The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

  • All
  • Theater Buzz
    • Claremont 5
    • Glendale
    • Newhall
    • NoHo 7
    • Royal
    • Santa Monica
    • Town Center 5
  • Q&A’s
  • Locations & Showtimes
    • Claremont
    • Glendale
    • NewHall
    • North Hollywood
    • Royal (West LA)
    • Santa Monica
    • Town Center (Encino)
  • Film Series
    • Anniversary Classics
    • Culture Vulture
    • Throwback Thursdays
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Laemmle Theatres

Laemmle Theatres
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/conformist | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | Bernardo Bertolucci’s breakthrough movie, The Conformist, is based on the celebrated novel by Alberto Moravia and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay of 1971. Set in the 1930s, the film explores the psychological roots of fascism as the main character, Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant), tries to expunge his artistic and homosexual inclinations by conforming to the brutally repressive mores of the times. "Bertolucci's masterpiece." (Village Voice)

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/conformist

RELEASE DATE: 2/3/2023
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clémenti

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv
Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/filmmakers-prosecution-nuremberg-its-lesson-today | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | FILMMAKERS: Near the end of WWII, filmmaker John Ford, head of the Field Photographic Branch of OSS, assigns the Schulberg brothers to carry out a special mission: track down German footage and photographs of Nazi atrocities in order to convict the leaders scheduled to stand trial. Screening w/NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY: One of the greatest courtroom dramas in history, the film shows how  prosecutors built their case against Nazi war criminals using their own films and records.

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/filmmakers-prosecution-nuremberg-its-lesson-today

RELEASE DATE: 2/3/2023
Director: Jean-Christophe Klotz (FILMMAKERS) & Stuart Schulberg (NUREMBERG)

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv
Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/geographies-solitude | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | An immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island, a remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic, the film follows Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived there for over 40 years collecting, cleaning and documenting marine litter that persistently washes up on the island's shores. Shot on 16mm and created using eco-friendly filmmaking techniques, Geographies of Solitude is a playful and reverent collaboration with the natural world filled with arresting images and made with an activist spirit.

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/geographies-solitude

RELEASE DATE: 2/13/2023
Director: Jacquelyn Mills

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

Subscribe to Laemmle's E-NEWSLETTER: http://bit.ly/3y1YSTM
Visit Laemmle.com: http://laemmle.com
Like LAEMMLE on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/3Qspq7Z
Follow LAEMMLE on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/3O6adYv
Follow LAEMMLE on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/3y2j1cp
Load More... Subscribe
Laemmle Theatres

2 weeks ago

Laemmle Theatres
TOMORROW is #NationalPopcornDay, and we'll be offering ⭐ ONE FREE POPCORN ⭐ w/purchase of any beverage all day to celebrate! So Pop In!Here's a kernel of wisdom for you: Want free popcorn every Thursday? Become a Premiere Card holder for $3 off theatre tickets*, 20% off concessions, $6 Tuesdays and one free popcorn every Thursday!laemmle.com/premiere#laemmle #discounts #freepopcorn ... See MoreSee Less

Video

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Laemmle Theatres

3 weeks ago

Laemmle Theatres
Please join Greg Laemmle tomorrow at the 1pm show of Only In Theaters for a Q&A at Laemmle Claremont 5, hosted by David Allen of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin"Claremont 5 remains threatened by weak ticket sales. Laemmle says he’ll give his easternmost theater one year to turn around." ... See MoreSee Less

Laemmle calls off sale of Claremont 5 theater but needs more moviegoers

www.dailybulletin.com

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Laemmle Theatres

1 month ago

Laemmle Theatres
⭐HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU! ⭐Thank you for all your #laemmlelove and support in 2022! We ended the year with a wonderful turnout for our annual Fiddler Sing-Along and are welcoming 2023 with many more powerful films! Also, there is still time to catch the best films of 2022! Tickets at laemmle.com ... See MoreSee Less

Video

View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

 

Based on Stefan Zweig’s final novella, CHESS STORY “shows how incredibly quickly a seemingly firmly anchored free world can tip over into a dictatorship.”

January 11, 2023 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Vienna, 1938: Austria is occupied by the Nazis. Dr. Josef Bartok (Oliver Masucci) is preparing to flee to America with his wife Anna when he is arrested by the Gestapo. As a former notary to the deposed Austrian aristocracy, he is told to help the local Gestapo leader gain access to their private bank accounts in order to fund the Nazi regime. Refusing to cooperate, Bartok is locked in solitary confinement. Just as his mind is beginning to crack, Bartok happens upon a book of famous chess games. To withstand the torture of isolation, Bartok disappears into the world of chess, maintaining his sanity only by memorizing every move. As the action flashes forward to a transatlantic crossing on which he is a passenger, it seems as though Bartok has finally found freedom. But recounting his story to his fellow travelers, it’s clear that his encounters with both the Gestapo and with the royal game itself have not stopped haunting him. Adapted with opulent attention to period detail by filmmaker and opera director Philipp Stölzl, Chess Story brings Stefan Zweig’s stirring final novella to life.

