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FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Christmas Eve Sing-Alongs! Tickets Now on Sale.

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After a two year hiatus, we are pleased to announce the return of a tradition we began in 2008, Christmas Eve Sing-along FIDDLER ON THE ROOF screenings. We’re showing the classic musical at our Newhall, Pasadena, West L.A. and North Hollywood theaters, so you don’t even have to venture too far from your shtetl. For safety’s sake, we’ll have reserved seating, one-seat lateral spacing between parties, reduced capacity, and we’ll all sing with our masks on. Song lyrics on screen, in case you don’t know ’em by heart.

Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations. Either way, you’ll feel better as you croon along to all-time favorites like “TRADITION,” “IF I WERE A RICH MAN,” “TO LIFE,” “SUNRISE SUNSET,” “DO YOU LOVE ME?” and “ANATEVKA,” among many others.

We encourage you to come in costume! Guaranteed fun for all. Children are welcome (FIDDLER is rated “G”) though some themes may be challenging for young children.

In discussing the return of FIDDLER this year, Greg Laemmle asks everyone who is buying tickets to consider the teaching from the Talmud (Shevuot 39A), “All Israel is responsible for one another.” There are things we can do (voluntarily, and without mandate) to make these screenings safer. Wear your mask while singing. Get vaccinated, and if already vaccinated, get a booster shot. Make sure you are feeling healthy before venturing out into public. And consider taking a home test before the screening. COVID-19 is real. There are things we can do as a community, however, to show care and concern for the health and well being of one another. We do not diminish our individual rights by acknowledging our communal responsibility. To paraphrase a favorite aphorism from Pirkei Avot, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?  But if I am only for myself, what am I?  And if not at this year’s FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Sing-a-Long, then when?”

Laemmle Virtual Cinema: The world a click away.

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If you haven’t tried it since the early days of the pandemic, Laemmle Virtual Cinema is still going strong, still important, and it’s improved! You can now enjoy Laemmle films at home using Chromecast, Roku, Apple AirPlay and Apple TV app, or just a plain old HDMI cable from laptop to TV. And you can use gift and Premiere Cards to pay. And the movies! We have features and documentaries from around the world that you can’t see anywhere else and what’s nice is the the engagements are not limited to a week or two, as theatrical exhibition necessitates, but many weeks, so you’ll have time to fully indulge your cinephilia. Plus we have cool collections like Greg Laemmle’s List of personal picks and the 2021 IDA Documentary Award Nominees.
This Friday we’re opening six new films on Laemmle Virtual Cinema. Four dramas: HIVE from Kosovo/Albania (winner of Grand Jury, Best Director and Audience awards at Sundance, the first time that’s ever happened); BACK OF THE MOON from South Africa; BETRAYED from Norway; and TOKYO SHAKING from France; an animated feature from France, JOSEP (winner of the César for Best Animated Feature); and
the French/Tunisian documentary SHE HAD A DREAM.

WRITING WITH FIRE Q&A with the filmmakers and Kenneth Turan.

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Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, co-directors of the double Sundance-winning film WRITING WITH FIRE, will participate in a Q&A at the Royal following the 7:20 PM screening on Thursday, December 2. Film critic Kenneth Turan will moderate.

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

‘Y Tu Mamá También’ 20th Anniversary Screenings Wednesday, December 8, 7 PM at the Royal, Playhouse, Glendale & Newhall.

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On December 8 we’ll screen our final Anniversary Classics Abroad film of the year — the modern classic Y Tu Mamá También — and stay tuned. We hope to have dates soon for both Airport and Mommie Dearest screening before year’s end.  We are also planning more Abroad titles for 2022.

Alfonso Cuarón’s sexy and provocative road movie, Y Tu Mamá También marked a homecoming as well as a breakthrough for Cuarón in 2001. After making his directorial debut a decade earlier in his native Mexico, Cuarón was drawn to Hollywood, where he earned strong reviews for A Little Princess and a modern-day reworking of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Then, however, Cuarón decided to return to Mexico to make a more personal film and he wowed the cinematic world with this coming-of-age drama. Y Tu Mamá También broke box office records in Mexico when it opened in the summer of 2001. It went on to win the Best Screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival and was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay the following year. Cuarón wrote the film with his brother Carlos Cuarón.

Cuarón cast two up-and-coming young actors, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, as teenage friends from different social classes. The working class Julio (Bernal) and the upper class Tenoch (Luna) are friends and rivals. They both become infatuated with an older woman (Spanish actress Maribel Verdú) and invite her to join them on a road trip to a spectacular, secluded beach. She accepts and they embark on an adventure that turns out to be a funny, sexy and revelatory experience for all three of them. Much of the film was improvised by the actors, with Cuarón’s encouragement.

