ALYSSA'S MOVIE OF THE WEEK

MEAN GIRLS

In respect to the GSL dance this Saturday, Mean Girls is setting the precedent as the first film of the week. Although you wont see this title alongside other acclaimed films such as Citizen Cane or Doctor Zhivago, the dynamic/betchy combination of Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan will prepare you to walk into the dance this Friday with confidence and the ability to look a guy in the eye and answer “Yes. I would like someone assigned to butter my muffin.”

A BRIEF CHECKLIST OF QUALITY FILMS

1)     Harold and Maude

2)     Gone with the Wind

3)     The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

4)     Ordinary People

5)     Splendor in the Grass

6)     Pulp Fiction

7)     The Piano

8)     Shawshank Redemption

9)     District 9

10)The Godfather

11) Mean Girls

12)  Sex, Lies, and Videotapes

13) Casablanca

14) Doctor Zhivago

15) All About Eve

16) Gilda

17) The Big Sleep

18) Out of Africa

19) Sophies Choice

20) La Vie en Rose

21) Bande e part

22) 8 ½

23) Finding Neverland

24) Manhattan/Annie Hall

25) Marie Antoinette

26) East of Eden/Rebel Without a Cause/Giant

27) Good Night and Good Luck

28) Memoirs of a Geisha

29) Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

30) The Pianist

31) The Reader

32) Doubt

33) And God Created Women

34) Two Women

35) North by Northwest

36) Reversal of Fortune

37) No Country for Old Men

38) Kramer Vs. Kramer

39) Chaplin

40) Milk

41) American Psycho

42) Big Fish

43) My Left Foot

44) The Deer Hunter

45) American Beauty

46) Pride and Prejudice

47) Brideshead Revisited

48) The Way We Were

49) Pretty Women

50) Rachel Getting Married

51) Factory Girl

52) The Hours

53) Fargo

54) Crazy Heart

55) Crash

56) The Wrestler

57) A Clockwork Orange

58) Revolutionary Road

59) I’m Not there

60) American Beauty

61) Citizen Kane

62) The Elephant Man

63) On the Waterfront

64) Casino

65) Raging Bull

66) There Will be Blood

67) The Tree of Life

68) The Graduate

69) Schindler’s List

70) Rear Window

71) A Streetcar Named Desire

72) Taxi Driver

73) Philadelphia

74)From Here to Eternity

75) Tootsie

76) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

77) Forrest Gump

78) All the President’s Men

79) City Lights

80) In a Lonely Place

81) The Apartment

82) Badlands

83) Goodfellas

84) My Fair Lady/Roman Holiday/ Breakfast At Tiffany’s

85) Mommy Dearest

86) Blue Velvet

87) The Usual Suspects

88) The Untouchables

89) The Silence of the Lambs

90) Memento

91) Apocalypse Now

92) City Lights

93) Taxi Driver

94) The Departed

95) The Ocean Movies

96) To Kill a Mockingbird

97) Requiem of A Dream/Pi

98) Modern Times

99) Rashomon

100) Some Like it Hot

101) The Big Lebowski

102) Touch of Evil

103)It Happened One Night

104) Fanny and Alexander

105) Magnolia

Some Things an Actor Needs to Know (Part 1)

ALL HUMAN BEINGS LOVE TO SUFFER

One of the greatest competitions between human beings is about who has suffered the most:
1. I have suffered more than you have;
2. I have suffered more than anyone ever has;
3. You'll never know how much I've suffered, but you could at least try;
4. Let me tell you the extend of my suffering (you'll never believe it);
5. My childhood was total suffering, my wife doesn't understand me, I'm too sensitive, my trouble is I'm too truthful. Etc.

The reason people love to suffer is because it makes them right.

The reason people love to suffer is because it proves how deeply they feel; what profound caverns of emotions exist beneath that brave, smiling surface!

People fight hard to prove the extent of their suffering. They feel no one is listening. (And, most of the time, they're right. We human beings are incredibly self-absorbed.)

In making the competitive choices for any scene, an actor must always keep in mind how much we all suffer and how hard it is to prove.

Study LUV, Murray Schisgal's very funny play, which has the truest scences of competitive suffering. Note particularly the section on the bridge where Ellen and Milt (or is it Harry?) compete over who had the most tragic childhood. "I was raped by two boys on Parsons Boulevard... I was raised by an uncle who was an alcoholic...I never got any presents on my birthday." The extremities presented may seem farcical, but they are also real. Compete. If you don't, you'll suffer alone. What's the good of suffering if no one else knows?


- excerpt from AUDITION, written by casting director Michael Shurtleff

Visual Art: Pacific Standard Time

For years, New York City has been considered the mecca for the arts in America. Los Angeles arts have always been overlooked in the global art scene. This month marks the beginning of Pacific Standard Time, a Getty - sponsored collaboration of over 60 cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to celebrate the birth of the Los Angeles art scene. Museums like MOCA, LACMA, and the Hammer, as well as private residences and smaller galleries will feature works of the major L.A. art movements during 1945 - 1980.

Currently, 36 out of the approximate 70 exhibitions are open. Exhibitions range from Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles (ONE Archives West Hollywood and ONE Archives West Adams) to Indoor Ecologies: The Evolution of the Eames House Living Room (LACMA) to L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema (opening soon at the Billy Wilder Theater). Practically all mediums are featured in this collaboration - film, photography, fine art - from every demographic that makes up Los Angeles today.

These exhibitions will continue opening throughout October, running until May. This is the biggest and most exciting art event to occur in the Southern California area - practically every gallery and museum you can think of is participating! Click here for a list of daily events all through next year. We'll keep you updated on major exhibits, openings, lectures, screenings, etc. Visit pacificstandardtime.org for more information.

PST also creates these awesome promotional videos. This one features artist John Baldessari and actor Jason Schwartzman. Others include Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers with artist Ed Ruscha.