The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 37

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014 D3 LATIMES.COMCALENDAR movies os Angeles (Times SUSAN KING'S FLICK PICKS New Beverly Cinema Los Angeles Friday-Saturday various times $8 Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina star in the 1965 French thriller Skirball Center Los Angeles Tuesday 1 free Zero Mostel and Harry Belafonte star in the rarely seen 1970 comedy New Beverly Cinema Los Angeles Sunday $8 Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for this 1968 musical bio-pic Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bing Theater Tuesday 1 1 p.m. Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power star in the 1938 historical drama American Cinematheque's Aero Theater Santa Monica Thursday 7:30 p.m. $11 Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal star in the popular 1976 baseball comedy Cinespia at Hollywood Forever Hollywood Saturday 8:30 p.m. $14 Malcolm McDowell stars in the seminal 1971 political satire movies Check the Movies Now blog for complete film listings. CRITIC'S PICK Get inside 'Frank's' head Every so often it's time for something completely different, and if you're feeling that way right now, it's the time for "Frank." Odd, offbeat, somehow endearing, this bleakly comic film has its own kind of charm as well as some pointed, poignant things to say about the mysterious nature of creativity, where it comes from and where it might go.

Directed by Ireland's Lenny Abrahamson, it stars the protean Michael Fassbender as the charismatic, enigmatic lead singer of an avant-garde rock band, the ultimate unfathomable creative genius whose thoughts and emotions are hard to read because he's never seen without a huge fiberglass head with a cartoonish face painted on it. Really. In addition to being surprisingly amusing, this film sees how serious these strange musicians are about their art and that there is something quite magical about Frank and his gifts. Playing at the Arc-Light in Hollywood, the Landmark in West Los Angeles and the Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. Kenneth Turan Columbia Pictures Magnolia Pictures "GHOSTBUSTERS," starring Harold Ramis, left, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, is getting a 4K digital restoration, theatrical re-release (beginning Friday) and new Blu-ray to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Still saving the world 'Ghostbusters' makes you happy, director says MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL and Michael Fassbender star as avant-garde band members in "Frank." MOVIES NOW Film fest's CineCause lineup is unveiled By Oliver Gettell By Susan King gerald, 47, acquired the festival in March. "The word 'Hollywood' is synonymous with celebrity and glamour," Fitzgerald said in a statement Wednesday. "But Hollywood is filled with people who care about global problems and who recognize the power of celebrity, cinema and storytelling and how this power can help create change." Numerous films screening at the festival feature celebrity involvement. Sharon Stone produced "My Name Is Emma Thompson narrates and executive-produced "Sold," which stars Gillian Anderson and David Arquette; and Liam Neeson narrates "Love Thy Nature." The festival is set to run Oct. 16-19.

Information: hollywoodfilmfestival.com. oliver.gettelllatimes.com Twitter: ogettell The rebooted Hollywood Film Festival, which gained a new owner and a socially conscious viewpoint earlier this year, has announced the selections for its first round of programming, the Cine-Cause Spotlight. The lineup includes Justin Arana's documentary "My Name Is Water," about a college student confronting the global issue of a lack of access to fresh water; "Boy Meets Girl," Eric Schaeffer's romantic comedy exploring sexual orientation; and "A World Not Ours," Mahdi FleifePs portrait of exiles in a Palestinian refugee camp. Spotlight is an extension of Jon Fitzgerald's philanthropic platform Cine-Cause, which connects audiences with the causes behind social-issue films. Fitz Sony Pictures Home Entertainment ERNIE HUDSON, who played Winston Zeddemore, says the film deals with a "primal fear in a very smart and comedic way." THIS WEEKEND Here are films opening this weekend.

"Ghostbusters" director Ivan Reitman came up with the seminal tag line "Coming to Save the World This Summer" for the film's pre-release poster as a way of "focusing that this movie is perhaps larger than you expect." The quirky horror comedy starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis about a group of university parapsycholo-gists who open a ghost removal service was one of the blockbuster hit the summer of 1984. "Ghostbusters" has grossed nearly $300 million worldwide, earned two Oscar nominations for visual effects and original song spawned 1989's "Ghostbusters II," two animated TV series and several video games. But in a recent phone interview, Reitman acknowledged that "there was very little expectation of the movie by all prognosticators, there were prognosticators in 1984, even though there are far less now," he said, laughing. "It was one of those movies that was pretty low on the focus list. So I was trying to do something that at least indicated that perhaps there was going to be something special going on, and the idea of saving the world wasn't such a common idea now the world gets saved primarily by Marvel." For its 30th anniversary, Sony Pictures Entertainment is re-releasing "Ghostbusters" in more than 700 locations in the U.

S. and Canada on Friday for a weeklong engagement. And the new digital restoration of the film arrives on Blu-ray Sept. 16. The anniversary edition will include "Ghostbusters II" and a figurine of one of the most popular ghosts from the film, Slimer.

Rory Bruer, president of distribution at Sony, said that "Ghostbusters" is "a big part of our DNA and one of the most beloved movies that we have ever released. It's fun to see it in a theater with a lot of fans around." The film has been restored over the years, but the 30th-anniversary edition marks the first 4K digital restoration. "The technology has advanced to the point that we are able to really bring out a lot of the detail from the original negative," said Rita Belda, a film restoration executive at the studio, who added that the original negative was in "fairly good shape considering that it is 30 years old." Reitman believes "Ghostbusters" has endured because it has a "feel- good quality that creates something that is more timeless. When I think of my childhood, that movie was 'The Wizard of Oz' or Singin' in the Rain' films that make you happy. I think 'Ghostbusters' is a movie that finally, when you end up watching it, makes you happy.

You are surprised by it all the time. It made you laugh, made you scream, and it made you happy." Hudson, who played Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore, takes a more serious approach to its appeal. "Ghostbusters," he said, deals with "an issue that we all have that primal fear of what's on the other side. We are all at one point afraid of what's in the closet when you turn off the light. It was the first time a movie dealt with it in a very smart and comedic way." Over the years, Hudson has encountered several members of "Ghostbusters" clubs all over the world who dress as the characters, complete with backpacks and equipment, and even convert their cars into Ectomobiles.

"I was doing a play on Broadway six or seven years ago, and guys would put on their Ghostbusters suits with their backpacks and traipse across New York and wait outside the stage. I was in the South of France, and there were Ghostbusters chapters all through France and Italy." With an original story idea by Aykroyd, "Ghostbusters" came together rather quickly. The first time Reitman met Aykroyd at Art's Delicatessen in Studio City to discuss the comedy was May 1983; the film was released just 13 months later. "Dan Aykroyd wrote this amazing outline that was originally intended for John Belushi and he to star in," said Reitman. About a year "after John passed, Aykroyd sent it to me and thought I would be an appropriate director to put him and Bill Murray together.

It took place in the future in outer space, and there were all sorts of teams of ghostbusters fighting each other." Reitman told Aykroyd over that lunch that it would be too expensive to make and didn't have an emotional through line. "But it has great ideas in it. Why don't we tell the story of the Ghostbusters?" The director brought in Ramis, with whom he had worked on "Animal House," "Meatballs" and "Stripes," and the three wrote a draft at Aykroyd 's house in Martha's Vineyard. On the first day of production, Reitman recalled, "I was on the streets of Manhattan shooting with the four guys. Seeingthemin full regalia, I just had this special feeling.

I thought, 'This looks so unusual and wonderful, I think this can Reitman won't be directing "Ghostbusters III," which reportedly will skew more female-centric. "I was going to direct it when it was going to be a version of the original guys having major roles in it. It became clear pretty early on that Bill Murray was not interested in doing another sequel. I kept thinking somehow I'll talk him into it, but when Harold passed in late February I said it's too uphill of a climb. I am going to produce the sequel or reboot or what -ever it ends up being." susan.kinglatimes.com A Letter to Momo In the wake of a family quarrel and the disappearance of her father, a young girl moves to a remote island with her mother and discovers three mischievous spirit creatures living in the attic.

Life of Crime The wife of a corrupt real estate developer is kidnapped by two criminals and held for ransom, but his decision not to pay the ransom sets off a chain of double crosses. May in the Summer A sophisticated New Yorker returns to her childhood home in Jordan for her wedding, and cultural and familial conflicts lead her to question the step she is about to take. The Notebook Toward the end of World War II, a desperate mother leaves her 13-year-old twin sons at their cruel grandmother's country home, where they become unfeeling and merciless. Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie The young ninja Naruto confronts the masked figure responsible for the death of his parents in this anime film. The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears After returning home to find his wife missing with no signs of a struggle or break-in and no help from the police, a man finds himself tumbling down a pyschosexual rabbit hole.

As Above, So Below Explorers venture into the catacombs beneath the streets of Paris to uncover the secrets of the city of the dead. The Calling: A detective in a sleepy town comes face to face with a serial killer motivated by a higher calling. Cantinflas A biopic about the iconic Mexican film actor known as Cantinflas. The Congress An aging actress with an ailing son makes a deal with a Hollywood studio to have her likeness digitally scanned, preserved and used in future films. The Damned A widower whose wife was Colombian-born flies to Bogota with his new fiancee to retrieve his rebellious teenage daughter, but a car accident leaves them stranded at a run-down inn.

Jamie Marks Is Dead A cross-country star becomes fascinated with a recently deceased teenager, whose ghost begins appearing to him. Kundo In the last days of Korea's Jo-seon Dynasty, a pack of bandits steals from the rich and gives to the poor. The Last of Robin Hood A biographical drama about the final years of the swashbuckling Hollywood star Errol Flynn and his affair with an underage starlet..