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Time’s running out to see the “perfect” ‘Petite Maman’ on the big screen.

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French filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s follow up to the powerful Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the much different but equally beautiful and uniquely emotional Petite Maman. The protagonist is eight-year-old Nelly, who accompanies her parents to her mother’s childhood home after the death of the grandmother. As Nelly explores the house and nearby woods, she meets a neighbor her own age building a treehouse. What follows is a tender tale of childhood grief, memory and connection.

As of Friday we’ll be playing Petite Maman at seven of our eight locations, but unfortunately the engagements may have to be brief. Please read some of the effusive praise of this lovely film and consider enjoying and supporting it as intended, theatrically:

“There isn’t a false note or superfluous image in Petite Maman, which runs a just-right 72 minutes. It’s perfect.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“It’s a perfect creation in miniature, one that doesn’t have a wasted frame but that also never feels like it’s in a rush.” ~ Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture

“We forget a lot of things when we grow up. This film is a wonderful reminder.” ~ Odie Henderson, RogerEbert.com

“Poetry on screen can’t be constructed, or willed into existence. Under the right circumstances, though, it can be allowed. Ms. Sciamma, whose previous feature was the passionate and extravagant Portrait of a Lady on Fire, has created those circumstances.” ~ Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

“No less than the condition of childhood itself, the movie opens up a world of possibilities, all of them beautiful and beguiling — and over all too soon.” ~ Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Searing, prescient French abortion drama ‘Happening’ arrives just in time.

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Opening just as the expected but still shocking news broke that the Republican appointees to the Supreme Court are ready to begin clawing back women’s rights within a few weeks, Happening could not be more timely or galvanizing. As Mark Olsen wrote recently in the L.A. Times, “Happening is set in 1963 and yet it suddenly feels like a possible window into the future. Directed by Audrey Diwan, who co-wrote the adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel of the same name, the film follows a young French college student Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei) as she attempts to get an abortion after discovering she is pregnant. Though abortion became legal in France in 1975, in 1963 it very much was not, with potential prison time for the woman, whoever performed the procedure and anyone who helped. Isolated from her friends and family, Anne becomes increasingly driven as the weeks pass by to find a solution to her problem — anything that will allow her to continue on with her life as she planned and fulfill her goal to become a writer…In an emailed statement, Diwan responded to the recent news [from SCOTUS], writing, “The purpose of art is also to bring to light some hidden truths. We all know, time has proven it, that when abortion becomes illegal, women who feel the need for it find other solutions. And not safe ones. I think that those who want to intervene in the abortion debate, whether for or against, should at least know clearly what a clandestine abortion is. We cannot talk about what we don’t know. And I include myself here: before reading Happening, I participated in this conversation for a long time without knowing … I was wrong. We should all know, this must not stay silent.'”

 

Happening was a critical, commercial and cultural phenomenon in its native France, where it opened in the autumn. The New York Times recently published a piece headlined “In France, a Film Has Women Sharing Their Stories of Abortion: Following the release of Happening, about an illegal abortion in 1963, the country’s contemporary stigma around the procedure is facing scrutiny.” The lede: “Happening, Audrey Diwan’s film about a 1960s back-street abortion in France, isn’t for the fainthearted. In fact, audience members have fainted at several screenings, including at the Venice Film Festival last September, where it won the Golden Lion. ‘It’s often men who say the experience took them to the limit of what they could bear,” Diwan said in a recent interview, “because they had never imagined what it might be like.’…Happening, which aims for a sense of immediacy onscreen, has led artists and activists to speak up about the taboo they feel still surrounds the procedure. ‘There is this constructed social shame that women are meant to feel, Diwan said, ‘and the sense that if we talk about it, we take the risk of calling into question this right, which in the end is never assured.’ In response to Happening, last December, the French feminist magazine Causette devoted a cover story to testimonies from 13 celebrities, under the title: “Yes, I Had An Abortion.” The author Pauline Harmange, who rose to international prominence last year with her debut book “I Hate Men,” also published an essay in March about her own experience, “Avortée” (“Aborted”).”

