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Documentary about Laemmle ONLY IN THEATERS plays Saturday at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

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     This Saturday presents a chance for an advance screening of the documentary Only in Theaters at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The filmmaker and some cast members will be there for a Q&A. We’ve been in business since 1938 but this is the first time we’ve been the subject of a film. Director Raphael Sbarge started filming a few months before the pandemic started and it was an opportune moment in terms of dramatic content because of course COVID-19 shut us down for a year, but he kept on filming. Variety Magazine described the film as “2022’s most emotional theatrical experience so far…watching Greg Laemmle struggle with the fate of his family’s eponymous arthouse business.”
     Synopsis: The Laemmle Theatres, a beloved 84-year-old art house cinema chain in Los Angeles, is facing seismic change. The family members behind this multigenerational business—whose sole mission has been to support the art of film—remain determined, despite enormous challenges.
     Some of the people interviewed for Only in Theaters include Ava DuVernay, Cameron Crowe, James Ivory, Nicole Holofcener, Kevin Thomas, Leonard Maltin, Kenneth Turran, Allison Anders, and Greg Laemmle.
     If you want to wait to see Only in Theaters at a Laemmle Theatre, we’ll open it on 11/18 at the Royal and other venues.

REEL TALK WITH STEPHEN FARBER moves to Laemmle’s Monica Film Center.

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Laemmle Theatres is pleased to announce that veteran film critic Stephen Farber’s popular REEL TALK WITH STEPHEN FARBER screening series is moving to Laemmle’s Monica Film Center this fall! See a variety of outstanding films from the U.S. and around the world, including many top awards contenders. Then meet the filmmakers for provocative and revealing discussions led by Stephen.  The first screening — CALL JANE — will be October 17 and special guests will be announced soon. Visit laemmle.com/reeltalk for updates.

Recent films and speakers at Reel Talk have included:

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, with director Anthony Fabian;

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, with actors Christian Lees and Jonah Lees;

HAPPENING, with director Audrey Diwan and actress Anamaria Vartolomei;

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT, with director/co-writer Tom Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten;

OPERATION MINCEMEAT, with screenwriter Michelle Ashford;

FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN, with producer Sasha Berman and co-writer Michael Sragow;

AS THEY MADE US, with writer-director Mayim Bialik.

Luis Buñuel’s THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL 60th Anniversary Screenings October 12 at Three Laemmle Locations

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Continuing the 60th anniversary celebration of the milestone film year 1962, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present Luis Buñuel’s scathing surreal satire, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL. The film plays one night only, Wednesday, October 12 at 7:00 PM at three Laemmle locations: The Royal in West Los Angeles, the Laemmle Glendale, and the Laemmle Newhall in Santa Clarita.

Buñuel, a Spanish-born iconoclast and provocateur, spent most of his career working outside his native country. In 1962, at the age of 62, Bunuel was enjoying international acclaim after being coaxed out of Mexican exile the year before to make ‘Viridiana,’ which was suffused with his characteristic caustic wit and anti-religious sentiment. The film’s notoriety revived his career and placed him at the center of international film culture for the remainder of his career. THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, made in Mexico, further cemented his credentials as a mordant satirist. The story, written by Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza, deals with a lavish dinner party at the home of wealthy opera patrons in which the upper-class guests find themselves unable to leave after the meal. After a few days a rescue party is organized but the would-be rescuers cannot enter the house, and chaos ensues. During the ordeal the guests find their veneer of civilization slowly stripped away.

Critics were struck by Buñuel’s unrepentant approach to skewering the ruling elites.Andrew Sarris, the esteemed film critic of The Village Voice, called Buñuel “The last of the classic surrealists of the screen,” and was impressed with his “stylistic serenity. Where he was once merely profane, he is now eminently profound.” Leonard Maltin called it a “wry assault on bourgeois manners,” while Roger Ebert more exuberantly cited it as “a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets.” Although a curmudgeonly Bosley Crowther of the New York Times gave it an unfavorable review upon its  delayed U.S. release in 1967 after years of legal issues over distribution rights, the film’s stature and influence were fully recognized by its inclusion in The New York Times publication, “The  Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made” in 2004.

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL premiered at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the  opening night entry of the first New York Film Festival the following year. Buñuel was propelled into the most successful phase of his long career, and he followed it with a number of  memorable films, ‘Belle de Jour’ (1967), ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ (1972), and his final film, ‘That Obscure Object of Desire’ (1977) among them. Later, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL’s influence extended beyond the screen—in 2016 it was adapted as an opera of the same name by composer Thomas Ades.

