Latest news with #Mezzanine
What's On
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- What's On
Here's where you can get wine for just Dhs19 all day this Sunday
Wine not…? If your idea of Sunday plans involves a crisp rosé, a glass of bubbly, or maybe something rich and red, Mezzanine Bar & Kitchen might be your new favourite spot – at least for this weekend. In celebration of National Wine Day, they're pouring wines for just Dhs19 a glass all day long on Sunday, May 25. Wines, wines, wines We're talking white, red, rosé and sparkling – each for Dhs19. Whether you're sipping solo or making a lazy afternoon of it with friends, the drinks list has enough range to please pretty much everyone. Pair it with a Sunday roast While you're at it, don't skip the roast. Mezzanine's Sunday Roast has built a bit of a name for itself. It's hearty, classic, and goes particularly well with a generous glass of red (or three). Live music, too Setting the vibe for the day: live performances by British artists throughout the afternoon. So you're getting good wine, good food, and good music – all without breaking the bank. Also read Your bar twin: Some of the best bars in Dubai for every personality 15 Stunning sky high rooftop bars and restaurants in Dubai Not a wine person? Fair. They've still got you. Mezzanine's daily Happy Hour runs from 12pm to 7pm, with drinks starting at Dhs34. So whether you're on the wine train or not, you won't feel left out. The details Offer: white, red, rosé and sparkling wine for Dhs19 Timings: Sunday, May 25, all day long Location: Mezzanine Bar & Kitchen, Souk Madinat Jumeirah Contact: (0)58 599 4659. Reservations@ @mezzaninedubai Images: supplied > Sign up for FREE to get exclusive updates that you are interested in
Los Angeles Times
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
A cutting-edge film festival returns, shining a light on two lost works
Last year, the inaugural Los Angeles Festival of Movies brought a much-needed jolt of energy to the city, conjuring just the right mix of in-the-know hipness and welcoming inclusivity. Running from Thursday through Sunday, LAFM's second edition aims to keep the party rolling by screening more than 20 films at a circuit of venues all east of Hollywood. The festival, presented by Mezzanine and Mubi, opens with the West Coast premiere of Amalia Ulman's satirical 'Magic Farm,' starring Chloë Sevigny, Alex Wolff, Simon Rex and Ulman. A special screening of Andrew DeYoung's comedy 'Friendship,' starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd, and the closing-night selection of Neo Sora's coming-of-age story 'Happyend' will both also have their West Coast premieres. The festival will include live-action shorts, a new program of animated shorts and artist talks including novelist-filmmaker Dennis Cooper in conversation with author Tony Tulathimutte, and another with costume designer Shirley Kurata and comedian John Early. Other features in the program include Grace Glowicki's campy horror film 'Dead Lover,' Alexandra Simpson's atmospheric, Florida-set 'No Sleep Till,' Cooper and Zac Farley's unpredictable family story 'Room Temperature' and Charlie Shackleton's self-reflexive documentary 'Zodiac Killer Project.' 'For LAFM, we're always trying to celebrate films that feel personal and are clearly going against the grain of commercial filmmaking in some way,' said Micah Gottlieb, LAFM's co-founder and artistic director, via email from Los Angeles. But even with the festival's emphasis on new work, its selection of revivals is an important part of the program. 'With revivals, we're trying to make an implicit argument that these independent films — each of them a triumph of strong vision and limited resources — should also be more widely recognized and seen as part of a broader tradition of bold and visionary work,' said Gottlieb. Among the highlights of this year's program are the West Coast premieres of new restorations of two films from 1981, Jessie Maple's 'Will' and Robina Rose's 'Nightshift.' Both have only ever had limited theatrical distribution and these screenings should bring their filmmakers, both of whom recently died and rarely enjoyed such a showcase during their lifetimes, into a brighter spotlight. 'New restorations are a really important part of this and the L.A. film scene, so we are proud to continue to include a selection to highlight within the larger program,' said Sarah Winshall, festival co-founder, via email. Among the high points of last year's festival was a screening of Bridgett M. Davis' 1996 film 'Naked Acts,' an exploration of identity and the movies that was initially self-distributed. That film's restoration and release were championed by Maya Cade, creator and curator of the Black Film Archive. Cade will be back at this year's festival to introduce the screening of 'Will.' 'It was an honor to have 'Naked Acts' play at LAFM last year because it felt as if I was on the groundswell of a breakthrough in Los Angeles's film community,' said Cade via email from Los Angeles. 'The festival, even in its earliest iteration, negated so many assumptions about what film gatherings can do in the city where every other part of film creation and exhibition happens. Why couldn't there be a festival too? 