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STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN 35th Anniversary Screening and Q&A with Director Nicholas Meyer on May 31 at the Ahrya Fine Arts

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35th Anniversary Screening of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
Followed by Q&A with Director Nicholas Meyer
Wednesday, May 31, at 7:30 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre
Presented on DCP.

Click here for tickets.

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 35th anniversary screening of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, regarded by many buffs as the best feature film in the long running series. After the box office disappointment of the first Star Trek feature in 1979, Paramount Pictures and producer Harve Bennett decided to take a fresh approach to the follow-up film, cutting the budget drastically and bringing in talented newcomers to revitalize the popular franchise.

Nicholas Meyer, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and novelist of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, had made his directorial debut with 1979’s Time After Time. He came to this new project, as he freely admitted, as a Star Trek novice, but he brought intelligence, ingenuity, and wit to the sequel.

Meyer and the screenwriters decided to bring back one of the memorable villains from the TV series, the intergalactic tyrant Khan, and hired Ricardo Montalban to reprise his role from that episode. Of course the regular cast members of the Starship Enterprise — William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig — were also on board, along with newcomer Kirstie Alley.

Another newcomer to the enterprise was young composer James Horner, a future Oscar winner who had one of his first major credits on Star Trek II.

Critics endorsed the new approach. Variety called the film “a very satisfying space adventure, closer in spirit and format to the popular TV series than to its big-budget predecessor.” The commercial success of Star Trek II insured a long voyage for the Enterprise on the big screen and on television for decades to come.

Director Nicholas Meyer also worked on Star Trek IV, Star Trek VI, and the upcoming TV series Star Trek: Discovery. In addition to The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and Time After Time, his many other credits as writer and/or director include Volunteers, Company Business, Sommersby, the TV movie The Day After, and two Philip Roth adaptations, The Human Stain and Elegy.

LAEMMLE LIVE: presents SOL-LA / Orff Music Workshop with Jamie Lee Curtis

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Join us at the Monica Film Center on Sunday, May 21, 2017 for Laemmle Live presents: SOL-LA / Orff Music Workshop with Jamie Lee Curtis. The celebrated actress and best-selling author will kick-off the workshop by reading her delightful new book, THIS IS ME: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From.

Through games and activities, SOL-LA Music Academy teaching artists Mary Ann Cummins and Jan Kravets will explore the fundamentals of music using the Orff Method. Orff Schulwerk is an internationally acclaimed developmental approach to music education that engages mind, body, music, movement, drama and speech. Through the Orff philosophy, children learn the language of music as instinctively as they learn their own native tongue.

Jamie Lee Curtis is an actress and an author. She has appeared in many acclaimed films such as Halloween, True Lies, Freaky Friday and A Fish Called Wanda. She has appeared on television in Anything But Love, The Golden Globes,The Heidi Chronicles and Nicholas’ Gift, NCIS, and New Girl. She is an Emmy Nominee, BAFTA winner, Golden Globe Best Actress,Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress and currently stars in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens on FOX, earning her a seventh Golden Globe Nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy.

Jamie is the author of 12 Bestselling Children’s Books. THIS IS ME: A Story Of Who We Are And Where We Came From was published this year by Workman Publishing. She is a recovering alcoholic/addict and is an advocate for children and has proudly served on the Boards of CASA and CHLA. Jamie is married to Christopher Guest and they have two adult children, Annie and Tom.

EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, May 21, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

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LAEMMLE LIVE: presents Street Symphony with Vijay Gupta – Sunday, April 30, 2017

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FALL16-Gupta-Box-01 2Please join us for a very special event as LAEMMLE LIVE presents STREET SYMPHONY Sunday, April 30, 2017. Vijay Gupta, LA Philharmonic violinist and founder of STREET SYMPHONY will perform with fellow Street Symphony musicians, Jin Shan Dai, violin; Michael Larco, viola; and Dahae Kim, cello.  Their program will include Dvořák: String Quartet #12 “American” and music by Duke Ellington. KUSC Announcer Rich Capparela will host and join Vijay in conversation to raise awareness of the humanity of people experiencing homelessness.  We are honored Street Symphony, a ground-breaking non-profit that connects professional musicians with these communities is bringing this life-affirming program to Santa Monica.

Today, Skid Row is the epicenter of the homeless capital of the United States. Nearly 20,000 people may sleep on the streets of downtown Los Angeles on any given night. Los Angeles County jails are the largest in America, and are effectively the largest in-patient mental health centers in the world. These communities comprise the audiences of Street Symphony. 