Some of the abundant praise for Happening:

“Magnificently written, directed, shot and performed, it reminds you that cinema can be such a powerful medium of empathy.” – Zhuo-Ning Su, Awards Daily

“It’s hard to think of a film more necessary in the current moment.” – David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“Deftly adapted by director Audrey Diwan from a novella, Happening is a period piece, but it’s acted and shot with a shivery immediacy.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph UK

Audrey Diwan

We open Happening at the Claremont, Newhall, Playhouse and Town Center this Friday, May 13 and at the Monica Film Center, Glendale and NoHo on May 20.

Q&As this Friday with HATCHING filmmaker Hanna Bergholm.

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HATCHING filmmaker Hanna Bergholm will participate in Q&As after the 7:30 PM screening at the Monica Film Center and after the 10:15 PM screening at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, April 29.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS1oDoElwqc

 

“If you want movie studios to make movies that are good, interesting and original, you need to go see them.” Washington Post on ‘Everything Everywhere,’ ‘Massive Talent’ and ‘The Northman.’

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Washington Post columnist Sonny Bunch recently published a compelling piece headlined “If you want original movies to survive, get to a theater this April” about returning to movie theatres.  Laemmle Theatres has been open for just over a year at this point. If you aren’t going to the movies as frequently as you did before the pandemic, you are contributing to trends in distribution that may be irreversible. Bunch’s piece speaks to this better than we can, which is why we’re sharing it. We understand that we have all been through a very traumatic time. It has been tragic and frightening. But we aren’t where we were when the pandemic started. We have effective vaccines and booster shots and plentiful masks that provide an amazing level (granted, not 100%) of protection. Test & Treat is rolling out so that you can get access for treatments that will minimize illness. And theatres are set up with better ventilation systems to more effectively circulate and filter air inside auditoriums.  You can safely return to moviegoing.  So, nu?

From the Post: “Are you sick of comic book movies and other franchises? This month, you actually have a chance to do something about it. A trio of big, original new releases comes to theaters this month. Go see one — or all of them. If these movies fail, our theatrical future will be nothing but the disappointing Morbius and its ilk. And movie lovers who have defaulted to home entertainment even after coronavirus vaccines, rapid tests and high-quality masks have become widely available will have only themselves to blame.

“Going wide this Friday is Everything Everywhere All at Once, the heart-rending and mind-bending new picture from the directorial duo Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels. The writer-director duo, aided by stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis, have concocted a masterpiece that manages the tricky balance of feeling sui generis and yet familiar. Here we have a movie about a mother (Yeoh) trying to connect emotionally with her daughter (Hsu) and stave off divorce from her husband (Quan) while saving her business from the taxwoman (Curtis) — this is the familiar — all while careening through the multiverse in an effort to ward off a villain filled with nihilistic, creation-destroying malaise who leads a cult that worships an evil everything bagel.

“Everything Everywhere is an earnest — some cynics will suggest saccharine — movie about families, about the difficulty of watching your kids grow up and change into something you’re not, about the love needed to keep generations together. That earnestness is leavened by what can only be described as a supreme, gut-busting silliness, including, among other wild visuals, people who have hot dogs for fingers and a raccoon puppeteering a Benihana-type chef in the style of Ratatouille.

Laemmle Oscar Contest, plus Kevin Costner’s Best Director Oscar Presentation.

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Welp, that’s a wrap for the 2022 Oscars and our contest. Laemmle moviegoers were able to foresee the Academy’s choices very accurately with two exceptions: they went for the more conventional Best Picture nominee with CODA over The Power of the Dog and the artier choice with Best Animated Short nominee Windshield Wiper over the family-friendly Robin Robin. The Power of the Dog was in a tight race for Best Adapted Screenplay with eventual winner CODA. Best Original Screenplay split somewhat evenly between Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza and eventual winner Kenneth Branagh for Belfast.

