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“THELMA is a terrific picture, and one that I hope gets a ton of support from audiences.  It is a warm and funny film, and the central performances from veteran actors June Squibb and Richard Roundtree are precious.” ~ Greg Laemmle on the winning new comedy.

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I don’t often step up and offer personal thoughts on new openings.  After all, we are opening several films every week, and we love all our children equally.  Also, those of you who have spotted me at the theatre (after ONLY IN THEATERS, I’ve sacrificed any anonymity I might have enjoyed) know that sometimes I’m catching up on films together with you at regular screenings.  Not surprisingly, I prefer to see things in a theatre and don’t like to watch things via screening links, even if offered in advance.
But with THELMA, we have a film that I did get to see at an early festival showing, and I LOVED it so much that I can’t help but share my enthusiasm.  Even after making allowance for the euphoria that can come with a festival screening, I think THELMA is a terrific picture, and one that I hope gets a ton of support from audiences.  It is a warm and funny film, and the central performances from veteran actors June Squibb and Richard Roundtree are precious. We open the film on Friday at all but one of our theaters.
Mind you, I’m not alone in being a fan of this film.   Since it premiered at Sundance earlier this year, critics have been almost unanimous in their support.  The film is at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is pretty impressive for a comedy.  Here’s a sampling of some of the reviews:
“Holding out until the age of 94 for her first lead role, June Squibb proves what her legion of devoted fans has always known: she’s a superstar.” ~ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

“Bolstered by some cheeky action tropes, including twists, chases, gunplay, and even an explosion, Thelma is more than a winsome romp. It’s a real thrill.” ~ Kristy Puchko, Mashable

“Thelma’s adventures with her assisted-living chum (the late Richard Roundtree) generated some of the best laughs from any film in the fest, and those scenes between grandma and grandson touched my soul.” ~ Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

“Margolin hails from improv comedy and he’s based Thelma on his own grandma; there’s much love and humour in this most unlikely of action movies.” ~ Peter Howell, Toronto Star

“It’s likely to draw laughs if you’ve ever coached someone on how to use a computer, tears if you’ve ever loved an elderly person who held tightly to their dignity. And Squibb is as understatedly funny and commanding as you’d expect.” ~ Adrian Horton, Guardian

“Although the film’s action tropes are played for laughs, there’s a real sweetness under all the gags. A lesser actress could’ve turned Thelma into a retirement home caricature, but Squibb, of course, brings a thoughtful and sweet nuance to her heroine.” ~ Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

A big part of the film is about the relationship between Grandmother and Grandson.  And as someone who was fortunate to have a close relationship with my grandmother, that really resonated with me, including the issue of helping an older generation learn to adopt to new technologies.  When Thelma in the film mistakenly posts to Instagram, I think back to my grandmother not understanding how answering machines worked, and leaving long messages on the tape thinking that I had picked up her call but was not responding.   Of course, if I’m so blessed, I can also see myself in the film, 20 years from now trying to figure out whatever fresh hell the tech geniuses of the world have foisted on us.  Like the Tralfalmadorians in Vonnegut’s SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, we know what horrors the future will bring us, but we have just surrendered to the idea that we are powerless to stop it from happening.As humans, we know that aging is inevitable. And that certain aspects of aging may also be inevitable. Physical frailty. Diminished mental acuity. The loss of friends and things (work, social clubs, etc.) that keep us connected to the broader world.

Is this inevitable? We probably can do something to change or ameliorate the situation. But will we? THELMA certainly shows us one badass grandma who isn’t about to take things lying down!

So maybe that is what is what I love most about THELMA.  I can see myself as all of the generations represented in the film.  And, just maybe, I can hope that I will be as feisty and resourceful as Thelma when I get to that age.  ~ Greg Laemmle

Here’s Ms. Squibb’s recent interview on the Today Show:

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT 60th Anniversary Screening June 25 with pop music expert Domenic Priore.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the 60th anniversary of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964). Starring the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania, we’ll screen this rock ‘n’ roll movie classic on Tuesday, June 25, 7:30 PM at the historic Royal theatre in West Los Angeles. Directed by Richard Lester from an Oscar-nominated original screenplay by Alun Owen, the milestone film was also aptly nominated for musical scoring. (George Martin lost to Andre Previn for My Fair Lady.)

