The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

Home » Repertory Cinema » Page 6

“A gem of the Iranian new wave,” THE RUNNER opens Friday at the Royal & Town Center.

by

Featuring one of the finest cinematic performances by a child actor (Madjid Niroumand) and a peer to classics like Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief and Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados, Amir Naderi’s The Runner (1984) has been beautifully restored by Rialto Pictures. We are proud to open the film this Friday, December 16 at the Royal and Town Center.
*
“A gem of the Iranian new wave…crisply restored with improved subtitles…admirably lean and remarkably well-constructed…the light is often dazzling; the array of bottles floating in the harbor is bewitching… has a subtle fairy tale quality.” — J. Hoberman, The New York Times
*
“To say that the 1984 movie doesn’t seem at all dated is almost an understatement. I can’t think of any 2022 film that radiates so much joy in the act of filmmaking, or that can serve as such an electrifying inspiration to younger artists.” ~ Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com
 
*
“Niroumand gives a remarkable performance, thoroughly uninhibited and completely engrossing.” ~ John Anderson, Newsday
*
“A work of astonishing power and simplicity, reminiscent of the finest Italian neo-realist films.” ~ Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
*
*
“One of the best films in town right now.” ~ Derek Malcolm, Guardian
*
“The film uses stylization and photographic compositions of remarkable beauty (the director of photography was Firooz Malekzadeh) without ever compromising the tough reality of the lives of these undaunted young outcasts.” ~ David Robinson, Times (UK)
*
*
“[Amiro’s] unguarded exuberance hits you with unexpected force. It stays with you.” ~ Hal Hinson, Washington Post
*
“Like Bunuel, Naderi shows a keen understanding of children’s camaraderie and determination.” ~ Ted Shen, Chicago Reader
*
“If The Runner is tentatively optimistic, it is also drenched in a mood of yearning lyricism.” ~ Stephen Holden, New York Times
*
“Young Nirumand gives a performance to make Rossellini weep, and the soundtrack is a joy.” ~ Pierre Hodgson, Time Out
*

FIDDLER is back! Sing along with Tevye and his family this Christmas Eve at our Sing-Along screenings of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

by

LAEMMLE THEATRES ANNOUNCES ITS 14TH ANNIVERSARY “FIDDLER ON THE ROOF” SING-ALONG SCREENINGS

When: Saturday, December 24, 2022, 7 pm (Christmas Eve)

What: Screening of classic musical film “Fiddler on the Roof.” It’s our program’s 14th anniversary.

Where: 

– Glendale, 207 Maryland Ave., Glendale, CA 91206

– Town Center, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino, CA 91316

– Claremont, 450 W Second St., Claremont, CA 91711

– NoHo 7, 5240 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601

– Newhall, 22500 Lyons Ave., Santa Clarita, CA 91321

– Royal, 11523 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025

Tickets: Purchase at Laemmle.com/Fiddler. Prices this year start at $18 for General Admission, $15 for seniors and children, and $15 for Premiere Card Holders, $12 for Premiere Card seniors.

A tradition we began in 2008, Christmas Eve sing-along FIDDLER ON THE ROOF screenings have been a hit that has inspired similar screenings in other parts of the country. We’re showing Norman Jewison’s beloved 1971 Oscar-winning musical at four of our theaters, so you don’t even have to venture too far from your shtetl. Song lyrics on screen, in case you don’t know ’em by heart.

Song highlights include the iconic “TRADITION”, “IF I WERE A RICH MAN”,  “TO LIFE”, “MATCHMAKER”, “SUNRISE SUNSET”, “DO YOU LOVE ME?” and “ANATEVKA”, among many others.

Jewison’s 1971 screen adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is a treasured movie classic. It stars Israeli actor TOPOL in the unforgettable role of TEVYE the milkman, a character besieged not just by a bevy of five daughters but by modernity itself. Co-stars include NORMA CRANE as GOLDE, Yiddish theater legend MOLLY PICON as YENTE, and LEONARD FRAY as MOTEL. The film won three OSCARS in 1972 for Best Sound, Best Music, and Best Cinematography, and was nominated for five more, including Best Director and Best Picture.

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR 60th Anniversary Screening with co-star Stefanie Powers in person December 7

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the 60th anniversary of director Blake Edwards’ neo-noir suspense thriller Experiment in Terror, one of the noteworthy films from the milestone movie year 1962. Stefanie Powers, who has a key supporting role, will appear for a Q&A after the film. The one-night-only screening will play at the Laemmle NoHo theater on Wednesday, December 7 at 7 PM.

