Tuesday, January 10, 2017

"Nina"


The auditorium of the Music Box, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., is used for a club (presumably in the south of France) in "Nina" (RLJ Entertainment, 2016).  The exterior shot is of a European looking street with a nice neon sign that says "Caveau de la Huchette." But as soon as you go inside and get a look at the wall murals you know it's the Music Box.

The Nina Simone biopic, directed by Cynthia Mort, stars Zoe Saldana as Nina and David Oyelolo as Clifton, the nurse who becomes her friend and manager. Filmed in Los Angeles, a lot of it is set in France courtesy of some lovely stock footage.

Interestingly, that "Caveau de la Huchette" shot also turns up in "La La Land" during Emma's dream montage near the end of the film. There it's used as the exterior of a Parisian jazz club. 



It's interesting that for this scene we're not set up onstage but over on house right just in front of the balcony overhang. Here we've pulled back a bit and you get to see the front of the balcony with its Spanish revival style trim. On the right is an exit out to the foyer behind the auditorium.



A look out into the audience at our South-of-France club. The Music Box's proscenium is over on the right.  Note part of the house sound system piled up over there -- a strange location for where the musicians are in the film.  We've seen a similar blue curtain earlier in the film for a scene set in a club in Chicago. Perhaps that Chicago scene was also done at the Music Box.



Clifton (David Oyelolo) observing the performance from across the house.



The theatre's rooftop pavilion is seen in the final scene of the film just as the credits roll. It's a club space that's unidentified in the film. We're looking west -- the glass doors on the left wall open out onto the theatre's rooftop patio. The wall on the right once was open to Hollywood Blvd. back in the days before the facade got covered over with steel cladding.

See the Los Angeles Theatres page on the Music Box/Fonda Theatre for a history of the building and many photos.

On IMDb: "Nina"

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