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Challenging Times – Laemmle Updates

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Much has happened since we posted notice of our closure on March 16.  To get you up to speed, check out the links below.  They include several messages from Greg Laemmle during the last couple of weeks.

The big headline is that we’ve launched a new video-on-demand service  –  Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema – in conjunction with our distributors.  Since we can’t go out to the movies, this will allow us to watch Laemmle films while we stay in!

This is a particularly challenging time as we fight to preserve our 82-year legacy. You can help keep Laemmle strong.  Here’s how:
1. Watch movies online. To see what’s playing, join our mailing list and bookmark the Laemmle Virtual Cinema page.
2. Purchase a Premiere Card or Gift Card.
3. Keep following this blog and connect with us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

If you need a refund for a cancelled show, please fill out this form.

As always, we are beyond grateful for your commitment and support.

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Recent Messages from Greg Laemmle
(with film listings you can “Watch Now!”)

March 20 – Dear Laemmle Fans (Greg’s response to the crisis)

March 25 – Introducing “Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema”

March 27 – Virtual Cinema 2: Electric Boogaloo

March 30 – Laemmle Virtual Cinema – More Releases

Laemmle Virtual Cinema – More Releases

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[JUMP TO FILMS]

Dear Laemmle Fans,

As we enter the third week of CoronaClosure, I again want to thank you for your show of support. You are amazing! If you can, please continue buying Premiere Cards and Gift Cards.

In this email, we are adding four new titles to the LVC program. And Then We Danced is a terrific film from Georgia, perhaps my favorite film that opened in the first part of this year. We are also adding Balloon and The Wild Goose Lake, two well reviewed films that had the misfortune of opening on Friday, March 13, and were not able to play for even a full week in theatres. Finally, we are adding Perfect Nanny, a film that has not opened theatrically in the US, but who’s star, Karin Viard, was nominated for a Cesar Award as Best Actress following the film’s French release in 2019.

These join the films that are already available, which include the Sonia Braga starrer Bacurau, the Oscar-nominated Corpus Cristi, the cult hit Fantastic Fungi, the essential documentary for fans of The Band Once Were Brothers, the critically acclaimed Pause (100% on Rotten Tomatoes), the American Indie comedy Phoenix, Oregon, and the Romanian crime-thriller The Whistlers. Remember, if you watch any of these films via the LVC program, a portion of your payment will support us as we fight to reopen.

We’ll be adding more films on Friday, so stay tuned for another message at the end of this week.

All the best,
Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema
New Releases for MARCH 30 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

             

Virtual Cinema 2: Electric Boogaloo

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[JUMP TO FILMS]

Dear Laemmle Fans,

I know I just contacted you a couple days ago about the launch of the Laemmle Virtual Cinema program, but we’ve got a number of excited distributors who wanted to share some additional films. And since many of you are looking for stuff to do while sheltering in place, I figured another message wouldn’t hurt.

We’ve also created a page to answer any questions you may have about Laemmle Virtual Cinema. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out via our company email, or to submit a comment via our website. I can’t promise we will be able to answer all your questions directly, but your feedback helps make sure our FAQ is useful.

Click here to learn more about Laemmle Virtual Cinema.

Lastly, thank you again for your support, and know that every purchase you make on Laemmle Virtual Cinema helps us get through this mandatory closure, so that we can continue to serve you again when we reopen. And please, continue to stay safe and follow best practices.

All the best,
Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema
New Releases for MARCH 27 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

            

Introducing “Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema”

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Dear Laemmle Fans,

As an exhibitor, I’m supposed to hate VOD (video on demand), seeing it as an enemy out to destroy my family’s 80+ year old business. However, I believe that people will always love going to the movie theatre, and that they recognize movie-going as the best way to appreciate what the filmmaker has created.

But right now, going to the movie theatre isn’t an option. We all know why this is the case, and we’re just going to have to accept it until we can get through this crisis.

These unprecedented times call for new alliances. So in partnership with a number of our indie distributors, we are launching the “Laemmle Virtual Cinema” program.

