Academy Movie Museum Los Angeles

Paris The Whale Commercial Mall Bercy 2

“The Whale” Bercy 2 is a shopping mall with 70 stores and 36,000 m2 located in Paris , along the bankside of the river Seine and the “Périphérique” ring road.

Inaugurated on April 24, 1990, the building is only the third work of architect after the Centre Pompidou. The cyclopean wooden structure, covered with 27,000 satin stainless steel tiles and pierced with oculus to let an overhead light pass, is completely innovative. Its curvature which follows the turn of a ramp on the ring road evokes a large airship, hence the nicknames “The Zeppelin” or “The Whale”.

‘the Parthenon’ Of Film Museums

After false starts, the academy announced plans in 2012 to renovate the 1939 May Co. Wilshire building, a stunning Streamline Moderne structure and classic former department store, as the museum’s permanent home. The brand new, modern Sphere Building , which contains two state-of-the-art movie theaters and a viewing deck that provides stunning open-air views of the distant Hollywood sign, was built as a contrasting structure for the 300,000-square-foot, seven-story museum now part of Museum Row in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile.

There have been building halts and budget overruns for the $484 million project. Even after Tom Hanks announced at the February 2020 Oscars that the museum would open later in the year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced additional delays. However, last week, board of trustees member Hanks, who spearheaded fundraising efforts with Annette Bening and Walt Disney Co. executive chairman Bob Iger, proudly heralded the lauded new building.

“We all know, films are made everywhere in the world, wonderful films,” Hanks told reporters. “And there are other cities with film museums, but with all due respect, created by the Motion Picture Academy in Los Angeles, this museum has really got to be the Parthenon of such places.”

Spielberg, who donated $10 million toward the movie museum, also loaned one of his greatest movie mementos, an original surviving “Rosebud” sled, the emotional centerpiece from Orson Welles’ classic film “Citizen Kane.”

Movies And The Performing Arts

The city’s has become recognized as the center of the and the Los Angeles area is also associated with being the center of the . The city is home to major film studios as well as major record labels. Los Angeles plays host to the annual , the , the as well as many other entertainment industry awards shows. Los Angeles is the site of the which is the oldest film school in the United States.

The performing arts play a major role in Los Angeles’s cultural identity. According to the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, “there are more than 1,100 annual theatrical productions and 21 openings every week.” The is “one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation”, with more than 1.3 million visitors per year. The , centerpiece of the Music Center, is home to the prestigious . Notable organizations such as , the , and the are also resident companies of the Music Center. Talent is locally cultivated at premier institutions such as the and the .

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Orcs Vampires And Aliens

Occupying an old Art Deco warehouse built in the 1930s, the museum was designed by award-winning architect Renzo Piano, who added a giant metal dome to the original building, housing the David Geffen Theater, an ultramodern 1000-seat cinema.

The museums galleries are spread over six floors, and take visitors on an epic journey across the history of the silver screen, from its first faltering steps in the late 19th century, all the way through to the present day, special effects included. Youll get to see the other side of the set and the magical techniques used in making movies, thanks to the museums immersive, interactive curation. But the main attraction for most visitors will doubtless be the chance to come face to face with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial Count Dracula the terrifying orc from Lord of the Rings the bloody replica of Arnold Schwarzeneggers head made for Terminator and the life sized amphibian monster from The Shape of Water. True movie buffs will recognise Rosebud, the sled from Citizen Kane, and Judy Garlands famous red slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Theres also the tablets from The Ten Commandments and the dressing gown worn by the riotous Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski. So many iconic props that combine to make this museum so unique.

Hollywood Ignored Women Academy Museums Female Curators Arent Making The Same Mistake

A curatorial team of mostly women has surfaced the intriguing back stories and undertold contributions of women in filmmaking.

Under Kramer, 17 task forces were formed to represent each of the academys branches from acting and directing to executives and public relations in developing the new exhibitions. An Inclusion Advisory Committee was charged with helping spotlight the work of diverse filmmakers and expose historical omissions.

Tasked with leading that committee, producer Effie Brown had been dismayed by the museums initial handling of issues of inclusion.

After seeing a presentation, I was like, Oh, no, wait a second, Brown said. Between Asian, Latinx, Black, Native American, women, LGBTQ it was like, What about our contributions? Things that were forgotten. Celebrating a person who was I wont go into it but, you know, problematic.

I was able to raise my hand and say, Hey, I think we may be in a bit of trouble. And the academy heard us, which was really beautiful, because sometimes when you speak up you arent met with such open arms, she said. It was really a massive rethink. And in the end, we actually got to an amazing place.

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Amazing Objects On View At The New Academy Museum

The Dudes bathrobe from The Big Lebowski. The space shuttle from 2001. The infamous Best Picture Oscars card for Moonlight. Insiders reveal their faves.

This is a museum that really celebrates film, but it does it for the masses, in the language of the masses, Sarandos said. I think this is going to be a very commercially viable project for the city and for the academy.

Ganis, who has been riding the roller coaster of the museum effort longer than almost anyone, wholeheartedly agrees.

