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Leaving Laemmle: A Goodbye from Jordan

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My career at Laemmle Theatres began in early 1991 after a screening of Gerard Depardieu’s Cyrano de Bergerac at the Town & Country (now the Town Center 5) Theater in Encino. My father pointed out the “help wanted” sign in the box office window, and by March I was scooping and selling popcorn and later sweeping up the errant pieces from the auditorium floors. Soon enough I graduated to the more coveted role of box office cashier. My most memorable shift in that position involved a case of laryngitis and handmade signs reading “which film?” and “$4.50, please” held up to the box office window for bemused moviegoers to read. It was like a silent Chaplin short before the main feature.

All of this is by way of introduction to the fact that several decades later, I am leaving Laemmle Theatres next week for a much different job in another field entirely. I’m excited for the future but will miss my Laemmle family. As a final, much appreciated gift, Greg Laemmle has offered me this space to write a few words about my Laemmle story.

In 1999, the late Robert Laemmle and his son Greg, at the suggestion of their longtime employee Gregory Gardner, gave me a career when they promoted me from the Music Hall in Beverly Hills to work alongside them in the main office. In the years that followed, the Laemmles have given me so much, treating me like family. They let me telecommute from France for several months in 2022-2023. Bob gave me a loan for the down payment on my first home.  A legendary art house exhibitor, Bob was also the kindest of men, and is much missed.  

For the last 25 years, I’ve been working in the Laemmle office, programming trailers, proofreading and editing others’ writing about movies, sending hundreds of press releases, and sundry other things to help promote films that are in literally every language spoken on planet Earth. (I add a new language to our film database about ten times per year. Just this week I added Ga, which is spoken in Ghana.) It has been a privilege. 

To some fanfare, the New York Times recently published a feature about filmmakers’, actors’, critics’ and their readers’ favorite films of the last 25 years. So I figure I’ll do the same. I base my list on something Emily Dickinson said about poetry. I think it applies to movies too:

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”

If I see a film and immediately know I want to see it again, I know I’ve seen a movie that reaches a level of cinematic poetry that Dickinson would recognize. And by “poetry” I don’t mean something pretentious. I think the bunk bed scene in the crude, brilliant farce STEP BROTHERS could make most of the population of the planet laugh.

Before I share my list, I want to say a few things about the many people I’ve worked with. One thing that’s fun about this job is it touches on a few different fields that make theatrical exhibition possible: exhibitors (the people I’ve worked with in the Laemmle office); exhibitor relations people, i.e. the U.S. studios/distributors of the films who coordinate with exhibitors; theater managers; and film media, i.e. the media and film critics. All are essential to getting films in front of audiences. There are too many terrific people I have worked with and admired to mention here, so I’ll single out one person from each area to thank them and sing their praises. 

Michele Anderson, née Cecilio, was the longtime general manager of the Laemmle NoHo 7 and later oversaw Laemmle Theatres’ operations. It was a privilege to watch her efficiency and problem-solving talent. She was like Alexander overcoming the Gordian knot with linear thinking, but doing it weekly. She made everyone’s job easier, including mine.

Matthew King has been working in the Laemmle main office about as long as I have. He worked with famed GM Roger Christensen at the Sunset 5 right after I did and went on to design and oversee all of the systems that make Laemmle Theatres run, not least a Filmmaker-based database that functions as our internal IMDB. (The first entry? The 1999 documentary Creature.) Matt once took a couple years off to work part-time and remotely while getting a bachelor’s degree in biological psychology from U.C. Berkeley. I figure he’s a literal genius and a deeply good person too.

I have loved good film criticism since my grandmother encouraged me to read Pauline Kael in The New Yorker. So I was a bit starstruck when I began working directly with local film critics like Manohla Dargis and Kenneth Turan. I met Chuck Wilson when the L.A. Weekly assigned him to review a compilation of Cuban films we were showing. Like other gifted film critics, Chuck can identify and celebrate a movie’s poetry – overall or merely in a scene, a shot, or a line reading – in writing that borders on poetry itself. Chuck and I would go on to become close friends, and he was the best man at my wedding in 2014.

