The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

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

Laemmle Theatres

Laemmle Theatres
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym My Imaginary Country (Mi país imaginario), the most recent film by Chile’s master documentarian Patricio Guzmán, premiered to standing ovations at the Cannes Film Festival last May. In October 2019, without warning, a revolution exploded across Chile. It was an event that Guzmán had been waiting for since 1973, when a violent military attack overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, and became the ending of Guzman’s most famous film, and one of the greatest documentaries of all time, The Battle of Chile.

Tickets: https://www.laemmle.com/film/my-imaginary-country

RELEASE DATE: 9/30/2022
Director: Patricio Guzmán

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Laemmle Theatres is back to showing the finest independent films, in person or online.

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
My Imaginary Country | Trailer | Laemmle [Theatres]
YouTube Video UCmIpqlyHdfoCWMD3eqBHXfw_gi-2FUeZYL8
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Bergman Island) gives another riveting performance as Camille, a woman on the run from her family for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. Widely renowned as an actor but less well-known here for his equally impressive work behind the camera, Mathieu Amalric’s sixth feature directorial outing—his most ambitious to date—is a virtuosic, daringly fluid portrait of one woman’s fractured psyche.

Tickets: https://www.laemmle.com/film/hold-me-tight

RELEASE DATE: 9/16/2022
Director: Mathieu Amalric
Cast: Vicky Krieps, Arieh Worthalter, Anne-Sophie Bowen-Chatet, Sacha Ardilly

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Laemmle Theatres is back to showing the finest independent films, in person or online.

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
Hold Me Tight | Trailer | Laemmle [Theatres]
YouTube Video UCmIpqlyHdfoCWMD3eqBHXfw_TAi7xe8FvTg
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym Básculas Blanco, a Spanish company producing industrial scales in a provincial Spanish town awaits the imminent visit from a committee which holds its fate in their hands as to whether they merit a local Business Excellence award: everything has to be perfect when the time comes. Working against the clock, the company’s proprietor, Blanco (Javier Bardem) pulls out all the stops to address and resolve issues with his employees, crossing every imaginable line in the process.

Tickets: https://www.laemmle.com/film/good-boss

RELEASE DATE: 8/26/2022
Director: Fernando León de Aranoa
Cast: Javier Bardem, Manolo Solo, Almudena Amor, Óscar de la Fuente , Sonia Almarcha, Fernando Albizu, Tarik Rmili, Rafa Castejón, Celso Bugallo

-----
ABOUT LAEMMLE: Laemmle Theatres is back to showing the finest independent films, in person or online.

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
The Good Boss | Trailer | Laemmle [Theatres]
YouTube Video UCmIpqlyHdfoCWMD3eqBHXfw_rN4309j1erw
Load More... Subscribe
Laemmle Theatres

2 days ago

Laemmle Theatres
ONE NIGHT ONLY (8/17)! The powerful #Sundance documentary FREE CHOL SOO LEE, about a Korean American who was falsely convicted of a 1973 murder in San Francisco. "Extraordinarily moving…this is what documentary filmmaking should strive for." -RogerEbert.com | Tickets: laemmle.com/film/free-chol-soo-lee | Laemmle Monica Film Center, Laemmle Glendale, Laemmle Claremont 5 ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

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

Laemmle Theatres

4 days ago

Laemmle Theatres
"Bodies Bodies Bodies is one of those movies that wins you over scene by scene, before sealing the deal with its marvelous, ludicrous ending." - TIME Magazine | Directed by Halina Reijn A24 #BodiesBodiesBodies | Tickets: www.laemmle.com/film/bodies-bodies-bodies ... See MoreSee Less

Video

View on Facebook
· Share

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

Laemmle Theatres

5 days ago

Laemmle Theatres
SHARP STICK is "supremely funny. As heartfelt as it is provocative." Vanity Fair | "Dunham's film blossoms into something beautifully strange and brutally honest." -RogerEbert.com | Now Playing and Expanding at Laemmle Theatres Tickets: www.laemmle.com/film/sharp-stick ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook
· Share

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

 

Home » Featured Films

A LOVE STORY: Veteran character actor Dale Dickey shines in the role of her career.

