Actualités

Second City Hollywood is blowing up (in a good way) in February and wants its students, alumni, teachers and actors interested in the improv training school to get involved. For starters, there’s a Q&A with Tim Kazurinsky, Chandra lee Schwartz, Kim Zimmer and Tom Flynn from the touring company of “Wicked” Feb. 9 starting at 5 p.m. Then on Feb. 11, Jen Candy, daughter of legendary Second City alum John Candy, will interview Jim Belushi at 8 p.m. and on Feb. 25, she’ll sit down with her late father’s co-star from “Armed and Dangerous” Eugene Levy. All events take place at the school’s theater located at 6560 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. Other upcoming events include: The Greatest Showman: Cecil B. DeMille Screening of “The Cheat” & “The Golden Chance”Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.Billy Wilder Theater10899 Wilshire Blvd.Tickets here. Learn How to Use the Arri Alexa & Amira CamerasFeb.

Like Night of the Hunter, Tod Browning’s Freaks or Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers, The Road to Yesterday can be ranked among the UFOs of cinema. It’s place in the heart of Cecil B. DeMille’s work proves to be in itself very distinctive. We know that, during his entire life, DeMille had virtually only one producer—Paramount (the former Famous Players Lasky)—just like Minnelli was MGM’s man and Corman American International’s. Sixty-three of his films (out of seventy) were produced at Paramount. And, oddly enough, it is among the seven outsiders, situated within a brief period from 1925 to 1931, that his best activity is to be found (I’m thinking of Madam Satan, The Godless Girl, and The Road to Yesterday)–his most audacious undertakings. To top it off, for this uncontested king of the box office, his best films were his biggest commercial failures.