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Dropping Today: The First Episode of INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE.

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Introducing the new video podcast Inside the Arthouse. Hosted by Greg Laemmle, President of Laemmle Theatres, and actor and Emmy award-winning director Raphael Sbarge, Inside the Arthouse is an insider’s perspective on filmmakers and the people responsible for the movies showing on arthouse screens across the U.S.

Episode 101: Merchant Ivory: A Conversation with Stephen Soucy is now live everywhere you get your podcasts.

Laemmle Theatres opens Merchant Ivory this Friday at the Royal/West L.A. and Town Center/Encino. In his Hollywood Reporter review, David Rooney wrote of the film, “anyone with a fondness for…what might be described as a gentlemen guerrilla filmmaking operation will find immense pleasure here.” Merchant Ivory director Stephen Soucy will do in-person Q&As following the 7 PM screenings at the Royal on August 30 and 31. Film critic David Ansen will moderate the Q&A on the 30th.

Learn more about Inside the Arthouse at Insidethearthouse.com.

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Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge Launch New Video Podcast INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE.

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Greg Laemmle, President of Laemmle Theaters, along with actor and Emmy Award-winning director Raphael Sbarge, are launching a new  Video Podcast called INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE. The show is dedicated to highlighting new  releases, repertory classics, filmmakers, distributors, and the key personalities who bring movies to the big screen. INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE will be filmed and recorded at the Laemmle Royal Theatre, the 100-year-old theater that has been operated by three generations of Laemmles for the past half century.  

Laemmle says, “My family has been dedicated to providing a home for independent, foreign and documentary film for almost a century, and we have decided to launch INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE in order to promote the release of new films that will ultimately play in arthouses all across the country.” 

“Our interviews will be recorded in person or via Zoom, with filmmakers appearing large on  the screen,” says Sbarge, an independent filmmaker himself. “Opening a movie in theaters requires all the support they can get, and INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE, is dedicated to the  celebration of seeing films in theaters.” 

Their first guests include Stephen Soucy, the director of MERCHANT IVORY, a documentary about art house mainstays Ismail Merchant and James Ivory; the Golden Lion-winning director of the Swedish film PARADISE IS BURNING, Mika Gustafson; the writer and director  of PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL, Cheri Lovedog and Alex Steyermark, re-released in theaters via Kino Lorber, for their 20th anniversary; and the co-directors of the new documentary UNION, out of the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals, Brett Story and Steven Main.

In subsequent episodes – initially to be released every two weeks – INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE will focus on new releases and repertory classics, filmmakers, distributors, and  personalities who are responsible for bringing movies to the big screen. The first episode of INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE will premiere on August 28, 2024. The show can be found on  YouTube and all major podcast platforms. For more information, visit www.insidethearthouse.com!

Michelangelo Antonioni’s RED DESERT (1964) 60th Anniversary Screenings.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classic Series present this month’s screening in our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Michelangelo Antonioni’s vibrant masterpiece RED DESERT, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1964 and collected rave reviews around the world on its release over the next several months. We will show the film at five of our theaters at 7 PM on Wednesday, July 31.

Antonioni had earned critical acclaim for the three movies in his “alienation trilogy”—’L’Avventura,’ ‘La Notte,’ and ‘Eclipse’ — made during the early 1960s. RED DESERT explored some of the same themes but introduced a new element to the director’s work. The three earlier movies were all shot in black-and-white, but with RED DESERT Antonioni decided to experiment with color cinematography for the first time, and critics heralded his achievement. The New Republic’s Stanley Kauffmann declared, “With Michelangelo Antonioni’s RED DESERT, the art of the film advances…quite simply, it is the best use of color I have ever seen in a film, exquisite in itself.” Kauffmann added, “there is a buried history of modern painting in it, from the Impressionists through Mondrian to Hopper and Wyeth.”

Monica Vitti, who had starred in all three of Antonioni’s earlier movies, has the leading role of Giuliana, the wife of an industrialist in Ravenna. She is emotionally troubled and eventually begins an affair with an employee at her husband’s factory. Carlo Chionetti plays the husband, and Richard Harris — fresh from his Oscar-nominated performance in Lindsay Anderson’s ‘This Sporting Life’ — plays her lover. Antonioni wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Tonino Guerra.

