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TWOFER TUESDAY: 65th Anniversary Screenings of Two Marilyn Monroe Classics June 5th in Pasadena, North Hollywood, and West LA

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics series present a tribute to one of the greatest stars in film history, Marilyn Monroe, during her birthday month of June. The program, part of our Twofer Tuesday series, features two of Monroe’s most popular movies—GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, both from 1953.

‘Blondes’ is an adaptation of the 1949 stage musical by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields, based on a 1925 novel by Loos, one of the first women writers to score a success in Hollywood as well as on Broadway. It tells the story of two showgirls and best friends, played by Monroe and fellow screen siren Jane Russell. Marilyn plays the endearing gold-digger, Lorelei Lee.

Master director Howard Hawks, who excelled in several genres, proved just as adept in his first and only screen musical. Charles Lederer, the writer of such films as Hawks’ ‘His Girl Friday’ and ‘I Was a Male War Bride,’ freely adapted the stage play. Hawks retained some of the songs by Jule Styne and Leo Robin, especially the show’s signature number, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” choreographed by Jack Cole and sizzlingly performed by Monroe in a bright pink dress. But he added new songs by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson, including a classic campy number (also choreographed by Cole) with muscle-bound athletes around a swimming pool. Monroe and Russell are ably supported by Oscar winner Charles Coburn (as a lecherous diamond magnate), Tommy Noonan and Elliott Reid.

According to Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, “Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell make a fantastic double act in Howard Hawks’ sparkling 1953 comedy.” The New Yorker’s Richard Brody wrote, “Jack Cole’s choreography offers some of the most incisively swinging musical numbers ever filmed.” Dave Kehr of The Chicago Reader added, “The opening shot—Russell and Monroe in sequins standing against a screaming red drape—is enough to knock you out of your seat, and the audacity barely lets up from there… a landmark encounter in the battle of the sexes.”

‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ opened later in 1953 and teamed Monroe with two other screen bombshells, Betty Grable (the top pin-up girl of the 1940s), and Lauren Bacall, who seared the screen when she co-starred with her husband-to-be, Humphrey Bogart.

In this picture three working girls set their sights on snaring a rich tycoon, but their plans go awry when true love enters the picture. Jean Negulesco directed the script by Nunnally Johnson, and the men in their lives are portrayed by Cameron Mitchell, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Fred Clark, and screen veteran William Powell. Leonard Maltin hailed the “terrific ensemble work in dandy comedy of three man-hunting females pooling resources to trap eligible bachelors.” ‘Millionaire’ was the second movie shot in 20th Century Fox’s new Cinemascope format, following the studio’s Biblical breakthrough, ‘The Robe.’ It incorporated Alfred Newman’s memorable score, presented in stereoscopic sound.

At the Royal Theatre only, Debra Levine, the editor of the popular online arts journal arts•meme and the author of several articles about choreographer Jack Cole, will introduce the 7 o’clock screening of ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.’

Our Marilyn Monroe double feature screens Tuesday, June 5th at the Royal, NoHo 7, and Playhouse 7.

Click here to buy a ticket to the 7:00pm show of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES with admission to the 9:00pm show of HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE included. Or, click here to buy a ticket to the 5:00pm show of HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE with admission to the 7:00pm show of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES included.

LAEMMLE LIVE presents ACADEMY PHILHARMONIC May 6

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LAEMMLE LIVE proudly presents the Academy Philharmonic, Sunday, May 6, 2018. Middle school students from the woodwind and brass sections of Elemental Music perform chamber music from different genres. Sunday’s program will include Fire Dance by David Shaffer, March (from Second Suite in F) by Gustav Holst, arr. Scott Stanton, Amparito Roca by Jaime Texidor, arr. James Curnow, and additional selections announced from the stage.

