By Lindsey Cherner 7/19/12 5:00pm

invitation to the dance

TK TK Patricia Ward Kelly TK TK.

Two Evenings of Gene Kelly Lore at Lincoln Center, Hosted by his Archivist and Widow

Patricia Ward Kelly, the widow of legendary performer Gene Kelly, wrote down everything her husband said—and we mean everything.

Mrs. Kelly recalled this prodigious note-taking yesterday in an interview with The Observer. “It was constant: what we were doing, what we were eating, the people we were meeting, what Gene was saying,” she said. “In fact, we were sitting at dinner once and he said, ‘You’re not writing anything down.’ And I told him, ‘I’m eating!’”

Over two nights this week, Friday and Saturday, Mrs. Kelly will give two special multimedia presentations at Lincoln Center about the life and work of her husband, who she calls “more of a creator than a performer,” culled from this rich archival material. Her program is part of the Film Society’s 23-film retrospective entitled “The Invitation to the Dance: Gene Kelly @ 100,” which honors the centenary of Mr. Kelly’s birth and runs through July 26. Read More

By Melissa Wiley and Benjamin-Émile Le Hay 6/14/12 4:30pm

Interviews

Todd Haynes unfortunately didn't wear 8" platforms heels to Persol's Magnificent Obsessions premiere.

Todd Haynes’s Obsession with Mary Poppins and Love of 8” Platform Heels

“We could have flown to Boston at this rate,” spat one late arrival to the premiere of Persol’s Magnificent Obsessions: 30 Stories of Craftsmanship in Film exhibition last night. For many of the film and art glitterati that attended the event at the Museum of Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, the trek, albeit worthwhile, seemed endless. The Italian eyewear brand, which has a storied history in cinema–it provided Cary Grant with sunglasses in North by Northwest and Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita–honored costume designer Arianne Phillips and director Todd Haynes at the event. Publicist-groomed celebs such as Zoë Saldana and Patricia Clarkson mingled alongside fashion legend Diane Pernet and creative cognoscenti.

On the second floor, John Turturro engaged guests in an intimate discussion on cinematography, while others soaked up the history and painstaking process of filmmaking through interactive installations on the third. Magnificent Obsessions is the second installment in a series of three, which boasts rare film props, equipment, costumes, sketches and footage to provide viewers with an insider perspective of some of cinema’s most acclaimed motion pictures.

The Observer caught up with Mr. Haynes to learn more about his unique approach to the art of filmmaking and to see if he actually likes Persol’s eyewear. Read More

By Peter Feld 3/12/12 9:36pm

Stand For The Silent

Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa

“Bully” Pulpit: Stars Turn Out For A Documentary With A Call To Action

Celebs from Russell Simmons (in trademark Yankees cap, clutching a plastic bottle filled with healthful-looking green juice), Michelle Trachtenberg, and Carson Kressley to David LaChapelle, Andre Leon Talley and Rachel Roy turned out in droves for a Crosby Street Hotel screening of the hotly anticipated Lee Hirsch-directed documentary “Bully.”

Hosted by The Weinstein Company and Bing with Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa, the screening left a powerful impression on many in the all-star audience. Sitting in the safe space of a boutique hotel’s screening room, dressed to the nines while watching kids in the heartland suffer for the very uniqueness that might make them popular in a place like New York, was a bit jarring. Read More