See the full results in cool pie charts at laemmle.com/oscars. We’ll announce our winners on this page on Thursday, March 31.

The sad, shocking incident during the ceremony overshadowed everything but one thing worth taking a second look at is Kevin Costner‘s presentation of the Best Director Oscar. It was probably the best presentation of the evening. He has won the award himself, of course, 30 years ago for Dances with Wolves. He spoke movingly and deliberately about the experience of seeing movies in theaters and how seeing How the West was Won at the Cinerama Dome inspired him to become an actor and filmmaker. The in-person audience giggles at first, but by the end you could hear a pin drop. Here’s a transcription and video:

You know, about a half-mile from here, I saw my first full-length adult movie. I know what you’re thinking, but I was seven years old and I was away from my parents and wanted to have some fun. It was a cowboy movie called How the West Was Won. And what I witnessed that afternoon in the Cinerama Dome was perfect. The curtain, when we still had them, opened to a film almost four hours long. It had an intermission where the score continued, subtly signaling at one point that the second half was about to start. I don’t know where everyone went, but I wasn’t going to move an inch. I decided that I would not give up my magic seat. I was determined that I would not miss a minute. And as I sat in that dark that afternoon 60 years ago, all I really knew was that I was in careful hands. Little did I know that three directors would be responsible for that epic moment in my life. They fired my imagination, and they captured my heart. That’s what can happen when you direct a movie. You can change a mind. You can change the trajectory of a life, of a career. You can capture a heart. But you can’t do it alone. And directors, tonight’s directors all know the possibilities. They know what’s at stake. It’s why they give their precious time. It’s why they choose to fight through the long days, and the longer nights, and the endless questions, and the inevitable second guessing that comes from those who would do it differently if given half a chance. These five directors have all managed to stay the course. They have all held the line and masterfully given us the gift of a single vision, and for that we honor them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y52t3CVKeyc&t=167s

Moviegoers, last chance to catch the Oscar nominated films in theatres.

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For cinephiles, there is nothing like awards season, when studios and distributors release their finest films in hopes of garnering rapturous reviews, capturing audiences’ attention, and earning accolades, none more coveted than an Academy Award. The 2021-2022 season comes to a close this Sunday at 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA and on a TV screen near you, but there’s still time to see the nominees. We’re playing the animated and live action shorts at the NoHo and bringing them back to Glendale and we have the documentary shorts on Saturday and Sunday at the Royal.  Some of these films, like THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, PARALLEL MOTHERS, LICORICE PIZZA, DRIVE MY CAR and FLEE, are so good they’re worth seeing twice. On Laemmle Virtual Cinema, see LUNANA and ASCENSION.  All terrific. Enjoy!
Riz Ahmed in Best Live Action Short nominee THE LONG GOODBYE.

Stand with Ukraine through Film: THE GUIDE and Ukraine War relief.

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We all know of the tragedy that is happening in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion.  Thousands of civilians are dying in the streets while as of today 3,000,000 people are fleeing the country.

Film exhibitors around the country want to do their small part. Working with filmmaker Oles Sanin, who is currently in Ukraine, we have banded together to screen his 2014 Ukrainian film The Guide and will donate 100% of the proceeds to help his fellow Ukrainians. We’ll begin screening the film this Friday at the Monica Film Center. The Guide follows an American boy named Peter and and a blind minstrel, Ivan, who are thrown together by fate during the Stalin-perpetrated genocide in 1930s Ukraine.

Here’s the official website: STAND WITH UKRAINE THROUGH FILM

Here is a message from the director that will precede the screenings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ea5wsqA6xI

Here is the film’s trailer:

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

Brevity is the soul of wit: The 2022 Oscar-nominated short films are now playing everywhere.