Academy Philharmonic is a program of Elemental Music, created to inspire, train, and nurture young musicians in Santa Monica. The organization began in 2004 by a SMMUSD music teacher who wanted to create an opportunity for elementary students to play in an orchestra throughout the school year, make new friends, and get excited about music. Since then, more than 1,000 students have participated in Elemental Music. Initially serving only 25 elementary school students, programs now serve nearly 300 elementary and middle school students in seven different programs this season.

Academy Philharmonic is one of Elemental Music’s newest programs. Comprised of six, seventh, and eighth graders, Academy Philharmonic provides new opportunities for middle schoolers in Santa Monica to experience the thrill of playing in a full orchestra, learning how to listen and blend with new instrument groups, and rehearsing and performing exciting new repertoire selections – all while being coached by some of the best teachers on the westside! Our students work with expert teaching artists to polish their technical skills and dig into the joys of music-making, all in a social setting. We offer many opportunities for student performances throughout the year at three different Elemental Music concerts plus various public events in the Santa Monica community. Elemental Music’s young musicians blossom in their own ways, both socially and musically. This vibrant program inspires a love of music in the hearts of some of the westside’s youngest artists.

Event Details
Sunday, May 6, 2018
11:00 am
Monica Film Center

This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS! 50th Anniversary Screening with Actress Leigh Taylor-Young In Person

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the hit Peter Sellers comedy from 1968, I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS! The Establishment meets the counterculture in this topical and often uproarious satire that poked fun at many of the conflicts dividing the country during the tumultuous 1960s.

Sellers plays an uptight Los Angeles lawyer whose life unravels when he meets a young hippie, played by Leigh Taylor-Young in her feature film debut.

Hy Averback directed the first screenplay written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker, and the picture’s success allowed Mazursky to make his directorial debut one year later on another swinging sixties comedy, ‘Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.’

The supporting cast includes Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet as Sellers’ intrusive mother, Joyce Van Patten as his befuddled fiancée, along with Herb Edelman, Grady Sutton, Salem Ludwig, and David Arkin.

One of the film’s memorable set pieces revolves around a supply of marijuana brownies that come from a recipe in cultural icon Alice B. Toklas’s famous cookbook. With marijuana now legal in California and in several other states, the film takes on renewed timeliness and may well give happy viewers a contact high. Of course, if viewers wanted to replicate the experience they could also find some of the best edibles in Canada and indulge. This would certainly give them the same feeling as the main characters.

Back in 1968, Variety declared, “Film blasts off into orbit via top-notch acting and direction.” Pauline Kael, who had recently begun her regular stint reviewing for The New Yorker, called the picture “A giddy, slapdash, entertainingly inconsequential comedy…the picture makes you laugh surprisingly often.” And Leonard Maltin praised this “excellent comedy about the freaking out of mild-mannered L.A. lawyer. Sellers has never been better.” Indeed the film represents one of the highlights of Sellers’ vibrant and diverse list of achievements during the 60s.

Actress Leigh Taylor-Young first came to prominence on the popular ‘Peyton Place’ TV series of the 1960s. Her other films include ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,’ which marked one of the first screen roles for Robert De Niro; John Frankenheimer’s ‘The Horsemen,’ co-starring Omar Sharif; the prophetic sci-fi movie, ‘Soylent Green;’ and the suspense thriller ‘Jagged Edge.’ She has worked in the theater and costarred in several popular TV series, including ‘Picket Fences,’ for which she won an Emmy, ‘Dallas,’ and ‘Passions.’ In recent years she has also been active in humanitarian and spiritual activities for the United Nations and other organizations.

I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS! followed by Q&A with Actress Leigh Taylor-Young screens Wednesday, April 25, at 7:30 PM at the Royal Theatre in West L.A. Click here for tickets.

Format: DVD

Fred Astaire Double Feature: THE BAND WAGON and EASTER PARADE on April 3 in NoHo, Pasadena, and West LA

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present two Fred Astaire musicals in the popular Twofer Tuesday program this Easter holiday season, the 65th anniversary of THE BAND WAGON (1953) paired with, appropriately, the 70th anniversary of EASTER PARADE (1948). Astaire is considered the most influential actor-dancer in the history of motion pictures and television, and both films showcase his bountiful talent and artistry from the Golden Age of the movie musical.

