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Upcoming Reel Talk with Stephen Farber screenings: ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET; IT AIN’T OVER; BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER; YOU HURT MY FEELINGS..

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Veteran film critic Stephen Farber’s popular Reel Talk screening series is now based at our Royal Theatre, where you can see a variety of outstanding films from the U.S. and around the world, including many top awards contenders, and then meet the filmmakers for provocative and revealing discussions led by Stephen. Recent guests and titles have included Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano, writer-director and producer of Moving On; John Scheinfeld and Bobby Colomby, director and lead band member from What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?; Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern, screenwriters of 80 for Brady; and Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska, director/co-writer and co-writer/producer of the Oscar-nominated film EO. Next up:

April 24: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; May 1: It Ain’t Over; May 3: Book Club: The Next Chapter; May 15: You Hurt My Feelings.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS? opens March 31.

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A fascinating documentary/political thriller with a classic rock band at the heart of the action, What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? involves the U.S. State Department, the Nixon White House, the governments of Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland and documentary footage that has been suppressed for over 50 years by one or all of the above. We open the film March 31 at the Monica Film Center with special one-night screenings and Q&As April 3 at the NoHo, April 4 at the Claremont and April 5 at the Glendale. The full Q&A schedule is here.

Director’s statement:

In early 2020, just prior to the worldwide explosion of COVID 19, Bobby Colomby, an acquaintance and  founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears, called me for a friendly check in. As a fan of the band in its  heyday, I innocently asked him, “What the hell happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?” 

Bobby proceeded to tell me the story of the events surrounding the Iron Curtain Tour. He mentioned that a documentary film crew had accompanied the band to shoot material for what was intended to be a theatrical documentary. That film was never released and Bobby had no idea what became of it. 

  

I loved the mystery and intrigue behind this story, but would we be able to find that documentary footage or enough audio/visual material to tell the story effectively? I also love a good treasure hunt. So, as the  pandemic was shutting the country down, my team and I began a search. Soon enough, we found references to National General Television Productions as having been the company behind the  documentary and that their crew had shot 65 hours of footage during the Iron Curtain Tour. 

We cast a wide net around the world to locate this footage, contacting anyone and everyone who had a connection to National General or the film crew, as well as private archives, independent storage facilities and film labs. It was one dead end after another. It appeared that the footage and related elements had completely vanished.  

And then, finally, success. While searching for the raw footage, we stumbled upon a pristine print of a  53-minute version of the documentary that had been edited for television syndication. This was an  unexpected find as no such version was ever broadcast. A new high-definition transfer was made from this print and watching it provided a fascinating time capsule of our nation, the world, and this group of nine young men on an unprecedented adventure from 50 years earlier. I knew then we had the makings of  a fantastic documentary and, indeed, 40 minutes of the “lost” Blood, Sweat & Tears documentary is the  backbone of our film. 

Some additional heavy digging led us to the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where we ultimately uncovered five raw audio tapes that were recorded live during concerts on the Iron Curtain Tour. The band had a mobile 8-track machine on the tour and we later determined that their engineer had recorded a total of 18 tapes, but only these five were found. 

Our search into the private collections of band members and others who were on the Iron Curtain Tour yielded hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia. I never gave up hope of finding the 65 hours of original footage. However, after two full years of chasing down every lead and digging  deep into vaults across the country as well as government storage facilities in Washington, D.C., Maryland  and Virginia, we came up empty. The mystery of what became of that material remains.

This film sheds light on history through a fascinating lens. It’s not a biography of the band, nor is it just for music lovers or fans of Blood, Sweat & Tears. It’s a compelling story that explores a unique moment in time and has surprisingly powerful resonance and parallels to what’s going on in the world today. ~ John Scheinfeld

Farewell, Chaim Topol.

