Repertory Cinema Archives – Page 8 Of 27

“An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film,” Buñuel’s ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ is back in theaters this Friday.

July 27, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

We are thrilled to open the new 50th anniversary 4K restoration of Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) this Friday at our Royal, Claremont, Glendale and Town Center theaters. The 1973 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film and 1974 BAFTA Award winner for Best Actress and Best Screenplay, Discreet Charm is one of surrealist master Buñuel’s late career triumphs, now fully restored and ready to meet a new audience craving the director’s particular flair for the anarchic skewering of ruling elites.

An ambassador and his bourgeois pals try to dine together again and again as circumstances, carnal and otherwise, intervene. Starring major French actors and Buñuel stalwarts Fernando Rey, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Stéphane Audran, Paul Frankeur, and Delphine Seyrig, with a screenplay written by Buñuel and long-time collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière (Diary of a Chambermaid, La Piscine), Discreet Charm brims with humorous satire and incisive criticism expressed in ways that can only be described as “Buñuelian.”

“Frightening, funny, profound, and mysterious…Luis Buñuel’s 1972 comic masterpiece, about three well-to-do couples who try and fail to have a meal together, is perhaps the most perfectly achieved and executed of all his late French films.” ~ Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

“Extraordinarily funny and perfectly acted.” ~ Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“Buñuel’s art is as insolent as ever. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a deeply funny movie, as a viewing experience it’s like walking across a perilous, sway little bridge whose guide rails periodically snatched away.” ~ David Denby, The Atlantic

“I had forgotten just how spooky the dream scenes are; Buñuel could have been a master of horror, or a great farceur. As it was, he was simply Bunuel, which is cause enough for celebration.” ~ Anthony Lane, The Independent

“Dreams nest within other dreams like so many Chinese puzzle boxes, while no dream belongs exclusively to a single dreamer, as though Bunuel were toying with the Jungian notion of the collective unconscious.” ~ Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine

“An exotic and brilliant hothouse flower of a film.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Manages to be totally surreal yet totally approachable. Quite amazing.” ~ David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“Take a look again at its dream sequences, especially the nocturnal one involving the young man in the side street, and you will see a master disturber still at work.” ~ Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture

“An absurdly comic assault on the meaningless social rituals and polite hypocrisies of the upper middle class.” ~ Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News

“This has to be one of the most completely realized comedies ever made, and, in its odd way, one of the most civilized.” ~ Charles Taylor, Salon.com

“Strange, wacky, funny, and tragic — and, on an incidental personal note, Discreet Charm is the movie that made me realize I was in love with movies.” ~ Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

“It combines a masterful command of the medium with a mischievous, anarchic sense of imaginative freedom.” ~ A.O. Scott, New York Times

“Boasts one of the best titles in movie history and a cast to match.” ~ J. Hoberman, Village Voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A3bnal75aY

Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The | Trailer | Laemmle Theatres (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A3bnal75aY)

PRESSURE POINT 60th Anniversary Screening in Tribute to Sidney Poitier with Actor Barry Gordon in Person.

May 25, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to the late Sidney Poitier with one of his lesser known but most provocative movies, PRESSURE POINT from 1962. Bobby Darin (in one of his first dramatic performances) and Peter Falk co-star in this gritty, still-timely film about racism and anti-Semitism. Our guest speaker will be co-star Barry Gordon, who played Darin’s character as a child in visually striking flashback scenes. The screening is at the Royal on Wednesday, June 22 at 7 PM. Buy tickets here.

The film is based on a real psychiatric case about a doctor who tried to fathom the reasons for the racial prejudices of a belligerent patient. As he probes the character’s past, he discovers some of the reasons for the convict’s poisonous ideas but is unable to “cure” him of his antisocial attitudes. It was the film’s producer, Stanley Kramer (THE DEFIANT ONES, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER), who suggested altering the real case by making the psychiatrist a Black man. This gave an added edge to the story. Both Poitier and Darin contribute outstanding performances. The script by director Hubert Cornfield and S. Lee Pogostin incisively scrutinizes the psychological roots of race prejudice and fascism. A film exposing the poison of white supremacy remains just as timely today as it was in 1962.