In addition to its psychological themes, the film offers prescient critique of industrial pollution, with the color cinematography contributing to this political commentary. A key collaborator was director of photography Carlo Di Palma, who worked closely with Antonioni to paint the landscapes when necessary to create the desired mood of malaise. Antonioni and Di Palma collaborated again on the director’s most successful movie, the English-language ‘Blowup,’ an Oscar nominee in 1966. Other directors around the world — including Ettore Scola, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Sidney Lumet — worked with Di Palma. The cinematographer later established a fruitful collaboration with Woody Allen on such films as ‘Hannah and Her Sisters,’ ‘Radio Days,’ and ‘Bullets Over Broadway.’

Time magazine called RED DESERT “at once the most beautiful, the most simple and the most daring film yet made by Italy’s masterful Michelangelo Antonioni.” More recently, Geoff Andrew of Time Out hailed “perhaps the most extraordinary and riveting film of Antonioni’s entire career.” Robbie Collin of London’s Daily Telegraph declared, “Almost half a century on, RED DESERT remains a film of rare beauty and brooding erotic intensity.” The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called the film Antonioni’s “most mysterious and awe-inspiring work.”

Screening one night only at the Royal in West Los Angeles, the Town Center in Encino, and Laemmle Theatres in Glendale, Claremont, and Newhall.

Glendale Arts Summer Soiree “Under A Thousand Stars” to Honor Laemmle Theatres’ Greg & Tish Laemmle.

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Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle and his wife Tish Laemmle are being honored by the good folks at Glendale Arts “in recognition of their unparalleled legacy of dedication to independent filmmakers and the art of storytelling on the screen.” Glendale Arts is an award-winning 501(c)3 non-profit organization that generates opportunities throughout greater Los Angeles to showcase, promote, encourage, and engage with the arts. From their announcement:

Glendale Arts proudly announces the organization’s highly-anticipated Summer Soiree “Under A Thousand Stars” to be held on Saturday, July 27, 2024 from 7:00-10:00 P.M. at ace/121 Gallery. Tickets for the event of the season are now available for purchase here.

Guests are invited to revel in the dazzling beauty of the gallery, transformed into an elegant indoor/outdoor spectacle of art and performance. The inspirational evening will comprise epicurean delights, artful mixology, a silent auction featuring original works of art by emerging and renowned artists from the Los Angeles area and beyond, and a celebratory program highlighting GA’s dynamic programmatic pillars – the Glendale International Film Festival, Solo Fest, and ace/121 Gallery.

A highlight of the event will be the presentation of The Aura, Glendale Arts’ inaugural award honoring luminaries who power the arts. The first-ever recipients of The Aura are Laemmle Theatres Head Greg Laemmle and his wife Tish Laemmle, Art in the Arthouse Curator at the family-run theatres which have brought the best of foreign and independent cinema to Los Angeles for over 85 years. The Laemmles will be honored in recognition of their unparalleled legacy of dedication to independent filmmakers and the art of storytelling on the screen.

Summer Soiree proceeds benefit Glendale Arts, the city’s premier arts non-profit. Funds raised will support GA’s mission to cultivate year-round opportunities for artists and audiences to convene around mutually enriching experiences that promote creativity, foster meaningful connections, and build community through the performing, cinematic, and visual arts mediums.

“We are excited to bring supporters and community, business, and industry leaders together for a night that salutes the transformative power of the arts,” said Glendale Arts Board Chair Marci DeSousa. “The Summer Soiree will not only showcase the heart and soul that drives Glendale Arts’ mission, but will also celebrate what distinguishes GA as a unique non-profit with local roots, regional impact, and a global footprint.”

“Remembering Norman Mailer and His Thorny Legacy ‘HOW TO COME ALIVE With Norman Mailer’ hits on an ingenious structure that avoids hagiography even as it includes friends and family.”

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From Alissa Wilkinson’s New York Times review of the superb new documentary we are opening next week, HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer:

Given the hagiographic bias of most celebrity documentaries, HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer sails into choppy waters. The director Jeff Zimbalist had to figure out a way to sum up one of the 20th century’s most admired, and most notorious, cultural figures. Mailer’s legacy as a novelist, speaker, filmmaker and pop culture icon — the movie reminded me how often he’s mentioned in “Gilmore Girls” — is full of bad behavior and also brilliant work, and making a film about such a person seems nearly impossible in our nuance-averse climate.

The key is to play with the documentary’s structure, eschewing the usual soup-to-nuts setup. HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer is admittedly designed as a roughly chronological recounting of the writer’s life, covering all the highlights: six wives (one of whom he famously, horribly stabbed with a penknife), nine children, a stint in the military, best-selling novels, a fascination with brawling, combative TV appearances, opinions about God and machines and Americans’ midcentury impulse toward conformity.

