The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

Home » Theater Buzz » Santa Monica » Page 62

UNLOCKING THE CAGE’s Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker on KCRW’s Press Play

by

Unlocking the Cage, which we open today at the Monica Film Center and tomorrow at the Playhouse 7, follows animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his unprecedented challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans, by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform a chimpanzee from a “thing” with no rights to a “person” with legal protections. The Hollywood Reporter described the film as “a crisp and convincing doc” and Indiewire “eye-opening.”

The filmmakers, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, were interviewed on Madeleine Brand’s KCRW show Press Play yesterday. You can listen to it by clicking here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOq7fbe2PZI&nohtml5=False

Win a Signed Copy of “Be Here Now” and See the Hit Doc DYING TO KNOW

by

BHN_cover_02

It comes as no surprise that DYING TO KNOW, Gay Dillingham’s documentary has been held over at three Laemmle locations (Monica Film Center, Playhouse 7 and Claremont 5). After all, it chronicles the intriguing friendship between TIMOTHY LEARY and RAM DASS, two of the 60s most fascinating luminaries. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the film has been playing to great critical and audience acclaim.  To wit, check out this short video clip featuring audience footage from the film’s premiere at the Royal last week.

To celebrate this sleeper hit, we’ve procured a copy of Ram Dass’ seminal book BE HERE NOW signed by the great mystic himself!

ENTER BELOW for your chance to win this singular prize … and don’t forget to catch Dying to Know in theaters this weekend.

Update: Congratulation to BE HERE NOW contest winner Lycia Naff of Los Angeles!

The contest is now closed.

They flew through the air with the greatest of ease: Trapeze artists and the director of THE FLIGHT FANTASTIC in person for Q&A’s

by

THE FLIGHT FANTASTIC, a fascinating look at the world of the flying trapeze, centers on one of the greatest acts in circus history, The Flying Gaonas. First performing on a trampoline, the Gaonas went on to become the star attraction for the best circuses in the world, including Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Long-time Broadway director (and trapeze flyer) Tom Moore brings their story to life through interviews with family members and colorful archival material.

Meet them and the THE FLIGHT FANTASTIC filmmaker in person:

Monday, 20th, NoHo
Richie Gaona & Mercedes Gallup (partner), Jose Gaona, Alex Gaona, Masha Nordbye, Corinna Gamma (Photographer) and DIR Tom Moore.
On Tuesday, 21st, Pasadena
Richie Gaona & Mercedes Gallup, Jose Gaona, Masha Nordbye, and DIR Tom Moore
On Wedesday, 22st, Santa Monica
Richie Gaona & Mercedes Gallup, Jose Gaona, Corinna Gamma, Masha Nordbye, and DIR Tom Moore

If music be the food of love, play on! Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yo-Yo Ma and Unlocking the Truth coming soon.

by

We’ve got four very cool music films coming up: On June 16 we’ll screen Iggy Pop: Live in Basel 2015 at five of our venues, the Fine Arts, Claremont 5, NoHo 7, Playhouse 7 and Monica Film Center. We’ll open The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble for week-long engagements on June 17th at the Playhouse and Town Center and a week later at Monica Film Center and Claremont. On July 1 we open the rock doc Breaking a Monster at the Monica Film Center. And finally we’ll feature Nick Cave and Bad Seeds’ One More Time with Feeling at the Fine Arts, Claremont, NoHo, Playhouse and Monica Film Center on September 8.

Iggy Pop: Live in Basel 2015 features this outstanding artist known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics as he performs at the Baloise Session in Basel, Switzerland, where he was honored with a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. This fantastic October 2015 show features all of Iggy’s classics, including “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “The Passenger,” “Lust for Life” and many more.

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

The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble is by the director of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom and the critically acclaimed Best of Enemies. It tells the extraordinary story of the renowned international musical collective created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the diverse group of instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, arrangers, visual artists and storytellers as they explore the power of music to preserve tradition, shape cultural evolution and inspire hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SShFP7QfSCg&nohtml5=False&nohtml5=False#t=150.03675

For something quite different but no less inspiring, Breaking a Monster begins as the three members of band Unlocking the Truth are all in 7th grade, spending their weekends playing a blend of heavy metal and speed punk in Times Square, often drawing substantial crowds. They take on a manager: a 70-year-old industry veteran. With his guidance they are soon on their way to a 1.8 million dollar record deal and a precarious initiation into the music industry.

BAM
A scene from BREAKING A MONSTER courtesy of Abramorama Entertainment.

A unique one night only cinema event directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly), One More Time With Feeling will be the first ever opportunity anyone will have to hear Skeleton Tree, the sixteenth studio album from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. The film will screen in cinemas across the world on 8th September 2016, immediately prior to the release of Skeleton Tree the following day.

Originally a performance based concept, One More Time With Feeling evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. Interwoven throughout the Bad Seeds’ filmed performance of the new album are interviews and footage shot by Dominik, accompanied by Cave’s narration and improvised rumination.

Filmed in black-and-white and color, in both 3D and 2D, the result is fragile, raw and a true testament to an artist trying to find his way through the darkness.

Image courtesy of Picturehouse Entertainment.
A scene from ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING. Image courtesy of Picturehouse Entertainment.

