The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

Laemmle Theatres

Film Reviews & Previews

You are here: Home / Greg Laemmle

Todd Haynes’ MAY DECEMBER and the 35th Anniversary of the Mighty Zeitgeist Films.

by Leave a Comment

 After a couple disappointing features, it was great to see Todd Haynes, one of our finest filmmakers, return to his indie roots with the 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground.  And now with May December — which we open May 17 at the Glendale, Monica Film Center, NoHo and Town Center — we have another feature that can stand alongside his masterpieces like Safe, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There and Carol.  This is also a moment to remember his first feature, Poison, and the use this as an opportunity to honor New York-based boutique distributor Zeitgeist Films (the distributor of Poison) on their 35th anniversary. Long and successful careers require talent, to be sure.  But the role of early supporters is also key. And from Todd Haynes to Atom Egoyan and Francois Ozo to Christopher Nolan, Zeitgeist has championed so many amazing talents.  ~ Greg Laemmle
Stephen Saito of The Movable Fest recently spoke with Zeitgeist founders Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo about their company, the ingenuity and drive it took to make it a success, their favorite films, and much more. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the changing world of independent film distribution from two experts. Saito introducers the interview like this:

For much of cinema history, the sight of a big Z slashing across the screen promised the fictional adventures of a sword-wielding caped crusader, but starting in 1988, that big red Z started to stand for something else amongst discerning cinephiles, as real life heroes Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo believed there was a better way forward for the films they loved. Starting Zeitgeist Films out of a small West Village apartment after working a variety of jobs in film distribution, the two have played an outsized role in shaping film culture in the decades since, taking a quality over quantity approach to making room in a crowded American theatrical marketplace for some of the most daring work from around the world. Limiting their acquisitions to a manageable slate of four to five releases a year where each one would receive their undivided attention, a necessity when championing artists such as Bruce Weber (“Let’s Get Lost”), Peter Greenaway (“The Draughtman’s Contract”), Derek Jarman (“Blue”) and Guy Maddin (“Cowards Bend at the Knee”) without deep pockets, the duo has not only had the foresight to see the enduring nature of the films themselves that they release, but the value of time in how much they put into each film and how it has afforded them the sustainability to keep going.

“We noticed that there were companies that started that spent a lot of money on films and would acquire a lot and those companies went out of business extremely quickly,” Gerstman said recently on the occasion of the company’s 35th anniversary. “And we wanted to stay in business and we were able to.”

Their latest milestone has led the Metrograph in New York to pay Zeitgeist a much-deserved month-long tribute with an in-theater 13-film retrospective, kicking off this Friday with Gerstman and Russo introducing a newly spiffed up 4K restoration of “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” Marc Rohemund’s unfortunately all-too-relevant WWII tale of the Munich University student who stood up against the infiltration of Nazi thought at school, and an additional 20 films being made available on the theater’s streaming service Metrograph-At-Home, tilting towards the visionary meta-fiction works from Yvonne Rainer, Atom Egoyan and Jennifer Baichwal that the distributor pushed long before such playful documentaries were in fashion. Guests of the series such as Raoul Peck (“Lumumba”), Christine Vachon (“Poison”) and Astra Taylor (“Examined Life”) reflect the range of Gerstman and Russo’s belief in taking advantage of the big screen’s ability to hold a variety of perspectives, yielding a catalog deep with films where the ordinary becomes extraordinary simply by telling stories that have been overlooked, particularly when it comes to the hidden histories of women and gay life in the 20th century.

With the machinery they’ve built over the years, Gerstman and Russo have celebrated the careers of free-thinking artists and activists as a home to documentary profiles of filmmakers such as Maya Deren (“In the Mirror of Maya Deren”) and Alice Guy Blache (“Be Natural”), photographers Cecil Beaton (“Love Cecil”) and Bill Cunningham (“Bill Cunningham: New York”) and intellectuals Noam Chomsky (“Manufacturing Consent”), Hannah Arendt (“Vita Activa”) and Slavoj Zizek (“The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”) while helping launch so many others, picking up on the early promise in the work of Todd Haynes (“Dottie Got Spanked”), Laura Poitras (“The Oath”), Chaitanya Tamhane (“Court”), Talya Lavie (“Zero Motivation”), and Andrey Zvyagintsev (“Elena”). (Only they could arrange for a documentary to be made about the stop-motion animation maestros the Brothers Quay made by Christopher Nolan, whose first film “Following” they shepherded to theaters.)

As Gerstman and Russo readily acknowledge, the work has only gotten more difficult as time has gone on, but leaning on good taste and institutional knowledge, they have beaten the odds to become a pillar of arthouse cinema and in having such a hand in bringing important voices into those sacred spaces, it was truly an honor to get to speak to them on the eve of their retrospective at the Metrograph, which may be a short distance from their offices, but involves a journey that cuts across multiple countries and decades as they’ve brought global cinema to the city and beyond.

