Swoon-inducing opera, coming your way: LA BOHEME. The Royal Opera recently posted some fantastic interviews and making-of videos to YouTube. We’ll be screening the production in all six Laemmle venues on Monday, July 6 and 7:30 PM and Tuesday, July 7 at 1 PM.
“Unsung Mekons are a musical beacon of persistence and creativity.” ~ Randall Roberts in today’s L.A. Times
REVENGE OF THE MEKONS is playing today through Thursday at the Playhouse and tonight only at the Royal! The L.A. Times just posted this feature story about the band and the film.
“Born in art school at Leeds University in 1977, the Mekons long ago conceded that fame and fortune were outside their grasp, and it kind of shows. The band’s fan site, while kept current, is run by a guy named Nobby and looks like it was coded in 1996.
“Unlike university peers Gang of Four, the Mekons are seldom cited as an influence by hipster punks. There hasn’t been a “Mekons revival.” Their fans are aging with them, and the rest of the world doesn’t seem to care.
“Such creativity in the face of ambivalence is a central theme of “Revenge of the Mekons,” the aptly titled and engrossing documentary by filmmaker Joe Angio. The film traces the rises, falls and plateaus of the self-described British “fundamentalist punk rock art project,” whose eight current members are a mix of visual artists, writers, singers, gallery owners and field-recorders and are spread across three continents in Southern California, Chicago, rural England, London and Siberia. (Multi-instrumentalist Lu Edmonds is married to a Siberian.)
“The film is having a brief run at the Playhouse in Pasadena, with additional screenings at the NoHo 7 on Monday and the Royal on Tuesday.”
Read the rest of the Times piece here.
“An exquisite rumination on life, love and art that tickles the heart and mind in equal measure,” LA SAPIENZA Opens June 26 at the Royal.
Named for the famous seventeenth-century Roman church Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, which was designed by the legendary architect (and Bernini rival) Francesco Borromini, LA SAPIENZA echoes Rossellini’s Viaggio in Italia in its tale of Alexandre Schmid (Fabrizio Rongione), a brilliant architect who, plagued by doubts and loss of inspiration, embarks on a quest of artistic and spiritual renewal guided by his study of Borromini. His wife Aliénor (Christelle Prot), similarly troubled by the crassness of contemporary society – as well as the couple’s listless marriage – decides to accompany him. In Stresa, a chance encounter with adolescent siblings Goffredo (who is about to begin his own architectural studies) and his fragile sister Lavinia upends the couple’s plans. As Borromini’s spirit and the vertiginous splendour of his structures spin a mysterious web among them, within the course of a few days the foursome experiences a series of life-altering revelations.
“Green’s richly textured, painterly images fuse with the story to evoke the essence of humane urbanity and the relationships that it fosters, whether educational, familial, or erotic.” (Richard Brody, New Yorker)
“An exquisite rumination on life, love and art that tickles the heart and mind in equal measure.” (Scott Foundas, Variety)
About his film, LA SAPIENZA writer-director Eugène Green has said:
“This film has two sources of inspiration. On the one hand the desire to illustrate through film the works and life of the Baroque architect Francesco Borromini. On the other the interest for contemporary architecture and urban planning. The first inspiration would suggest a biography, while both would be very suited to a documentary style narrative. I don’t however believe that one may reconstruct a life through film, nor any other element of a distant past and, despite having all due respect for the documentary as a form of expression, I have always had the instinctive belief – that tends to be sidelined in today’s Europe – that the greater truth can be found in fiction. Thus it is through an action that is a product of my imagination, that I have attempted to approach these two themes. This story involving two couples, a man and a woman, a brother and sister, sheds light on human relations, which are further investigated by introducing a separation, a concept developed out of a long-standing western tradition whereby knowledge is acquired through emptiness, and presence is established through absence. One way or another, the characters of this screenplay face the challenge of letting the past feed the present in a harmonious fashion, and each of them achieves a new understanding of the nature of love. At the heart of the story we also encounter the problem of how tradition may be passed on, one of man’s eternal preoccupations, an issue that is of great moment for contemporary European society.
