Ed Rampell

Ed Rampell is an LA-based film historian and 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

News

Life of the party: Portrait of L.A.’s perpetual progressive Jan Goodman
August 1, 2022 By Ed Rampell
In The Tempest, Shakespeare mused “What’s past is prologue,” which is certainly true for Jan Goodman, whose radical roots set the stage for a lifetime of activism.
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Culture

‘A Love Song’: Gentle film asks, Is love ageless and color blind?
July 26, 2022 By Ed Rampell
With its simple, naturalistic style tinged by sly humor, A Love Song is a motion picture paean to the human condition, filled with yearning, grief, loss and the quest for meaningful (if not necessarily long-lasting) connection...
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Culture

‘Stratford-upon-Topanga’ opens summer season with ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’
June 22, 2022 By Ed Rampell
Act I of WGTB’s The Merry Wives of Windsor is mildly amusing, while the rollicking, uproarious Act II is highly entertaining.
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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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