Click here to read the interview.

ONLY IN THEATERS Nominated for a Film Threat Award and Now Available in Theaters on DVD.

by 1 Comment

Only in Theaters, the documentary about the history and future of Laemmle Theatres and includes interviews with Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory, Kenneth Turan, Leonard Maltin and more, is now a Film Threat’s Award This! nominee in the Film About Movies or Filmmaking category. The ceremony is December 10th at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana. “Hollywood often shows us that they can re-make anything, but indie filmmakers continue to show us that there are no limits in cinema,” said Film Threat publisher and Award This! producer Chris Gore. “Award This! and Film Threat are here to champion voices that color outside the lines. Independent cinema rises like a phoenix away from the studio cutting room floor. Join us as we cheer on the rebel artists on December 10th. And it’s always fun to party with a group of amazing and eclectic filmmakers.”

Also notable, the Only in Theaters DVD is now available for sale at all seven of our theaters. In his recent Film Factual review of the release, Brent Simon described the film as “a rich and fortifying watch, and it thankfully isn’t fanciful enough to peddle easy solutions, or clear skies on the horizon. It’s funny and sad and at times emotionally piercing, but most of all it’s honest — a quality we should all want more of in movies, big and small.”

Reviews of the film’s theatrical release include:

“The narrative about the theaters’ present-day fight for survival is undeniably compelling.” ~ Glenn Kenny, New York Times

“A fascinating and poignant look at the Laemmle family.” Claudia Puig, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)

“Like a knotty, poignant family business saga you might see on one of their screens, the story here is beautiful and complicated, one in which the twin weights of legacy and calling bear down on the need to survive in changing times.” Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“It’s not a film about how important theatrical exhibition is for filmmakers (though that is nice too). Rather, it’s an intimate portrait of a man burdened by legacy, navigating uncharted waters, not even sure that he wants to.” ~ Katie Walsh, TheWrap
“It’s essential viewing for any film fan and should — yes — be seen on the big screen.” ~ Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer in person for a Q&A at the Royal.

by Leave a Comment

The powerful Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005) is based on the true story of Germany’s most famous, fearless anti-Nazi heroine of the resistance group the White Rose. Armed with long-buried historical records of her arrest and incarceration by the Gestapo‚ the filmmakers expertly recreate the last six days of Scholl’s life: a heart-stopping journey from arrest to interrogation‚ trial and sentence. “Harrowing, heroic, exhilarating, inspiring, riveting.” (L.A. Times)
*
If you’ve never seen it on a big screen or want to experience it again, Sophie Scholl is more timely than ever, forcing the audience to ask: what is an individual’s responsibility to resist immorality when living under a terrifying, repressive regime? One that has no compunctions about murdering its own citizens if they are deemed the slightest threat to its hegemony?
*
 SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer in person for a Q&A at the Royal.
*
Sophie Scholl screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer will join us on Thursday, October 26 at the Royal for a post-screening Q&A moderated by Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle. The screening starts at 7 pm.
*
Many thanks to the Goethe Institute and Villa Aurora for to making the screening possible.
*

ONLY IN THEATERS screening with Q&A this Saturday, July 8 at Vidiots in Eagle Rock.

by Leave a Comment

July 5 Update: Tickets are now on sale for this Saturday’s Vidiots screening of Only in Theaters. In addition to the film, this is one more, possibly last chance to catch an in-person Q&A with subjects Greg and Tish Laemmle and filmmaker Raphael Sbarge.

Original post from June 14: Vidiots, welcome to the L.A. exhibition scene! ONLY IN THEATERS screening w/Q&A July 8.

Los Angeles’ world class movie theater culture just got classier. By reopening the 271-seat Eagle Theatre in Eagle Rock, Vidiots has joined major venues of film exhibition like the Academy Museum, the American Cinematheque, the Alamo Drafthouse, the New Beverly, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (in 2025), and REDCAT, to grassroots sites like Braindead Studios, Secret Movie Club, and Cinespia, plus, ahem, yours truly, Laemmle Theatres to further get Angelenos off their lonesome sofas and out into our one-of-a-kind megalopolis. We are in Hollywood, after all, the movie capital of the world, and it’s only fitting we have a plethora of ways to see movies the way they are meant to be seen: in public, with an audience, on big screens. Yes, home viewing is convenient. And for episodic stuff that is meant to be seen on TV, we are all for it. But comparing the experience of watching a “movie” via VOD with the act of actually seeing the same film in a movie theatre is like the debate between masturbation and sex …or a frozen meal versus a meal at your favorite restaurant. In the immortal words of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, “ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, Baby.”