August 10, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

     One of the finest screen performances last year was delivered by Ann Dowd in the drama Mass. Though she did not make it into the Oscar race, she was nominated for Critic’s Choice and BAFTA awards. Most moviegoers would be forgiven, however, if they didn’t know about the film or Ms. Dowd’s performance. The film did not do well when it opened in October and it was in and out of theatres before it could develop crucial word-of-mouth publicity.
     We bring this up because we fear that history is repeating itself with the film A Love Song and the amazing performance by the veteran character actress, Dale Dickey.
     She has been a very busy working actor for more than 25 years, racking up 131 credits on IMDB (which does not include her theater work). Like Dowd, Stephen Root and M. Emmet Walsh, she is one of those gifted character actors whose face any movie or TV fan immediately recognizes, though most people don’t know her name. She is usually cast in supporting roles but has the lead role in A Love Song, and she is brilliant. Her performance is easily one of the best of 2022, beautifully complemented by Wes Studi, but will people see it? The film is being released by a small independent distributor without a large publicity and advertising budget. What’s more, it’s a low-key love story about working class people, the kind of subject matter that doesn’t get much attention.

“Like a coy, concise short story you might remember having read years ago, A Love Song is the simplest of tales, but there’s a complex universe of longing contained within it.” ~ Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

“It’s well-photographed, unobtrusively edited, full of wondrous sights, and acted by a couple of masters of warm underplaying.” ~ Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

     “A Love Song has the narrative economy and the sneaky emotional power of a well-crafted short story, plus a feel for isolation and rootlessness that harks back to some of the great drifter portraits of American independent cinema.” ~ Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
     So, people. Cinephiles! Please come out, enjoy and support A Love Song in a theater while you still can. We open it this Friday at the Royal, and we will add theatres on August 19. We will keep it playing as long as possible. If moviegoers show even a little support, that will go a long way toward keeping it in theatres, and help create greater awareness for the film and the two wonderful actors featured in the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NysYn89m5y4&t=3s

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: Claremont 5, Featured Films, Films, Newhall, News, Press, Royal, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“Death will cease to be absolute.” THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING opens August 19 with the director in person.

August 10, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

The beautiful new documentary feature Three Minutes: A Lengthening is based on a mere three minutes of footage, shot by David Kurtz in 1938, that are the only moving images remaining of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk, Poland before the Holocaust. Director Bianca Stigter takes those three minutes and expands and explores them to create “an original and incisive meditation on history, memory, memorials and the very nature of celluloid.” (Alissa Simon, Variety) We open the film August 19 at the Royal and August 26 at the Town Center. The August 16 at the Royal will be hosted by the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival and followed by a discussion with Ms. Stigter and author Glenn Kurtz. Scholar Michael Berenbaum of American Jewish University will moderate.

Director Bianca Stigter’s statement: 

“As a child, David Kurtz emigrated from Poland to the United States. In 1938 he returned to Europe for a sightseeing trip and whilst there he visited Nasielsk, the town of his birth. Specifically for this trip, he bought a 16mm camera, then still a novelty rarely seen in a small town never visited by tourists. Eighty years later his ordinary pictures, most of them in color, have become something extraordinary. They are the only moving images that remain of Nasielsk prior to the Second World War. Almost all the people we see were murdered in the Holocaust. 

“On Facebook, I stumbled upon a book written about this film, Three Minutes in Poland by Glenn Kurtz. The title fascinated me. I ordered the book and watched the footage, which can be found on the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. While watching, I wondered: could you make those three minutes last longer, to keep the past in the present? 

“For this film essay, I examined the footage in the fullest detail, to see what the celluloid would yield to viewers almost a century later. The footage is treated as an archaeological artifact to gain entrance to the past. 

“I contacted Glenn Kurtz, traveled to Nasielsk to see if any traces remained from the past, and went to Detroit to speak with survivor Maurice Chandler and his family. 

“After this extensive research, I edited the footage in different ways to bring to life as many of the facts and stories about Nasielsk as possible. A few seconds of the recording of a café becomes a dance scene, a single shot of the market square tells the story of the deportation of its Jewish citizens. All the faces that appear in the film are singled out and magnified to pay homage to the people of Nasielsk. The old images of the Polish town are combined with the way Nasielsk sounds today, creating a tense fusion of the past and the present. 

