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Home » News

“A gorgeous drama with an open, aching heart,” FAMILIAR TOUCH opens Friday at the Royal, Town Center, and Glendale.

June 25, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

As we approach 2025’s midway point, we are about to open one of the year’s finest films, the locally produced Familiar Touch. A sampling of critics’ encomiums is below. Writer-director Sarah Friedland and star Kathleen Chalfant will participate in Royal Q&A’s after the 7:30 P.M. shows on June 27 & 28; at the Town Center following the 12:50 P.M. show on June 29; and at the Glendale after the 4:30 P.M. show on June 29. Lydia Storie, Director of Culture Change at Caring Across Generations, will moderate the June 27 screening. You can also catch Friedland and Chalfant’s interview on the latest episode of Inside the Arthouse.
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“Familiar Touch is a film about forgetting, but it’s also a reminder — as moving, sincere and gracefully unadorned as any I’ve seen in some time — of the actor’s art.” ~ Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal

“A gorgeous drama with an open, aching heart.” ~ Jourdain Searles, RogerEbert.com

“Because writer-director Sarah Friedland’s debut finds so much depth in its subjective approach to memory loss, it loses much of its stigma and discovers wonder in its place.” ~ Jacob Oller, AV Club

“Friedland’s film, as sharp as it is soft, conveys both the terror of losing the life you recognize, and the intermittent, fragmented joy of finding it again.” ~ Guy Lodge, Variety

“In the end,  Familiar Touch reveals itself to be less about the agonies of change than in the concessions we make to feel closer to our loved ones and ourselves.” ~ Beatrice Loayza, New York Times

“There is great emotional heft to a relatively simple film, and a dignity and empathy afforded to dementia patients that feels astonishingly rare on-screen, where sensationalism tends to bring the house down.” ~ Hannah Strong, Little White Lies

“Familiar Touch can be sad, without question, but it’s also salty and boundlessly tender.” ~ Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture

“What Friedland keenly understands is the power of what’s unsaid, how memories can tie themselves to sound, smell, and touch too, and how sometimes those are the last to go.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“Like any good coming-of-age movie, Familiar Touch never condescends. It takes its protagonist’s experience with dislocation, unrequited love and the desire to be understood quite seriously.” ~ Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

“Friedland, who also wrote the film‘s script, is not given over to histrionics or blaring displays of emotion, instead asking us to follow Ruth and experience the world through her eyes. The impact is profound.” ~ Kate Erbland, IndieWire

“There’s a profound tenderness in Sarah Friedland’s affecting first feature and a rare empathy.” ~ Wendy Ide, Screen International

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Filed Under: Actor in Person, Featured Films, Filmmaker in Person, Films, Glendale, Inside the Arthouse, News, Q&A's, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“An engrossing thriller fueled by female rage,” the Iranian-Israeli drama TATAMI opens Friday at the Royal, next week at the Laemmle Glendale and Town Center..

June 18, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

This Friday we are proud to open TATAMI, the acclaimed collaboration between Iranian and Israeli filmmakers. Some plaudits from top American film critics:

“A superb example of pop cultural translation that freshens up the clichés of the sports corruption thriller and gives the actors and filmmakers a chance to flex their considerable skills.” ~ Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

“The mounting tensions of these moving parts — and steely performances by Mandi and Amir — make for an engrossing thriller fueled by female rage.” ~ Beatrice Loayza, New York Times

“Despite its urgent political engagement, TATAMI never forgets to be a gripping watch.” ~ Catherine Bray, Variety

“Vibrantly helmed and performed, with co-director and Cannes best actress winner Zar Amir Ebrahimi playing one of the leads, the film is a win both behind and in front of the camera.” ~ Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter

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Filed Under: Featured Films, Featured Post, Films, Glendale, News, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

A new comedy that draws inspiration from the great ones of the past, BAD SHABBOS opens Friday.

June 4, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore 1 Comment

A huge hit last weekend in New York, we’re excited to open the comedy Bad Shabbos this Friday at the Royal and Town Center with expansion runs planned around L.A. County in the subsequent weeks. The film follows David and his fiancée, Meg, who are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner. Things get far more complicated because of an accidental death (or murder?). With Meg’s Catholic parents due any moment, the family dinner soon spirals into a hilarious disaster.

The following Bad Shabbos screenings will feature in-person introductions or Q&A’s: Thursday, June 5 at the Royal w/director Daniel Robbins, producer Adam Mitchell & star Theo Taplitz, moderated by Hilary Helstein; Saturday, June 7, Town Center 5:15 P.M. with Robbins & Taplitz & 7:30 P.M (introduction only).; Royal 7:30 P.M. w/Robbins & Taplitz; Sunday, June 8, Town Center 1:00 w/Robbins & 3:05 P.M. (intro only); Royal 3:05 and 5:15 P.M. w/Robbins.

Bad Shabbos director Daniel Robbins is interviewed on the latest episode of Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge’s video podcast Inside the Arthouse and also wrote the following about his film:

“My grandfather liked to joke that Christians will tell you they’re Christian, Muslims will tell you they’re Muslim, but Jews will tell you they’re Jew…ish.

“There’s a wide range to Judaism and the characters in this film fall in the middle of the spectrum. They’re people who take their faith seriously, but also interact with the secular world. People who, instead of planting their flag on one end of the spectrum, try to exist in between. People who try to manage the polarities of a secular life and a religious one.

“I chose to portray this segment of Judaism not just because it’s how I grew up, but because of the metaphor it presents for a family. Each family is constantly managing its own polarities. Between familial expectations and personal freedoms. Between unconditional love and constructive criticism.

“Between tradition of the old and tolerance for the new. This film is about a family trying to find its place, on a night when they’re meeting the in-laws for the first time, while there’s a dead body in their bathroom.