REVENGE OF THE MEKONS Filmmaker and Rico Bell of the Mekons in Person at the Playhouse, Royal and NoHo.
The acclaimed new documentary Revenge of the Mekons charts the unlikely career of the genre-defying collective notorious for being—as rock critic Greil Marcus notes—“the band that took punk ideology most seriously.” Born out of the 1977 British punk scene, the Mekons progressed from a group of socialist art students with no musical skills to the prolific, raucous progeny of Hank Williams. Joe Angio’s exuberant documentary follows their improbable history and reveals how punk’s reigning contrarians continue to make bold, unpredictable music.
Revenge of the Mekons filmmaker Joe Angio will participate in Q&A’s after the 9:55 PM screenings at the Playhouse on Friday, June 19 as well as the 7:30 PM screenings at the NoHo 7 on Monday, June 22 and at the Royal on Tuesday, June 23. Rico Bell of the Mekons will join him for the NoHo and Royal screenings.
The Epic Process of Reopening Amsterdam’s Magnificent Museum: THE NEW RIJKSMUSEUM June 19 at the Playhouse, Royal and Claremont
The weekend of June 19-20 we are very pleased to be opening Oeke Hoogendijk’s epic documentary The New Rijksmuseum at the Royal, Playhouse 7 and Claremont 5. Originally presented as four television episodes over four hours, this version had its world premiere to great acclaim in New York City last year. The filmmakers have now created a 131 minute theatrical version which won the Beeld ed Geluid Award at IDFA for Best Dutch Documentary in November 2014.
In 2003, the ambitious renovation of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam began. One of the world’s preeminent art institutions and home to a glorious collection including masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer, the museum was scheduled to re-open its doors in 2008. But, from the start the project was opposed by unyielding bureaucratic forces and public resistance and the landmark was slowly transformed into a seemingly perpetual construction site. The museum’s director Ronald de Leeuw, and his successor, Wim Pijbes, battled with politicians, designers, curators and the Dutch Cyclists Union as they endeavored to re-open the museum and put its massive collection back on display. Five years late and costs exceeding $500 million, the museum reopened in 2013.
Filmmaker Magazine published this short interview with the The New Rijksmuseum filmmaker about the decade-long project of recreating the museum and creating this film:
Filmmaker: Were you commissioned to do this piece or did you conceive of it yourself?
Hoogendijk: I was approached by somebody from the museum who knew my work and thought maybe [I was] a person who could make this film. At the beginning they thought that it would be great if the renovation would be documented by a filmmaker, so they brought me in to do the job.
Filmmaker: Did they have ideas for an aesthetic they had in mind or did you have free reign over the piece conceptually?
Hoogendijk: No, they did not have a plan. They thought it was such a major operation that they wanted for everyone to see what they had done and why they had come to make the decision about what to do. It was an entire renovation, you know, it was everything in the museum. That’s why they thought it would be okay and very well if this were all documented. They didn’t have any thoughts about how I should make the film. I thought at the beginning that this would be a film about how they reinvented themselves; this was my idea of the film. I knew everything would have to be different in this renovation, that’s how I started it, but soon all the trouble started with the cyclist union and everything else and I decided to throw away my scenario because it wasn’t of any use anymore.
Filmmaker: With these time-based documentary projects, so much is left to chance because of the nature of events, whether it’s the cyclists being upset about the passage being blocked or the debate over whether to include 20th century art or not. I’m curious when, over the course of those years, something that felt like a full film began arising out of the various cuts and sequences I’m sure you were assembling and organizing during the shoot?
Hoogendijk: What happened is we were filming and I knew the main characters and I knew the events I wanted to follow over the years but I knew that the editing process would be the place to see if my idea was working. That’s why during filming, even just after one year, I started to work with my editor to see what I had and whether I was going in the right direction or not. Sometimes the editing was done to see whether it was effective and what I wanted and if it was good enough. Normally the renovation would have taken four years. My plan was to make one documentary. The project was supposed to be finished in 2008 but because it took five more years, I had to make a decision to press on and be involved for five more years to finish the film. I couldn’t stop in the middle of the project. That’s why we decided to tell four parts in the end. We had discussions with the commissioning editor and we had to tell him we couldn’t make one film that we had to tell it in parts.
