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ON BROADWAY, Featuring interviews with Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen, Opens Friday.

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As theater goers prepare for the return of Broadway after an unprecedented absence of eighteen months, Kino Lorber is proud to release Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby’s documentary ON BROADWAY, an enlightening and moving tribute to one of the most vibrant legacies of New York City, and the inside story of Broadway’s last self-reinvention as told by an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, Hal Prince, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Tommy Tune, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen.
ON BROADWAY opens August 27 at the Laemmle Royal, Laemmle Claremont, Laemmle Town Center 5, and Laemmle Playhouse 7 theaters as well as September 3 at the Laemmle Newhall.
Helen Mirren
Broadway was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 70s with talk of tearing down theaters and replacing them with parking lots; the plays were considered obsolete and audiences severely declining. The documentary explores how, thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and the sometimes-uneasy balance between art and commerce, an industry on the verge of extinction not only avoided collapse, but managed to reinvent itself and come back stronger.
James Corden
Legends of the stage and screen take us behind the scenes of Broadway’s most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from “A Chorus Line” to “Angels in America” and “Hamilton,” offering a hurly-burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business.

 

Ian McKellen
Also featured are interviews with some of today’s most influential playwrights, directors, choreographers, performers and producers such as Alexandra Billings, David Henry Hwang, Oskar Eustis, Nicholas Hytner, Jack O’Brien, George C. Wolfe, Daniel Sullivan, Trevor Nunn, Julie Taymor, Sonia Friedman, Jeffrey Seller and Tony Kushner. They tell the stories of the remarkable changes they helped initiate or witnessed over the past 50 years, the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic on the theater community, and track the breakthrough works and artists which made Broadway into a venue where one can find everything—from the experimental and iconoclastic to the mainstream and commercial.
Hugh Jackman

“A sunset view of the New York City skyline, speckled with lights, while George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” plays. Old Broadway marquees. Moving snapshots from a Broadway of more recent past — a flight of Hogwarts wizards, the swinging and snapping Temptations, the triumphant gaze of a brown-skinned Alexander Hamilton. ON BROADWAY sure knows how to work a theater-lover’s heart.” (Maya Phillips, New York Times)

Christine Baranski

“Enhanced by a wealth of archival footage and clips from notable productions, the theatrical history lesson flows smoothly and proves consistently entertaining.” (Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp7gOGR-mHY

 

Bogie & Bacall: THE BIG SLEEP 75th Anniversary Screenings at the Royal, Playhouse & Newhall.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the classic 1946 detective mystery THE BIG SLEEP starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in a series of three screenings at different locations: August 31 (Royal in West Los Angeles), September 1 (Playhouse in Pasadena), and September 2 (Newhall in Santa Clarita).

THE BIG SLEEP is an engrossing mystery thriller that has defied classification since its premiere in 1946. Although it is now considered a cornerstone of film noir, critics and journalists through the years have also described it as a black comedy and even a “screwball love story.” Deftly directed by Howard Hawks and written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman adapting Raymond Chandler’s first novel, it is the second teaming of Bogart with his wife Lauren Bacall, after the two created a screen sensation in Hawk’s To Have and Have Not in 1944. The film is noted for its convoluted plot (just try to follow it), partially because several scenes were re-written and re-shot for the second, final release in 1946. (A 1945 version was shown to U.S. troops overseas at the end of WWII.) The 1946 official release was added to the National Film Registry in 1997, and it is this version that we will present.

Bogart’s turn as shrewd shamus Philip Marlowe solidified his reputation, and Chandler praised him as “so much better than any other tough-guy actor.” His verbal interplay with Bacall flirted with contemporary screen censorship, as the duo wove the mystique of “Bogie and Bacall.” Critics of the day were as baffled by the plot as audiences, but as Leonard Maltin has pointed out, the movie is “so incredibly entertaining that no one has ever cared.” That high entertainment quotient stems from Hawk’s sharp direction, the biting and witty script, actors at the top of their game (Dorothy Malone, Martha Vickers, and Elisha Cook Jr. among them), atmospheric black-and-white cinematography by Sid Hickox, and a noteworthy music score by Steiner.

Movie Review Roundup: SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF, THE MEANING OF HITLER, THE MACALUSO SISTERS, EMA.