“It’s a fun, kinetic ride that pulls from the great comedies of the past. There are pieces stolen from Ernst Lubitsch’s blocking, Billy Wilder’s efficiency, Woody Allen’s aesthetic, Mike Nichols’s performances, and Nora Ephron and Neil Simon’s dialogue. But the greatest heist is probably from the early 2000’s comedies I grew up watching. The films Meet the Parents and My Big Fat Greek Wedding were constantly playing on my parents’ TV, broken up with whatever commercials TNT decided to include. These two films were comedies with tight scripts, big laughs, some heart, and authentic portrayals of their subcultures — Chicago Greeks and Long Island Christians. Additional influences were The Birdcage and Death at a Funeral.

The film was shot entirely on location on the Upper West Side. It was important to make it as authentic as possible and stay true to that setting – including shooting at the iconic Upper West Side staple Barney Greengrass and giving the owner Gary Greengrass a small role. The apartment was an actual apartment on 81st Street on the 16th floor, however the lobby was shot in a different building on Riverside drive, the same building they used for Tom Hanks’s lobby in You’ve Got Mail (also a favorite of ours).

Our team’s first goal with Bad Shabbos was to make a film that authentically portrays my subculture — New York Jews. My family gathered for Shabbos dinner every Friday night and, even on the more chaotic nights, there was an underlying warmth. Then our second and, perhaps, main goal was to take everything we love about the comedies of old and — like the characters in this film — try to adapt to modern times.”

From Bob Strauss’s review in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Jews and gentiles in love have been comically upsetting their respective families for at least 103 years, since the popular stage play “Abie’s Irish Rose” debuted. Dinner parties gone awry are also a theatrical — and by extension, movie and television — staple.

“Mix them together with an inconvenient corpse, and you’ve got the recipe for Bad Shabbos. More crucial ingredients in Daniel Robbins’ New York farce include verbal dexterity and spry visuals, which give the sense of a well-done theatrical production that’s a real movie as well.

“Primarily set in an Upper West Side apartment, the film also boasts a game ensemble, each member of which knows just how to take their moments in the spotlight. Characters aren’t deep but not stick figures either; their flaws and needs become more pronounced as the pressure mounts from a sudden death  — or was it murder?

“Sure, certain roles bear unmistakable traces of stereotype, but no one is solely defined by the fact that they’re a Jewish mother or Midwestern Catholic. Everyone’s core impulses take them to surprising and darkly funny but believable places. And growth is a nice, nourishing dish on this Sabbath comedy’s table.

“Jon Bass (“Miracle Workers”) and Meghan Leathers (“For All Mankind”) are David and Meg, facing their final hurdle to getting married: her Catholic parents coming in from Wisconsin to meet his Jewish family, the Gelfands, for Friday night dinner.

“Observant but not super orthodox, David’s mom Ellen (Kyra Sedgwick) has issues with her future daughter-in-law’s not quite kosher kitchen skills (for starters), while his dad Richard (David Paymer) seems more devoted to his self-help psychology books than to the Talmud.

“Also at the Shabbat is David’s scrawny kid brother, a wannabe Israel Defense Forces commando named Adam (Theo Taplitz, who has the looks and intensity of a very young Adrien Brody), their sister Abby (Milana Vayntrub) and her crummy boyfriend Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman). They all work up believable irritations and concerns before the deadly incident hijacks everyone’s attention.

“With varying success, they attempt to carry on like nothing’s wrong when Meg’s parents, Beth (Catherine Curtin) and John (John Bedford Lloyd), arrive. Prayers and rituals get made up to keep the visitors distracted and away from the body in the kitchen. There are high degrees of cleverness and silliness to all of this.

“But top comic delivery honors go to Vayntrub (of AT&T commercials and, more recently, the Menendez brothers “Monsters” fame) as an unhappy woman who becomes both increasingly drunk and the situation’s moral center. When Ellen disapprovingly learns she drove over on the Sabbath, Abby replies, “How is this worse than murder?”

“Likewise, Lloyd is a slow-burn marvel who builds John from a subtle to a loudly aggrieved fount of micro-anti-semitisms.

“Honorable mention goes to Clifford “Method Man” Smith, who as the building’s doorman Jordan makes it his business to help the only resident family he likes. Additionally, Jordan brings a suspensefully useful ticking clock element as his shift change approaches.

“As noted, Bad Shabbos is about growth as well as laughs, and no one exemplifies that better than Leathers. Lightly touching on Meg’s resentment at having to convert while her fiancé needn’t do anything, she nonetheless gleans practical insights from her rabbinical studies and has a gift for sharing what she knows. As does writer-director Robbins, who modeled the Gelfands on his own family.

“Without making a big deal out of any of their traits, he gives us specific, authentic characters who live their traditional beliefs with modern attitudes. Neither too “oy vey” nor “Weekend at Bernie’s” but steeped in the best aspects of both Jewish and black comedy, Bad Shabbos is a treat any night of the week.”

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Filed Under: Actor in Person, Director's Statement, Featured Films, Featured Post, Filmmaker in Person, Filmmaker's Statement, Films, Glendale, Greg Laemmle, Inside the Arthouse, Newhall, News, NoHo 7, Press, Q&A's, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

Upcoming films in our Worldwide Wednesday series include movies from Brazil, Japan, France, Australia and Kazakhstan.

