ARCHIVES GET A HIGH-TECH HOME UCLA FILM, TV COLLECTION MOVES IN TO WILDER THEATER.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

The UCLA Film & Television Archive makes its long-awaited move to the new, state-of-the-art Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood on Friday.

The archive's public programming begins, appropriately enough, with a 7:30 p.m. screening of the writer-director's Oscar-winning 1960 comedy ``The Apartment.'' That film's star, Shirley MacLaine, will be on hand for a discussion with the archive's honorary chairman, director Curtis Hanson (``L.A. Confidential,'' the MacLaine-starring ``In Her Shoes''). Audrey Wilder, who donated $5 million in her late husband's name to the $7.5 million facility, will also attend.

Where film, art meet

``As you probably know, Billy Wilder was a serious, passionate art collector, so she loved the idea that this theater was in an art museum,'' says Hammer director Ann Philbin.

Located inside the Hammer Museum at the corner of Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, the Wilder is a more accessible -- not to mention more comfortable -- venue than the archive's venerable but cramped, decades-old James Bridges Theater on the UCLA campus.

``From the 1890s on, there's always been an intimate relationship between what's on the screen -- the movies -- and where they're shown,'' notes Robert Rosen, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. ``Given the location in Westwood Village and the parking facilities that are around here, and with the relationship we have with the Hammer and its art exhibitions, we can be a real cultural nucleus for a revived Westwood, and a real destination for people to come to. Enjoy the restaurants of the area, enjoy the artwork, enjoy the film -- we can provide an experience that is unlike those that you might find in a more isolated theater.''

The theater, which also hosts various Hammer Museum programs, is a pretty fine work of art itself. Designed by architect Michael Maltzan, the Wilder's black-walled auditorium features 294 pink-leather-upholstered seats (plus one, in brown, situated about where the director used to like to sit when screening his movies). It also boasts lightning-bolt-style lighting and a deeply sloped floor that ensures excellent sightlines.

But the artful touches don't start there. The lobby is dominated by lenticular murals of the Wilders and a particularly striking, wall-length scene from one of the filmmaker's most famous works -- rendered in pink dots of varied sizes.

``It's kind of like the things you get in Cracker Jacks, the 3-D images,'' architect Maltzan explains. ``And as you walk around, this scene from `Sunset Boulevard' merges and almost seems to move with you as you move down the length of the lobby.''

All very nice. But what's this thing pack? A THX-compliant sound system and pretty much everything necessary to project any kind of moving image in any format.

``With this theater's level of technology, we can go from silent film to the most extraordinary and contemporary surround sound, and we can go from the nitrate era all the way up to digital in a contemporary setting,'' Rosen enthuses.

The projection booth contains two 35/70mm combo projectors, 16 mm and a pair of nitrate projectors -- to show the chemically volatile, pre-celluloid film format -- that were custom built in Germany. As old nitrate film can present a greater fire hazard than modern film does, the booth also was built to safety codes that haven't been applied for nearly half a century.

``In addition, we can do the normal power-point presentations, most videotape formats out there right now and DVD, both high-definition and standard-definition,'' notes John Brooks, one of the theater's technical consultants. ``There are also camera positions under the stage and in back for any live presentations.''

Second-largest collection

With its store of more than 220,000 movies and television programs -- only the Library of Congress has a larger collection -- UCLA plans to program its heart out at the Wilder. In addition to an ongoing series of its namesake's films (``Some Like It Hot'' screens Saturday), events through spring will include the cinematography symposium ``Art of Light'' (starting Sunday, with Hungarian greats Laszlo Kovacs and current ``Black Dahlia'' Oscar nominee Vilmos Zsigmond in attendance); ``First Mondays'' screenings of new, unreleased films, beginning with ``Operation Homecoming'' Feb. 12; a retrospective of Italian neo-realist master Roberto Rossellini commencing Feb. 16; and upcoming tributes to Jean-Luc Godard and Barbara Stanwyck; the 17th annual ``Celebration of Iranian Film''; and, of course, a centuries-spanning study of the evolution of the moving image, ``From Nitrate to Digital.''

And there will be much more. Much, much, much more. For information about Wilder programming, call [phone] or go to www.cinema.ucla.edu and www.hammer.ucla.edu.

Wilder Theater is located on the courtyard level of the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

[e-mail]

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(1 -- 2; 1 -- color) The black-walled auditorium at the new Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood features 294 pink-leather seats -- plus one, in brown, situated about where the director used to like to sit when screening his movies.