“Three Minutes: A Lengthening is an experiment that turns scarcity into a quality. Living in a time marked by an abundance of images that are never viewed twice, we do the opposite here: circle the same moments again and again, convinced that they will give us a different meaning each time. The film starts and ends with the same unedited found footage, but the second time you will look at it quite differently. 

“Three Minutes: A Lengthening investigates the nature of film and the perception of time. Through the act of watching, the viewers partake in the creation of a memorial.”

“When apparatuses like these are available to the public, when everyone can photograph those who are dear to them, not only their posed forms but their movements, their actions, their familiar gestures, with words at the tip of their tongues, death will cease to be absolute.’’  ~ The French newspaper La Poste, 30 December 1895, after the Lumières’ first public showing of a film in Paris. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsepXNV7N_w

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, Featured Post, Filmmaker in Person, Films, Q&A's, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“A gorgeous clarion call for our young Black girls, heralding the community, creativity and confidence that is the pride of our culture.” ~ Ava DuVernay on ALMA’S RAINBOW, opening August 9.

August 3, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

A coming-of-age comedy-drama about three Black women living in Brooklyn, Ayoka Chenzira’s 1993 film Alma’s Rainbow explores the life of teenager Rainbow Gold, who is entering womanhood and navigating conversations and experiences around standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights Black women have over their bodies. We are thrilled to open the film next Friday, August 12 at the Monica Film Center.

Victoria Platt, who starred as Alma, will participate in a Q&A after the evening screening on Saturday, August 13th, exact showtime TBA.

All screenings of Alma’s Rainbow will be preceded by Ms. Chenzira’s 10-minute animated short film Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy Headed People (1984).

Keyonn Sheppard (Pepper), Roger Pickering (Sea Breeze) and Victoria Gabrielle Platt (Rainbow Gold) at the Marquis de Lafayette monument in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in Ayoka Chenzira’s Alma’s Rainbow, a 1993 film restored by the Academy Film Archive with funding by Film Foundation, released by Milestone Films.

“With a whole lot of heart and humor, Ayoka Chenzira’s Alma’s Rainbow is a stunning exploration of Black identity and the dynamism of Black women’s lives.” – Maya Cade, Black Film Archive creator

“The matter of matriarchy within families is close to my heart. I think of my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and my aunts who all had a firm, beautiful hand in raising me. I long for more representations of these generational villages on screen, like those we experience in Ayoka Chenzira’s work. Ms. Chenzira’s Alma’s Rainbow is a gorgeous clarion call for our young Black girls, heralding the community, creativity and confidence that is the pride of our culture.” —Ava DuVernay, producer-director

Mizan Nunes (Ruby Gold) and Kim Weston-Moran (Alma Gold) in Ayoka Chenzira’s Alma’s Rainbow, a 1993 film restored by the Academy Film Archive with funding by Film Foundation, released by Milestone Films.

“I am delighted to have this opportunity to join you in presenting Dr. Ayo Chenzira’s first feature film. As you know, Alma’s Rainbow was one of the first full length dramatic narrative films produced and directed by an African American woman in the 20th century. Chenzira’s much celebrated and award winning early work is essential viewing today as much as it was when first released in 1994.” —Julie Dash, filmmaker

Victoria Gabrielle Platt (Rainbow Gold) and Kim Weston-Moran (Alma Gold) in Ayoka Chenzira’s Alma’s Rainbow, a 1993 film restored by the Academy Film Archive with funding by Film Foundation, released by Milestone Films.

Director’s Statement: “I could write a book on the response to Alma’s Rainbow. The film took a long time to make. I raised all the money independently. Distributors came and looked at the film, and there was a real split between what the men thought about it and what the women thought about it. The response by women has been overwhelmingly positive. The response by men, who write the checks, was that it was not an action piece. There was no Black pathology; there was no movie point of reference for three Black women driving a story. They also see that it is not a linear narrative in the tradition of exposition, climax and resolution. The editing and storytelling are based on the emotions of the characters. This is something that women understood and men did not.