In addition to the luscious cinematography and the sexual candor (it was released unrated in the U.S.), the film features narration in the style of some of the European films that inspired Cuarón, particularly Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, another landmark movie about a ménage à trois. Reviews were almost universally glowing. In Newsweek David Ansen wrote, “The movie has an emotional kick that lingers like a primal memory.” Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum called the movie “sad, funny, sexy, and altogether marvelous.” The New York Times’ Elvis Mitchell concurred, describing Y Tu Mamá También as “fast, funny, unafraid of sexuality and finally devastating.”

The film’s success propelled Cuarón to the front ranks of contemporary directors. He went on to helm the best Harry Potter movie (The Prisoner of Azkaban), the dystopian Children of Men, and earned an Oscar for his direction of the sci-fi adventure Gravity. When he returned to Mexico to make the autobiographical Roma, he earned a second Oscar as Best Director.

Y Tu Mamá También will play for one night only at the Royal in West L.A., the Playhouse in Pasadena, Glendale, and Newhall December 8.

The power of the film: Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’ is one of the year’s best movies.

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Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, her eighth feature and first since 2009’s Bright Star, is “a complex and probing adaptation of the late Thomas Savage’s superb 1967 novel about two very different Montana rancher brothers caught in a twisted emotional bind.” (Todd McCarthy, Deadline Hollywood Daily) “It pains me to say it,” Greg Laemmle said this week, “but Netflix may have produced the best film of the year. Certainly one of the best I’ve seen so far. It is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen.” Critics agree.
“Jane Campion makes a thrilling return with The Power of the Dog, a work as boldly idiosyncratic, unpredictable and alive with psychological complexity as anything in the revered director’s output.” ~ David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
“It’s an epic about the way the male id can crush everyone it touches, anchored by a brilliant masquerade of a performance by Cumberbatch, his best yet.” ~ Esther Zuckerman, Thrillist
“The Power of the Dog sticks its teeth into you so fast and furtively that you may not feel the sting on your skin until after the credits roll, but the delayed bite of the film’s ending doesn’t stop it from leaving behind a well-earned scar.” ~ David Ehrlich, Indiewire
“The film’s secrets are revealed while new ones bloom into being.” ~ Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“Campion understands the genre she’s working in, setting the roiling emotions of her characters against the striking landscapes; Cumberbatch’s performance is as immense as the peaks and valleys around him.” ~ David Sims, The Atlantic
“The Power of the Dog divulges its secrets in deliberate, measured fashion, growing richer with each new reveal.” ~ Katie Rife, AV Club

“A beautifully crafted movie with some individual scenes that are some of the tensest I’ve experienced in some time.” ~ Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com
“Through it all, Campion remains in masterful control of the film’s obscurely menacing mood, and of every aspect of its craft.” ~ Dana Stevens, Slate
“A film that initially seems too schematic gains in complexity as the characters add dimension and Campion uncorks one gripping set piece after another.” ~ Scott Tobias, The Reveal
Now playing at the Playhouse and Newhall; opening Friday at the Monica Film Center and Town Center and December 3 at the Glendale and Claremont.

THE FIRST WAVE Director in Person for Q&As in Santa Monica.

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THE FIRST WAVE director Matt Heineman will participate in Q&As at the Monica Film Center after the 7:30 PM screening on Saturday, November 20 and after the 4:40 screening on Sunday, November 21. Joining him will be Covid survivor Ahmed Ellis and his wife Alexis, Dr. Nathalie Dougė, and physical therapist Karl Arabian.

Q&A with the ‘Kurt Vonnegut’ Filmmaker Opening Night at the Royal.

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KURT VONNEGUT: UNSTUCK IN TIME director Robert B. Weide will participate in a Q&A after the 7:10 PM screening at the Royal on Friday, November 19. Michael Sragow will moderate.

See IDA Documentary Awards Nominees at Laemmle: ‘Faya Dayi,’ ‘Writing with Fire,’ ‘Not Going Quietly,’ and more.

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The International Documentary Association just announced the nominees for its 37th annual awards, and we’re screening or soon to screen almost a dozen from this cinematic treasure trove:

FAYA DAYI is a triple nominee for Best Feature, Director and Cinematography and is available on Laemmle Virtual Cinema.

NOT GOING QUIETLY also garnered three nominations: Best Feature, Director and Writing. It, too, is on LVC.

We open the animated FLEE (Best Feature and Director) in January.

We have Best Feature nominee WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER  now on Laemmle Virtual Cinema.

We open Best Feature nominee WRITING WITH FIRE on November 26 at the Royal.

Pare Lorentz Award Winner and Best Cinematography nominee THE FIRST WAVE opens this Friday at the Monica Film Center. The filmmaker will attend for Q&A’s after the 7:30 PM screening on Saturday, November 20 and after the 4:40 screening on Sunday, November 21.

Best Cinematography nominee ASCENSION is available now on LVC.

Best Music Documentary Nominee LYDIA LUNCH is now on LVC.

We open Best Editing Nominee PROCESSION this Friday at our Glendale theater.

Finally, we open ABC News VideoSource Award Nominee LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRES November 26 at the Monica Film Center.