If you're visiting DC for the weekend, or if you live here and want to use the holiday weekend to explore, a museum highlights tour is a great way to see what's out there. All of the tours listed below are free and don't require a reservation; all you have to do is show up ready to see some great art (I recommend arriving about 10 minutes early).
Hightlights tours are available at:
National Portrait Gallery
Sat. 11/27 and Sun. 11/28 @ 11:45am and 3:15pm
Meet in the F Street Lobby
African Art Museum
Sat. 11/27 and Sun. 11/28 @ 11:00am, 1:00pm, and 3:00pm
Meet at the Information Desk
Freer + Sackler Galleries
Sat. 11/27 and Sun. 11/28 @ 12:00pm
Meet at the Freer Information Desk
Hirshhorn Museum
Daily between 12:00pm and 4:00pm
Request a tour at the information desk
American Art Museum
Daily @ 12:30pm and 2:00pm
Meet in the F Street Lobby
images: Alexander Gardner, Abraham Lincoln, 1865. National Portrait Gallery, America's Presidents exhibit; Edward Hopper, First Row Orchestra, 1955. Hirshhorn Museum and Scultpure Garden, permanent collection.
There are also a few interesting films being shown at the National Gallery of Art this weekend as part of the series Julien Duvivier: The Grand Artisan. All are FREE and being show at the National Gallery of Art East Building Concourse, Auditorium. The films are:
Pépé le Moko - Fri. 11/26 @ 2:30pm
A notorious jewel thief (Jean Gabin) hides out in the old Algiers Casbah until a glamorous "tourist" from Paris lures him to his demise. Pépé le Moko reached iconic status, inspired two remakes, an Italian parody (Totó le Moko), a cartoon character (Pepé le Pew), and even, arguably, had a bearing on Graham Greene's 1940s screenplay for The Third Man. (1936, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 94 minutes)
Voici le temps des assassins - Sat. 11/27 @ 1:00PM
An intense and well-crafted thriller set inside a reconstruction of the old Les Halles market, Voici le temps des assassins was one of the New Wave critic Francois Truffaut’s favorite French films. “Lest we forget that film noir has roots in the French, this gem offers the quintessential femme fatale, hooking the quintessential unsuspecting guy who quickly becomes suspecting, and dangerous”—Pacific Film Archive. (1956, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 114 minutes)
Pot-Bouille - Sun. 11/28 @ 4:30pm
Making his rounds in a Second Empire apartment building, provincial social climber Gérard Philipe rises to respectability via the aid of eminently satisfied middle-class ladies. "Duvivier's re-creation of Paris in the overstuffed '80s is one of the most extraordinary historical evocations ever…a lavish satire on the triumph of business values over bourgeois morals"—Pauline Kael. (1958, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 115 minutes)
Synopses from National Gallery of Art Film Events
Allison Recht
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