Filmmaker: What most surprised you about the process of a mounting a massive museum restoration project like this?
Hoogendijk: In terms of politics, I would say that the bid from the constructors was double of what the museum expected it to be and that’s how this whole project became so expensive and that was really surprising fro everyone. It was amazing. You get the feeling that there was corruption involved but you can’t prove it. That would be one, and the other thing is the director not wanting to go on. That was quite surprising too; it was unbelievable that he wanted to jump out in the middle of it. That was a sign that the trouble was fairly serious.
Filmmaker: Did you follow many individuals who ultimately did not end up in the film?
Hoogendijk: There were some people we tried to follow who didn’t work out like we wanted to but not many, only two or three. It was more that people disappear in the editing because of the nature of the film. The two Spanish architects, Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz, are focused on earlier in the film but later on they are not. We only see them again when the process of putting the art back into the building begins. It was logical. Everybody has their own part which at a specific moment is important. That was the way to choose. We choose people who were good choices for the camera. At least I think we did.
Filmmaker: What was the response like once you screened the movie for the museum?
Hoogendijk: It was very good! It turns out that it’s very good for them that the film is there. They get many more visitors! They were very happy with it. There’s only one person who’s not happy: Ronald De Leeuw. He’s never seen the film. He’s heard about it, but he can’t dare to watch it, he told me. For him it’s not so flattering. It’s not good news for him. He’s off at his house in Vienna. It should have been the crowning achievement of the end of his career, the opening of the brand new renovated museum and yet ultimately someone else was stewarding it to completion. So it’s difficult for him, it’s not his thing anymore and someone else walks away with it.
Filmmaker: Do you think the renovation and restoration of the museum has lived up to what it was billed as? Is it the museum everyone hoped and dreamed it would be?
Hoogendijk: That’s a nice question. Nobody expected it at a certain point when all the troubles were there and nothing was moving as people wanted to, but now that’s it complete, everyone loves it, not just The New York Times. In my personal opinion, it’s marvelous, it’s so beautiful, it’s better than anyone expected it to be. It took a lot of time, there were a lot of setbacks, but it was worth it.
“Epic…Art lovers will find it edifying.”- John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
“Eye-opening.”- A.O Scott, The New York Times
“Four Stars!”- Stephen Boone, RogerEbert.com
THE FAREWELL PARTY Filmmakers: “When the body fails and the mind remains lucid, self-irony and humor remain the best way to cope with the prospect of death.”
THE FAREWELL PARTY is an acclaimed Israeli comedy about the residents of a retirement home who build a machine for self-euthanasia in order to help their terminally ill friend, though they are faced with a series of dilemmas when rumors of the machine begin to spread. (Yes, it’s a comedy.) Well into their ’70s, Yehezkel and his wife Levana are living a comfortable life inside a Jerusalem retirement home. When it comes to retirement, there are some people who find this adjustment an easy one. Even though before this, there is a lot to understand like understanding what Key Equity Release is, for example, and managing finances, but when the time does come to give up working life, hopefully, a lot of people will find it worthwhile, just like Yehezkel and his wife have done. It’s also useful looking into financial benefits that retirees may be eligible to. Things like social security benefits are definitely worthwhile with the ability to cover your spouse and close family members as well as yourself. If you want to learn more, you can look how Social Security spousal benefits are calculated here.
But their contented lives are soon dealt a deep shock when their dear friend Max falls prey to an irreversible illness. Looking for a way out, Max asks Yehezkel for help to end his suffering. Whilst many in real life in these situations end up ignored, and need help from a nursing home neglect lawyer to get the support needed, it is different here. Yehezkel, a longtime amateur inventor, rises to the challenge by constructing a machine that will allow Max to self-administer a dose of tranquilizers. Levana, however, believes that such a device is immoral, and expresses her passionate disapproval. But when Levana herself begins to face a serious health issue, Yehezkel finds that his feelings about his new contraption become increasingly complicated. In THE FAREWELL PARTY, co-directors Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit have tackled an extremely sensitive issue in a vibrant and unique way. You will cry while watching this movie, but whether from laughter or compassion will be difficult to separate.