Chess Story opens January 20 at the Monica Film Center.

“Stölzl craftily melds the genres of period drama and psychological thriller, not for the purposes of reheated nostalgia, but to shed a cold light on the recursions of historical trauma.” ~ William Repass, Slant Magazine

“The adaptation of Chess Story is one of the rare cases in which the film has not only managed to leave the original behind, but to surpass it. Visually intoxicating.” ~ Süddeutsche Zeitung

“This film…moves because of Oliver Masucci, who acts with fantastic despair. And because of the wonderful Birgit Minichmayr.” ~ Der Spiegel
 

STATEMENT BY DIRECTOR PHILIPP STÖLZL

“I encountered The Royal Game [the alternative title of Chess Story] at a very early age. Zweig’s mysterious and impressive story etched itself into my memory and is one of those stories that have accompanied me in one way or another through my entire life. When Philipp Worm and Tobias Walker told me about their plans to make a new film version, I was delighted, read the screenplay with interest – and loved it.

“Our aim was to make a sensuous, intense feature film that would appeal to a wider audience with a brilliant cast, tight production and powerful visuals that really fill the whole screen. The contrast between claustrophobic imprisonment and the expanse of the ship that pounds across the Atlantic to America through the endless mist creates a field of tension in which Zweig’s literary metaphor can be told as a “big” story.

“The nice thing about the very courageous approach of screenwriter Eldar Grigorian to The Royal Game is that it represents a kind of condensation of the surreal secret that the novella already contains. The Kafkaesque pitch Zweig has chosen for his narrative becomes a decisive inspiration on the journey of the material to the big screen.

“On the one hand there is the intense, restrictive chamber play about the duel between Bartok and Gestapo man Böhm, who interrogates him and has him tortured. Then there is the – seeming – voyage to America and on board the game against the silent and enigmatic world chess champion. The persistent mist gives the journey something surreal, as if the giant ship were a barge of the dead, and the passengers mere ghosts. For this reason, the fact that this all turns out to be a dream in Bartok’s head is not a denouement or a surprise in the traditional sense, but more the final chord of a gloomily poetic tale. And finally, the prisoner’s battle against his own insanity in the solitary confinement cell, which he tries to escape from with his “mental chess” and at the same time achieves the opposite, sliding further in instead. Here, the film is an intense trip, because we are very close to our protagonist and accompany him down into the abyss and mental confusion.

“All these narrative levels are interwoven and initially “make sense.” But the longer Bartok is in solitary confinement and loses touch with reality, the more mysterious things become on the ship, the more the audience also become lost in a labyrinth that resembles an oppressive daydream. To this extent I would say that in this film, Zweig’s more distanced experimental design becomes a cathartic, intense and emotional vexatious game that will hopefully enchain and grip the audience.

“Zweig’s story did not end the way the film does. The bleak, dismal ending of his novella expresses the fear of impending Nazi world rule. We, however, know that it turned out differently, that it became light again after a dark night. And we want the audience to leave the cinema with this meaningful and encouraging certainty.

“The backdrop to all this is the true story about Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria. This political level of The Royal Game makes the film timelessly relevant because it shows how incredibly quickly a seemingly firmly anchored free world can tip over into a dictatorship. It tells of how thin the layer of skin of a civilisation is and how close to the surface barbarism lies. And it tells us in this way to be alert.” ~ Philipp Stölzl, 19 October 2020

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Director's Statement, Featured Films, Films, News, Press, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz

Subscribe
Connect with
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
guest

Connect with
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Search

Featured Posts

The Top Ten Films of 2022 contest results are in!

Top Ten Films of 2022 contest ends Sunday: Tell us your favorites for a chance to win free movie passes!

Instagram

laemmletheatres

Laemmle Theatres
TOMORROW is #NationalPopcornDay, and we'll be offe TOMORROW is #NationalPopcornDay, and we'll be offering ⭐ ONE FREE POPCORN ⭐ w/purchase of any beverage to celebrate! Pop In! 

Here's a kernel of wisdom for you: Want free popcorn every Thursday? Become a Premiere Card holder for $3 off theatre tickets*, 20% off concessions, $6 Tuesdays and one free popcorn every Thursday

laemmle.com/premiere
#laemmle #discounts #freepopcorn
⭐HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU! ⭐ Thank you fo ⭐HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU! ⭐

Thank you for all your #laemmlelove and support in 2022! We ended the year with a wonderful turnout for our annual Fiddler Sing-Along and are welcoming 2023 with many more powerful films!

