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55th Anniversary Screenings of BOCCACCIO ’70 on Wednesday, October 18th in Encino, Pasadena, and West L.A.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series presents a 55th anniversary screening of the Italian anthology film BOCCACCIO ’70 from 1962. It will play at three locations: Royal, Town Center 5 and Pasadena Playhouse 7 on October 18, 2017, as part of our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad series.

International omnibus films were in vogue during the golden age of the art house in the early 1960s, and BOCCACCIO ’70 was the most critically and commercially successful of these anthologies.

The film is a four part production about morality and love, re-imagining how the ribald Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio might have presented these tales if writing them in the 20th century, as contemporary versions of his 14th century Decameron.

Conceived by the Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, and produced by Carlo Ponti, the film’s reputation rests on its collection of international talents, with segments by directors Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita) featuring Anita Ekberg, Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) featuring Romy Schneider, and Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief) featuring Sophia Loren.

Although the film seems innocuous by current standards, it was the center of two uproars in 1962. The original four part version seen in Italy was trimmed for its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, with Monicelli’s segment dropped. That spawned a boycott of the festival by the film’s four directors.

Then for its American release the now three part version became the focus of a crusade by the Legion of Decency, the censorious arm of the Roman Catholic Church (who had condemned it for its nudity and frank sexuality), to boycott showings when it was booked by regular movie theaters in the fall of 1962.

With all the attention (coupled with the marquee draw of the directors and European beauties) the film became a crossover hit, playing beyond the art houses. It was another triumph for Sophia Loren, the reigning Oscar queen (she had won Best Actress for De Sica’s Two Women in April); for her performance Show magazine called her “one of the most accomplished comediennes in film today.”

“It has glamour, sophistication, color, wit and sensuality,” proclaimed Bosley Crowther in The New York Times, but he only saw the three part film.

Now here is a rare opportunity to the see the complete, four part version, which was never released theatrically in the United States. Come and see what all the fuss was about with this special presentation on Wednesday, October 18 at 7:00 pm at three Laemmle locations: Royal, Town Center 5 and Pasadena Playhouse 7. Click here for tickets.

BOBBI JENE, “A Bold Dance Doc that Pulses with Erotic Energy and Artistic Spirit,” Opens October 6 at the Royal.

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Next week we’ll open the stellar documentary Bobbi Jene, winner of multiple awards at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival: Best Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature, and Best Editing in a Documentary Feature. With intimate access, Danish filmmaker Elvira Lind followed the brilliant American dancer Bobbi Jene at a critical juncture in her life and career: after a decade of stardom in Israel, she decided to leave behind her prominent position at the world-famous Batsheva Dance Company, as well as the love of her life, to return to the U.S. to create her own boundary breaking art. Tracking the personal and professional challenges that await her, Ms. Lind’s film lovingly documents the dilemmas and inevitable consequences of ambition. Bobbi Jene delves into what it takes for a woman to gain her own independence in the extremely competitive world of dance and to find self-fulfillment in the process.

Critics’ praise for the film has been effusive:

“A treatise on art, ambition, long-distance relationships and the struggles to find one’s own voice, the film unfolds with uncommon grace.” (Tim Grierson, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL)

“While artistry and those who create lie at the heart of the film and the moments where the camera bares witness to beautifully choreographed creations, it is the tale of Bobbi herself and her brave transition from student to teacher that is the most profound.” (Ally Johnson, THE PLAYLIST)

“Watching Bobbi Jene, one of the year’s best films, could prove to be a profoundly cathartic experience for audiences.” (Matt Fagerholm, ROGEREBERT.COM)

“A bold dance doc that pulses with erotic energy and artistic spirit, it’s so erotic at times it’s more like a movie.” (Patrick Mullen, POV Magazine)

The filmmaker has said her hope was to present a portrait of the artist as a young woman: “There are many films made about established artists, which portray their early career as a time comprised of fun, explorative, defining moments. Perhaps all their endeavors are purely artistic. Perhaps they work from home on webcam to make ends meet whilst they follow their dreams. But this period might seem more romantic in retrospect than when they were in it, not knowing if they would ever make it, and if the consequences of committing to this dream would be worth it.

“With the film Bobbi Jene, I wanted to explore that specific time in an artist’s life and tell a story that captured the fragility and determination. In your thirties, you may have finally found your voice and feel ready to confidently forge a creative path, but for many women, it is also the moment where a powerful, primal urge suddenly screams that it is time to reproduce.

