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AIMEE & JAGUAR in 35mm with Star Maria Schrader in Person on July 9th in Beverly Hills

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In 1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women. One of them, Lilly Wust (NOWHERE IN AFRICA’s Juliane Köhler), married and the mother of four sons, enjoys the privileges of her stature as an exemplar of Nazi motherhood. For her, this affair will be the most decisive experience of her life. For the other woman, Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader), a Jewess and member of the underground, their love fuels her with the hope that she will survive.

A half-century later, Lilly Wust told her incredible story to writer Erica Fischer, and the book, AIMÉE & JAGUAR, first published in 1994 immediately became a bestseller and has since been translated into eleven languages. Max Färberböck’s debut film, based on Fischer’s book, is the true story of this extraordinary relationship. The film was nominated for a 1999 Golden Globe Award and was Germany’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Both actresses received Silver Bears at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival for their portrayals of “Aimée” and “Jaguar.”

Join us for a special Q&A with AIMEE & JAGUAR star Maria Schrader following the 7:30pm screening on Monday, July 9th at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Presented in 35mm. Click here for tickets.

About Maria Schrader:
Two-time winner of the German Film award and two-time winner of the Bavarian Film award, Maria Schrader worked with directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Doris Dörrie (“Nobody Loves Me”), Hans W. Geissendörfer, Peter Greenaway, Rajko Grilic and Agnieszka Holland (“In Darkness”). In 1999, at the Berlinale, she received the Silver Bear for Best Actress in “Aimée & Jaguar” directed by Max Färberböck. Recently, she thrilled television audiences in the Emmy award-winning and internationally renowned series “Deutschland 83″ (2015). “Deutschland 86” will premiere in October, 2018.

Ms. Schrader co-directed “The Giraffe” with Dani Levy (1998). Her directorial debut “Love Life” was shot in Israel in 2007 and was based on Zeruya Shalev’s novel by the same title. The film premiered at the Festa del Cinema in Rome in 2007. “Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe” is her second feature as a director; she was nominated for Best Director at the 2017 German Film Awards, and the film won the People’s Choice Award at the 2017 European Film Awards.

BULL DURHAM 30th Anniversary Screening in 35mm with Actor Robert Wuhl In Person on Tuesday, July 10th at the Ahrya Fine Arts

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 30th anniversary screening of Bull Durham (1988), widely considered the best sports movie ever made.

Writer-director Ron Shelton made his directorial debut with this semi-autobiographical baseball tale and romantic comedy, and he garnered an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay. His screenplay was also judged the year’s best by the New York Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics, and the Writers Guild.

At the time the film’s romantic triangle featured three future Oscar winners: Kevin Costner (Best Director, Dances With Wolves), Susan Sarandon (Best Actress, Dead Man Walking), and Tim Robbins (Best Supporting Actor, Mystic River).

Costner stars as a veteran catcher who is sent to a minor league team in Durham, North Carolina to mentor a rookie pitcher played by Robbins. They both encounter a “baseball groupie” and earth mother (Sarandon), who chooses the best player each year as her romantic partner, also acting as an unconventional muse for the team. This arrangement leads to a romantic rivalry when Sarandon selects Robbins as her lover and both she and Costner attempt to season the immature pitcher for the major leagues.

Writer-director Shelton (White Men Can’t Jump, Tin Cup) drew on his own experience as a baseball player in the minor leagues, and that authenticity impressed both the critics and sports fans. In 2003 Sports Illustrated ranked it the greatest sports movie of all time.

Among the critical acclaim, Vincent Canby in the New York Times wrote of tyro director Shelton, “This is one first-rate debut.” Newsweek’s David Ansen said the film “works equally as a love story, a baseball fable and a comedy while ignoring the clichés of each genre.”

Hal Hinson in the Washington Post found the film “limber, funny and in touch with the pleasures of the flesh as it is with the pleasures of the game.” The film co-stars Trey Wilson and, as the pitching coach, Robert Wuhl, our special guest for this screening.