Akira Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD 65th Anniversary Screenings September 21.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series are proud to present this month’s installment in our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Akira Kurosawa’s unique Shakespearean adaptation, Throne of Blood. The Japanese auteur was always an admirer of the Bard. His late film Ran offered a variation on King Lear. The power, majesty and craftsmanship of a film like Throne of Blood can only fully appreciated in a theatrical setting: with an audience, with a big screen, and sound you can feel. We’ll be showing a DCP.

For many years Kurosawa dreamed of adapting Macbeth, and he put the film together in 1957, with his favorite actor Toshiro Mifune starring as the ambitious, murderous leader. Isuzu Yamada co-stars as the Lady Macbeth character, with Takashi Shimura as the equivalent of Shakespeare’s Macduff. Kurosawa wrote the screenplay with Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Ryuzo Kikushima. They transposed the story from medieval Scotland to feudal Japan and Kurosawa came up with striking visual concepts to revitalize the classic story. The castle exteriors were filmed on the slopes of Mount Fuji and the memorable climax—with a massive array of arrows aimed at the deranged protagonist—remains one of the greatest images in any Kurosawa movie.

Writing of this climactic scene, The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane declared,“No stage production could match Kurosawa’s Birnam Wood, and, in his final framing of the hero — a human hedgehog, stuck with arrows — he conjures a tragedy not laden with grandeur but pierced, like a dream, by the absurd.” British critic Derek Malcolm of the Guardian acclaimed Throne of Blood as “a landmark of visual strength… possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen.”

On its original American release, Time magazine praised the film as “a visual descent into the hell of greed and superstition.” In his four-star review, Leonard Maltin called the film a “graphic, powerful adaptation of Macbeth in a samurai setting.” It was not simply film critics who endorsed the film. Renowned literary critic Harold Bloom said that Throne of Blood was “the most successful film version of Macbeth.”

Laemmle Theatres will screen Throne of Blood on September 21 at our Glendale, Newhall and Royal theaters on Wednesday, September 21 at 7 o’clock.

Watch Laemmle Theatres’ Isaac Wade on Spectrum News 1 for National Cinema Day + a Cinema Day poll!

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     Saturday’s National Cinema Day was such a success, drawing more than eight million moviegoers for the best moviegoing weekend of 2022, that it might become an annual event. Laemmle Royal and Monica Film Center General Manager Isaac Wade and a theater customer even got interviewed by journalist Nathalie Basha of local station Spectrum News 1. Isaac spoke about the experience of welcoming big crowds back to his theater: “To see people back and in line and excited to be here and wanting to support the industry, I think…that’s incredible. It’s exciting, it’s moving.”
     We are so pleased about the day’s results that we want to learn more, so here’s a poll. Did you take advantage of National Cinema Day? What movie did you see? Was Saturday your first return to the movies since before the pandemic? Inquiring minds want to know! Thank you and see you at the movies!

Celebrate moviegoing this Saturday, National Cinema Day: $3 tickets for all films, all day.

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Celebrate moviegoing and enjoy some monetary time travel this Saturday, September 3 by participating in National Cinema Day when movie theaters across the nation will charge prices circa 1980 — three bucks per ticket! This applies to any film at any time on Saturday, from François Ozon’s latest, Peter Von Kant, to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man: No Way Home – The More Fun Stuff Version, from the new A24 comedy about the underground comics scene, Funny Pages, to Javier Bardem’s Goya-winning The Good Boss. Catch the summer sleepers Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Fire of Love, RRR or Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song while they’re still on big screens.

They say you can’t get something for nothing, but National Cinema Day is close! Super cheap movie tickets and, oh, did we mention the air conditioning?

 

Greg Laemmle on summer 2022 word-of-mouth success stories: RRR, MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, HALLELUJAH, FIRE OF LOVE and more.

