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New York Times on WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS? ~ “How Cold War Politics Destroyed One of the Most Popular Bands in America.”

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The Times just published a fascinating feature by rock critic Alan Light about the documentary we’re opening today at the Monica Film Center, with one-night screenings next week at the Laemmle NoHo, Claremont, Town Center and Glendale. (The filmmaker and a member of the band will participate in several Q&As; full schedule here.) The sub head: “A new documentary chronicles the strange, intrigue-filled saga of Blood, Sweat & Tears and its disastrous Eastern Bloc tour in 1970.”

The full piece is worth reading but it begins: “Last year, Rolling Stone compiled a list of “The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History.” Near the top, alongside very high-profile errors in judgment like Decca Records’ rejection of the Beatles, there was a much less familiar episode: the time Blood, Sweat & Tears embarked on an Eastern European concert tour, underwritten by the State Department while the Vietnam War was raging. The reputation of the U.S. government was in tatters for young people, meaning the band looked, as the magazine put it, like “propaganda pawns — which is, more or less, what they were.”

“Now the band members are telling their side of this bizarre story in the new documentary What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? While everyone involved agrees with Rolling Stone’s conclusion — that the band’s career never recovered from that 1970 tour — the saga turns out to be more complicated than was previously known.

““This isn’t a music doc, it’s a political thriller,” the director John Scheinfeld said in a telephone interview. “It’s about a group of guys who unknowingly walked into this rat’s nest, and how political forces impacted a group of individuals.””

Read the full piece here.

A-WOP-BOP-A-LOO-BOP! The untold story of the larger-than-life legend who changed music, LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING in theaters April 11.

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There are just a few giants that belong on a Mount Rushmore of rock ‘n’ roll, the people who created a genre of music that electrified the world. One certainty is Chuck Berry. The other is Little Richard. Director Lisa Cortés’ new documentary Little Richard: I am Everything tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock ‘n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance footage that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock ‘n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni-being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything.

Little Richard at Wrigley Fields, Los Angeles, 2 September 1956.

We’re thrilled to screen Little Richard: I am Everything for one night only at our Claremont, Encino, North Hollywood, Glendale and Newhall theaters. Come experience the movie the Hollywood Reporter called “wildly entertaining;” the Chicago Reader called “exhilarating;” Essence called “profound;” Variety called “exhilarating;” the Toronto Star called “the definitive documentary on a complicated icon;” and Film Threat said “brilliantly connects the past, present and future.”

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS? opens March 31.

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A fascinating documentary/political thriller with a classic rock band at the heart of the action, What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? involves the U.S. State Department, the Nixon White House, the governments of Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland and documentary footage that has been suppressed for over 50 years by one or all of the above. We open the film March 31 at the Monica Film Center with special one-night screenings and Q&As April 3 at the NoHo, April 4 at the Claremont and April 5 at the Glendale. The full Q&A schedule is here.

Director’s statement:

In early 2020, just prior to the worldwide explosion of COVID 19, Bobby Colomby, an acquaintance and  founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears, called me for a friendly check in. As a fan of the band in its  heyday, I innocently asked him, “What the hell happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?” 

Bobby proceeded to tell me the story of the events surrounding the Iron Curtain Tour. He mentioned that a documentary film crew had accompanied the band to shoot material for what was intended to be a theatrical documentary. That film was never released and Bobby had no idea what became of it. 

  

I loved the mystery and intrigue behind this story, but would we be able to find that documentary footage or enough audio/visual material to tell the story effectively? I also love a good treasure hunt. So, as the  pandemic was shutting the country down, my team and I began a search. Soon enough, we found references to National General Television Productions as having been the company behind the  documentary and that their crew had shot 65 hours of footage during the Iron Curtain Tour. 

We cast a wide net around the world to locate this footage, contacting anyone and everyone who had a connection to National General or the film crew, as well as private archives, independent storage facilities and film labs. It was one dead end after another. It appeared that the footage and related elements had completely vanished.  

And then, finally, success. While searching for the raw footage, we stumbled upon a pristine print of a  53-minute version of the documentary that had been edited for television syndication. This was an  unexpected find as no such version was ever broadcast. A new high-definition transfer was made from this print and watching it provided a fascinating time capsule of our nation, the world, and this group of nine young men on an unprecedented adventure from 50 years earlier. I knew then we had the makings of  a fantastic documentary and, indeed, 40 minutes of the “lost” Blood, Sweat & Tears documentary is the  backbone of our film. 

Some additional heavy digging led us to the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where we ultimately uncovered five raw audio tapes that were recorded live during concerts on the Iron Curtain Tour. The band had a mobile 8-track machine on the tour and we later determined that their engineer had recorded a total of 18 tapes, but only these five were found. 

Our search into the private collections of band members and others who were on the Iron Curtain Tour yielded hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia. I never gave up hope of finding the 65 hours of original footage. However, after two full years of chasing down every lead and digging  deep into vaults across the country as well as government storage facilities in Washington, D.C., Maryland  and Virginia, we came up empty. The mystery of what became of that material remains.

This film sheds light on history through a fascinating lens. It’s not a biography of the band, nor is it just for music lovers or fans of Blood, Sweat & Tears. It’s a compelling story that explores a unique moment in time and has surprisingly powerful resonance and parallels to what’s going on in the world today. ~ John Scheinfeld

The 2023 Laemmle Oscar Contest results are in.