Robert Wuhl is an actor, comedian and writer who was also featured in two other films by Ron Shelton, Blaze and Cobb. In addition he was the creator and star of the TV series Arli$$, and won two Emmys for writing Oscar shows hosted by Billy Crystal.

The 30th anniversary of Bull Durham will be presented in a special 35mm screening on Tuesday, July 10 at 7:30 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Co-star Robert Wuhl will participate in a Q&A after the screening. Click here for tickets.

‘Everybody Loves Denzel’ Every Throwback Thursday in July at the NoHo 7!

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Every Throwback Thursday in July, we’re celebrating one of the most critically claimed actors of all time, Denzel Washington! We’re calling it ‘Everybody Loves Denzel!’ His latest film, THE EQUALIZER 2, opens July 19th.

Our Throwback Thursday (#TBT) series is presented in partnership with Eat|See|Hear every Thursday at 7:30pm at the NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Check out the full schedule below. For tickets and our full #TBT schedule, visit laemmle.com/tbt.

July 5: Glory (1989)

Denzel earned his second Academy Award nomination and first win for this role as a soldier in one of the first all-black regiments in the Union Army. Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, Andre Braugher, and Carey Elwes also star. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

July 12: Malcolm X (1992)

MALCOLM X is Spike Lee’s biographical epic of the civil rights leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his political awakening in prison, his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his reawakening upon visiting Mecca. Denzel was nominated for his third Academy Award, his first for a leading role. The cast includes Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., and Delroy Lindo. Look for cameos by Nelson Mandela and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

July 19: Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

In this American neo-noir set in post-war Los Angeles, Denzel Washington plays Easy Rawlins, a recently laid off veteran who decides to become a private investigator. Hired to find a missing woman, he gets mixed up in a murderous political scandal. Based on the novel by Walter Mosely. Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals also star. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

July 26: Training Day (2001)

On his first day on the job as a Los Angeles narcotics officer, a rookie LAPD cop (Ethan Hawke) goes beyond a full work day along side a rogue detective (Denzel Washington). Denzel won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Detective Alonzo Harris, earning his fifth, out of eight, acting nominations. The film also stars Eva Mendes, Scott Glenn, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

50th Anniversary Screening of OLIVER! with Actress Shani Wallis In Person on July 15 in Beverly Hills

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 1968, OLIVER!, the much-loved film version of Lionel Bart’s hit stage musical.

The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won six, also including Best Director Carol Reed and a special award for choreographer Onna White. Reed, the acclaimed British director of such classic films as The Third Man and The Fallen Idol, had been working since the 1930s and finally received the Academy’s top honor for this late work.

Charles Dickens’ iconic 19th century novel, Oliver Twist, the heart-rending tale of an orphan who falls in with a band of thieves in London, has been filmed many times over the years; the first version was done in the silent era, and David Lean directed a brilliant rendition in 1948, with Alec Guinness as Fagin.

In 1960 Lionel Bart wrote the book, music, and lyrics for a musical theater version of the novel which scored an enormous success in London and later in New York. Ron Moody, who had played the part of Fagin in London, reprised his role for the film version, and the cast also included Shani Wallis as Nancy, Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger, Oliver Reed (the director’s nephew) as the villainous Bill Sikes, Oscar-winner Hugh Griffith as the Magistrate, and charming newcomer Mark Lester as Oliver.

The 1960s was a great decade for movie musicals, with three earlier films—West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music—scoring Best Picture wins. OLIVER!, however, turned out to be the last musical film to win the Academy’s top award until Chicago took the prize 34 years later. Reed’s film earned outstanding reviews from most critics. Roger Ebert declared, “Sir Carol Reed’s Oliver! is a treasure of a movie.”

Pauline Kael also admired Reed’s achievement: “Oliver! has been made by people who know how; it’s a civilized motion picture, not only emotionally satisfying but so satisfyingly crafted that we can sit back and enjoy what is going on…there’s something restorative about a movie that is made for a mass audience and that respects that audience.”

