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“There is so much more to who we are! Our music, our food, our passion, our ‘over-the-top’ generosity, our love for life.” Filmmaker Michael Goorjian on his Armenian-American comedy-drama AMERIKATSI, opening Friday at the Royal and Town Center.

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The new comedy-drama Amerikatsi is set in 1948, when an Armenian-American repatriates to Armenia only to end up in a Soviet prison. He discovers he can see into a nearby apartment from the confinement of his cell window, and through that man’s lively home life he discovers the rich culture of his native Armenia hidden behind the Iron Curtain. Veteran film critic Thelma Adams described the film as “a stirring labor of love that witnesses the darkness of the past, and seeks out the light.”

From Armenia-American Filmmaker Michael Goorjian: Films about Armenia have mostly focused on the Genocide, which is crucial. But as a people, there is so much more to who we are! Our music, our food, our passion, our “over-the-top” generosity, our love for life. Amerikatsi celebrates and shares this side of Armenia with the world, a side which since my boyhood, I have longed to know and reconnect with.  

 

In many ways, the main character Charlie’s dream of returning to his homeland reflects the dream of not only the Armenian Diaspora, but hundreds of millions of people throughout the world who long to connect to their native land. For many, especially in America, we feel that far-away-land pulsing in our blood, calling for us to return. But, like Charlie, the reality of our ancestral homeland doesn’t always turn out to be what we imagined it would be. The connection we long for is always just out of reach, as if residing on the other side of a prison wall.

To learn more, here’s an interview with Mr. Goorjian that MovieWeb just published headlined “Exclusive: Amerikatsi Filmmaker Michael Goorjian on His Armenian Passion Project.”

Exclusive clip: THE STORMS OF JEREMY THOMAS opens September 29 at the Royal and Town Center.

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On Friday, September 29 at the Royal and Town Center, we’ll be thrilled to open The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, a documentary which is a dream pairing of sorts: the Irish director Mark Cousins, whose brilliance lies in making movies about films and filmmakers (The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) and The Story of Film: New Generation (2021), joined legendary English producer Jeremy Thomas on his annual five-day road trip from England, through rural France to Cannes. Thomas’ filmography is breathtaking in its variety, scope and roster of superstar collaborators. (Hard to top Brando, Bowie and Bertolucci.) Highlights include The Last Emperor (1987), Naked Lunch (1991), David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), and The Dreamers (2003).

In his Guardian review of Storms, critic Peter Bradshaw wrote “I find myself considering that in a world where everyone’s a cynic and an ironist, Cousins’ unaffected rapture is unique and refreshing…[this is] “hardcore, movie-mad immersion.”

At TheWrap, Jason Solomons wrote “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas provides a colorful and entertaining canvas for some beautiful and beautifully set-up movie clips — you want to rush out and watch all of them again.”

Mr. Thomas will participate in a Q&A at the Royal after the Thursday, September 28 sneak screening of The Storms of Jeremy Thomas. Writer-director Richard Shepard moderate.

You can get a taste for Storms in this exclusive clip, wherein Thomas discusses the importance of resisting monoculture and then gets into Walt Disney’s contradictions.

26.2 TO LIFE Q&A schedule at the Royal Sept. 23-26.

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26.2 to Life Q&A schedule at the Royal:

 

DATE  SCREENING TIME Q&A TIME MODERATOR PANELIST DETAILS
September 23, 2023 5:10PM 6:40PM Executive Producer Jennifer Kroot Producer Sara Sluke

Film subject & formerly incarcerated 1000 Mile Club runner, Jonathan Chiu

Producer Sara Sluke

Film subject Marion Wickerd
September 24, 2023 Film begins:

5:10PM

 Screening begins:

6:40PM

 Ray Sheppard, Prism Way Producer Sara Sluke

 

Film subject & formerly incarcerated 1000 Mile Club runner, Jonathan Chiu

 

Film subject Marion Wickerd
September 26, 2023 7:30PM 9PM President, Skid Row Running Club & Former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, Craig Mitchell Filmmaker Christine Yoo

Film subject & formerly incarcerated 1000 Mile Club runner, Markelle “The Gazelle” Taylor

Film subject Marion Wickerd

 

Oscar-winner NOWHERE IN AFRICA 20th anniversary screenings September 20.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present 20th anniversary screenings of the Academy-Award winning film NOWHERE IN AFRICA as the next entry in the Anniversary Abroad Series of notable international films. (Following our September 13 screening of SOYLENT GREEN at the Royal with special guest Leigh Taylor-Young.) Coinciding with the High Holidays, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is about a German Jewish refugee family relocating to Kenya to escape the Nazis just before the outbreak of WWII, will play for one night only, September 20 at four Laemmle locations (Royal, Glendale, Claremont, and Newhall).

