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SOYLENT GREEN 50th Anniversary Screening September 13 with Special Guest Leigh Taylor-Young.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary of the prophetic sci-fi classic, ‘Soylent Green.’ The sole surviving cast member, Leigh Taylor-Young, will join to share memories of making this powerful movie. This still-timely film, set in New York in 2022, was one of the first to address issues of pollution, global warming, overpopulation, and an epidemic of homelessness. In many ways it predicted the dark future imagined in ‘Blade Runner,’ made a decade later.

The script was adapted by Stanley R. Greenberg from an acclaimed novel, ‘Make Room! Make Room!,’ by Harry Harrison. The director, Richard Fleischer, was no stranger to science fiction, having made the hit movies ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ and ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ along with a wide range of films in many different genres. Charlton Heston portrays a police detective trying to solve the murder of an executive at the mysterious Soylent Corporation, which leads him to uncover a diabolical conspiracy. In addition to Leigh Taylor-Young, the supporting cast includes Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, and Paula Kelly. But the most memorable performance is given by Edward G. Robinson, in his final screen appearance.

The Hollywood Reporter declared that the film “conjures a terrifying vision of the future.” Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film “a clever, rough, modestly budgeted but imaginative work.” ‘Soylent Green‘ won the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film of the year.

Actress Leigh Taylor-Young first came to prominence on the popular “Peyton Place” TV series of the 1960s. She made her feature film debut in the hit 1968 comedy, ‘I Love You Alice B. Toklas,’ starring Peter Sellers, written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker. Her other film roles include ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,’ which marked one of the first screen roles for Robert De Niro, and ‘Jagged Edge,’ starring Glenn Close and Jeff Bridges. She also co-starred in many popular TV series, including “Dallas” and “Picket Fences,” for which she won an Emmy. In recent years she has also been active in humanitarian and spiritual activities for the United Nations and other organizations.

The movie’s trailer posed the question, “What Is the Secret of Soylent Green?” If you don’t know the answer to that question, be sure to attend our 50th anniversary screening. And even if you do know, you will be startled by the movie’s timeliness and engaged by the conversation with our delightful guest speaker.

Laemmle Theatres joining the second National Cinema Day, bringing America’s day at the movies to L.A. this Sunday, August 27.

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Laemmle Theatres is excited to partner with the Cinema Foundation to celebrate the second annual National Cinema Day this Sunday, August 27th.

All seven Laemmle venues will be participating in the one-day event, which celebrates the power of movies to bring us all together, and discounted admissions for all movies in all formats (including Premium Large Format screens) will be no more than $4. What’s more, we’re discounting our fresh popcorn: $2 small, $4 medium and $6 large.

To celebrate the day, choose from any of our movies, including new films opening this weekend like Golda, The Owners, Love Life, Bella! This Woman’s Place is in the House, Mutt, or King Coal. Or catch a newly restored modern classic like Oldboy. Haven’t yet seen box office phenomena Barbie or Oppenheimer? Now you can see them as they were meant to be seen, on a big screen, and for cheap!

For more details, visit NationalCinemaDay.org. Join friends, families, and communities of moviegoers at a Laemmle theater near you.

Honoring Paul Reubens with a screening of PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE at the Royal August 28.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to the late Paul Reubens with a screening of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), the directorial debut of acclaimed filmmaker Tim Burton, at the Royal on Monday, August 28 at 7 pm. Reubens, a comic celebrity here in L.A., was catapulted to national fame with his inspired creation, the man-child Pee-wee Herman.

The movie, basically a live-action cartoon, has a simple plot: Pee-wee Herman, a nerdy pre-pubescent boy in an adult’s body, searches for his most prized possession, a fire-engine red-and-white bicycle, which has been stolen. His comic odyssey takes him across the country, where he encounters an assortment of kooky characters. Former animator Burton previews his trademark quirky visual style in a series of vignettes scripted by Reubens and Phil Hartman. Both Reubens and Burton, working in a heightened natural landscape, make the zany and surreal trip seem credible as Pee-wee’s journey is suffused with rampant silliness, aided by tyro film composer Danny Elfman’s distinctive music. Pee-wee’s uninhibited antics and giddiness found reviewers both perplexed and enchanted. Some critics of the day made comparisons with notable and classic clowns of earlier eras such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Jerry Lewis. Others, such as the Christian Science Monitor, saw “a true original—a comedy maverick and film like no other.”