After the Beatles exploded onto the global stage by early 1964, the British pop group (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr) conquered the American pop music charts with record-breaking domination, and their appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show” on American television in February that year cemented their phenomenal popularity. A movie starring the quartet was then put into production in England, planned for a summer release. The finished film, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, portrays 36 hours in the life of the group as they prepare for a televised variety show concert. Director Richard Lester utilizes several techniques in a semi-documentary style, reinforced by Gilbert Taylor’s black-and-white cinematography, all on dazzling display in the high energy musical comedy.

Lester’s approach was fully embraced by film critic Andrew Sarris, who wrote in the Village Voice, “A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (is)… the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals, the brilliant crystallization of such diverse cultural particles as pop music, rock ‘n’ roll, cinema-verite, the nouvelle vague, free cinema, and studied spontaneity.” Roger Ebert was equally impressed, citing it as “one of the great life-affirming landmarks of the movies.” Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, one of the powerful tastemakers of the era, also raved, calling it “a whale of a comedy…a wonderfully lively and altogether good-natured spoof of the juvenile madness called Beatlemania.” Comparing the Beatles’ clowning to the Marx Brothers, Crowther enthusiastically endorsed the movie as “rollicking, madcap fun.”

The film was highly influential, spawning numerous imitators including the pop group the Monkees‘ television series later in the decade, and the advent of music videos in the 1980s. Lester went onto a long career, helming the second Beatles’ film Help, The Knack, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Petulia, and The Three (and Four) Musketeers among others. The Beatles, of course, became the most influential and innovative pop musicians of the twentieth century, achieving that lofty status in a single decade, the 1960s, before going their separate ways. A HARD DAY’S NIGHT showcases their dynamic music early in their careers, and, as pointed out by TV Guide, “ the strength of their songcraft is stirring.”

Our guest Domenic Priore is an author, pop music historian, and pop culture commentator. He has contributed to several books and is the co-author of “Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood.”

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT plays one night only Tuesday, June 25, 7:30 PM at the historic Royal Theatre, celebrating its centennial year, operating continuously as a movie theatre since opening in 1924. Our next attractions include The Secret Garden with guest Agnieszka Holland on June 29, and A Summer Place with film music historian Steven C. Smith on July 11.

I USED TO BE FUNNY starring Rachel Sennott opens Friday.

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Actress Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Bottoms) returns to Laemmle screens this Friday at the Monica Film Center, NoHo 7 and Town Center 5 with I Used to Be Funny. She plays an aspiring stand-up comedian and au pair struggling with PTSD as she decides whether or not to join the search for Brooke (Olga Petsa), a missing teenage girl she used to nanny.
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“Rachel Sennott has the greatest face. It cannot lie, no matter what her characters are saying. That honesty makes her ideal for films with tricky tones… And it’s essential to I Used to Be Funny.” – Johanna Schneller, Globe and Mail
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“In her film debut, [writer-director Ally Pankiw] delivers a full and fulfilling narrative arc that is anchored by a surprisingly complex performance from Sennott.” – Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service

“Pankiw and Sennott bring Sam’s story to life with an inventive yet sensitive approach, creating a sympathetic portrait of someone learning to cope with the tragedies of life and embrace their funny side despite it all.” – Monica Castillo, RogerEbert.com

“A former stand-up herself, Sennott holds a stage with command.” – Amy Nicholson, New York Times

“Healing is not linear, and I Used to Be Funny adeptly displays that process, exploring Sam’s pain without making the experience of watching the film painful, and honestly refreshing exploration of a subject that’s so often brutal to witness.” – Jenny Nulf, Austin Chronicle

“Sennott is perfectly cast, portraying Sam as simultaneously lifeless and hilarious with her default blasé attitude and dry-wit humor.” – Weiting Liu, Little White Lies

The “unequivocally beautiful” Senegalese film BANEL & ADAMA opens Friday at the Royal.