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Our fine local daily could not cover some excellent recent films so we are mandating a quick recap of film critics’ assessments in other outlets to get these titles get a booster shot of attention:

SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF: Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film “an enthralling documentary that movie buffs everywhere will want to see… as essential as any chapter of “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” Dean of American film critics Leonard Maltin wrote, “It’s rare that a documentary affects me on a personal level but this evoked a flood of memories. The film captures a time and place when movies really mattered to a whole generation. I’m not saying it was better or worse than it is today–just different.” Nicolas Rapold of the New York Times admitted he “got the warm-and-fuzzies from seeing the love here for moviegoing and exhibition, which [Rugoff] goosed with gonzo showmanship.”

THE MEANING OF HITLER: Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote, “we go into THE MEANING OF HITLER craving that millimeter of insight, of intrigue and revelation. And the film provides it. It ruminates on Hitler and the Third Reich in ways that churn up your platitudes.” “Myth-busting at its most vital,” wrote Sheri Linden of the Hollywood Reporter. Eric Kohn of Indiewire was forceful: “The movie isn’t just another cautionary tale; it’s a jagged intellectual wake-up call that cuts deep, and America can’t hear it enough.”
THE MACALUSO SISTERS: As of this writing, the new Italian film The Macaluso Sisters still boasts a rare “100% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise such as: “Haunting and powerful.” (New York Times); “In just her second feature after the taut street-stand-off drama A Street In Palermo seven years ago, Dante sets a firm seal upon her cross-disciplinary emergence as a director of unusually vivid empathy.” (Variety); “Dante’s film, beautifully done, is never more resonant than when reminding us of the lingering impact of childhood drama and the devastating nature of childhood trauma.” (Times [U.K.]).

The L.A. Times did review the combustible new Chilean film EMA. Katie Walsh called Pablo Larraín’s (Jackie, Neruda) latest “a darkly sensual fable of motherhood and the modern family.” Hannah Strong of Hyperallergic wrote, “In an age of sanitized mainstream cinema, it’s thrilling to watch a film that revels in carnal pleasures.” Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Byrnes called the film “mesmerising,” adding, “With a pulsing, angular reggaeton soundtrack from Chilean-American composer Nicolas Jaar, the film throbs and leaps rather than walks.” Check out EMA‘s red band trailer.

Fifty-Fifth Anniversary Screenings of Agnès Varda’s LE BONHEUR (HAPPINESS) August 25 in Glendale, Newhall, Pasadena & West L.A.

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Our Anniversary Classics Abroad Series continues with LE BONHEUR, a provocative and controversial film from one of the pioneering female filmmakers of international cinema, Agnès Varda. Varda was the only woman director who was part of the French New Wave that tantalized and excited audiences during the 1960s. Her breakthrough film, Cleo from 5 to 7, was released in 1962, and she followed that with a very different but equally bracing domestic drama centering on a romantic triangle. LE BONHEUR won two awards at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965 before its American release in 1966.
Unlike the black-and-white Cleo, LE BONHEUR is filmed in warm, bright colors that enhance the film’s themes, an apparently sunny romantic drama with dark undertones. Shot in the suburbs of Paris, the film opens with an idyllic scene showing the main character, Francois (Jean-Claude Drouot), a carpenter, celebrating a summer outing with his wife (Claire Drouot) and their two children. Sunflowers deck the screen while Mozart on the soundtrack adds to the celebratory mood. Francois seems blissfully happy with his family, but when he later meets an attractive postal worker (Marie-France Boyer), he begins a lusty affair with her, convinced that it will not jeopardize his marriage. When he finally confesses to his wife that he is in love with two women, however, everything in his placid world changes.
Varda had worked in documentaries as well as narrative features, and that background shows in her decision to cast Drouot’s real wife and children as his wife and children in the film. Those three people never acted in another film, but Varda felt that the fact Drouot was working with his real family members would add to the naturalism of the movie and the comfort of the players, particularly during the tender love scenes.
Critics praised the striking cinematography, reminiscent of French Impressionist paintings, along with the performances. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody wrote, “Varda fills her frames with riots of nature and color, like Bonnard paintings come to life and with an erotic intimacy to match.” Given the sumptuous visuals and the joyous intimacy of the love scenes, the climax of the story was startling to viewers at the time and remains deeply disturbing. In a discussion of the film sponsored by the Criterion Channel many years after the movie’s release, British film professor Jenny Chamarette called LE BONHEUR “a horror movie wrapped up in sunflowers” and added that it was “one of the most terrifying films I’ve ever seen.” To join the debate about this stimulating film, catch one of our screenings a 7 o’clock on Wednesday, August 25, at your favorite Laemmle theater.
Agnès Varda went on to have a wonderful career for the next 50 years. Her later films include Lions Love, One Sings the Other Doesn’t, Vagabond, The Gleaners and I, The Beaches of Agnes, and Faces Places. She was given an honorary Academy Award for her diverse and brilliant body of work in 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQpJ-2GWnOA

