Movies Til Dawn

No, I'm not talking about Billy Wilder's "The Apartment". I'm talking about his apartment. The one he and Audrey lived in together from 1957 until his death in 2002. (I believe she still lives there). That's what I'm talking about here. Not interested? Then don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of the Wilshire Terrace. For some reason, the living quarters of Billy Wilder--my personal movie God--always fascinated me. From a young age I knew that he resided in an building on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Beverly Glen known as the Wilshire Terrace. The question is: why? Aren't famed movie directors supposed to live in lavish spreads with guest houses, detatched projection facilities, manicured lawns and unused swimming pools (or in the case of Wilder perhaps one with a dead body floating face down in it?) Isn't the whole idea of having money in LA to spend it on a house that publicly trumpets your taste, personality and I'm...

Meet Miss Brown, a Pittsburgh public school teacher who, along with a young Italian boy named Dominick, found herself the subject of an NBC news documentary which aired in 1963. The film, "An Experiment In Excellence", was directed by my father Frank De Felitta and it's my pleasure to share it with you below (I've posted the first half--the entire thing will be up over the next few days). Like most of my fathers other NBC documentaries, the film is both a stirring emotional journey as well as a time capsule of the era in which it was made. The films were made between 1962-1968 and thus collectively serve as a record of a very specific era in American history. Whether covering the generation's artists ("The American Image"), the life of a young intern ("Emergency Ward") or the struggles of the south during the civil rights era ("Mississippi: A Self Portrait"), the sense of the times is alive and beautifully rendered in all of them. In ...