I say thank goodness we had those tough starts and stops and kvetches and moans over money, Ganis said. Because now were going to give the world this museum. When kids and adults come in to see Hayao Miyazaki films on the big screen, the kids will say, I want to be in that place. Take me to the movies.

Auditorium Of The Parco Della Musica

The is the complex of music venues located in the Rome neighborhood which hosted the 1960 . The park has three theaters, the largest with 2800 seats when completed it was the largest symphonic concert hall in Europe. Piano acknowledged that his inspiration for the interior plan was the vineyard style seating, placed around the orchestra, of the by Hans Sharon. The three brick concert halls covered with what New York Times critic Sam Lubell described as “weathered armadillo-like steel shells,” which looked forbidding in photographs but in person were “lovely” and noted that the theaters “inside are heavy with wood, fabrics, and typical Piano elegance.” He called the whole complex “deceptively simple but smart.”.

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California Academy Of Sciences Renovation And Extension San Francisco

In 1989, after their old museum buildings were damaged by an earthquake, the trustees of the decided to rebuild their entire complex of twelve buildings, including an aquarium, planetarium, and a museum of Natural History, located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Piano’s plan called for “a group of volumes under a single roof, a little like a village.” The roof itself, 1.5 hectares in area, was covered with vegetation, and blends with the surrounding park. The facade of the building also harmonizes smoothly with the nearby turn-of-the-century greenhouse that is a landmark of the Park. Three cupolas are placed under the high roof, ceiling, lit by natural light through round portholes on their roofs they contain the entry hall, a botanical garden, and a planetarium. Piano’s design for the new building was described by the New York Times as a “comforting reminder of the civilizing function of great art in a barbaric age”.

Underrated Exhibitions To Check Out At The Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures

Photo: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures courtesy of Photo by Joshua White + JWPictures/Academy Museum Foundation/Facebook

Its hard to say that any of the exhibitions in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is underrated. Despite the museums size, there are currently only four ongoing exhibitions and two temporary exhibitions on offer, as well as collections like the Oscars gallery on the second floor, one of Girards personal favorites, which displays 20 real-life Oscars statuettes from the early 20th century to today. Yet one collection visitors would be remiss to overlook is found within The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection.

Richard Balzer is a name only the most dedicated movie historians are likely to know. Balzer himself was one, in a manner of speaking, having amassed one of the most significant collections of pre-cinema paraphernalia known to man. Now on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Richard Balzer collection includes artifacts such as praxinoscopes and zoetropes, two 19th-century optical inventions that created the illusion of animation, and sciopticons, or magic lanterns, a precursor to the slide projector. Though Balzer lacks Miyazakis name recognition, the exhibition is a fascinating look into the technologies that gave rise to modern cinema and even includes a live magic lantern show.

Photo: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures/Facebook

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Highlights Of The Academy Museum Calendar Of Events

Screenings, panels and more

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation

David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Iwan Baan/©Iwan Baan Studios, Courtesy Academy Museum Foundation

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures continues to offer a calendar stuffed with screenings of significant films, ongoing public programs, and one-off special events .

Here are some highlights of Academy Museum happenings at the time of writing. For up-to-date details, tickets, and reservations , visit the Museums calendar page.

Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898

One of the most exciting exhibitions opening this year is called Regeneration. Winner of the 2018 Sothebys Prize for curatorial excellence, the exhibition traces the evolution of Black cinema throughout American history in an effort to acknowledge the full scope of the nations filmmaking heritage. Regeneration is a collaborative effort between museum curators, academics, and Academy members, including director Ava DuVernay, the first Black woman to win the Sundance Film Festivals Best Director award.

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Whats The Oscars Experience And Is It Worth It

Consider this the made-for-Instagram experience at the museum. The Oscars Experience lets you step up to a podium with bright lights and a virtual crowd in your face as your accept your award: an undedicated Oscar, identical to the ones given out during the Academy Awards, that you can pick up . Youre only inside for a few seconds, and youll be emailed a personalized, polished video of your award acceptance. Its well put together, but remarkably expensive for just how brief it is only plunk down the $15 if being able to say I held an Oscar is a must.

Exhibits On Display At Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures

The core exhibition at the museum is called the Stories of Cinema, which offers celebratory, critical, and personal perspectives on cinema and the impact of movies on us all. Here youll find costumes, props, script pages, and photographs from some of the most iconic and wonderful movies of all time.

Some of the displays are quite imaginative and striking, like the Ruby Slippers worn by Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ set against a backdrop of the four travelers from the movie heading off across the poppy fields to find the wizard.

Youll also find displays of many of the mechanics of making films, like a motion picture camera on a dolly, and a film-editing machine, called a KEM, which has been all-but rendered useless by the use of video instead of film in movie making.

The Paths to Cinema includes an amazing collection of the very first objects people used to view moving pictures, from zoetropes, to magic lanterns, and everything in between. Theres a wonderful area where a light projected through a screen allows you to make your own shadows and hand puppets, mimicking how early filmmakers worked.