Of the many people at studios/distributors I’ve worked with, Kim Kalyka of Neon Rated stands out. Originally from the Angelika Film Center, Miramax, and IFC Films, Kim is one of the reasons Parasite won the Best Picture Oscar and tops the New York Times list of best films of the century. I don’t know how she can accomplish things like that and still reply to my little emails about posters and trailers faster than anyone I’ve ever worked with, but that’s what she does.

Finally, to the Laemmle audience: Thank you for your passionate movie love and adventurous taste and continuing to see movies in theaters. You make Los Angeles the vibrant movie mecca that it is and have kept Laemmle Theatres in business since 1938.

And now, my list. Actually, I’m going to cheat and do two lists, one for foreign language films and another for films in English.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS

Amélie

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Children of Heaven

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Faces Places

The Gleaners and I

Let the Right One In

Parasite

Perfect Days

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A Prophet

Roma

A Separation

Together (Lukas Moodysson, 2000)

Tomboy

Y tu mamá también

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILMS

The Avengers Tetralogy

Best in Show

Bridesmaids

Dune: Parts One and Two

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Favourite

Get Out

Ghost World

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Happy-Go-Lucky

Hard Truths

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Minority Report

Moonlight

Mulholland Drive

Past Lives

Phantom Thread

The Royal Tenenbaums

Step Brothers

Nightmare Alley

TAR

There Will Be Blood

WALL·E

You Can Count on Me

Zodiac

 

 

Contest! Submit your Top Ten Films of 2023 for a chance to win gift cards.

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Have you caught up on all the 2023 movies you wanted to see? Regardless, it’s time to submit your Top Ten lists! Tell us which films you liked best here and you’ll be entered into a raffle for one of three $25 Laemmle gift cards. If you need inspiration, here’s my highly subjective alphabetical list. (Greg Laemmle will announce his list when we announce the winners of this contest, at which point he should have caught up to May December, Anatomy of a Fall and a couple others.)

Anatomy of a Fall: Sandra Hüller, formidable in court and dominating one of the gnarliest, most riveting marital arguments in cinema history.

Asteroid City: Wes Anderson gives us another melancholy, gorgeous, sui generis movie. “The notion of a perfect movie is absurd, but some movies attain an ideal synthesis of the director’s body of work. Wes Anderson’s latest, Asteroid City, is one such film.” ~ Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Fallen Leaves: Like Asteroid City, it’s a melancholy but funny and silver-lined one-of-a-kind work from a one-of-a-kind filmmaker.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: A wise man (U.C. Berkeley English Professor Stephen Booth) told his students: never be ashamed of what you like. This movie made me laugh out loud, it was so entertaining. Pass the popcorn!

Oppenheimer: Chilling, masterfully done, and awesome, in the original sense of the word.

Past Lives: Celine Song and Greta Lee! Deeply romantic and moving.

Showing Up: Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams! “A serene, pulse-lowering charmer.” ~ Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

You Hurt My Feelings: Nicole Holofcener and Julia Louis-Dreyfus! “Warm-hearted and rueful and hilarious in all the best ways.” ~ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

The Zone of Interest: The terrifying banality of evil. Sandra Hüller again, this time paired with an equally scary Christian Friedel as Rudolf Höss, as the Macbeth and Lady Macbeth of Auschwitz.

One caveat: I still haven’t seen Barbie, All of Us Strangers, Poor Things or Afire and based one what others have said about them, my list might look different had I seen them. I did see Killers of the Flower Moon with two people who adored it and maybe I caught it on a bad night because, you know what? — I kept checking my watch.

“Thoroughly entertaining, completely unpredictable” Finnish Romantic Comedy FALLEN LEAVES opens Wednesday.

