academy of motion picture arts and sciences

seeing that i love movies (and culture), i was THRILLED when de'sha invited me to a northwestern event at the academy of motion picture arts and sciences. especially when the event was a gallery talk about alfred hitchcock and his films! i LOVE alfred hitchcock, especially north by northwest, which i remember watching when i was really young and absolutely loving the ending. oh so dramatic and romantic!

the gallery talk was actually being given by will schmenner, the motion picture curator for the block museum at northwestern, who'd curated the hitchcock exhibit. let me just say that this guy was BY FAR the most well-spoken, intellectual, and yet self-effacing guy i've interacted w/in LA. and of course, he's from CHICAGO. and worst of all, he's WAY cute. *sigh*

the exhibit was fairly small, but really amazing. and with the academy being known mainly for its connection to the oscars, this was a great opportunity to find out what else it had to offer. per will, the key message of the exhibit was that, despite being portrayed as a solitary artist, hitchcock was intensely collaborative. and both the exhibit and the gallery talk were structured in such a fashion as to show off all the different areas and ways in which collaboration occurred on hitchcock's films.

FYI that i'm the kind of museum-goer that enjoys looking at a piece for a long time and figuring out what i see in it and really experiencing it, rather than reading the fine print on the little placards (like jerry). given that, i think will did quite well in terms of incorporating different forms of media into the exhibit, especially the i-pods w/recordings of hitchcock's production meetings and the projection of various scenes from hitchcock's most well-known films. plus all of the design sketches were absolutely AMAZING. the kind of work that makes you wonder how all of these artists were able to translate their visions onto paper.

at any rate, the exhibit and the gallery talk just made de'sha and i want to have a hitchcock movie night. especially since neither of us have seen a LOT of his films. first up: the birds. considering that the movie completely messed up tippy hedren's attitude toward birds, i'm thinking a theme night may make this adventure a little easier to bear. this will most likely include some roast chicken, buffalo wings, turkey breast, and whatever else we can drum(stick) up. (c'mon, i had to say it!)

if you're in LA prior to april 20th:
http://www.oscars.org/events/hitchcock_exhibit/index.html