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“It’s a period look and feel that has to be alive, dirty, real, not glossy and polished and polite.” Ian McKellen stars in THE CRITIC.

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In his latest movie, The Critic, Ian McKellen plays a powerful London theater critic who lures a struggling actress into a blackmail scheme with deadly consequences. Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, and Lesley Manville co-star. We open the film on September 13 at the Laemmle Claremont, Newhall, and Town Center.

Director Anand Tucker wrote this about the film:

The Critic is an astonishingly contemporary piece of work, speaking directly to our time and condition. Set in the 30’s, a period of similar febrile upheaval and intensity to our present, with old certainties falling away, and the rise of the right and its instinct-based politics triumphing over rationalism and science, it is the story of an outsider trapped in the vice of events bigger than himself. It holds a mirror up to our time now.

As a British outsider myself — Indian father, German mother, child of Empire — I connected with Jimmy Erskine’s struggle for survival, for his voice, his identity in the face of monolithic ‘English’ (read white Heterosexual) culture and norms. His story is incredibly dark, surprising and moving.

Yet it is a much bigger and more elemental story than just politics. It asks questions of the nature of art and creativity, of ambition and desire. It has at its heart a thrillingly dark Faustian pact, a beautifully interconnected web of relationships that explode as a result of that pact, and ends as a meditation on the entire experience of being human, with all our flaws, our terrible choices and their consequences on display. Above all, it’s sublimely written and supremely entertaining.

My aim as Director is to bring Patrick’s script to life in the most immediate and visceral way possible. I want to deliver on the period promise without the period standing in the way, distancing one’s experience. It’s a period look and feel that has to be alive, dirty, real, not glossy
and polished and polite.

The camera will turn the world of this London — from mysterious, dark and dangerous Soho to the elevated privilege of the Country House — into a searching journey. We will probe and move and explore the faces set against these most British of Landscapes.

We will find the Dark Light that shines out of this world to shoot in, unexpected and dazzling. Above all we have a wonderful cast- and their performances are the most important element, their faces the ultimate Landscapes. – ANAND TUCKER

“Sometimes when you…really miss something, you get the energy of ‘I need to create this; I need to see it myself.'” The PARADISE IS BURNING filmmakers on their phenomenal new movie.

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Opening this Friday at the Laemmle Royal and Glendale, Paradise is Burning is an emotional drama that navigates the complexities of society and family in working-class Swedish suburbia. Three sisters – sixteen-year-old Laura (Bianca Delbravo), twelve-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad), and seven-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg) – are left to their own devices by their absent mother. As summer approaches, the trio revels in the excitement of freedom, letting their days unfold without the constraints of adult supervision. However, when Laura receives a call that threatens to place them in foster care, she frantically searches for a substitute mother to avoid this fate. Keeping the truth hidden from her younger sisters, Laura navigates the blurred lines between the thrill of independence and the harsh realities of growing up, as the sisters’ relationships with each other are put to the test.

“Not many films can make you simultaneously think of Sean Baker, Andrei Tarkovsky, and David Lynch. Yet those are the filmmakers that come to mind when watching Paradise is Burning, the spectacular debut feature from Mika Gustafson. What feels like a straightforward family drama adds a small dose of surrealism to add some complexity, resulting in an original work that will stand as one of the most moving films of 2024.” ~ Joshua Stevens, Loud & Clear Reviews

Writer-director Mika Gustafson and co-screenwriter Alexander Öhrstrand recently sat down with Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge to talk about Paradise is Burning on the new podcast Inside the Arthouse. Greg calls the film his favorite of the year so far.

The “spiky, hilarious, and thoroughly unorthodox screwball comedy” BETWEEN THE TEMPLES is charming critics and audiences.

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The new comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman as a troubled cantor who finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher (a never-better Carol Kane) re-enters his life as his adult Bat Mitzvah student, is living up to the hype and bringing audiences into theaters. Peruse this sampling of the catalyst for the film’s success, critics’ reviews:

“A spiky, hilarious, and thoroughly unorthodox screwball comedy about a grief-stricken cantor who loses his voice, only to find that he’s surrounded by a chorus of well-intentioned people who are happy to speak for him.” ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire

“We get the sense that Silver would be perfectly happy just sitting there and watching these people forever, story and conflict and resolution be damned. And it really is in these characters’ close exchanges that the movie comes to life.” ~ Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

“Both stars — romantic leads with character actor cred — have the power to be funny and heartbreaking simultaneously, and their unique chemistry drives the film’s craziness and humanity.” ~ Thelma Adams, AARP Movies for Grownups

“Between the Temples emerges as a quirky and effective showcase for two actors known for playing oddball characters. Kane and Schwartzman bounce off each other so well that their work alone makes the film worth seeing.” ~ Odie Henderson, Boston Globe