Street SymphonyIn the course of the last 4 years, the distinguished musicians of Street Symphony have presented nearly 200 free, live musical engagements with the Los Angeles community, presenting events in Skid Row, the greater Los Angeles Area and the LA County Jails. They bring jazz. They bring gypsy music. They bring the works of Schumann, Schubert and Mendelssohn. They bring music to lift up the brave stories and voices of people who, although living in an impoverished situation, are in no way impoverished in spirit.

VIJAY GUPTA is a violinist, speaker, and passionate advocate for the dedicated presence of citizen-artists in social and civic discourse. Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2007 at the age of 19, after completing an undergraduate degree in biology and a Master’s degree in violin performance from the Yale School of Music. Gupta made his solo debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta at age 11 and has performed on an international scale since the age of 8. 

A gifted spokesperson for the power of arts to change lives, Gupta believes that musical engagement reconnects us to our shared humanity across vast divides, and ultimately impacts social justice. Gupta is a TED Senior Fellow and currently serves on the board of directors of the DC-based national arts advocacy organization Americans for the Arts. In 2015, at the age of 27, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of La Verne.

Vijay Gupta currently plays a 1731 Domenico Montagnana violin on generous loan through the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.

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EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, April 30, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

Q&A with Scott Wilson Following Our 50th Anniversary Screening of IN COLD BLOOD on March 22th in West LA.

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scott-wilson-enewsLaemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of IN COLD BLOOD (1967), followed by a Q&A with actor Scott Wilson on March 22 at 7:00 PM at the Royal Theater in West Los Angeles. Click here for tickets.

In Cold Blood, the film version of Truman Capote’s immensely popular “nonfiction novel,” was nominated for four top Oscars in 1967. Richard Brooks received two nominations, for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and the film was also nominated for Conrad Hall’s striking cinematography and Quincy Jones’ memorable score.

In his best-selling book, Capote chronicled the events leading up to and following the senseless murders of a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. He drew a pointed contrast between the prosperous, all-American Clutter family and the two social outsiders, Perry Smith and Richard Hickok, who committed the murders.

In adapting the book, Brooks (the Oscar-winning writer-director of such films as The Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, and Sweet Bird of Youth) resolved to be as faithful as possible to Capote’s chronicle, even filming in many of the actual locations where the events took place. With Capote’s encouragement, Brooks cast unknown actors as the two killers, and the performances of Robert Blake as Smith and Scott Wilson as Hickok earned critical raves. More established actors John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, and Will Geer filled out the supporting cast. Brooks also bucked the industry practice and decided to shoot the film in black-and-white at a time when color cinematography had become virtually mandatory for big-studio films.

Reviews at the time were largely positive. The Saturday Review’s Arthur Knight declared the film to be “one of the finest pictures of the year, and possibly of the decade.” Its reputation has not diminished. In an article in The Wall Street Journal in January of 2017, critic Peter Cowie called the film “a classic of American cinema” and added, “In Cold Blood retains its relevance today, even as random shootings continue to appall.”

Scott Wilson made his film debut earlier in 1967, in the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night. In Cold Blood was only his second movie. He went on to co-star in John Frankenheimer’s The Gypsy Moths, the Robert Redford version of The Great Gatsby, Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff, The New Centurions, The Ninth Configuration, and more recent appearances in Dead Man Walking, The Last Samurai, Monster, and Junebug. He also is known for his roles in the popular TV series CSI and The Walking Dead.

For more about our Anniversary Classics Series, including an upcoming screening of AVANTI, visit www.laemmle.com/ac and join our Facebook Group.

LAEMMLE LIVE: Presents Lincoln Middle School Madrigal Singers – Sunday March 5, 2017

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Join us at the MLincoln New Photoonica Film Center on Sunday, March 5, 2017 for Laemmle Live’s third concert featuring Lincoln Middle School Madrigal Singers. The program will include a variety of classical and popular music, folk songs and audience participation, too!  Under the direction of Vanessa Counte, Choral Director, the Madrigal Singers are an audition-based a cappella ensemble that perform as part of Santa Monica’s Lincoln Middle School choral program. They meet once a week to rehearse and focus on Renaissance through contemporary a cappella choral literature. Recipients of top ratings in Southern California Festivals, they have been guest performers at local elementary schools, cub scout holiday meetings and the Aga Khan Foundation Walk.