We’re pleased the documentary about Laemmle, Only in Theaters, is among Vidiot’s first screenings. Join filmmaker Raphael Sbarge and subjects Greg and Tish Laemmle for a post-screening Q&A on July 8.

Mark Olsen of the L.A. Times has been covering Vidiot’s long road from funky, adored Santa Monica video store to Eagle Rock movie theater/cafe/video store/event space. Here’s the beginning of his latest dispatch:

When the Santa Monica video store Vidiots, which had become a local cultural institution, closed in February 2017, founders Patty Polinger and Cathy Tauber had their doubts as to whether the store would ever rebound. Opened in 1985, the beloved rental shop had a collection of more than 50,000 titles on various media formats that was put into storage, potentially never to be publicly available again.

“I didn’t really think it would,” said Tauber, reflecting on whether the store could bounce back after years of financial struggle with the rise of emerging streaming services. “I know that was the plan from the beginning, but I think by the time we shut down, I was so worn out and exhausted from trying to keep the business going and all the negativity and struggle. It was really hard to imagine this was really going to happen. Of course I hoped it would, but we were just way burnt out by the time we were closing down.”

Tauber sat recently with Polinger in the comfy and inviting theater space of the revived Vidiots, which just reopened. Besides a video store, the newly renovated complex at the Eagle Theatre in Eagle Rock includes a 271-seat movie theater, a beer and wine bar, and a smaller micro-cinema space that can also be used for community and educational programs.

“It has been such a transformation and such a huge endeavor, with so many obstacles along the way,” said Polinger. “It’s really a miracle that we’re here.”

Click here to read Olsen’s full article.

 

ONLY IN THEATERS now on VOD.

by Leave a Comment

If you or someone you know want to see the acclaimed documentary about Laemmle Theatres Only in Theaters at home, it’s now available for rent via Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play and other on demand platforms. The film about the 85-year history of the family owned and operated foreign and indie movie exhibition company has been praised as both “heartbreaking and heartening…its subject the movies themselves” (Longtime lead L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan). Robert Abele of the Times wrote “like a knotty, poignant family business saga you might see on one of their screens, the story here is beautiful and complicated, one in which the twin weights of legacy and calling bear down on the need to survive in changing times.” The interviewees include Turan, Greg and Tish Laemmle, Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory and Leonard Maltin.

 

 

 

ONLY IN THEATERS wraps up Bay Area tour, returns to L.A. later this month.

by Leave a Comment

Greg and Tish Laemmle just finished a tour of the Bay Area with the documentary about the family business, Only in Theatres, participating in nine Q&As over nine days at eight venues; great reviews and word-of-mouth brought out the crowds. Encore Los Angeles screenings are planned on March 30 and April 2 and will include Q&As with filmmaker Raphael Sparge with Greg & Tish.
*

ONLY IN THEATERS touring the Bay Area.

by 2 Comments

The acclaimed documentary about Laemmle Theatres Only in Theaters is touring the Bay Area with in-person Q&As by third-generation Laemmle Theatre president Greg Laemmle and his wife Tish:
*
02/25 – East Bay Jewish Film Festival (Pleasant Hill)
02/25 – 3Below (San Jose)
02/26 – Carmel Valley Jewish Film Festival (Lighthouse Cinema, Pacific Grove)
02/27 – Elmwood, Berkeley
02/28 – Roxie (encore)
03/01 – Rialto Cinemas, Sebastopol
03/02 – Smith Rafael Film Center
03/03 – Cameo, St. Helena
03/04 – Cameo, St. Helena (encore)
*
If you have friends in the Bay Area, tell them to look for the film. It isn’t just for Angelenos and Dodger fans. Art houses across the country are fighting to come back, and in some communities (Berkeley in particular) the post-pandemic period has seen a number of theatre closures.
*
And if you are based in L.A., some screenings with Q&As are in the works for the end of March and beginning of April.  Stay tuned!
*

Top Ten Films of 2022 contest ends Sunday: Tell us your favorites for a chance to win free movie passes!

by 4 Comments

Keep those Top Ten contest entries coming. You have until this Sunday, January 22 to give it some thought and enter here. So far, unsurprisingly, it looks like many Laemmle moviegoers are kvelling about Everything Everywhere All at Once, Top Gun: Maverick, and RRR. We’ll have final results next week. You can read Greg Laemmle’s list and leading American film critics’ lists if you need inspiration. Personally, my favorite is Jordan Peele’s spectacular Nope. No doubt my reaction was influenced by the fact that I saw it in a packed, sold-out theater on opening night, because movies are better in theaters!