May 30, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres’ weekly series of fresh international films, Worldwide Wednesdays! Most are newer obscure films that we want to bring to a broader L.A. audience, screening in multiple venues all over L.A. County so cinephiles will not have to schlep to a single location. The films, however, come from many thousands of miles away! Screenings are Wednesday evenings with encore showings on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

PERFECT ENDINGS June 4, 7 & 8. After a decade-long relationship ends, filmmaker João finds himself at a crossroads in both his personal and professional lives. While trying to break into the film industry, he ends up directing amateur erotic films. With the support of loyal friends, João embarks on a dating journey, navigating modern romance and finding inspiration. Directed by Daniel Ribeiro. (Brazil, 2024)

BLOCK PASS June 11, 14 & 15. A queer motocross coming-of-age drama—sensitive, deeply felt, and quietly profound—that establishes Antoine Chevrollier as a filmmaker to watch. Reminiscent of Rebel Without a Cause but with dirt bikes as the vehicle for defiance, the film follows blood-brothers Willy (Sayyid El Alami) and Jojo (Amaury Foucher) as they navigate grief, masculinity, and unspoken desires. Directed by Antoine Chevrollier. (2024, France/United States)

ZÉNITHAL JUNE 18, 21 & 22. Ti-Kong, the famous kung fu master, is found dead. Could the assassin be the Machiavellian Dr. Sweeper? Insecure Francis falls into his clutches as he becomes a crucial part of Sweeper’s scheme to preserve absolute male domination over the globe. That is, unless Sonia, Francis’ girlfriend, decides to take action to save him, restore their relationship, and establish peace between the sexes. Directed by Jean-Baptiste Saurel. (France, 2024)

SHALL WE DANCE? June 25, 28 & 29. Shohei Sugiyama seems to have it all — a high-paying job as an accountant, a beautiful home, a caring wife and a doting daughter he loves dearly. However, he feels something is missing in his life. One day while commuting on the train he spots a beautiful woman staring wistfully out a window and eventually decides to find her. His search leads him head-first into the world of competitive ballroom dancing. Directed by Masayuki Suô. (Japan, 1996)

SHANGHAI BLUES July 2, 5 & 6. In 1937, a soldier and a young woman meet in darkness under a bridge as they seek refuge during a bombing. Although they can’t see each other’s faces, they promise to meet again after the dust settles. Ten years later, the soldier, now a burgeoning songwriter and tuba player, is back in town desperately searching for his would-be soulmate. As fate would have it, they unknowingly end up living in the same building. Through a series of mishaps, he mistakes her new roommate for his love interest, and love triangle hijinks ensue. Directed by Tsui Hark. (Hong Kong, 1984)

THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS July 9, 12 & 13. In a cage on a trailer in the middle of the desert, BlackWoman is abandoned. But BlackWoman seems not ready to pass…she escapes, and walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to canyon to mountain to city, on a quest that leads to a city, recapture and tragedy. BlackWoman, escaping once more, must find solace in her beginnings. Directed by Rolf de Heer. (Australia, 2022)

THE POLISH WOMEN July 16, 19 & 20. Rio de Janeiro, early 20th century. Escaping famine in Poland, Rebeca (Valentina Herszage), together with her son Joseph, arrives in Brazil to meet her husband, who immigrated first hoping for a better life for the three of them. However, she finds a completely different reality in Rio de Janeiro. Rebeca discovers that her husband has passed away and ends up a hostage of a large network of prostitution and trafficking of Jewish women headed by the ruthless Tzvi (Caco Ciocler). To escape this exploitation, she will need to transgress her beliefs. Directed by João Jardim. (Brazil, 2023)

A WORLD APART July 23, 26 & 27. Arriving during a snowstorm to take a post at a tiny rural school on the verge of closure, Cortese (Antonio Albanese) finds himself far from the comforts of Rome and faced with a lively, multi-age class. With the support of Agnese (Virginia Raffaele), the school’s passionate vice-principal, he gradually sheds his urban habits and rediscovers the true meaning of teaching — rooted in empathy, resilience, and the power of community. Directed by Riccardo Milani. (Italy, 2024)

FORBIDDEN GAMES July 30, August 2 & 3. When her parents are killed in an air strike while trying to flee Paris during the German invasion, five-year-old Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) (“in a performance that rips the heart out” – New York Times) wanders into the French countryside, where she encounters 11-year-old peasant boy Michel (Georges Poujouly). As they build a special, secret friendship, the adults play their own games of buffoonish peasant feuds. A masterpiece of French post-war cinema, Forbidden Games won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival — and then became a worldwide art house smash. Directed by René Clément. (France, 1952)

THE TIME IT TAKES August 6, 9 & 10. A devoted father shares a special bond with his young daughter, but as she grows, the enchantment begins to fade. Adolescence brings distance and disillusionment. She spirals into drug use, concealing her struggles from her father. Refusing to turn away, he takes a decisive step — bringing her to Paris in a final attempt to rekindle their connection and guide her back to herself. Directed by Francesca Comencini. (Italy/France, 2024)

THE TIES THAT BIND US August 13, 16 & 17. A poignant adaptation of Alice Ferney’s L’Intimité, Carine Tardieu’s The Ties that Bind Us explores how unexpected bonds can transform our beliefs and definitions of family. Sandra (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a librarian who never wanted children, reluctantly agrees to care for her neighbor’s young son Elliot while his mother gives birth. When tragedy strikes, Sandra, Elliot, and his father find their lives unexpectedly intertwined. Tender and empathetic, Tardieu’s film is a moving meditation on grief, connection, and the forms love and family can take. Directed by Carine Tardieu. (France/Belgium, 2024)

BAURYNA SALU August 27, 30 & 31. In Kazakhstan, the ancient nomadic tradition of “bauryna salu” dictates that firstborn children are raised by their grandparents. Following this custom, Yersultan is sent to live with his grandmother from birth, growing up in her care while feeling increasingly abandoned by his parents. Though he forms a deep bond with his grandmother, Yersultan remains emotionally distant from his parents. At age 12, his world is shattered by his grandmother’s death, which forces him to leave the only home he’s ever known and return to live with a family he barely recognizes. Directed by Askhat Kuchinchirekov. (Kazakhstan, 2023)

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Filed Under: Claremont 5, Featured Post, Films, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, News, Santa Monica, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

Argentine film MOST PEOPLE DIE ON SUNDAYS “squeezes magic out of melancholy.”