Vanessa Counte has been the Choir Director at Lincoln Middle School since 2005. Mrs. Counte earned her BA in Music Education at Western Michigan University. An active member of the American Choral Directors Association and the Southern California Vocal Association, she is currently finishing her Master of Music in Choral Conducting through CAL State LA’s three summer program.

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EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, March 5, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

50TH Anniversary of THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE Presented in 35mm on February 28th in Beverly Hills.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to Mary Tyler Moore with a 50th anniversary screening of THOROUGLY MODERN MILLIE (1967) in 35mm at 7:30PM on February 28, 2017 at the Ahrya Fine Arts. Click here to purchase tickets.

The musical romantic comedy, a spoof of the 1920s flapper era, stars Julie Andrews (at the height of her popularity), Carol Channing (Oscar-nominated for her role), Beatrice Lillie, John Gavin, James Fox, Pat Morita, Jack Soo, and Mary Tyler Moore.

Moore had just completed her role on television’s “The Dick Van Dyke Show” the year before, and before embarking on her own groundbreaking series “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1970, made several movies. THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE was the best of those 60s films, and a popular success in 1967. Moore would return to the screen in an Oscar-nominated performance in ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980).

Bosley Crowther in the New York Times called the film “A thoroughly modern burlesque of the manner and styles of flaming youth in the jazzy 1920s, of movie melodramas in the Silent days…it is a thoroughly delightful movie.”

The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including the title song, and won for composer Elmer Bernstein his only career Oscar in the original score category.

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Directed by George Roy Hill from an original screenplay by Richard Morris and produced by studio era veteran Ross Hunter, the movie was one of the 60s’ brightest musicals. It was later adapted for Broadway in 2000. Hill used it as a tune-up for his homage to another bygone era with the Oscar-winning THE STING in 1973.

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE will show as a special tribute to the late actress Mary Tyler Moore on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:30 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. We will screen in 35mm as a special presentation.

For more about our Anniversary Classics Series, including an upcoming screening of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, visit www.laemmle.com/ac and join our Facebook Group.

LAEMMLE LIVE: Presents Sol-La Music Academy – Sunday February 5, 2017

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SOL-LA 4-tet FBJoin us at the Monica Film Center on Sunday, February 5, 2017 for Sol-LA Variations, LAEMMLE LIVE’s second concert featuring the scholarship winning George Magub String Quartet from Santa Monica-based Sol-La Music Academy, Margaret Lysy, Director. The program will include Debussy and improv with guest violinist Connor Vance from acclaimed roots band, Dustbowl Revival. Also included will be a special performance by Sol-La student, Isolde Fair, who has gained national attention for  All the Little Girls, an original song she wrote using words from Hillary Clinton’s concession speech.  Join us for our unique interactive musical adventure.

Sol-La Music Academy is a non-profit music school in Santa Monica, providing high quality performing arts education to students from all backgrounds and economic circumstances. Their program reflects the belief that vibrant cultural education nurtures all areas of learning, connects diverse societies and enhances enjoyment of life.

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EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, February 5, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

Q&A with Peter Bogdanovich Following Our 45th Anniversary Screening of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW Tuesday, 12/13 at the Ahrya Fine Arts

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ac-last-picAdapted from Larry McMurtry’s acclaimed novel, The Last Picture Show was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1971, including Best Picture and Best Director Peter Bogdanovich. The film earned two Oscars—Best Supporting Actor Ben Johnson and Best Supporting Actress Cloris Leachman.

This loving and acute portrait of a dying Texas town in the early 1950s is notable for its beautifully rendered atmosphere and for the warmth and compassion of its characterizations.

Bogdanovich, a film critic and historian, had directed one earlier movie—a low-budget indie called Targets. His second feature catapulted him to the front ranks of American directors of the 1970s. Newsweek’s Paul Zimmerman went so far as to call the film “the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane.”

Four decades later, in 2011, Stephen Holden of The New York Times called The Last Picture Show “an American classic—a perfect film, if you will, whose cosmic sadness makes it feel timeless.”

In addition to Johnson and Leachman, the cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, and Clu Gulager.

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At a time when color had become the norm in Hollywood, Bogdanovich chose to shoot the film in black-and-white and collaborated with master cinematographer Robert Surtees. The Hank Williams songs on the soundtrack also help to intensify the film’s mournful atmosphere.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with Peter Bogdanovich, whose other films include What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Daisy Miller, Saint Jack, They All Laughed, Mask, and The Cat’s Meow.

Bogdanovich has also acted in many films and TV shows (including the landmark series, The Sopranos) and is the author of several important books on film.

Click here to buy tickets.