Ayoka Chenzira

“We found a distributor who was not interested in selling it only to twenty-something White guys in the suburbs. Unfortunately, the arrangement with the distributor and our company did not work out; we did get the film back, however, unencumbered. This film grows out of mothers being afraid of their daughters’ own budding sensuality.” – Ayoka Chenzira, Ph.D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPHGweXT9JM

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, News, Q&A's, Repertory Cinema, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz

“An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film,” Buñuel’s ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ is back in theaters this Friday.

July 27, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

We are thrilled to open the new 50th anniversary 4K restoration of Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) this Friday at our Royal, Claremont, Glendale and Town Center theaters. The 1973 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film and 1974 BAFTA Award winner for Best Actress and Best Screenplay, Discreet Charm is one of surrealist master Buñuel’s late career triumphs, now fully restored and ready to meet a new audience craving the director’s particular flair for the anarchic skewering of ruling elites.

An ambassador and his bourgeois pals try to dine together again and again as circumstances, carnal and otherwise, intervene. Starring major French actors and Buñuel stalwarts Fernando Rey, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Stéphane Audran, Paul Frankeur, and Delphine Seyrig, with a screenplay written by Buñuel and long-time collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière (Diary of a Chambermaid, La Piscine), Discreet Charm brims with humorous satire and incisive criticism expressed in ways that can only be described as “Buñuelian.”

“Frightening, funny, profound, and mysterious…Luis Buñuel’s 1972 comic masterpiece, about three well-to-do couples who try and fail to have a meal together, is perhaps the most perfectly achieved and executed of all his late French films.” ~ Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

   

“Extraordinarily funny and perfectly acted.” ~ Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“Buñuel’s art is as insolent as ever. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a deeply funny movie, as a viewing experience it’s like walking across a perilous, sway little bridge whose guide rails periodically snatched away.” ~ David Denby, The Atlantic

“I had forgotten just how spooky the dream scenes are; Buñuel could have been a master of horror, or a great farceur. As it was, he was simply Bunuel, which is cause enough for celebration.” ~ Anthony Lane, The Independent

“Dreams nest within other dreams like so many Chinese puzzle boxes, while no dream belongs exclusively to a single dreamer, as though Bunuel were toying with the Jungian notion of the collective unconscious.” ~ Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine

“An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Manages to be totally surreal yet totally approachable. Quite amazing.” ~ David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“Take a look again at its dream sequences, especially the nocturnal one involving the young man in the side street, and you will see a master disturber still at work.” ~ Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture

“An absurdly comic assault on the meaningless social rituals and polite hypocrisies of the upper middle class.” ~ Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News

“This has to be one of the most completely realized comedies ever made, and, in its odd way, one of the most civilized.” ~ Charles Taylor, Salon.com

“Strange, wacky, funny, and tragic — and, on an incidental personal note, Discreet Charm is the movie that made me realize I was in love with movies.” ~ Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

“It combines a masterful command of the medium with a mischievous, anarchic sense of imaginative freedom.” ~ A.O. Scott,  New York Times

“Boasts one of the best titles in movie history and a cast to match.” ~ J. Hoberman, Village Voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A3bnal75aY

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: Claremont 5, Featured Films, Featured Post, Films, Glendale, News, Press, Repertory Cinema, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

Jewish Journal: “MY NAME IS SARA Depicts Jewish WWII Refugee in Ukraine.”

July 20, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

This Friday at the Royal and Town Center, we open My Name is Sara, a drama based on a true story from the Second World War about a young Polish Jew who survived by taking refuge with farmers and passing as a Christian. The director, Steven Oritt, and leading actress Zuzanna Surowy will participate in Q&As Friday, July 22 after the 7 PM at the Royal; Saturday, July 23 after the 4 PM show at the Royal and after the 7:10 PM show in Encino; and on Sunday, July 24, after the 1:10 PM in Encino and the 4 PM show at the Royal. Executive producer Mickey Shapiro (the real-life Sara’s son) will join them for the Friday Q&A.

The filmmaker recently spoke with Brian Fishbach of the Jewish Journal:

Three dead people hang from a tree with a sign that reads “We hid Jews.” It’s a scene that encapsulates the fear tactics the Nazis used to deter anyone from assisting the Jewish people during World War II.