Co-directors Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit had this to say about their acclaimed — THE FAREWELL PARTY won four Israeli Academy Awards, including in Best Actor for Israeli star Ze’ev Revach, and received a total of 14 nominations, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, and Actress — film:
“‘For against your will you are formed, against your will you are born, against your will you live.’ ~ Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 4). Can you at least determine when to die? THE FAREWELL PARTY deals with separation. Separation from someone you love, separation from yourself – when the mind begins to fail, and the separation from life and the right to choose how it all ends. The main characters are senior citizens, in a retirement community in Jerusalem, people who have retired from their life’s work – these type of people are not usually heroes of movies. But out of that very place of retirement and inactivity, they decide to gain control over their fate. As in any tragedy where the protagonist tries to change his destiny and of those surrounding him, there isan unbearable price to pay. THE FAREWELL PARTY is also a film about love and friendship. Our five main characters find comfort, strength and hope in each other in the difficult and funniest moments of life. The plot is not autobiographical, but is based on personal experiences accumulated while caring for a ‘Helga;’ someone close to us, towards the end of their life. In our process of saying goodbye to a loved one, we discovered that when the body fails and the mind remains lucid, self-irony and humor remain the best way to cope with the prospect of death. In our films we try to deal with contemporary social issues, which are often controversial. We try to break the emotional drama with absurd and comic elements. We do so also by casting comedians, and in the case of this film some of the icons of Israeli comedy, in dramatic roles. We feel this makes this difficult and important issue more accessible to our audience, and hopefully, as in life, they will laugh as they wipe away their tears.”
Laemmle Theatres & EAT|SEE|HEAR Join Forces for THROWBACK THURSDAY Film Series
New #TBT Throwback Thursday Series Kicks Off with “Swimming With Sharks” on Thursday, June 4 at Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 Theatre in Pasadena. Get your tickets now!
Opening Night, Every Attendee Will Have a Chance to Win a Pair of Tickets to any upcoming Laemmle film plus a free large popcorn and drink.
Eat|See|Hear, L.A.’s premier outdoor movie, food truck and live music event series, and Laemmle Theaters today announced the first eight movies of their 2015 Throwback Thursday (#TBT) schedule featuring an offbeat mix of older nostalgic and cult films. #TBT runs every single Thursday night beginning June 4th through 2016 at rotating Laemmle Theaters across Los Angeles.
Each night will feature a themed FOOD TRUCK for patrons to grab dinner and a movie! For instance, a truck serving French cuisine (frog legs) may accompany a screening of The Triplets of Belleville. All movie-goers (not just those attending Throwback Thursday) will be allowed to bring food truck items inside the venue.
With respect to the “Hear” aspect, patrons will relax inside the auditorium to playlists specifically curated for each event as they wait for the program to start. What’s more, on certain occasions, celebrities connected to the film will be on hand to make a special presentation or stay afterward for a Q&A.
Tickets are available at http://www.laemmle.com/tbt
Sharon Sperber, Executive Producer at Eat|See|Hear says, “We have partnered with Laemmle Theatres on a variety of events over the last number of years so it was a natural fit for us to join forces to create a regular weekly series designed to show movies we want to see again on the big screen and think everyone else should check out the experience in a theater environment, too.”
Greg Laemmle, President of Laemmle Theatres, concurs: “Working with Eat|See|Hear on Throwback Thursdays allows us to create innovative, event-style programming for our various communities. In addition, it gives movie buffs a chance to experience theatrically a great selection of eclectic titles that don’t typically get shown on the repertory circuit. And there’s going to be great food – so what’s not to love?”
Plans for the series include films that have connections to upcoming major releases, such as WESTWORLD in honor of the upcoming Jurassic World and the cult movie SHOWGIRLS timed with the release of Magic Mike XXL. There will also be monthly themes such as “Summer/Beach Movies,” “Back to School,” “Music Films” (not to be confused with Musicals) and a Gangster series featuring such movies as GOODFELLAS and MARRIED TO THE MOB.
