An archival screening at the Billy Wilder Theater is not just about the film, but the experience.
The theater’s vivid architecture ““ including fuchsia leather seating and neon lights that line the ceiling ““ add to the appeal of the choice location, nestled within the UCLA Hammer Museum.
Following a brief screening hiatus during the construction of the theater, the UCLA Film and Television Archive has opened the doors of its new venue.
Screenings resumed this past weekend with “The Apartment” and “Some Like It Hot,” both part of the “Welcome to the Billy Wilder Theater” film series and films by writer-director Billy Wilder, for whom the theater is named.
Tonight, the series “First Mondays” commences with Richard E. Robbins’ documentary “Operation Homecoming,” which examines American soldiers overseas in recent years.
The film starts off a program that will present one sneak preview of a film every first or second Monday of each month throughout the year.
According to Kelly Graml, marketing and communication manager for the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the theater is dedicated to the preservation of the artist’s original intention, what she calls “the big-screen experience.”
“In essence the lights go down and you experience a film, it doesn’t really matter what the theater looks like and where it is,” said Andrea Alsberg, co-head of exhibitions and public programs at the archive.
“However, I think there’ll be heightened anticipation in a good way. We are a good location, in a brand new theater, it’s very beautiful, and it’s part of a museum setting, so I think the whole thing works.”
In the year 2007, the Billy Wilder Theater is expected to screen approximately 400 films, including off-the-beaten-path independent, LGBT and foreign films, as well as silent films with musical accompaniment.
“We try to provide an eclectic range of programming, and so what we’ll do is come up with ideas for screening a series of contemporary films, balancing with screening series of older films, including silent films, and everything in between,” said David Pendleton, programmer at the archive for the past 10 years.
With polyester film, digital film, widescreen film from the 1950s, and a special nitrate projector, the archive provides one of four theaters in the United States able to screen all major video and film formats.
The archive vaults over 220,000 motion picture and television reels (27 million feet of newsreel footage), and is the second largest collection of media materials in the United States.
“Our goals and expectations are to have that theater turn into a destination for cinephiles of every stripe from every corner of Los Angeles,” Pendleton said.
The theater’s schedule for this month (available online at www.cinema.ucla.edu) consists of screenings, guest appearances and tributes to cinema-related industries, such as the American Society of Cinematographers’ “Art of Light” series, which began last night and continues throughout the month.
Events are scheduled up to five days per week.
“I think that if you look at the first two months of our schedule, it sort of runs the gamut,” Alsberg said. “And it does sort of exemplify what we do, which is celebrating trite and true and top-of-the-line directors like Wilder and Rossellini.”
Alsberg, who has worked for the archive for the past 15 years and on the Billy Wilder Theater project for the past several years, has high hopes for the new venue’s success as a screening facility.
“I’m hoping it will have full houses every night,” Alsberg said. “I’m hoping we will have more in-person appearances, so the audience can interrelate with various people in the film industry.”
Beginning this week, the Billy Wilder Theater will also be hosting a special series called “Roberto Rossellini: A Retrospective,” culminating with an appearance by the filmmaker’s daughter and acclaimed actress Isabella Rossellini later this month.
“One of the reasons why Rossellini seems appropriate for the first long series that we’re doing is because he was a fundamental importance in reinvigorating filmmaking in World War II,” Pendleton said.
“This had a profound influence on every generation of filmmakers since.”
The archive, which also provides restoration of film and research, dedicates itself not to screening alone, but encouragement of up-and-coming filmmakers who could benefit from such a venue.
“For some people I’m hoping they’ll be rediscovering old favorites,” Pendleton said. “The whole idea, one of the exciting things about being near UCLA and being in Westwood Village, is to introduce new generations of filmmakers because I think (the films are) still powerful and relevant today.”