May 7, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Starring and written and directed by Iair Said, Most People Die on Sundays is about grief, but it’s also funny, outrageous, surprising, and utterly unique, with a deadpan tone that recalls Jim Jarmusch movies. We follow the protagonist David as he returns home to Argentina for his uncle’s funeral. Said has a sui generis quality of classic screen comics like Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, and the rest of the cast plays off him perfectly. A sensation when it premiered in the Acid Section at Cannes, Most People Die on Sundays is a comic gem that we’re thrilled to open this Friday at the Royal and Town Center. (Check out Said’s interview on the latest Inside the Arthouse.)

“Said’s finely calibrated writing produces situations that organically and succinctly flesh out the interpersonal dynamics in his family.” – RogerEbert.com

“Said squeezes magic out of melancholy…brings this somewhat mournful portrait to a quietly moving grace note suggesting the silver lining of loss is a motivational reminder to the living.” – Ioncinema

“[A] treatise on the right to fail…a tender tribute to the misfits, to those who, from their peripheral and marginal position, see the world better than the winners.” – Troiscouleurs

“A tragicomedy that lives up to the term, as it finds eruptions of welcome absurdist humor (with something of Martín Rejtman’s cinema) even in the most tragic moments…Said’s cinema in all its dimensions, constantly deepens and evolves.” – Otros Cines

“A marvel, chaotic, sweet and sour, emotional and purely detailed…The filmmaker manages to immerse the viewer in his cathartic state of shock; he manages to connect with the audience in a pain so unique.” – Spanglish Cinema

“A burlesque and touching story about the difficulty of being an adult when you are immature on a relational, emotional and sentimental level…with intelligent writing and without anything superfluous, [Said] describes universal relationships with complex roots, a family life without warmth but not without affection. The lovely ending scene between David and his mother is the perfect example.” – Le Bleu du Miroir

“Most People Die on Sundays is a testament to Said’s ever-expanding list of talents…[a] clever approach to a delicate subject.” – International Cinephile Society

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Filed Under: Featured Films, Films, Greg Laemmle, Inside the Arthouse, News, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“I wanted to bring to light the inner lives of these women, their mutual attraction, their powers, the ways in which they conceal in order to reveal at their own pace.” BONJOUR TRISTESSE opens Friday.

April 30, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Based on Françoise Sagan’s controversial 1954 novel, published when she was only 18 years old, the new adaptation of Bonjour Tristesse follows teenage Cécile (Lily McInerny). Her relaxing summer with her father (Claes Bang) in the south of France is upended by the arrival of the enigmatic Anne (Chloë Sevigny), her late mother’s friend.

First-time filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose is a writer, editor, and filmmaker living in Montreal. Prior to making Bonjour Tristesse, her film writing and interviews have focused on a range of international directors, from Abbas Kiarostami to Mia Hansen-Løve, Mike Leigh, Olivier Assayas, and many more. She is a devoted cinephile and has spoken on the works of masters of the craft from Michelangelo Antonioni to Hsiao-Hsien Hou at numerous screening retrospectives around the world. Her study continued with the gorgeous collaboration she achieved on this film with her crew, especially her cinematographer and costume designer. As she says in her just-posted interview on Inside the Arthouse, “From the beginning, I had a strong sense of who I wanted to build this world with and, honestly, learn from, because I was going to be the least experienced person on the set. You’re very aware of every individual who is there making it with you because you only get this finite amount of time to do it.”

In another interview, Chew-Bose was asked, “What made you want to tell this story?”

A: I was drawn to the women. There was still more to tell. My understanding of what an adaptation could be, for a book as beloved as Bonjour Tristesse, that had also been previously adapted, was entirely based on…potential. I wanted to bring to light the inner lives of these women, their mutual attraction, their powers, the ways in which they conceal in order to reveal at their own pace, of course. Françoise Sagan was a singular force and I was inspired to use my voice to continue the story of Bonjour Tristesse, instead of simply retelling it. In some ways, it’s a very simple story. But is jealousy ever simple? Is growing up as a girl and feeling misunderstood by those you trust most, simple? Is finding love in the same places you might find pain, ever simple? I found myself under the influence of Cécile, even if on paper, we had little in common. I admired her ability to contradict herself, to experience the full-blown capacity of her feelings. There’s real freedom in that. I admired Anne, but wanted to write a version that felt truer to my understanding of womanhood, free of expectations, bright, funny, soft. I was excited to tell this story, scene by scene, allowing these women to compose a rhythm for the movie. Their choices are its momentum.

Q: The cinematography in the film is gorgeous, what was the process like of striking the right tone for the visual language of the film?

A: Max and I spent a long time simply watching movies. We’d watch a movie and then talk about it, even if it wasn’t an obvious inspiration for Bonjour Tristesse. In fact, we seemed drawn to films that weren’t sun dappled or set on beaches. We loved movies with dramatic blocking, where conversations were made tense, simply by how the characters were or were not facing each other. I wanted stillness, and Max encouraged me to seek moments where we could favor movement. We found a sweet spot in Ozu’s use of “pillow shots,” these sort of ‘place setting’ moments where cutaways of everyday life at the Villa provided an opportunity for composition and color, gentle rhythm, and summer’s natural appeal to time passing in a more poetic way.

I wanted certain scenes to feel like theater, on a stage, but in order to achieve that for our movie, Max and I found ways to bring the outdoors inside and vice versa, so our stage, so to speak, still involved shadows, a breeze.

