ThisWeekInBrentwood.com

Join a group of Baker Street Irregulars for an irreverent discussion on the contribution of Sherlock Holmes to contemporary culture, from criminology to fiction to film. Holmes scholar Leslie Klinger, writer/director Nicholas Meyer (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), crime novelist Denise Hamilton, and real-life private detective Sarah Alcorn contribute their expertise to deducing why Conan Doyle’s character has inspired such enduring intrigue and devotion. Costumes welcome. Budding mystery writers especially encouraged. Complimentary coffee and tea served.

First and foremost a city of cinema, L.A. exists both in the movies that are made here and in the image of the place on film. Mark Shiel explores this alluring locale in his new book, Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles, depicting the ever-changing cinematic image of the city and revealing how its celluloid identity has been reflected and manipulated by its physical geography. Shiel traces the history of L.A. from the invention of motion pictures in the 1890s to the decline of the studio system in the 1950s. Shiel teaches in the Department of Film Studies at King’s College London. He is the author of Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City and the editor of Cinema and the City and Screening the City.