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A rare debut feature that premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and Senegal’s official submission to the 96th Academy Awards, Banel & Adama is a lush and lyrical West African dreamscape, a tragic romance that soars to the heights of longing and descends deep into the realm of myth as it sets its protagonists’ perfect everlasting love on a collision course with their community’s traditions. We’re proud to open it this Friday at the Royal. Click here to see the trailer.

“Unequivocally beautiful. Sy paints breathtaking scenes with her camera, demonstrating a gorgeous way of seeing the world.” – Lovia Gyarke, Hollywood Reporter

“A striking debut that puts Sy on the map. The combination of ethereal voiceover with nature at its most breathtaking evokes our cinema’s philosophical high priest, Terrence Malick.” – Sophie Monks Kaufman, Indiewire

 

“Transfixing… a tragic, evocative love story.” – Robert Daniels, OkayAfrica

“In Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s impressive debut, she’s saying we’re more than flesh and blood – and that if things are falling apart, we can still make sense of it because we’re storytellers.” – Steve Pond, TheWrap

“The directorial debut of French-Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy, this is one of those pictures to which the phrase “every frame a painting” might apply.” – Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

“A cosmic love story. With its balletic choreography of performance and statuesque visual approach, Sy’s film is a work of remarkable composition.”  – Little White Lies

“Wonderfully photographed and vehemently acted, the film is full of ideas. An impressive piece of work from a natural filmmaker.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“It really gets under your skin.” – Damon Wise, Deadline

“It’s a remarkable performance from Mane, who conveys the mutinous, deluded anger in a young woman who would bend the world around her to her will if she could.” – Wendy Ide, Screen International

THE LOVERS (LES AMANTS) 65th Anniversary Screenings June 19.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present 65th anniversary screenings of Louis Malle’s ‘The Lovers‘ (‘Les Amants’) starring Jeanne Moreau, on June 19 for one night only at 7:00 PM in West Los Angeles, Encino, Glendale, Claremont, and Santa Clarita. When first released in the United States in 1959, the film became an art house sensation with frank sexuality and nudity that inflamed the prudish American censors. Those censors, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and the repressive Hollywood Production Code wielded considerable influence at that time, preventing American films from exploring adult themes in a provocative manner.

 

The film tells the story of a bored and neglected French upper-middle-class wife and mother (Moreau) who falls for a young archaeologist (Jean-Marc Bory), commencing an affair just hours after their initial meeting. Their extended seminude lovemaking scene was the incendiary element that sparked conservative outrage and crackdowns on theaters showing the film. In one notorious case that was later resolved by the Supreme Court, a suburban Cleveland theater manager was arrested on obscenity charges. When other Ohio communities also banned the film, Variety reported, “It looked like Ohio, for a time, might declare war on France.”

Louis Malle made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller ‘Elevator to the Gallows’ in 1958, also starring Moreau, so the sensual drama ‘The Lovers‘ as his second film “marked the stylistically conscious Malle apart from his tear-away Nouvelle Vague colleagues” according to Time Out. In ‘The Lovers,’ adapted by novelist Louise de Vilmorin from a 19th century short story, Malle presents a study of “bourgeois emptiness and sexual yearnings,” illuminated by the deft black-and-white cinematography of Henri Decae. Malle would go onto an esteemed career that included such notable films as ‘Murmur of the Heart,’ ‘Lacombe Lucien,’ ‘Atlantic City,’ and ‘Au Revoir Les Enfants’ over the next three decades.

Although she had been acting in films for a decade, ‘The Lovers‘ established Moreau’s screen persona as a “commanding, willful, and sultry presence,” propelling her to international stardom. Her career highlights in the 1960s include memorable performances in ‘Jules and Jim,’ ‘La Notte,’ ‘Diary of a Chambermaid’ and ‘The Bride Wore Black.’ As a legacy, the commercial success of ‘The Lovers’ helped popularize foreign language films in the United States in that era, now regarded as the golden age of the art house.