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From Greg Laemmle:
     After an amazing start to the summer box office season, things are going out with more of a whimper than a bang. And I’m OK with that. Ticket sales are only going to be as strong as the films that are in release at any given time. And to borrow the joke from the Catskills, the food isn’t so good …and such small portions. But that joke is only half right. Right now, there is a shortage of new films entering the marketplace. It’s largely another example of the supply chain being interrupted because of how the pandemic impacted the production schedule. Also, some of the films hitting the marketplace aren’t the most “commercial” titles. There are, however, some very worthy films that are currently in theatres. And I want to focus in on these films because they demonstrate one of the silver linings in the current marketplace, and that’s the power of WORD-OF-MOUTH.
     Word-of-mouth publicity is the thing that gets people to see a film that they might not otherwise see. Maybe the reviews aren’t through the roof. Or maybe the marketing didn’t make it seem like it was a film that they would enjoy.  Or maybe there wasn’t enough advertising support to bring a film to your attention. Whatever the case, we are talking about a film that you were initially not going to see. And then you hear something about the film.  Someone tells you how much they enjoyed it. Or perhaps you start seeing posts about the film on your social media feed.  Or maybe you talk to an employee at your local theatre and they tell you how much people are enjoying the film. However it gets started, enthusiasm and awareness begins to build. And in an environment (like now) where we theatre operators are searching for films that can draw ticket buyers, the ground is more fertile to allow a word-of-mouth success to grow.
     This phenomenon is not limited to arthouse films. This summer alone, we have three legit word-of-mouth winners. Number one in the bunch is TOP GUN: MAVERICK, which has been playing in theatres since Memorial Day weekend. Everyone knew about the film. Everyone knew it would be a hit. But in this day and age, it is amazing for a film to still be in theatres over Labor Day weekend after opening in May. Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS has also outperformed based on the initial opening numbers. The film started off well enough, with about $30M over the opening weekend. Based on that opening, pundits figured the film would top out well under $100M in total. And yet, the film, now just shy of $150M, showing that word-of-mouth around Luhrmann’s fine direction and Austin Butler’s star-making performance overcame the early focus on Tom Hanks’ less-than-successful supporting turn. Not to be left out is the adaptation of WHERE THE CRAWDAD’S SING, which also looks like it will end up grossing five times its opening weekend, well in excess of the usual multiple.
     But this is Laemmle Theatres, and what we care about are the arthouse word-of-mouth successes. And we have several to mention. The most commercial of the bunch is MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, starring Lesley Manville in a fairy tale story. I’m not saying the film deserves to be part of the Oscar discussion, but it is an utterly charming film. And if you don’t want to take my word for that, consider that this semi-wide release is going to gross five to six times its opening weekend business. So clearly, I’m not the only one who had something nice to say about the film after seeing it.
     We also have a couple of long-running documentaries that have been hanging around in theatres for a while. FIRE OF LOVE is perhaps the higher profile film, given its acquisition at the Sundance Film Festival, which set the film up with some early Oscar buzz. But there is another doc which opened even before FIRE OF LOVE, and is now heading into its third month of release. That’s HALLELUJAH: LEONARD COHEN, A JOURNEY, A SONG. I’ll admit to being a huge fan of Leonard Cohen’s music. But this story about his most famous (and most covered) song is something more. It’s a film about the search for meaning in our lives, and how this song seems to capture that searching by Mr. Cohen, by the artists who recorded this song, and by extension, by all of us. HALLELUJAH is just playing one show a day at the Monicas this week, but it is absolutely worth seeking out. And, again, if you don’t want to take my word for that, consider the “votes” of random ticket buyers who keep coming out to see the film, now in its ninth week of consecutive release in L.A.!
     Last, but definitely not least, is the word-of-mouth surprise hit of the first half of 2022. This is a film that wasn’t even reviewed by the L.A. Times when it first came out (no surprise there), but ended up at the top of Justin Chang’s list of the best films of the first half of the year. And it absolutely deserved to be there. RRR is a Telegu-language film that has taken the entire film world by storm. It started out playing in theatres that cater to the Southeast Asian expatriate audience. But from there, word spread about the amazing special effects, the incredible stunt work, and the overall fun of the experience of seeing the film. That led to the film coming back into theatres on June 1 for a one-night event cinema #EncoRRRe screening. But that didn’t sate audience demand, so we extended our run for several weeks. And now, with students back from summer break, we want to give you one more chance to see this film in theatres. Yes, it is a bit of a commitment to see a three-hour film. But that’s only 20 minutes longer than ELVIS (which we already established as “worth it”), and I can assure that you’ll love every one of those extra minutes. Maybe you heard about this film, and you started watching a bit on some random streaming service. Sorry, but that’s just not the way to see RRR. This film demands to be seen with an audience so you can share in all the oohing, awwing, and laughter. Who knows, you may even need to get up and dance along during the big dance number.
     Yes, we are at the end of a long summer of movies. And there are plenty of stories about the box office being down, and the impact that this may have on certain exhibition companies. But don’t believe that there isn’t anything worth seeing at the movies. If you haven’t already seen these pictures, find a theatre that is playing MRS. HARRIS, FIRE OF LOVE, HALLELUJAH or RRR, and make plans to see them. And don’t just take my word for it. Trust the ticket buyers like you that have made them in word-of-mouth winners.
     See you at the movies!
~ GL

“This movie is great on whatever-sized screen you watch, but it’s next-level in a full theater with a rabid audience.” The spectacular RRR, back in theaters by popular demand.