 

The Foreign Language Film (AKA International) Oscar winner in 2003, based on the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, was adapted for the screen by writer-director Caroline Link, who had been previously nominated in the same category for her 1996 film Beyond Silence. The story concerns the Redlich family, Walter (Mirab Ninidze), his wife Jettel (Juliane Kohler), and their daughter Regina (Lea Kurka as younger, Karoline Eckertz as older) who flee Nazi persecution in Germany in 1938. Walter leaves behind his law profession and becomes the manager of a British-owned farm in Kenya. While his nine-year-old daughter Regina takes to her new African life, his snobbish wife Jettel has difficulty with the family’s reduced status. They are attended by their Kenyan cook Owuor (beautifully played by Sidede Onyulo), who offers an African perspective to the tale. With the outbreak of WWII, the family is interned by the British along with all German citizens, an ironic twist since they had fled Germany to avoid such a fate in their homeland. The war and their plight put even more pressure on the strained relationship of Walter and Jettel, with Regina (now a teenager) caught in the middle.

Admiration from critics of the day included assessments from Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, who said the film was, “laced with poignancy, conflict, urgency, and compassion.” Roger Ebert praised Link for her “interest in good stories and vivid, well-defined characters.” Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune cited it as “a lovely film with a deeply humane perspective.” Rita Kempley in the Washington Post called it a “consistently absorbing family saga that is primarily a safari of the soul.” Newsweek’s David Ansen noted, “an absorbing tale of cultural displacement. It’s also a remarkable, complex examination of a marriage…with its lush cinematography and lush score, (it) has the sturdiness of an old-fashioned Hollywood epic.” Some critics even called it perfect Oscar bait at the time, and the Academy members agreed, rewarding it with the Foreign Language Film Oscar.

“I was motivated to place a lens on male vulnerability that includes a more empathic and compassionate gaze.” Filmmaker Aitch Alberto on ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE.

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The many fans of Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s 2012 YA novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” are abuzz about the new movie adaptation, which we are pleased to open Friday at our Glendale, Santa Monica and North Hollywood theaters. It was written and directed by a fellow fan, Aitch Alberto, who wrote the following about her filmmaking journey:

When I read Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s YA novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe,” I was a different person, I read it cover to cover and it affected me to my core. At the time I didn’t understand the journey I would take but, sometimes you just jump in because life is inviting you to.

I’ve been on my journey and exploration around gender and masculinity for years and this book, these characters, and the need to tell this story have been a part of that journey, which is something I didn’t realize until recently. Ari, has been a mirror and a guide to helping me unpack my own misconceptions and internalized stereotypes around masculinity.  Dante, with his naivety and fearlessness – has inspired me to embrace and fully become who I am, without concern for the ramifications. In fact, being honest about who I am and giving young people permission to do the same has become my mission.

Ari and Dante at its core tells a story of self-discovery and acceptance. And when I think about the world today and my own journey of self-discovery, I believe there is nothing more important than standing up and fully embracing who we are and being seen for it. One great lesson from the story is that when young people and anyone really are given the room to be who they are, the process of self-discovery becomes a natural part of growing up and, ultimately, a superpower.

With the film, I was motivated to place a lens on male vulnerability that includes a more empathic and compassionate gaze. My goal for the film is to help redefine masculinity specifically for the Latinx community and present us as fully realized human beings.

I wanted to make an accessible, grounded, yet elevated teen love story, playing with perspective, where we watch Ari’s unease and emotional isolation shift and expand when Dante enters his life. And by the end of the film, they are engulfed by a bold star filled sky, a hint of exaggerated realism, holding them, finally safe in the world. Through self-acceptance, they have found their place in the universe and the universe embraces them.

Visually I was inspired by the boyish wonder of “Stand by Me”, the surreal pallet of “Virgin Suicides” and the photographic choices in “Badlands,” as well as the composition and color in the photography of William Eggleston – both musing and grounded yet with an ethereal sensibility, an almost gauzy, golden, faded photo album look. There is a naturalistic quality to the book and the script that I wanted to maintain. We wanted to bring the audience into Ari’s world, making the film an immersive experience, where there is not a big formal separation between subject and audience. ~ Aitch Alberto

“The intoxicating sensory experience” BEFORE, NOW & THEN opens Friday at the Royal.

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Winner of the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Supporting Performance by Laura Basuki and and a nominee for the Golden Berlin Bear for Best Film for filmmaker Kamila Andini at the Berlin International Film Festival, Before, Now & Then is about a plantation owner’s wife who makes an unusual connection with her husband’s younger mistress in 1960s Indonesia. “It’s a handsomely mounted period piece,” wrote Wendy Ide in Screen International, “which acknowledges the strength required by previous generations of Indonesian women to rise above the patriarchal demands of a restrictive society.” We’re very pleased to open the film this Friday at the Royal.
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“A precisely calibrated, emotionally nuanced exploration of one woman going through a mid-life crisis in rural Indonesia during the 1960s that both looks and sounds stunning thanks to above-and-beyond craft contributions.” ~ Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter
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“Beautiful and heartbreaking in equal measure.” ~ Bobby LePire, Film Threat

“It’s a daring narrative mix of the personal and the political.” ~ Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times