Astaire was coaxed out of retirement to replace an injured Gene Kelly as the lead in Easter Parade, co-starring Judy Garland, who plays a chorus girl he grooms for stardom to take the place of his former dancing partner (Ann Miller in her MGM debut). The period musical comedy, set in 1912, features the Irving Berlin songbook, including such joyful tunes as “Shaking the Blues Away,” “Stepping Out with My Baby,” “A Couple of Swells,” and the title song.

Directed by Charles Walters (Lili), written by Sidney Sheldon and the husband and wife team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (The Thin Man, Father of the Bride). Also starring Peter Lawford and Jules Munshin. Produced by Arthur Freed (Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, Singin’ in the Rain, Gigi). Oscar winner for Best Score of a Musical. Dance legend Gene Kelly later asserted, “the history of dance on film begins with Astaire.”

Astaire missed out on working with Cyd Charisse when she bowed out of Easter Parade, and was replaced by Ann Miller. But Astaire and Charisse got a second chance in 1953 with The Band Wagon, in which Astaire plays a “washed-up” movie star who pairs with a temperamental ballerina (Charisse) in creating a Broadway show. Producer Arthur Freed followed up his paean to the movies, Singin’ in the Rain, with that film’s writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who teamed this time with Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner to concoct a sophisticated backstage musical confection. Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant play characters based on Comden and Green, and are comically supported by Jack Buchanan as a maniacal director.

The memorable score showcases the songs of Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, which include “By Myself,” “Shine on Your Shoes,” Dancing in the Dark,” and the show business anthem, “That’s Entertainment.” Deftly directed by Vincent Minnelli (An American in Paris, Gigi). Bosley Crowther, reviewing the film in The New York Times, praised all the assembled talent, “this witty and literate combination delivers a show that respectfully bids for recognition as one of the best musicals ever made.” Added to the National Film Registry in 1995. The Band Wagon, according to Leonard Maltin, “improves with each viewing.”

Here is a chance to see it back on the big screen in our Twofer Tuesday (two for the price of one) double bill with Easter Parade. Both films will play one day only, April 3, at Laemmle Theatres in NoHo, Pasadena, and West L.A.

For tickets to the 4:45pm EASTER PARADE and the 7pm THE BAND WAGON, click here.

For tickets to the 7pm THE BAND WAGON and 9:15pm EASTER PARADE, click here.

Format: DCP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcyByIPdW18

An Evening with Al Pacino Sunday, March 25th at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills

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THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT.

Al Pacino will participate in a Q&A moderated by Stephen Fry following the double bill of Pacino’s documentary WILDE SALOMÉ and his production of Oscar Wilde’s SALOMÉ on Sunday, March 25th at 4:45pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts by Laemmle in Beverly Hills.

WILDE SALOME the documentary is, as Al Pacino describes it, a kind of “collage of a film”, representing the struggles and highs and lows of presenting a challenging and unique piece of writing by one of the literary geniuses of the 19th century, Oscar Wilde. Wilde Salome explores the complexities of Oscar Wilde’s acclaimed play Salome, Wilde himself and the birth of a rising star, in actress Jessica Chastain. The film offers an unprecedented behind the scenes look at Pacino’s journey.

SALOME is Oscar Wilde’s most controversial work, banned in London in the late 19th Century. This scintillating tale of lust, greed and revenge follows the legend of King Herod and his desire for his young stepdaughter, Salomé, and her sexual baiting of John the Baptist. Wilde’s adaptation has spawned multiple stage productions including an opera by Richard Strauss. “SALOME is my attempt to merge play and film. The mediums can collide and my hope is to have them unify so that you’re seeing pure theater on film. To make that hybrid effective has been my goal; to have the more naturalistic photogenic qualities of film complement the language-driven essence of theater.” (Al Pacino)

Al Pacino will introduce WILDE SALOME at 4:45pm. The documentary will be followed by a 15 minute intermission. A post-screening Q&A moderated by Stephen Fry with Al Pacino will follow SALOME. Click here to purchase tickets. SOLD OUT.

