![]() ![]() Other installations incorporate the struggle for Civil Rights, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and issues of gender equity in their narratives. The dramatic two-story backdrop of Mount Rushmore used in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest showcases this singular art form and considers the controversy surrounding this specific image: The carvings desecrate a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota sacred to the Lakota people. This kind of commentary is embedded in many of the exhibits. Yet it does not shy away from documenting accounts of how a young Judy Garland and the actors who played the Munchkins were mistreated by the studio. Starting with casting-did you know Shirley Temple almost played Dorothy?-and following every step of the process from the art department’s sketches of Munchkinland, the wardrobe department’s prototypes for Dorothy’s gingham blue and white dress, the travails of the music department fighting to keep the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in the final cut, through the editing process, to the details of its publicity campaign. “But also place it in a relevant context.”Īn in-depth presentation of The Wizard of Oz in the Art of Moviemaking Gallery is used to illustrate how each craft contributes to the making of a film, using one of Hollywood’s most iconic movies as an example. “The exhibitions aim to pull back the curtain and provide a better understanding of the magic that we see on the screen,” explains assistant curator Sophia Serrano. These cinematic objects are dazzling, and for those seeking a deeper experience, they serve as the point of entry into the nuts and bolts of moviemaking and the art and craft of the talented men and women who labor behind the scenes. The costume exhibit showcases a breathtaking collection, including the elaborate dress worn by the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wiz, the Dude’s bathrobe from The Big Lebowski and the spacesuit from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz sparkle! The sight of Citizen Kane’s sled, ET and R2D2 all give goose bumps. Finally, they are all mixed together with music, enhancing the action sequence to great effect.īruce, the only remaining shark cast from the original mold from Jaws, hangs menacingly from the ceiling that soars above the escalators. A small screening room devoted to sound repeatedly runs a clip of the Raiders of the Lost Ark rolling-boulder scene-each time showing how a different kind of sound effect is created. ![]() The discovery in the 1820s of how the brain perceives the “illusion of movement” led to early inventions and cinematic devices-and the first film projector, the Cinematographe Lumiere, found in The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection. Spike Lee has a comprehensive space that showcases everything that inspires him and his work. Immersive galleries on five levels with multiple big screens and related props and ephemera are devoted to the history of film or international moviemakers, such as Pedro Almodóvar and Hayao Miyazaki. It is fitting that a museum that embraces the mythological and practical landscape of moviemaking would arise in the heart of Hollywood for tourists to enjoy and heartening that it offers film buffs and filmmakers-both established and aspiring-so much to explore. Photo: Iwan Baan/Iwan Baan Studios Courtesy Academy Museum Foundation ![]() Dow Griffith to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award.The Creative Coalition to Receive the LMGI Humanitarian Award.Steven Spielberg to Receive the Eva Monley Award.It’s also not afraid to call out where the industry (and yes, that includes the Academy) could’ve done better: Tins of Max Factor Pan-Cake makeup confront blackface in the costume and makeup gallery, the Mount Rushmore backdrop from North By Northwest recognizes that it’s set on stolen Lakota land, a hallway of industry challenges acknowledges labor disputes and the Me Too movement, the script section examines the representation of Native voices, and the animation gallery alone confronts minstrelsy, cultural appropriation and the gender pay gap. Yes, Citizen Kane and The Wizard of Oz are celebrated as cornerstones, but so too are the martial arts movies of Bruce Lee and the early-20th-century films of Oscar Micheaux, the first Black feature filmmaker. Instead, the Academy Museum’s core exhibition recognizes that there are many stories (plural) that’ve pushed cinema forward, and it’s not shy about the ones that’ve held it back, either. Given that this is a movie museum in L.A., you might expect a certain type of Hollywood-centric narrative: Major studios birthed blockbusters and the best ones were bestowed with Oscars.
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