Two additional films (Big Top Pee-wee in 1988, and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday in 2016), a Saturday morning children’s series, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” and a live Broadway show in 2010 among numerous other appearances would all demonstrate the cross-generational appeal of Reubens’ creation. Burton would go on to helm films which defined his Hollywood generation, including Beetlejuice, Batman, Ed Wood, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in Wonderland, all in a decades-long collaboration with Elfman. But all that big-screen success started with Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, a comic lark with lasting pop culture significance. As Robert Lloyd, television critic of the Los Angeles Times, noted in a recent appreciation, “Paul Reubens is gone, but his ‘corny’ alter ego will live on in his own ‘unique’ universe…long live Pee-wee Herman.”

“A revenge film like none you have seen,” Park Chan-Wook’s OLDBOY is restored, remastered and back in theaters today with a post-screening filmmaker conversation.

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Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Park Chan-Wook’s cinematic masterpiece, Oldboy has been restored and remastered in stunning 4K. After being mysteriously kidnapped and imprisoned with no human contact for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) is suddenly released without any explanation. In a twisted game of cat and mouse, he has only five days to retrace his past, track down his captors, and get his revenge.

Oldboy, which remains a cult classic and has served as inspiration for auteurs for nearly two decades, will return to theaters for the first time in 20 years. Now playing at the Laemmle Glendale and NoHo.

All screenings of Oldboy will feature a new post-screening bonus conversation about the film with director Park and filmmaker Nicolas Refn (in English and Korean with English subtitles; running time: 12 minutes).

“A revenge film like none you have seen.” ~ Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

“Oldboy is a delirious, confronting ride, a movie full of visceral shocks and aesthetic pleasures: it has an explosive immediacy and a persistent afterlife, a lingering impact that is hard to shake.” ~ Philippa Hawker, The Age (Australia)

“Both brutal and lyrical, writer-director Park Chan-wook’s existential nail-biter has torture scenes that will have you avoiding dentists, sushi bars and badly appointed hotel rooms.” ~ Jami Bernard, New York Daily News

“A dark and thrillingly horrible adventure into the realms of the unthinkable.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“It’s mesmerizing and discomfiting, engaging the viewer on a visceral and an intellectual level.” ~ Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
“A visually beguiling trip that keeps pulling you along and keeps you wondering what fresh hell could possibly come next.” ~ Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

STALAG 17 (1953) 70th Anniversary Screening August 21 with Guest Speaker Journalist Anne Taylor Fleming.

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STALAG 17 (1953)
70th Anniversary Screening
Monday, August 21, at 7 PM
Royal Theatre
Guest Speaker: Journalist Anne Taylor Fleming

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classic Series present a 70th anniversary screening of Billy Wilder’s Oscar-winning comedy-drama, ‘Stalag 17’ (described by Leonard Maltin as “the pinnacle of all WWII POW films”), followed by a conversation with prominent journalist Anne Taylor Fleming. Fleming is the daughter of the movie’s co-star, Don Taylor.

The Boston Globe hailed the film as “one of the great pictures of 1953,” and indeed, it was a remarkable year, with such other top films as Fred Zinnemann’s ‘From Here to Eternity,’ George Stevens’ ‘Shane,’ and William Wyler’s ‘Roman Holiday.’ Billy Wilder ranked with these directors as one of the towering American filmmakers of the era. He was arguably at the height of his success in the 1950s, with five Oscar nominations for best director (more than any other director during that decade) and several additional screenwriting nominations, culminating in his wins for best picture, best director, and best screenplay for 1960’s ‘The Apartment.’

William Holden in STALAG 17.

‘Stalag 17‘ was adapted from the successful Broadway play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, based on their experiences in a German POW camp during World War II. Wilder wrote the screenplay with Edwin Blum. William Holden (who won the Oscar for his performance) played the leading role of the cynical Sefton, an opportunist who finds a way of scoring extra rations by manipulating the system. The other actors include Don Taylor, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Richard Erdman, Peter Graves, Neville Brand, and Sig Ruman. Wilder persuaded director Otto Preminger (‘Laura,’ ‘Anatomy of a Murder’) to play the German commandant of the prison camp.

Much of the prisoners’ energies are devoted to trying to escape, and gradually they begin to fear that there is an informer in their ranks, alerting the Nazis and foiling their plans. Suspicion falls on Sefton, who seems to have the coziest relationship with their German captors, and he feels increasingly pressured to ferret out the real villain in order to survive.

Don Taylor & William Holden in STALAG 17.

The movie marked a turning point for Holden. Although he had starred in Wilder’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (after Montgomery Clift turned down the role), ‘Stalag 17’ brought him a whole new level of success. As critic Pauline Kael wrote, “William Holden’s hair-trigger performance as the crafty, cynical heel who turns into a hero won him a new popularity, as well as the Academy Award for Best Actor,” and she went on to compare his rousing performance to “the parts that catapulted Bogart to a new level of stardom in the early 40s.” Indeed, it was as a result of ‘Stalag 17’ that Holden went on to star in such enormous hits as ‘Sabrina’ (also directed by Wilder), ‘Picnic,’ ‘Love is a Many-Splendored Thing,’ ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai,’ ‘The Wild Bunch,’ and ‘Network’ over the next two decades.

