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“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes:” MACBETH with Ralph Fiennes & Indira Varma

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We’re thrilled to screen Shakespeare’s leanest, meanest tragedy, Macbeth with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma, May 2 and 5 only, following its highly acclaimed U.K. tour. It was filmed live at Dock X in London especially for cinemas. Tony and BAFTA Award-winner Fiennes (Antony & Cleopatra, Schindler’s List, Coriolanus) and Olivier Award-winner Indira Varma (Present Laughter, Game of Thrones, Luther) star in this brand-new ‘full-voltage visceral’ (★★★★ Daily Telegraph) production of the Scottish play. Designed for a custom-built space, this gripping and breathtaking play about the couple utterly corrupted by their relentless lust for power is unmissable on the big screen. By the end of the run in London and following seasons in Liverpool and Edinburgh, this production played to sell-out audiences of over 100,000 people at 110 performances. We’ll show Macbeth at our Claremont, Glendale, Santa Monica, Newhall and Encino theaters.

Directed by Simon Godwin (Antony & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, Hansard) with set and costume design by Frankie Bradshaw (Jerusalem, Blues for an Alabama Sky), this stunning production brings ‘Shakespeare’s tragedy pulsing into the present day’ (★★★★★ The I).

Regard this clip. It really gives one a (bloody) taste of what awaits:

Joining Ralph Fiennes as Macbeth and Indira Varma as Lady Macbeth are Ben Allen as Ross, Ewan Black as Malcolm, Levi Brown as Angus, Jonathon Case as Seyton, Danielle Fiamanya as Second Witch, Keith Fleming as King Duncan/Siward, Michael Hodgson as Second Murderer, Lucy Mangan as First Witch, Jake Neads as First Murderer/Donalbain, Richard Pepper as Lennox, Steffan Rhodri as Banquo, Rose Riley as Menteith, Lola Shalam as Third Witch, Rebecca Scroggs as Lady Macduff/Doctor, Ethan Thomas as Fleance, and Ben Turner as Macduff.

Patricia Rozema in person for the new 4K director’s cut restoration of her queer classic WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING + screenings of her latest, MOUTHPIECE.

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We’re proud to soon screen two films by Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema: her just-restored 1995 romance When Night is Falling (May 7 at the Royal and May 8 at the NoHo) and her most recent film, Mouthpiece (May 13 & 14 at the Town Center, Monica Film Center, Glendale, and Claremont). Rozema will participate in Q&As after the Tuesday, May 7 and 8 screenings of When Night is Falling at the Royal and NoHo. Tracy E. Gilchrist, VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for equalpride, will moderate the Royal Q&A.

Long considered to be a pivotal entry in the LGTBQ+ canon, When Night is Falling is a sexy, daring and visually resplendent story about the thrilling temptations of passion. Camille, a Christian academic, is engaged to Martin, a fellow theologian. Then she meets Petra, a flamboyant performer in an avant-garde circus. To her surprise, Camille finds herself falling deeply and almost magically in love. Forced to choose between the woman she wants, and the man who loves her, Camille discovers that the only true duty of the soul is desire.

From WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING.

A Canadian classic that was in Official Competition at the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival, When Night is Falling tells a lesbian story beautifully photographed by Douglas Koch, catching a romantic, wintry Toronto landscape.

Adapted from the play by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, Mouthpiece follows Cassandra, an aspiring writer who, while struggling to compose a eulogy after the sudden death of her mother, comes to discover that her own rebelliousness is as much a response to the male gaze as her mother’s conformity. Enacting the two sides of Cassandra’s conflicting inner dialogue, playwright-performers Nostbakken and Sadava create a compelling portrayal of the tension between regression and progress that is often found within women.

From MOUTHPIECE

Mark Olson of the L.A. Times just published a good piece about Rozema and her work and also interviewed her, as did Gilchrist for The Advocate:

There’s a scene in Patricia Rozema’s 2018 film Mouthpiece where the main character, Cassandra, is flooded with a memory of her mother, who’s just died. The camera pans the room, lingering on Cassandra’s mother’s books and music. In the frame there appear works by Joni Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, and the groundbreaking lesbian author, actor, and activist Ann-Marie McDonald, who appeared in Rozema’s first feature, 1987’s I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing. Through Cassandra’s memories of her mother, Rozema pays tribute to Canada’s great women storytellers, and considering the filmmaker’s body of work, her name belongs among them…Throughout her canon and evident in the restored films is Rozema’s singular poetic film language that includes queer identity, interior monologues, and a duality in her characters or what she refers to as “twoness.” Unburdened by the machine of Hollywood and working from artists’ grants from Canada, Rozema cemented herself as a true auteur out of the gate with I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, a self-reflexive and heartfelt comedy about a quirky secretary to a lesbian art gallery owner. The film investigates the nature of art itself, something that Rozema would continue to examine throughout her career.

