Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004) is a documentary about 1970's to 1980's Los Angeles pay cable station Z Channel, directed by Xan Cassavetes, daughter of the late Hollywood director/actor John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands.

Z Channel was one of the first pay movie channels in the US, preceding HBO and Showtime, and serving the bucolic
rolling hills neighborhoods of Los Angeles where studio heads and filmmakers lived but couldn't get decent television reception.

Z Channel promised an eclectic variety of films, including foreign, silent, documentary, overlooked, under-appreciated, erotic as well as mainstream films, without commercials, uncut and letterboxed when possible. It was a hit, and everyone from industry folk to everyday viewers went along for the film education ride only Z Channel provided.

In the early 80's, Jerry Harvey came on board as Programming Director, and became a man who was almost single-handedly responsible for getting so many great films shown to the public. The documentary details the rise and fall of both Harvey and Z Channel, as Harvey pursued a purist vision of film as art and translated that into the programming, yet was suffering from mental illness which resulted in life-ending tragedy. The night Harvey and Sam Peckinpah ran Peckinpah's version of The Wild Bunch at the Beverly Canon Theater in 1974, the Director's Cut was born. Later, on the Z Channel, Harvey would premiere many more, from Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Once Upon a Time in America to 1900 and Heaven's Gate. 

Cassavetes gives us insight into Harvey's constant battle with personal demons, yet reveals his complete dedication to preserving, exposing, and exalting films in a way never again duplicated. On a local radio program taped in Santa Monica, the interviewer comments on how dedicated Harvey is to film, but asks if
he's interested in doing anything outside of film. Jerry Harvey cynically mumbles, laughs, "what do you mean"? We see hazy, slo-mo shots of various LA locales, fade into the sunset.

Hotel Lautner, Desert Hot Springs

       We bid adieu to Modernism Week 2011 in Palm Springs:

 

Probably my favorite modernist SoCal architect is John Lautner. His designs in the greater Los Angeles area from the 1940s on represent some of the best in contemporary design - dramatic, visionary, far ahead of their time. His buildings have lent their inherent drama to feature films such as "Diamonds Are Forever", "Less Than Zero", "Body Double", and "The Big Lebowski", among others.

In the 1940s, a film producer commissioned Lautner to design a desert oasis near Palm Springs. Lautner produced an intimate escape of 4 interconnected rooms, each with an interior glass wall looking onto a private desert garden, sheltered by the connecting wall of the next guest room. Stepping up from the lowered main space is your own private patio, perfect for sunning and dining. Each unit is complete with its' own small kitchen and breakfast bar. The ingenious concept of a slanted roof gave each unit shelter from the harsh Desert Hot Springs winds and sun, while filtering in natural light through multiple glass panels and clerestory windows. Pools were originally planned to complete the retreat but were never built.

An interior designer and furniture designer recently purchased the Hotel Lautner and after much restoration this desert gem is now reopened, with future plans to complete Lautner's original concept of including pools,

plus an outdoor lounge and a clubhouse. But the project seems to be much about giving guests the opportunity to experience Lautner's work up close and personal. As the website notes, "Lautner’s residences have long been documented and photographed but seldom open to the public. This hotel will allow long time admirers and future admirers the opportunity to 'live' in a Lautner environment and to feel the unique experience of his design style."

http://www.hotellautner.com/