1/5/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: Late Bloomer

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Official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Late Bloomer is a compelling and humorous short film about 7th grade sex ed class gone horribly wrong. Directed by Craig Macneill and written by Clay McLeod Chapman, Late Bloomer is loosely based on the dark tales of H.P. Lovecraft. Late Bloomer received the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the Lake Placid Film Festival,

 and Best Short Film at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
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12/29/14/ Hollywood Monday: Once Upon A Time… by Karl Lagerfeld

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Karl Lagerfeld returns to the director’s chair with his 18-minute short film Once Upon A Time. The film is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Chanel boutique in Deauville Normandy, which Lagerfeld allegedly went to great lengths to reproduce. Keira Knightley stars as the late Coco Chanel.  Continue reading

12/22/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: It’s A Wonderful Life

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It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy comedy-drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. The movie is based on the short story The Greatest Gift, which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and published privately in 1945. It’s a Wonderful Life is now considered one of the most popular films in American cinema. The numerous television showings in the 1980s helped the film become traditional viewing during the Christmas season. Continue reading

12/15/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass Productions and distributed by DreamWorks Classics. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the United States. The special was based on the Johnny Marks song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer which was itself based on the 1939 poem Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer written by Marks’ brother-in-law, Robert L. May.  Since 1972, the special has aired on CBS, and this year is the 50th anniversary of the production. Continue reading

12/8/14 O&A Hollywood Monday : Scrooge The Musical

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Scrooge is a 1970 musical film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 story, A Christmas Carol. It was filmed in London between January and May 1970 and directed by Leslie Bricusse, and starred Albert Finney in the title role. The film received four Academy Award nominations, and although it received limited praise, but Albert Finney won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy in 1971.
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11/17/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: Some Like it Hot

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Some Like It Hot (1959) film comedy directed by Billy Wilder; and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. The supporting cast includes George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee and Nehemiah Persoff. In 2000 the American Film Institute listed Some Like It Hot as the greatest American comedy film of all time.
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10/27/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: West Side Story

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West Side Story is a 1961 romantic musical drama film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 10, including Best Picture (as well as a special award for Robbins), becoming the record holder for the most wins for a movie musical. Continue reading

10/20/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: The Godfather

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The Godfather (1972) is a crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. The movie stars Marlon Brando ( Vito Corleone) and Al Pacino     (Michael Corleone) as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family. The story spans the years 1945-55, centering on the transformation of Michael from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss while chronicling the Corleones under the patriarch Vito. Continue reading

10/13/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: Training Day

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Training Day is a 2001 film starring Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris, a corrupt Los Angeles police officer, and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, a new recruit looking to become a part of Harris’s elite narcotics unit. The entire movie takes place over a single, intense 24-hour period that forever changes the lives of both officers.
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