The story deals with vicious criminal Red Garland (Ross Martin), who terrorizes San Francisco bank teller Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick), forcing her to steal $100,000 for him. Although he threatens to kill her and her teenage sister Toby (Stefanie Powers) if she goes to the police, Remick contacts the local FBI office, where agent John Ripley (Glenn Ford) undertakes a manhunt for Garland. To ensure Kelly’s full cooperation, Garland kidnaps Toby and a race against the clock ensues. Filmed on location in San Francisco, the film notably climaxes in the Bay City’s mid-century landmark, Candlestick Park.

Blake Edwards, known primarily as a comedy specialist, followed the biggest hit of his early career, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with a complete change of pace in this taut suspenser adapted by the Gordons from their novel “Operation Terror.” He took advantage of the genre change by utilizing a full range of stylistic flourishes, superbly assisted in exploring the neo-noir format by cinematographer Philip Lathrop, filming appropriately in sharp-edged black and white, and composer Henry Mancini, contributing a striking, eclectic score. Edwards, Remick, Lathrop, and Mancini would all reunite later in the year for the memorable drama Days of Wine and Roses.

Critics of the day appreciated the investigative protocol, mystery elements, and the convincing, unsentimental acting and storytelling. Later reviewers embraced Edwards’ directing approach, with Time Out stating, “Edwards’ classical feel for pure cinema remains unalloyed.” Emmanuel Levy noted, “this stylish noir thriller is one of Edwards’ best films and one of the genre’s highlights.” The movie also greatly influenced filmmaker David Lynch, particularly his acclaimed Twin Peaks. Richard Brody, film critic of The New Yorker, wrote in 2015 that Experiment in Terror is “a movie about movies, a very early American reflection of the methods and moods of the French New Wave, realized as a mainstream Hollywood film…the exaltation of the ordinary into something extraordinary by means of the power of cinema itself.”

Our special guest Stefanie Powers is still actively enjoying her seventh decade in show business, starting as a teenager under contract for Columbia Pictures at the end of the studio era. In 1962 she co-starred in three popular movies, If a Man Answers, The Interns, and Experiment in Terror. Later in the decade she starred on television as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., followed by over 200 appearances on weekly TV series and miniseries, culminating in the hit show Hart to Hart (1979-84), in which she co-starred with longtime friend Robert Wagner. In 1982 she founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation in Kenya after the 1981 death of her life partner Holden. She remains involved in wildlife conservation and environmental activism in addition to her acting career.

Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA 55th Anniversary screenings December 13 at Laemmle Glendale, Newhall & Royal

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present the 55th anniversary of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1967) on December 13 at three Laemmle locations. The intense, provocative psychological drama was one of the keystone films of the late-period golden age of the art-house in the 1960s and energized the “Film Generation” that came of age in that seminal decade.

The story concerns an actress (Bergman newcomer Liv Ullmann) who stops speaking in the middle of a performance and refuses to communicate. She is placed in the care of a nurse (Bergman regular Bibi Andersson) and they retreat to the isolation of a beach house for her recovery. As their relationship progresses, it takes fascinating twists and turns. Some have compared their relationship to that of a psychiatrist and patient, with Ullmann paradoxically playing the role of the psychoanalyst whose silence prods the nurse into revealing some of her innermost secrets and deep-seated anxieties. Andersson’s confessions include one vivid memory of an uninhibited sexual encounter that critic Pauline Kael described as “one of the rare truly erotic sequences in movie history.”

Swedish auteur and all-time film titan Bergman was one of the directors at the center of the international film explosion that captivated moviegoers during that era. College students and engaged moviegoers debated long into the night, trying to decipher all the mysteries of this utterly compelling but sometimes puzzling film, not unlike the reaction to Alain Resnais’ enigmatic Last Year at Marienbad earlier in the decade. Andrew Sarris, the influential film critic of The Village Voice, noted that the film “seems to bewitch audiences even when it bewilders them.” Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune cited it as “one of the screen’s supreme works and perhaps Ingmar Bergman’s finest film.” Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian called it “sensually brilliant, an endlessly questioning and mysterious disquisition on identity. Persona is a film to make you shiver with fascination, or incomprehension, or desire.”

Persona plays one night only, Tuesday, December 13 at 7:00 PM at three Laemmle locations: the Royal (West Los Angeles), Glendale, and Newhall (Santa Clarita).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu_Jvil6ToY

Luis Buñuel’s THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL 60th Anniversary Screenings October 12 at Three Laemmle Locations

by

Continuing the 60th anniversary celebration of the milestone film year 1962, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present Luis Buñuel’s scathing surreal satire, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL. The film plays one night only, Wednesday, October 12 at 7:00 PM at three Laemmle locations: The Royal in West Los Angeles, the Laemmle Glendale, and the Laemmle Newhall in Santa Clarita.

