Pretty Girls Make Graves

Palm trees stretched elastic shadows across the crespuscular sky. Shades of puce, violet, and peach infiltrated the Los Angeles horizon. The dense smog anchored at the base of the sky seemed hardly an object of disgust, but merely one element of the near-perfect night. We were surrounded by graves, but it only made the sunset more poignant. This was how our Saturday night unraveled. My husband and I watched Cary Grant projected onto a large blank wall, Grant's superimposed image looking more like a god than an icon. We drank our wine and ate dinner on an outstretched blanket, surrounded by throngs of other people. In the middle of Hollywood, the dead were resurrected on screen.

This scene is not an uncommon one. Past the obalisks and sarcophagi, Angeleno cinephiles have created a haven of filmic spectatorship in the heart of Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Located on Santa Monica Boulevard and Gower, Hollywood Forever transforms its quad-sized lawn into a cinematic exhibition arena over the summer, screening movies every Saturday through a foundation called Cinespia (www.cinespia.org). The Hollywood Forever screenings boast a hip schedule of black-and-white and modern-day classics, offering a range of films from Vertigo and His Girl Friday to Taxi Driver and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Of course, it's only fitting that mere feet away, you can visit famous interred stars from the Silent and Golden Ages of Hollywood Cinema, such as Douglas Fairbanks and Peter Lorre.

To be fair, the Hollywood Forever screenings are not as morbid as I may be letting on. You do not sit directly on any gravestones or go around stomping on sympathy bouquets and a DJ provides music before and after the showing. Far from scary or bizarre, the mood is generally relaxed and laid back, ideal for both picnic-carting families and alcohol-ingesting twentysomethings. Although my one complaint is that the sound quality of the speakers is not wonderful, the experience is still worthwhile. However, don't expect to see me at the next screening. I'm not a big Pee Wee fan.

For more info, check out the Cinespia link.