Award-winning filmmaker Gabe Polsky (Red Army, In Search of Greatness, Butcher’s Crossing) returns with his boldest and strangest work yet: The Man Who Saves the World?, a fascinating new documentary that blurs the line between revelation and delusion.

Tune into Inside the Arthouse to hear Polsky discuss his latest project with co-hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge ahead of its opening at the Laemmle Monica Film Center on October 17th, launching off three consecutive nights of in-person Q&A sessions. (See details here.)

The film follows Patrick McCollum, an eccentric American peace activist convinced that he is destined to unite the Indigenous tribes of South America in order to save the planet. What begins as a far-fetched spiritual mission soon unfolds into a globe-spanning odyssey, at once comic, unsettling, and strangely profound.

Like his mentor Werner Herzog, Polsky is clearly drawn to characters who teeter between madness and transcendence. Here, he assumes the role of wary companion—a kind of modern-day Sancho Panza—simultaneously skeptical of McCollum’s claims yet captivated by his fervor and charisma. The film’s tension arises from precisely that duality: We’re never quite sure whether McCollum is delusional, divinely inspired, or simply tapping into a truth too strange for logic to explain away. As Jane Goodall, who appears in the film, observes, he is “probably the most extraordinary person I’ve ever met.”

Backing this one-of-a-kind journey are producers Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill of Rough House Pictures, as well as Oscar-winner Peter Farrelly, who calls the film “life-affirming and timely.” The Rough House team adds, “Only a film this bizarre, inspiring, and human could feel right at home with us. This is the kind of story that makes you laugh, think, and question everything—including why you’re suddenly rooting for a jungle prophet with a machete and a dream.”

In keeping with its unconventional spirit, The Man Who Saves the World? will launch through a hybrid release with Area 23a, the company behind Fantastic Fungi and Common Ground, beginning with Bay Area sneak previews before its Los Angeles run.

“I’ve made movies featuring many extraordinary characters,” says Polsky, “but Patrick McCollum is truly one of a kind. You can’t make up a story this strange. I went on one hell of a journey and am excited to bring audiences along for the ride.”

By turns absurd, spiritual, and disarmingly sincere, The Man Who Saves the World? asks whether salvation lies in faith, delusion, or sheer human will—and whether we’d recognize the difference if we saw it.

“The Man Who Saves the World? is one of my favorite documentaries in years — leave it to Gabe Polsky to track down and chronicle one of the most colorful characters and craziest stories ever captured on film.” – Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to the late Robert Redford with a screening of one of his most popular movies, Three Days of the Condor, directed by Redford’s most frequent collaborator, Sydney Pollack. This spy thriller was adapted by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel from the novel, Six Days of the Condor, written by James Grady. Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, and John Houseman co-star.

TRIBUTE TO ROBERT REDFORD 50^TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR

LAEMMLE NOHO THEATRE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, AT 7 PM

ZOOM INTRODUCTION WITH AUTHOR JAMES GRADY

Redford portrays an undercover CIA agent based in New York, who goes out to pick up lunch for his office staff, only to return to find them all murdered. He must discover the reason for the attack and try to keep himself alive as a band of assassins targets him as the last remaining member of his CIA team. He enlists Dunaway, a photographer, to help him stay in hiding, when he finds that almost no one he knows can be trusted.

This movie was the fifth collaboration between Pollack and Redford, who met when they co-starred in the 1962 Korean War drama, War Hunt, which marked Redford’s feature film debut. When Pollack moved behind the camera, he directed Redford in This Property Is Condemned, Jeremiah Johnson, and The Way We Were before they worked together on Condor. They reunited on The Electric Horseman, Havana, and the Oscar-winning 1985 film, Out of Africa.

Condor was a box office success in 1975 and earned an Oscar nomination for the taut editing by Frederic Steinkamp and Don Guidice. Owen Roizman was the cinematographer, and Oscar winner Dave Grusin composed the score. Writing in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the movie “a good-looking, entertaining suspense film… It also benefits from the presence of good actors, including Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, and John Houseman.” Roger Ebert agreed that it was “a well-made thriller, tense and involving, and the scary thing, in these months after Watergate, is that it’s all too believable.”

A more recent review, by Kevin Maher of the UK Times, confirmed the movie’s enduring relevance: “This peerless Sydney Pollack thriller hasn’t just aged well, it’s become positively prophetic.” When the Russo brothers made their Marvel thriller, Winter Soldier, in 2014, they took Condor as their inspiration and cast Redford in a supporting role in the film.

Redford was not only the charismatic star of such hit movies as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and The Natural. He was also the Oscar-winning director of Ordinary People, The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, and Quiz Show. He also transformed the film business when he founded the Sundance Film Festival, which became a haven for innovative artists from all over the world.

James Grady, who was only 25 when Condor was published, continued to write suspense novels and also has worked as a journalist for such publications as Slate, The Washington Post, and The New Republic.