The film My Name Is Sara tells the true and arduous story of a Jewish girl who survived by pretending not to be Jewish. It shows how Sara Góralniak (Zuzanna Surowy), a 12-year-old living in Poland, took refuge on a farm in Ukraine for two years while hiding every aspect of her Jewish identity. Every second that she was there she knew that if she were found, she and the family that protected her would be murdered.

“She was constantly living on eggshells that entire time, which is an obviously awful environment to have to live under,” said director Steven Oritt.

Throughout the film, Sara endears herself to the family who allows her to work on their farm: Pavlo (Eryk Lubos), his wife Nadya (Michalina Olszańska) and their two young sons. Sara proves herself to be a capable farmhand and a non-Jew by reciting the Lord’s Prayer, eating pork, saying she’s 14 and even assuming a new name. She endures skepticism from the family that has taken her in, while also slowly proving herself useful and not threatening their safety.

There are scenes of animals being slaughtered, as is normal on any farm. But there’s humanity in those moments, which is in contrast to the graphic and sadistic threats and murders of the townspeople at the hands of the Nazis.

The ensemble is strong, making every peril Sara and the family confront vivid and poignant, their eyes and body language expressing the characters’ fear and determination. No moment illustrates this better than Sara, riding a horse drawn buggy into town with Pavlo and Nadya’s family, sees three townspeople hanging from a tree for hiding Jews. Both Nadya and Sara cover the two little boys’ eyes. Sara’s dreams of reuniting with her family turn to nightmares when their reunion is discovered by Nazis.

Surprisingly, the starring role of Sara was Surowy’s first time acting. Thrust into a movie set and working in English, which is not her first language, Surowy’s experience mirrors Sara’s. There’s a fear, a wariness, to her performance, that’s most effective when Sara, who had never worked on a farm or been away from her family, is forced to adapt to her new world.

“We weren’t going to make the film if we didn’t find somebody that we felt as though could pull it off,” said Oritt.

While the two previous films he directed were documentaries, this is the first scripted film Oritt’s directed. “When I first interviewed [the real] Sara, the first question I asked was ‘How does a child, a 12-year old, survive such a thing?’ Because it was an unimaginable event. How could she do this constantly, making the right choice happen? And she said immediately, ‘by listening and not talking.’”

Read the full piece on the Jewish Journal site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40UnffwvrP4

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: Actor in Person, Featured Films, Featured Post, Filmmaker in Person, Films, News, Press, Q&A's, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

Winning Australian sex comedy HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN opens July 22 at the Monica Film Center.

July 13, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore 1 Comment

How to Please a Woman stars the brilliant comic actress Sally Phillips, who was killed as the Finnish prime minister Minna Häkkinen on Veep. A funny, heartwarming liberation story for women who have been afraid to ask for what they want – at home, at work and in the bedroom. Phillips plays Gina, how has lost her job and feels stuck and frustrated in a passionless marriage. She has always lived life on the sidelines – that is, until she is met with a groundbreaking business opportunity of converting a team of well-built moving guys into well-built housecleaners.

“Arriving like a horny bus to a public transport orgy, this is the second comedy in a matter of weeks, after Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, about women hiring sex workers. Be that a happy coincidence or the start of a trend, it’s cheering that both films are so entertaining, body positive and upbeat but still entirely different experiences.” ~ Leslie Felperin, The Guardian

“This is a rare film that makes you feel lighter, fresher, and fully revitalized after watching it.” ~ Andrew F. Peirce, The Curb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOhZZBIW6k

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: Featured Films, Featured Post, Films, Press, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz

Eat, Bray, Love? Best Actress Award-winning French romantic comedy MY DONKEY, MY LOVER, & I opens July 22.

