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Vox: “The quietly radical DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL turns the page on coming-of-age films.”

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This Friday, at five of our six venues, we’ll be opening a film we enjoyed immensely, THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL. The girl of the title is Minnie Goetze (fantastic newcomer Bel Powley), who is longing for love, acceptance and a sense of purpose in the world. She begins a complex love affair with her mother’s (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, “the handsomest man in the world,” Monroe Rutherford (Alexander Skarsgård). What follows is a sharp, funny and provocative account of one girl’s sexual and artistic awakening, without judgment.

Based on a 2002 graphic novel, film critics have embraced the film (it has a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing). Writing in New York Magazine, Bilge Ebiri exclaimed, “the first thing to know about THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL is that young British actress Powley is staggeringly good in it.” In the L.A. Times, Rebecca Keegan wrote, “big summer action movies can be thrilling, but if you really want to feel your heart pounding out of your chest, try being a 15-year-old girl for 101 minutes.” In the New Republic, Elaine Teng called the film “a startlingly tough, authentic depiction of budding womanhood.” And in the New York Times, Manohla Dargis declared the film “exhilarating…the novel is life-specific, but what makes Minnie – on the page and now on the screen – greater than any one girl is how she tells her own story in her own soaringly alive voice.”

The extended Vox review included this observation by the film’s director, Marielle Heller: “I think as a society, we’re just a little bit afraid of teenage girls, and we’re definitely afraid of their sexuality. There’s a desire to shelter girls and also to ignore what they might be feeling or experiencing. The result of that is if you’re a teenage girl who’s having thoughts about sex, you think something’s wrong with you.” This is the same approach to the topic as what you can find other people writing about, and what the reasons are it for, for instance on this Lovegasm blog article about sexual forward-thinking within the media.

THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL wonderfully rejects that path.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2M9kqb5wVw

TOP SPIN: Ping Pong Exhibition and Table Giveaway!

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ts-posterAn inside look at the offbeat sport of ping pong, the new documentary TOP SPIN turns one of America’s favorite pastimes on its head and reveals a coming-of-age story where success and failure come down to mere millimeters.

Laemmle Theatres and First Run Features are planning special events for our TOP SPIN screenings, including:
– Raffle to Win an Olympic Quality Ping Pong Table!
– Live Ping Pong Exhibitions by Elite Players
– Lots of Q&A’s

Click here to buy tickets to see TOP SPIN!
 

RAFFLE

Everyone who attends ANY screening of TOP SPIN at Laemmle will be given a FREE RAFFLE TICKET to win a top-of-the-line JOOLA Ping Pong Table! This is a  tournament-tested refurbished Olympic-quality table that has been used by the pros.  JOOLA lists this item at approx. $1400.  We will have a sample table at the Playhouse from August 19 to 23.

Grand prize:
JOOLA 3000SC Table Tennis Table, the Official Table of USATT. The JOOLA 3000SC is an ITTF approved high quality centerfold table. It has four heavy-duty durable wheels serving the undercarriage, which is made of powder-coated metal and contains a 50 mm metal frame under its Olympic-quality 22 mm fast playing surface. The 3000SC also boasts adjustable, solid rubber levelers underneath each corner leg and includes a professional quality WM net.

JOOLA will ship the table directly to the winner anywhere in the continental United States.

Joola_3000SC_new_v2

Runner up prizes:

Joola Hit Set Table Tennis Set: Four JOOLA Hit rackets with eight balls.

Joola Falcon Set: High end recreational racket with a protective racket case.

For official Raffle Rules, click here.
 

PING PONG EXHIBITONS

Elite ping-pong players will be at the Playhouse 7 for Q&A’s and LIVE PING PONG EXHIBITIONS at select Top Spin screenings:

Fri. 8/21: 6:30pm – 7:00pm and 9:15pm to 9:30PM* (at the Paseo next to the box office)
Sat. 8/22: 6:30pm – 7:00pm and 9:15pm to 9:30PM* (at the Paseo next to the box office)
Sun. 8/23 – 6:30pm – 7:00pm and 9:15pm to 9:30PM* (location TBD)

* Before and after the 7:30pm screening of Top Spin

Players include 2012 Teenage Olympian ERICA WU and U.S. National Team member, GRANT LI, as well as professionals KIM GILBERT and ADAM BOBROW.