[VIEW LAUNCH TITLES]

While the theatres are closed, we’ll be emailing to let you know about new films which you can watch on VOD. The distributors will be sharing revenue directly with us, so that we have the resources to get through this mandatory closure, and can reopen our actual doors as soon as the coast is clear.

So please go ahead and pay to watch a movie online. You’re not cheating on us. You’ll actually be helping us. And together, we can keep the fires of arthouse cinema burning until this storm has passed.

All the best,
Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle’s Virtual Cinema
New Releases for MARCH 25 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

         

Dear Laemmle Fans

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A letter from Greg Laemmle about the closing of the theaters sent on March 20.

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Dear Laemmle Fans,

My family has been in this business in Los Angeles since 1938. I’ve been doing my job for over 30 years. During that time, we’ve had fires, earthquakes, a couple very serious instances of civic unrest, a major terrorist attack on our country, and countless other threats and instances of adversity. But even when curfews curtailed our hours of operation, we managed to be open and showing movies. Even if most people didn’t want to get out, there were always those who found solace and escape in getting out to the movies. And we wanted to be there for them.

The word “unprecedented” gets thrown around a lot. But what we are all living through today definitely fits the bill. And adjusting to this new reality, and accepting that it is going to be with us for at least a month if not more, is a challenge.

As much as movies and the business of showing movies is important to me and all the employees at Laemmle Theatres, we recognize that there is a more important societal issue at stake here. We understand that we need to shut down so that we can do our part to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus. We hope that you will do your part as well by staying safe at home, washing your hands, maintaining recommended social isolation distancing, and generally following best practices. Together, we can flatten the curve so that the contagion spreads as slowly as possible, and we don’t overburden our medical infrastructure. That’s #1.

Second, even though we won’t be opening new movies for a while, we hope that you’ll still stay engaged with us via email, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We don’t have much to tell you today, but we should have some announcements in coming weeks that we think you’ll find interesting, including how to bring some of the best of Laemmle into your home.

And finally, if you have the means, it does help if you buy a Gift Card or a Premiere Card. These funds will help us get by in the immediate period. There’s a lot of discussion about doing something for impacted businesses, but nothing (as yet) actually happening. So until then, every bit helps. And is MUCH appreciated!

It’s hard to stay positive right now. But if we all look ahead to the day when we can return to our favorite theatre and enjoy a great arthouse film coupled with popcorn (would you like butter on that?) and a beverage, it will make this period a little easier to endure.

Stay safe, and hope to see you all soon.

Sincerely,
Greg Laemmle

All Laemmle Venues Temporarily Closed.

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Dear Laemmle Family,

In accord with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s executive order and in efforts to “flatten the curve,” we have temporarily closed all of our venues including those in municipalities not covered by the Mayor’s order.

We will contact ticket holders via email with refund instructions for tickets purchased in advance.

We appreciate your patience as we navigate this unprecedented situation.

Visit laemmle.com for updates.

Please take care of yourselves and those most at risk. Hope to see you soon.

– Team Laemmle

Ravishing Chinese Noir THE WILD GOOSE LAKE, Palme d’Or Nominee, Opens Friday.

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This Friday Laemmle’s Glendale, Santa Monica, North Hollywood and Pasadena venues will open THE WILD GOOSE LAKE, acclaimed director Diao Yinan’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to his 2014 Berlinale winning neo-noir BLACK COAL, THIN ICE. Toppling box office records in Diao’s native China, the film “cements his status as a master filmmaker with another ingenious crime epic” (Little White Lies).

