"L.A.X."

A "Closed For Restoration" shot of the Vista Theatre from Fabrice Ziolkowski's "L.A.X." (1980), dubbed "A hypnotic city symphony of bygone LA." Los Angeles Filmforum and the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz are hosting a July 17 screening of the 90 minute film as part of the PRS "Yesterday LA2026" series. Tickets are on Eventbrite.

See the pages about the Vista Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. As noted on the marquee it was to reopen August 1. It originally opened in 1923 as Bard's Hollywood Theatre.  

There's a listing for the film on the Fabrice Ziolkowski website. The description:

"Avant-garde documentary / 16mm black-and-white / 90 min. — written and directed by Fabrice Ziolkowski. An experimental film essay on Los Angeles as a landscape of movement, exile, infrastructure and disappearance. Screened in museum and festival contexts, including the Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Art Institute of Chicago, and discussed by film historian David E. James in 'The Most Typical Avant-Garde.'"  

Also see the site's "L.A.X." stills page. 

 

Thanks to Chris Nichols, a senior editor at Los Angeles Magazine, for spotting a 7th House Instagram post about the July 17 event and grabbing the shot of the Vista. The latest book by Chris, with Adriene Biondo, is the Angel City Press release "Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling." 

 

A look west across Main St. toward the Linda Lea Theatre, 251 S. Main. It began life in 1925 as the Arrow and was decades later rebuilt as the ImaginAsian, later renamed the Downtown Independent and then called The Kult.  

 

The film's view of the back of the Rialto Theatre, 812 S. Broadway. The signage pointing to the "Newsreel Theatre 8th & BDWY" is directing us to the Tower Theatre. It was called the Newsreel from 1950 until 1965.  

 

The April 1979 release "Boulevard Nights" playing with "The Swarm." See the pages about the Orpheum Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site.  It's at 842 S. Broadway. 

 

There's five minutes of footage from the film on Vimeo featuring a long shot of the north side of 5th St. We get a quick look up Hill St. toward the oval Pussycat Theatre signage and then go by the Philharmonic Auditorium. See the pages about the Pussycat/Town Theatre and the Philharmonic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site. 

There were notes about "L.A.X." on Eventbrite with the listing for the July 17, 2026 screening at the Philosophical Research Society:  

 "A rare screening of a landmark of Los Angeles avant garde cinema, a hypnotically drifting afternoon-to-evening cruise through a bygone LA... and a profound influence on subsequent works ranging from Pat O'Neill's brilliant 'Water and Power' to Thom Andersen's beloved 'Los Angeles Plays Itself.' Returning to Los Angeles screens for the first time in a decade, this seldom-seen work stands today as both an exquisite portrait of Los Angeles in 1980 and an inadvertent future artifact: a patient, immersive record of a city that has continued to erase, reinvent, and transform itself in the years since.

"A true city film and a singular avant-garde entry in the city symphony tradition—from Walter Ruttmann's 'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City' and Dziga Vertov's 'Man with a Movie Camera' to Chantal Akerman's 'News from Home' and Wim Wenders' 'Tokyo-Ga' —L.A.X. follows Los Angeles by car and on foot through long, hypnotic tracking shots and patient observations of its streets, landmarks, and overlooked corners. Created by French-American filmmaker Fabrice Ziolkowski, whose perspective seems suspended between Europe's deeper sense of historical continuity and America's restless appetite for reinvention, 'L.A.X.' brings to Los Angeles an outsider's eye akin to that of cinematic visitors like Agnès Varda, Jacques Demy, Wim Wenders, and John Boorman, rendering even its most familiar landscapes strange, improbable, and newly visible.

"Progressing from sweeping aerial vistas bathed in Southern California's stark, sun-bleached daylight to the seamier nocturnal realities of street-level Hollywood, L.A.X. traces a gradual descent from sunlit mythology into the noir realities and hidden histories that lie beneath. Accompanied by a richly layered soundtrack of ambient sounds, historical and literary texts, and songs ranging from Canned Heat to Robert Johnson, the film reveals a metropolis haunted as much by what is absent as by what remains—its displaced communities, vanished landscapes, and forgotten histories lingering just beyond the edges of the frame.

"The years have transformed what was once a portrait of the contemporary city into a kind of time-traveling road movie and urban séance, conjuring the vanished landscapes and past-lived realities of Los Angeles and inviting viewers to spend an evening drifting through them.

"FABRICE ZIOLKOWSKI is a French-American writer, screenwriter, filmmaker, translator and photographer. His work has moved across film, television, animation, documentary, translation, criticism and photography, often returning to figures and places at the edge of official narratives: workers, musicians, exiles, prisoners, vanished communities and myth-haunted landscapes. He wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated animated feature 'The Secret of Kells' and is currently developing several literary projects, including 'The 12 Labors of Nathan Kowak,' a darkly comic American novel-in-stories."