Reviews at the time were outstanding. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther called ‘Stalag 17’ “crackerjack movie entertainment.” The Washington Post agreed that it was “a taut, shrewdly observant melodrama several notches above its stage original.” Newsweek wrote, “A smash hit on Broadway, the play…comes to the screen as an even more successful blend of melodrama and rough, occupational comedy.” The Chicago Tribune praised Holden and added, “Don Taylor, Richard Erdman, and Harvey Lembeck perform with unselfconscious skill.”

Taylor co-starred in other Oscar-nominated films of the 1940s and 50s, including ‘The Naked City,’ ‘Battleground,’ and ‘I’ll Cry Tomorrow.’ He may be best remembered for playing Elizabeth Taylor’s husband in ‘Father of the Bride’ and its sequel, ‘Father’s Little Dividend.’ In the 1960s Taylor turned to directing, and he helmed such films as ‘Escape from the Planet of the Apes’ (praised as the best of the sequels to the 1968 sci-fi classic), a musical version of ‘Tom Sawyer,’ and ‘The Final Countdown,’ starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. He also directed his ‘Stalag 17’ co-star William Holden in ‘Damien: Omen II,’ the successful sequel to the horror hit from 1976.

Taylor’s daughter, Anne Taylor Fleming, has had a distinguished career as a journalist, in print (writing for such publications as The New York Times, Newsweek, and Los Angeles Magazine), on the radio, and on television as a regular contributor to the NewsHour on PBS for two decades. She is also the author of several books, including ‘Motherhood Deferred: A Woman’s Journey.’

WITH THIS LIGHT Q&As Friday and Saturday at the Monica Film Center.

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With this Light Q&A schedule at the Monica Film Center:

Friday, August 11
We will have a Q&A featuring: NICOLE BERNARDI-REIS (Director/Producer)
BONNIE GREENBERG (Executive Music Producer), NORA KROLL-
ROSENBAUM (Composer) & FATHER TOM GIBBONS
Opening remarks by BONNIE ABAUNZA (Impact Producer)

Saturday, August 12
We will have a Q&A featuring: NICOLE BERNARDI-REIS (Director/Producer) in conversation with actress/producer JULIE CARMEN
Julie Carmen, Actress/ Producer is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the OSCAR committee of judges for the Best International Films. Julie is extremely grateful to have co-starred in films for John Cassavetes, Michael Mann, Robert Redford, John Carpenter, Nicolas Roeg, Tommy Lee Wallace, Michael Olmos, Franc Reyes, Tom Dolby, Reinhard Hauff, Christel Buschmann and on television for Karen Arthur, Betty Thomas, David Milch, Paris Barclay, Debbie Allen, Deborah Kampmeier and Quentin Tarantino. Julie can currently be seen on Grey’s Anatomy and playing La Doña in the AMC anthology Tales of the Walking Dead.

The intimate, moving documentary love story THE ETERNAL MEMORY, a Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, opens August 18 at the Royal and Town Center.

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The new Chilean documentary The Eternal Memory [La memoria infinita] follows Augusto and Paulina, who have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his wife has since become his caretaker. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory, having been responsible for that Herculean task following the Pinochet dictatorship and its systematic erasure of collective consciousness. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, adapting to the disruptions brought on by the taxing disease while relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains intact. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for international documentary at Sundance and the Panorama Audience Award for documentary film at the Berlin Film Festival, we open The Eternal Memory next Friday, August 18 at the Royal and Town Center.

“Get tissues ready to witness one of the most selfless and patient forms of love that graced our screens, shared and magnified through pockets of joy that Alberdi’s camera celebrates with a generous side of empathy and sense of humor.” ~ Tomris Laffly, Harper’s Bazaar

“A portrait that’s powerfully emotional and warmly romantic…Alberdi makes her directorial hand virtually invisible, observing her subjects from a discreet distance that allows them to be narrators of their own story while never speaking directly to the camera.” ~ David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

 

Virginie Efira on her role in the “twisted, slightly unhinged and emotionally taut psychological drama” MADELEINE COLLINS.