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The latest deadpan gem from living legend Aki Kaurismäki is a romantic comedy, but discard any preconceived notions about what that connotes. Fallen Leaves looks, sounds and moves audiences unlike a typical, predictable rom-com or most movies, for that matter. It’s sui generis and will almost certainly make the Oscar shortlist for Best International Film, and rightly so. The nation’s top film critics agree, declaring it one of the best movies of the year:

“Modestly scaled and tonally perfect, Fallen Leaves opens in a fluorescent hell-on-earth and ends with a vision of something like paradise.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

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“[A] weirdly beguiling delight.” ~ Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

“Aki Kaurismäki’s deadpan dark comedy dips with style and just a hint of weird whimsy into the lives of his working-class characters, and the tableaux he crafts give off the whiff of a Finnish spin on Hopper’s alienated figures.” ~ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

“Fallen Leaves is, for all its intended quietness, one of the most trenchant works about modern life to emerge in cinemas, post-pandemic.” ~ David Sims, The Atlantic

“Aki Kaurismäki’s latest is deeply alert to the sensory pleasures of the world.” ~ Carson Lund, Slant Magazine

“Fallen Leaves, short, sweet and utterly delightful, is the kind of movie that’s so charming, you want to run it back the moment it’s over.” Jake Coyle, Associated Press

“Fallen Leaves is thoroughly entertaining, completely unpredictable and one of the best films I’ve seen this year.” ~ Leonard Maltin, leonardmaltin.com
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“The key to this movie’s winning emotional delicacy is its formal sturdiness. Every shot has a specific job to do and does it well. The performances are measured and restrained.” ~ Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

“There’s life boiling under the simple surfaces, which is both Kaurismäki’s aesthetic mantra and his great theme. At their best, these quiet, cool films tear you to pieces. Fallen Leaves already feels like one of his signature works.” ~ Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

We open the film Wednesday, November 22 at the Royal and December 1 at the Laemmle Glendale, Monica Film Center and Town Center.

STAFF PICK – “Blood Brother”

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Blood Brother is a breathtaking film packed with humanity.  It chronicles the life of ROCKY BRAAT, a young American who, on a trip to India, finds himself volunteering at a group home for kids with HIV. With Rocky and the irrepressible children, it’s love at first sight and their lives soon become intertwined.

Fortunately for Rocky and film audiences, his good friend STEVE HOOVER just happens to be a gifted filmmaker. Skeptical at first, Hoover is persuaded to travel to India and document Rocky’s exploits.  The result is a powerful and eloquent depiction of the situation at the group home, illuminating Rocky, the plight of the kids, village life in India, and the nature of love, amongst other things.

There’s scarcely a need to go into further detail about Blood Brother.  Yes, it’s well-made, even unexpectedly stylized at certain points.  But more than that it’s a transformative experience.  Brilliantly, it compels us to watch things that are very hard to watch, yet does so with such love and tenderness that we never feel the need to turn our heads.  Buoyed by Rocky’s courage, we feel that we too can look into the heart of suffering and face it with newfound resolve and compassion.

In a Q&A session at the Royal, Hoover related that all ticket revenue from Blood Brother will be donated to a non-profit recently founded to support Rocky’s work. If that’s not enough you can also donate directly HERE.

For Laemmle audiences Blood Brother is yet another example of film transcending entertainment, commerce, and one might argue, even art.  It’s a must see.

– Marc H.

STAFF PICK – “Fill The Void”

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Fill the Void by first time writer/director Rama Burshtein has been playing at Laemmle for a while now. And there’s a simple reason for that – it’s an exquisite piece of filmmaking.

The movie is foremost a loving portrayal and homage to haredi culture in Israel (ultra-religious Jews). Burshtein brings her hasidic community to life in rich, warm tones.  Everything, specially interior space, is suffused in a welcoming, other-worldly light, as if she and talented cinematographer Asaf Sudry had uncovered a place where heaven and earth meet.

