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See CHINATOWN on the L.A. River – This Saturday Night!

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Jack Nicholson & Faye Dunaway in Polanski's 1974 Noir Classic

Can you think of a better place to watch JACK NICHOLSON sleuth around L.A., uncovering it’s “water wars” secrets … than the L.A. River itself?  We can’t either.

To make that happen, the L.A. River Regatta Club is inviting us all down to L.A. State Historic Park at the Broadway Bridge Viaduct to view the 40 year-old classic CHINATOWN this Saturday Night (July 26).

Called a “Bike-In Movie”, the event kicks off at 7pm with a picnic (bring your own), followed by an 8pm talk about adventures in the Owens Valley — the region at the heart of the historic California Water Wars — by the intrepid “Tom Explores Los Angeles.”  The film starts at 8:30pm.

Sounds like the perfect summer evening for Angeleno noir buffs! The evening is co-sponsored by FOLAR (Friends of the L.A. River) and CA State Historic Parks. Check out all the details HERE.

Greg Laemmle to Host the Opening Night of LAST REMAINING SEATS featuring “The Lady Eve” (1941)

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It’s nearly time for Last Remaining Seats, the always-compelling series of film classics presented by the L.A. CONSERVANCY in our city’s grand, vintage movie palaces. The program opens this year on June 11, 2014, 8pm with the iconic comedy THE LADY EVE (1941, Preston Sturges) at the downtown LOS ANGELES THEATRE. What’s more, the evening will be hosted by our own GREG LAEMMLE who will be in conversation with PRESTON STURGES JR. and TOM STURGES, sons of the legendary director. It promises to be a captivating evening and we invite you to join in our support of the L.A. Conservancy by attending. If you haven’t been to the lavish LOS ANGELES THEATRE on Broadway, you are sure to be astonished.

Tickets for this event and other screenings are available through the L.A. CONSERVANCY who produces the series as a way to highlight the treasure trove of beautiful and historically significant theaters that remain in our city. In addition to the Los Angeles Theatre, this year’s line up includes the PALACE THEATRE (The Great Madcap), ORPHEUM THEATRE (Citizen Kane, Footlight Parade), the THEATRE AT ACE HOTEL (Back to the Future), and the DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION (West Side Story).

Tickets are pre-sold to Conservancy members, but are now also available to the general public. Seating is limited, however, so you must act quickly. We’ve already learned that one of the screenings has been sold out.  GO HERE for more program and ticketing info.

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Program notes from the Conservancy:

The Los Angeles Conservancy has assembled an esteemed slate of special guests for its twenty-eighth season of Last Remaining Seats. This annual series presents classic films as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen, in a beautiful historic theatre, surrounded by fellow fans. Each event in the series is full of extras, including live entertainment, special guests, cartoons, and more. What began in 1987 as a way to draw attention to Los Angeles’ historic theatres is now a summer tradition, drawing thousands of people from the region, the nation, and outside the U.S.

While subject to change, the special guests and live entertainment for 2014 are outlined below.

The season kicks off June 11 with a screening of The Lady Eve at the Los Angeles Theatre. Evening host for opening night is Greg Laemmle, president of Laemmle Theatres. Laemmle will interview Preston Sturges, Jr. and Tom Sturges, sons of Preston Sturges, who wrote and directed the acclaimed 1941 comedy.

On June 14, West Side Story at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will feature one of the film’s stars, George Chakiris, in conversation with dance critic Debra Levine. Chakiris won an Academy Award® for his performance as Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, in this classic 1961 musical.

Guests at 1933’s Footlight Parade at the Orpheum Theatre on June 18 will enjoy two live performances. Robert Salisbury will perform on the theatre’s 1928 Mighty Wurlitzer organ, followed by Maxwell DeMille Presents “The Lullaby of Broadway:” A Tribute to the 1930s Movie Music of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, with Dean Mora and his Orchestra.

Renowned film critic and historian Leonard Maltin will host the sold-old evening screening of Back to the Future at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on June 21. Maltin will interview cast members Lea Thompson, Claudia Wells, and Don Fullilove. A DeLorean Time Machine will make a special appearance at both the matinee and evening screenings.

Co-presented with the Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles, the screening of Luis Buñuel’s El gran calavera (The Great Madcap) on June 25 will be hosted by Oscar Arce, director of the Luis Buñuel Film Institute. Arce will appear on stage before the film with special guest Pablo Ferro, award-winning film title designer.

The season ends June 28 with two screenings of Citizen Kane at the Orpheum Theatre. Both screenings will be preceded by a live performance by Tony Wilson on the Mighty Wurlitzer organ. The matinee will be hosted by author and film historian Alan K. Rode, with the evening screening hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, weekend daytime host of Turner Classic Movies and the grandson of the film’s co-writer with Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Details and tickets are available at laconservancy.org.

Tickets cost $16 for L.A. Conservancy members and $20 for the general public.

OMAR and BETHLEHEM: “Two Films, One Issue”

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Recently posted on the Jewish Exponent site, an excellent think piece about two films — OMAR, from Palestine, which we are currently screening, and BETHLEHEM, from Israel, which we open Friday. They are both terrific films and both tell stories with the same basic subject matter from different sides of the conflict. The piece is by Greg Salisbury:

Israeli Politics at the Oscars: Two Films, One Issue

February 26, 2014

At the 86th Academy Awards ceremonies on March 2, a film about the morally ambiguous and lethal world inhabited by Palestinian informants and their Israeli handlers will be one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. Win or lose, the evening will cap a successful year in which the film has won awards across the world.

The film in question is not Bethlehem, Israel’s entry, by first-time director Yuval Adler, which recently won six Ophirs, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars, as well as the top prize at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. It is Omar, the Palestinian submission, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Abu-Assad was also nominated in 2006 for his film Paradise Now, about a pair of Palestinians preparing to become suicide bombers.
Both films, with two different viewpoints of the same controversial subject, are among the record 76 submissions from countries looking to take home a statuette. Only the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences know why one of these films was selected and not the other — the “arts” part of the academy’s name underscores the subjective nature of judging what is best about the form.
Sahdi Marei as Sanfur in BETHLEHEM

 

L.A. Times Interview: “Filmmaker flashes back to her ’90s girlhood in Georgia for IN BLOOM”

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From today’s L.A. Times:

Filmmaker flashes back to her ’90s girlhood in Georgia for IN BLOOM

Nana Ekvtimishvili recalls things being even worse than depicted in her movie IN BLOOM, which is set in a newly independent Georgia. She and husband/co-filmmaker Simon Gross discuss the film.

By Susan King

“In Bloom,” the foreign language film Oscar submission from Georgia, revolves around two 14-year-old girls coming of age in 1992. Best friends Eka and Natia live in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a newly independent country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but independence hasn’t made life any easier.

There’s violence and unrest, with justice doled out vigilante style. Food is scarce and bread lines are long. And a lot of young girls don’t even get the opportunity to be teenagers because they are kidnapped by men and forced into marriage.

Nana Ekvtimishvili, who was raised in Tbilisi, wrote the film, which opens Friday, and co-directed it with her German-born husband, Simon Gross. The two met in Munich, Germany, as film students and currently live and work in Tbilisi.

Read the interview on the L.A. Times website.

Filmmakers Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross of IN BLOOM

Santa Monica Daily Press: “Celebrating 75 Years of Laemmle”

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Sarah Spitz of the Santa Monica Daily Press wrote this nice piece about us. It covers a lot of ground very concisely, including our company history, our various 75th anniversary events, the Laemmle Charitable Foundation and even a couple movies reviews (NEBRASKA and PHILOMENA)!

Greg Laemmle Interviewed on KPFK’s Uprising! with Sonali Kolhatkar

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Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle was interviewed on KPFK’s Uprising! yesterday to speak about the history of the company and the state of independent film exhibition in Los Angeles on the occasion of the company’s 75th anniversary. Have a listen!

Greg Laemmle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Film Journal International on the State of Laemmle Theatres at 75 Years

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To mark Laemmle Theatres 75th anniversary as a local, family-owned business, Film Journal International just published a very informative piece about us: our history, philosophy about our place in L.A. County communities, and plans for the future.

Film Journal International reports: “What has remained unchanged from our last report is the “community commitment” of the company. Owned and operated in the second and third generations by Greg and his father, Robert Laemmle, the circuit was established in 1938, when Bob’s father Max and his uncle Kurt Laemmle took over a neighborhood theatre in Highland Park. (In case you are noticing the family resemblance, Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures, was a second cousin to circuit founders Max and Kurt.)”

Read the entire article here.

From left to right, Robert and Greg Laemmle

Two Gems from TIFF: THE INVISIBLE WOMAN and LE WEEK-END

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One of the world’s great film festivals is ongoing in Toronto right now, featuring many films you’ll be able to see on Laemmle screens in the months ahead. We’re looking forward to opening director-actor Ralph Fiennes’ Charles Dickens picture THE INVISIBLE WOMAN on Christmas Day and Roger Michell’s LE WEEK-END, starring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan, in early 2014. You can see clips from both at the Guardian website.