“The relationship that unfolds, with shades of Harold and Maude, is honest and unsparing, as well as being blatantly Freudian.” ~ Kevin Maher, Times

“The movie is consistently funny, but its humor tends to be fairly gentle because it’s rooted in human behavior rather than in condescending, judgmental ideas about such behavior.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“Schwartzman is very affecting as a perplexed, tragicomic galoot and Kane is a marvel.” ~ Jonathan Romney, Financial Times

“Shot wanly on film in wintertime, Between the Temples takes a while to reveal its depths – its linguistic wit, its cockeyed humor and compassion, how it can modulate from deadpan-slapstick to achingly poignant and still feel authentic in both keys.” ~ Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle

“With both misery and comedy, director Nathan Silver satisfyingly captures the Jewish experience.” ~ Joey Shapiro, Chicago Reader

“The real attraction here is the interplay between the two leads, which makes Between the Temples sing.” ~ Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

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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The story of the “gentlemen guerrilla filmmaking operation,” MERCHANT IVORY opens August 30 at the Royal and Town Center.

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Merchant Ivory is the first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Some of their many career highlights include A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day. Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

Mr. Soucy on his film:

“There’s no other story like Merchant Ivory in the history of cinema and what a gift to be given an inside view of the Merchant Ivory
World from James Ivory and the more than 50 collaborators I interviewed in New York, London, Paris, and Los Angeles, in making this documentary film.

“James Ivory is one of our greatest living directors and, at 95 years old, this Oscar-winner for the much-lauded Call Me by Your Name shows no sign of slowing down. He’s still working, having recently adapted a Ruth Jhabvala short story The Judge’s Will for director Alexander Payne and the French novel The End of Eddy slated to be a multi-episode miniseries.

“Once James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, and Ruth Jhabvala met, they were connected forever. Their work and personal lives entwined for over forty-five years, and they became the most famous collaborative troika in film history.

“Merchant Ivory released 43 films. Many were fraught productions, often budget-related, and their last film, The City of Your Final Destination, brought the company to bankruptcy. A look at the comprehensive list of films that Merchant Ivory made, and the roster of talent they worked with, reveals that theirs was a spectacular achievement.

“The Merchant Ivory story, with James Ivory and Ismail Merchant at its center, is about art, money, partnership, loyalty, dysfunction, love, jealousy, and, eventually for Jim, the necessity to move forward and embark on a new chapter after Ismail’s passing.”

“Anyone with a fondness for these movies and for tales of what might be described as a gentlemen guerrilla filmmaking operation will find immense pleasure here.” ~ David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

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!

“A rare work of art that thrills the senses and the mind… Worthy of that overused superlative ‘masterpiece.’” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times. Melville’s ARMY OF SHADOWS opens Friday at the Royal and Town Center.

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ARMY OF SHADOWS, Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1969 epic of the French Resistance unseen in the U.S. until its acclaimed 2006 release by Rialto Pictures, returns in a stunning new 4K Studiocanal restoration, having its L.A. premiere starting this Friday at at the Royal in West L.A. at the Town Center 5 in Encino. Winner of the New York Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2006 — 36 years after it was made — ARMY OF SHADOWS stars Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Simone Signoret.

Occupied France: an escape from the Gestapo, so sudden and hairsbreadth as to leave Ventura, the toughest of tough guys, gasping with the icy sweat of terror and relief; two brothers remain unaware, to the end, of each other’s clandestine activities; patriots, who, in relentless pursuit of traitors, must steel themselves to the most brutal of face-to-face violence. But heroism can come at a truly high price.

 

French gangster movie legend Melville (Bob Le Flambeur, Le Samouraï, etc.) realized the dream of a quarter century when he adapted “the book of the Resistance,” written in 1943 by Joseph Kessel (Belle de Jour). Melville turned the detached, unblinking gaze of his film noir classics on these memories of his youth — he himself served for years underground — adding a finale so stoically uncompromising as to reduce Kessel himself to sobs.

Rialto’s 2006 release was the arthouse movie event of the year, getting awards from both the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Circles, but also appearing on over 20 major Top Ten lists of the year, including the number one pick for Manohla Dargis of The New York Times.

PRAISE FOR ARMY OF SHADOWS

“A rare work of art that thrills the senses and the mind…Worthy of that overused superlative MASTERPIECE!” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“THE TIGHTEST THRILLER IN TOWN! Lovers of cinema should reach for their fedoras, turn up the collars of their coats, and sneak to this picture through a mist of rain.” — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“A LOST MASTERPIECE…NOT JUST ONE OF THE GREAT FILMS OF THE ’60s BUT ONE OF THE GREAT FILMS — PERIOD.” — Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

Restored in 4K from the original 35mm negative. Scanned by Image Retrouvée, with the project carried out by Sophie Boyer and Jean-Pierre Boiget of StudioCanal. Digitization and restoration with the support of the CNC.

