STYX director Wolfgang Fischer and writer Ika Künzel will participate in a Q&A on Friday, 3/15 following the 7:20 pm show.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER 40th Anniversary Screening with Co-stars Justin Henry and JoBeth Williams In Person
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 40th anniversary screening of the Academy Award-winning best picture of 1979, KRAMER VS. KRAMER. The film, produced by Stanley R. Jaffe, won four other major Oscars — Best Actor Dustin Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress Meryl Streep, Best Director Robert Benton, and Best Adapted Screenplay by Benton, working from the poignant, timely novel by Avery Corman. The film was also named Best Picture of the Year by both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle.
The picture touched a nerve for audiences because it was one of the first films to dramatize changing gender roles and the bitter aftermath of divorce. In the opening scene Joanna Kramer (Streep) leaves her self-centered, workaholic husband Ted (Hoffman), forcing him to take over the primary parenting role with their six-year-old son, Billy (Justin Henry). Although Ted bungles the job at first, he eventually establishes a deep bond with his son that is threatened several months later when Joanna returns and sues for custody of Billy. The tense courtroom scenes build to a riveting dramatic climax with an unexpected denouement. Award-winning cinematographer Nestor Almendros made the most of interior and exterior Manhattan locations.
Benton’s achievement is in finding sharp, telling details that illuminate character and heighten the drama inherent in everyday life. As Frank Rich wrote in TIME magazine, “Benton gives his film its depth and complexity by challenging the audience’s preconceptions and snap opinions at every turn.” David Denby of New York magazine concurred: “The Robert Benton movie is a major dramatic work—startling and emotionally involving.” Leonard Maltin called it an “intelligent, beautifully crafted, intensely moving film…acted to perfection by entire cast.”
That ensemble included Jane Alexander, Oscar-nominated for her performance as a caring neighbor; veteran actors Howard Duff and George Coe; and two actors making their film debuts, JoBeth Williams and Justin Henry. Williams, who has a couple of vivid scenes as an advertising colleague of Hoffman’s, went on to star in two of the most memorable films of the early 1980s—Steven Spielberg’s production of ‘Poltergeist’ and Lawrence Kasdan’s ‘The Big Chill.’ She also co-starred in ‘American Dreamer,’ ‘Teachers’ with Nick Nolte, and ‘Memories of Me’ with Billy Crystal. She has had a long career in the theater, in several powerful television movies, and has also worked behind the camera as director and producer.
Justin Henry became the youngest actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar for his piercing performance as Billy. The New Republic’s Stanley Kauffmann declared that Henry “goes through as wide a range of scenes as he could possibly be asked for, and he is true, absolutely true, every moment. He’s enchanting.” Gene Shalit added, “I have never seen such realistic acting from a child so young.” When he grew older, Henry appeared in such films as John Hughes’ ‘Sixteen Candles,’ ‘Sweet Hearts Dance,’ and in John Frankenheimer’s award-winning TV drama, ‘Andersonville.’ Today he works as an entrepreneur in digital media.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) plus Q&A with co-stars Justin Henry and JoBeth Williams screens Thursday, March 14 at 7pm at the Laemmle Royal in West LA. Click here for tickets.
LAEMMLE LIVE presents CANTILENA TRIO March 17 in Santa Monica
LAEMMLE LIVE presents Beverly Hills National Auditions Winner CANTILENA TRIO featuring Susan Greenberg, flute; Jon Lee Keenan, tenor; and Kenton Youngstrom, guitar. These three consummate ensemble artists and good friends are favorites among Southern California aficionados. Join us Sunday, March 17 at the Monica Film Center.
The program will include works by Wolfgang Mozart, John Dowland, Vincenzo Bellini, Isaac Albéniz, Gabriel Fauré, Astor Piazzolla, I Bordel 1900, Aaron Copland and Fred Ahlert.
Flutist Susan Greenberg enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, symphony player, and recording artist. The Los Angeles Times has described her playing as “brilliant,” “elegant” and “supple,” and has lauded her “panache” and “musical projection.” During her 36 years with the LA Chamber Orchestra, she was a frequent soloist on both flute and piccolo, premiering a concerto for piccolo by Bruce Broughton and performing a concerto for flute, alto flute and piccolo written for her by Gernot Wolfgang. Presently she is the principal flutist with the Santa Monica Symphony and the Vicente Chamber Orchestra. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, L.A. Opera, New York City Opera, American Ballet Theater, as well as at the Casals, Ojai and Martha’s Vineyard Music Festivals. he received both her B.A., cum laude, and her M.A. from UCLA. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music Palisades, now celebrating its twenty-first season. Ms. Greenberg has recorded for over 500 motion pictures and many TV television shows, including the Simpsons for 25 years.