LAEMMLE LIVE presents LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC MUSICIANS: UP CLOSE April 8

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LAEMMLE LIVE proudly presents Los Angeles Philharmonic Musicians: Up Close. An ensemble from the Philharmonic performs Mozart Quintet in A major for Clarinet, 2 violins, viola and cello K. 581.  Guest Host: KUSC Announcer Rich Capparela. David Howard, clarinet, Mitchell Newman and Rebecca Reale, violins, Ingrid Hutman, viola, Timothy Loo, cello.

Violinist Mitchell Newman is a native of Los Angeles and joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1987. After studies with Philharmonic violist David Stockhammer, he attended the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with David Cerone, Yumi Ninomya and Aaron Rosand. Newman is a regular participant in the LA Phil’s Chamber Music Society and Green Umbrella series and has had the opportunity to play the Mendelssohn Octet with Joshua Bell, and Thomas Ades’ Piano Quintet with the composer playing piano. He has also recorded the music of Eric Zeisl for Harmonia Mundi, and Stories from My Favorite Planet by Los Angeles composer Russell Steinberg. Currently, Newman teaches privately and coaches orchestra repertoire at the Colburn School. Each year he produces, performs, and narrates a concert in English and Spanish for the Los Angeles Philharmonic at St. Thomas Church. Also yearly, he produces and plays a fundraising chamber music concert for Mental Health America Long Beach and was recognized as a Mental Health Hero by the California State Senate. In the summer of 2010, Newman opened Hilltop Boot Camp: Orchestra Audition Preparation for Strings (playdonjuan.com). He also travels to Ensenada, Mexico to work with the students of the Benning Academy, a program that provides instruments and lessons to children of all economic backgrounds. Newman is President of the Board of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra.

Rebecca Reale born in upstate New York, began studying the violin when she was just two and a half years old. Her passion for music led her to Boston at an early age to attend boarding school for the arts. While she was there, she studied with Muir Quartet member and Boston University professor Peter Zazofsky. She received her Bachelors Degree from Rice University as a full scholarship student, where she studied with Kathleen Winkler. Ms. Reale was a fellow with the New World Symphony for their 2015-2016 season. During her time there, she won the concerto competition and performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major with the orchestra on a subscription concert. Rebecca was the associate principal second violin of the Houston Symphony, and served as acting principal second for the 2016-2017 season.

Violist Ingrid Hutman was born in Los Angeles and earned her Bachelor of Music degree at California State University Northridge, where she studied with Louis Kievman and Heiichiro Ohyama, the Philharmonic’s former Principal Violist. Hutman continued her studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Principal Violist, Robert Vernon; she also participated in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute during the 1987 and 1988 seasons.Since she joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1991, Hutman has performed regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group. She joined the faculty of the Colburn School of Performing Arts in 1997.

Clarinetist David Howard has been a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1981, when, at age 25, he was hired by then Music Director Carlo Maria Giulini. Over the last few seasons, he has performed and given master classes at international festivals in Tel Aviv, Vancouver, Helsinki, Beijing, London, Stockholm, and Caracas. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Howard performed as soloist in John Harbison’s Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, and Strings under the direction of the composer; he was also the bass clarinet soloist in Iannis Xenakis’ Échange, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In February 2015 Howard was featured as soloist in the role of the Caterpillar in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland. Previously, Howard was principal clarinetist with the New Jersey Symphony and the New Haven Symphony. A Los Angeles native, Howard received a B.A. in Russian Literature from Yale University, graduating magna cum laude. Since 1986, he has served on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

Cellist Timothy Loo joined the Lyris Quartet in 2008. A passionate chamber musician, he founded his first quartet, the Denali Quartet, in 1999 while pursuing his Advanced Studies in Cello with Ronald Leonard at the University of Southern California. As a member of the Denali quartet, he participated in masterclasses with the Julliard, Vermeer, and Takacs Quartets. In 1999, Mr. Loo co-founded Mladi, Los Angeles’ conductorless chamber orchestra. He performed with this group until 2008. Mr. Loo has performed in the masterclasses for Yo-Yo Ma, Ronald Leonard, David Geringas, Natalia Gutman, Franz Helmerson, and Bernhard Greenhouse. Mr. Loo has won positions in both Philharmonie der Nationen in Hamburg, Germany, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, and New West Symphony. He has also performed with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, New West Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale and is currently the principal cellist of the Long Beach Opera Orchestra, and filled in for cellist Robert de Maine and soloed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in early 2018.

Event Details
Sunday, April 8, 2018
11:00 am
Monica Film Center

WE ARE SOLD OUT
Email [email protected]
For wait-list information

This is a Free Event
RSVP on Eventbrite

Lily Tomlin In Person for THE LATE SHOW (1977) on Saturday, March 24th in Beverly Hills

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics series present a screening of one of the forgotten gems of the 1970s, Robert Benton’s homage to the detective genre, THE LATE SHOW, produced by Robert Altman and starring Oscar winner Art Carney and Oscar nominee Lily Tomlin. Tomlin, a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner, will join us for a discussion of one of her most charming films.

Carney plays an aging private eye who swings into action after the murder of his friend and fellow detective, played by Howard Duff. This plot element recalls the opening of the archetypal private eye movie of Hollywood’s Golden Age, The Maltese Falcon. But Carney’s age and infirmities add a touch of vulnerability to the portrait that wasn’t evident in the classic films with Bogart and other stars of the 1940s.

Tomlin plays a Hollywood kook who initially hires Carney to find the kidnapper of her cat but ultimately joins him in his detective work. As Variety wrote, “Benton has fashioned a contemporary tribute to the private eye yarns of the 1940s and in the process has given Carney and Tomlin the freedom to create extremely sympathetic characters. Both performances are knockout.” Time’s Richard Schickel agreed that The Late Show was “by far the most intelligent, engaging attempt at reincarnation of the private eye genre.”

Benton, the co-writer of Bonnie and Clyde and What’s Up, Doc?, had made his directorial debut in 1972 with Bad Company, starring Jeff Bridges. The Late Show was only his second film as director, and his third, Kramer vs. Kramer, the best picture winner of 1979, earned Oscars for Benton as both writer and director. He earned another Oscar for writing Places in the Heart in 1984. The tasty supporting cast of The Late Show includes Joanna Cassidy, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, and John Considine, in addition to Duff.

After her hilarious work playing multiple characters on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and her Emmy-winning TV specials, Tomlin made her feature film debut in Altman’s Nashville and earned an Oscar nomination. The Late Show was only her second feature.

Pauline Kael wrote, “If anyone else were playing Margo, she might be a mere kook; Tomlin makes her a genuine eccentric—she isn’t just the heroine, she’s the picture’s comic muse.”

Tomlin’s later films include the hit comedy, 9 to 5, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, All of Me with Steve Martin, Flirting with Disaster, and Altman’s final film, A Prairie Home Companion. She won a Tony award for her one-woman show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, and she has received three Emmy nominations for her performance in the current hit comedy series, Grace and Frankie, in which she appears with her 9 to 5 co-star, Jane Fonda. Tomlin has also been honored by the Kennedy Center and received the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.

THE LATE SHOW (1977) with Lily Tomlin in person screens Saturday, March 24, at 7:30 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. Format: DVD Click here for tickets.

TEHRAN TABOO Q&A with the Filmmaker Opening Night at the Fine Arts.

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TEHRAN TABOO director Ali Soozandeh will participate in a Q&A after the 7:30 PM screening at the Ahrya Fine Arts on Friday, March 9. Journalist and film critic Carlos Aguilar will moderate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUnSemNTycE&feature=youtu.be