We also focused our attention on photographers like Luigi Ghirri or painters like Félix Vallotton. The former was a huge source of inspiration for the movie’s faded blues and browns. The latter inspired us to favour dark interiors, stylized with a single lamp. One painting in particular, titled “Le Diner, effect de lamp” was the blueprint for a dinner scene in the movie where I insisted our characters should look like they are floating in space at the table, surrounded by blackness. We planned a lot and then forgot everything, finding our rhythm each day on set. We played. We listened to our surroundings.

Also, while it isn’t totally related to the movie’s cinematography, it is related to its visual style. We worked closely with the designer and artist, Cynthia Merhej, whose work inspired the world of Anne’s designs. Cynthia’s eye for color, fabric, detail, was a collaborative no-brainer for Miyako. Together, they imagined a sophisticated, romantic, dancerly, and sometimes handsome design language for Anne. Cynthia’s dresses provide real moments of beauty in the movie, and personally, reminded me of so many classic films where costume encouraged an otherworldly quality to a scene. We can marvel, be awed. She makes clothes for twirling and twirling is so cinematic.

Q: The music in the film is singular and incredibly thoughtful—can you talk through your decisions and inspiration for it?

A: I’ve always loved movie soundtracks. If I was going to make my first film, I was going to make one with a singular soundtrack. Aliocha Schneider was a huge source of inspiration for our music, given his talent and voice. I rewrote scenes for his character, Cyril, after he and I went for a walk a couple years ago in Montreal. He was learning how to sing in Italian, the rest is history.

Our composer, Lesley Barber, designed a score that feels timeless but also spooky, and in moments, very romantic. I loved working with her in Toronto, watching as she played the piano, feeling out a scene’s many movements. We referenced everything from Disney movies to John
Adams to Laraaji to Ravel to Harold Budd, but ultimately, we found our own sound. My friend Hailey Gates recorded an original song for the movie with Z berg—something like a narration of Cécile’s summer. It’s haunting and totally out there but also, like everything with Bonjour, it feels familiar (and again, a little bit Disney). Early in the movie, a song by Dorothy Ashby plays. Something about her harp always sets forth a dreamier side of my imagination, and I wanted that same stirring quality to awaken our audience.

Q: How did your own research of Francoise Sagan inform your approach to Bonjour Tristesse?

A: I researched for my own curiosity. I’ve always found it strange that book covers of Bonjour Tristesse are designed with photos of Françoise. She became fiction, in some ways, and I wanted to preserve her original story, and in turn preserve her, separate from the book. She was so much more. I was under the influence of her love of cars, though, and made sure we had plenty of road, so to speak, and moments of speed (in image and score), to pay tribute to her love of racing. She loved an accelerated life. Personally, I’m much…slower. I tried to strike a balance. I loved reading about her life and learning about her life, through her son, Denis and her longtime publisher Editions Julliard.

Q: Where did the shoot take place and how long did you film for?

A: Beautiful Cassis. There wasn’t a day that passed where I wasn’t acutely aware of our breathtaking location—white rocks, blue water, wild, 300 year old pine trees that our Villa was actually built around. I loved our Villa. It was the first one we saw and I couldn’t unsee it. A real
coup de cœur. It was designed by the architect Fernand Pouillon and what drew me to it was how it was all at once unassuming but rich with character, like sneaky colors here and there, heavy doors and shallow stairs. It had an inside-outside build with windows that provided something voyeuristic to the design. There were multiple terraces which is ideal for a movie with a lot of sitting and talking—I was able to adapt the script to the Villa’s character easily, as if it was all preordained. Max choreographed the camera movements to bring out the Villa’s
particularities, and in some ways, I think the Villa encouraged our imagination, challenged our imagination. We listened to the Villa; we spent time there at various moments in the day, to understand what it looked like at sunset or midday, how the stone walls shifted their varieties of warmth. Even our costume designer, ever-thoughtful in her thinking, Miyako Bellizzi, joined us at different times of day, to understand how her costumes might look against the Villa’s walls, among the trees. We shot for 30 days.

Q: Talk about the casting process and how you came to cast such an extraordinary group of actors here?

A: I always knew I wanted a very international cast, built entirely on instinct. I wanted to make a contemporary version of Bonjour Tristesse and that included updating the characters’ pursuits, sensibilities, sensitivities. I had known Lily for years and personally, just had a feeling she would become Cécile beyond what was on the page. The moment we cast her, Cécile was no longer mine. She was Lily’s. And Lily took the role and ran, with intensity, with subtlety, with an Audrey Hepburn-type grace.

Many years ago, when I was only outlining Bonjour, my producers joined me in Montreal to go over my vision for the film. We talked a lot about Anne and I expressed my deep love for this woman who wants to protect her powers but also, who moves with elegance, who is tender with those that she loves, who is visionary and a romantic. Chloe was an immediate choice. Her immense talent, the roles she takes and the directors she takes chances on, her wit, her style, her deep love for her family and friends, it was so obvious. It took us years to make this movie and years to reach the moment we would cast her, but like everything with this process, there’s been some magic, some destiny. The day we wrapped Chloe, there were tears on set. Nobody wanted her to leave.

It took us a long time to find our Elsa but the moment I saw Naïlia, I knew she was the one. Her smile, her impossible coolness, her kindness. Elsa, in our adaptation, is probably the biggest departure from the book, and Naïlia was very excited and passionate about giving Elsa a story
beyond her relationship to Raymond. There’s a softness, too, to Elsa that isn’t obvious, but Naïlia has a natural tenderness to her. She’s an observer. She pays attention to everyone’s feelings in the room. I learned so much from Naïlia about the power of subtlety.