The Beautiful, Universally Acclaimed Italian Film THE MACALUSO SISTERS Opens Friday.

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We open the beautiful new Italian film The Macaluso Sisters this Friday at the Newhall, Playhouse, Royal and Town Center, as well as August 20 at the Claremont. As of this writing, Emma Dante’s movie, about how a tragedy changes the lives of five sisters in Palermo, boasts a rare “100% Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise such as:

“Haunting and powerful.” (New York Times);

“In just her second feature after the taut street-stand-off drama A Street In Palermo seven years ago, Dante sets a firm seal upon her cross-disciplinary emergence as a director of unusually vivid empathy.” (Variety);

“Dante’s film, beautifully done, is never more resonant than when reminding us of the lingering impact of childhood drama and the devastating nature of childhood trauma.” (Times [U.K.]).

Unfortunately, our usually excellent hometown daily erred and did not assign a film critic to publish a review. To make up for it, here’s the entirety of Beatrice Loayza’s full New York Times Critic’s Pick review:

“No mere sun-kissed coming-of-age film, The Macaluso Sisters opens on a blissful day filled with young love and beachside longing that is tragically upended by an accident that has everlasting reverberations.

“The Italian filmmaker Emma Dante, best known as a director of avant-garde theater and opera, adapted the film based on her acclaimed play of the same name. Here, she imagines the ripple effects of a sister’s death across generations with metaphysical grace and hints of fantasy, straying from the plot-reliant mold of most human dramas toward something more haunting and powerful.

“Five orphaned sisters — Katia, Lia, Pinuccia, Maria, and Antonella — live alone in a lively apartment in Palermo, Sicily, where they sustain themselves by loaning out pigeons for ceremonies and events. On their day off, they head to the beach, passing through a field peppered with enormous dinosaur figurines and initiating a pop music-scored dance party upon their arrival. These magical moments are grounded by the cinematographer Gherardo Gossi’s tactile photography, which accentuates the youthful vitality of the sisters’ bodies and the playful chaos of their movements.

“Following the death of a sister, Dante skips ahead to a future in which the group — now played by a different group of actresses — are middle-aged and broken, each in their own particular way. They remain in the same apartment, while ghostly manifestations of their missing sister create a stark contrast between their aging bodies and those of their brimming younger selves.

“A third act shows three sisters in old age and in mourning. Yet the apartment and its white cabinet — adorned with an etching of a beach — looks the same. By the end, Dante stages a transcendent confrontation with the impermanence of the body, destined to degrade, yet sustained by the memories and relationships that have come to define it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZHR_7GwV6o

“My film is meant to be a tribute not only to one particular person, but all those who are fighting to keep theatrical cinema alive.” Ira Deutchman on his new documentary SEARCHING FOR MR. RUGOFF.

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We are proud to open Ira Deutchman’s excellent new movie about the American art film exhibition business, Searching for Mr.Rugoff, on Friday, August 13 at the Monica Film Center. In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane wrote, “Searching for Mr.Rugoff is an entertaining and instructive jaunt, and it bristles with small shocks.” In Owen Gleiberman’s Variety review, he described it as “an enthralling documentary that movie buffs everywhere will want to see…as essential as any chapter of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Ira wrote the following for us:

Searching for Mr. Rugoff, the documentary film that I made and that is opening around the country in August, is the story of a colorful and difficult person who personified the kind of characters who helped to create the art film business as we know it today. In focusing on this particular person, I in no way meant to imply that he was alone in these pursuits. In fact, the project originated as what I thought was going to be an oral history of the art film business as it matured in the 1960’s and 70’s. I ended up focusing on Rugoff because, as a former employee, it was a story that I thought I could tell, but I also interviewed a number of other key figures from that period including Dan Talbot, Meyer Ackerman, Randy Finley and Bob Laemmle.

