For this month’s screening in our Anniversary Classics Abroad program, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 25th anniversary screening of the Oscar-winning French film, INDOCHINE.
This sweeping epic about France’s troubled history in Southeast Asia was named best foreign language film of 1992, and Catherine Deneuve received an Oscar nomination (her only one) for her portrayal of a wealthy landowner who adopts a Vietnamese orphan.
TIME Magazine’s Richard Corliss wrote, “INDOCHINE sprawls and enthralls. It has the breadth and intelligence of the David Lean epics,” and he added, “In Catherine Deneuve, INDOCHINE has a star of epic glamour and gravity.”
The film spans 30 years from 1930 through the war of independence in the 1950s. Director Regis Wargnier brought impressive visual flair to the evocation of this society in transition.
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film “awesomely gorgeous, both in its landscapes and in its period-perfect settings and costumes.”
Wargnier filmed on location in Vietnam and Malaysia. The cast includes Vincent Perez, Jean Yanne, Dominique Blanc, and newcomer Linh Dan Pham.
INDOCHINE screens at 7pm on July 19th at the Royal in West L.A., the Town Center in Encino, and the Playhouse in Pasadena. Presented on DVD. Click here for tickets.
This screening is the latest installment of our Anniversary Classics Abroad series, presented the third Wednesday of each month. Louis Malle’s MURMUR OF THE HEART is coming up on August 16th.
60th Anniversary Screening of PEYTON PLACE (1957)
Leonard Maltin summed up the critical consensus when he wrote, “Grace Metalious’s once-notorious novel receives Grade A filming.” Producer Jerry Wald (whose credits included Mildred Pierce, Key Largo, Johnny Belinda, An Affair to Remember, The Long Hot Summer, and Sons and Lovers) bought the rights to the novel for $250,000 and hired a classy team to bring it to the screen. Screenwriter John Michael Hayes wrote many of the best Alfred Hitchcock movies of the 1950s, including Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Director Mark Robson started as an assistant editor on Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, then directed such successful films as Champion, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Oscar winning composer Franz Waxman provided the memorable musical score. The cast also includes Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, David Nelson, Terry Moore, and Barry Coe.
During Gay Pride month, Laemmle Theatres and the 
Barry Sandler wrote and produced the cult favorite, Crimes of Passion, starring Kathleen Turner and directed by Ken Russell. His other credits include Kansas City Bomber with Raquel Welch, The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox with George Segal and Goldie Hawn, and The Mirror Crack’d with Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Kim Novak.
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics series present two of the less frequently revived films from the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock: a 75th anniversary screening of the World War II-era thriller, 
In Frenzy, Hitchcock filmed in his native England for the first time in more than two decades. Jon Finch plays the innocent man accused of a series of grisly murders by the notorious “Necktie Strangler.” British actors Barry Foster, Anna Massey, Billie Whitelaw, Alec McCowen, and Vivien Merchant costar. This thriller was written by acclaimed playwright Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth) and received the best reviews of Hitchcock’s late career. Roger Ebert noted that “Frenzy is a return to old forms for the master of suspense,” and Leonard Maltin declared, “All classic Hitchcock elements are here, including delicious black humor, several astounding camera shots.”
Laemmle Theatres and Anniversary Classics Abroad present a 55th anniversary screening of Pietro Germi’s 
