SAY MY NAME director Jay Stern and producer/actor Lisa Brenner will participate in a Q&A moderated by comedian Liam McEneaney following the 7:30 pm show on Friday, June 14.
by Lamb L.
SAY MY NAME director Jay Stern and producer/actor Lisa Brenner will participate in a Q&A moderated by comedian Liam McEneaney following the 7:30 pm show on Friday, June 14.
by Lamb L.
KILLER UNICORN Q&A’s after every show details are as follows.
6/14, 6/15, 6/16 participants are:
Jose Alvarez (writer/producer)
Drew Bolton ( Director)
Monica Garcia Bradley (plays Coke)
Markus Kelle (plays Madame Mortimer)
Isis vermouth (plays Party Host)
On the first night only (6/14) added participants are:
Tyler Stone (composer)
Biblegirl666 (plays Jess Jizz)
Biblegirl666 will introduce the 7:30 pm show on 6/14, and Isis Vermouth will introduce the following showings on 6/15-6/16.
by Lamb L.
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a screening of one of the most memorable films of the 70s, the neo-noir mystery thriller, CHINATOWN. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards in 1974 (including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor Jack Nicholson and Best Actress Faye Dunaway), the film won the Oscar for the original screenplay by Robert Towne. Although it was set in a beautifully recreated 1930s universe, the film reflected the bitter cynicism and disillusionment of the Vietnam and Watergate era.
Towne was a Los Angeles native, and he had long been fascinated by the history of the city, where the sun-dappled settings hid tales of greed and corruption. The inspiration for the story was the water wars that had helped to shape the modern life of the city. These struggles over the city’s natural resources had taken place in the first decade of the 20th century; Towne moved the setting up to the 1930s, partly in order to combine this scorching social commentary with the spirit of classic detective novels penned by authors like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
Nicholson plays J.J. Gittes, a private eye who specializes in sordid cases of marital infidelity. But he gets himself into deeper territory when an investigation into a civic leader’s extramarital affair leads to a discovery of a massive conspiracy by big business interests to seize control of the city’s desperately needed water supply. Gittes’s sleuthing also leads him to uncover shocking cases of sexual abuse among the city’s upper crust. Dunaway plays a variation on the classic femme fatale of noir cinema, a beautiful heiress who is commanding on the surface but is secretly and tragically damaged by events in her past. John Huston plays her corrupt father, and the supporting cast includes John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Diane Ladd, Burt Young, Bruce Glover, and James Hong.
Robert Evans, the successful head of Paramount Studios at the time, backed Towne’s screenplay and decided to make the film his first venture as a producer. When Evans took over as head of the studio in the 60s, one of his early successes was an adaptation of Ira Levin’s best-selling novel, Rosemary’s Baby, which became the first American movie of European director Roman Polanski. That film was a smash hit, and Evans hired Polanski again to direct Chinatown. Polanski had been reluctant to work in Hollywood since the murder of his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by the notorious Manson family in 1969. But Evans persisted, and Polanski brought his knowledge of the underside of Hollywood to his depiction of the city’s past, even changing the ending of Towne’s screenplay to reflect his own deep pessimism.
The film’s technical team—including cinematographer John Alonzo, production designer Richard Sylbert, and costume designer Anthea Sylbert—helped to realize the writer and director’s vision of decay beneath the elegant surfaces of Southern California. Jerry Goldsmith’s sultry score, highlighted by a melancholy trumpet solo, clinched the mournful mood.
Variety praised the achievement: “Roman Polanski’s American made film, his first since Rosemary’s Baby, shows him again in total command of talent and physical filmmaking elements.” Derek Malcom of the London Evening Standard wrote, “Polanski’s telling of his tale of corruption in LA is masterly—thrilling, humorous and disturbing at the same time—and brilliantly played by John Huston and Faye Dunaway as well as Nicholson.” The film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1991.
Our panel to discuss the film will include actor Bruce Glover (Hard Times, Walking Tall, Diamonds Are Forever); assistant director Hawk Koch (who went on to produce such films as Heaven Can Wait, The Idolmaker, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Wayne’s World, and Primal Fear and later served as president of the Motion Picture Academy); and author Sam Wasson (who wrote the biography of Bob Fosse that served as the basis of the highly acclaimed miniseries, Fosse/Verdon, and is writing a new book on the seminal films of the 70s).
CHINATOWN screens Thursday, June 27 at 7PM at the Royal Theatre in West LA. Click here for tickets.
Format: DCP.
by Lamb L.
PAPI CHULO stars Alejandro Patiño and Wendi McLendon-Covey will participate in a Q&A following the 4:40 pm show on Saturday, 6/15.
by Lamb L.
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present screenings of the milestone Oscar-nominated French comedy, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, as part of the Anniversary Classics Abroad program. The screenings mark the 40th anniversary of the American release in 1979, as well as noting LGBTQ Pride Month, and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, based on a hit French stage farce by Jean Poiret, was adapted for the screen by Poiret, Francis Veber, Marcello Dano, and Edouard Molinaro, who also directed. The “birds of a feather” story concerns a gay couple in St. Tropez, Renato (played by the veteran Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi), the owner of a drag-performance nightclub, and his high-strung headliner partner Albin (French comic Michel Serrault). Their twenty-year relationship is turned upside down when Renato’s son, who had been raised jointly by Renato and Albin, announces he is about to marry the daughter of the ultra-conservative Minister of Moral Standards. Complications and hilarity ensue when Renato and his son attempt to mask the true nature of Renato and Albin’s partnership for the prospective in-laws.
The film received mixed reviews in the United States, ranging from Roger Ebert’s enthusiastic embrace (“the comic turns in the plot are achieved with such clockwork timing that sometimes we’re laughing at what’s funny and sometimes we’re just laughing at the movie’s sheer comic invention. This is a great time at the movies.”), to lesser notices from some critics who were out-of-sync with the film’s social satire, sight gags, one-liners, deadpan reactions, and “tawdry burlesque.” Director Molinaro deftly orchestrated the game cast in this range of comedic devices. The movie was named the year’s best foreign film by both the National Board of Review and the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globe). The accolades were crowned by three Academy Award nominations, including Best Costume Design (Piero Tosi, Ambra Danon), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director.
The film’s roaring success at the box office (it played at one New York theater for over a year, and broke out of the art houses to success in regular commercial theaters) has been attributed to its positive depiction of the central gay characters, the protagonists of the story, a rarity in the era. Although comparatively old-fashioned in its portrayals to contemporary standards, its importance in LGBTQ entertainment history is undisputed. The film spawned two sequels, a hit Broadway musical, and Hollywood remake, ‘The Birdcage’ (1996), that was also a box-office smash. Notably, the success of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES paved the way for a number of high profile, gay-themed, and gender-bending Hollywood studio films in the early ’80s, including ‘Making Love,’ ‘Victor/Victoria’ and ‘Tootsie.’
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES screens Wednesday, June 19th at 7pm in Glendale, Pasadena, and West LA. Click here for tickets.
by Lamb L.
MOUTHPIECE Q&A with director Patricia Rozema following the 7:50 pm show on Friday, 6/7 and Saturday, 6/8.
by Lamb L.
TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG director Dominga Sotomayor will participate in a Q&A moderated by Carlos Aguilar following the 7:00 pm show on Wednesday, 6/12.
by Lamb L.
CHANGELAND director Seth Green, actor Breckin Meyer and producer Corey Moosa will participate in a Q&A following the 4:10 pm show on Sunday, 6/9.