Featured Post Archives - Page 3 of 50

Greg Laemmle on ONLY IN THEATERS: The filmmaker “ended up with a front row seat for two of the more tumultuous years in the history of our three-generation family business.”

November 16, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

From Greg Laemmle:

February, 2019. We had recently hosted a screening of L.A. Foodways at the Fine Arts. This documentary, about the history of agriculture in Los Angeles, and the current situation with food deserts in certain neighborhoods – where people were unable to easily access fresh fruits and vegetables – delved into a social issue that had interested me for many years. And I was especially happy to see a favorite local charity, Food Forward, as one of the charity beneficiaries of the screening.

I was not surprised that the filmmaker, Raphael Sbarge, had found this a worthy subject for a documentary. His previous film, A Concrete River: Reviving the Waters of Los Angeles has also turned a lens on something of local interest, and it also was able to see the natural land underneath the asphalt and buildings, and express a desire to see the city embrace this topography and hydrology so that L.A. could become a more sustainable and equitable place for its residents. It didn’t hurt that my wife and I appeared as interviewees in A Concrete River. But beyond that, I truly felt that Raphael and I shared a similar hope for the City of Angels.

So when Raphael called me in February, 2019, I was happy to make time to meet with him.

At that meeting, he basically said that he wanted to make Laemmle Theatres the subject of his next documentary. And given his previous films, I thought it was a natural fit. We may not be an environmental organization, but over 80+ years, we have become part of the fabric of the city, and I always hoped that we could grow and adapt, finding ways as a business where we could address some of the challenges confronting our home.

Now over the years, many filmmakers have said that someone “should” make a movie about Laemmle Theatres. But Raphael was the first of them to say that he was going to do it. And within weeks, on March 21 and 22 of 2019, we were sitting in the auditorium at the Fine Arts having the first on-camera interviews. Little did we know how things would change over the course of the next two years.

Without revealing too much, let’s just say that Raphael ended up with a front row seat for two of the more tumultuous years in the history of our three-generation family business. Do we sell? Do we not sell? And then beyond that, how do we survive being closed for 13 months during the coronavirus outbreak?

The film ends on April 9, 2021. The day of the reopening of our theatres. It was a day of hopefulness, but also a day of reckoning. Clearly, and for a variety of reasons, it was going to take some time to reconnect with the audience, and get our business back on track.

As I write this now, with the finished film, Only in Theaters, about to open a theatrical run, how am I feeling? About the film, I feel very honored. I won’t say proud, since beyond sitting for the interviews, I had nothing to do with the production or editing of the film. I trusted Raphael to make the film as he saw fit, and to be honest with his storytelling. But yes, honored.

The reaction to the film at festival screenings across the country has been terrific, and while I know that festival enthusiasm does not always translate to the competitive realities of theatrical exhibition, I am confident that people who do see the film will emerge with a greater appreciation for the moviegoing experience, and by extension, the people who make that experience possible.

The film is not what I thought it would be when I agreed to let Raphael make the movie. But it is honest and true, and that’s what’s important. And as hard as it is for me to watch some portions of the film, I will be forever grateful that it exists.

Only in Theaters opens this Friday, with a full engagement at the Royal, and limited engagements at Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, NoHo and the Town Center. The filmmaker and I will be appearing at all the venues at some point over the first five days of the run for Q&A. Check here for details on which shows will have a Q&A. Whether you can make one of those screenings or not, I hope you’ll take the time to see the film. According to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” we are destined to only find appreciation for things after they are gone. But really, it doesn’t need to be that way. We can appreciate the things that are unique, and that bring beauty and wonder into our lives. And we can support and nurture those things so that they will always be there for us and those that come after us. And you can start doing that this weekend.

“Sublime,” “meditative and deeply romantic” UTAMA opens Friday the Royal. Plus: Current & coming competitors for the Best International Film Oscar.

November 9, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize this year at Sundance, Utama is set in the arid Bolivian highlands and follows an elderly Quechua couple that has been living the same daily routine for years. While he takes their small herd of llamas out to graze, she keeps house and walks for miles with the other local women to fetch precious water. When an uncommonly long drought threatens everything they know, Virginio and Sisa must decide whether to stay and maintain their traditional way of life or admit defeat and move to the city with their descendants. Their dilemma is precipitated by the arrival of their grandson Clever, who comes to visit with news. The three of them must face, each in their own way, the effects of a changing environment, the importance of tradition, and the meaning of life itself. (Watch the trailer.)