On IMDb: "L.A.X."

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"The Five Heartbeats"

We spend some time in the Million Dollar Theatre in "The Five Heartbeats" (20th Century Fox, 1991). It's the story of five guys in a Motown-style 60s vocal group from Harlem. Thanks to Jon Olivan for noting the use of the theatre in the film. At the time, he was in charge of negotiating the deals and managing the shoots for Ira Yellin, then the owner of the theatre. He notes that the Million Dollar was standing in for a theatre like the Apollo. 

In this shot it's before a rehearsal for a talent show. The film features Robert Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon, Harry Lennix, Diahann Carroll, Harold Nicholas, Tressa Thomas, John Canada Terrell and many others. Robert Townsend directed. The cinematographer was Bill Dill. Jon notes that it was a low budget production. We don't get any wide shots of the theatre auditorium. What extras they could afford were moved around from shot to shot to make the narrower shots represent a full theatre.  

 

The MC onstage the evening of the show.  

 

 

The crowd favorite the Heartbeats are trying to beat.  

 

 

A look to the balcony.  

 

The Five Heartbeats onstage at the Million Dollar.  

 

See the pages about the Million Dollar Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. It's at 3rd and Broadway and dates from 1918.  

 

A subtitle says this is the Howard Theatre in Washington D.C. It was shot at the Wadsworth Theatre, on the Veterans Administration campus in West L.A.

 

See the page about the Wadsworth Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more about the building.  

 

It's unknown what town we were supposed to be in for this shot but the guys are at the Los Angeles Orpheum, 842 S. Broadway. See the pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site about the Orpheum Theatre.  

 

At the Fox Theatre in Detroit in 1986, so a subtitle says. Actually we're back at the Million Dollar.  

 

This is noted as being the Uptown Theatre in Philadelphia. It appears to be another scene shot at the Wadsworth.  

 

 

At an unidentified venue for the last concert sequence of the film. The subtitle says we're at the Beacon Theatre in New York in 1972. It certainly isn't the Beacon.  

 

A look off left at the "Beacon."  

On IMDb: "The Five Heartbeats" 

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"Femme Fatale"

Colin Firth is trying to learn more about a wife who has left him in "Femme Fatale" (Republic Pictures, 1991). In the U.S. it was a direct-to-video release. She had a secret life. In this scene he's with Billy Zane and they've just come out of a movie Colin's wife was in. She's played by Lisa Zane. 

 

We're at the Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway. Thanks to Yoon Ahn for spotting the theatre and getting the screenshots. 

 

Yoon notes that this is the only film starring both siblings Billy and Lisa. He adds that earlier we're at the Ebell building on Wilshire for a scene where Colin is told by a nun that his missing wife used to teach 6th grade there. They're walking in the building's east colonnade toward the Wilshire Ebell Theatre but we don't see the theatre itself.  Andre R. Guttfieund directed. The cinematography was by Joey Forsyte. The film also features Scott Wilson and Suzanne Snyder. 

See the pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site about the Orpheum Theatre and the Wilshire Ebell. 

On IMDb: "Femme Fatale"  The full movie is on YouTube.

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"Michael"

A terrific shot from the grid of the Orpheum Theatre in Antoine Fuqua's "Michael" (Lionsgate, 2026), a Michael Jackson biopic. We're off left. Note the dimmerboard in the lower center of the image. The Orpheum is standing in for the Regal Theatre on Chicago's South Side for a scene involving a 1968 talent show. 

 

 The Jacksons in front of the Orpheum's 1926 Frank Adam dimmerboard. The film features Jaafar Jackson, Miles Teller, Coleman Domingo, Nia Long, Kendrick Sampson and Kat Graham. The cinematography was by Dion Beebe.   

 

 The act before the Jacksons go on.

 

The emcee shakes Michael's hand as daddy watches from the wings.  

 

 

Another shot from off left.  

See the pages about the Orpheum Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site. This theatre at 842 S. Broadway opened in 1926 with two-a-day vaudeville and later went to films. It's currently a very busy venue for concerts, awards ahows and other special events.   

 

The Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., plays itself for a show set in 1983.  

 

 

Another shot during the show offering a look at the decor on the house right wall  

See the pages about the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site. 

On IMDb: "Michael" 

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"Predator 2"

On Olympic at Olive as we head toward Broadway in "Predator 2" (20th Century Fox, 1990). In the center that's the back of the United Artists Theatre. The Eastern Columbia Building, in the 800 block, is over on the left. 

 

"He’s in town with a few days to kill." Trey Callaway says he wrote that tagline for the film. It features Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Kevin Peter Hall, Rubén Blades and Bill Paxton. Stephen Hopkins directed. The cinematography was by Peter Levy. 