“It is incredible to think that Malle was only 25 years old when he made ‘The Lovers,’ as it seems to hold the wisdom and erotic impulses of a much older man.” ~ Justine Smith, Vague Visages

“A full-tilt melodrama with the passionate vehemence of Victor Hugo or Charles Dickens,” KIDNAPPED opens Friday.

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This Friday we open the intense Italian drama Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara at the Royal and Town Center, which is based on the true story of a Jewish family in 19th century Bologna whose young son was secretly baptized as a baby by his nurse. Years later, the cardinal orders the boy abducted so he can receive a Catholic education. The scandal received wide attention at the time and now gets a terrific film adaptation by Marco Bellocchio (The Wedding Director, The Traitor, Marx Can Wait) which, among other accolades, earned a Palme d’Or nomination at Cannes and a Best Foreign Film nomination at the César Awards.
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“It is a full-tilt melodrama with the passionate vehemence of Victor Hugo or Charles Dickens, which lays bare an ugly formative episode of Europe’s Catholic church: an affair of antisemitism and child abuse.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
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“The director, Marco Bellocchio, anchors the period with a somber visual elegance and employs surreal gestures to tease out the psychological and spiritual aspects of the tragedy.” ~ Lisa Kennedy, New York Times
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“[Edgardo Mortara’s] tortuous journey gets the respect it deserves in this sensitive and beautifully realized drama.” ~ Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
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“With stately restraint, Bellocchio manages to put the audience in an ever-tightening chokehold of tension and outrage.” ~ Wendy Ide, Observer

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“The performances, meanwhile, are exemplary, the screenplay powerful, and each scene is lit like high-era Caravaggio.” ~ Kevin Maher, Times

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“Kidnapped is an expertly paced, gorgeously shot and evocative true story of faith, family, and the power of people coming together to right deeply ingrained wrongs.” ~ Barry Levitt, Empire Magazine

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The Cold War wasn’t just an arms race: TAKING VENICE opens Friday with filmmaker Amei Wallach in person.

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This Friday at the Royal and Town Center and June 7 at the Laemmle Glendale we’ll be opening Amei Wallach’s fascinating new documentary about the 1964 Venice Biennale Taking Venice, which, according to Alissa Wilkinson of the New York Times, “feels almost like science fiction, or maybe fantasy. Imagine the U.S. government taking such a keen interest in the fine arts that there may or may not have been an attempt to rig a major international prize for an American artist. A painter, no less!”

Ms. Wallach will participate in a Q&A at the Royal after the 7:20pm screening this Friday.

Last month the Times published an advance piece about Taking Venice by Nina Siegal headlined “Did America Cheat to Win the 1964 Venice Biennale? A new documentary takes a hard look at the persistent rumors around Robert Rauschenberg’s win in Venice in the midst of the Cold War.” Here’s an excerpt:

Did a conspiracy by U.S. State Department officials and art dealers secure a prize for painting for Robert Rauschenberg at the Venice Biennale in 1964?

Unconfirmed rumors of some sort of nefarious plot to that effect swirled in international art circles for years.

The documentary filmmaker Amei Wallach had heard them, and she was curious to know if they held any truth.

“This moment is a kind of urban legend in the art world,” said Wallach in a telephone interview from her home in New York on Long Island. “It was a flashpoint. The story goes: The Biennale had been a Eurocentric party, and this was the first time an outsider broke the code.”

Using archival footage and interviews with important figures involved in the 1964 Biennale, Wallach, the longtime chief art critic for Newsday and an occasional contributor to The New York Times, tried to unravel the mystery, exploring the charged political atmosphere that engendered those persistent claims.

The result is Zeitgeist Films’ Taking Venice, which will have its theatrical release next month in New York and Los Angeles.

The film revisits the Biennale and recreates the scene in which Rauschenberg’s artworks were brought through the Grand Canal by boat to get to the U.S. Pavilion in the Giardini, just in time to qualify for the award.

It also includes shots of the American art delegation flying into Venice in a U.S. military cargo plane filled with monumental Pop Art, and the opening party at the U.S. Consulate.