“But I think I was protecting my ability to make movies, because I was ambitious too. Not for fame or for money but for being able to make movies, which is the best job in the whole fucking world in my mind,” she adds. “I was terrified that I would be shut down. So I was careful, maybe too careful sometimes, so that I think some people wished was different sooner.”

Despite Rozema’s thoughts of being “too careful” at some points, as a progenitor of the Toronto New Wave with the likes of Atom Egoyan and Jeremy Podeswa, her contributions to cinema include making elevated films about queer women with happy or hopeful endings that expanded the notion of fixed sexuality.

“I also spoke quite early about fluidity, a gender continuum, and a sort of orientation continuum,” Rozema says. “At the time, it was very binary: You’re gay or you’re straight. Period. I felt like there’s got to be more colors in this human palette.”

Greg Laemmle on the return of the senior moviegoer.

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We know that over the past four years, you may have become accustomed to hearing bad news from us.  So we are pleased to share some good news. Qualified good news. But still, a sign of improvement.

It appears that older audiences are returning in larger numbers. That’s welcome news for all of us at Laemmle Theatres, and at art houses across the U.S. Before the pandemic, the hand wringing was about the “graying” of the arthouse audience. But since reopening, as arthouses have had success with younger-skewing films, the concern instead has been about how to reconnect with the older audiences that were once weekly guests at our theaters.  

Now, we love showing films like HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS and LOVE LIES BLEEDING. But we also love showing the English-language period films (i.e., Merchant Ivory films), foreign-language romantic dramas (pick your prototypical French film) and non-studio American independent films that are aimed at an audience that grew up in a world without cell phones and the internet. And since reopening, while we’ve had some success with films like THE DUKE, THE TASTE OF THINGS and MOVING ON, we can’t help but notice that the numbers are still not where they would have been in the days before COVID.

But starting at the end of 2023, it felt as if things were beginning to turn around a bit. Films like ANATOMY OF A FALL and THE HOLDOVERS made more of a mark at the box office than “comparable” films did in 2021 and 2022.  And you also have FALLEN LEAVES doing more business than almost any prior film from director Aki Kaurismäki.

So far this year, and leaving aside films that were part of the Oscar race, films like DRIVING MADELEINE, ONE LIFE, THE OLD OAK, FAREWELL MR. HAFFMANN, COUP DE CHANCE and WICKED LITTLE LETTERS are performing better. In fact, the latter four are hanging around, showing good word-of-mouth. These films are still doing a fraction of the business that they would have done pre-pandemic. But better is good. And hopefully, we and our distributor partners can build on this trend.

“When pandemic restrictions eased, many couldn’t wait to get back to the movie theater,” wrote Jon Keller of CBS last year. “But a new study found older adults are in no rush to return. And that trend is about more than just fear of COVID. Before the pandemic, people over 40 bought 41% of all movie tickets in the U.S. and Canada.”

It’s not COVID rates, which a quick check of the L.A. County Department of Public Health website shows are vanishingly low. And the fact remains that seeing a movie in a theater instead of at home is still 1000% better. (We’ll never tire of quoting the filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev, who compared watching a movie at home to reading a novel while skipping every other word.)

According to one of Variety’s recent dispatches from the annual trade show CinemaCon, “the box office hasn’t recaptured its pre-pandemic stride — studios estimate that roughly 15% to 20% of frequent moviegoers have yet to resume their old entertainment habits now that COVID has dissipated. Plus, the labor strikes that consumed the media industry for much of the previous year as actors and writers hit the picket lines resulted in production delays that left theaters with fewer movies to hawk on their marquees.”

Big budget popcorn movies that mostly appeal to younger audiences can be fantastic and we happily screen them at some of our venues, but those kinds of films are not Laemmle Theatres’ popcorn and butter, to alter a phrase. The current drama CIVIL WAR may be a surprise hit because it combines action movie elements with serious subject matter, drawing cinephiles of all ages. But what about films with zero guns which are purely cerebral? If audiences don’t turn out for these films, fewer will get made or picked up for distribution; it’s just supply and demand.

How do we reach older moviegoers when the L.A. Times isn’t running reviews?

