If you love flowers, films, fun, or all three, you’ll want to join the next Marin Rose Society meeting on July 14.
It’s a free live meeting on Zoom, the first of the newly resumed monthly meetings that will take place virtually for the time being.
“Our first presenter will be none other than the Bay Area’s best-known film critic and interviewer, Jan Wahl,” says Andrew Smith, the group’s director of programs, in a recent email. “We are beyond excited about Jan and her presentation. She is one of the best-known movie reviewers in the United States and lives right here in Marin County.”
Wahl’s talk, entitled, “From ‘Please Don’t Eat the Daisies’ to ‘My Fair Lady’ to ‘American Beauty’ … Flowers in Film,” he says “will celebrate flowers in film, look at the way they have been used in many movies and characters … and we will also journey through movies that have had an impact on our lives.”
The popular film historian and reviewer says she has presented talks on food, costumes, language, editing, comedies and sexuality in film, among other topics, but when it comes to flowers, shes noticed that they represent romance, family, innocence and lust.
“The use of flowers can delineate character, class, can move along the plot or take us to a dream world,” she says.
Among her favorite films that reference flowers are “Vertigo,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Brother Orchid,” “Harold and Maude” and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.”
Courtesy of Jan Wahl
Movie critic Jan Wahl will discuss flowers in films in a Zoom meeting of the Marin Rose Society on July 14.Wahl says her love of film evolved early in life, as she grew up in West Los Angeles, where “movie stars and television stars, directors, writers, musicians were everywhere” and her schoolmates were children of parents in the Hollywood film industry.
It was nurtured at home by her parents, too.
“I always picture my mother as Rosalind Russell in ‘Mame’ and my father as Errol Flynn in ‘Gentleman Jim’ or ‘Robin Hood,'” she says. “He loved sitting my sister and me down in front of the television and watching swashbuckler movies and my mother loved movies with smart, strong women, especially the one who were up against all odds. That informed who I am today.”
Wahl’s first job in television was as a panelist — “one of four wise guys,” she says — on KTLA’s “Youth and the Police” program when she was just 15 years old.
She’s been involved in broadcasting ever since and was one of the first female members of the Director’s Guild.
Audiences can find her on-air at KCBS All News Radio, KGO Radio with John Rothmann and Armed Forces Radio Network, and in her columns for the Marin Jewish Community Center newsletter.
Wahl’s also pretty well-known for her love of wearing showstopper hats, a theatrical device that takes its cue from old Hollywood.
“The hats came about because of Mae West, ‘Auntie Mame,’ ‘Now, Voyager,’ ‘Casablanca,’ and especially the strippers in the great musical, ‘Gypsy,’ who tell the young Gypsy (Rose Lee) that, ‘You’ve gotta have a gimmick.’” Wahl says. “Also, my hats put a little show in ‘show biz.’”
Wahl encourages the guests at her Marin Rose Society talk to come prepared with questions.
“I love questions and comments,” she says. “Everybody’s a critic and movie lover.”
One question that movie house owners would want to ask Wahl is whether she thinks audiences will flock back to the theaters when restrictions are lifted.
Wahl is sure they will.
“When we see a reopening of theaters, people will go in order to have the shared emotional experience of cinema,” she says. “Laughing together, sobbing, gasping and doing it as an audience as it was beautifully shown in ‘Cinema Paradiso.’ This will still happen.”
She has good news for movie streaming platforms, too.
“Netflix and Hulu will continue to be very popular,” she says. “They have a huge new audience now and could be the future.”
To join the live presentation from 7:30 to 9 p.m. July 14 on Zoom, send an email to andrewsmith415@gmail.com for the dial-in information and session password.
PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday and also on her blog at DesignSwirl.co. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.
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Marin movie critic Jan Wahl discusses flowers in film - Marin Independent Journal
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