“I just wanted to look at that moment of girlhood where you are shifting away from being ostensibly under the protection of your parents, but also realizing like, ‘Oh, I’m actually not protected by the world. I have to figure out my own, my own way forward.’” India Donaldson on her new film GOOD ONE.

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In India Donaldson’s fantastic debut film Good One, 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) embarks on a three-day backpacking trip in the Catskills with her dad, Chris (James Le Gros) and his oldest friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy). As the two men quickly settle into a gently quarrelsome, brotherly dynamic, airing long-held grievances, Sam, wise beyond her years, tries to mediate. But when lines are crossed and Sam’s trust is betrayed, tensions reach a fever pitch, as Sam struggles with her dad’s emotional limitations and experiences the universal moment when the parental bond is tested. Selected for both Sundance and Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, Good One is an emotionally expansive work that probes the limits of familial trust, understanding, and ultimately, forgiveness.

We open Good One this Friday in Santa Monica and a week from Friday in North Hollywood.

The nation’s film critics are not holding back. A small sample:

“Collias captures something gossamer here, a quiet shift into adult womanhood that happens, literally, overnight. She’s the new moon, ready to emerge. But unlike the moon, she makes her own light.” ~ Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine

“In its lived-in quality and gathering churn, Good One is a dream of an indie, from the craft in every frame to the humor, epiphanies and mysteries that gird its portraiture.” ~ Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“Its most distinctive quality is how much Donaldson and her trio of actors … trust the subterranean, and allow it to do its work far beneath the surface, between the words.” ~ Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com

“So much of the grace and, ultimately, the emotional resonance of Good One lies in Collias’ performance, and how she turns a symphony of reaction shots into a portrait of a woman caught in a crossfire of middle-aged male malaise.” ~ David Fear, Rolling Stone

“Subtly dark, humorous, and wise, Good One leans into its wilderness backdrop in all of its liberating (and, sometimes, paradoxically claustrophobic) properties.” ~ Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar

Donaldson has sat for several recent interviews to talk about her film. Here’s an excerpt from one with Jordan Raup of The Film Stage:

The best directorial debut of the year, India Donaldson’s Good One, is a carefully-observed portrait of both womanhood and fatherhood, capturing the 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias, in a revelatory breakthrough performance) who embarks on a camping trip in the Catskills with her father (James Le Gros) and his best friend (Danny McCarthy). As the men are in the middle of a midlife crisis of sorts, Sam is witness to their mindless banter and subtle indecencies, culminating in a piercing point of no return.

Ahead of the film’s limited release beginning this Friday, I spoke with Donaldson about the character dynamics, the film’s subtle accumulation of details, the Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Kelly Reichardt films she watched as inspiration, and the journey from Sundance to New Directors/New Films to the Cannes Film Festival.

The Film Stage: Can you talk about how you initially formed the dynamic between these three characters? In some ways, it feels like an update on Old Joy but with an entirely new perspective.

India Donaldson: When I wrote the script, it was like deep COVID, and I was living back at home for the first time since high school, basically. And I have two half-siblings who at the time were in high school and I was kind of reflecting. I never thought about, before this moment, exploring that moment in film or writing. But through them this triangulation happened where I was reflecting on my own teen years and memories, of the ways that I dealt with conflict, the ways that I was avoidant of conflict, just my qualities of being in the world as a teenager. And how I felt like I had spent my 20s kind of trying to beat back certain instincts I had––to please or this kind of thing that had worked for me as a teenage girl, I feel like it wasn’t working for me in my professional life. I felt like I didn’t have the confidence to really pursue what I wanted to pursue, all these things. I just wanted to look at that moment of girlhood where you are shifting away from being ostensibly under the protection of your parents, but also realizing like, “Oh, I’m actually not protected by the world. I have to figure out my own, my own way forward.”

If you just look at the logline you could think it’s like a coming-of-age movie, but I feel like throughout the movie you learn she’s actually more mature in some ways, and level of maturity is not defined by age. She’s picking up on different social cues. What was it like writing her character and after you met Lily, did her character expand? 

The character was on the page for sure, but the moment I met Lily and saw her audition, she just had added this edge to the character. I was always kind of nervous about the character that she would come across as too much of a doormat. That it would be sort of unsatisfying to watch somebody repeatedly act kind of in service of these men and their needs and struggle with that. Lily just had this quality where even when the character’s at her most obedient, I could always feel her pushing against it. Because I think Lily herself has a natural kind of rebellious [spirit]. She’s a real freethinker and has this incredible confidence that the character doesn’t have. But I think it bleeds into the performance and so it evolved in that sense. As soon as it was sort of in her hands, the character became more powerful to me. Which was a cool thing to discover.