Monte Hellman

Monte Hellman, the most idiosyncratic of the talented filmmakers mentored by producer Roger Corman in the '60s and '70s, is drawing raves for his latest film, "Road to Nowhere," an intense, romantic movie-within-a movie. Hellman and his longtime colleague, writer and Variety executive editor Steven Gaydos, have taken classic noir elements -- a stunning, seductive young beauty (Shannyn Sossamon), her rich and powerful middle-aged lover (Cliff De Young), a missing fortune and a suicide -- and blurred the line between fiction and reality.

Lonesome Country: An In-Person Tribute to Monte Hellman Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, "Road to Nowhere" Admission: $11 Information: http://www.americancinematheque.com

Lonesome Country: An In-Person Tribute to Monte Hellman Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, "Road to Nowhere" Admission: $11 Information: http://www.americancinematheque.com

Monte Hellman, the most idiosyncratic of the talented filmmakers mentored by producer Roger Corman in the '60s and '70s, is drawing raves for his latest film, "Road to Nowhere," an intense, romantic movie-within-a movie. Hellman and his longtime colleague, writer and Variety executive editor Steven Gaydos, have taken classic noir elements -- a stunning, seductive young beauty (Shannyn Sossamon), her rich and powerful middle-aged lover (Cliff De Young), a missing fortune and a suicide -- and blurred the line between fiction and reality.

The American Cinematheque at Raleigh Studios presents "3-Card Monte: The Films of Monte Hellman," a most welcome in-person tribute-retrospective of one of America's most resolute filmmakers, a spinner of existential, often allegorical tales and most recently, the executive producer of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." The Hellman retrospective, which will be presented the next two weekends, commences Friday at 7 p.m.

Two-Lane Blacktop (Channel 5 Tuesday at 3:30 a.m.): Monte Hellman's intriguing piece of existentialist Americana, with James Taylor, Warren Oates and Dennis Wilson. The Naked Kiss (Channel 7 Wednesday at 1 a.m.): Sam Fuller B classic with Constance Towers as a bald hooker. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (Channel 11 Thursday at 1 a.m.): The great anti-war early talkie classic from the Erich Maria Remarque novel. Bound for Glory (Channel 13 Thursday at 11:30 a.m.)

What would a film festival be without some juicy controversy? According to this dispatch from the Hollywood Reporter, the Italian press has been in an uproar after it learned that some of the Venice Film Festival's biggest prizes went to filmmakers with longstanding ties to jury president Quentin Tarantino. Sofia Coppola, who is close with Tarantino (the Reporter piece describes her as his former girlfriend), won the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize, for her new film, "Somewhere. " The Silver Lion for best director went to Alex de la Iglesia, another close Tarantino pal, whose new film, "Balada Triste de Trompeta," debuted at the festival.

DIRECTOR Monte Hellman isn't a household name, but he's definitely a cult figure in Hollywood circles for his stark, offbeat films inhabited by drifters, whether they are drag racers, mute cockfighters or disillusioned soldiers. The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre pays tribute to the iconoclastic director with a three-night festival -- and Hellman will appear each evening between films.

Many a great film director is tethered artistically to a trusted actor: John Ford had the Duke, Fellini had Mastroianni and Scorsese had De Niro. For Sam Peckinpah, the volatile maverick who reinvented the western as a hyperviolent, nihilistic landscape of losers, loners and lunatics, such a muse was a grizzled, world-weary and powerful character actor named Warren Oates. Any aficionado of New Hollywood cinema readily recognizes Oates' squinted eyes, crooked sneer and rustic cadence.

"Two-Lane Blacktop" fans: Start your engines. Monte Hellman's legendary 1971 road movie is available for the first time on videocassette and DVD. It has been a long road for the film that before its release was hailed by Esquire magazine as "movie of the year." A subsequent box office disappointment, "Two-Lane Blacktop" languished in the Universal Studios vaults, its video release stymied in part by entanglements over music rights.

What would a film festival be without some juicy controversy? According to this dispatch from the Hollywood Reporter, the Italian press has been in an uproar after it learned that some of the Venice Film Festival's biggest prizes went to filmmakers with longstanding ties to jury president Quentin Tarantino. Sofia Coppola, who is close with Tarantino (the Reporter piece describes her as his former girlfriend), won the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize, for her new film, "Somewhere. " The Silver Lion for best director went to Alex de la Iglesia, another close Tarantino pal, whose new film, "Balada Triste de Trompeta," debuted at the festival.

DIRECTOR Monte Hellman isn't a household name, but he's definitely a cult figure in Hollywood circles for his stark, offbeat films inhabited by drifters, whether they are drag racers, mute cockfighters or disillusioned soldiers. The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre pays tribute to the iconoclastic director with a three-night festival -- and Hellman will appear each evening between films.

"Two-Lane Blacktop" fans: Start your engines. Monte Hellman's legendary 1971 road movie is available for the first time on videocassette and DVD. It has been a long road for the film that before its release was hailed by Esquire magazine as "movie of the year." A subsequent box office disappointment, "Two-Lane Blacktop" languished in the Universal Studios vaults, its video release stymied in part by entanglements over music rights.

The American Cinematheque at Raleigh Studios presents "3-Card Monte: The Films of Monte Hellman," a most welcome in-person tribute-retrospective of one of America's most resolute filmmakers, a spinner of existential, often allegorical tales and most recently, the executive producer of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." The Hellman retrospective, which will be presented the next two weekends, commences Friday at 7 p.m.

Two-Lane Blacktop (Channel 5 Tuesday at 3:30 a.m.): Monte Hellman's intriguing piece of existentialist Americana, with James Taylor, Warren Oates and Dennis Wilson. The Naked Kiss (Channel 7 Wednesday at 1 a.m.): Sam Fuller B classic with Constance Towers as a bald hooker. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) (Channel 11 Thursday at 1 a.m.): The great anti-war early talkie classic from the Erich Maria Remarque novel. Bound for Glory (Channel 13 Thursday at 11:30 a.m.)

Monte Hellman: An article about filmmaker Monte Hellman in the May 14 Calendar section misidentified producer Arthur Gorson as Albert Gorson. Exposition Park: In the May 16 Calendar section, a map of the Exposition Park area that accompanied an article about the development of that area did not identify the sources of its information. They are Pictometry International, Exposition Park, MTA and USC.