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Cedars Sinai’s Jewish Wisdom & Wellness Screening of THE FAREWELL PARTY April 28 at the Music Hall

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Cedars Sinai's Jewish Wisdom & Wellness Screening of THE FAREWELL PARTY April 28 at the Music HallRight to Die laws were back in the news following the November 1, 2014 death of Brittany Maynard. Maynard was a California resident who moved to Oregon to take advantage of that state’s Death With Dignity law. Since her death, two California State Senators have proposed a similar measure in California.

Serving as an entry point to discussing this issue is the hit Israeli comedy (yes, comedy), THE FAREWELL PARTY.

Together with Cedars Sinai Medical Center, we are pleased to offer an advance screening of THE FAREWELL PARTY on Tuesday, April 28 at 7:30 PM at the Music Hall Theatre in Beverly Hills. The screening is part of the Jewish Wisdom & Wellness program that is being produced by Cedars with events throughout the city.

Following the film, there will be a PANEL DISCUSSION in the theatre. Join Rabbis Susan Laemmle and Jason Weiner, ethicist Dr. Stuart Finder and grief expert Michele Prince, Director of OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center as moderator for a Jewish perspective on issues raised in the movie including aging with dignity, dementia, and end of life care. Although this is a movie, the issues in this movie are ones that many people have to deal with daily. Let’s take dementia for example. Living with a relative with dementia can be tough for many families, which is why some may take it upon themselves to place their elderly relative in a facility like Lakeside Manor Assisted Living, so they can be looked after better. It’s about making choices for the wellbeing of family and friends. The Farewell Party will be a film that many people will be able to relate to.

Tickets are $18 for the general public, but significant discounts are available for those purchasing tickets with their Premiere Cards. We will begin our regular engagements of THE FAREWELL PARTY starting June 5 at the Royal, Playhouse and Town Center, but we encourage you to take advantage of this early screening as the panel screening promises to address this complex issue in a way that will deepen the issues and emotions raised by the film.

ALEX OF VENICE Actor-Director Chris Messina this Friday at the Royal

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ALEX OF VENICE follows workaholic attorney Alex (Elizabeth Winstead) is forced to reinvent her life after her husband (Chris Messina, who also directed th film) suddenly leaves. Now faced with the humdrum and sometimes catastrophic events that permeate the fabric of our lives, Alex discovers both a vulnerability and inner strength she had not yet tapped all while trying to hold together her broken family.

We open ALEX OF VENICE this Friday at the Royal.  Actor-director Chris Messina will participate in a Q&A after the 7:45 PM screening on Friday, April 17.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0_JydvJ9-I

5 TO 7 Writer-Director at the Playhouse Friday Night

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A chance encounter on the streets of Manhattan draws twenty-something aspiring writer Brian (Anton Yelchin) into a passionate love affair with a glamorous French woman (Skyfall Bond girl Bérénice Marlohe). The catch? She’s married, and can only meet him for hotel room trysts between the hours of 5 and 7. As Brian yearns for more than just two hours a day with the woman of his dreams, he learns hard-won lessons about life and love. Co-starring Frank Langella, Glenn Close, and Olivia Thirlby, this sexy romance captures the giddy thrill, the pain and the comedy of being young and falling in love.

5 TO 7 writer-director Victor Levin will participate in a Q&A after the 7 PM screening at the Playhouse on Friday, April 17.

 

THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT Executive Producer Sean Penn and Director Don Hardy at the Music Hall Friday Night

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THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT lifts the veil on the shocking reality that thousands of untested chemicals are in our everyday products, homes and bodies. Simultaneously, the prevalence of many diseases continues to rise. From Oscar® winner Sean Penn and Emmy® winning journalists Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT tells the personal stories of people who believe their lives have been affected by chemicals and takes viewers to the front lines as activists go head-to-head with the powerful and well-funded chemical industry. These activists bring to light a corrupt system that’s been hidden from consumers… until now.

Mr. Penn will introduce the 7:30 PM screening at the Music Hall on Friday, April 17. Mr. Hardy and special guests will participate in a Q&A afterward.

http://www.vimeo.com/31683038

1915: Q&A’s All Weekend at Multiple Laemmle Venues

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On the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide comes 1915, a mind-bending psychological thriller about one man’s mission to bring the ghost of a forgotten tragedy back to life. More than a cutting-edge mystery, 1915 is also an explosive call to action against the silence and denial that have fueled a century of genocide.

Special Q & A’s after the following performances:

Thursday, April 23: 7:50 Town Center (Director Alec Mouhibian + Special Guest)
Friday, April 24: 7:50 Encino (Producer Terry Leonard + Special Guest)
7:40 Pasadena (Production Designer Michael Fitzgerald + Special Guest)
Saturday, April 25: 2:50 Music Hall (Terry Leonard + SG)
3:10 Encino (actor Sam Page + Alec Mouhibian)
7:40 Pasadena (Terry Leonard + actress Debra Christofferson)
Sunday, April 26: 2:50 Music Hall (Terry Leonard + SG)
5:20 Pasadena (Alec Mouhibian + PD Michael Fitzgerald)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyo-G3dhMRM

TANGERINES Writer-Director: It is a film “about trust in the human kindness that will eventually prevail, if people are able to forgive, help and protect each other.”

