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Q1 2024 Culture Vulture Films Announced!

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Happy New Year! Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle just finished putting the finishing touches on our Q1 films for Culture Vulture, our long-running weekly film series of fine art, theater, opera, music and more. Have a look! The screenings are every Monday evening and Tuesday matinee at the Laemmle Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center and, expanding the map to the San Fernando Valley, the Town Center in Encino.
01/22 – 01/23   MENUS-PLAISIRS: LES TROISGROS
01/29 – 01/30   DEAR ENGLAND
02/05 – 02/06   CALL ME DANCER
02/12 – 02/13   ROMEO & JULIET
02/26 – 02/27   THE IMMORTALS: THE WONDERS OF THE MUSEO EGIZIO
03/04 – 03/05   SKYLIGHT
03/11 – 03/12   PAINTING THE MODERN GARDEN: MONET TO MATISSE
03/18 – 03/19   VANYA
03/25 – 03/26   AMERICAN SOCIALIST: THE LIFE & TIMES OF EUGENE VICTOR DEBS

See the Academy Shortlisted Foreign Films and Feature Documentaries at Laemmle.

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As a gifted filmmaker told the New Yorker last year, seeing a movie at home rather than in a movie theater is “like reading a novel where you read one word out of two.” With that in mind, check out the Academy’s just-announced list of feature documentaries and international films that they have shortlisted for nominations. We’ll be playing a number of them:

SOCIETY OF SNOW (Spain) is now playing at the NoHo for two-week run.

THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE (Germany) opened Christmas Day at the Royal and is expanding in January.

Aki Kaurismäki’s FALLEN LEAVES (Finland) is on screen at the Monica Film Center and set to return to Glendale.

THE PROMISED LAND from Denmark (with Mads Mikkelsen!), THE MONK AND THE GUN from Bhutan and TOTEM from Mexico are all set to open on February 2. And THE TASTE OF THINGS from France (with Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel!) will be back starting February 9.

And finally, we expect to be opening Jonathan Glazer’s THE ZONE OF INTEREST (United Kingdom) and Wim Wenders’ PERFECT DAYS (Japan)!

On the Doc side, we will be playing BEYOND UTOPIA, A STILL SMALL VOICE, THE ETERNAL MEMORY and TO KILL A TIGER for weekend morning shows at Glendale and the Monica starting on January 6.  And we expect to have a couple of the other shortlisted docs come back as well.
Twelve of the 15 shortlisted docs played on our screens earlier this year. Not bad!

Make plans to enjoy the cinematic feast of the holiday season well into 2024!

Greg Laemmle on deactivating Laemmle Theatres’ Twitter accounts.

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From Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle:

My wife’s uncle Bert has been guiding a Sunday morning family Zoom that started up during the early days of the pandemic.  While listening in, I have often heard him repeat a guiding principle for the group discussion.  Before speaking, ask yourself these questions:

1.) Is it true?
2.) Is it kind?
3.) Is it necessary?

A quick online search provides a number of different attributions.  This could come to us from Socrates (via Plato).  Another version is attributed to the great Sufi mystic, Rumi.  Or maybe it comes from radio host Bernard Meltzer …who may have picked it up from any number of Buddhist sources.  Whatever the origin, the point is that across multiple cultures and philosophic traditions, we are urged to think before we speak.

And then there’s the platform formerly known as Twitter.

While Twitter has always had a confrontational side, adequate content moderation kept rancid contributors in check, allowing it to better serve more positive activities like fostering community, encouraging democracy, providing a space for underserved voices, and allowing for a bit of irreverent fun. However, since its sale last year, Twitter is increasingly a bullhorn for hate and harassment, and the unfettered dissemination of conspiracy theories, disinformation, and outright lies. The new owner, who has loudly proclaimed himself a “free speech absolutist,” recently crossed a dangerous line into fascist hypocrisy by suing journalists for using their free speech rights to point out how corporations’ ads are appearing next to neo-Nazi content.  He regularly amplifies hateful posts and memes to his 164 million followers and for his latest provocation he has re-platformed the ghoulish torturer of Sandy Hook families, Alex Jones.

Twitter is not the only problematic platform.  Social media in general has encouraged disinhibition, contributing to a coarsening of public discourse. But whatever their faults (and crimes), at least these other platforms are working to improve so that they can have a greater positive influence.  Twitter has crossed into territory where the bad most definitely outweighs the good.  And from what we can see, they are aiming to go even lower.