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The brilliant actor Topol, who so completely embodied the character of Tevye the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof that he went on to play him literally thousands of times – passed away last week in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Sir, for bringing so much joy to the world, for your humanitarian work, and for making our many Christmas Eve Fiddler Sing-Along screenings such memorable and meaningful experiences.
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Margalit Fox ended her New York Times obituary by sharing this 2009 Topol quote about the meaning he got in return from playing the role: “I did Fiddler a long time thinking that this was a story about the Jewish people. But now I’ve been performing all over the world. And the fantastic thing is wherever I’ve been — India, Japan, England, Greece, Egypt — people come up to me after the show and say, ‘This is our story as well.’”
Last year’s fine documentary ‘Fiddler’s’ Journey to the Big Screen is an excellent place to learn more about Topol’s masterpiece. (Did you know Frank Sinatra was considered for the lead role?!)

“A pity party that has no business being so much fun,” UNA VITA DIFFICLE opens in the U.S. after a 62 year wait.

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The long-awaited U.S. premiere of Dino Risi’s Una Vita Difficile, starring one of the most beloved of all Italian actors, Alberto Sordi (Mafioso, Il Boom, Fellini’s The White Sheik and I Vitelloni, etc.), was greeted with big crowds and admiring reviews when Rialto Pictures opened its restoration in New York last month. Laemmle Theatres opens the film about a resistance fighter-turned-journalist and his wife (Lea Massari) navigating life in post-war Italy on Friday, March 17 at the Royal and Town Center and March 24 at the Monica Film Center and Laemmle Glendale.

The New York Times’ critic A.O. Scott hailed it as “a stellar specimen of commedia all’italiana.” In his review for Air Mail, Michael Sragow proclaimed, “Alberto Sordi triumphs at jet-black comedy…(he’s) Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their prime, rolled into one.”

In Italy, Una Vita Difficile has long been cherished as a highlight of the 1950s and 60s golden age of Italian comedy, which also gave the world Big Deal on Madonna Street, Divorce Italian Style, Mafioso, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and Risi’s own Il Sorpasso (made the year after Una Vita Difficile). While these and others were major arthouse hits in the U.S., Una Vita Difficile was inexplicably never released here…until now.

 

“A stellar specimen of commedia all’Italiana by a true maestro of the form. Pulsate[s] with the breathlessness and disorientation of a country simultaneously grappling with the past and speeding toward a confusing future…Belongs in the company of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Risi’s Il Sorpasso. It also stands by itself as an exuberant bad time, a pity party that has no business being so much fun.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“It sounds absurd to even contemplate: an unreleased 1961 epic romance starring the legendary Alberto Sordi that tackles the decades after WWII — a mixture of sentiment and grand historic sweep that the Italians always did so well — that’s somehow just getting a U.S. release.” — Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

“Risi’s deft seriocomic panorama, from Mussolini’s fall to the rise of the postwar Roman oligarchy…Alberto Sordi triumphs at jet-black comedy when the antihero fails as an idealist, a husband, even as a sell-out. The closest America has come to Sordi is Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their prime, rolled into one.” — Michael Sragow, Air Mail

“John le Carré by way of David Lynch,” PACIFICTION opens Friday at the Royal, March 10 in Glendale.

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The gorgeous political thriller Pacifiction, from Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra (The Death of Louis XIV), was nominated for nine César Awards (winning two, Best Cinematography and Best Actor for Benoît Magimel). It’s set in Tahiti and follows the French government official De Roller (Magimel). A.O. Scott of the New York Times described the character this way:

“Played by Benoît Magimel with shambling delicacy, De Roller is like the French cousin of a character you might find in a Graham Greene novel or a tale by Joseph Conrad. He is a world-weary, somewhat dissolute avatar of colonial power — “a representative of the state” in his own assessment, which sounds both humble and boastful — going to seed in a tropical paradise. He is a diplomat, a fixer, a bon vivant and, thanks to Magimel’s louche charisma, a lost soul whose wandering and dithering carry a hint of pathos.”

Scott goes on to say of the film:

“It suggests John le Carré by way of David Lynch — a feverish and haunting but also wry and meditative rumination on power, secrecy and the color of clouds over water at sunset.”
  