 

 

We cut to this Broadway shot of the alien up on a non-existent gargoyle. Thanks to Dave Hunter for getting the screenshot. He comments: 

"Obviously a special effects shot, but that’s the United Artists' vertical to the left and the Orpheum on the right. There are many scenes shot outdoors east of Broadway, but no theatres I could espy. A little later the title creature has a good alien roar atop the Eastern Columbia Building."

See the pages about the United Artists, 933 S. Broadway, and the Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway, on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of these showplaces and many, many photos.

On IMDb: "Predator 2"

"Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F"

Eddie Murphy does lots of elegant driving around L.A. in Mark Molloy's "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" (Netflix, 2024). The film also features Taylour Paige, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bronson Pinchot and Kevin Bacon. The cinematography was by Eduard Grau. 

One adventure gives us a quick look at the Orpheum Theatre, 842 S. Broadway. Eddie crashes an event at a private club called The Eastern. It's up at the pool level in the Eastern Columbia Building across the street. 

 

Later we get a look at the Music Hall Theatre, on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. That stretch of street is the location for a bit of a shootout.

See the pages on the Los Angeles Theatres site about the Music Hall and the Orpheum.

On IMDb: "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F"

"Why Do Fools Fall In Love"

It's 1956 and singer Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers are touring with an Alan Freed Rock and Roll show in "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" (Warner Bros., 1998). Frankie, played by Larenz Tate, dies young of a drug overdose. In this Rashomon-like tale, three women each claim to be his widow, tell different stories about Frankie and, of course, each want his estate. 

Little Richard is in a courtroom narrating a flashback as we pan across the room and get this image. That's a bit of the courtroom paneling on the left. One look at the terrazzo tells you we're at the Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway. There's signage saying it's the Paramount Theatre. Freed did do lots of shows at the Brooklyn Paramount, as seen in "American Hot Wax" where the Wiltern was used as a stand-in. But here Richard's narration says that we're on the road somewhere.

Halle Berry plays Zola Taylor, a singer with the Platters. Later Frankie meets and marries Vivica A. Fox as Elizabeth, who may already be married. Lela Rochon plays the third wife, schoolteacher Emira Eagle. Also featured are Paul Mazursky as the manager/music publisher and Pamela Reed as the Judge. Ben Vereen is also in the mix. Gregory Nava directed. The cinematography was by Edward Lachman.

 

"Biggest Show of Stars For '56."

 

The crowd alongside the boxoffice.

 

The rush into the lobby. Note that lovely carpet the theatre had at the time. 

 

The inner lobby and snackbar. 

 

Onstage it's the Platters with Halle Berry playing the lead singer. 

 

 

 

The Platters coming off. Offstage right in front of the dimmerboard Larenz, playing Frankie, tells Halle how great she was and gives her a kiss. He gets slapped. But then she watches his performance. 

 

Frankie and the Teenagers wowing the crowd. 

 

 

 

A view from the 2nd balcony at the end of a number by the Teenagers. 

 

 

A later scene in the lobby of the Los Angeles Theatre. By this time Halle and Larenz's characters have become a couple. The theatre is being used as the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel. They're about to get on a bus for another tour.

See the pages about the Los Angeles Theatre on the L.A. Theatres site for a history of the 1931 vintage movie palace along with hundreds of photos. 

 

Another town, another show. Larenz, as Frankie, has been on and off drugs. We're in Philadelphia and Paul Mazursky has given him another chance. But he hasn't shown up yet for this show.  

 

 

 

Getting his fix under the fire escapes. 

 

A shot into the auditorium reveals that we're onstage at the State Theatre, 7th and Broadway. 

 

Paul fretting backstage about Frankie's whereabouts. Behind the rigging it's Vivica A. Fox as Elizabeth, with Frankie at the time. 

 

He shows up and goes on but then collapses.

See the pages about the State Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for information about the history along with many photos.  

 

Vivicas's character becomes a hooker to support Frankie and his drug habit. For this New York shot they used the 500 block of Broadway. Check out the pages about the Arcade, Cameo and Roxie theatres on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more information and photos inside and out.  

 

 

Years later, swearing he's clean, Larenz's character gets told by Paul Mazursky "You're a junkie. That's why you're not playing the Orpheum tonight." Standing in for a mythical New York Orpheum it's the one in Los Angeles at 842 S. Broadway.

 

 

 

Larenz turns up to see the show. The Platters have dumped Halle Berry's character, Zola, but she now has a solo career.

 

The obligatory Orpheum ceiling shot. 

 

 

An enthusiastic audience for Halle's character.

 

 

 

A look into the house while Halle is onstage. 

 

The view from the top as Little Richard and his piano come onstage on a wagon. Larenz, as Frankie, comes out despondent and looks for a fix. Within a week he's dead of an overdose. Thanks to Dean Lent for a nudge about the theatres appearing in the film -- he was on the camera crew for the shoot at the Orpheum.

See the pages about the Orpheum Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of this 1926 vintage vaudeville house.  

On IMDb: "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"