Also, there is still time to catch the best films of 2022! 
Tickets at laemmle.com
⭐ Tickets going fast! ⭐ Fiddler on the Roof Si ⭐ Tickets going fast! ⭐ Fiddler on the Roof Sing-a-Long! Don't miss the buggy! 

Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations on the 7th night of Hanukkah SATURDAY, DEC. 24th for an alternative Christmas Eve and candle lighting! 

🎟️ laemmle.com/fiddler
JOIN US on the 7th night of Hanukkah SATURDAY, DEC JOIN US on the 7th night of Hanukkah SATURDAY, DEC. 24th for an alternative Christmas Eve and candle lighting! That's right - It's time for the return of our Fiddler on the Roof Sing-a-Long! #fiddlerla

⭐Typically, Fiddler sells out … so don't miss the buggy! ⭐

Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations. Either way, you'll feel better as you croon along to all-time favorites like “TRADITION,” “IF I WERE A RICH MAN,” among many others.

🎟️ laemmle.com/fiddler
📽️ youtube.com/watch?v=9EAQUuv5HqE
Load More... Follow us on Instagram

Recent Posts

  • Moviegoers, start your guesses: The Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest has begun.
  • REMEMBER THIS Q&A schedule at the Monica Film Center Feb. 5 & 6.
  • The Top Ten Films of 2022 contest results are in!
  • Top Ten Films of 2022 contest ends Sunday: Tell us your favorites for a chance to win free movie passes!
  • “One of the most visually ravishing pictures of all time,” THE CONFORMIST opens February 3 at the Royal, February 10 at the Laemmle Glendale.
  • Based on Stefan Zweig’s final novella, CHESS STORY “shows how incredibly quickly a seemingly firmly anchored free world can tip over into a dictatorship.”

Archive

Laemmle Theatres Follow

laemmle
laemmle Laemmle Theatres @laemmle ·
19 Jan

TOMORROW is #NationalPopcornDay, and we'll be offering ⭐ ONE FREE POPCORN ⭐ w/purchase of any beverage all day to celebrate! So Pop In!

Here's a kernel of wisdom: Want free popcorn every Thursday? Become a Premiere Card holder!

http://laemmle.com/premiere
#freepopcorn

Reply on Twitter 1615862253625942017 Retweet on Twitter 1615862253625942017 1 Like on Twitter 1615862253625942017 4 Twitter 1615862253625942017
laemmle Laemmle Theatres @laemmle ·
31 Dec

⭐HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU! ⭐

Thank you for all your #laemmlelove and support in 2022! We ended the year with a wonderful turnout for our Fiddler Sing-Along and are welcoming 2023 with many more powerful films!

See you in the New Year!
🎟️ http://laemmle.com

Reply on Twitter 1609317928448425984 Retweet on Twitter 1609317928448425984 3 Like on Twitter 1609317928448425984 14 Twitter 1609317928448425984
laemmle Laemmle Theatres @laemmle ·
18 Dec

⭐ Tickets going fast! ⭐ Fiddler on the Roof Sing-a-Long! Don't miss the buggy!

Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations on the 7th night of Hanukkah SATURDAY, DEC. 24th for an alternative Christmas Eve and candle lighting!

🎟️ http://laemmle.com/fiddler

Reply on Twitter 1604387353119932417 Retweet on Twitter 1604387353119932417 4 Like on Twitter 1604387353119932417 5 Twitter 1604387353119932417
laemmle Laemmle Theatres @laemmle ·
9 Dec

⭐ Persona (1967) ONE NIGHT ONLY! 12/13! ⭐

Join us at the 55th anniversary screening of Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA. The intense, provocative psychological drama was one of the keystone films of the late-period golden age of the art-house in the 1960s.

🎟️ http://laemmle.com/film/persona-0

Reply on Twitter 1601338203486752776 Retweet on Twitter 1601338203486752776 1 Like on Twitter 1601338203486752776 3 Twitter 1601338203486752776
laemmle Laemmle Theatres @laemmle ·
26 Nov

⭐ A special message to @laemmle audiences from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba!

“MEMORIES OF MY FATHER is a tenderly funny family drama." @Guardian

NOW PLAYING @laemmleroyal and @towncenter5
🎟️ http://laemmle.com/film/memories-my-father

@CohenMediaGroup

Reply on Twitter 1596595641316216832 Retweet on Twitter 1596595641316216832 2 Like on Twitter 1596595641316216832 4 Twitter 1596595641316216832
Load More...
wpDiscuz