Barry Gordon had a highly successful career as a child actor in the 1950s and 60s. After completing PRESSURE POINT, he starred on Broadway as Jason Robards’ nephew in Herb Gardner’s tribute to nonconformity, A THOUSAND CLOWNS. Gordon earned a Tony nomination for that performance and reprised his role in the Oscar-winning 1965 film version of the play. Gordon went on to co-star in many TV comic and dramatic series, from ‘The New Dick Van Dyke Show’ and ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’ to ‘L.A. Law,’ ‘NYPD Blue,’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’ He also portrayed the character of Donatello in the smash hit animated series, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’ In addition, Gordon was the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, with a seven-year tenure from 1988 to 1995.

Critic Leonard Maltin called PRESSURE POINT an “intelligent drama” about an American Nazi. Writing in the Saturday Review, Hollis Alpert declared that director Cornfield “achieves several scenes of stark brilliance.” Ernest Haller provided the striking cinematography, and Oscar winner Ernest Gold composed the score.

Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in THE EMIGRANTS ~ 50th Anniversary Screenings May 11.

April 27, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore 2 Comments

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present our latest installment in our Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Jan Troell’s Oscar-nominated Swedish epic, THE EMIGRANTS. Troell made his feature film debut in 1966 with the acclaimed coming-of-age film, ‘Here Is Your Life.’ After seeing that, producer Bengt Forslund tagged Troell to direct the adaptation of the series of popular Swedish novels by Vilhelm Moberg about a family’s decision to emigrate from 19th century Sweden to America. Troell turned the novels into two films: THE EMIGRANTS and its follow-up, ‘The New Land.’ Revered Scandinavian actors Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann starred in both movies, along with Eddie Axberg, the star of ‘Here Is Your Life.’

THE EMIGRANTS begins by documenting the travails of a family struggling to survive in rural Sweden in the 1840s. With their prospects narrowing, they and a few of their neighbors make the decision to migrate to America in search of a better life. The film chronicles their grueling ocean voyage and then their further travels by train and river boat to unsettled land in Minnesota, where they battle to set down roots in a world that is completely alien to them.

The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar of 1971. Warner Bros. decided to distribute the film, and in 1972, it earned four additional Oscar nominations: for Best Picture, Best Actress Liv Ullmann, Best Director for Troell and Best Screenplay by Troell and Forslund. It was only the third foreign language film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, following Jean Renoir’s ‘Grand Illusion’ from 1938 and Costa-Gavras’ ‘Z’ in 1969.

Troell not only directed and co-wrote the film but also acted as his own cinematographer and editor. As critic Pauline Kael wrote, “In the whole history of the screen there have been only a handful of directors who actually shot their own movies, and no other cinematographer-director has ever undertaken a work of this sweep.” She added that Troell “brings a new visual and thematic unity to fiction films.” Roger Ebert wrote that THE EMIGRANTS was “infinitely absorbing and moving.” Writing in Life magazine, Richard Schickel declared, “Jan Troell has made the masterpiece about the dream that shaped America.”

We will screen the original 190-minute version of the film at the Laemmle Glendale, Newhall, Playhouse and Royal on Wednesday, May 11. The version that played in America in 1972 was shortened by 40 minutes and lost some of the rich detail of Troell’s groundbreaking immigrant saga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h-rHuPF5Ww

THE EMIGRANTS – Laemmle Theatres (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h-rHuPF5Ww)

“Smashing…touching and piercing. A stirring and true-spirited romantic film.” The overlooked 1970 British classic ‘Bronco Bullfrog’ gets a proper U.S. release starting April 29 at the Laemmle Glendale.

April 20, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

The debut film by “one of the forgotten heroes of British cinema” (Matthew Sweet, BBC Radio 4), Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog is “remarkable” (Mollie Panter-Downes, The New Yorker), a “breathtaking time capsule” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian), and a “revelation” (Kieron Corless, Sight & Sound).

Seventeen-year-old Del, with no money and nowhere to go, breaks into train cars with his cool, fresh-out-of-borstal (reform school) pal Bronco Bullfrog. But one day he meets the lovely Irene, and despite an earful from his dad (and her mum), the two young lovers run away together… but to where?

Shot in London’s East End in 1969, cast with Doc Marten-wearing “suedehead” locals, and set to a dynamic soundtrack by early ’70s art rock band Audience, Bronco Bullfrog has been compared to the work of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, but with a punk rock spirit. After a minuscule American release following its Edinburgh and Cannes premieres, this “lost gem” (Dave Calhoun, Time Out) returns over 50 years later as a cult landmark of two teens in love, in black and white and cockney—with subtitles.

