CinemaLit Film Series: Mick LaSalle presents A Star is Born (1937)
June 4, 2021 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Renowned San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle will join Mechanics’ Institute’s CinemaLit series for a discussion of A Star is Born (1937). This film, and all other films in the month-long series, are featured in LaSalle’s new book, Dream State: California in the Movies.
CinemaLit highlights classic films set in California, with the Golden State figuring prominently in plot and ambiance. We start with the first A Star is Born (1937), steeped as it is in the most mythologized of all California industries—moviemaking. From there we venture back to a CinemaLit favorite: film noir. Too Late for Tears (1949) and D.O.A. (1950) are two pulpy, taut crime shockers, both taking great advantage of their settings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. We finish with the great Chinatown (1974), a neo noir so indelible it now flows through our collective movie-watching bloodstream.
Mick LaSalle will join us for a discussion of A Star is Born on June 4th. Register now for what promises to be a lively dialogue about California and its meanings and symbols to a global audience of filmgoers.
Register HereAbout the Speaker
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is the film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. In the late 1990s he was the on-air film critic for the ABC-TV affiliate in San Francisco, KGO. He is the author of three previous books: Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, a history and critical study of the actresses who worked during the pre-censorship era of 1929–1934; Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man; and The Beauty of the Real: What Hollywood Can Learn from Contemporary French Actresses. He wrote and coproduced the Complicated Women documentary for Turner Classic Movies, which was narrated by Jane Fonda. He has written introductions to several books, including The Enduring Star, Peter Cowie’s biography of Joan Crawford.