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If you haven’t experienced the Indian blockbuster RRR in a theater, good news, we are bringing it back! The movie is an exhilarating, action-packed spectacular mythologizing two real-life freedom fighters who helped lead India’s fight for independence from the British Raj, Komaram Bheem (N.T Rama Rao Jr., aka Jr NTR) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan). Set in the 1920s, before their fight for India’s independence began, RRR imagines a fictional meeting between the two, set into motion when a young Gond girl is stolen from her village by British soldiers. With a powerful message, staggeringly choreographed action sequences, and an all-timer of a musical number, RRR is sheer big-screen joy from start to finish, and it is something best experienced with an audience to fully appreciate big and loud, as intended.

Catch RRR starting August 26 at the Monica Film Center and Town Center and a week or two after that at the Claremont and Newhall. All are venues where we have not previously screened the film.

The New York Times recently published a story about the RRR phenomenon headlined “How the Indian Action Spectacular RRR Became a Smash in America.” Among the U.S. exhibitors quoted about helping making the film a cross-over hit is Laemmle Theatres president Greg Laemmle:
“Gregory Laemmle, the president of the West Coast theater chain that bears his name, attended the Seattle screening after booking RRR at three of the Laemmle Theaters’ California locations. (RRR has since gone on to play at five Laemmle theaters.) Laemmle was already a believer, sight unseen, thanks partly to Marchetti’s recommendation and partly to enthusiastic social media responses from the initial release. Ticket sales at Laemmle theaters were high enough to warrant a weeklong engagement, which began June 3. “But after seeing the movie, I knew that I would need to clear space for that run to play” longer, Laemmle said.

“Cristina Cacioppo programmed RRR at the Nitehawk Prospect Park in Brooklyn, where it drew enthusiastic moviegoers in the 20-to-30 age range, most from outside the Indian diaspora. “There was an overall wave of joy throughout,” Cacioppo said by email, adding later. “You could feel the room smiling, the jaws dropping.”

“Jake Isgar at the Alamo Drafthouse chain said there were at least 10 rounds of spontaneous applause from a packed screening in San Francisco. “This movie is great on whatever-sized screen you watch, but it’s next-level in a full theater with a rabid audience,” he added.”
L.A. Times lead film critic Justin Chang included RRR on his list of 10 best films for the first half of 2022:

“The longest feature on my list runs more than three hours and earns every supercharged minute. Already the second-highest-grossing Indian film of all time in America (it’s grossed more than $140 million worldwide), S.S. Rajamouli’s Telugu-language sensation is a hellaciously entertaining mash-up of history and legend, politics and romance, hyperviolent action and song-and-dance musical, venomous snakes and throat-mauling tigers. As the two mighty warriors whose tender bromance becomes a truly infernal affair, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan are forces of nature.”

(Side note: even though Justin included the film in his Top 10, the film still hasn’t actually had a full review in the Times. Yet another example of good films not getting reviewed by the tragically thin Times film section.)

Finally, Variety just published a story headlined “How India’s Action Epic RRR Could Bring the Country’s First Oscar Nom in 21 Years.”

“A movie with the action sensibilities of James Cameron and the ambitious scope of George Miller has to be considered a definitive Oscar contender, right? Not without the proper backing by a studio or, in this case, a country that will submit your film for the Academy’s best international feature award.

“Enter RRR, a film directed by S. S. Rajamouli, who wrote the script with V. Vijayendra Prasad. The three-hour action epic follows two patriotic but philosophically opposed men (Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), who team up to rescue a girl from British colonial officials in 1920s Delhi.

“When the 94th Oscar nominations were announced back in January 2022, India’s official submission “Pebbles” was not among the films recognized for international feature. It marked exactly 20 years since India’s last nom in the category.

“In fact, only three Indian films in total —Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay! (1988) and Lagaan (2001) — have been nominated for the award. The last of which lost to No Man’s Land from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The skyrocketing success of RRR has been the undercover Cinderella story of the year. A global smash with huge box office receipts, the film found a pathway to the American cultural zeitgeist with consumers discovering it on Netflix. It was distributed theatrically by Variance Films in the U.S., and a current trend by the Academy to embrace non-English language features in the last few years offers an alternative pathway to awards recognition if India decides to look elsewhere. But why would they?”

Read the rest of the piece here.

https://vimeo.com/709590385/a79303822a