The thing these folks all had in common was a love of movies and a keen awareness of the tastes and appetites of their own audiences. The business at that time was very much a local enterprise. The success of a particular cinema was a function of location, carving out a specific identity and having the creative energy to make people aware of what was playing. While the distributors would provide a menu of films and the materials to market them, it was up to the local exhibitors to engage directly with the audience. The best exhibitors were the ones who were the most creative in that endeavor. We refer to this now as “old fashioned showmanship,” but it was hardly old-fashioned at the time. It was a critical part of the business. This was even true for major studio films.

This all changed in 1975, when Jaws was released nationally and became a phenomenon. Distributors realized that a wide release, supported by national advertising, was more efficient and had more blockbuster potential than the slower local rollouts that had been the norm up until then. This effectively shifted the marketing responsibility from exhibitors to distributors and is the way most films are generally released to this day.

Independent Film Producer, Distributor, Marketer, Columbia University Professor and Cubs Fan Ira Deutchman.

The exceptions to this were and are the art houses, who never lost their energy or ability to market directly to a local audiences. Those of you who are patrons of Laemmle Theaters can see this firsthand, even if you were not aware of how rare this has become. The fact that you reading this right now is an indication that you have a direct relationship with the folks who are running these theaters. This doesn’t happen by accident.

My film is meant to be a tribute not only to one particular person, but all those who are fighting to keep theatrical cinema alive in the face of many obstacles and much negativity. That’s why I’ve made it available to the art houses as a benefit for their post-pandemic reopening. One hundred percent of your ticket dollars will go directly to support Laemmle Theaters. So come on out and lend your support and I hope you’ll find the film to be an inspirational and fun experience.

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

“Musicals give cinema another dimension…You can be grotesque and profound at the same time.” Leos Carax, Marion Cotillard & Adam Driver on their new musical ANNETTE.

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A dreamy fantasia, Annette is French auteur Leos Carax’s English-language debut is a musical whose experimental approach to its emotional extremes is an ambitious return for the director. The screenplay is by Ron Mael and Russell Mael of Sparks and Carax from an original story, music and songs by the band. The plot follows a stand-up comedian (Adam Driver) and his opera singer wife (Marion Cotillard) and how their lives are changed when they have their first child. Writing in New York Magazine, critic Bilge Ebiri called Annette “an altogether weirder, more troubling and personal film than one might expect…this astoundingly beautiful picture will stand the test of time.” Laemmle Theatres opens the film this Friday, August 6 at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, NoHo, Playhouse and Town Center.

Following are excerpts from interviews with Carax, Cotillard and Driver in the film’s the Cannes Film Festival press book:

Interview with Leos Carax

Q: When did you did you first encounter the music of Sparks?

A: When I was 13 or 14, a few years after I discovered Bowie. The first album of theirs I got (stole, actually) was Propaganda. And then, Indiscreet. Those are still two of my favorite pop albums today. But later, for years, I wasn’t really aware of what Sparks was doing, because by the age of 16, I started to focus on cinema.

Q: And when and how did you meet brothers Ron and Russell Mael?

A: A year or two after my previous film, Holy Motors, came out. There’s a scene in which Denis Lavant plays a song from Indiscreet in his car: “How Are You Getting Home?” So they knew I liked their work, and contacted me about a musical project. A fantasy about Ingmar Bergman, trapped in Hollywood and unable to escape the city. But that wasn’t for me: I could never do something that is set in the past, and I wouldn’t make a film with a character called Ingmar Bergman. A few months later they sent me about 20 demos and the idea for Annette.

Q: What has been your relationship to musical films? Even in your older films it feels like at times musicals are itching to break out of them. You often had these incredible set pieces with characters expressing themselves through song and dance. Is the idea of making a musical something you’ve been thinking about for a long time?

A: Ever since I began making films. I had imagined my third film, Lovers on the Bridge, as a musical. The big problem, my big regret, is that I can’t compose music myself. And how do you choose, work with, a composer? That worried me.

I didn’t watch many musicals when I was young. I remember seeing Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, around the same time I discovered Sparks. I eventually saw American, Russian, and Indian musicals later. And of course, Jacques Demy’s films.