With such clear affection for her subject (Burshtein is deeply religious herself), you might think the film is one long sop to Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. You’d be wrong. In fact, Burshtein illuminates this world with nary a comment. The role of women, for instance, comes into clear focus, including the many aspects that would normally scandalize a modern, liberal audience – persistent segregation, cumbersome modesty rules, arranged marriages, etc.  But Burshtein neither endorses such practices nor critiques them. This approach holds true for the film as a whole. Judgment is put to the side; in its place, the director gifts us with a profound sense of grace and acceptance.

If that’s not all, Burshtein has a knowingly deft and gentle touch when it comes to interpersonal relations. Though not lacking in passion or conviction, her characters bring us into the story with remarkable subtlety and restraint. It’s one of those films that you can see three times (and I have!) and discover it anew each time; an unseen gesture, a motivation not previously considered, an underlying theme freshly revealed. Still, despite repeat viewing, Fill the Void stubbornly defies pat summations, preserving a delicious sense of ambiguity up until (literally) the very last instant.

The sublime performance of Hadas Yaron, who won Best Actress at the Awards of the Israeli Film Academy for her lead role as the younger sister Shira, is emblematic of the cast as whole. It’s hard to imagine anyone not being moved by her performance, especially in the final scenes.

Sometimes a film shines such an intense, brilliant light upon its subject that all we can do as an audience is open our mouths in grateful wonder and appreciation. Fill the Void is such a film. You may see it (for the first or third time) at the Royal or Town Center 5 through July 11.

– Marc Horwitz

STAFF PICK – “A Hijacking”

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Film Title: A Hijacking

This taut Danish thriller by director Tobias Lindholm, about Somali pirates commandeering a merchant vessel in the Indian Ocean, keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. What’s more, it manages to do so without any of the testosterone-laden heroics of its mainstream, bid-budget counterparts.

Like best-in-breed horror films (recall the original Halloween), Tobias wisely knows the ever-present threat of violence is often more riveting and palpably effective then the mayhem itself.  That’s not to say the film doesn’t have its moments, however.

Then there’s the smart juxtaposition of the various worlds colliding – the blue collar ethos of the sailors, the crisp, sanitized, yet pressure-filled realm of the modern corporation, and the raw energy and engineered chaos brought to bear by the Somali pirates. How Lindholm harnesses these seemingly disparate cultural forces — depicting how they are obviously different and yet how they are also surprisingly alike — is the fulcrum upon which A Hijacking emerges as a complex and inspired piece of filmmaking.

A Hijacking is currently playing at the Royal, Playhouse 7, and Town Center 5.

– Marc Horwitz

BOB’S PICK – “The Attack”

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A film recommendation from Bob Laemmle.

The Attack is a fascinating drama that examines the Israeli/Palestinian situation from the vantage point of Lebanese Director Ziad Doueiri. Raising hosts of questions but resisting clear-cut answers, the filmmaker applies a deft and even-handed approach to his subject. Under Doueiri’s supervision, the acting is superb and believable to the point that it almost feels like you’re watching a documentary.

The story of how The Attack was made and distributed is nearly as compelling as the movie itself. Shot on location in both Israel and the Palestinian territories, the producers had to navigate and overcome complex political, bureaucratic and security issues. What’s more, the controversial nature of the film has led to a revolving door of financial backers.

While screening successfully to Arab audiences via the festival circuit, it’s unfortunate that the film will likely not be released in the Palestinian territories or most other Arab countries. However, it will play in Israel and tracking its performance there should prove interesting.

Of course, movie-goers around the world including Laemmle audiences here in L.A., should consider themselves fortunate indeed to be able to reap the benefit of Doueiri’s talent, passion, and commitment. Filmmakers like him and Tobias Lindholm (who’s equally riveting Danish thriller A Hijacking is also currently running) are just two present-moment examples of the incredible work being done by filmmakers across the globe. We are truly in a golden age of world cinema. Let’s be sure not to miss it!

The Attack is currently playing at our Royal and Playhouse 7 locations. It will be opening at the Town Center 5 on July 3.  Click here for more details.

   – Bob Laemmle