Versatile tenor Jon Lee Keenan studied Classical Voice and Jazz Bass at UNLV. Jon relocated to Southern California to pursue a career in classical singing, and study vocal arts at the USC Thornton School of Music. Shortly after moving to LA, Jon was selected to join the LA Master Chorale and has been featured as a soloist at Walt Disney Concert Hall in each season since. Recent highlights with the Chorale include the role of “Evangelist” in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat. Jon recently recorded the role “Gniphos” in the LA Philharmonic’s production of Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar, released internationally in 2018 on The Industry Records. This season’s highlights include appearances with the Corona Del Mar Baroque Festival in Bach’s Magnificat; Various roles in John Cage’s Europeras I and II with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and an international tour of Lagrime di San Pietro with music by Orlando di Lasso and staging by Peter Sellars.
Kenton Youngstrom, guitarist, composer, and educator is the first in a long line of prize-winning students of Jim Smith at the University of Southern California. While earning his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, he studied composition with Donald Crockett, arranging with Darniell Pershing, and film scoring with David Raksin. Mr. Youngstrom has performed concerts and recitals with numerous jazz notables such as pianists Taylor Eigsti and Dave Brubeck, flutist Hubert Laws, bassist Scott Colley and guitarist Larry Koonse. Producing credits include the Falla Guitar Trio’s Concord Records LP, “Virtuoso Music for Three Guitars” which won a Record of the Year Award from Stereo Review magazine. Mr. Youngstrom teaches guitar at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts.
Free Event!
RSVP via Eventbrite
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Monica Film Center
1332 Second Street
Santa Monica, CA
11am – 12pm
A Tribute to Albert Finney: 45th Anniversary Screening of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS on March 7 in West LA
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to Albert Finney with a 45th anniversary screening of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974) starring Finney in his Oscar-nominated role as Agatha Christie’s master detective, Hercule Poirot.
Finney heads a glittering all-star cast in Sidney Lumet’s lustrous film of Christie’s mystery novel, a smash box-office hit and recipient of six Academy Award nominations that year, with Ingrid Bergman taking home the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress.
Set in 1935, the story centers on Poirot’s attempt to solve the murder of a reviled American millionaire (Richard Widmark) while on the fabled train the Orient Express en route from Istanbul to Calais.
The bevy of suspects include Lauren Bacall as an obnoxious American, Ingrid Bergman as an anxious missionary, Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset as Hungarian royalty, Jean-Pierre Cassel as the conductor, Sean Connery as an English officer with Vanessa Redgrave as his companion, John Gielgud as Widmark’s valet, Anthony Perkins as Widmark’s secretary, Wendy Hiller as a Russian aristocrat, Rachel Roberts as her ladies’ maid, and Martin Balsam as the Italian director of the railroad. All of that talent is sumptuously photographed and costumed by Oscar nominees Geoffrey Unsworth and Tony Walton.
Lumet directs the cast and Oscar-nominated screenplay adaptation by Paul Dehn with a light touch, a tone reinforced by Richard Rodney Bennett’s masterful score and Anne V. Coates’ deft editing. The elegant entertainment impressed audiences and critics alike, with Judith Crist extolling in New York magazine, “Done from top to bottom with such affection and good humor that Dame Agatha’s marvelously intricate whodunit becomes a joyous experience even for non-mystery buffs.”
Albert Finney, who died on February 7 at age 82, first came to prominence in 1960’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as an “angry young man” rebelling against a stifling working-class existence in industrial England.
In 1963 he achieved international fame as the rowdy, randy title character Tom Jones, the first of four best actor Oscar nominations. Others include his turn as Poirot in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, an aging, embittered actor in The Dresser, and an alcoholic British consul in Under the Volcano. A fifth nomination came for his supporting role as a pugnacious lawyer in Erin Brockovich, His last role was in the James Bond thriller, Skyfall, in 2012.
Finney had made his film debut opposite Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer in 1960, and was hailed as Olivier’s acting successor. He spent long periods throughout his career on the stage, returning to movies and later television to fulfill his acting ambitions. He dismissed accolades that were his due, never attending an Oscar ceremony and turning down a knighthood, which he felt “perpetuated snobbery.”
In 1962 he speculated to the media about why he was an actor. “I think I’m always watching and balancing, and sort of tabulating my emotions,” he said. “And the only way I can lose myself is when I’m acting.”
In MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS he is virtually unrecognizable as Poirot, gaining weight for the role, with slicked-down hair, a French moustache, and beady eyes to aid in the transformation.
Roger Ebert found his performance “brilliant, and high comedy,” and offered an approving appraisal in his review. “It ends with a very long scene in which Poirot asks everyone to be silent, please, while he explains his various theories of the case. He does so in great detail, and it’s fun of a rather malicious sort watching a dozen high-priced stars keep their mouths shut and just listen while Finney masterfully dominates the scene.”
The 45th anniversary screening of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and tribute to Albert Finney take place at the Royal in West Los Angeles on Thursday, March 7 at 7:00 PM. Click here for tickets.
Format: DCP
ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: Hung Viet Nguyen: PLACES at the Royal
With great pride, ART IN THE ARTHOUSE welcomes back artist HUNG VIET NGUYEN and his gorgeous new show, PLACES. The show will run at the Royal till May, 2019. Sales benefit the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles.