Musicals give cinema another dimension — almost literally: you have time, space, and music. And they bring an amazing freedom. You can direct a scene by following the music’s lead, or by going against the music. You can mix all sorts of contradictory emotions, in a way that is impossible in films where people don’t sing or dance. You can be grotesque and profound at the same time. And silence, silence becomes something new: not just silence in contrast with spoken words and the sounds of the world, but a deeper one.

Interview with Marion Cotillard

Q: How much did you like Leos Carax’s films before you came on board for the Annette adventure?

I’m not sure how old I was exactly when I saw Lovers on the Bridge for the first time, but I know I already wanted to be an actress. I’d loved the film, its gracefulness, its poetry – I was overwhelmed. But then again, there was Juliette Binoche whose character, performance, and radiance swept me off my feet at the time. I fell in love with Leos Carax’s artistry, and I saw all of his films over time, up until his latest, Holy Motors, which I think is a masterpiece.

Q: Annette‘s script is a very peculiar affair, halfway between a traditional narrative and an opera libretto, accompanied by Sparks’ songs. How di you react when you first read it?

A: When I received the script, I already knew the film was entirely sung, and the narrative was only made up of songs. I was already sold, as it were. I felt so lucky to be able to lay my hands on this piece. And then I was totally won over as I read it – I related both to the uplifting element of the operatic musical and the profound darkness of what the film is about.

Q: Did you still hesitate in any way before embarking on the project?

A: I  immediately  wanted  to  work  with  Leos, but I wasn’t sure I could bring all that the character required. Leos is a rare filmmaker and makes very few films. It necessarily adds to the pressure, to the fear of not being able to match up to him as an artist. So I did hesitate a little. I asked my singing teacher if I could in no time learn how to live up to what was expected of me, even though I obviously couldn’t possibly become an opera singer in just a few weeks. We knew from the outset that we had to come up with a method for the opera singing part – and blend my voice with that of a professional singer. Still, it was a huge challenge. My teacher told me it’d be difficult, it’d take a lot of work, but that we could be confident. I needed his blessing to say “Yes.”

Q: How familiar were you with Sparks’ music before working on this project? How does it inspire you?

A: I wasn’t familiar with their music at all but as a teenager, I just loved Rita Mitsouko’s “Singing in the Shower” and I found out later it was written by Sparks. Then I met with them for this project – and I was overwhelmed by their commitment to and faith in the film. Sparks has always been involved in the project, from its early days. There’s something liberating when you actually get down to work, for artists who have been a part of this project for so long, who fought to bring it to completion. The film was getting made, and they knew it, and we all shared in the joy of working all together for the benefit of a special project and of special artists.

Q: Leos Carax is best known for being a painstaking filmmaker on set and for addressing the actors almost by whispering into their ears. Did you experience that yourself?

A: He’s both very specific on set and very flamboyant. He’s totally in love with his job, with the set, with the filmmaking process, the actors, and he’s highly respectful – as an actor, it’s wonderful to feel watched and cared for by an artist such as him. What struck me on set is how much he keeps track of every detail – how well a piece of clothing fits, how you convey what you intend to portray and so forth. He was so focused, and all the more so as the shoot was particularly challenging because Leos was intent on having all the songs performed live. On most traditional musicals, you record your songs during preproduction and then you lip-sync on set. But on this project, Leos wanted everything to be live. It made the shoot even more challenging – we’d be singing in very awkward positions, like backstroking or faking cunnilingus, which are very challenging postures that technically affect your singing. But this is the kind of effect Leos was looking for – he wanted voices to be altered, thwarted by reality.

Q: Tell us about your approach to singing and music, precisely. How did you work with the singer Catherine Trottmann, whose voice was blended with yours for the opera singing part?

A: We knew from the start that I couldn’t take on the opera singing all by myself. It’s just impossible to reach a soprano’s vibrato in barely three months of training. So we decided to blend my voice with that of a professional singer, but we only found her after we wrapped the shoot, which made things even more difficult. I had a wonderful time with Catherine Trottman as I almost found myself in the position of a film director
– I’d give her directions on how to adjust her voice, on the songs’ meaning etc. It was both complicated to pass on part of my performance to someone else and extremely inspiring.

Interview with Adam Driver

Q: What was it about the project that made want to be a part of it, not only as an actor but as a producer?

A: That  it  was  Leos.  That  it  was  a  musical the Sparks wrote. There were all these big sequences that required rehearsal, big set pieces, a lot of moving parts. All of it sounded like a challenge but that the result could be singular.