Buñuel, a Spanish-born iconoclast and provocateur, spent most of his career working outside his native country. In 1962, at the age of 62, Bunuel was enjoying international acclaim after being coaxed out of Mexican exile the year before to make ‘Viridiana,’ which was suffused with his characteristic caustic wit and anti-religious sentiment. The film’s notoriety revived his career and placed him at the center of international film culture for the remainder of his career. THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, made in Mexico, further cemented his credentials as a mordant satirist. The story, written by Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza, deals with a lavish dinner party at the home of wealthy opera patrons in which the upper-class guests find themselves unable to leave after the meal. After a few days a rescue party is organized but the would-be rescuers cannot enter the house, and chaos ensues. During the ordeal the guests find their veneer of civilization slowly stripped away.

Critics were struck by Buñuel’s unrepentant approach to skewering the ruling elites.Andrew Sarris, the esteemed film critic of The Village Voice, called Buñuel “The last of the classic surrealists of the screen,” and was impressed with his “stylistic serenity. Where he was once merely profane, he is now eminently profound.” Leonard Maltin called it a “wry assault on bourgeois manners,” while Roger Ebert more exuberantly cited it as “a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets.” Although a curmudgeonly Bosley Crowther of the New York Times gave it an unfavorable review upon its  delayed U.S. release in 1967 after years of legal issues over distribution rights, the film’s stature and influence were fully recognized by its inclusion in The New York Times publication, “The  Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made” in 2004.

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL premiered at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the  opening night entry of the first New York Film Festival the following year. Buñuel was propelled into the most successful phase of his long career, and he followed it with a number of  memorable films, ‘Belle de Jour’ (1967), ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ (1972), and his final film, ‘That Obscure Object of Desire’ (1977) among them. Later, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL’s influence extended beyond the screen—in 2016 it was adapted as an opera of the same name by composer Thomas Ades.

Akira Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD 65th Anniversary Screenings September 21.

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series are proud to present this month’s installment in our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Akira Kurosawa’s unique Shakespearean adaptation, Throne of Blood. The Japanese auteur was always an admirer of the Bard. His late film Ran offered a variation on King Lear. The power, majesty and craftsmanship of a film like Throne of Blood can only fully appreciated in a theatrical setting: with an audience, with a big screen, and sound you can feel. We’ll be showing a DCP.

For many years Kurosawa dreamed of adapting Macbeth, and he put the film together in 1957, with his favorite actor Toshiro Mifune starring as the ambitious, murderous leader. Isuzu Yamada co-stars as the Lady Macbeth character, with Takashi Shimura as the equivalent of Shakespeare’s Macduff. Kurosawa wrote the screenplay with Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Ryuzo Kikushima. They transposed the story from medieval Scotland to feudal Japan and Kurosawa came up with striking visual concepts to revitalize the classic story. The castle exteriors were filmed on the slopes of Mount Fuji and the memorable climax—with a massive array of arrows aimed at the deranged protagonist—remains one of the greatest images in any Kurosawa movie.

Writing of this climactic scene, The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane declared,“No stage production could match Kurosawa’s Birnam Wood, and, in his final framing of the hero — a human hedgehog, stuck with arrows — he conjures a tragedy not laden with grandeur but pierced, like a dream, by the absurd.” British critic Derek Malcolm of the Guardian acclaimed Throne of Blood as “a landmark of visual strength… possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen.”

On its original American release, Time magazine praised the film as “a visual descent into the hell of greed and superstition.” In his four-star review, Leonard Maltin called the film a “graphic, powerful adaptation of Macbeth in a samurai setting.” It was not simply film critics who endorsed the film. Renowned literary critic Harold Bloom said that Throne of Blood was “the most successful film version of Macbeth.”

Laemmle Theatres will screen Throne of Blood on September 21 at our Glendale, Newhall and Royal theaters on Wednesday, September 21 at 7 o’clock.

Vincent D’Onofrio in Person for FULL METAL JACKET 35th Anniversary Screening Sept. 13

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 35th anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s savage anti-war drama Full Metal Jacket, which scored a box office success in 1987 and also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kubrick, celebrated Vietnam author Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford adapted Hasford’s 1979 novel, The Short-Timers. The acclaimed cast includes Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Baldwin, Dorian Harewood, and R. Lee Ermey. D’Onofrio will join for a Q&A after the 7 PM screening at the Royal on Tuesday, September 13.