But Zimbalist hits on a great idea: arrange the film in terms of what Mailer’s friends, enemies and acquaintances believe his “rules for coming alive” might be. The author’s life and legacy can thus be traced through those rules, and his evolution as a person — and he did evolve, constantly, insatiably — starts to make more sense. What emerges is a portrait of a man as often at war with himself as with his family, friends and countrymen, driven relentlessly toward machismo and always spoiling for a fight. This is not a person you can present neutrally to an audience.

There are seven rules, announced in intertitles, including, “Don’t Be a Nice Jewish Boy,” “Be Wrong More Than You’re Right” and “Be Willing to Die for an Idea.” It’s an appealing structure, and the many interviewees discuss the ways Mailer embodied them, supported by archival film and interviews with the man himself. There’s a lot of footage to work with. By midcareer, Mailer was ubiquitous on camera; as one person notes, he seemed to never turn down an opportunity to be interviewed or share his views publicly.

I’m impressed by how well the film balances criticism and fondness. Several of Mailer’s children are among the interviewees, as are ex-wives, all of whom have frank stories, while also respecting his rapacious intellectual curiosity, his drive to always be thinking and questioning. Especially delightful is the segment that revisits his appearance as rabble-rouser in an explosive panel discussion on feminism held in 1971 and documented in D.A. Pennebaker’s excellent documentary “Town Bloody Hall” (streaming on the Criterion Channel). Mailer was set up on the panel as the opposing voice to feminist theorists, and came in for a drubbing; this film reminds us that Mailer was there because he was valued by those same interlocutors, some of whom are interviewed expressing their respect for his input.

I expect every viewer of HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer will have some quibble with it, but it’s an accomplishment nonetheless — a model for how to reimagine a standard documentary structure to accommodate a multifaceted subject without smoothing over the rough spots and slapping on a halo. And for those who don’t know his work, it’s a worthy introduction: a study in how not to live, but also in how to come alive.

“THELMA is a terrific picture, and one that I hope gets a ton of support from audiences.  It is a warm and funny film, and the central performances from veteran actors June Squibb and Richard Roundtree are precious.” ~ Greg Laemmle on the winning new comedy.

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I don’t often step up and offer personal thoughts on new openings.  After all, we are opening several films every week, and we love all our children equally.  Also, those of you who have spotted me at the theatre (after ONLY IN THEATERS, I’ve sacrificed any anonymity I might have enjoyed) know that sometimes I’m catching up on films together with you at regular screenings.  Not surprisingly, I prefer to see things in a theatre and don’t like to watch things via screening links, even if offered in advance.
But with THELMA, we have a film that I did get to see at an early festival showing, and I LOVED it so much that I can’t help but share my enthusiasm.  Even after making allowance for the euphoria that can come with a festival screening, I think THELMA is a terrific picture, and one that I hope gets a ton of support from audiences.  It is a warm and funny film, and the central performances from veteran actors June Squibb and Richard Roundtree are precious. We open the film on Friday at all but one of our theaters.
Mind you, I’m not alone in being a fan of this film.   Since it premiered at Sundance earlier this year, critics have been almost unanimous in their support.  The film is at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is pretty impressive for a comedy.  Here’s a sampling of some of the reviews:
“Holding out until the age of 94 for her first lead role, June Squibb proves what her legion of devoted fans has always known: she’s a superstar.” ~ Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International

“Bolstered by some cheeky action tropes, including twists, chases, gunplay, and even an explosion, Thelma is more than a winsome romp. It’s a real thrill.” ~ Kristy Puchko, Mashable

“Thelma’s adventures with her assisted-living chum (the late Richard Roundtree) generated some of the best laughs from any film in the fest, and those scenes between grandma and grandson touched my soul.” ~ Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

“Margolin hails from improv comedy and he’s based Thelma on his own grandma; there’s much love and humour in this most unlikely of action movies.” ~ Peter Howell, Toronto Star

“It’s likely to draw laughs if you’ve ever coached someone on how to use a computer, tears if you’ve ever loved an elderly person who held tightly to their dignity. And Squibb is as understatedly funny and commanding as you’d expect.” ~ Adrian Horton, Guardian

“Although the film’s action tropes are played for laughs, there’s a real sweetness under all the gags. A lesser actress could’ve turned Thelma into a retirement home caricature, but Squibb, of course, brings a thoughtful and sweet nuance to her heroine.” ~ Devan Coggan, Entertainment Weekly

A big part of the film is about the relationship between Grandmother and Grandson.  And as someone who was fortunate to have a close relationship with my grandmother, that really resonated with me, including the issue of helping an older generation learn to adopt to new technologies.  When Thelma in the film mistakenly posts to Instagram, I think back to my grandmother not understanding how answering machines worked, and leaving long messages on the tape thinking that I had picked up her call but was not responding.   Of course, if I’m so blessed, I can also see myself in the film, 20 years from now trying to figure out whatever fresh hell the tech geniuses of the world have foisted on us.  Like the Tralfalmadorians in Vonnegut’s SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, we know what horrors the future will bring us, but we have just surrendered to the idea that we are powerless to stop it from happening.As humans, we know that aging is inevitable. And that certain aspects of aging may also be inevitable. Physical frailty. Diminished mental acuity. The loss of friends and things (work, social clubs, etc.) that keep us connected to the broader world.

Is this inevitable? We probably can do something to change or ameliorate the situation. But will we? THELMA certainly shows us one badass grandma who isn’t about to take things lying down!

So maybe that is what is what I love most about THELMA.  I can see myself as all of the generations represented in the film.  And, just maybe, I can hope that I will be as feisty and resourceful as Thelma when I get to that age.  ~ Greg Laemmle

Here’s Ms. Squibb’s recent interview on the Today Show:

THE LOVERS (LES AMANTS) 65th Anniversary Screenings June 19.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present 65th anniversary screenings of Louis Malle’s ‘The Lovers‘ (‘Les Amants’) starring Jeanne Moreau, on June 19 for one night only at 7:00 PM in West Los Angeles, Encino, Glendale, Claremont, and Santa Clarita. When first released in the United States in 1959, the film became an art house sensation with frank sexuality and nudity that inflamed the prudish American censors. Those censors, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and the repressive Hollywood Production Code wielded considerable influence at that time, preventing American films from exploring adult themes in a provocative manner.

 

The film tells the story of a bored and neglected French upper-middle-class wife and mother (Moreau) who falls for a young archaeologist (Jean-Marc Bory), commencing an affair just hours after their initial meeting. Their extended seminude lovemaking scene was the incendiary element that sparked conservative outrage and crackdowns on theaters showing the film. In one notorious case that was later resolved by the Supreme Court, a suburban Cleveland theater manager was arrested on obscenity charges. When other Ohio communities also banned the film, Variety reported, “It looked like Ohio, for a time, might declare war on France.”

Louis Malle made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller ‘Elevator to the Gallows’ in 1958, also starring Moreau, so the sensual drama ‘The Lovers‘ as his second film “marked the stylistically conscious Malle apart from his tear-away Nouvelle Vague colleagues” according to Time Out. In ‘The Lovers,’ adapted by novelist Louise de Vilmorin from a 19th century short story, Malle presents a study of “bourgeois emptiness and sexual yearnings,” illuminated by the deft black-and-white cinematography of Henri Decae. Malle would go onto an esteemed career that included such notable films as ‘Murmur of the Heart,’ ‘Lacombe Lucien,’ ‘Atlantic City,’ and ‘Au Revoir Les Enfants’ over the next three decades.

Although she had been acting in films for a decade, ‘The Lovers‘ established Moreau’s screen persona as a “commanding, willful, and sultry presence,” propelling her to international stardom. Her career highlights in the 1960s include memorable performances in ‘Jules and Jim,’ ‘La Notte,’ ‘Diary of a Chambermaid’ and ‘The Bride Wore Black.’ As a legacy, the commercial success of ‘The Lovers’ helped popularize foreign language films in the United States in that era, now regarded as the golden age of the art house.

“It is incredible to think that Malle was only 25 years old when he made ‘The Lovers,’ as it seems to hold the wisdom and erotic impulses of a much older man.” ~ Justine Smith, Vague Visages

“The future of cinema is where it started: in a movie theater.” ~ ANORA director Sean Baker in his Palme d’Or acceptance speech.

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Over the weekend, writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) was awarded the Palme d’Or, the top prize, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Anora, his comedy about a sex worker. New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis called the film “a giddily ribald picaresque.” In his acceptance speech, Baker spoke eloquently about seeing movies in theaters. You can watch the whole thing online, but here’s the key excerpt:
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“This literally has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years. So I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of my life, but I do know that I will continue to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical exhibition. The world has to be reminded that watching a film at home while scrolling through your phone and checking mail, emails and half paying attention is just not the way, although some tech companies would like us to think so. Watching a film with others in a movie theater is one of the great communal experiences. We share laughter, sorrow, anger, fear, and, hopefully, have a catharsis with our friends and strangers, and that’s sacred. So I see the future of cinema is where it started: in a movie theater.”