"Smashing...touching and piercing. A stirring and true-spirited romantic film." The overlooked 1970 British classic 'Bronco Bullfrog' gets a proper U.S. release starting April 29 at the Laemmle Glendale. — Del Walker and Anne Gooding in Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog. (Credit: Seventy-Seven.)

Sadly, filmmaker Barney Platts-Mills passed away last year so is not here to be part of the re-release of his film. In his stead, Oscar-winning director James Scott will participate in a Q&A after 7:30 PM screening of Bronco at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, April 29.

From Sasha Frere-Jones recent piece in the Observer:

“The British 1970 film Bronco Bullfrog…is about kids in the streets, full stop. Del (Del Walker) starts up a romance with Irene (Anne Gooding) and bounces around with his friend Joe, aka Bronco Bullfrog (Sam Shepherd), running from cops and parents through Stratford, East London. A year before starring in this neo-realist dream, Walker was talking to director Barney Platts-Mills while they made a short documentary of Walker and his friends doing improvisatory theater with director Joan Littlewood.

“‘Is this better than hanging about in the streets? Is that all you do?’ Platts-Mills asks him.

“‘It’s all I’ve ever done,’ Walker says. “Streets—Stratford, Plaistow, Green Gate, East Ham, Leyton, Sleaford. Everywhere. Get a bit sick of it.’

“That film is called Everybody’s An Actor, Shakespeare Said, but that statement is the plot of Bronco Bullfrog, almost in total. Now rereleased by Gabriele Caroti and Seventy-Seven, a “boutique movie and music label focusing on vintage, underseen, and underappreciated work,” Bronco Bullfrog is a funnel right back into 1969 East London, a bright black-and-white look at several working class kids with no future and all the time in the world. Before Quadrophenia, before the Jam, before the Sex Pistols, there was this.

“‘We both loved the Italian neo-realists, Barney and me,’ cinematographer Adam Barker-Mill told me. ‘Joan and the boys had something.’ In the late ‘60s, Littlewood had been working in a theater in East London, putting on shows with local teens. The gang of boys hanging about in front of the theater was slowing things down, so she put them to work.”

Read the rest of Frere-Jones’ piece here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8SRdee-j0&t=1s

BRONCO BULLFROG • Official Trailer HD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8SRdee-j0&t=1s)

“Dark jewel of 1960s British cinema” THE SERVANT restored and screening at the Royal April 15-21.

April 6, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore 1 Comment

JULES AND JIM 60th Anniversary Screenings April 13

March 30, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of that landmark year at American movie houses, 1962, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present anniversary screenings of François Truffaut’s masterpiece, JULES AND JIM. The film will play for one night only on Wednesday, April 13 at 7:00 PM at four Laemmle locations: West Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and Glendale.

Truffaut, riding the crest of the international New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s, was in the initial stage of his storied filmmaking career when he adapted Henri Pierre Roche’s autobiographical novel of obsessive love. JULES AND JIM, only his third film, remains to many his greatest achievement. The story follows the friendship of Jules (Oskar Werner) an Austrian writer, and the more extroverted Frenchman Jim (Henri Serre), who meet in Paris in 1912 just before the outbreak of the First World War. Although they fight on opposite sides, they resume their “bromance” devotion to each other after the conflict. They had both pursued the enigmatic Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), a free spirit who marries Jules and moves with him to Germany, where Jim eventually joins them, and they form a menage-a-trois. Over the course of twenty years, Catherine’s independent nature cannot be bound by either marriage or motherhood, and her impulses ultimately become destructive.

JULES AND JIM is Truffaut’s celebration of both love and cinema, reflected by his use of an arsenal of cinematic techniques. This technical experimentation mirrors the unconventionality of the bohemian characters in the first decades of the twentieth century. Critics of the day embraced his vision, with Andrew Sarris extolling the film as “that rarity of rarities, a genuinely romantic film…expresses a brutal vision of love as a private war fought apart from the rules and regulations of society.” Pauline Kael exuded further praise, “Elliptical, full of wit and radiance, this is the best movie ever made about what most of us think of as the Scott Fitzgerald period.” And one of Truffaut’s heroes, director Jean Renoir, wrote to Truffaut “I wanted to tell you JULES AND JIM seems to be the most accurate expression of contemporary French society.”