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We’ve been seeing a lot of the actress Virginia Efira in recent French imports, from Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (2016) and Benedetta (2021), Justine Triet’s Sibyl, Alice Wincour’s Revoir Paris (2022) and Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children. She brings utter authenticity and a certain je ne sais quoi that captures her characters’ inner mysteries in a captivating way. Her role in Madeleine Collins, as a woman leading a secret double life split between two households in two countries, demands these qualities of her. The Hollywood Reporter described the film as a “twisted, slightly unhinged and emotionally taut psychological drama.” In a recent interview, the director/co-writer Antoine Barraud said the title “character is so complex, and at times almost perverse, and we needed to create a character that we could be happy to follow for a long time, and go a long way, without ever stopping loving her. Virginie has this ability to remain constantly intriguing: she is very beautiful, but her beauty is neither distant nor threatening, it is positive and appealing. Very quickly, I could imagine no one else but her in this role.”

We open Madeleine Collins August 18 at the Royal and Town Center and August 25 in Glendale.

Efira recently sat for an interview about the film:

WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE MADELEINE COLLINS’ SCRIPT?

It’s quite rare to be sent such a brilliantly written script, which contains something so tailor-made to a genre type of cinema: in an almost mathematical way, each scene adds a new piece to a mysterious personality whose complex nature gradually builds up, but whose elements don’t necessarily seem to fit together. So, there was this thriller-like plot and then, on top of this, a line of questioning that runs all the way through the narrative: what is a person’s true self? Is it only made up of the story of your life? How does one be oneself, etc.? One of my favorite films of recent years is David Fincher’s Gone Girl: a thrilling plot, which reveals a broader and transgressive analysis of intimacy and the social representation of the couple. French cinema is sometimes cautious in its relationship with genre films, and this was perhaps the first script I received that tackled this head on.

DID YOU FIND THAT THE ROLE YOU WERE ASKED TO PLAY IN THIS FILM WAS A ROLE THAT YOU’D NEVER PLAYED BEFORE?

If something interests you, it’s usually because it allows you to experiment with something new, or because it seems intriguing. But I also feel that all the characters I’ve played could get along with each other: the heroine of Madeleine Collins‘ has something in common with Justine Triet’s Sibyl. It’s a subconscious though: you don’t really think about characters that you have or haven’t played before.

Saying that, with this character I identified a theme that interests me: a multiple identity from which outer layers are gradually peeled away, and a character emerges who no longer knows exactly what she has left to offer, in what is a progressive paring back.

Up until now, I’ve often played the opposite: women who break down, and then get back up and are stronger for it. Judith, however, starts off as a strong person and then gradually has the support she relies on taken away. She then has to find a new way of being Judith.

HOW DOES ONE PREPARE FOR A CHARACTER LIKE JUDITH?

I didn’t want Judith to appear to be different or mysterious right from the outset. There is a form of intoxication surrounding her. An aesthetic and emotional intoxication, linked to the story she tells about herself: she has succeeded in hiding a secret, she can be proud of that, it’s not what women do everyday. At the beginning, there is a certain nonchalance about her. She has a loving relationship on the one side, and a loving relationship on the other, and she doesn’t falter – yet. She takes the train, and works on the train, "Oh sorry, was I talking too loud?” And then as events unfold, a vulnerability emerges. I had to conjure this all out of nowhere.

In a role like this, you also have to accept to be a bit out of your depth, so as to be totally open to ideas on set. Certain pieces of music became my signature style: there was a track by Daft Punk – I’ve forgotten the name – which gave the character energy, and forward momentum, like someone who could smash through walls.

On a much grander scale, I remember listening to Bernard Hermann’s soundtrack for the film Vertigo. I didn’t listen to these pieces of music on set, I’m not the type of person to set myself apart when filming. I would arrive on set with all of this in my head: the pieces of music, memories of films, faces, emotions, forgotten thoughts. Then, it was just a case of trying to be open on set to whatever came my way, and open to my acting partners. You absorb something that you’re not entirely sure what it is, and which doesn’t come out exactly as you expected.

DID YOU TRY TO QUESTION WHAT WAS BEHIND JUDITH’S BEHAVIOR? AN EMOTIONAL DEFICIENCY? A FORM OF MADNESS?

We see the relationship she has with her mother. Her mother isn’t exactly very approving nor loving, she comes out with some quite nasty things when she speaks to Judith! Maybe Judith didn’t have a happy childhood. In the illicit and transgressive relationship that Judith has with Abdel, there is also this idea of something that is growing, a secret that gets bigger and bigger and which makes her unable to bear her mother any longer. She never makes a big leap,

but a series of small steps away, which lead to another and another, etc. They never speak about her relationship with Abdel being forbidden. They put it off until later, a very gradual shift gives a form of legitimacy to this relationship.

