French Film Noir 1948 - 1963" comes to the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica June 19 - 22, 2015 with eight rare films featuring well-known French actors such as Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Gabin and Brigitte Bardot among others. Although largely considered an American genre, it was French film critics who coined the term "film noir" to describe the dark stories of murder, betrayal and a doomed society, that began to crop up in the World War II era. Los Angelenos have developed a taste for international noir with the introduction over the past few years, of films from England, Argentina, Italy and other countries, at the popular, annual Film Noir Festival, co-presented in the Spring by the American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation.at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre. 

Guest Blog Post: The Joy of THE BURBS, by Scott Nye

One of the lesser-known and lesser-appreciated entries in the Egyptian Theater's series "The Atomo-Vision of Joe Dante" is his 1989 film 'The Burbs, playing at the Egyptian Theatre Friday the 12th at 7:30pm (on a bill with Matinee). Why The 'Burbs? Perhaps it starts with the title, reductive and absurd, the apostrophe helping shorten an already-abbreviated derivation of "suburban." The "sub" denotes its relation to a metropolitan area, but also suggests its landscape - and by extension its residents - are somehow "lesser than." But "the 'burbs" elides such concerns. It eliminates the socio-economic connotations to create a fact so plain it had to be monosyllabic. How to explain the silliness of so much of the life? That's the 'burbs for ya.

Arch Oboler’s Restored 3D Classic The Bubble, by Kim Luperi

Bob Furmanek, Michael Schlesinger, Michael Cole, and Igo Kantor. Photo by Lee Christian 

Note: The Bubble will be showing again - for free! - at the Aero on Thursday, June 11, 2015 as part of our series The Golden Age of 3-D.

On January 22, 2015, the Aero hosted the West Coast re-premiere of Arch Oboler's 1966 3D sci-fi classic The Bubble. Before the screening began, 3D historian Bob Furmanek, who supervised the restoration of the film, gave a little background on the picture, director Arch Oboler, and the restoration process.