This visually jaw-dropping debut feature by photographer-turned-filmmaker Alejandro Loayza Grisi is lensed by award-winning cinematographer Barbara Alvarez (Lucretia Martel’s The Headless Woman).

We open Utama Friday at the Royal. Loayza Grisi and producer Santiago Loayza Grisi will participate in Q&As after the 7:30 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, November 11 and 12. Moderators: Friday – Carlos Aguilar (Los Angeles Times, New York Times); Saturday – Katie Walsh (Los Angeles Times, The Wrap).

“Sublime. From the breathtaking opening shot… the film looks unlike anything else.” – Variety

“Meditative and deeply romantic. Rarely has the [climate] crisis been addressed as organically—or with quite so many llamas.” – RogerEbert.com

“Visually stunning… combines magical realism with gorgeously precise cinematography. The images conjured in Utama momentarily let us into the language of the unknown, of what we can not comprehend unless we are as in tune with the land as those whose existence is so deeply tied to it.” – IndieWire

Utama is one of several Best International Oscar competitors that we’re already screening, with more to come, including:

Holy Spider (Denmark)

Decision to Leave (South Korea) This one ends Thursday, though we’ll probably bring it back if it gets an Oscar nomination.

EO (Poland)

Return to Seoul (Cambodia)

Corsage (Austria)

Alcarras (Spain)

Last Film Show (India)

Cinema Sabaya (Israel)

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico)

Saint Omer (France)

Hirokazu Koreeda’s Broker will not be Japan’s submission but we’re going to show it anyway, of course!

Tribute to Angela Lansbury ~ THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE 60th Anniversary Screening.

November 2, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

As a tribute to the late Angela Lansbury, we present a 60th anniversary screening of the movie that she considered her greatest achievement, The Manchurian Candidate. When Lansbury joined us in person for a sold-out anniversary screening of Death on the Nile in 2018, she told the audience that The Manchurian Candidate was her favorite of all her film roles. She received her third and final Oscar nomination for her performance in this 1962 movie. The screening is Wednesday, November 16, 7 PM at the Royal Theater.

John Frankenheimer’s film was a hit in 1962 and remains one of the most highly acclaimed of all political thrillers. In 1994 it was selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, an honor reserved for films of “historical, cultural, or aesthetic significance.” This story of a diabolical plot to engineer a Russian takeover of the White House was provocative in 1962 and seems frighteningly prescient today. As Frankenheimer said in remarkably prophetic comments a few years before his death, “I think our society is brainwashed by television commercials, by advertising, by politicians, by a censored press… More and more I think that our society is becoming manipulated and controlled.”

The Manchurian Candidate was adapted from Richard Condon’s novel by screenwriter George Axelrod, who also wrote such films as The Seven-Year Itch and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It tells the chilling story of a soldier in the Korean War, played by Laurence Harvey, who is captured and brainwashed by Russian and Chinese Communists into becoming an assassin in the employ of the Soviet regime. Frank Sinatra plays a fellow soldier trying to halt the assassination plot. Lansbury won awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press and the National Board of Review for her portrayal of Harvey’s manipulative mother, who plays a crucial role in the conspiracy.

In addition to its achievements as a political thriller, the film was one of the first to satirize the anti-Communist hysteria that had gripped the country and divided the Hollywood community during the 1950s. James Gregory plays Lansbury’s husband, a dimwitted U.S. Senator modeled on Joseph McCarthy. This mockery of fanatical politicians enraged right wing pundits at the time of the film’s release, but it received the best reviews of any movie released in 1962. Variety wrote, “Every once in a rare while a film comes along that works in all departments… Such is The Manchurian Candidate.”

Over the years, rave reviews continued to pour in. Roger Ebert called it “a work as alive and smart as when it was first released.” Pauline Kael said, “The picture plays some wonderful, crazy games about the Right and the Left; although it’s a thriller, it may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood.” Writing in Time magazine in 2007, Richard Corliss said, “Lansbury and Harvey are both sensational in a movie that remains pointed and current. It still touches you like a clammy hand in the dark.”

Lansbury’s portrayal of the malevolent Mrs. Iselin was ranked as one of the 25 greatest villains in film history by the American Film Institute. Unlike other female villains in film noir, who were motivated by sex or money, Lansbury’s character had much more grandiose ambitions; her aim was to become the most powerful person in the entire country, a concept that was way ahead of its time in 1962.