A psychiatrist would probably have things to say about Judith, and maybe even prescribe her treatment, but when I work on a character, I can’t just look at them clinically. What interests me is imagining the character beyond just the story: how you broaden the path of your daily existence, how you avoid being limited by the confines of your life, the life of someone who has probably always been the perfect wife. Can you only be one person with one name, and does that name have to conform to how people have always seen you?

DO YOU FEEL SORRY FOR JUDITH? DO YOU ADMIRE HER?

You can feel both at the same time, right? But when I was playing her, I was inside her, so the answer is neither! And without making her out to be some great Machiavellian villain, she’s someone who doesn’t do too badly in managing her affairs, and whose actions give her some sense of empowerment.

JUDITH IS ALWAYS ON THE GO. DID YOU BASE YOUR PERFORMANCE ON THIS ENERGY AND DRIVE?

Yes, she’s someone who is always in a hurry. She moves, there’s always somewhere else to be. So she’s pragmatic, she packs her suitcase, then she unpacks it when she arrives, she makes her sandwiches while she talks, and of course all this gives life to a scene. There is also a basic female element of always multitasking: someone who looks after a home – in fact two homes! – and who works at the same time; at one point, it’s not surprising that she can no longer translate her texts! Her hyperactivity is also a mask, she can’t face herself: the moment she sits still and is asked to look at herself, everything becomes blurry, like someone in a lake struggling to reach the shore.

WERE THERE SCENES THAT WERE MORE DIFFICULT THAN OTHERS TO ACT?

I had excellent acting partners who played my two spouses, as well as the young actor who plays Judith’s elder son, he was amazing. Working together, there was something different going on with each actor. Antoine Barraud left us very free with this, he’s a keen spectator and likes to wait and see what actors bring to a scene. He never outlines how he wants you to get from A to B. Some directors do. So, since there is no exact point B, even if you know what the scene is about, the way to get here was slightly different with each take. He allowed us the freedom of jumping into the unknown, and if your subconscious did things right or wrong, it didn’t matter. Sometimes you have to let go of the idea of doing the right thing. The most demanding time for me was in the scenes that required my anger and violence. I put so much into these scenes when I played them, as if my life depended on it. A bit like how a teenager would react, and my body suffered. I should probably calm down a bit.

JUDITH IS EXACTLY WHAT ABDEL AND MELVIL WANT HER TO BE. IS THE JOURNEY SHE TAKES A JOURNEY OF EMANCIPATION, LIBERATION?

Perhaps, but in Judith’s own creation of multiple personalities there’s already a notion of freedom. Responding to multiple expectations always comes down to the same basic belief: I give what is expected of me. Perhaps she is mistaken about what is expected of her. In any case, when I was working on the character, I saw in her a notion of devotion: even if Judith lies, she is always totally present in the moment, and is genuinely concerned about others, whether it be for her husbands or her children.

ANTOINE BARRAUD SUGGESTS THAT JUDITH IS LIKE AN ACTRESS AS ACTING IS A LIE…

That reminds me of something Cocteau once said: “The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.”

VIRGINIE EFIRA – FILMOGRAPHY

2022 OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN (d. Rebecca Zlotowski)

2022 REVOIR PARIS (d. Alice Winocour)

2021 WAITING FOR BOJANGLES (d. Régis Roinsard)

2021 MADELEINE COLLINS (d. Antoine Barraud)

2021 BENEDETTA (d. Paul Verhoeven)

2020 BYE BYE MORONS (d. Albert Dupontel)

2020 NIGHT SHIFT (d. Anne Fontaine)

2019 SIBYL (d. Justine Triet)

2018 KEEP GOING (d. Joachim Lafosse)

2018 AN IMPOSSIBLE LOVE (d. Catherine Corsini)

2018 SINK OR SWIM (d. Gilles Lellouche)

2017 NOT ON MY WATCH (d. Emmanuelle Cuau)

2016 ELLE (d. Paul Verhoeven)

2016 VICTORIA (d. Justine Triet)

2016 UP FOR LOVE (d. Laurent Tirad)

2015 THE SENSE OF WONDER (d. Éric Besnard)

2015 CAPRICE (d. Emmanuel Mouret)

2013 TURNING TIDE (d. Christophe Offenstein)

2013 COOKIE (d. Léa Fazer)

2013 IT BOY (d. David Moreau)

2012 DEAD MAN TALKING (d. Patrick Ridremont)

2011 MY WORST NIGHTMARE (d. Anne Fontaine)

2010 SECOND CHANCE (d. Nicolas Cuche)

2010 KILL ME PLEASE (d. Olias Barco)

2009 LES BARONS (d. Nabil Ben Yadir)