About the exhibit
Born in Vietnam in 1957, Hung Viet Nguyen studied biology at the Science University in Saigon. After relocating to the U.S. in 1982, Nguyen found work as an illustrator, graphic artist and designer. He developed his artistic skills carefully studying a variety of traditional Eastern and Western forms, media and techniques. His complex, labor intensive use of oil paint reveal a mastery of texture. While portions of Nguyen’s work suggest the influence of traditional forms such as woodblock prints, oriental scroll paintings, ceramic art, mosaic, and stained glass, his ultimate expression as an artist asserts a more contemporary sensibility. About his current exhibit, PLACES, Hung remarks, “while traveling I photographed favorite moments, places and scenes. From these images, I created works with ink and watercolor, applied two varieties of varnish for aging and crackling for a classic look. By capturing a cell phone image in a few seconds and then spending many hours to produce an artwork, I uncovered the relationship between the places and myself.” Nguyen’s paintings have been exhibited at galleries, cultural centers and museums by curators or directors of museums including curators of LACMA and MOCA. His work was selected twice for the San Diego Art Institute’s biennial International Exhibition (2013, 2015) where it earned a Juror’s Choice Award each time.
– Tish Laemmle, curator
Sixtieth Anniversary Screenings of Marcel Camus’ Palme d’Or Winning BLACK ORPHEUS
In celebration of Black History Month, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present 60th anniversary screenings of BLACK ORPHEUS on February 20. This retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story in Greek mythology is set in twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. Writer-director Marcel Camus’ film hit the double jackpot for foreign-language films, winning both the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Academy Award as the year’s best foreign film.
Based on the play “Orfeu da Conceicao” by Vinicius de Moraes with a screenplay by Camus and Jacques Viot, BLACK ORPHEUS takes place in the working class slums (favela) of Rio. Orfeu (Bruno Mello), a streetcar driver by day and musician at night, falls in love with Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn), new to the city, and courts her through the frantic festival. However, a skeleton-costumed character representing Death also pursues her, and the couple’s attempt to flee results in romantic tragedy. The two unknown leads—Mello, a Brazilian soccer player, and Dawn, an American dancer— help convey a sense of naturalism, but the film is most noteworthy for its irresistible score, composed by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim, which propels the drama with a captivating samba beat. The success of the film and recordings of its main themes helped ignite the bossa nova phenomenon of the 1960s.
The film was an enormous art-house hit in its day. Frenchman Camus and the two leads remain best known for this movie, as noted by the Village Voice, “the greatest one-hit wonder import we’ve ever seen.” Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post summed up its appeal: “a riotous, rapturous explosion of sound and color. Black Orpheus is less about Orpheus’s doomed love for Eurydice than about Camus’s love for cinema at its most gestural and kinetic.”
No need to take a trip to Rio—come to Carnival via BLACK ORPHEUS at Laemmle’s Playhouse, Royal, and Town Center on Wednesday, February 20 at 7:00 PM. Click here for tickets.
TO DUST Q&A’s with Filmmakers Opening Weekend at the Royal and Town Center.
https://youtu.be/ULfhwPTMvC4
Royal
TO DUST filmmakers Ron Perlman (producer/actor), Josh Crook (producer), Shawn Snyder (director) and Scott Lochmus (producer) will participate in a Q&A on Friday, 2/15. Shawn Snyder will discuss the film with Death Positive group representatives: Amber Carvaly director of Undertaking LA, and Sarah Chavez director of The Order of the Good Death on Saturday, 2/16. Both Q&A’s will follow the 7:40 pm shows.
Town Center
Scott Lochmus and Josh Crook will participate in a Q&A following the 7:10 pm show on Saturday, 2/16.
It’s Time for Our Annual Predict the Oscars Contest!
With the 91st Academy Awards right around the corner, it’s time for our annual Predict the Oscars Contest! The person who most accurately predicts the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s choices in all 24 categories, from the shorts to Best Picture, will win fabulous prizes (free movies and concessions at Laemmle)!
First place wins a Laemmle Premiere Card worth $150. Second place wins a Laemmle Premiere Card worth $100. Third place wins a Laemmle Premiere Card worth $50. Entries are due by 10AM the morning of the awards ceremony on February 24th.
Not sure what a Laemmle Premiere Card is? Think of it like a prepaid gift card for yourself! Use it to pay for movie tickets and concessions. Plus, Premiere Card holders receive $3 off movie tickets and 20% off concessions. To find out more, visit www.laemmle.com/premiere-cards.
We’ve got some smart cookies for customers so we have a tie-breaker question: you also have to guess the show’s running time. Take the tie-breaker seriously! In 2016, the running time question broke a tie between five entrants who correctly predicted 19 out of 24 categories!
We’ll announce the winners right here on our blog by February 26th. Good luck!
*One entry per person. One winner per household.
Click Here to Enter
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