Kael also had high praise for the performers. “As Nancy,” Kael wrote, “Shani Wallis is an unexpected pleasure—hearty (as Dickens described her), with a tough vitality that brings poignancy to the role.” Wallis got to perform some of Bart’s best songs, including the rousing “It’s A Fine Life” and the romantic ballad, “As Long As He Needs Me.” Wallis has had an extensive career performing in musical theater and in nightclubs, and she also has many credits in British and American television.

Our 50th anniversary screening OLIVER! (1968) plus Q&A with actress Shani Wallis is Sunday, July 15, at 3pm at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

Milos Forman’s THE FIREMEN’S BALL Screens Tuesday, June 26 in Encino, Pasadena, and West L.A.! Q&A with Co-Screenwriter Ivan Passer at the Royal.

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In conjunction with an American Cinematheque tribute to the late Oscar-winning director Milos Forman, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of Forman’s final Czech film, THE FIREMEN’S BALL. The picture, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 1968, is part of our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad series. THE FIREMEN’S BALL co-screenwriter Ivan Passer will participate in a Q&A after the screening at the Royal. Laemmle Theatres president Greg Laemmle will moderate. Passer also worked with Forman on LOVES OF A BLONDE and is perhaps best known for directing the 1965 film INTIMATE LIGHTING and the 1981 film CUTTER’S WAY.

Forman was part the Czech New Wave, a group of talented filmmakers (also including Jan Kadar, Jiri Menzel, and Ivan Passer) who emerged during the 1960s. Forman’s 1966 film, Love of a Blonde, was also an Oscar nominee and put him on the map as a director to watch. His wry sensibility received even fuller expression in The Firemen’s Ball, a dark but raucous satire of the chaos that ensues when a group of local firemen try to mount a celebration for their retiring chief. Forman got the idea for the film when he was in a small Bohemian village working on another script, and he happened to attend a real firemen’s ball. The script was co-written by Forman, Ivan Passer, and Jaroslav Papousek. The cast consisted mainly of nonprofessional actors, including Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebanek, Josef Valnoha, and Vaclav Stockel.

The film, which was widely interpreted as a sly critique of the Eastern European Communist system, was made during a brief period of artistic freedom that came to be known as the Prague Spring. But when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968, The Firemen’s Ball was banned, and Forman and other leading Czech directors fled the country. As TV Guide later wrote of the film, “This ingratiating farce is perhaps the last noteworthy film of the Czech renaissance before the political crackdown forced most filmmakers into exile.” After arriving in America, Forman went on to achieve many Hollywood successes, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ragtime, and Amadeus.

Among the stellar reviews for THE FIREMEN’S BALL, Time magazine acclaimed “a delicious parody-fable of Slavic bureaucracy,” and Variety paid tribute to “a lively, brimming comedy on human conduct and small-town life.” In his four-star review, Roger Ebert added, “This is a very warm, funny movie.”

This Just In: Co-screenwriter Ivan Passer will participate in a Q&A after the June 26 screening at the Royal. Laemmle Theatres president Greg Laemmle will moderate. Passer also worked with Forman on LOVES OF A BLONDE and is perhaps best known for directing the 1965 film INTIMATE LIGHTING and the 1981 film CUTTER’S WAY.

Milos Forman’s THE FIREMEN’S BALL (1968) screens Tuesday, June 26, at 7:00pm in Encino, Pasadena, and West L.A. Click here for tickets.

Win tickets to see Buster Keaton in STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. at the Orpheum Theatre with Last Remaining Seats

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Each year, our friends at the Los Angeles Conservancy screen classic films in L.A.’s historic theatres at their Last Remaining Seats series. Enter our drawing to win a pair of VIP tickets to their screening of Steamboat Bill, Jr. at the Orpheum Theatre! Enter below!

Buster Keaton stars in this 1928 silent as William “Steamboat Bill” Canfield, the owner of a paddle steamer who hopes to teach his son the family trade. The son, however, falls in love with the daughter of Steamboat Bill’s biggest rival, much to Bill’s dismay.