“I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“A hallucinatory, disquieting, languid epic, Pacifiction willfully disorients. Prosaic plot specifics are ancillary to creating unfading images; it’s concerned more with sensation than sense. What tethers us to the film is Magimel’s superb performance.” Melissa Anderson, 4Columns

“Ultimately, the film’s greatest feat is in providing moments for delightful reverie through its sumptuous visuals while constantly making clear the colonialist reality of the island.” ~ Joshua Minsoo Kim, Chicago Reader

“Pacifiction is not a vicarious experience of luxury; it is an experience of life. Set to its own tidal rhythm, it is one of the most beautiful and rigorously introspective movies of this or any year.” ~ Christian Blauvelt, indieWire

“A magisterial, philosophical three-hour mood piece.” ~ Adam Nayman, The Ringer

Oscar Doc Features – A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS, NAVALNY & ALL THAT BREATHES

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The already formidable 15 films shortlisted for the Best Feature Documentary Oscar have been whittled down to five, and it’s no exaggeration to say they’re all masterpieces that hit about 100 times harder when seen in a theater. People just had a chance to see Fire of Love on Valentine’s Day, and we’ve been playing All the Beauty and the Bloodshed for weeks (but Thursday is the last day!). We are bringing the remaining three to a big screen near you, so now is your chance.
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We’ll have Navalny at the Monica Film Center for 02/24 – 03/02.
A House Made of Splinters plays weekend shows in Glendale (02/25 – 02/26) and at the Royal (03/04 – 03/05).
And we’ll have All that Breathes on March 1 in Glendale and March 2 at the Royal.

ONLY IN THEATERS touring the Bay Area.

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The acclaimed documentary about Laemmle Theatres Only in Theaters is touring the Bay Area with in-person Q&As by third-generation Laemmle Theatre president Greg Laemmle and his wife Tish:
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02/25 – East Bay Jewish Film Festival (Pleasant Hill)
02/25 – 3Below (San Jose)
02/26 – Carmel Valley Jewish Film Festival (Lighthouse Cinema, Pacific Grove)
02/27 – Elmwood, Berkeley
02/28 – Roxie (encore)
03/01 – Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol
03/02 – Smith Rafael Film Center
03/03 – Cameo, St. Helena
03/04 – Cameo, St. Helena (encore)
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If you have friends in the Bay Area, tell them to look for the film. It isn’t just for Angelenos and Dodger fans. Art houses across the country are fighting to come back, and in some communities (Berkeley in particular) the post-pandemic period has seen a number of theatre closures.
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And if you are based in L.A., some screenings with Q&As are in the works for the end of March and beginning of April.  Stay tuned!
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Buoyed by her peers, “spectacular” Andrea Riseborough and TO LESLIE return to theaters.

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Chameleonic English actress Andrea Riseborough earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress this month but got some flack because the campaign to push her over the top was unusual. Rather than rely on a Hollywood studio’s massive publicity and advertising budget, which was unavailable to her because her film To Leslie — which we are returning to our Glendale theater this Friday — was released by the tiny film distributor Momentum Pictures, some of her more famous friends rallied online urging people to see the film and her bravura performance. Surprise! It worked. She now has her first Oscar nomination, something film critics understood she deserved but probably would not get.

“Riseborough’s performance is nothing short of spectacular. She doesn’t compromise, she doesn’t hold back, but she doesn’t endow the character with any sort of fake flamboyance.” ~ Owen Gleiberman, Variety
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“A personal and heartfelt drama with yet another stellar turn from the always-great Andrea Riseborough.” ~ Brian Tallerico,
RogerEbert.com
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“In To Leslie Riseborough presents the rough and tumble of the films eponymous character with a tender and sensitive rawness and authenticity.” ~ Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org
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“Unglamorous and unflinching, lilting from dive bars to motels across an errant desert wind. So too is Riseborough’s performance as Leslie.” ~ Fran Hoepfner, TheWrap
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“This week’s shocker Oscar nomination for British actress Andrea Riseborough as an alcoholic single mother from West Texas who squanders her $190,000 lottery win on booze turns a movie no one ever heard of into an absolute must-see. Prepare to be wowed!” ~ Peter Travers, ABC News
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