Wallach interviewed the leader of the 1964 Biennale team, Alice Denney, a Washington insider, who worked with the curator Alan Solomon and the art dealer Leo Castelli to bring Rauschenberg to victory.

“We didn’t cheat,” Denney said in the film, while conceding that a United States agency established to promote American dominance during the Cold War organized the art exhibition with an explicitly political agenda, to ensure that the show would reflect the United States well on the global stage. “We thought with Rauschenberg we had a very good chance.”

“One of the intriguing subplots of the Biennale all through the decades, more than a century, is how art and politics overlap,” said Philip Rylands, former director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, in the film. “There’s a kind of high altitude moment with the American presence in 1964. It reverberates through history.”

Click here to read the full piece.

“They don’t know who Fassbinder is and they don’t know who Éric Rohmer is and they don’t know who Kurosawa is. They think they’re modern and they haven’t seen DO THE RIGHT THING. Are you kidding?” Ethan Hawke on encouraging young people to watch older movies.

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Directed and co-written by four-time Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke, Wildcat invites the audience to weave in and out of celebrated Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor’s mind as she ponders the great questions of her writing: Can scandalous art still serve God? Does suffering precede all greatness? Can illness be a blessing? In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother Regina (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father’s life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, this crisis pitches her imagination into a feverish exploration of belief. As she dives deeper into her craft, the lines between reality, imagination, and faith begin to blur, allowing Flannery to ultimately come to peace with her situation and heal a strained relationship with her mother.

We open Wildcat Friday at the Laemmle Claremont, Monica Film Center, Newhall and Town Center and Monday at the NoHo. During his recent press tour to support the release, Hawke spoke passionately about seeing older movies, including his personal favorite (Warren Beatty’s Reds). With one exception (see if you can spot it), we wholeheartedly agree. He name checks some of the greats, including Kurosawa (we’ll be screening Seven Samurai in July) and Fassbinder (we’ll be showing The Marriage of Maria Braun in November as part of our Anniversary Classics series.) What’s more, on May 22 we’ll be screening one of his first movies, Dead Poets Society. From MovieMaker Magazine:

Ethan Hawke hopes he doesn’t sound like the “old man yells at cloud” meme when he says this, but he says it anyway.

“The thing that I don’t understand — and this makes me sound old — but what I don’t understand about young people today is why they don’t watch more movies,” he tells MovieMaker.

“I mean, they’re perfectly willing to binge watch, for weeks of their life, something they know is really super okay [while] they could be watching Badlands as we speak,” he adds.

Hawke is particularly shocked by the lack of film education in young directors, specifically around the greats, like German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder known for Love Is Colder Than Death (1969) and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972).

“They don’t know who Fassbinder is and they don’t know who Éric Rohmer is and they don’t know who Kurosawa is. They think they’re modern and they haven’t seen Do the Right Thing. Are you kidding? It’s on your damn phone, watch it!” he says. “But they’d somehow rather watch some TV show that came out yesterday that they won’t remember.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: Several years ago, David Lynch succinctly addressed the idea of watching a movie on a telephone.]

Make no mistake: “I say all that not to sound crotchety,” he stresses.

“But there’s so much excellence in the past, so many of these thoughts of what we’re all going through emotionally and what we’re looking for — authenticity in our lives and healing — all these common threads of humanity people have been talking about for centuries. Cinema is a young art form, but it’s 100 years old now, and there’s a lot of great work, and you can rip it off madly.”

For those young filmmakers who might be interested in taking some of Hawke’s advice, he also suggests looking to your collaborators for recommendations. Like a director of photography, for example.

“The fun thing about having a great DP is the more you explain what you’re trying to drive at, they can turn you on to, ‘Well, you know who’s also into that idea — let’s watch this film. Let’s steal that shot. That’s a great shot.’ I really enjoy that,” he says.

“But I’m always amazed at how often young people who say, ‘I love movies and I want to make movies’ don’t actually watch movies.”

Click here to read the whole piece.