“When I met Bobbi Jene, a woman confronted with this dilemma, I embraced the opportunity to tell the story of an uncompromising female artist who was not afraid to push boundaries. She was never scared to be vulnerable, while simultaneously maintaining strength and independence. I had been longing to see films about someone
like her.

Director Elvira Lind

“Bobbi consistently challenged the concept of success. Our current society seems obsessed by the question – when have we finally “made it”? – Performing in front of the largest audience? Making the biggest pay check? For Bobbi neither qualify as the definition of success: in the film she leaves behind a safe dancing career, with endless
applause, to follow her own expression, standing exposed and alone on a small stage, creating something that defines her as a human. To me that becomes the bravest thing that anyone can do despite the consequences. I think people today are generally too focused on making it big and loud rather than making it honest.”

For her part, Ms. Jene offers this: “The film is a dance. A dance between Elvira the director, Adam the editor, and myself. It is a dance of love, the process, the struggle, and the pleasure in those efforts, it’s not at all like a porn film that you see on nu-bay.com but it does push the boundaries a bit.

“With my art, I aim to expose. To push my body and heart to places where no technique or training will be able to hide the real truth. I believe Elvira is trying do the same. We would meet there. We would push each other to those places. I told Elvira in the beginning…’Lets go all in; we will only be here once.'”

My body is a container. A time capsule. It holds all of my love, hope, fatigue, sadness, pleasure, scars, and falls. I feel that this film is like a body. It contains, and how it contains and holds becomes a dance.

“We can only be as strong as we can be weak.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyKlh18eg-I

Twofer Tuesday: A Paul Newman Double Feature of COOL HAND LUKE (1967) and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1962) on October 3rd!

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to Oscar-winning actor Paul Newman with the latest installment in our popular Twofer Tuesday program.

Newman received one of his nine Oscar nominations for the landmark prison drama, COOL HAND LUKE, released in 1967. He reprised his acclaimed stage performance in the film version of Tennessee Williams’ steamy melodrama, Sweet Bird of Youth from 1962.

Enjoy these two films for the price of one on Tuesday, October 3rd at your choice of three Laemmle locations—the Royal in West LA, the NoHo in North Hollywood, and the Playhouse in Pasadena.

COOL HAND LUKE received a total of four Academy Award nominations in 1967, and George Kennedy won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, an award that invigorated the career of one of Hollywood’s most well liked character actors.

Newman plays a rebellious prisoner on a Southern chain gang who eventually wins the support of all his fellow convicts even though he infuriates the prison officials.

The warden’s rebuke to Newman—“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”—became one of the most quoted lines in cinema history, and many scenes, including an egg-eating contest and an unexpected song that Newman sings after learning of his mother’s death, have also entered the lexicon.

The supporting cast includes a number of other acclaimed actors—Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton, Strother Martin, and Oscar winner Jo Van Fleet.

Stuart Rosenberg directed the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson.

The Saturday Review’s Hollis Alpert called Luke “a film as beautifully executed as any made this year.” Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times added that the film was “a triumph for Paul Newman.”

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH received three Oscar nominations in 1962, and Ed Begley won the award as Best Supporting Actor for his vivid portrayal of a tyrannical Southern political boss.

Lead actress Geraldine Page and supporting actress Shirley Knight also earned nods from the Academy. Page and Newman had both starred in the Broadway production of Williams’ play, and they revisited and deepened their performances in the screen version, which despite a few compromises dictated by the Production Code, was generally regarded as superior to the play.

Richard Brooks, who had also adapted Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Newman, wrote the screenplay and directed.

The heart of the film lies in the provocative bedroom scenes between Page and Newman, playing a gigolo slightly past his prime and a has-been movie star happy to pay for his sexual favors.

The cast also includes Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, and Madeleine Sherwood.

Newsweek praised Sweet Bird as “a forceful, often devastating piece of work.” The Hollywood Reporter wrote that “Newman is the almost perfect Williams hero, sensitive, vulnerable, but undeniably masculine.”

Click here to get tickets to the 4:40pm show of SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, admission to the 7pm COOL HAND LUKE is included. Click here to buy tickets to the 7pm show of COOL HAND LUKE, admission to the 9:30pm SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH is included.

JACK LONDON: AMERICAN ORIGINAL Q&A’s with the Filmmaker at the Royal and Playhouse.