July 6, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Perfect light fare for the season, the French romantic comedy My Donkey, My Lover, & I follows delightfully zany schoolteacher Antoinette (Laure Calamy of Call My Agent, who won the Best Actress César Award for this charming, funny performance). Antoinette’s vacation plans with her married lover, Vladimir (Benjamin Lavernhe), are ruined when his wife (Olivia Côte) books a surprise hiking trip. On an impulse, Antonette heads to the same mountainous region of the Cévennes National Park where Vladimir and his family are headed, with a hiking itinerary inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1878 memoir Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes. Completely unversed in the ways of the wilderness, Antoinette forges quick bonds with her rental donkey, Patrick, and several offbeat fellow travelers, as she poignantly and uproariously stumbles towards self-revelation and independence. Take a vicarious summer vacation to the south of French at the Royal and Town Center starting July 22 and the Claremont and Newhall starting July 29.

“In a Paris primary school, a class of eight-year-olds sit behind their desks, eyes squeezed shut, counting to 20. At the back of the room their teacher, Antoinette (Laure Calamy), is getting undressed, slipping into silk frock for the school concert. “It’s not too much?” she asks the pupils. She’s having an affair with one of the dads – he’s married. Thus, with unparalleled Frenchness, begins this easygoing, warm comedy following Antoinette as she accidentally-on-purpose goes on the same donkey-trekking holiday as her lover’s family. As Antoinette bonds with her donkey, the movie evolves from gentle farce to journey of emotional growth. You might call it Eat Bray, Love – except it’s European, so there’s less pseudo-spiritual self-discovery and more drunken snogging…Calamy really grounds the movie with her funny, generous performance.” ~ Leslie Felperin, Guardian

“Calamy’s performance has rightly been awarded for its superb shading, but let’s not forget the donkey, brilliant as her straight man. Who says nobody likes a smart ass?” ~ Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PJppz7vDAs

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: Claremont 5, Featured Films, Films, Newhall, Press, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“Heartfelt charmer” COSTA BRAVA, LEBANON opens July 22 in Santa Monica.

July 6, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Costa Brava, Lebanon is the directorial debut of Lebanese actress and filmmaker Mounia Akl, starring Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) and Saleh Bakri (The Band’s Visit). A keen and darkly comic commentary on Lebanon’s waste crisis and unsettled political landscape, Costa Brava, Lebanon won the prestigious NETPAC Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the BFI London Film Festival. We open the film July 22 at the Monica Film Center.

The film captures the joys and frustrations of a close-knit family with an intimacy that feels startlingly natural, and sets them against a sharply drawn backdrop of environmental crisis. In the not-so-distant future, the free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in an idyllic mountain home. Without warning, the government starts to build a garbage landfill right outside their fence, intruding on their domestic utopia and bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so does tension in the household, revealing a long-simmering division between those family members who wish to defend or abandon the mountain oasis they have built.

“A heartfelt charmer. The gentle wisdom it contains is attuned to country, family and lifestyle choices as abstract concepts, as all the things we mean by the word “home,” which is where Akl’s heart is.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety

“A stellar near-future family drama. Mounia Akl’s feature debut comfortably occupies a space between Beasts of the Southern Wild and Honeyland. Her film is partly magical, partly real, but total fiction, because fiction is the best way to capture the tragicomic clown show that unfolds throughout.” – Andrew Crump, The Playlist

“Something uniquely special and a perfect, alluring example of all that is wrong with the world we’re living in.” – Hanna B., Film Threat

“A terrific feature debut… works both as a compelling domestic drama and an elegant political allegory.” – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXEWqGJne2o

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: Featured Films, Featured Post, Films, News, Press, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 37
  • Next Page »

Search

Featured Posts

“Death will cease to be absolute.” THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING opens August 19 with the director in person.

#BringBackMovieReviews: Marketplace on Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre

Instagram

laemmletheatres

Laemmle Theatres
ONE NIGHT ONLY (8/17)! The powerful #Sundance docu ONE NIGHT ONLY (8/17)! The powerful #Sundance documentary FREE CHOL SOO LEE, about a Korean American who was falsely convicted of a 1973 murder in San Francisco. "Extraordinarily moving…this is what documentary filmmaking should strive for." -RogerEbert.com | Tickets: laemmle.com | Laemmle Monica Film Center - Laemmle Glendale Laemmle Claremont 5
"Bodies Bodies Bodies is one of those movies that "Bodies Bodies Bodies is one of those movies that wins you over scene by scene, before sealing the deal with its marvelous, ludicrous ending." - @TIME Magazine | Directed by #HalinaReijn #A24  #BodiesBodiesBodies | Tickets: laemmle.com
SHARP STICK is "supremely funny. As heartfelt as i SHARP STICK is "supremely funny. As heartfelt as it is provocative." @VanityFair | "Dunham's film blossoms into something beautifully strange and brutally honest." -RogerEbert.com | Now Playing and Expanding at @laemmletheatres -- Tickets: laemmle.com
Anita Rocha da Silveira’s neon-tinged, genre-ben Anita Rocha da Silveira’s neon-tinged, genre-bending thriller #MEDUSA is a “powerful contemporary reimagining of the girl gang movie... Wild, glamorous, and marked with a dark, slick fury” @AWFJ | Opens 7/29 at Laemmle NoHo | Tickets: 🎟️ laemmle.com
Load More... Follow us on Instagram

Recent Posts

  • A LOVE STORY: Veteran character actor Dale Dickey shines in the role of her career.
  • “Death will cease to be absolute.” THREE MINUTES: A LENGTHENING opens August 19 with the director in person.
  • #BringBackMovieReviews: Marketplace on Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre
  • “A gorgeous clarion call for our young Black girls, heralding the community, creativity and confidence that is the pride of our culture.” ~ Ava DuVernay on ALMA’S RAINBOW, opening August 9.
  • “An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film,” Buñuel’s ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ is back in theaters this Friday.
  • Promote the general welfare: mask against COVID.

Archive

Laemmle TheatresFollow

Laemmle Theatres
laemmleLaemmle Theatres@laemmle·
12 Aug

ONE NIGHT (8/17!) The powerful #Sundance documentary FREE CHOL SOO LEE, about a Korean American who was falsely convicted of a 1973 murder. "Extraordinarily moving…this is what documentary filmmaking should strive for." -RogerEbert.com | Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/free-chol-soo-lee

Reply on Twitter 1558224415489417216Retweet on Twitter 1558224415489417216Like on Twitter 15582244154894172163Twitter 1558224415489417216
laemmleLaemmle Theatres@laemmle·
10 Aug

"Bodies Bodies Bodies is one of those movies that wins you over scene by scene, before sealing the deal with its marvelous, ludicrous ending." - @TIME Magazine - @halinareijn @A24 #BodiesBodiesBodies
Tickets: https://www.laemmle.com/film/bodies-bodies-bodies

Reply on Twitter 1557506486938607617Retweet on Twitter 1557506486938607617Like on Twitter 1557506486938607617Twitter 1557506486938607617
laemmleLaemmle Theatres@laemmle·
9 Aug

SHARP STICK is "supremely funny. As heartfelt as it is provocative." @VanityFair | "Dunham's film blossoms into something beautifully strange and brutally honest." -RogerEbert.com | Now Playing and Expanding at @laemmle -- Tickets: https://www.laemmle.com/film/sharp-stick

Reply on Twitter 1557079869821001728Retweet on Twitter 15570798698210017282Like on Twitter 15570798698210017282Twitter 1557079869821001728
laemmleLaemmle Theatres@laemmle·
28 Jul

Anita Rocha da Silveira’s neon-tinged, genre-bending thriller #MEDUSA is a “powerful contemporary reimagining of the girl gang movie... Wild, glamorous, and marked with a dark, slick fury” @AWFJ | Opens 7/29 at @noho7 | Tickets: 🎟️ https://www.laemmle.com/film/medusa-0

Reply on Twitter 1552767993360285697Retweet on Twitter 155276799336028569712Like on Twitter 155276799336028569765Twitter 1552767993360285697
laemmleLaemmle Theatres@laemmle·
23 Jul

NOW PLAYING! MY DONKEY, MY LOVER, AND I - Best Actress #Cesar winner Laure "Calamy delivers a beautifully open performance at the center of an utterly winning comedy." @latimes | @laemmleroyal & @towncenter5 | 7/29 @claremont5 - Tickets: 🎟️ https://www.laemmle.com/film/my-donkey-my-lover-i

Reply on Twitter 1550919053719605248Retweet on Twitter 15509190537196052481Like on Twitter 15509190537196052482Twitter 1550919053719605248
Load More...