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“Now, there’s nothing to be nervous about. I’ve flown thousands of miles and I can tell you it’s a lot safer than crossing the street!” ~ 50th anniversary screening of the mother of all disaster movies, AIRPORT.

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On Wednesday, December 15, at 7 PM at the Royal Theatre, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a (slightly belated) 50th anniversary screening of the melodrama that launched the all-star disaster movie craze, Ross Hunter’s production of Airport. Set during a fierce winter snowstorm at and around a Chicago airport, and with the added complication of a mad suicide bomber aboard a jet headed for Rome, the film was full of spectacle and a heady mix of tempestuous subplots. It earned 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay, and won the award for Best Supporting Actress Helen Hayes as a feisty stowaway aboard the plane headed for disaster.

David Newman, son of Airport composer Alfred Newman, will be in attendance.

"Now, there's nothing to be nervous about. I've flown thousands of miles and I can tell you it's a lot safer than crossing the street!" ~ 50th anniversary screening of the mother of all disaster movies, AIRPORT.

Multiple past and future Oscar winners were also in the cast, including Burt Lancaster, George Kennedy, Van Heflin, and Maureen Stapleton, along with “king of cool” Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Seberg, Barbara Hale, Dana Wynter, Lloyd Nolan, and Barry Nelson. The film was written and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker George Seaton (Miracle on 34th Street, The Country Girl, The Counterfeit Traitor). It was adapted from the best-selling novel by Arthur Hailey and also earned nominations for Best Cinematography, Art Direction, Film Editing, and Sound. It also marked the final Oscar nomination for composer Alfred Newman, who died shortly before the film opened. It was Newman’s 45th nomination in a remarkable career that included nine previous Oscar wins (for such diverse films as The King and I, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, and The Song of Bernadette).

"Now, there's nothing to be nervous about. I've flown thousands of miles and I can tell you it's a lot safer than crossing the street!" ~ 50th anniversary screening of the mother of all disaster movies, AIRPORT.

Although in essence an old-fashioned melodrama, the film broke new ground in several areas. The idea of a suicide bomber, a desperate and disgruntled construction worker, was a novel plot point in 1970. Although the movie was G rated, it dealt with extramarital romances in a nonjudgmental way that would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier. And its formula of an all-star cast of characters in jeopardy set the model for other disaster movies of the 70s, including The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, not to mention three sequels and the hugely successful parody Airplane!

"Now, there's nothing to be nervous about. I've flown thousands of miles and I can tell you it's a lot safer than crossing the street!" ~ 50th anniversary screening of the mother of all disaster movies, AIRPORT.
AIRPORT, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Seberg, Burt Lancaster, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen Stapleton, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Dana Wynter, Barry Nelson, Barbara Hale, George Kennedy, George Seaton and Ross Hunter, 1970

The movie grossed a phenomenal $100 million (equivalent to more than $650 million today), making it the highest grossing picture in Universal’s history up to that time. When it had its TV network premiere three years later, it also broke records. Although reviews at the time were mixed, Variety declared good-naturedly, “Based on the novel by Arthur Hailey… with a cast of stars as long as a jet runway, and adapted by George Seaton in a glossy, slick style, Airport is a handsome, often dramatically involving” film. Or as Leonard Maltin put it, “Grand Hotel plot formula reaches latter-day zenith in ultra-slick, old-fashioned movie that entertains in spite of itself.”

Special guests and other surprises will enhance this fun-filled holiday screening.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.”

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

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

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

“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.