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Filed Under: Claremont 5, Director's Statement, Featured Films, Featured Post, Filmmaker's Statement, Films, Glendale, Greg Laemmle, Inside the Arthouse, Newhall, News, NoHo 7, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“What I find so touching about [rural people] is the fact that they don’t fall apart when they are grieving…yet in the face of heartbreak, they will be devastated.” French filmmaker Louise Courvoisier on HOLY COW, her sentimental cheese epic.

March 26, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore

Born in 1994, Louise Courvoisier grew up in the Jura region of France before studying cinema at the Cinéfabrique in Lyon. Her graduation short, Mano a Mano, won first prize at the Cinéfondation at Cannes in 2019. Vingt dieux (Holy Cow) is her first feature film, a sentimental cheese epic set in the village of her childhood. It follows 18-year-old Totone. After the tragic death of his father, he’s thrust into the unexpected and very adult role of looking after his younger sister and their failing family farm. He assumes even more responsibility when he enters a cash competition for the best Comté cheese made in this western part of the French Alps. A “verité” look at the hardscrabble life of French agriculture, it is simultaneously a pitch-perfect portrait of French teens and an ode to the love of cheese.

We’ll be opening Holy Cow on April 4 at the Royal with additional screenings at the Claremont and Town Center on April 5 and 6. Courvoisier recently spoke about her film with Inside the Arthouse as well as Anne-Claire Cieutat in the following interview:

Q: Your film opens with a rather odd image – a calf in a car – and continues with a long, flamboyant sequence shot. Your short film Mano a mano began with the same cinematic gesture. Is it your own way of saying: “Once upon a time…”?
A: For me, it is a way of taking the viewer behind the scenes of my own world. In Mano a mano, it was the circus world, in which a part of my family is immersed; and Holy Cow explores the rural environment of Jura, where I grew up. The opening sequence shot introduces the main character of the film, Totone, who is dancing on the bar counter.

Q: How did your desire to make films come about? And how did the characters of this first feature film come into being?

A: My desire to make films came about a little by chance. I grew up in Cressia, a small village in Jura. One day, I felt the need to leave, so I chose to take a film class in high school, because it meant I would have to go to boarding school. Little by little, I developed a taste for it, I felt that I had stories to tell, and eventually, this led to film studies at CinéFabrique in Lyon. To create the characters and the story of Holy Cow, I drew inspiration from the community I have been living in and observing since I was a child. Totone and his friends are like my village “colleagues.” Most of them left school early to work on farms with their parents. Many of them are in difficult family situations. I wanted to film these young people who are seldom represented in films, who have had a bumpier start than many others, and to paint a positive and nuanced portrait of them “from the inside.” All in the land of Comté cheese!

Q: How did you write the script, in which every element you introduce reappears at one point or another in the narrative?

A: I let my taste for details guide the writing of my characters and situations. I like it when things seem trivial, when elements all have a purpose, without overemphasizing them or turning the film into a chronicle. I had a real desire for fiction rooted in documentary reality. I wanted to tell my story within a realistic environment. I began to write on my own, starting with the characters, who evolved over time. Then I co-wrote with Théo Abadie, a student in my class at CinéFabrique. And screenwriter Marcia Romano helped us throughout the process.

Q: Your film has a western feel to it – in the way you deal with space, the conquest of territory, adversity – and some of the twists and turns are reminiscent of hopeless yet funny slackers, like the characters in the Pieds nickelés comic book series, which keeps gravitas at bay…
A: Indeed, I have imagined my film as a western, yet without borrowing all the codes of the genre. That is why I chose the ‘scope format. I also liked the idea of filming weathered faces telling tales of a life well lived. The fear of the unknown, the conquest of territory, all this went hand in hand with a certain awkwardness typical of my characters and their behavior. The Pieds nickelés aspect is apparent in the way Totone and his friends act. They try things, and they support each other in the face of adversity. Awkward as it is, their group pushes them forward.

Q: You take a tender look at your characters.
A: I am very fond of Totone, even though he is not a hero and he is full of flaws. I wanted to show his imperfections as much as his strengths. Totone is like a clumsy and overexcited puppy, who may dance half-naked on a bar, or fail to help his father when he needs it, but is sweet and lovable all the same. Totone is also a force of nature, with a unique way of reacting to events, and a sense of community.

Q: There are three courageous female figures in your story: Totone’s little sister, the farmer Marie-Lise, and the cheesemaker.
A: Marie-Lise and the little sister are characters I wrote against the stereotypes of femininity. Marie-Lise isn’t seductive, she is straightforward, which doesn’t stop her from being sexy. I wanted to avoid the cliché of the farmer and put a very capable, confident young woman in that position. For the little sister, we needed to feel her intelligence in her presence and in her eyes, her maturity through such circumstances, and her complicity with her brother, which is a bit clumsy at first and evolves as time goes by. As for the cheesemaker, I didn’t want to make her a too positive mother figure. I wanted her to be very charismatic, and the actress who played her, a woman from my village who works as a prison guard, and whom I know very well, gave her this strength.

Q: Holy Cow is a coming-of-age story.
A: Indeed, Totone is forced into adulthood. The film’s story takes place over several months. It follows the time it takes to make cheese: the maturing period for Comté cheese, but in a way for Totone as well! He manages to cope with his father’s passing without ever talking about it, always keeping his feelings to himself. Growing up in the countryside, I realized that I was much more exposed to death than young people living in the city. Many people had road accidents and died very suddenly. I observed a lot of emotional restraint around me. In the countryside, unlike in the city, it is not common to see a shrink. People lack the tools to analyze their emotions. If their issues are not processed through words and tears, how can they express them? While avoiding a form of pathos that would not suit them, I wanted to show the roughness of my characters, without concealing their sensitivity or their flaws. What I find so touching about them is the fact that they don’t fall apart when they are grieving, for instance. Yet in the face of heartbreak, they will be devastated. I have often noticed this contrast in people around me between their strength, their ability to take a blow, and their fragility when you least expect it.

Q: Movement runs through your film: there is a lot of driving and moped riding; we come across cows and galloping horses; your characters dance… They don’t talk much, but they are really expressive.
A: People move a lot in this rural environment because everything is so vast. And my characters are anything but static. I wrote the script with all the locations in mind. I felt the need to tell the story of this landscape, to film it at specific times of the day, without being engrossed in contemplation either. I wanted viewers to stay focussed on Totone and his story, and not stray into a bucolic film. I needed to strike a balance between a raw, head-on look and a poetic approach, because I didn’t want to be too harsh either. As for bodies, I like to film them because gestures and gaits say a lot about the characters and their inner selves. All the more so as these characters are rather quiet. Besides, I love what is at play in silences, and the discrepancy between words and deeds that is noticeable in some scenes. I also like to see sensuality emerge elsewhere than in love sequences, which are not particularly sensual. In the dance or fight scenes between the boys for instance, sensuality arises because they know each other so well.

Q: You make Comté cheese a character in its own right in the film!
A: It was a real challenge. First of all, we had to make cheese cinegenic. Then, in terms of storytelling, we had to make clear that the characters’ mourning journey was intimately linked to the making of this cheese, which is so central to the region where the story takes place. One of the difficulties was to show the real making of the cheese, including the tricky parts – this is the documentary aspect of the film, which becomes part of fiction. Similarly, the calving sequence also had to be authentic. It was a genuine challenge for the crew, for the actress (even though she is a farmer), and for the veal, as we didn’t want to put it in harm’s way.

Q: Both the cheese-making and the calving contribute to the suspense that runs through your story…
A: It is mainly because we were dealing with living things. We could have recreated things artificially, but it wouldn’t have been congruent with how the scenes were written in the script. We had to feel that life, through looks, gestures, and everything that happens between the characters at those moments. Tension really built up when we shot these scenes, and we made sure it was felt through the editing process.

Q: Another character is the cauldron, this shiny and almost magical pot!
A: Even religious! I like the idea that a seemingly unimportant tool can turn into an object full of promise. In the same way, my characters, whom some might consider misfits, turn out to be beautiful and capable. This is also apparent in their gestures, which are increasingly assured and precise. With my cinematographer, Elio Balézeaux, who studied at CinéFabrique with me, we tried to confer a form of sensuality and solemnity to this cauldron. We cannot really see what is going on inside, until we get close to it. We had to come up with different ways of showing it from one scene to the next, progressively, up to the moment when we discover what is inside.

Q: You use all kinds of camera shots. What were your directorial choices?
A: Elio Balézeaux comes from the Alps, and he also grew up in a rural environment. Together, we worked a lot on contrasts, by alternating between very tight shots and very wide shots. I chose to use mostly sequence shots and to stay as close as possible to my character, to use panoramic shots rather than dolly shots, and to aim at a rather stripped-down style. Sequence shots, such as the one in which Totone is chatting with his friend on the roof of a car, also allowed us to play with silences and build rhythm from within the scenes.

Q: How did you work on light and colors?
A: He wanted an image filled with colors, sunshine, and luminosity. The film had to have a raw yet sensual vibe. We mainly used natural light, even for the interiors, in which the aim was to capture and magnify it without aestheticizing the incoming light.

Q: How did you cast the film and direct your actors?
A: All the actors in the film are non-professionals. We did an open casting call in the Jura region, visiting motocross races, stock-car races, agricultural shows, etc. Clément Faveau, who plays Totone, is eighteen and he works on a poultry farm. I met him at an agricultural high school. It took me a while to convince him, but he eventually came on board. Clément understands everything. He manages to be really convincing without giving the impression that he is acting. His performance is so authentic, it is impressive. He was perfect to embody Totone’s tough and fragile side. For the role of the sister, I met a lot of girls through the casting process, but I chose Luna Garret, who I saw growing up in my village. I think she has a very strong presence and I really wanted to work with her. During the screen tests, she interacted with the boys effortlessly, as she does with her brothers in real life. Maïwène Barthélémy, who plays Marie-Lise, was studying agriculture when she came to audition. In addition to her abilities as a farmer, she immediately showed an ability to fully immerse herself in the character with incredible spontaneousness. She was an obvious choice for the part. I am passionate about directing actors. I drew my inspiration from who they were, how they talked, their looks, their mannerisms. We rehearsed a lot in the sets, and I also spent a lot of time with them individually. Throughout the rehearsing process, I rewrote the scenes so that they sounded as authentic as possible, and so that the actors could feel ready when they arrived on set.

Q: Your sister, Ella Courvoisier, designed the sets.

A: And my brother, Pablo Courvoisier, was construction manager. I love to work with my family, and I need to be surrounded by people I can trust, with whom I can take all the time I need to find what I am looking for. We created and adjusted the sets down to the very last detail for months, thinking about what the interiors said about the characters. All this work contributed greatly to the aesthetics of the film.
In the opening sequence shot, each element was precisely placed. It is not a real party, everything was created from scratch, and the character’s wanderings are precise to a fraction of an inch. The idea was not just to show things, but to make the audience feel them.

Q: As for the editing, what pace were you looking for?

A: I wanted to play with contrasts, between moments that leave time to silences and looks, and moments that speed up. The story is peppered with sequences bursting with life, like those at the dance or at the stock-car race.
Within certain sequences, such as the one with Totone and Marie-Lise in the kitchen, we had to find variations in rhythm to convey the characters’ mixed feelings. This search for the right timing was carried out during editing with Sarah Grosset, another former student of CinéFabrique.