Theres a temporary exhibit all about Hayao Miyazaki, the influential and acclaimed Japanese filmmaker. His Studio Ghibli has made some of the most beautiful animated films ever seen, like Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Ponyo, among others, and the exhibit is quite magical. No photos were allowed inside the gallery, so youll have to take our word for it.

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New York Times Building

Piano’s design for the was chosen after competition whose entrants included projects by , and . The competition rules asked for a building that be as open and transparent as possible, to symbolize the connection between the newspaper and the city. The first six floors are occupied by an atrium with restaurants, shops and a conference center. The distinctive Piano feature of the tower is the clear glass curtain wall outside the facade, and rising higher than the facade itself. The curtain is composed of clear glass and a frame of ceramic tubes suspended 61 cm from the facade it serves as a sunscreen, eliminating the need for tinted or glass.

Whitney Museum Of American Art New York City

The decided to move from its original building on Madison Avenue, constructed by in 1966, to a new location at the corner of Gansevoort and Washington in Manhatttan, a neighborhood once occupied by meat packing houses, next to the , a riverside highway and park. The museum, with nine levels, has an asymmetric industrial look to match the architecture of the neighborhood. In addition to its interior galleries, it has 1,207 m2 of open-air exhibit space on a large terrace atop one section of the building. It was built of steel, concrete, and stone, but also with pine wood and other materials recycled from demolished factories. Jule Iovine, architecture critic of the Wall Street Journal, called it “a welcoming, creative machine” thanks to its “open, changeable spaces,” and Michael Kimmelman, critic of the New York Times, called it “an outdoor perch to see and be seen… There’s a generosity to the architecture, a sense of art connecting with the city and vice versa”.

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The Museum Of The Film Academy In Los Angeles Opens Its Doors To Mexican Horror

2022-10-06T14:56:35.319Z

The organization begins this Thursday a cycle of twenty horror films filmed between 1950 and 1990 In 1975, the legendary Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart joined a unique sense of humor in the music industry to make fun of a dark gem of Mexican horror cinema. The rockers dedicated Debra Kadabra to The Baron of Terror , a 1961 film that tells the story of an aristocrat burned at the stake by the Inquisition in 1660 and who swears to come back from the dead for revenge three centuries later. The

In 1975, the legendary Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart joined a unique sense of humor in the music industry to make fun of a dark gem of Mexican horror cinema.

The rockers dedicated

, a 1961 film that tells the story of an aristocrat burned at the stake by the Inquisition in 1660 and who swears to come back from the dead for revenge three centuries later.

The Baron returns in the form of a creature that feeds on human brains that caused more laughter than fear from Zappa and Don Van Vliet .

His favorite movie was

, from 1957.

The display of absurd special effects of

, known in the cult circuits of the United States as

, will arrive on October 16 at the Academy Museum of Hollywood.

Starting this Thursday, the organization opens its doors to 20 Mexican horror films made between 1950 and 1993, when Guillermo del Toro filmed

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center Athens Greece

The in , Greece is one of Piano’s most dramatic projects. Located next to Falirio Bay at Kalithea, an ancient Greek port, four kilometres south of central Athens, on a site which served as a parking lot for the 2004 Summer Olympics, it combines the Greek National Library and a new opera house for the Greek National Opera along with the Stavros Niarchos Park, an urban park covering an area of 210,000 m2 . An artificial hill was created to raise the building and give it a view of the nearby sea. The opera house has a 1400-seat main theater and a smaller “black box” theater of 400 seats. On top of the opera house a square horizontal glass box is placed, called Pharos , similar to the perch of the art museum atop the Lingotto factory in . The entire structure is covered by a single flat roof, which provides shade, and which is covered with 10,000 m2 of photovoltaic cells, generating 1.5 megawatts of electricity, designed to the building self-sufficient in energy during working hours. The cost of the project was 588 million dollars.

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Early Life And First Buildings

Piano was born and raised in , Italy, into a family of builders. His grandfather had created a masonry enterprise, which had been expanded by his father, Carlo Piano, and his father’s three brothers, into the firm Fratelli Piano. The firm prospered after World War II, constructing houses and factories and selling construction materials. When his father retired, the enterprise was led by Renzo’s older brother, Ermanno, who studied engineering at the University of Genoa. Renzo studied architecture at the and . He graduated in 1964 with a about modular coordination supervised by and began working with experimental lightweight structures and basic shelters.

Piano taught at the Polytechnic University from 1965 until 1968, and expanded his horizons and technical skills by working in two large international firms, for the modernist architect in Philadelphia and for the Polish engineer Zygmunt Stanisaw Makowski in London. He completed his first building, the IPE factory in Genoa, in 1968, with a roof of steel and reinforced polyester, and created a continuous membrane for the covering of a pavilion at the Milan Triennale in the same year. In 1970, he received his first international commission, for the Pavilion of Italian Industry for in , Japan. He collaborated with his brother Ermanno and the family firm, which manufactured the structure. It was lightweight and original composed of steel and reinforced polyester, and it appeared to be simultaneously artistic and industrial.