 

Clockwise, from top-left: Erica Wu, 2012 U.S. Olympian; Grant Li, 2015 U.S. National Team Member; Adam Bobrow, Professional Ping Pong Player and Actor; Kim Gilbert, Professional Ping Pong Player
Clockwise, from top-left: Erica Wu, 2012 U.S. Olympian; Grant Li, 2015 U.S. National Team Member; Adam Bobrow, Professional Ping Pong Player and Actor; Kim Gilbert, Professional Ping Pong Player

 

Q&A’S

Playhouse 7 Q&A’s: 

Wed 8/19: Filmmakers Mina T. Son & Sara Newens + Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Fri 8/21: Filmmakers Mina T. Son & Sara Newens + Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Sat 8/22: Filmmaker Mina T. Son & Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Sun 8/23: Filmmaker Mina T. Son & Teenage Olympian Erica Wu in Person

Weekday Q&A’s: 

Mon 8/24 (NOHO 7) : Filmmaker Mina T. Son in Person

Tues 8/25 (ROYAL): Filmmaker Mina T. Son in Person

Wed 8/26 (CLAREMONT 5): Filmmaker Mina T. Son in Person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=539TOEBuPqM

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: TOM BRADLEY AND THE POLITICS OF RACE Screenings Next Week with Q&A’s

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tombradleyBRIDGING THE DIVIDE: TOM BRADLEY AND THE POLITICS OF RACE tells the story of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, the first African American mayor elected in a major American city with an overwhelmingly white majority. His extraordinary multi-racial coalition redefined Los Angeles, transformed the national dialogue on race and set the foundation for elections of minority candidates nationwide, including President Barack Obama.

We will be hosting two screenings of this documentary about this key figure in our city’s history, two of which featuring Q&A’s:

Q&A participants in Pasadena, August 11 at 7:30pm:

  • Lyn Goldfarb, Producer, Director, Writer
  • Alison Sotomayor, Producer, Research Director, Writer
  • Robert Farrell, City Councilmember, 8th district from 1974-1991; Deputy to Councilmember Billy Mills (who represented South L.A.) during the Watts Riot.
  • Lorraine Bradley, Tom Bradley’s eldest daughter
  • Christopher Jimenez y West, Film Advisor, Assistant Professor, History, Pasadena City College

Q&A participants at the Town Center 5 in Encino, August 13 at 7:30pm:

  • Lyn Goldfarb, Producer, Director, Writer
  • Alison Sotomayor, Producer, Research Director, Writer
  • Robert Farrell, City Councilmember, 8th district from 1974-1991; Deputy to Councilmember Billy Mills, who represented South L.A., during the Watts Riot.
  • Lorraine Bradley, Tom Bradley’s eldest daughter

 
Click here to purchase tickets

Special NICKY’S FAMILY Screenings in Honor of the Recently Passed Sir Nicholas Winton

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Sir Nicholas Winton
Sir Nicholas Winton

This month we were saddened to learn that Sir Nicholas Winton, a hero who for half a century said nothing of the fact that he rescued hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia right before World War II, had died at the age of 106. We were proud to screen NICKY’S FAMILY, the documentary about his life, in 2013 and gladly do so again.

Please join Laemmle, Menemsha Films, and Tugg.com Sunday, August 2nd at the Playhouse, Town Center, Music Hall or Claremont 5 for what promises to be a very moving and special morning.

Use these links to reserve your FREE tickets* now:
10:30am on Sunday, August 2nd at the Playhouse
10:30am on Sunday, August 2nd at the Town Center
10:00am on Sunday, August 2nd at the Music Hall
10:30am on Sunday, August 2nd at the Claremont 5
* While supplies last

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGEXoXkDgqk&feature=youtu.be

REDISCOVER SAUTET July 24 – 30 at the Royal

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FIVE SAUTET CLASSICS TO PREMIERE IN NEW DCP VERSIONS
JULY 24 TO JULY 30 AT LAEMMLE’S ROYAL
FIRST TIME ON DCP

UPDATE: REDISCOVERING SAUTET is Kenneth Turan’s “Critic’s Pick” in today’s L.A. Times!

Claude Sautet (1924-2000), who began his filmmaking career in the early 1950s assisting such directors as Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face) and Jacques Becker (Touchez Pas Au Grisbi), first tasted success with the crime thriller Classe Tous Risques (1960), but was unfairly overlooked as the New Wave directors dominated French cinema.

Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli in Claude Sautet’s LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal; Photo by Claude Mathieu
Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli in Claude Sautet’s LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal; Photo by Claude Mathieu

After spending much of the 1960s as a screenwriter – and earning a reputation as a master “script doctor” – Sautet re-emerged as a director to watch. His collaborations with Austrian-born actress Romy Schneider, leading men Michel Piccoli and Yves Montand, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, and cinematographer Jean Boffety, yielded romantic, yet haunting films that embodied the privileges and struggles of the French bourgeoisie following the political upheavals of the 1960s. The series features three of his collaborations with Schneider – Les Choses De La Vie (1970), the policier Max et Les Ferrailleurs (1971), and César and Rosalie (1972) – along with the rarely-seen Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (1974), starring Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, and Gérard Depardieu, and Sautet’s final film, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995).

According to Bob Laemmle, Laemmle Theatres hosted the Los Angeles premieres of all five of these films — his favorite is César and Rosalie — at the Royal. We are proud to host their DCP premieres next month. (Note: none is available on Blu-ray or DVD.)

For more info and tickets, visit REDISCOVERING SAUTET.

