Help us celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the grand re-opening of the Egyptian Theatre with a series comprised of audience favorites and staff picks from the past decade of movies at the American Cinematheque!

The Cinematheque purchased the Egyptian Theatre for $1 from the City of Los Angeles with the stipulation that the theatre undergo rehabilitation with respect to government landmark requirements, returning the facade to its 1922 appearance. The $15 million renovation, rehabilitation and restoration of Sid Grauman's theatre was finished on December 4, 1998 with doors swung open for a 75th anniversary premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, presented with a live orchestra. Since then hundreds of films from all over the world have flickered on the Egyptian’s giant screen. During our Best in 10 series, revisit (or see for the first time), classics SUNSET BOULEVARD, CASABLANCA, CITIZEN KANE, THE SEVEN SAMURAI, THE GODFATHER, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC and guilty pleasures VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and THE LOVE MACHINE on the big screen as they were meant to be seen! A limited number of free tickets have been reserved for New and Current Members for this series. The first 50 members to RSVP to: andrew@americancinematheque.com can request up to 2 free tickets for each show! First come, first served.

Thursday, December 4 – 8:00 PM

10th Anniversary of the American Cinematheque at the Egyptian! Introduction by Actress Nancy Olson!

Friday, December 5 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

CASABLANCA, 1942, Warner Bros., 102 min. Directed by Michael Curtiz. "Here’s looking at you, kid." Tough guy Humphrey Bogart is Rick, an expatriate club owner in Morocco, nursing a broken heart after his cherished sweetheart (Ingrid Bergman) disappeared from his side in Paris when the Nazis invaded. When she re-enters his life with her fugitive, resistance leader husband (Paul Henreid), sparks fly. With an incredible cast that includes Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Conrad Veidt. Winner of three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. One of the most deliriously romantic noirs this side of Hitchcock’s NOTORIOUS. Trailer

CITIZEN KANE, 1941, Warner Bros., 119 min. Orson Welles was only 25 when he directed this masterpiece, and it remains one of the most phenomenal motion pictures ever made. Welles, of course, also stars as Charles Foster Kane, a ruthless man who built a newspaper publishing empire and a character supposedly modeled after the real-life William Randolph Hearst. Trailblazing in so many aspects, from Gregg Toland’s complex camera and lighting to Bernard Herrmann’s score to one of the finest ensemble casts (including Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane and Agnes Moorehead) ever assembled. With an Academy Award-winning script by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Trailer

THE SEVEN SAMURAI (SHICHININ NO SAMURAI), 1954, Janus Films, 207 min. Director Akira Kurosawa’s most famous film is certainly one of the finest movies ever made -- a huge, sprawling but intimate, character-driven period epic about an aging swordsman (the great Takashi Shimura) who enlists six other warriors-for-hire (Toshiro Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isao Kimura, Daisuke Kato, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba) to safeguard a remote village plagued by bandits. One of Kurosawa’s prime talents as director, aside from his meticulous attention to writing and character development, was his ability to create a lived-in wealth of detail in all of his in-period films. Nowhere is this talent more evident than in this hypnotic evocation of a bygone age. The action film prototype, SEVEN SAMURAI has been enormously influential on a legion of filmmakers from around the world, including Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood. "Moves like hot mercury, and it draws a viewer so thoroughly into its world that real life can seem thick and dull when the lights come up." – Ty Burr, Boston Globe. Trailer

Sunday, December 7 – 7:30 PM

Co-presented with Outfest

New 35 mm Print! VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, 1967, 20th Century Fox, 123 min. Dir. Mark Robson. "You know it’s bad to take liquor with those pills," warns small-town girl turned supermodel Anne (Barbara Parkins) to Broadway diva/train wreck Neely (Patty Duke). Neely’s answer: "They work faster." If you want to see the great, bitchy, booze/angst/sex/drugs-fueled godmother to "Desperate Housewives," you’ve come to the right place! Based on author Jacqueline Susann’s runaway best-seller – which practically created a cottage industry in glossy, sex-drenched soap operas on page and screen – VALLEY also co-stars the tragically beautiful Sharon Tate as B-movie queen Jennifer. Our enormous thanks to our friends at 20th Century Fox for striking a new print of this 1960s classic! Trailer

New 35mm Print! THE LOVE MACHINE, 1971, Sony Repertory, 108 min. Dir. Jack Haley Jr. Mind-numbingly entertaining, guilty-pleasure fun and another unapologetically trashy ride from the pen of author Jacqueline Susann. John Phillip Law is Robin Stone, an unscrupulous TV executive who will figuratively and literally screw anyone he has to in order to rise to the top. He becomes entangled in liaisons with various beauties, and has to contend with Dyan Cannon (the sexy young wife of network head, Robert Ryan), Jodi Wexler and petulant gay photographer Jerry Nelson (a memorable performance by David Hemmings) as he realizes his ambitions. But the precarious balancing act soon causes his ego-driven empire to begin to crumble. With a supporting cast that includes Jackie Cooper, Shecky Greene. Dionne Warwick sings the opening theme, "He’s Moving On." NOT ON DVD Screening introduced by Alonso Duralde (author of 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men). Trailer