At Laemmle Theatres, we have a high degree of tolerance for diverse and provocative voices.  But this chorus is offered in the hope that our community will be enriched by open discourse.  It is the exact opposite of the negative and hateful commentary that has become the bread and butter of Twitter.

At this time, we are deactivating our accounts on Twitter.  We hope to return, but only after serious efforts have been undertaken to provide greater content moderation and to root out hate speech.  This is not a First Amendment issue.  The Constitution limits the government’s ability to restrict speech.  But as a private platform, Twitter has the right (and responsibility) to restrict the most extreme and hateful speech.  They just don’t want to.

To connect with us on other platforms, visit laemmle.com/connect.

And for the New Year, let’s all make a resolution to better follow Uncle Bert’s maxim.  Whether in person or online, always remember the three rules when communicating.  Be truthful and kind, and always try to only say what is necessary for a listener to hear.

Greg Laemmle

ONLY IN THEATERS wins award from Film Threat. DVDs now on sale at all venues.

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Only in Theaters, the documentary about the history and future of Laemmle Theatres that includes interviews with Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory, Kenneth Turan, Leonard Maltin and more, just won the Film Threat’s Award This! award in the Film About Movies or Filmmaking category. The ceremony was last Sunday at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana. In his acceptance speech, which you can watch below, director Raphael Sbarge spoke about the century-long story he sought to tell and said “there’s been a Laemmle in the movie business since there’s been a movie business.”

The just-released Only in Theaters DVD is now available for sale at all seven of our theaters. In his recent Film Factual review of the release, Brent Simon described the film as “a rich and fortifying watch, and it thankfully isn’t fanciful enough to peddle easy solutions, or clear skies on the horizon. It’s funny and sad and at times emotionally piercing, but most of all it’s honest — a quality we should all want more of in movies, big and small.”

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “staggeringly heartbreaking” MONSTER opens Friday.

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Gently devastating in its compassion, Monster, the latest from Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda (After Life, Shoplifters, Broker), is a masterpiece of shifting perspectives that defies expectations. It begins with a mother who confronts a teacher about her child’s behavioral changes. This is the first time Kore-eda has directed a film he did not write in almost 20 years. (The film was the last scoring project by Ryuichi Sakamoto.) We open Monster this Friday at the Laemmle Monica Film Center, Glendale, Town Center/Encino and Claremont 5.

Leading film critics have weighed in:

“Monster is one of the finest films of the year, and its structure — like its circle of characters — carries secrets that can only be unraveled through patience and empathy.” ~ Natalia Winkelman, New York Times

“If possible, watch Monster more than once.” ~ Anthony Lane, New Yorker
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“It poetically shows the power of perspective. So well-observed, nuanced, and compassionately told.” ~ Claudia Puig, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)
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“As you’d expect from Kore-eda, it’s all told with the utmost detail and care, and a gentle score from the late Ryuichi Sakamoto only adds to the overarching air of thoughtfulness and empathy.” ~ Dave Calhoun, Time Out
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“There is so much beauty in Monster, and so much sadness.” ~ Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

“What Monster most comes to resemble is a reminder of the rich inner and emotional worlds of children — of their autonomy, even, in the context of a culture reluctant to acknowledge it. ~ Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal

“Monster’s three perspectives are not so much in argument with one another as they are pieces of the same puzzle. And once they are locked together, the final portrait is staggeringly heartbreaking.” ~ Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

“While Monster depends on dramatic irony and revelatory twists, it’s also a showcase for director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose knack for collaboration brings out the best in his actors, especially his younger cast members.” ~ Simon Abrams, RogerEbert.com

“One of the director’s finest, its thematic scope and emotional power growing with each new revelation.” ~ Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“Across the film, you can feel the push and pull between a master technician who built his career on the patient, delicate plucking at our heartstrings and his newfound desire to please a wide audience with the broadest of affective strokes.” ~ Kyle Turner, Slant Magazine

“Monster is another striking piece of work from a master, a movie that’s so carefully calibrated that you get lost in these characters, forgetting they’re performers and not people caught up in a genuinely traumatic chapter of life.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“Monster keeps its secrets until its final moments, leaving us with the feeling that we have earned its trust and are worthy of the precious, beautiful truths that lie at its heart.” ~ Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org

“A case of Kore-eda’s incredible felicity in handling child actors, or perhaps the kids challenging and inspiring Kore-eda yet again.” ~ Namrata Joshi, The New Indian Express

“Kore-eda is a master of directing children’s performances, so it’s no wonder that Monster is at its best when there are no adults on screen, the children living in their own world of fantasy and adventure and emotion.” ~ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

A “genuinely delightful” movie about a brilliant teacher, RADICAL Opens Friday.