FULL SCHEDULE:

Friday 7/24
12:00 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
02:35 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
05:10 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
07:45 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
10:15 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

Saturday 7/25
12:00 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
02:35 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
05:10 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
07:45 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
10:15 – CESAR AND ROSALIE

Sunday 7/26
12:00 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
02:35 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
05:10 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
07:45 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
10:15 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE

Monday 7/27
12:00 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
02:35 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
05:10 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
07:45 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
10:15 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD

Tuesday 7/28
12:00 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
02:35 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
05:10 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
07:45 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
10:15 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS

Wednesday 7/29
12:00 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
02:35 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
05:10 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
07:45 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
10:15 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

Thursday 7/30
12:00 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
02:35 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
05:10 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
07:45 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
10:15 – CESAR AND ROSALIE

Save the Date! 2nd Annual Tour de Laemmle on July 19th

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Laemmle’s involvement with cycling events such as CicLAvia and Climate Ride stems not just from our love of the sport, but as a way to encourage alternative transportation and inspire creative thinking about our traffic and environmental challenges.

Last year we stepped up to the plate with our own event, the TOUR DE LAEMMLE, a 125-mile Greg Laemmle-led bicycle tour of all our theaters that included a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new bike corral parking outside of the NoHo 7.  This year, we’re pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Tour on Sunday, July 19!  Departing at 7:00am from the Royal in West L.A., we’ll visit the following venues in succession:

– Music Hall (Beverly Hills)
– Claremont 5
– Playhouse 7 (Pasadena)
– NoHo 7 (North Hollywood)
– Town Center (Encino)
– The new Monica Film Center in
Santa Monica (opening soon!)
– Back to the Royal around 7 PM (phew!)

Also, this year we are adding a brief stop at the future home of our Glendale venue (between the Playhouse and NoHo leg).

Tour de Laemmle is FREE to all participants. Riders can complete the entire 125-mile circuit or choose to do specific legs.

The tour is geared toward intermediate to advanced cyclists but we include a slower-paced, FAMILY-FRIENDLY leg along the S.F. Valley Orange Line Bike Path.  The tour will be supported with refreshments at most stops.

VISIT the TOUR WEBSITE for details and sign up!

About the route:
The Tour de Laemmle takes you on a powerful cultural and historical journey through the heart of the L.A. region. First and foremost, you will get the opportunity to see how so many diverse LA County neighborhoods are connected. El Serreno transitions to Alhambra which transitions to San Gabriel, and so forth.  Whether crossing the Arroyo Seco or the Sepulveda Pass, you’ll also see how geographical features have shaped the city.  While riding on Huntington Drive or historic Route 66, you’ll get to see how older roadways and railway right-of-way passages connected communities in the era before the modern interstate.  For early morning riders, you’ll get to appreciate the beautiful buildings on Wilshire Boulevard as we traverse through mid-town.  And for those who join later in the day, you’ll get to see how bike paths like the L.A. River bikeway and the Orange Line Bike Path can provide safe avenues of connectivity for those who choose to get around without a car.

 

CHAGALL-MALEVICH Opens at the Music Hall and Town Center June 19; Lead Actress in Person.

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The artistic and political revolution of early 20th century Russia is mythologized in CHAGALL-MALEVICH, a magical period drama about the uneasy relationship between two artistic geniuses that we’re opening the Music Hall and Town Center on Friday, June 19. Lead actress Kristina Schneidermann will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:15 PM screenings Friday, June 19 at the Town Center and Saturday, June 20 at the Music Hall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enaho11_x8Q&feature=youtu.be

Inspired by the memoirs of Marc Chagall and those of his contemporaries, the film blends fact and folklore to evoke the return of the iconic Jewish artist (portrayed by Leonid Bichevin, “Cargo 200”) to his childhood home of Vitebsk. Having left behind immense success in Paris, Chagall returns to the Russian empire in 1917 hoping to marry the love of his life, Bella Rosenfeld (Kristina Schneidermann); he produces copious paintings and establishes the Academy of Modern Art. A rivalry develops with abstract painter Kazimir Malevich (Anatoliy Belyy), invited to teach at the art school. As Bella rekindles a childhood friendship with military Red Commissar Naum (Semeon Shkalikov), Chagall competes for the affections of his muse and future wife. As the October Revolution sweeps across Russia, historical events intrude on personal struggles and upend the quiet provincial life in Vitebsk.

ONE CUT, ONE LIFE Q&A with Filmmakers Opening Night at the Music Hall

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When seminal documentary filmmaker Ed Pincus, considered the father of first-person nonfiction film, was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he and his collaborator Lucia Small teamed up to make one last film. One Cut, One Life is an intense, unflinchingly honest, and sometimes humorous exploration of the human condition that invites the viewer to contemplate what is important, not only at the end of life, but through all phases of live and creative pursuits.

We open One Cut, One Life at the Music Hall on Friday, June 12. Co-director Lucia Small and executive producer Neal Baer will participate in a Q&A after the 7:20 PM screening that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maC94kPWbQI