L.A. Times - Entertainment News

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• Recession-themed films? Not at the multiplex
• Ceci Bastida finally says yes to a solo career
• Actors' unions and studios work overtime in contract talks
• Cultural Exchange: 'Sex Talk' documentary lets Egyptians discuss a taboo topic
• A Second Look: Elia Kazan Collection celebrates the director's contribution to filmmaking
• New on DVD: 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'
• The extraordinary goings-on in a town called Marwencol
• 'Skyline' filmmakers look for new career horizon with indie sci-fi
• Documenting the Eliot Spitzer scandal
• L.A. Times Young Hollywood Roundtable: Getting into character

Recession-themed films? Not at the multiplex Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT Today's filmmakers — unlike their 1930s counterparts — have basically ignored the downturn's effects on regular people, opting instead for the usual youth-oriented fare. Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, you'd never know it thanks to a national unemployment rate still hovering near 10%, a shaky housing market and more people living in poverty than at any time in the last 15 years. And last week's elections pretty much confirmed that the state of the economy was the No. 1 subject on people's minds.

Ceci Bastida finally says yes to a solo career Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT The former member of the legendary Tijuana No! group has her debut album, 'Veo La Marea' ('I See the Tide'), out in the U.S., and she is discovering the benefits of calling the shots. Back in the day, circa 1990, Ceci Bastida was known on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border as the little girl with the big presence.

Actors' unions and studios work overtime in contract talks Posted: 06 Nov 2010 07:38 PM PDT The aim is to avoid the kind of standoff that disrupted production two years ago.

Cultural Exchange: 'Sex Talk' documentary lets Egyptians discuss a taboo topic Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT Director Amr Bayoumi's 'Sex Talk' lets ordinary Egyptians open up while concealing their identities. Reporting from Cairo — Take a glimpse across Egypt's sexual landscape and you'll see the devil's ploys, unrequited passions, mundane marital rhythms, tempestuous affairs, the threat of God, the shame of society and, in one wrenching scene, a village girl circumcised by a man wielding a knife.

A Second Look: Elia Kazan Collection celebrates the director's contribution to filmmaking Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT Fifteen films made between 1945 and 1963 are included in the two-volume set, including 'On the Waterfront,' 'East of Eden,' 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'A Face in the Crowd.' Elia Kazan has been called the movies' greatest director of American actors, but the 15 films in Fox's Elia Kazan Collection make a compelling case that the description actually underestimates his talents. By Kazan's own admission, some of his early films were little more than filmed theater, executed with the skills he had honed in the Group Theater and at the Actors Studio. But there was a point at which, as Martin Scorsese puts it in "A Letter to Elia," his hour-long appreciation of Kazan's contributions to the art form, "a director became a filmmaker."

New on DVD: 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT Also 'Antichrist,' 'Charlie St. Cloud,' 'Grown Ups' and 'Ramona and Beezus.' Also: "Antichrist," "Charlie St. Cloud," "Grown Ups' and "Ramona and Beezus."

The extraordinary goings-on in a town called Marwencol Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT Mark Hogancamp, who lost much of his memory in an attack, creates photographs of life in a fictional, Nazi-oppressed town. A documentary captures the work that remakes his life. There is something familiar and eerie, realistic and fantastical in the photography of Mark Hogancamp. Small, 1/6-scale models set in the elaborate fictional WWII-era Belgian town of Marwencol are posed and depicted as lives filled with fierce fighting, intense romance and ongoing intrigues. Opening Friday in Los Angeles, the documentary "Marwencol" is a stirring, evocative portrait of the struggles faced by Hogancamp in achieving his distinctive artistic visions.

'Skyline' filmmakers look for new career horizon with indie sci-fi Posted: 06 Nov 2010 02:45 PM PDT Visual effects artists Colin and Greg Strause try their hand at directing an indie alien-invasion film.

Documenting the Eliot Spitzer scandal Posted: 07 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PDT Two documentaries examine the machine behind the former New York governor's fall from grace. Before he became the co-host of a low-rated CNN talk show, Eliot Spitzer was best remembered as a late-night punch line, if he was remembered at all.

L.A. Times Young Hollywood Roundtable: Getting into character Posted: 06 Nov 2010 03:19 PM PDT When you throw hot young actors like Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan and Jesse Eisenberg together for a free-wheeling discussion, you never know what might come up.

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