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This Friday we’ll expand our screenings of the 2022 Oscar-nominated short films — live action, animated and documentary — to almost all our venues so cinephiles from throughout L.A. County and beyond can enjoy them theatrically. Robert Abele of the L.A. Times weighed in on his favorites:

Documentaries: “The Queen of Basketball is a joyous portrait of college legend, breakthrough Olympian, and only ever female NBA draftee Lusia “Lucy” Harris, a gifted athlete without a professional league of her own. Harris died in January, but here she’s a wry chronicler of her underappreciated majesty, making Queen a fitting film obituary. Matt Ogens’ percussively energized, heartfelt Audible takes us into the tightknit huddle of high schoolers in the successful football program at the Maryland School for the Deaf, their Big Game preparation a poignant metaphor for the feelings of pride, loss and community that make them different from, but also no different than, any teenager facing an uncertain world…Looking back on a childhood choice (and seizing on a wild coincidence) is the province of veteran experimental filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt’s When We Were Bullies, a wonderfully intimate, collage-styled reckoning with memory, hurt and the ethics of storytelling.”

From WHEN WE WERE BULLIES. Courtesy of ShortsTV.

Live action: “The nerviest conscience buster is Aneil Karia’s The Long Goodbye, a companion film to actor/rapper Riz Ahmed’s same-named album. He plays one of many members of a large British-South Asian family in a bustling house preparing for a wedding until a violent reality intrudes, leading to a wall-breaking rap about race, history and nationalism that Ahmed delivers like a frontline soliloquy. On the more Black Mirror end of things is KD Davila’s Kafkaesque satire Please Hold, which fuses our blind fascination with all things contactless, online and privatized with our inability to reform a byzantine justice system, following it to a not-too-far-off conclusion for someone like innocent Latino 20-something Mateo (Erick Lopez).”

From PLEASE HOLD. Courtesy of ShortsTV.

Animation: “Lives marred by cruelty factor into the hand-drawn Boxballet and stop-motion Bestia. The former, from Anton Dyakov, brings together a hulking, banged-up pugilist and an up-and-coming ballerina for a wordless-but-not-soundless meeting of sensitive souls. The latter is Chilean animator Hugo Covarrubias’ slow-burning, textural glimpse — set during the country’s military dictatorship — of the corrosive duality in a policewoman’s daily life with her dog, her body and her demons. The eerie airlessness of the dollhouse-like settings and the porcelain shine on the puppets are memorably unsettling.’

From BESTIA.

“Influential designer/animator Alberto Mielgo, who sparked the aesthetic of Into the Spider-Verse, is another wizard with texture and visual depth. His meditative The Windshield Wiper poses the question “What is love?” to a man in a café, then seeks clues in a series of vignettes with couples around the world. Mielgo’s urbanized hybrid of the painterly and the digitized is hypnotic and its own example of an artist’s love.’

From THE WINDSHIELD WIPER.

“British animator Joanna Quinn’s enthusiasm for the wiggly expressiveness of traditional animation, meanwhile, makes her latest romp starring middle-aged feminist factory worker Beryl, Affairs of the Art, a raucous delight. (The last Beryl short was in 2006.) Now hellbent on becoming a “hyperfuturist artiste,” drawing-obsessed Beryl (voiced as ever by Menna Trussler) relays a family history of sibling rivalry, imperiled pets, morbid curiosities and eccentric tastes, while Quinn’s masterful caricatures and love of bulbous bodies in motion would make Da Vinci blush, laugh and be jealous simultaneously. Drawing becomes riotously, beautifully alive in Quinn’s vaudeville of aging and anatomy, but so does the wonderfully personal message delivered through her never-too-late-to-try heroine: There’s power in passion, whenever it strikes you in life.”

From AFFAIRS OF THE ART.

Please note that the animated shorts are not MPAA rated but if they were they’d likely receive an R or NC-17 rating. Only adults will be admitted.

https://vimeo.com/678295462/7a10ce4892