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Joining the list of inspiring films about brilliant teachers like Stand and Deliver and Dead Poets Society, Radical is set in a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence. A frustrated teacher (Eugenio Derbez) tries a radical new method to unleash the curiosity and potential of his students… and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story and winner of the Festival Favorite award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Radical will make you think about the best teachers you’ve had the good fortune to meet. (Thinking of you, Ray Schaefer!) We open the movie this Friday at the Town Center, Newhall, Claremont and Monica Film Center.
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“Christopher Zalla’s truth-based drama is a rarity, a crowd-pleaser about an unorthodox 6th-grade school teacher and his students that actually earns its stand-up-and-cheer status.” Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News
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“Destined to bring a tear to even the most hardened of viewers, Radical is a genuinely delightful reimagining of a tale we might have mistakenly believed had run its course.” ~ Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org
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“Comes to a stirring close that balances optimism with a side of heartbreak for those kids who lack access to the right resources.” ~ Tomris Laffly, Variety

“Zalla teaches a lesson on how to deliver an affirming, emotional gut punch.” ~ Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

“Derbez, always a charismatic screen presence, is at his best interacting with young people.” ~ Nell Minow, RogerEbert.com

“Those who inspired Radical deserved to be celebrated, and it’s likely that a mass-appealing filmic interpretation of their against-the-odds accomplishments might function as the farthest-reaching vehicle to disseminate them.” ~ Carlos Aguilar, indieWire

“Thoroughly entertaining, completely unpredictable” Finnish Romantic Comedy FALLEN LEAVES opens Wednesday.

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The latest deadpan gem from living legend Aki Kaurismäki is a romantic comedy, but discard any preconceived notions about what that connotes. Fallen Leaves looks, sounds and moves audiences unlike a typical, predictable rom-com or most movies, for that matter. It’s sui generis and will almost certainly make the Oscar shortlist for Best International Film, and rightly so. The nation’s top film critics agree, declaring it one of the best movies of the year:

“Modestly scaled and tonally perfect, Fallen Leaves opens in a fluorescent hell-on-earth and ends with a vision of something like paradise.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

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“[A] weirdly beguiling delight.” ~ Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

“Aki Kaurismäki’s deadpan dark comedy dips with style and just a hint of weird whimsy into the lives of his working-class characters, and the tableaux he crafts give off the whiff of a Finnish spin on Hopper’s alienated figures.” ~ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

“Fallen Leaves is, for all its intended quietness, one of the most trenchant works about modern life to emerge in cinemas, post-pandemic.” ~ David Sims, The Atlantic

“Aki Kaurismäki’s latest is deeply alert to the sensory pleasures of the world.” ~ Carson Lund, Slant Magazine

“Fallen Leaves, short, sweet and utterly delightful, is the kind of movie that’s so charming, you want to run it back the moment it’s over.” Jake Coyle, Associated Press

“Fallen Leaves is thoroughly entertaining, completely unpredictable and one of the best films I’ve seen this year.” ~ Leonard Maltin, leonardmaltin.com
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“The key to this movie’s winning emotional delicacy is its formal sturdiness. Every shot has a specific job to do and does it well. The performances are measured and restrained.” ~ Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

“There’s life boiling under the simple surfaces, which is both Kaurismäki’s aesthetic mantra and his great theme. At their best, these quiet, cool films tear you to pieces. Fallen Leaves already feels like one of his signature works.” ~ Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture

We open the film Wednesday, November 22 at the Royal and December 1 at the Laemmle Glendale, Monica Film Center and Town Center.

Todd Haynes’ MAY DECEMBER and the 35th Anniversary of the Mighty Zeitgeist Films.