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This April 24th we’ll be opening the Oscar and Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language film TANGERINES at the Royal, Town Center and Playhouse. Set in 1992, during the growing conflict between Georgia and Abkhazian separatists in the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, this compassionate, affecting film focuses on two Estonian immigrant farmers who decide to remain in Georgia long enough to harvest their tangerine crop. When the war comes to their doorsteps, Ivo (played by legendary Estonian actor Lembit Ulfsak) takes in two wounded soldiers from opposite sides. The fighters vow to kill each other when they recover, but their extended period of recovery has a humanizing effect that might transcend ethnic divides. Set against a beautiful landscape defiled by war, this poetic film makes an eloquent statement for peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdHwowSRRcs

Here is the director’s official statement about his acclaimed movie: “People without borders – is the leitmotif of the film.

“It is unsettling how irresponsible politicians unleash wars that send ordinary people to die. People, who love life and are unique worlds of their own – death of a person is irreversible, but to politicians that is just statistics. And often the cause of a conflict is artificial to begin with.

“The film is an attempt to show that even severe enemies can overcome this unnatural opposition and institutionalized slaughtering. It is about trust in the human kindness that will eventually prevail, if people are able to forgive, help and protect each other, even from their own people and at the cost of their own lives.”

TANGERINES Writer-Director: It is a film "about trust in the human kindness that will eventually prevail, if people are able to forgive, help and protect each other."
Actor Lembit Ulfsak

 

 

DIAL A PRAYER Q&A’s at the Music Hall Opening Weekend

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DIAL A PRAYER is the story of Cora McCarthy (Brittany Snow), who has lost faith in her family, her work, the world at large and perhaps most importantly herself. Her hours logged at a call center for prayers amidst a slew of self-appointed healers is juxtaposed by her sterile home life with her shiny and structured mother. She soon finds herself at the center of a moral controversy when a stranger arrives intent on meeting his angel – Cora. A story of redemption, DIAL A PRAYER explores the large questions of destiny and fate versus faith.

DIAL A PRAYER Q&A's at the Music Hall Opening Weekend
Brittany Snow. Photo by Randall Slavin.

DIAL A PRAYER director Maggie Kiley will participate in a Q&A’s after the 7:30 PM screenings at the Music Hall on Friday and Saturday, April 10 and 11.

FRIDAY 4/10: Writer/Director Maggie Kiley, Editor Vincent Oresman, Production Designer Lauren Fitzsimmons and DP Gavin Kelly; Q&A Moderated by Lane Kneedler, Associate Director, Programming – American Film Institute

 

SATURDAY 4/11: Q&A w/Writer/Director Maggie Kiley, joined by Actors Brittany Snow ‘CORA’ Kate Flannery ‘SIOBHAN.’ Q&A Moderated by Jennifer Kushner of FILM INDEPENDENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjn0DuP-hJ8

Laemmle’s Anniversary Classics Series: GETTING STRAIGHT with Elliott Gould and Richard Rush in Person at the Royal April 15

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Last night we were thrilled to host Eva Marie Saint at the Royal Theater for a packed 55th anniversary screening of EXODUS. Here’s a shot of her interacting with a fan, autographing the original EXODUS soundtrack on vinyl.

Laemmle's Anniversary Classics Series: GETTING STRAIGHT with Elliott Gould and Richard Rush in Person at the Royal April 15

Two weeks from now we’ll be joined at the Royal by GETTING STRAIGHT star Elliott Gould and director Richard Rush for the film’s 45th anniversary screening. As with all of our Anniversary Classics screenings, the Q&A will be moderated by L.A. Film Critics Association President Stephen Farber. The event will be at the Royal on April 15 starting at 7:30 PM.

“Never trust anyone over 30!” This mantra of the counterculture began to penetrate movies of the late 1960s, when the studios decided to make a series of films about campus rebellion and the sexual revolution.  This most successful of this wave of movies was GETTING STRAIGHT (1970), the first big studio movie directed by Oscar-nominated director Rush (The Stunt Man) and one of the first starring roles for Oscar-nominated actor Gould (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split, Ingmar Bergman’s The Touch, Bugsy, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven trilogy).  Variety called GETTING STRAIGHT “an outstanding film… comprehensive, cynical, sympathetic, flip, touching and hilarious.”  The New York Times praised Gould for “a brilliant, mercurial performance” and added that the actor ignites the film “with a fervor and wonderful comic sense of reality.”  More recently, critic Leonard Maltin noted that “the central issue of graduate student Gould choosing between academic double-talk and his beliefs remains relevant.”  The film’s co-stars include Candice Bergen, Robert F. Lyons, Jeff Corey, Cecil Kellaway, Max Julien, Jeannie Berlin, John Rubinstein, and Brenda Sykes.

Laemmle's Anniversary Classics Series: GETTING STRAIGHT with Elliott Gould and Richard Rush in Person at the Royal April 15
Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen

Bring out your 60’s outfits and join us in celebrating director Richard Rush’s 86th birthday at this 45th anniversary screening of GETTING STRAIGHT on April 15.