“Aesthetic flourishes… betray Wong Kar-Wai’s influence on Before, Now & Then and elevate it…to the intoxicating sensory experience it is.” ~ Michael Nordine, Variety
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“’Why is it that guilt always follows women?’ Before, Now & Then is a film that dares to ask this question and forces us to wrestle with the painful truth at the core of the answer.” ~ Lee Jutton, Film Inquiry
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“Before, Now & Then is a very carefully wrought arthouse film… wreathed in poetic melancholy and never less than beautiful; Batara Goempar’s cinematography belongs to another era of soft lamplight, rich shadows and glowing fabrics.” ~ Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline
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“Writer/director Kamila Andini adapts Ahda Imran’s biographical Jais Darga Namaku into a stirring vignette of a woman’s crossroaded, multifaceted existence as a survivor, mother, wife and businesswoman…through Salma’s masterful performance, Nana’s psychological discomfort is inviting and empathetic.” ~ Jacob Oller , Paste Magazine
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“Andini captures complex female emotions and relationships in nuanced and fascinating detail, as well as the secrets we all keep, whether in knotted buns or not. Subtly stirring, it’s a sensitively crafted, immersive cinematic experience that lingers on the senses well after the credits roll.” ~ Sarah Bradbury, The Upcoming
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“Drawing a number of deeply felt performances from her cast, it is an aching period piece.” ~ Rory O’Connor, The Film Stage
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SOYLENT GREEN 50th Anniversary Screening September 13 with Special Guest Leigh Taylor-Young.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary of the prophetic sci-fi classic, ‘Soylent Green.’ The sole surviving cast member, Leigh Taylor-Young, will join to share memories of making this powerful movie. This still-timely film, set in New York in 2022, was one of the first to address issues of pollution, global warming, overpopulation, and an epidemic of homelessness. In many ways it predicted the dark future imagined in ‘Blade Runner,’ made a decade later.

The script was adapted by Stanley R. Greenberg from an acclaimed novel, ‘Make Room! Make Room!,’ by Harry Harrison. The director, Richard Fleischer, was no stranger to science fiction, having made the hit movies ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ and ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ along with a wide range of films in many different genres. Charlton Heston portrays a police detective trying to solve the murder of an executive at the mysterious Soylent Corporation, which leads him to uncover a diabolical conspiracy. In addition to Leigh Taylor-Young, the supporting cast includes Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, and Paula Kelly. But the most memorable performance is given by Edward G. Robinson, in his final screen appearance.

The Hollywood Reporter declared that the film “conjures a terrifying vision of the future.” Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film “a clever, rough, modestly budgeted but imaginative work.” ‘Soylent Green‘ won the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film of the year.

Actress Leigh Taylor-Young first came to prominence on the popular “Peyton Place” TV series of the 1960s. She made her feature film debut in the hit 1968 comedy, ‘I Love You Alice B. Toklas,’ starring Peter Sellers, written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker. Her other film roles include ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,’ which marked one of the first screen roles for Robert De Niro, and ‘Jagged Edge,’ starring Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges. She also co-starred in many popular TV series, including “Dallas” and “Picket Fences,” for which she won an Emmy. In recent years she has also been active in humanitarian and spiritual activities for the United Nations and other organizations.

The movie’s trailer posed the question, “What Is the Secret of Soylent Green?” If you don’t know the answer to that question, be sure to attend our 50th anniversary screening. And even if you do know, you will be startled by the movie’s timeliness and engaged by the conversation with our delightful guest speaker.

Honoring Paul Reubens with a screening of PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE at the Royal August 28.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to the late Paul Reubens with a screening of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), the directorial debut of acclaimed filmmaker Tim Burton, at the Royal on Monday, August 28 at 7 pm. Reubens, a comic celebrity here in L.A., was catapulted to national fame with his inspired creation, the man-child Pee-wee Herman.

The movie, basically a live-action cartoon, has a simple plot: Pee-wee Herman, a nerdy pre-pubescent boy in an adult’s body, searches for his most prized possession, a fire-engine red-and-white bicycle, which has been stolen. His comic odyssey takes him across the country, where he encounters an assortment of kooky characters. Former animator Burton previews his trademark quirky visual style in a series of vignettes scripted by Reubens and Phil Hartman. Both Reubens and Burton, working in a heightened natural landscape, make the zany and surreal trip seem credible as Pee-wee’s journey is suffused with rampant silliness, aided by tyro film composer Danny Elfman’s distinctive music. Pee-wee’s uninhibited antics and giddiness found reviewers both perplexed and enchanted. Some critics of the day made comparisons with notable and classic clowns of earlier eras such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Jerry Lewis. Others, such as the Christian Science Monitor, saw “a true original—a comedy maverick and film like no other.”

Two additional films (Big Top Pee-wee in 1988, and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday in 2016), a Saturday morning children’s series, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” and a live Broadway show in 2010 among numerous other appearances would all demonstrate the cross-generational appeal of Reubens’ creation. Burton would go on to helm films which defined his Hollywood generation, including Beetlejuice, Batman, Ed Wood, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in Wonderland, all in a decades-long collaboration with Elfman. But all that big-screen success started with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, a comic lark with lasting pop culture significance. As Robert Lloyd, television critic of the Los Angeles Times, noted in a recent appreciation, “Paul Reubens is gone, but his ‘corny’ alter ego will live on in his own ‘unique’ universe…long live Pee-wee Herman.”