Henry Jaglom, the maverick filmmaker best known for his string of low-budget, independent dramas as well as his friendship with Orson Welles, has passed away at the age of eighty-seven. He died at home in Santa Monica, surrounded by his family.

For Los Angeles audiences, Jaglom’s career was integrally bound with Laemmle Theatres. He premiered most of his films at Laemmle venues, including the Royal, the Monica Film Center, and the bygone Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, often staying long after the credits had rolled. His post-screening Q&As were legendary, less a rote publicity stop than a continuation of the film itself, a space where audiences could challenge him, argue with him, and in some cases even change his mind. Many of his titles enjoyed unusually long runs at Laemmle houses, buoyed by that engaged and loyal audience.

Born in London in 1938 to German-Jewish parents who had fled the Nazis, Jaglom grew up in New York City, where he studied acting at the fabled Actors Studio. His early career was spent on screen, with parts in Psych-Out, Drive, He Said, and The Flying Nun, but he soon gravitated to life behind the camera. After assisting with the editing of Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, Jaglom made his directorial debut with A Safe Place (1971), starring Tuesday Weld and Jack Nicholson, and featuring his friend and mentor Orson Welles.

Over the next half-century, Jaglom pursued a personal and resolutely independent path. His films often blurred the line between autobiography and fiction, circling themes of love, loss, and identity. Alongside explorations of family and artistic life in works like Tracks, Last Summer in the Hamptons, and Festival in Cannes, Jaglom carved out a distinctive niche by crafting wry, insightful roles for women. Films such as Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983), New Year’s Day (1989), Eating (1990), and Baby Fever (1994) foregrounded female perspectives with candor, humor, and a willingness to engage topics such as body image, sexuality, and aging—ones that mainstream Hollywood too often avoided. In his later career, Jaglom reflected upon his Jewish heritage, adapting his plays Just 45 Minutes from Broadway (2012) and Train to Zakopané (2017) for the screen.

Jaglom’s enduring friendship with Orson Welles also shaped his place in film history. He gave Welles some of his final roles—including his last on-screen appearance in Someone to Love (1987)—and, in turn, Welles gave Jaglom counsel, camaraderie, and hours of engaging conversation. Decades later, their lunch-table talks resurfaced in the acclaimed book My Lunches with Orson, ensuring Jaglom’s role as both collaborator and chronicler of a cinematic giant.

Though mainstream success largely eluded him, Jaglom’s commitment to artistic freedom, improvisation, and dialogue left an indelible mark on the culture of independent cinema. He is survived by his children, Sabrina and Simon, and by a body of work that epitomizes the spirit of personal filmmaking. For Laemmle Theatres and its dedicated moviegoers, Henry Jaglom will be remembered not only as a filmmaker, but for his candid, provocative, and enduringly human spirit.

Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy (arriving 09/19 at the Laemmle Royal and Town Center) is about the infamous Dreyfus Affair, in which Captain Alfred Dreyfus—a Jewish officer in the French army—was unduly convicted of treason and condemned to life on Devil’s Island, creating a scandal that shook 19th-century France.

The film begins with a powerful recreation of Dreyfus’s public humiliation in the courtyard of the École Militaire, wherein Dreyfus (played with quiet intensity by Louis Garrel) becomes the unwitting symbol of a nation’s prejudice. Yet the story quickly shifts its focus to Colonel Georges Picquart (Jean Dujardin), the intelligence officer who’s been appointed to oversee the very department that built the case against Dreyfus. Initially a loyal soldier and casual anti-Semite, Picquart gradually comes to doubt the evidence against Dreyfus. When he discovers that crucial documents actually point to another officer, he faces an impossible choice: protect his career by remaining silent, or risk everything in the pursuit of justice.

From that point forward, An Officer and a Spy unfolds as a gripping political thriller. Dujardin delivers a commanding performance as Picquart, navigating the character’s transformation from opportunist to reluctant truth-teller, while behind the camera, Polanski and longtime cinematographer Pawel Edelman
bring 19th-century Paris vividly to life, from the smoky interiors of its cafés to the solemn grandeur of its military tribunals.

Based on Robert Harris’s bestselling novel, the screenplay—co-written by Harris and Polanski—mostly focuses on Picquart’s personal journey, transforming a complex political crisis into a more human tale of conscience and resistance. This approach renders the film highly accessible, though it does sideline other
dimensions of the affair, such as the mobilization of France’s Jewish community, the pivotal role of Dreyfus’s family, and the broader wave of anti-Semitism that swept the country in its wake. What remains is an intimate portrait of one man’s struggle against an entrenched system determined to protect
itself at any cost.

As the film returns to screens, new viewers have the chance to revisit not only a pivotal moment in French history, but their own notions about the allocation of such concepts as justice and forgiveness. More than a century later, the Dreyfus Affair continues to resonate as a cautionary tale, reminding us of the dangers of prejudice, the costs of institutional corruption, and the courage it takes for one individual to confront them.

“One of Polanski’s finest pictures” – Roger Ebert

“[The film] largely couches the Dreyfus Affair into a character-driven story of heroes and villains.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times