'Naked Acts' was so warmly received here because the festival honored revivals alongside contemporary films as the discovery of both exalt us forward to new cinematic possibilities.' Maple, the first Black woman to join the cinematographers union in New York and among the first Black women to direct an independent feature film with 'Will,' died in 2023 at age 86. Set in Harlem, 'Will' is a story with deep emotional power as it follows a former all-American basketball player (Obaka Adedunyo) who has fallen into drug addiction. With his wife (Loretta Devine in her film debut) patiently by his side, he attempts to get his life back on track, taking in a boy from the streets (Robert Dean) whom he affectionately refers to as 'Little Brother.' E. Danielle Butler was Maple's assistant and collaborator during the last years of her life and co-wrote Maple's 2019 memoir, 'The Maple Crew.' Butler thinks Maple would be pleased to see her film finding a new, younger audience. 'A lot of the conversations that we had during her latter years were about legacy — what does it mean now?' said Butler in a call from Atlanta. 'And so I think that even though she's not here to see it, I believe that she would be pleased with the opportunity for another generation, a new generation, to take part in it.' Tony Best is an archivist and contractor with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who conducted an Academy oral history interview with Maple in early 2020 and remained part of her circle. Best noted the do-it-yourself ethos that ran through Maple's work and life. She opened a coffee shop and bakery to raise money for her films. When she couldn't find places to show her work, she opened a movie theater in her Harlem brownstone, which became a long-running venue known as 20 West that was also part of a distribution circuit and a small archive for other filmmakers. 'With 20 West being in itself a kind of micro-cinema, community cinema, it's interesting that her films are being screened in those spaces now,' said Best in a call from Los Angeles. 'And I know she would really dig that at LAFM. She really believed in the community and how filmmaking can bring the community together.' The 4K restoration of 'Will' is a joint project between the Black Film Center and Archive at Indiana University and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The 4K restoration of 'Nightshift' was undertaken by the Lightbox Film Center in collaboration with the British Film Institute and Cinenova. Where 'Will' is told with a straightforward directness, confronting practical realities, 'Nightshift' is a film of ambiguous evocation, existing in an interzone between waking, dreaming and nightmare. The film follows a London hotel clerk (the monomonikered Jordan, a famed part of London's punk scene) across one very eventful night, exploring a liminal space of nocturnal reveries that seem to open a portal to all sorts of behavior from an assortment of unusual guests including punks, businessmen and magicians. Rose, who died in January at age 75, worked at the time at the Portobello Hotel in West London. The hotel would close over Christmas and so the production had the run of the place from a Monday morning to a Saturday morning. Filmmaker Jon Jost, who was the project's cinematographer, loaned the production his 16mm camera and donated a stash of high-contrast reversal film stock he had bought on sale at a steep discount, helping give the film its distinctively unreal look. 'The film stock just happened to fit the context of that particular rather funky, slightly old-fashioned hotel,' recalled Jost in an phone interview from India, where he has recently been living and working. 'And the hotel itself was quirky because it was what we would call today a boutique hotel. It was known that each room was its own fantasy. So we shot in different rooms and got the sense of the fantasy. That quality was maybe enhanced by the film stock.' Charlotte Procter, part of feminist distribution and preservation organization the Cinenova Working Group, first met Rose in 2018 for a screening of Rose's 1977 film 'Birth Rites' and recalled the filmmaker as 'witty and sharp and a little contrary.' Procter remarked that a 1983 entry in the journals of acclaimed British filmmaker Derek Jarman noted that unlike their European counterparts, most British avant-garde filmmakers went largely unheralded. Among the few names he listed along with his own was Rose. 'He spoke of a deeply personal cinema, shaped by direct experience, often overlooked by the mainstream,' said Procter from London. 'Robina's films embody this — distinct, compelling and often made in collaboration with the people around her.' The film also serves as a snapshot of the creative and artistic energies of its moment in early-'80s London. Among those counterculture figures who collaborated or appeared in the film are Jost, co-writer Nicola Lane, Jordan (who also appeared in Jarman's 'Jubilee'), filmmaker Anne Rees-Mogg, philosopher-activist Mike Lesser, writer Max Handley and poet Heathcote Williams. The restorations of both 'Will' and 'Nightshift' fit nicely within the broader program of LAFM, providing historical context for the newer films that are the bulk of the festival. That sense of experiencing something special for the first time is part of the key to the event's success, giving off an energy of invention and revelation. 'We were so lucky last year to be able to debut the festival with such a bold program,' said Winshall. 'This year, going into the curation, we followed some of the guidelines from last year, prioritizing premieres for our local audience, keeping things eclectic in content, finding the films from a variety of sources, all the while trusting our curatorial noses. The program is full of discoveries, films I hadn't heard of before we programmed them.'