 

“What are you doing in my closet, Jeffrey Beaumont?” David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET, Restored for Thirtieth Anniversary Screenings.

by

BVposterThere’s something going on behind the white picket fences of Lumberton, North Carolina. And after stumbling upon a severed human ear in a field, mystery loving college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is determined to find out what. Teaming up with the daughter (Laura Dern) of a local police detective, Jeffrey’s investigation leads him into a strange world of sensuality and violence, with the intrigue of the missing ear seemingly stemming from the relationship between a troubled nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) and a sociopathic sadomasochist (Dennis Hopper).

See BLUE VELVET on the big screen June 1st at the Claremont, Playhouse, NoHo or Monica Film Center to celebrate the 30th anniversary of David Lynch’s masterpiece of a sleepy small-town caught in the grips of the American nightmare.

“Still enraptures and confounds. Three decades after its initial release, David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET has lost none of its power to derange, terrify, and exhilarate.” – Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

5001287

Beginning Friday, Take the Completed Expo Line to the Monica Film Center!

by

Friday, May 20, 2016 is a special day in Los Angeles history. For the first time in 60 years, Angelenos can take a take a train from points east right into lovely downtown Santa Monica. No traffic, no stress about finding and paying for parking, etc. And for the first couple days, free rides and parties! 

expo

“As part of the celebrations for the opening of the Expo Line to Santa Monica on Friday, May 20, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) will offer free rides on Friday and Saturday and will hold station celebrations on Saturday, May 21.

“The free rides will be on the entire Expo Line, from 7th St/Metro Center to Downtown Santa Monica. On Friday, free rides will begin at noon and will continue until the close of service. On Saturday, May 21, the free rides will start at 4:42 a.m. in Downtown Santa Monica and at 4:45 a.m. at 7th/Metro Center and will last until the end of service around 2 a.m.

“‘We invite the public to join us on Friday and Saturday to celebrate the historic opening of the Metro Expo Line to Santa Monica,’ said Metro CEO Phillip A. Washington. ‘We encourage the community to enjoy this new light-rail line service and see for themselves how close to the beach Metro can get you.’

“The station celebrations will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the following new stations: Downtown Santa Monica, 17th St/SMC, 26th St/Bergamot, Expo/Bundy and Palms. The Culver City Station that has been open since 2012 will be joining the celebrations. Entertainment, children’s activities, food trucks, bike valet and bike-pit stops and information booths are among the activities.”

The western-most Expo Line station at Colorado and Fourth is a leisurely ten-minute walk from our recently rebuilt Monica Film Center. This week we shot this time-lapse video of the walk, which ends with the smiling, welcoming faces of Monicas managers Caitlyn and Tom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVg1pCmsZ-I

Come catch a flick!

Also, Supervisor Sheila Kuhl posted this cute video extolling the Expo Line’s virtues:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNgl8YjbLpA

Oscar-Nominated director of THE IDOL in Person for Q&A’s in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

by

hany-2190-3THE IDOL director Hany Abu-Assad will participate in Q&As following the 5:00 and 7:40 PM shows and introduce the 10:15 PM show on Friday, May 27 at the Monica Film Center. He will also do Q&As following the 4:30 and 7:10 PM shows in at the Fine Arts on Saturday, May 28th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF0Fh3WU5LI

Laemmle’s Art in the Arthouse Presents “Archiving Hesse” at the Monica Film Center

by

Recently, there’s been a lot of commotion surrounding the seminal artist EVA HESSE, including a recent exhibit at the Whitney, a current show in DTLA at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, and of course, the opening of the film EVA HESSE at four of our venues. Directed by Marcie Begleiter and produced by Karen Shapiro, the documentary is the first feature-length examination of Hesse’s life and work.

Barbara Brown_edit_lr
Barbara Brown, photographer

In addition to all this, our fine arts program, Art in the Arthouse, has jumped into the fray with ARCHIVING HESSE an exhibit at the Monica that includes photography featured in the film.  It showcases the work of photographer and raconteur, BARBARA BROWN, who, from 1962-1965, chronicled Hesse and the other luminaries that made up the Canal St. scene of New York’s Lower Eastside.

Unfortunately, most of Brown’s negatives were destroyed in a bizarre train fire and eternally lost. But we are pleased to present some surviving photos that capture the artist in particularly revealing moments. Interwoven are two images from Hesse’s 1968 solo exhibition at the Fishbach Gallery taken by NORMAN GOLDMAN.

The Archiving Hesse photo exhibit opens this Thurs. night at the Monica Film Center (where the documentary will be showing) and can be enjoyed through June.

About Hesse:

In 1938, at three years old, EVA HESSE was put on the kindertransport to escape Nazi Germany. She arrived in New York to reunite with her family, but seven years later lost her mother to suicide.

Hesse went on to study art and design at Yale University.  As an artist, she had a unique ability to alchemize her personal tragedies into searing and poetic works. Based mainly in New York, Hesse and her husband Tom Doyle briefly relocated their studio to Kettwig Germany where she transitioned from painter to sculptor.

“Stop [thinking] and just do!”  This strong note circa 1965 from her mentor Sol LeWitt opened Hesse up to an artistic stream of sculptures, paintings, drawings, and happenings. She incorporated industrial materials such as cord, wire, yarn, and latex to create magnificent walls sculptures that commanded attention. Hesse soon became a major figure in the post AbEx landscape movement.

Tragically, Hesse died of brain cancer at age 34. She lives on in her works, which are displayed in museums worldwide,