Q: What was it about Leos Carax’s previous work that made you interested in collaborating with him? Were there any films of his that you particularly liked or were inspired by?

A: The actors seemed to have such freedom in them. And the shots are incredible. They ask a lot of the people making them. Hard to pick a specific one. There are moments and sequences in all of them that are unforgettable.

Q: What was Leos’ directing style like on set?

A: Hard to summarize but from my perspective he’s living every moment along with his actors and crew; so he’s not leading with a bullhorn, it’s more from a place of focus. He’s doesn’t miss a detail. He’s great at balancing moments of complete spontaneity within heavy choreography. He’s hilarious. He’s one of the great directors of all time.

Q: Much of the dialogue is sung. What did you do to prepare for the musical aspect of the role? What was the rehearsal process like?

A: As far as the music was concerned, I met with Michael Rafter, who I had worked with on Marriage Story. I drilled the songs with him for months. The Sparks and Leos were very clear with what sound they were going for and that the storytelling was the priority. We pre-recorded everything as a back-up but we sung everything live as well. I don’t know what percentage made it in the movie but I think the majority.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSbZjinqI-Q

 

BEING A HUMAN PERSON, Documentary about the Sui Generis Swedish Filmmaker Roy Andersson, Opens this Friday on the Laemmle Virtual Platform.

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Roy Andersson is one of the world’s most eminent living film directors, and the main subject of Being a Human Person. This maverick Swedish auteur’s work has been celebrated at all of the world’s major film festivals, from his 1970 debut A Swedish Love Story, which picked up four prizes at Berlin, through to Songs from the Second Floor, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000. His final two films (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence and About Endlessness) both premiered in Venice, winning the Golden Lion in 2014 and Silver Lion in 2019, respectively.

At 76 years of age, Andersson was about to complete his final film, About Endlessness. With the end of his career in sight, the central thematic concerns of his work – vulnerability, insecurity and mortality – spilled over into his creative process, blurring the line between the personal and the professional. In documenting this process, Fred Scott’s Being a Human Person becomes a powerful meditation on the relationship between art and artist, and a heartbreakingly honest portrait of one of the most startlingly original and unremittingly humane directors in world cinema. Laemmle Theatres opens Being a Human Person on our virtual platform beginning this Friday, July 30. About Endlessness is available now.

The British production company Archer’s Mark wrote the following about the documentary:

There are some filmmakers whose style is so unique, they can announce themselves in a scene. Lynch, Spielberg, Welles, Malick. They have such intense and personal vision, such specificity of time, place and cultural context – that we only need to spend a minute in their world to recognise their signature. And then there is Roy Andersson. A director who possesses a style of visual storytelling that allows his work to be known in a single frame.* Because Roy – in a world where the hyperbolic use of such a phrase is all too commonplace – is truly one of a kind, for many reasons.

Each of his films takes an average of five years to make. His crew builds every set; films it; and then destroys it. He uses only fixed, long shots with no close-ups or edits. Each film is made up of an average of 40 intricate, painterly tableaux. He only casts non-professional actors. Roy’s intricate in-camera trickery employs surgical craftsmanship that is meticulous to the point of madness… And all of this takes place on the two floors below Roy’s apartment in an unassuming townhouse in central Stockholm – also known as the legendary Studio 24.

In short, Roy’s way is the antithesis of every film production of the last 50 years. It has won him garlands at the biggest festivals in the world – Cannes, Berlin, Venice – and the adulation of visionary directors like Darren Aronofsky and Alejandro G. Iñárritu.

 

In an age of the franchise, and a proliferation of cookie-cutter storytelling, Roy is quite simply the last of his kind. And now, at 76 years of age, he is about to present his last film to the world. That film – About Endlessness – will mark the end of a major chapter in cinema. For when Roy stops making films, they will simply never be made in this way again.

Set across a three year time period, Being a Human Person charts the arduous and unsettled arc of production of what Roy lovingly terms his “final effort”. Shot through with Roy’s candour, humour and insistence on capturing the process in all its truthfulness – even as he comes to terms with his own, increasingly fragile, mortality – it also becomes a meditation on the legacy of a master storyteller as he calls time on his career.

*From The Living Paintings of Roy Andersson by Film Qualia (YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3EaZCNFXSs