After the screening, Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan, co-authors of Cinema ’62: The Greatest Year at the Movies (which includes a lengthy section on The Manchurian Candidate) will discuss the film with the audience. Other surprise guests may join the conversation.

Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA 55th Anniversary screenings December 13 at Laemmle Glendale, Newhall & Royal

October 26, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present the 55th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1967) on December 13 at three Laemmle locations. The intense, provocative psychological drama was one of the keystone films of the late-period golden age of the art-house in the 1960s and energized the “Film Generation” that came of age in that seminal decade.

The story concerns an actress (Bergman newcomer Liv Ullmann) who stops speaking in the middle of a performance and refuses to communicate. She is placed in the care of a nurse (Bergman regular Bibi Andersson) and they retreat to the isolation of a beach house for her recovery. As their relationship progresses, it takes fascinating twists and turns. Some have compared their relationship to that of a psychiatrist and patient, with Ullmann paradoxically playing the role of the psychoanalyst whose silence prods the nurse into revealing some of her innermost secrets and deep-seated anxieties. Andersson’s confessions include one vivid memory of an uninhibited sexual encounter that critic Pauline Kael described as “one of the rare truly erotic sequences in movie history.”

Swedish auteur and all-time film titan Bergman was one of the directors at the center of the international film explosion that captivated moviegoers during that era. College students and engaged moviegoers debated long into the night, trying to decipher all the mysteries of this utterly compelling but sometimes puzzling film, not unlike the reaction to Alain Resnais’ enigmatic Last Year at Marienbad earlier in the decade. Andrew Sarris, the influential film critic of The Village Voice, noted that the film “seems to bewitch audiences even when it bewilders them.” Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune cited it as “one of the screen’s supreme works and perhaps Ingmar Bergman’s finest film.” Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian called it “sensually brilliant, an endlessly questioning and mysterious disquisition on identity. Persona is a film to make you shiver with fascination, or incomprehension, or desire.”

Persona plays one night only, Tuesday, December 13 at 7:00 PM at three Laemmle locations: the Royal (West Los Angeles), Glendale, and Newhall (Santa Clarita).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu_Jvil6ToY

Persona | Trailer | Laemmle [Theatres] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu_Jvil6ToY)

“In a world fraught with corporate values and shareholders, this was a family business that…understood the importance of planting a tree for the next generation.” Director Raphael Sbarge on his documentary ONLY IN THEATERS.

October 19, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Only in Theaters filmmaker Raphael Sbarge kindly penned a director’s statement to share with you:

“I grew up in New York City, which at the time felt like a city filled with artists and colorful, intellectual, people. My father was an artist and a filmmaker, my mother, a Broadway costume designer. When I met the Laemmle family, they felt very familiar to me—their caring for one another, their openness and curiosity, their shared passion for art, music and culture, and their recognition that those things make life richer.

“It was always the Laemmle family that drew me to this story.

“Our plan was to highlight the Laemmle family’s unbelievable legacy and impact on the motion picture industry and set it against the slowly changing landscape. What we didn’t realize was the extent to which we were poised to witness history unfold. Not long after we started, we realized the story was much bigger than we had imagined.

“We ended up following the family for over two-and-a-half years, during which the Laemmle story became a microcosm of the macrocosm. The question was, where was it all headed?

“Multiple generations of a family had built a business on the core principle of celebrating artists. There was something so innate, so essential about the Laemmle family mission, which was ever more remarkable in a world that often undervalues artists, even though artists help us see the world, interpret it, and give it meaning.

“In a world fraught with corporate values and shareholders, this was a family business that wasn’t driven only by money, but by people who understood the importance of planting a tree for the next generation.

“We feel quite privileged to have been there, during what was the most tumultuous 24-month period in the theater’s history. We found ourselves quite suddenly in the “hot part of the flame,” witnessing the Laemmle’s’ challenges, which were echoed over and over by theaters around the country and around the world.” ~ Raphael Sbarge

Mr. Sbarge and cast member Greg Laemmle will participate in a Q&A following the 7 o’clock screening of Only in Theaters at the Monica Film Center on November 14 as part of the Reel Talk with Stephen Farber series. The regular engagements begin November 18 at the Royal and other Laemmle venues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1BIUWv3MA

Only in Theaters | Trailer | Laemmle [Theatres] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1BIUWv3MA)

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

October 12, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

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.

October 4, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

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

September 28, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore

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.

Laemmle Theatres

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: