The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

You are here: Home / Repertory Cinema

Five Great War Movies on Throwback Thursdays in May at the NoHo 7

by Leave a Comment

Join Laemmle and Eat|See|Hear for Military May at the NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Every Thursday in May our Throwback Thursday (#TBT) series presents five great war movies from D-Day to Desert Storm. It all starts Thursday, May 3rd with THE DIRTY DOZEN. Check out the full schedule below. For tickets and our full #TBT schedule, visit laemmle.com/tbt.

Special Discount: Tickets are $6 for service members with military ID.

https://youtu.be/0qh17BqZEQE

 

May 3: The Dirty Dozen

Twelve military prisoners serving life sentences are trained to carry out a suicide mission against top Nazi officers. Lee Marvin,  John Cassavetes, Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, Trini Lopez,  and Clint Walker star. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

 

May 10: MASH

The hit black comedy MASH established Robert Altman as one of the leading figures of Hollywood’s 1970s generation of innovative and irreverent young filmmakers. The war comedy details the exploits of military doctors and nurses at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War. Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, David Arkin, and more. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

 

May 17: Platoon

A young enlistee’s idealism fades when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man. PLATOON was the first Hollywood film to be written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War. The film won Best picture at the 1986 Academy Awards where Oliver Stone also earned an Oscar for Best Director. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe star. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

 

May 24: Stripes

Two down on their luck friends decide to join the U.S. Army for a bit of fun. Billy Murray, Harold Ramis, and John Candy star. Roger Ebert said, STRIPES is “a celebration of all that is irreverent, reckless, foolhardy, undisciplined, and occasionally scatological. It’s a lot of fun.” Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

 

May 31: Three Kings

After the Gulf War ends, three soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube) decide to steal the gold Saddam Hussein stole from Kuwait. But on their way to collect their booty, they bear witness to the disturbing results of the war effort. Directed by David O. Russell. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

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

by Leave a Comment

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.

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

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS 50th Anniversary Screening on Wednesday, April 18 in Encino, Pasadena, and West LA

by 2 Comments

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest in our Anniversary Classics Abroad program, a 50th anniversary screening of Gillo Pontecorvo’s memorable and still timely political drama, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS.

The film was an Oscar nominee for best foreign language film of 1966, but it was not released in the United States until 1968, when it received additional nominations for best director and for best original screenplay by Pontecorvo and Franco Solinas. The film was considered so inflammatory that it was not shown in France until 1971.

The picture, filmed in black-and-white to approximate the look of a newsreel, dramatizes Algeria’s war of independence against France. It focuses on the years from 1954 to 1957, when the National Liberation Front began to organize in the Casbah of Algiers to carry out terrorist attacks on civilians as well as the French army. This led to a fierce and brutal counter-insurgency by the French, which meant the battles dragged on for years.

To insure authenticity, Pontecorvo cast the film mainly with non-professional actors recruited in Algeria. The film’s one professional actor, Jean Martin, gave a vivid performance as the complex, intelligent French officer who understands the grievances of the Algerians even as he fights ruthlessly to defeat them. The film’s urgency was heightened by the score of Ennio Morricone.

The film’s influence extended well beyond the cinema. It became a sort of handbook of revolutionary techniques that was studied by many radical groups over the years. Yet in 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon also screened the movie in order to better understand the civil war unleashed in that country.

Many prominent filmmakers–including Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone–all testified to influence of Pontecorvo’s movie on their own work. Critic David Elliott of the San Diego Union Tribune called The Battle of Algiers “perhaps the finest political film of the 1960s.” The LA Weekly’s Ella Taylor agreed that it was “a classic of politically engaged filmmaking.”

Our 50th anniversary screening of THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1968) screens Wednesday, April 18 at 7pm in Encino, Pasadena, and West LA. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP

Friday the 13th Screening of ROSEMARY’S BABY at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills

by Leave a Comment

To provide shivers and thrills on Friday the 13th, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of one of the most terrifying movies of all time, ROSEMARY’S BABY.

Ira Levin’s ingenious best-selling novel imagined a witches’ coven hiding in plain sight in contemporary Manhattan and hatching a plot to bring the Devil’s son to earth. Producer William Castle, the mastermind behind many successful B-horror movies, graduated to the A ranks with this classy production. Paramount’s head of production, Robert Evans, hired acclaimed European director Roman Polanski to make his Hollywood debut with the film.

The casting of the film was inspired. As the innocent woman at the center of the diabolical conspiracy, the filmmakers chose a relatively new face to movies, Mia Farrow, and she played the role with endearing vulnerability. The film’s success catapulted her to full-fledged stardom.

John Cassavetes took a break from his own independent productions to play Farrow’s conniving husband. The brilliance of the casting extended to the supporting players, a veritable Who’s Who of vintage Hollywood and Broadway actors, including Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, and Elisha Cook Jr. Gordon won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her spot-on portrayal of a nosy neighbor with a sinister agenda. Polanski earned an Oscar nomination for his adapted screenplay.

Behind-the-scenes credits were just as impressive. Six-time Oscar nominee William Fraker (Bullitt, Heaven Can Wait) was the cinematographer, while two-time Oscar winner Richard Sylbert (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Chinatown, Dick Tracy) was the production designer. The eerie score was composed by a gifted friend of Polanski, Christopher Komeda, who died tragically at the age of 37, soon after the release of the film.

Among the stellar reviews for the film, Leonard Maltin hailed a “Classic modern-day thriller by Ira Levin, perfectly realized by writer-director Polanski.” Stephen Witty of the Newark Star-Ledger called it “one of the finest horror films ever made.” In 2014 Rosemary’s Baby was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

ROSEMARY’S BABY screens Friday, April 13 at 7:30 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP

Join Us for ‘April Showers’ Every Throwback Thursday in NoHo: Four Films with Memorable Shower Scenes

by 2 Comments

Join Laemmle and  Eat|See|Hear for April Showers at the NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Every Thursday in April our Throwback Thursday (#TBT) series presents four films with unforgettable shower scenes. It all starts Thursday, April 5th with PSYCHO. Check out the full schedule below. For tickets and our full #TBT schedule, visit laemmle.com/tbt.

April 5: Psycho

Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, and Martin Balsam star in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

April 5: Weird Science

Kelly LeBrock, Anthony Michael Hall, and Ilan Mitchell-Smith in star John Hughes’s teen, sci-fi classic. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

April 19: Carrie

Brian DePalma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel stars Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

April 26: Starship Troopers

Paul Verhoeven’s satirical take on fascism and the military-industrial complex stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, and Neil Patrick Harris. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

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

by Leave a Comment

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

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

by Leave a Comment

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.

55th Anniversary Screening of TOM JONES March 21st in Pasadena, Encino, and West LA

by Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest in our Anniversary Classics Abroad program: a 55th anniversary presentation of the Oscar-winning film of 1963, TOM JONES.

Tony Richardson’s spirited comic romp was the first all-British production to be named best picture by the Academy since Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet in 1948. The film won three other Oscars—best director for Richardson, best adapted screenplay by award-winning British playwright John Osborne, and best musical score by a gifted new composer, John Addison. The film received six other nominations, including a record-tying five acting nods—Albert Finney for best actor, Hugh Griffith for best supporting actor (he had won in this category four years earlier, for Ben-Hur), and an unprecedented three nominations in the supporting actress category—for Diane Cilento, Edith Evans, and Joyce Redman.

Up to this point, Richardson was best known for hard-hitting social protest dramas filmed in black and white—Look Back in Anger (based on Osborne’s hit play), A Taste of Honey, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. For his new film, adapted from Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel, Richardson made his first period piece, his first comedy, and his first film in color, with superb lensing by Walter Lassally. The director took a playful approach to the material, experimenting with a variety of film techniques, including a silent film opening, and a number of moments when characters broke the fourth wall to address the camera. Yet Richardson and Osborne retained the essence of Fielding’s picaresque tale of a young orphan adopted by a rich nobleman but then thrown into jeopardy by scheming enemies.

The film is remembered for several striking set pieces, including a savage hunt sequence and an erotic eating scene that commingled lust and gluttony. The outstanding cast also includes Susannah York, David Warner, Joan Greenwood, and Peter Bull.

In addition to its Oscar win, the film was named best picture of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther called Tom Jones “surely one of the wildest, bawdiest and funniest comedies that a refreshingly agile filmmaker has ever brought to the screen.”

Time magazine also extolled “a way-out, walleyed, wonderful exercise in cinema” but added that the film was not completely different from Richardson’s gritty earlier films. As the magazine noted, “It is also a social satire written in blood with a broadaxe.” Audiences turned the innovative film into a box office smash.

TOM JONES screens at 7:00pm on Wednesday, March 21st in Pasadena, Encino, and West LA. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP