The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

Home » Theater Buzz » Glendale » Page 13

“A genius tragicomedy on the elusive nature of freedom,” THE DELINQUENTS opens October 27.

by

The free-flowing, delightful heist film/existential comedy from Argentina The Delinquents, which we open October 27 at the Royal, November 3 at the Claremont and Town Center and November 10 in Glendale, has been compared to a Pedro Almodóvar and Eric Rohmer collaboration. It’s “a consistently playful, gradually beguiling existential dramedy on the multitudinous subject of work and freedom.” (Isaac Feldberg, RogerEbert.com)
  
“Rodrigo Moreno methodically unfurls a genius tragicomedy on the elusive nature of freedom.” ~ Carlos Aguilar, The Playlist
*
“A meandering and hilarious delight from end to end.” ~ David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“Rodrigo Moreno’s dreamy and discursive The Delinquents might kick off with one of the most low-key bank robberies anyone has ever attempted, but it’s hard to overstate how thrilling it feels once the thief finally tells us about what he stole.” ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire

Moreno wrote the following about The Delinquents: One issue comes forth naturally when considering this film is the matter of freedom in the face of the mechanical routine imposed by work.

Morán imagines a risky plan to conquer that liberation even when it implies committing a crime and paying his dues. Román is his accessory.

These two men embody a collective fantasy: to break free from the rigors and obligations of the working life in order to attain a higher life filled with freedom.

To choose a better life means leaving the city, your job, even a family, and moving to the countryside, the ocean, the mountains, to give in to leisure, and to stop depending on something or someone. There are both existential and practical matters that make this dream a difficult one: How to make a living? How can I live without all the things I already have? When should I pursue it?

The protagonist solves these questions by virtue of a crime: to rob from a bank (the same bank he´s employed by) the equivalent of his salary times 25 years. It’s not about being millionaires; it’s about living without working all the way to the end.

As is the case in heist movies, the morality of the robbery is not the object, even more so when the target is a bank. I’m invoking the old maxim, always ascribed to Brecht, that it is a worse crime to establish a bank than it is to rob one.

This film, in that sense, takes a more anarchistic viewpoint and does not dwell on these bourgeois matters, but rather contemplates the notion that modern life, as it is intended, obliterates the possibility of a truly free man. It is this tension that Morán’s dream is built upon, that he finally acquires by means of the sacrifice of imprisonment. It is said in a passage of the film that the incarceration of jail for three years and a half is preferable to the incarceration of working for the rest of your life.

SUBJECT Q&As/panel discussion schedule.

by

Subject Q&A schedule at the Laemmle Glendale.

7 pm, Friday, November 3rd: Post-screening Q&A with Subject co-director Jen Tiexiera along with producer and documentary subjects Margie Ratlif (The Staircase), co-producer and subject Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans), Executive Producer Alexandra Johnes (Time Studios) and cultural strategist Sonya Childress (Color Congress, Perspective Fund). Moderated by Sara Yasin (Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times).

7 pm, Saturday, November 4th: Post-screening Q&A with co-director Jen Tiexiera along with producer and documentary subjects Margie Ratlif (The Staircase), co-producer and subject Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans), Executive Producer Alexandra Johnes (Time Studios). Moderated by Matt Carey (Documentary Awards Editor, Deadline Hollywood).

4:10 pm, Sunday, November 5th: Post-screening Q&A with co-director Jen Tiexiera along with producer and documentary subjects Margie Ratlif (The Staircase), co-producer and subject Jesse Friedman (Capturing the Friedmans), Executive Producer Alexandra Johnes (Time Studios). Moderated by Caroline Libresco (Co-Executive Director, Jewish Story Partners)

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE Q&A schedule.

by

The My Love Affair with Marriage filmmaker will participate in Q&As on the following schedule:
10/12 – Royal – 7:00pm
Director Signe Baumane
10/13 – Glendale 1:30pm
Director Signe Baumane
10/13 – Glendale – 7:20pm
Director Signe Baumane
Moderated by animator Tom Sito
10/14 – Glendale 1:30pm
Director Signe Baumane
10/14 – Glendale 7:20pm
Director Signe Baumane and Shirley Issakhan, YWCA Glendale & Pasadena
Moderated by Wendy Blanco, Peace Over Violence
10/15 – Glendale 1:30pm
Director Signe Baumane
Professor Lilya Kaganovsky, UCLA
10/15 – Glendale 7:20pm
Director Signe Baumane

CAT PERSON Opens Friday; Director Susanna Fogel in Person for Conversations with Monica Lewinsky & Alex Winter October 12 & 13.

by

“Margot met Robert on a Wednesday night toward the end of her fall semester. She was working behind the concession stand at the artsy movie theatre downtown when he came in and bought a large popcorn and a box of Red Vines.”

So begins Kristen Roupenian’s short story Cat Person. When The New Yorker published it in 2017, it struck a nerve with readers and was the first work of short fiction to ever go viral, spurring conversations around the world about the modern dating scene, seduction, and consent. After the film adaptation’s buzzy premiere at Sundance in January, Cat Person is finally where it belongs, at “artsy movie theatre[s],” opening this weekend at the Royal, Town Center and Glendale and October 13 at the Monica Film Center and NoHo. We’re also pleased to host two special screenings at the NoHo with the filmmaker Susanna Fogel in person for conversations with social activist and writer Monica Lewinsky on October 12 and  with actor-writer-director Alex Winter on October 13.

Director Susanna Fogel stated “Like the short story that stirred so much controversy, Cat Person will call upon you to reflect on romantic encounters you’ve had in the past, and to question the role (or multiple roles) you may have played. We’ve all been the victim in some narratives and the villain in others, and I hope you’ll walk out of this film with a strong opinion, ready to debate.”

Susanna Fogel. Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Images for Disney
Monica Lewinsky. Credit: Greg Gorman
Alex Winter

“A film that’s funny in places, horrifying in others and all but destined to be a reference point in future discussions about courtship.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety

“The relief…is in the filmmakers’ approach to these tense scenes: Fogel and Ashford loosen their grip, at last trusting us to sit in our discomfort, draw our own conclusions and sharpen our tools for the discourse.” — The Hollywood Reporter

CUP OF SALVATION Q&A Schedule

by

Most screenings of the new documentary Cup of Salvation will feature Q&As at the Laemmle Glendale. Here’s the schedule:

Date: Q&A
Friday, October 6th
1:30 PM Anush Gharivyan O’Conner, Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian
4:30 PM Anush Gharivyan O’Conner, Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian
7:10 PM Kara Warner, Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian
Saturday, October 7th
1:30 PM Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian
4:30 PM Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian
7:10 PM Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian, Christina Wise, Jackson Myers
Sunday, October 8th
1:30 PM
4:30 PM Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian, Christina Wise
7:10 PM Jason Wise, Armen Khachaturian, Eric Esrailian
Monday, October 9th
1:30 PM
4:30 PM Jason Wise, Christina Wise
7:10 PM Jason Wise, Christina Wise
Tuesday, October 10th
1:30 PM
4:30 PM Jason Wise, Jackson Myers
7:10 PM Jason Wise, Jackson Myers
Wednesday, October 11th
1:30 PM
7:10 PM Jason Wise, Vahe Keushguerian
Thursday, October 12th
1:30 PM
7:10 PM Jason Wise, Vahe Keushguerian, Claire Coppi moderator

“One of the most perfect movies in the history of Japanese cinema,” UGETSU 70th Anniversary Screenings.

by

By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and fortune leads them far astray from their loyal wives. Moving between the terrestrial and the otherworldly, Ugetsu reveals essential truths about the ravages of war, the plight of women, and the pride of men.

We will screen Ugetsu on October 11 at our Glendale, Claremont, Royal and Newhall theaters.

Pauline Kael wrote, “This subtle, violent yet magical film is one of the most amazing of the Japanese movies that played American art houses after the international success of Rashomon in 1951.” Japanese film scholar Donald Richie called Ugetsu “one of the most perfect movies in the history of Japanese cinema.” Many later directors, including Martin Scorsese and Andrei Tarkovsky, cited it as a personal favorite.

“With rare humanity, Mizoguchi reveals the toll these misadventures take on the souls of both men and their wives, many moments an uncanny synthesis of the realistic and the otherworldly.” ~ Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

“Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi’s most widely heralded film, is a mysterious, incantatory, and gorgeous parable.” ~ Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

“A ravishingly composed, evocatively beautiful film.” ~ Rod McShane, Time Out

National Silent Movie Day: See Restored Classic THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD September 27.

by

In honor of Silent Movie Day, we are presenting screenings of Irving Cummings’ THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD (1926), a pioneering disaster and special effects movie, starring Janet Gaynor and George O’Brien. A highlight of this year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the film has been restored with a lush musical soundtrack by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. We are screening the film September 27 only at our Royal, Glendale, Claremont and Newhall theaters.

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD re-creates one of the greatest disasters in American history, when, in 1889, over 2,000 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, lost their lives. In her first major role, Gaynor plays a teenage girl smitten with dashing engineer O’Brien, whose pleadings about the imminent collapse of the local dam are ignored. It’s up to Gaynor to ride through the streets à la Paul Revere to warn the townspeople of the imminent disaster. After 97 years, the movie’s flood sequence is still a pre-CGI marvel of optical effects, matte paintings, and miniatures.

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD has been newly restored in 4K by The Film Preserve, Ltd. and The Maltese Film Works, from 35mm elements preserved at George Eastman Museum. Noted preservationists Robert Harris and James Mockoski (archivist for Francis Ford Coppola) worked on the restoration.

Academy Award winners and film scholars Ben Burtt (sound designer of Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and more) and Craig Barron (visual effects supervisor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Batman Returns, and more), have recorded a 30-minute illustrated conversation deconstructing the movie’s visual effects, that will be screened following the feature.

Oscar-winner NOWHERE IN AFRICA 20th anniversary screenings September 20.

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present 20th anniversary screenings of the Academy-Award winning film NOWHERE IN AFRICA as the next entry in the Anniversary Abroad Series of notable international films. (Following our September 13 screening of SOYLENT GREEN at the Royal with special guest Leigh Taylor-Young.) Coinciding with the High Holidays, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is about a German Jewish refugee family relocating to Kenya to escape the Nazis just before the outbreak of WWII, will play for one night only, September 20 at four Laemmle locations (Royal, Glendale, Claremont, and Newhall).

 

The Foreign Language Film (AKA International) Oscar winner in 2003, based on the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, was adapted for the screen by writer-director Caroline Link, who had been previously nominated in the same category for her 1996 film Beyond Silence. The story concerns the Redlich family, Walter (Mirab Ninidze), his wife Jettel (Juliane Kohler), and their daughter Regina (Lea Kurka as younger, Karoline Eckertz as older) who flee Nazi persecution in Germany in 1938. Walter leaves behind his law profession and becomes the manager of a British-owned farm in Kenya. While his nine-year-old daughter Regina takes to her new African life, his snobbish wife Jettel has difficulty with the family’s reduced status. They are attended by their Kenyan cook Owuor (beautifully played by Sidede Onyulo), who offers an African perspective to the tale. With the outbreak of WWII, the family is interned by the British along with all German citizens, an ironic twist since they had fled Germany to avoid such a fate in their homeland. The war and their plight put even more pressure on the strained relationship of Walter and Jettel, with Regina (now a teenager) caught in the middle.

Admiration from critics of the day included assessments from Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, who said the film was, “laced with poignancy, conflict, urgency, and compassion.” Roger Ebert praised Link for her “interest in good stories and vivid, well-defined characters.” Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune cited it as “a lovely film with a deeply humane perspective.” Rita Kempley in the Washington Post called it a “consistently absorbing family saga that is primarily a safari of the soul.” Newsweek’s David Ansen noted, “an absorbing tale of cultural displacement. It’s also a remarkable, complex examination of a marriage…with its lush cinematography and lush score, (it) has the sturdiness of an old-fashioned Hollywood epic.” Some critics even called it perfect Oscar bait at the time, and the Academy members agreed, rewarding it with the Foreign Language Film Oscar.