Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an LA-based film historian/critic, author of "Progressive Hollywood: A People’s Film History of the United States," and co-author of "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book." He has written for Variety, Television Quarterly, Cineaste, New Times L.A., and other publications. Rampell lived in Tahiti, Samoa, Hawaii, and Micronesia, reporting on the nuclear-free and independent Pacific and Hawaiian Sovereignty movements.

LATEST ARTICLES BY Ed Rampell

Culture

The other Truman Show: ‘Tru,’ the fluke in his domain
June 9, 2022 By Ed Rampell
Jamie Galen’s uncanny incarnation of Truman Capote in the first act of Tru is a must-see tour de force.
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Culture

‘King Lear’: The monarch from another planet
May 19, 2022 By Ed Rampell
Of the countless screen versions of King Lear, the most offbeat may be Jean Luc Godard’s 1987 take co-starring Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, and The Breakfast Club’s Molly Ringwald as Cordelia. I kid thee not!
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Culture

Serving two masters: Mussolini’s moviemaker and his red reels of Albanian agitprop
May 11, 2022 By Ed Rampell
Alfredo Cecchetti worked for both the fascist Benito Mussolini and the Communist Enver Hoxha, raising questions about the political use of film and filmmakers.
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Culture

‘Pacific Cinewaves’: South Seas cinema at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
May 10, 2022 By Ed Rampell
An Indigenous tidal wave of filmmaking has arisen with Natives writing, directing, producing, and starring in more authentic, accurate works for the big and little screens.
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Culture

Anti-Nazi drama ‘The Last Boy’ commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day at Manhattan’s Town Hall
April 19, 2022 By Ed Rampell
Broadway breakout star Bret Sherman says, “If the story of the Holocaust doesn’t get told, it will be lost to history.”
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Culture

‘Paris, 13th District’: When the city really sizzles
April 14, 2022 By Ed Rampell
This big screen adaptation of American cartoonist Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel is quite graphic in terms of nudity and sexuality.
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Culture

From Russia with lust: Tolstoy meets ‘Florida Man’ in ‘Anna in the Tropics’
March 28, 2022 By Ed Rampell
It’s also worth a word that at a time when Russia is engaged in such a tragedy, this Tolstoy-derived drama reminds us of the other side of Russian history and culture, of the literature and theater...
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Culture

‘Assassins,’ Stephen Sondheim’s musical about Presidential shooters is a hit
February 24, 2022 By Ed Rampell
This imaginative, harrowing, gallows humor-type production marks the triumphant return of one of L.A.’s finest theaters.
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