The film’s critical and box-office success not only enhanced Truffaut’s reputation as an emerging master of cinema, but also prompted the release of his second film, SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (1960) which finally reached the United States in 1962. The two films, along with efforts by international auteurs like Kurosawa, Bunuel, Bergman, Antonioni, Fellini, and numerous others contributed to an overseas tidal wave that inundated American screens that year, the apex of the Golden Age of the Arthouse. Additionally, the dazzling performance of Jeanne Moreau in JULES AND JIM showcased the depth of female characterization in European films that was seldom matched by Hollywood’s output in that era. As Roger Ebert later wrote, JULES AND JIM is “perhaps the most influential and arguably the best of those first astonishing films that broke with the past. There is joy in the filmmaking that feels fresh today and felt audacious at the time.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvCS7mIzj4Y

JULES AND JIM – Laemmle Theatres (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvCS7mIzj4Y)

Pedro Almodóvar’s TALK TO HER: 20th Anniversary Screenings.

March 9, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore Leave a Comment

In celebration of Oscar season, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present the 20th anniversary of Pedro Almodovar’s Academy Award-winning TALK TO HER (2002) on Wednesday, March 23 at four Laemmle locations: Glendale, Newhall, Pasadena and West L.A. The internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker earned two Oscar nominations for this “bizarrely poetic tale of men in love with two women in comas,” for directing and writing, winning in the latter category. In the current Oscar race, Almodóvar’s most recent film, PARALLEL MOTHERS, has also earned two nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Penelope Cruz.

TALK TO HER is the story of a macho travel writer (Darío Grandinetti) and a gay male nurse (Javier Cámara) who form an unlikely friendship when they bond over a shared but separate devotion to two comatose women: a gored bullfighter (Rosario Flores) and a ballerina (Leonor Watling), respectively. Told in flashback, the film unfolds with a delicate balance of drama, comedy, and suspense, all trademarks of Almodóvar’s inimitable style. He had emerged in the 1980s with a liberating sensibility after the repressive Franco regime had ended in Spain. In a series of unconventional melodramas over the next four decades, he has explored identity, sexuality, friendship, family, desire, and passion, often with irreverent humor. TALK TO HER was his first effort in the 21st century and was greeted with universal acclaim.

Among the plaudits, Roger Ebert extolled the “improbable melodrama…with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements, and yet at the end, we are undeniably touched. No director since Fassbinder has been able to evoke such complex emotions with such problematic material.” Similarly, Philip French of the Guardian/Observer compared Almodóvar to past movie masters Ernest Lubitsch and Preston Sturges. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw also cited the film as “the most unmistakable auteur flourish in modern European cinema.” The film collected a multitude of accolades in addition to Oscar recognition, among which were Best Foreign Film prizes from the Golden Globes and National Board of Review. Almodóvar was also named Best Director of the Year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

TALK TO HER plays one night only, Wednesday, March 23 at 7:00 PM at four Laemmle locations: Royal (West Los Angeles), Glendale, Newhall (Santa Clarita), and Playhouse 7 (Pasadena).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqIl4h_Z9jA

TALK TO HER – Laemmle Theatres (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqIl4h_Z9jA)

Anniversary Classics Abroad Returns with Wertmüller, Almodóvar, Truffaut and more.

February 9, 2022 by Jordan Deglise Moore 1 Comment

With the fifth wave of the pandemic fading, we’re ready to restart Anniversary Classics Abroad, our repertory series of great foreign films. First up is the raucous sex comedy THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI. A tribute to Lina Wertmüller, who recently passed away and was the first female director to be nominated by the Academy, the film provides the best medicine, copious laughter. We’ll follow that up with Almodóvar’s TALK TO HER, Truffaut’s JULES & JIM and the Liv Ullmann-Max von Sydow drama THE EMIGRANTS. We are planning eight more films for the rest of 2022, titles to be announced!

03/02/22 – THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI
03/23/22 – TALK TO HER
04/13/22 – JULES & JIM
05/11/22 – THE EMIGRANTS

We’ll screen them all at our Glendale, Newhall, Pasadena and West L.A. theaters.