When smalltime mob leader Zhou Zenong (Chinese superstar Hu Ge) accidentally kills a cop, a dead-or-alive bounty is placed on his head, forcing him on the lam from both the police as well as dangerous gangsters out for the reward. Hiding out in China’s densely populated (and deeply divided) Wuhan province, Zhou becomes entangled with a beautiful, enigmatic woman, who has mysterious intentions of her own. Featuring gorgeous, neon-drenched cinematography and bursts of shocking, expertly choreographed action, THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is “spellbinding” (Rolling Stone), “brilliant” (Indiewire) and “downright Hitchcockian” (AV Club).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E5De82Yo9c&feature=emb_logo

 

Some of the copious praise for the THE WILD GOOSE LAKE:

“Diao Yinan cements his status as a master filmmaker with another ingenious crime epic. THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is another assured, exhilarating tale of criminality and the havoc it wreaks on interpersonal connection, with everything impressive about its predecessor – attentive procedural detail, curious experiments with colour and shadow, action set pieces that’d make Michael Mann envious – raised to the Nth degree. There’s not a single false step in its two hours; every edit, every shot setup, every movement of the camera maximises the raw cinematic effect. There’s power in Diao’s more subdued passages, but when he really lets loose and the fists (or bullets, or strategically concealed booby-traps) start flying, this film’s greatness transforms from the kind that sneaks up on you to the kind that blows you away.” ~ Charles Bramesco, Little White Lies

“Like a beautifully constructed puzzle box, THE WILD GOOSE LAKE‘s various layers unfold in satisfying ways. With elegant violence, emotional richness and a complex yet coherent storyline, this is a rare bit of crime thriller treat that truly pays off. Above all, it’s a highly entertaining film that doesn’t for a moment eschew aesthetics, crafting a world of shadow and subterfuge that’s terrific. THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is a hoot, a Chinese crime thriller that proves Diao Yinan is a new master of dark, thrilling noir.” ~ Jason Gorber, Slash Film

“Diao Yinan’s twisting and turning nocturnal noir is full of moody attitude and glorious cinematography.” ~ Dave Calhoun, Time Out

“Diao Yinan’s THE WILD GOOSE LAKE starts with a rainy night, a guy on the lam, a dame who sidles up to him and murmurs, “Got a light?” In other words, this Chinese gangland thriller kicks off in classic noir style, and gets progressively noirer and more nocturnal as it goes on. The fourth feature from writer-director Diao, who made a major impression with 2014’s investigative drama BLACK COAL, THIN ICE, this hyper-stylish manhunt drama laces slow-burn atmospherics with abrupt outbursts of staccato action, and boils down characterisation to the leanest of bare bones, making for minimalist existentialism in the style of Jean-Pierre Melville.” ~ Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

“Diao Yinan delivers a definitive Chinese crime noir, in which the ravishing style and inventive staging form the substance.” ~ Jessica Kiang, Variety

“In a movie where just about every scene contains some inventive technique or choice, I was most taken with the way Diao boldly abstracts some of his action: a close-quarters fight that unfolds entirely through associative close-ups; a stabbing conveyed through the scattering of bills; a cop discovering one of his colleagues is dead when a dollop of blood lands on his face. Some of these moments are downright Hitchcockian, giving us the implication of violence without always actually showing it.” ~ A.A. Dowd, AV Club

“While Chinese director Diao Yinan’s THE WILD GOOSE LAKE hardly reconfigures the crime thriller afresh, it does pare it down to the essentials to exhilarating effect, progressively jettisoning the whys and wherefores of plot to focus on little more than two bodies moving through any number of ravishing, noirish spaces.” ~ James Lattimer, Sight & Sound

“This enjoyable and elegantly styled noir thriller is … awash with wonderful set-pieces and exquisite visual moments which skillfully echo China’s gilded past and leave us in no doubt of its contemporary criminality and territory wars.” ~ Meredith Taylor, Filmuforia

“Like the waters lapping up against the shores of its murky titular setting, Diao Yinan’s fugitive thriller THE WILD GOOSE LAKE (Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui) is a film that doesn’t hit you like a tidal wave as much as it gradually washes over you, leaving in its wake a series of memorable set-pieces and a dense, dark web of violence and fatality.” ~ Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter

“It’s a spellbinding pulp noir with a stylish edge and a sui generis fatalism. (12 Best Movies at the Toronto Film Festival)” ~ David Fear, Rolling Stone