Los Angeles Times
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Valentine's Day is for movie lovers, plus the week's best films in L.A.
Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. This week wraps up another season of The Envelope podcast. In our latest episode, Yvonne Villareal spoke with Coralie Fargeat, writer-director of 'The Substance,' while I spoke with Brady Corbet, director and co-writer of 'The Brutalist.' As a bonus episode, Yvonne also spoke with Colman Domingo for 'Sing Sing.' And Glenn Whipp caught up with 'Anora' writer-director Sean Baker on Tuesday night, following the film's wins at the DGA and PGA Awards last weekend. Though Baker's 'The Florida Project' had earned an Oscar nomination for Willem Dafoe, Baker did not necessarily see 'Anora's' tale of a Brooklyn stripper as more accessible to a wider audience. 'There was not one moment when we were making 'Anora' that I was like, 'I'm doing this for a mainstream audience,'' Baker said. 'To tell you the truth, it was very like, 'I'm making this for the people who like my crazy stuff. I'm making this for the people who like 'Red Rocket.' I'm going to be giving it to them.'' 'Except for when we were leaving for Cannes and you said, 'This is going to be a nice, relaxing trip,'' Samantha Quan, Baker's wife and producing partner, reminded him. 'You thought it was too commercial, so it wasn't going to win anything.' 'I also thought it was too funny,' Baker replied. 'Historically, comedies haven't won too many awards there.' 'Anora' ended up winning the Palme d'Or. The venues of Los Angeles have really outdone themselves this Valentine's Day, screening a wide array of movies for lovers and the lonely alike. The Academy Museum will have an afternoon screening of Jacques Demy's 1967 musical 'The Young Girls of Rochefort' starring Catherine Deneuve and her sister Françoise Dorléac — a candy-colored confection that was the follow-up to 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.' In the evening, the museum will follow up with a 35mm screening of a print from the Joe Dante, Jon Davison, Tim Hunter Collection at the Academy Film Archive of David Lynch's 1990 Palme d'Or winning 'Wild at Heart' starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as lovers on the run. Mezzanine will host the West Coast premiere of a new 4K restoration of Jean-Luc Godard's 2001 'In Praise of Love,' an essayistic collage of storytelling and imagery. Reviewing the film for The Times when it was originally released, Manohla Dargis wrote, 'Godard has always made films that are as thrilling for their ideas and ideals as for the sheer beauty of their images; the difference here is that for the first time in years he's more interested in turning us on than in turning us off. He really did think movies could change the world and he still does.' Brain Dead Studios will have a 35mm screening of Luca Guadagnino's 2010 international breakthrough, 'I Am Love,' starring Tilda Swinton, followed by Karyn Kusama's 2009 cult horror-comedy 'Jennifer's Body,' starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. The Gardena Cinema will be showing John Waters' 1990 rock-and-roll juvenile delinquents musical 'Cry-Baby,' starring Johnny Depp. Vidiots will show Daisy von Scherler Mayer's 1995 'Party Girl,' starring Parker Posey. The event will feature Von Scherler Mayer and music supervisor Bill Coleman, refreshments of falafel and babganouj (on-theme for the movie) and entertainment and karaoke with drag performer Anya Body. The American Cinematheque will show Michael Curtiz's 1942 'Casablanca' at the Aero and a late show of Jim Jarmusch's 2013 'Only Lovers Left Alive' at the Aero. Earlier in the evening, the Los Feliz 3 will be showing James L. Brooks' 'Broadcast News' with an introduction by Esther Zuckerman, who will also be signing her new book, 'Falling in Love at the Movies: Rom-Coms From the Screwball Era to Today,' before the screening. Among the many ways in which Los Angeles is among the world's best cities for moviegoing are the multiple venues capable of projecting nitrate film, the film stock that was discontinued because it was so flammable and dangerous. The American Cinematheque is launching another edition of its Nitrate Film Festival that will showcase how beautiful and wonderful these rare prints are. The series begins tonight with a screening of William Dieterle's 1948 