Will this father and son be able to sort out their differences before a hurricane destroys Bill’s steamboat?

This entertaining slapstick comedy features one of Keaton’s most famous stunts: the entire front side of a house falls on top of him, but he is untouched due to standing in the perfect spot to pass through an open upper floor window.

Live accompaniment on the Orpheum’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Before the screening enjoy live entertainment from Janet Klein & Her Parlor Boys. On stage before the screening: Keaton Talmadge, great-granddaughter of Buster Keaton will introduce the film. A free Q&A session about the theatre will follow the screening. Stay in your seat to learn more about the history and architecture!


Last Remaining Seats: Buster Keaton in STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. Drawing

55th Anniversary Screening of IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963) on Father’s Day in Beverly Hills

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Celebrate Father’s Day at the movies as Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 55th anniversary screening of an all-star comic romp, Stanley Kramer’s IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.

After making several Oscar-winning and nominated dramas like Judgment at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, On the Beach, and The Defiant Ones, Kramer (the winner of the Motion Picture Academy’s prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award) decided to shift gears and make his first slapstick comedy.

The plot revolves around the frantic and desperate search for a cache of money hidden by an ex-convict. Although the film is basically lighthearted and riotous, Kramer does throw a few pointed barbs at all-American avarice. The director recruited a gigantic cast of comedians from television and theater as well as film; these performers span several decades of Hollywood history. The leading roles are played by Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Dick Shawn, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Phil Silvers, Edie Adams, and Ethel Merman, with supporting and cameo roles essayed by everyone from Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis, and Terry-Thomas to Peter Falk, William Demarest, Barrie Chase, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and the Three Stooges. Spencer Tracy, who had starred in Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg for Kramer, relished the opportunity to bring off a change of pace as the detective with his own devious plans for the hidden cash.

William Rose, who later won an Oscar for writing Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, created the ingenious screenplay. The picture was nominated for six Academy Awards, including nods for cinematographer Ernest Laszlo (Ship of Fools) and composer Ernest Gold (Exodus). It won the Oscar for Sound Effects. Mad World was one of the top grossing films of 1963 and earned mainly positive reviews. Variety observed, “The comic competition is so keen that it is impossible to single out any one participant.” The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther concurred: “So many excellent actors and stunt men do so much in this film.”

Against Kramer’s wishes, the film was edited after its release. The Criterion Collection released a complete, restored version on Blu-ray in 2014, and this is the version that we will be screening.

Before the film, Kramer’s widow Karen and daughter Kat will participate in a Q&A along with actress Barrie Chase. Unfortunately, Chase will not be in attendance.

IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD screens at 4pm on Sunday, June 17th at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Click here for tickets.

June’s TBT Screenings in NoHo Include THE WILD BUNCH, THREE AMIGOS, TOUCH OF EVIL, and FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

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With the opening of SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO at the end of June, our Throwback Thursday series takes a look at some earlier tales of American misadventures “Down in Mexico.”

Our Throwback Thursday (#TBT) series is presented in partnership with Eat|See|Hear every Thursday at 7:30pm at the NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Check out the full schedule below. For tickets and our full #TBT schedule, visit laemmle.com/tbt.

June 7: The Wild Bunch (1969)

Sam Peckinpah’s controversial revisionist Western follows an aging outlaw gang trying to adapt as the Old West transitions to the New West along the US-Mexico border. William Holden, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O’Brien, Ben Johnson, and Warren Oates star. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

June 14: Touch of Evil (1958)

A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town, co-starring, written and directed by Orson Welles. The film also stars Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Marlene Dietrich, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.

June 21: ¡Three Amigos! (1986)

Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase star as three silent movie actors known as the Three Amigos who travel to a small Mexican town for what they think is a public appearance. Instead, they realize they have been mistaken for their screen characters and the townspeople ask them to help fight an evil bandit. Format: Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

June 28: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Fugitive bank robbers unknowingly seek temporary refuge in a truck stop populated by vampires. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino, the film stars George Clooney, Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, and Juliette Lewis. Format: DCP. Click here for tickets.