Q: What were your intentions concerning the sound and the music?
A: Sound gives density to landscapes, sometimes even more accurately and precisely than image. The characters’ accents also play a part in the film. So, we made sure to highlight the voices. Each space, each setting had to have its own identity. Even the cheese had to sound right! The cauldron also had to have a precise tone. As for the music, it was written by my other brother and my mother: Charlie and Linda Courvoisier. We searched for sounds together, especially those that are specific to the western genre. I wanted a music that was at once subtle and expressive. My family also performed the music and voices, my parents were professional classical musicians before they became farmers.

Q: Why this title?

A: I chose it when I discovered how to spell the expression “Vingt dieux!” [literally “twenty gods,” an equivalent of “Good God!” or “Holy cow!”], which is so widespread in my region. I really like this reference to the gods at the heart of the rural world!

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Filed Under: Claremont 5, Films, News, Royal, Theater Buzz, Town Center 5

“The French public’s relationship to movies and movie theaters is ‘almost mystical.'” The New York Times on the resurgence of moviegoing in France.

March 12, 2025 by Jordan Deglise Moore

It says a lot that the grandest French movie theaters are designed by famous architects. (Renzo Piano designed the Pathé Palace in Paris.) Over the weekend, the New York Times published a fascinating glimpse into cinema’s profound place in French culture and how that strength has led to a renaissance of moviegoing. “France was one of the few countries that saw an increase in movie theater attendance last year over 2023, with more than 181 million attendees, an uptick of nearly a million. Brazil, Britain and Turkey also saw an increase.”

One reason is the French version of American exceptionalism: The French people believe their culture is superb. The national government agrees and backs up that conviction with subsidies of tiny cinemas in small towns and supporting schoolchildren’s field trips to movie theaters. “In a statement, the National Center for Film and Moving Images, or CNC, the French government film agency, chalked up the industry’s recovery from the pandemic to ‘the artistic and industrial excellence of our model of cultural exception,’ a reference to national policies meant to promote and protect French culture.”

But the French reverence for cinema is not mere nationalism. Citizens simply feel a “moral obligation to support the arts.” If you go to the Pathé Palace website, you’ll see that right now they’re mostly showing American movies you can see at Laemmle Theatres, and one of the photos accompanying the article shows a theater box office featuring stills from David Lynch films.

You can read the article here.

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Join us July 24 for the sixth annual Art House Theater Day at the Monicas, Glendale, NoHo and Claremont.

THE LIFE OF CHUCK is an art house summer sleeper. Don’t skip this one.

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Laemmle Theatres is pleased to celebrate the sixth Laemmle Theatres is pleased to celebrate the sixth annual Art House Theater Day this July 24 by screening four fabulous films curated by this year’s ambassadors, filmmakers Sean Baker and Samantha Quan.

⭐ Sean Baker’s "Tangerine (2015)" at the @laemmlenoHo
⭐ Lily Tomlin’s "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991)" at the @laemmlemonicafilmcenter
⭐ Céline Sciamma’s "Tomboy (2011)" at the @laemmleglendale
⭐ Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart (2006) at the @laemmleclaremont

Taken together, the four beautifully represent the breadth, depth, humor, profundity and diversity that art house moviegoers seek out and embrace.

📣 The Tangerine screening will include exclusive content with ambassadors Sean Baker and Samantha Quan. The Search for Signs screening will feature a special audience salute from star Lily Tomlin.
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Escaping famine in Poland, Rebeca (Valentina Herszage), together with her son Joseph, arrives in Brazil to meet her husband, who immigrated first hoping for a better life for the three of them. However, she finds a completely different reality in Rio de Janeiro.
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Battling privilege and pestilence while not knowing if she's alive or dead, Black Woman finds skeletons and has her boots stolen. "First-time actress Mwajemi Hussein is riveting as an escapee trekking across a plague-ravaged wilderness in a magnificently parched, wordless parable." ~ Variety
⭐ Don't miss your chance to experience the mocku ⭐ Don't miss your chance to experience the mockumentary masterpiece THIS IS SPINAL TAP on the Laemmle big screen! Remixed, remastered, and re-releasing! it's going to be 11/10!

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Tickets:  | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | Featuring The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Monica Film Center), Tangerine (NoHo), Tomboy (Glendale) and Whispers of the Heart (Claremont

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ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

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Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/kerouacs-road-beat-nation | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | KEROUAC’S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION explores how the legacy of Jack Kerouac’s iconic novel On the Road reflects in today’s America. The film interweaves stories of modern-day “on-the-roaders” who share connections to Kerouac’s life, alongside those influenced by him or knew and loved him.

Featured participants include Josh Brolin, W. Kamau Bell, Natalie Merchant, Matt Dillon, David Amram and Joyce Johnson. On the Road remains as relevant today as it was in the 1950s, but both the book and Kerouac himself have never been explored in this way before.

The film reveals a rarely seen

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/kerouacs-road-beat-nation

RELEASE DATE: 8/1/2025
Director: Ebs Burnough
Cast: Michael Imperioli (voice), David Amran (voice), W. Kamau Bell (voice), Josh Brolin (voice)

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ABOUT LAEMMLE: Since 1938, Laemmle [Theatres] has been showing the finest independent, arthouse, and international films.

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Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/desperately-seeking-susan | Subscribe: http://bit.ly/3b8JTym | New Jersey housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) spices up her boring life by reading personal ads, especially a series of them being placed by a mysterious denizen of New York City named Susan (Madonna). When one of Susan's ads proposes a rendezvous with her suitor (Robert Joy) at Battery Park, Roberta secretly tags along. But when her voyeuristic jape ends in permanent memory loss and a new jacket, Roberta begins to gather a lot of unwanted attention from some unsavory characters.

Tickets: http://laemmle.com/film/desperately-seeking-susan

RELEASE DATE: 7/30/2025
Director: Susan Seidelman
Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Aidan Quinn, Madonna, Robert Joy

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