romantic drama 'Portrait of Jennie,' starring Joseph Cotton and Ethel Barrymore. Screening from a print from the George Eastman Museum collection, the event will be introduced by the museum's collection manager, Deborah Stoiber. On Saturday, there will be a screening of Vincente Minnelli's 1944 'Meet Me in St. Louis' from a print from the Library of Congress that will be introduced by Vanessa O'Neil, granddaughter of the film's star, Judy Garland. Also on Saturday will be Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1950 'Gone to Earth' in a print from the George Eastman Museum, also introduced by Stoiber. Later titles in the series include Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 'Rope,' in a print from the Library of Congress, and Jack Conway's 1930 remake of 'The Unholy Three' (notable as Lon Chaney's only talkie) from a print from the Museum of Modern Art. Most of the films screen more than once, so catch them when you can. 2 by Michael Roemer Mezzanine will feature the West Coast premieres of 4K restorations of two films by Michael Roemer. On Tuesday, there will be a screening of 1982's 'Pilgrim, Farewell' at Brain Dead Studios and on Thursday, a screening of 1976's 'Dying' will unspool at 2220 Arts + Archives. Roemer is still alive at age 97, and the recent revival of his work — thanks to a series of releases by the Film Desk — has been such an exciting discovery. Originally premiering at the Venice Film Festival and broadcast on PBS, 'Pilgrim, Farewell' stars Elizabeth Huddle and Christopher Lloyd as a couple coming to terms with her terminal cancer. 'Dying,' also broadcast on public television, is a documentary that follows three people at the end of life. A film that presents a rare, intimate, up-close view of death somehow also becomes about what it means to be alive. Ida Lupino The UCLA Film and Television Archive is launching a two-night tribute to Ida Lupino, the British-born actor who became a Hollywood star and transformed herself into a filmmaker. Tonight will see a 35mm screening at the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater of 1953's 'The Bigamist,' directed by and co-starring Lupino from a screenplay written by her then-husband, Collier Young. In the film, Lupino plays a woman in Los Angeles who strikes up a relationship with a traveling salesman (Edmond O'Brien) without knowing he already has a wife (Joan Fontaine) in San Francisco. Author Alexandra Seros will be on hand Sunday to sign copies of the book 'Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur: From Film Noir to the Director's Chair.' There will also be screenings of three shorter works Lupino made for television, including her appearance on the series 'This Is Your Life,' a new digital preservation of a satirical sitcom 'Mr. Adams and Eve' and a restoration world premiere of a 30-minute noir written and directed by Lupino. 'No Other Land' The Oscar nominated documentary 'No Other Land' continues to expand around the country, being self-released by its filmmaking team. Directed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective of Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor, the film captures the struggles of the people of the West Bank area known as Masafer Yata to hold onto their homes in the face of military occupation, while Abraham and Adra form a friendship that crosses seemingly unbreachable divides. In his review of the film, Tim Grierson wrote, ''No Other Land' examines an unconscionable and ongoing atrocity and simply lets it play out in all its unresolved anguish. Few recent documentaries seem so committed to insisting viewers sit in their despair without any glimmer of release or catharsis. … 'No Other Land's' sense of grim futility is very much the point — it's what the strong count on in order to suppress those who oppose them. Anyone who sees this devastating film may share in that sense of hopelessness. But we can no longer say we had no idea what was going on.' I spoke with Adra and Abraham about the challenges of making the film and getting it seen by the right people. Abraham noted, 'I have this feeling that the people who really need to see the film in the United States are those who maybe have a different political opinion than me and Basel. And I think these are the people who are not necessarily the ones going to the film festivals. We want to reach those people specifically.'