Tickets are $12 and may be purchased online at http://www.laemmle.com or at the theater. As with regular screenings, discounts are available for children, seniors, and Laemmle Premiere Card holders.
2015 #TBT SCHEDULE: June-July
| DATE | VENUE | FILM |
| June 4 | Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena | Swimming with Sharks (1994) |
| June 11 | Laemmle NoHo 7 in NoHo | Westworld (1973) |
| Jun 18 | Laemmle Royal in West LA | Flash Gordon (1980) |
| Jun 25 | Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills | Showgirls (1995) |
| July 2 | Laemmle NoHo 7 in NoHo | 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) |
| July 9 | Laemmle Royal in West LA | Triplets of Belleville (2003) |
| July 16 | Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena | Innerspace (1987) |
| July 23 | Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills | Raging Bull (1980) |
| July 30 | TBA | TBA |
*Venues and movies subject to change – check http://www.eatseehear.com/tbt or www.laemmle.com for possible updates to the schedule.
Typical Event Schedule
- 6:30pm – Food Truck Arrives
- 7:30pm – Movie begins
For more information about the #TBT series, guests are encouraged to visit the Eat|See|Hear website or Laemmle website as well as the Eat|See|Hear Facebook page, Twitter feed (@EatSeeHear) and Instagram for the latest updates.
About Eat|See|Hear
Voted “Best Outdoor Movie Series” by Los Angeles Magazine in 2014, the Eat|See|Hear outdoor movie, food truck and live music series brings an evening of fun to Los Angeles-area venues each summer. The fourth annual summer series is presented by Showtime Networks, featuring up-and-coming bands from the local music scene, the hottest food trucks and the largest inflatable movie screen west of the Mississippi with the highest quality HD-projection with a 52-foot wide image and professional sound. Eat|See|Hear promises an enjoyable movie-going experience for everyone, including dogs. Each event and is produced by LA-based Trailhead Marketing, Inc. For more information visit www.eatseehear.com.
Girl Talk HQ on MARIE’S STORY: “Incredible True Story of Marie Huertin: A Deaf & Blind Girl Whose Life was Transformed by a Nun”
The new French drama MARIE’S STORY is set in a nineteenth-century convent, where the idealistic Sister Marguerite sees in a deaf and blind girl a unique potential, and despite her Mother Superior’s skepticism, vows to bring the wild young thing out of the darkness into which she was born. Based on true events, MARIE’S STORY recounts the courageous journey of a young nun and the lives she would change forever, confronting failures and discouragement with joyous faith and love. We are pleased to open the film at the Royal on Friday, May 29 as well as the next day at the Playhouse 7.
This week Girl Talk HQ, “a daily news blog dedicated to female empowerment and inspiration for millennial women,” posted a great piece about MARIE’S STORY that begins:
all about supporting films that feature female stories and lead characters, which is why we fell in love with French film MARIE’S STORY, directed by Jean-Pierre Ameris. The film stars Ariana Rivoire as the difficult yet extraordinary Marie Heurtin, and Isabelle Carre as the Catholic Nun Sister Margeurite who saw the beauty and depth in a girl who society shunned.
At the turn of the 19th century, a humble artisan and his wife have a daughter, Marie, who is born deaf and blind and unable to communicate with the world around her. Desperate to find a connection to their daughter and avoid sending her to an asylum, the Heurtins send fourteen-year-old Marie to the Larnay Institute in central France, where an order of Catholic nuns manage a school for deaf girls. There, the idealistic Sister Marguerite sees in Marie a unique potential, and despite her Mother Superior’s skepticism, vows to bring the wild young thing out of the darkness into which she was born.
It is a true story depicting a stunning visual sequence of a life transformed despite the odds. Sister Marguerite’s persistence is the most heart-warming part of this film. We were glued to the screen watching how on earth she was going to transform the life of this teen girl who everyone else had pretty much given up on.
Read the rest of the piece at girltalkhq.com.
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