“A dizzying, frenetic plunge into the winding and over-populated working-class districts of the city, THE WILD GOOSE LAKE is an exceptional auteur film and noir. Each and every shot is well worth the detour in this sea of coup de force visuals (a very special mention goes to Director of Photography Jingsong Dong), on which the plot never lingers; instead, it takes them in as it twists and turns torrentially (as written by the filmmaker himself), blasting its way through a three-day period, broken up by some nice atmospheric moments where all the actions slows. It makes for a dazzling, labyrinthine journey through a criminal underworld. Here, violence plays an eternally cathartic role and sometimes bursts with black humour, making great use of the laconic and darkly romantic charisma of the two main actors and confirming the immense, fascinating and highly entertaining talent of Diao Yinan.” ~ Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa

“More even than on its strengths as an expertly directed piece of entertainment, Diao’s latest impresses for its scathing, and unexpected, indictment of societal ills—for how the filmmaker recognizes the extent to which the contours of a sordid genre film appropriately express realities of Chinese life.” ~ Sam Mac, Slant Magazine

“…this film is fascinating because of how those genre thrills are complicated by these off-kilter, idiosyncratic formal choices that trigger not just a lurid dreamscape and uncomfortable humor… but also a vulnerability in the face of alienation and suffering. Watching THE WILD GOOSE LAKE feels like watching a society crumble in real-time, the architecture itself decaying and being painted over while people’s baggage and experiences become more and more exposed….” ~ The Film Stage

“…I thought Diao Yinan’s THE WILD GOOSE LAKE had something of Eisenstein about it, the percussive directionality and suggestiveness of each edit, the way violence happened by implication because a cut is made from a violent instrument to a blood stain. It’s a film of sensual tension wrung from its cinematic touchstones….” ~ Scout Tafoya, RogerEbert.com

“[THE WILD GOOSE LAKE] offers some of the most thrillingly original fight scenes you’ll see onscreen this year.” ~ Nate Jones, Vulture.com

EAST/WEST 20th Anniversary Screenings March 18 in Glendale, Pasadena, and West L.A.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present this month’s film in our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Regis Wargnier’s compelling and increasingly timely thriller, East/West. Wargnier had won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his earlier historical epic, Indochine. The Oscar-nominated star of that movie, Catherine Deneuve, collaborated with him again in another fascinating historical drama with an exotic backdrop.

Inspired by true events, East/West tells a story of Russian émigrés living in Paris who were lured back to the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. Russian dictator Josef Stalin promised these refugees a complete pardon if they returned to their homeland. But when they actually returned, many of these refugees were executed or sent to labor camps or forced to live in squalor. The main characters in the story are a doctor (Oleg Menchikov) with a French wife (Sandrine Bonnaire). Deneuve has a vivid supporting role as a visiting French actress who ultimately plays a key role in helping the married couple.

At a time of increasing oppressiveness under the Putin regime in Russia, this reminder of harsh living conditions under the rule of an earlier dictator takes on renewed relevance. Wargnier wrote the screenplay for East/West with Louis Gardel and two Russian writers, Rustam Ibragimbekov and Sergei Bodrov. Bonnaire, the star of earlier French films Vagabond, La Ceremonie, and Monsieur Hire, confirmed her enormous appeal in this picture. Oscar-nominated composer Patrick Doyle (A Little Princess, Sense and Sensibility, Gosford Park), who had worked with Wargnier on Indochine, again contributed a vibrant score.

The Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Thomas declared, “East/West has the scale and rich period atmosphere of Indochine while gradually evolving into an acutely suspenseful thriller.” Writing in Movieline magazine, Stephen Farber paid tribute to the director: “Regis Wargnier has a gift for making sweeping popular entertainment,” and he added, “Sandrine Bonnaire gives a marvelously expressive performance.” The New York Times’ A.O. Scott called East/West a “sumptuous, moving new film,” and Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald hailed it as “a suspenseful and hugely engrossing drama.”

Our 20th anniversary presentation of EAST/WEST screens Wednesday, March 18, at 7pm in Glendale, Pasadena, and West L.A. Click here for tickets.

Format: DVD