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JACK LONDON: AMERICAN ORIGINAL director Benjamin Goldstein will participate in Q&A’s after the September 25 screening at the Royal and the September 26 screening at the Playhouse.

TWO FOR THE ROAD 50th Anniversary Screening with Co-stars William Daniels and Jacqueline Bisset In-person on September 27 in West LA.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 50th anniversary screening of one of the most delightful and innovative romantic comedies ever made, Stanley Donen’s Two for the Road.

TWO FOR THE ROAD (1967)
50th Anniversary Screening
Q & A with Co-stars William Daniels and Jacqueline Bisset
Wednesday, September 27, at 7:00 PM
At the Royal Theatre in West L.A.
Click here for tickets

 

Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney star as a couple trying to come to terms with the changes in their marriage over a 12-year period.

Screenwriter Frederic Raphael, who had won an Oscar for writing Darling two years earlier, received another nomination for Best Original Screenplay for his groundbreaking, time-traveling script for Two for the Road.

Donen, the director of such films as Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, and Charade, here created one of his most provocative works.

This excavation of a marriage centers on half a dozen trips through the south of France taken by Mark and Joanna Wallace (Finney and Hepburn).  But these trips are not presented in chronological order.  In fact, the different time sequences are intercut breezily throughout the film.  This experiment in non-linear storytelling was clearly influenced by some of the movies of the French New Wave during the 60s.  But this was the first major Hollywood film to try to translate that innovative approach to a more mainstream commercial picture.  Reactions were mixed at the time, but the film’s reputation has grown in later years, and many now cite it as one of their all-time favorite romantic films.

Life magazine’s Richard Schickel was one of the few to appreciate it in 1967.  As he wrote, “Mr. Donen has always been one of the truly stylish directors of light comedy, but here he has surpassed himself and in the process made it clear that the commercial filmmaker no longer has to be bound by the traditions of the past.”  Leonard Maltin calls it a “perceptive, winning film… beautifully acted.”

The supporting cast includes William Daniels, Eleanor Bron, Claude Dauphin, Nadia Gray, and Jacqueline Bisset in one of her very first screen roles.  Other key contributors to the film include cinematographer Christopher Challis, whose glorious images of the French Riviera dazzle the eye, and multiple Academy Award-winning composer Henry Mancini, who regarded this lyrical score as one of his personal favorites.


Co-star William Daniels, who portrays a hilariously finicky American tourist, had a busy year in 1967.  In addition to this film, he co-starred in The President’s Analyst and also played Dustin Hoffman’s father in The Graduate.  His other films include A Thousand Clowns, The Parallax View, Oh God!, and Warren Beatty’s Reds.  He played John Adams in the acclaimed stage musical, 1776, and reprised his role in the 1972 movie version.  Daniels played John Quincy Adams in the TV miniseries, The Adams Chronicles, and also had major roles in the series St. Elsewhere, Boy Meets World, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Two for the Road was one of her very first movies. Her many other films include Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-Sac, Bullitt, Airport, The Grasshopper, Murder on the Orient Express, The Deep, George Cukor’s Rich and Famous, John Huston’s Under the Volcano, and Francois Truffaut’s Oscar-winning classic, Day for Night. Tickets are available here.

YEAR BY THE SEA Q&A’s with the Filmmaker Opening Weekend at Laemmle Theatres.

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YEAR BY THE SEA filmmaker Alexander Janko and producer Laura Goodenow will introduce and participate in Q&A’s opening weekend at the Town Center, Royal, and Playhouse on the following schedule:

FRI 9/15

4:10p > Town Center post-film Q&A
7:10p > Town Center pre-film INTRO
7:00p > Royal post-film Q&A
10:00p > Royal pre-film INTRO

SAT 9/16

1:20p > Town Center post-film Q&A
4:10p > Town Center pre-film INTRO
4:00p > Playhouse post-film Q&A
7:00p > Playhouse pre-film INTRO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAlD3YxZCGw

LAEMMLE LIVE presents: A Cello Meetup with Antonio Lysy October 1

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Laemmle Live proudly presents BACH TO THE FUTURE – A CELLO MEETUP,  Sunday October 1 at the Monica Film Center.  Internationally acclaimed cellist and dedicated pedagogue Antonio Lysy invites intermediate and advanced cellists to participate in a unique cello ensemble opportunity. Antonio will lead a cello ensemble in exploring music that spans the ages, from Palestrina, Bach and Dvorak to Bartok, Elvis and more.