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 After a couple disappointing features, it was great to see Todd Haynes, one of our finest filmmakers, return to his indie roots with the 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground.  And now with May December — which we open May 17 at the Glendale, Monica Film Center, NoHo and Town Center — we have another feature that can stand alongside his masterpieces like Safe, Far from Heaven, I’m Not There and Carol.  This is also a moment to remember his first feature, Poison, and the use this as an opportunity to honor New York-based boutique distributor Zeitgeist Films (the distributor of Poison) on their 35th anniversary. Long and successful careers require talent, to be sure.  But the role of early supporters is also key. And from Todd Haynes to Atom Egoyan and Francois Ozo to Christopher Nolan, Zeitgeist has championed so many amazing talents.  ~ Greg Laemmle
Stephen Saito of The Movable Fest recently spoke with Zeitgeist founders Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo about their company, the ingenuity and drive it took to make it a success, their favorite films, and much more. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the changing world of independent film distribution from two experts. Saito introducers the interview like this:

For much of cinema history, the sight of a big Z slashing across the screen promised the fictional adventures of a sword-wielding caped crusader, but starting in 1988, that big red Z started to stand for something else amongst discerning cinephiles, as real life heroes Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo believed there was a better way forward for the films they loved. Starting Zeitgeist Films out of a small West Village apartment after working a variety of jobs in film distribution, the two have played an outsized role in shaping film culture in the decades since, taking a quality over quantity approach to making room in a crowded American theatrical marketplace for some of the most daring work from around the world. Limiting their acquisitions to a manageable slate of four to five releases a year where each one would receive their undivided attention, a necessity when championing artists such as Bruce Weber (“Let’s Get Lost”), Peter Greenaway (“The Draughtman’s Contract”), Derek Jarman (“Blue”) and Guy Maddin (“Cowards Bend at the Knee”) without deep pockets, the duo has not only had the foresight to see the enduring nature of the films themselves that they release, but the value of time in how much they put into each film and how it has afforded them the sustainability to keep going.

“We noticed that there were companies that started that spent a lot of money on films and would acquire a lot and those companies went out of business extremely quickly,” Gerstman said recently on the occasion of the company’s 35th anniversary. “And we wanted to stay in business and we were able to.”

Their latest milestone has led the Metrograph in New York to pay Zeitgeist a much-deserved month-long tribute with an in-theater 13-film retrospective, kicking off this Friday with Gerstman and Russo introducing a newly spiffed up 4K restoration of “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” Marc Rohemund’s unfortunately all-too-relevant WWII tale of the Munich University student who stood up against the infiltration of Nazi thought at school, and an additional 20 films being made available on the theater’s streaming service Metrograph-At-Home, tilting towards the visionary meta-fiction works from Yvonne Rainer, Atom Egoyan and Jennifer Baichwal that the distributor pushed long before such playful documentaries were in fashion. Guests of the series such as Raoul Peck (“Lumumba”), Christine Vachon (“Poison”) and Astra Taylor (“Examined Life”) reflect the range of Gerstman and Russo’s belief in taking advantage of the big screen’s ability to hold a variety of perspectives, yielding a catalog deep with films where the ordinary becomes extraordinary simply by telling stories that have been overlooked, particularly when it comes to the hidden histories of women and gay life in the 20th century.

With the machinery they’ve built over the years, Gerstman and Russo have celebrated the careers of free-thinking artists and activists as a home to documentary profiles of filmmakers such as Maya Deren (“In the Mirror of Maya Deren”) and Alice Guy Blache (“Be Natural”), photographers Cecil Beaton (“Love Cecil”) and Bill Cunningham (“Bill Cunningham: New York”) and intellectuals Noam Chomsky (“Manufacturing Consent”), Hannah Arendt (“Vita Activa”) and Slavoj Zizek (“The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology”) while helping launch so many others, picking up on the early promise in the work of Todd Haynes (“Dottie Got Spanked”), Laura Poitras (“The Oath”), Chaitanya Tamhane (“Court”), Talya Lavie (“Zero Motivation”), and Andrey Zvyagintsev (“Elena”). (Only they could arrange for a documentary to be made about the stop-motion animation maestros the Brothers Quay made by Christopher Nolan, whose first film “Following” they shepherded to theaters.)

As Gerstman and Russo readily acknowledge, the work has only gotten more difficult as time has gone on, but leaning on good taste and institutional knowledge, they have beaten the odds to become a pillar of arthouse cinema and in having such a hand in bringing important voices into those sacred spaces, it was truly an honor to get to speak to them on the eve of their retrospective at the Metrograph, which may be a short distance from their offices, but involves a journey that cuts across multiple countries and decades as they’ve brought global cinema to the city and beyond.

Click here to read the interview.