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

Arts

“Six Characters in Search of An Author”: Performing Pirandello’s pirouettes
April 6, 2016 By Ed Rampell
Sicilian playwright Luigi Pirandello's iconoclastic play is all the more impressive when one takes into account that its premiere in Rome was way back in 1921.
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Arts

“Film” and “Notfilm”: Playwright Samuel Beckett meets Buster Keaton
April 1, 2016 By Ed Rampell
On the face of it, a collaboration between Beckett and Buster Keaton sounds like an unlikely alliance of artists.
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Arts

“Madame Butterfly”: The racial/sexual politics of cross-cultural concubinage
March 30, 2016 By Ed Rampell
LA Opera's current production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" hits not only a homer, but a grand slam.
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Arts

Open letter to Motion Picture Academy, L.A. Women’s Theater Festival
March 28, 2016 By Ed Rampell
"Dear Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, you have come under intense criticism for Cloroxing this year's Oscars..."
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Arts

“Spies Are Forever”: When genres collide
March 18, 2016 By Ed Rampell
The conventions of the espionage thriller meet the attributes of the musical, with lots of comedy along the way.
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Arts

“Summer and Smoke”: Tennessee’s waltz and the blindness of neighbors
March 14, 2016 By Ed Rampell
Tara Battani's is among the finest acting I've ever seen on the L.A. boards, and is by itself worth the price of admission.
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Arts

Last tango in Kabul? “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” and the embedded reporter
March 10, 2016 By Ed Rampell
"Tango" perpetuates that age-old Hollywood tradition of setting stories in the "exotic" Third World.
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Arts

Progies honor transsexuals, feminists, card-carrying Communists and more in film
February 29, 2016 By Ed Rampell
The Progies honor films that stand up for human, worker, and women's rights, gay rights, minority rights, peace, the environment, and against fascism.
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