Luchino Visconti

Burt Lancaster a presence to be reckoned with

2013-04-03 06:00:00

Burt Lancaster was the first movie star I ever met. I've encountered others since, but the circumstances have never been so dramatic. The year was 1971 and I was a young reporter for the Washington Post covering the Cannes Film Festival on my own dime....

A dinner inspired by classic Italian films

2013-03-04 13:50:00

This sounds fun: a special dinner next Monday with a menu inspired by classic Italian films. Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, the dinner will be prepared by chef Simone Santopietro at Obika Mozzarella Bar and Ristorante in...

Review: Beatles flop 'Magical Mystery Tour' is put in context

2012-12-14 07:00:00

Roll up, America; step right this way. Here comes the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," getting a big night on domestic television, 45 Christmastimes after it first aired in the United Kingdom, on Boxing Day, Dec. 26, 1967. Newly restored and...

A Second Look: 'Postman Always Rings Twice' films are noir standard

2012-11-24 10:00:00

A lean, mean tale of adultery and murder, James M. Cain's bestselling, once-scandalous 1934 novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is often considered a central text of noir fiction. It also has proved an eternally popular and durable template for the...

John Malkovich's message to the theater world on its special day

2012-03-09 16:33:33

Is ‘Bully’ a tipping point for the MPAA movie ratings system?

2012-04-04 16:38:38

Around Town: Clint Eastwood and Italian classics

2011-11-03 16:36:14

Bali, soul of replenishment

2010-08-08 00:00:00

On a steamy, drizzly morning, my friend Alejandra Cisneros leads us on a narrow dirt path through the flooded rice fields. A few yards away, a dozen ducks march single file across a dirt berm, tails twitching, looking very businesslike. Local farmers...

Farley Granger dies at 85; handsome leading man best known for roles in Hitchcock films

2011-03-30 00:00:00

Farley Granger, a handsome young leading man during Hollywood's post-World War II era who was best known for his starring roles in the Alfred Hitchcock suspense thrillers "Strangers on a Train" and "Rope," has died. He was 85. Granger died of natural...

Suso Cecchi D'Amico dies at 96; screenwriter worked with some of Italy's leading directors

2010-08-07 00:00:00

Screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico, who emerged from the male-dominated postwar Italian cinema to become a celebrated artist and contribute to such milestone films as "Bicycle Thieves" and "The Leopard," has died. She was 96. Cecchi D'Amico died July 31 in...

Visconti's 'Senso' offers much to savor for opera fans

2011-04-20 16:33:09

Learning to love Gustav Mahler

2010-03-14 00:00:00

One evening in 1966, not long after the Los Angeles Philharmonic moved into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, concertgoers were surprised to find a picket line in front of the hall on opening night. Though picket lines were a dime a dozen in the '60s, this...

-directed episode of the four-episode anthology film about love. Loren's husband, Carlo Ponti, served as a producer on the film in which she played Zoe, a sexy shooting-gallery operator who against her will is offered up as a prize to the best shooter.

2011-05-03 14:01:55