Kubrick came late to the Vietnam war movie cycle, after such Oscar-winning films as Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, and Platoon. But he added his own sardonic and biting slant to his dissection of the terrible war. One of Kubrick’s early celebrated movies was his 1957 drama Paths of Glory, set during World War I. And his 1964 Oscar nominee, Dr. Strangelove, took a unique black comic approach to the terrifying subject of nuclear annihilation. Some of the same dark humor freshens Full Metal Jacket, though it also contains deadly serious depictions of brutal basic training as well as the horrors of a misguided, doomed war.

The first section of the film dramatizes the basic training of a platoon of Marine recruits at Parris Island, South Carolina. Former real-life drill instructor R. Lee Ermey portrays the savage sergeant in charge of the soldiers’ training. Ermey improvised much of the scathing and scatological dialogue, based on his own personal experience as a sergeant during the Vietnam War. He bullies and brutalizes all of the recruits but takes special pleasure in tormenting the overweight soldier played by D’Onofrio, whom he nicknames Gomer Pyle. Modine tries to protect D’Onofrio, with little success.

When the action shifts to Vietnam during the Tet offensive, it retains its hard-edged, nihilistic spirit. The entire film was actually shot in England, but Kubrick and his technical crew did an extraordinary job of recreating an American military base and the cities and jungles of Southeast Asia without ever leaving the English countryside.

Critical reactions to the film were very strong. Gene Siskel called Full Metal Jacket “a great piece of filmmaking.” The Los Angeles Times’ Sheila Benson wrote, “Aiming for minds as well as hearts, Kubrick hits his target squarely.” The Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum raved, “This is the most tightly crafted Kubrick film since Dr. Strangelove, as well as the most horrific.” The New York Times’ Vincent Canby called it “a film of immense and very rare imagination.” Canby’s Times colleague Janet Maslin added, “No one who sees Full Metal Jacket will easily put the film’s last glimpse of D’Onofrio, or a great many other things about Kubrick’s latest and most sobering vision, out of mind.”

After his breakthrough performance in Full Metal Jacket, D’Onofrio went on to co-star in such films as Mystic Pizza, JFK, The Player, Ed Wood, The Whole Wide World, Men in Black, Jurassic World, and Steal This Movie, in which he played Abbie Hoffman. He had a ten-year run in Law and Order: Criminal Intent. More recently he has appeared in the series Daredevil, Godfather of Harlem, and Ratched. Last year he had a major role as Jerry Falwell in the Oscar-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

DELICATESSEN 30th Anniversary screenings at three Laemmle locations August 31.

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest installment of the popular Anniversary Classics Abroad series, the 30th anniversary of the U.S. release of the international cult classic, DELICATESSEN. The surrealist black comedy about the inhabitants of a post-Apocalypse French city was the collaboration of tyro feature filmmakers Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who co-directed and co-wrote, with a writing assist by Gilles Adrien.

The story centers on three characters, the owner of an apartment building with a ground floor delicatessen (Jean-Claude Dreyfus); his daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac); and a former clown hired to be the dilapidated building’s maintenance man (Dominique Pinon). They inhabit a world in which food is scarce and lentils are used as currency. The landlord/butcher lures job seekers, murders them, and then prepares “delicacies” to sell to his odd tenants. His daughter falls in love with the latest victim and tries to foil her father’s scheme with the aid of the “lentil-men,” underground rebels.

The film’s hybrid mix of genres had critics and audiences somewhat bewildered and equally delighted amidst generally favorable reviews. Critic Emmanuel Levy provided appropriate praise: “Part macabre humor, part romantic drama, part childlike fable, this ingeniously original French farce defies categorization, but is successful on all these levels.” Janet Maslin of the New York Times cited its “fun-house atmosphere,” calling it “weirdly hilarious” and “lightweight but a sometimes subversively stylish farce.” Stephen Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer found it “indescribably wild,” and Michael Wilmington in the Los Angeles Times noted “the whole movie has been conceived in grandiose, garishly witty comic book images,” along with the advisory, “out-shocks and outplays the American horror comedies at their own game…a nasty, childlike, murderously funny show.”

Jeunet handled directing the actors, while Caro was responsible for design and effects, and the two would tap into their fervid imaginations again for THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, another provocative fantasy, in 1995. Their talents were recognized by Hollywood when they were hired as the director (Jeunet) and design supervisor (Caro) for ALIEN: RESURRECTION in 1997. Jeunet went onto international acclaim for the more conventional romantic comedy AMELIE (2001), nominated for five Academy Awards, including best foreign language film and a screenplay nod for Jeunet. But all this success started with DELICATESSEN, which will be presented for one night only Wednesday, August 31 at 7:00 pm at three Laemmle locations: Glendale, Newhall, and the Royal in West Los Angeles.