Cello students,  please RSVP to laemmlecellomeetup@gmail.com by September 21 if you would like to perform and include the following information: name, years of study, and music part you wish to play. Families, friends and cello fans, please RSVP to the same address. Please check in with your teacher if you need direction. Music can be found here.

Antonio Lysy, artist of international stature and dedicated pedagogue, has performed as a soloist in major concert halls worldwide. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sandor Vegh, and Kees Bakels, and continues to perform regularly both as a solo, and chamber music artist. Lysy has recorded extensively for CBC Radio, BBC Radio, Classic FM, and other radio networks. Lysy enjoys exploring the versatility of the cello’s voice, from Baroque to electric, and is committed to projects which enrich his diverse interests in music. Based on his Latin Grammy award-winning CD, the touring multimedia show, “Te Amo, Argentina”, has met with widespread acclaim. In the summer of 2003, Lysy accepted the position of Professor of Cello at University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to moving to the United States, he held a professorship at McGill University in Montréal.

Ever since I was 12 years old and in the early days of my musical studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England, I have been fascinated with the process and notion of teaching. The idea of passing on a legacy through performance practice, and being part of an aural tradition entrusted to me by masters of the instrument is somewhat magical. It is the creation and preservation of history. I am fortunate to have had great opportunities in my life. While the idea of “giving back” has become cliché, I cannot think of a better term to explain my motivation to help those who have the talent, personality, work ethic, and determination to succeed. I am indebted to all my past teachers who took the trouble to share their experience, knowledge, philosophy, and passion with me, and inspired me by their dedication to musical ideals. Their example and belief in me as a young cellist stimulated the development of my own teaching philosophy. Many teachers were pivotal in my artistic development. Those I was fortunate to spend the most time with are the following: Guido Mascellini and Myra Chahin (in my early years), Alberto Lysy (my father), Maurice Gendron, William Pleeth, Radu Aldulescu, Yehudi Menuhin, and Ralph Kirshbaum.
– Antonio Lysy

EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, October 1, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

This is a Free Event
RSVP – laemmlecellomeetup@gmail.com

55th Anniversary Screening of GYPSY and Q&A with Carla Malden September 12th in West LA

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GYPSY (1962) 55th Anniversary Screening
With Carla Malden, Daughter of Karl Malden In-person
Tuesday, September 12, at 7:00 PM at the Laemmle Royal
Presented on Blu-ray. Click here for tickets.

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 55th anniversary screening of GYPSY, the 1962 film adaptation of one of the masterworks of the American musical theater, with its triumphant Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne score.

The film version stars Natalie Wood as burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, Rosalind Russell as Momma Rose, the ultimate stage mother, and Karl Malden.

The screening takes place on September 12, 7:00 pm at the Royal theatre in West LA, with guest Carla Malden, daughter of Karl Malden, and co-author of his memoir, When Do I Start?

In 1962 Natalie Wood was at the peak of her career, having been Oscar nominated as Best Actress for Splendor in the Grass (1961) and co-starring in that year’s Best Picture, West Side Story, when she was cast to portray the queen of the striptease, Gypsy Rose Lee. Rosalind Russell was cast as Momma Rose by Jack L. Warner, who bought the film rights, and the vibrant star of Auntie Mame took considerable critical heat for displacing Broadway legend Ethel Merman in the role. Malden’s part was built up for the Oscar-winning actor, and he doubled as Uncle Jocko and boyfriend-manager Herbie in the film. Other alterations included the trimming of one song, but these slight modifications did not detract from the success of the film.

Written for the screen by Leonard Spiegelgass from Arthur Laurents’ libretto, and directed by Mervyn Leroy, (Little Caesar, I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and co-producer The Wizard of Oz), Gypsy remains a faithful, brassy celluloid version of one of the greatest musicals ever staged.

The public didn’t seem to miss Merman, as the movie was a box office smash. Critics were divided at the time, but veteran scribe Joe Baltake (Philadelphia Daily News, Sacramento Bee) later wrote that Russell, “whose line readings are flawless …fleshed out the character of Rose as no one else ever has.” And as noted by Leonard Maltin, “(You) can’t lose with that Stephen Sondheim-Jule Styne score.” Nominated for 3 Academy Awards (Cinematography, Costume Design and Music Scoring).

Gypsy will screen Tuesday, September 12 at 7:00 pm at the Royal; Q&A with Carla Malden who will reminisce about her father and the making of the film, accompanied by a rare showing of the musical number cut from the film, after the screening.