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It’s the day after Pi Day, but check out these cool pie charts to see who won our Umpteenth Annual Oscar Contest (the winner got 21 correct; the final question about the running time proved to be a tiebreaker between the second and third place winners, who both got 19 correct) and confirm that Laemmle moviegoers are crazy savvy about predicting how the Academy will vote. Of the 23 categories, the Laemmle hive mind accurately guessed all but four categories:

Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis/Everyone Everywhere All at Once bested Angela Bassett/Black Panther: Wakanda Forever);

Best Makeup & Hairstyling (The Whale swallowed Elvis);

Best Score (All Quiet on the Western Front defeated Babylon);

Best Production Design (All Quiet topped Babylon again)
Thanks for playing and get excited for the the next Oscar race by reading this round-up of early favorites to be nominated, which includes new films by Scorsese, Michael Mann, Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott and more!

Farewell, Chaim Topol.

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The brilliant actor Topol, who so completely embodied the character of Tevye the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof that he went on to play him literally thousands of times – passed away last week in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Sir, for bringing so much joy to the world, for your humanitarian work, and for making our many Christmas Eve Fiddler Sing-Along screenings such memorable and meaningful experiences.
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Margalit Fox ended her New York Times obituary by sharing this 2009 Topol quote about the meaning he got in return from playing the role: “I did Fiddler a long time thinking that this was a story about the Jewish people. But now I’ve been performing all over the world. And the fantastic thing is wherever I’ve been — India, Japan, England, Greece, Egypt — people come up to me after the show and say, ‘This is our story as well.’”
Last year’s fine documentary ‘Fiddler’s’ Journey to the Big Screen is an excellent place to learn more about Topol’s masterpiece. (Did you know Frank Sinatra was considered for the lead role?!)

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS? Q&A schedule.

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What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? Q&A schedule:

Join John Scheinfeld, director and Bobby Colomby, Drummer and Bandleader for Blood, Sweat & Tears for Q&As on:
Friday, March 31st at 7:10pm & Saturday, April 1st at 7:10pm @ Laemmle Monica Film Center; five-time Grammy winner Jimmy Jam will moderate.
Monday, April 3rd at 7:00pm @ Laemmle Noho
Tuesday, April 4th @ Laemmle Claremont CANCELLED
Wednesday, April 5th at 7:00pm @ Laemmle Town Center; Steve Edwards, TV personality and three-time Honorary Mayor of Encino, will moderate
Thursday, April 6th @ 7:00pm @ Laemmle at Glendale

“A pity party that has no business being so much fun,” UNA VITA DIFFICLE opens in the U.S. after a 62 year wait.

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The long-awaited U.S. premiere of Dino Risi’s Una Vita Difficile, starring one of the most beloved of all Italian actors, Alberto Sordi (Mafioso, Il Boom, Fellini’s The White Sheik and I Vitelloni, etc.), was greeted with big crowds and admiring reviews when Rialto Pictures opened its restoration in New York last month. Laemmle Theatres opens the film about a resistance fighter-turned-journalist and his wife (Lea Massari) navigating life in post-war Italy on Friday, March 17 at the Royal and Town Center and March 24 at the Monica Film Center and Laemmle Glendale.

The New York Times’ critic A.O. Scott hailed it as “a stellar specimen of commedia all’italiana.” In his review for Air Mail, Michael Sragow proclaimed, “Alberto Sordi triumphs at jet-black comedy…(he’s) Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their prime, rolled into one.”

In Italy, Una Vita Difficile has long been cherished as a highlight of the 1950s and 60s golden age of Italian comedy, which also gave the world Big Deal on Madonna Street, Divorce Italian Style, Mafioso, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and Risi’s own Il Sorpasso (made the year after Una Vita Difficile). While these and others were major arthouse hits in the U.S., Una Vita Difficile was inexplicably never released here…until now.

 

“A stellar specimen of commedia all’Italiana by a true maestro of the form. Pulsate[s] with the breathlessness and disorientation of a country simultaneously grappling with the past and speeding toward a confusing future…Belongs in the company of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Risi’s Il Sorpasso. It also stands by itself as an exuberant bad time, a pity party that has no business being so much fun.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“It sounds absurd to even contemplate: an unreleased 1961 epic romance starring the legendary Alberto Sordi that tackles the decades after WWII — a mixture of sentiment and grand historic sweep that the Italians always did so well — that’s somehow just getting a U.S. release.” — Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

“Risi’s deft seriocomic panorama, from Mussolini’s fall to the rise of the postwar Roman oligarchy…Alberto Sordi triumphs at jet-black comedy when the antihero fails as an idealist, a husband, even as a sell-out. The closest America has come to Sordi is Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their prime, rolled into one.” — Michael Sragow, Air Mail

Moviegoers, enter the Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest before time runs out.

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The Oscar race is in the final stretch. Almost all of the major guilds have spoken (the WGA awards are this Sunday) and Everything Everywhere All at Once is looking unbeatable. However…every year there are two or three surprises and doubtless 2023 won’t be an exception. The question is, do you think you can divine the surprises? Cate Blanchett instead of Michelle Yeoh for Best Actress? Spielberg instead of the Daniels for Best Director? Bill Nighy or Austin Butler instead of Brendan Fraser for Best Actor? There are so many possible ways this can go, you should weigh in! I mean, the stakes could not possibly be lower!

If you, dear moviegoer, can accurately predict how the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will vote in all 23 categories, (or close to it), you will win movie passes good at all Laemmle venues! The 95th Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 12 and we’ll announce the winners soon afterwards. Good luck!