We are happy to see some new signs of strength recently. But more would be better. So if you know an older moviegoer who used to attend regularly, but no longer does, we’d like to hear why not. Because the existence of a local movie theater that can show, for example, classic reissues like CLASSE TOUS RISQUE (opening May 3 at the Royal!) or the artful woman-made Senegalese drama BANEL & ADAMA (opening June 14 at the Royal!) is not a given.

Jazz musicians, politicians, painters, historians, and feminists: Our upcoming Culture Vulture films.

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We have the next several months of our Culture Vulture series set, and as always the films are eclectic and stimulating, featuring documentaries about artists and writers, gallery films, a National Theater Live stage production, and more.

April 22 & 23 ~ On the Adamant ~ Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Fest, this affecting, enlightening documentary from nonfiction master Nicolas Philibert (To Be and to Have) invites viewers to come aboard the Adamant and witness the transformational power of art and community. The Adamant is a one-of-a-kind place: a floating refuge on the Seine in the heart of Paris that offers day programs for adults with mental illnesses. Its attendees come from across the city and are offered care that grounds and helps them recover and stabilize.

April 29 & 30 ~ John Singer Sargent is known as the greatest portrait artist of his era. What made his ‘swagger’ portraits remarkable was his power over his sitters, what they wore and how they were presented to the audience. Through interviews with curators, contemporary fashionistas and style influencers, John Singer Sargent: Fashion & Swagger examines how Sargent’s unique practice has influenced modern art, culture and fashion.

May 6 & 7 ~ J’Accuse! ~ This blistering documentary recalibrates the dialogue between the Jewish People and Lithuania by demanding that the Lithuanian government stops telling Holocaust lies. Made on a shoestring budget of less than $30,000, this painful, angry film has has won over 120 Best Documentary Awards and film festival selections across the world and has become one of the key weapons in the ongoing fight for Holocaust Truth. J’Accuse! also powerfully challenges the silence of the EU, the UN and NATO… and asks if the Holocaust has ceased to have moral meaning.

May 13 & 14 ~ Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece centers on Cassandra, an aspiring writer who, while struggling to compose a eulogy after the sudden death of her mother, comes to discover that her own rebelliousness is as much a response to the male gaze as her mother’s conformity. Enacting the two sides of Cassandra’s conflicting inner dialogue, playwright-performers Nostbakken and Sadava create a compelling portrayal of the tension between regression and progress that is often found within women.

May 20 & 21 ~ In the vein of Frederick Wiseman’s work, Art Talent Show offers insightful commentary on the intergenerational cultural dissonance surrounding topics like identity politics and social justice in relation to art and its practice. A “documentary less about art or talent than about the Sisyphean task of assessing one and nurturing the other” (Variety), filmmakers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar take a sensitive and ultimately light-hearted approach to the examination of art school admission.

June 3 & 4 ~ Nye ~ Michael Sheen plays Nye Bevan in a surreal and spectacular journey through the life and legacy of the man who transformed Britain’s welfare state. From campaigning at the coalfield to leading the battle to create the National Health Service, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan is often referred to as the politician with greatest influence over the UK without ever being Prime Minister. Confronted with death, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan’s deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, Parliament and fights with Churchill.

June 10 & 11 ~ My National Gallery~ The National Gallery of London is one of the world’s greatest art galleries. It is full of masterpieces, an endless resource of history, an endless source of stories. But whose stories are told? Which art has the most impact and on whom? The power of great art lies in its ability to communicate with anyone, no matter their art historical knowledge, their background, their beliefs. This film gives voice to those who work at the gallery – from cleaner to curator, security guard to director – who identify the one artwork that means the most to them and why.

June 17 & 18 ~ Lyd ~ A sci-fi documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd — a 5,000-year-old metropolis that was once a bustling Palestinian town until it was conquered when Israel was established in 1948. As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion.

June 24 & 25 ~ An informed and intimate portrayal of the jazz scene that offers revelatory glimpses for fans of the genre, Music for Black Pigeons strikes a universal chord in its pursuit of wider questions centered around creativity. How does it feel to play? What does it mean to listen? Is it even possible to put the emotions of music into words?

July 1 & 2 ~ My Name is Andrea ~ A hybrid feature documentary about controversial feminist writer and public intellectual Andrea Dworkin, who offered a revolutionary analysis of male supremacy with iconoclastic flair. Decades before #MeToo, Dworkin called out the pervasiveness of sexism and rape culture, and the ways it impacts every woman’s daily life.

July 8 & 9 ~ Apolonia, Apolonia ~ A talented Parisian painter grows up seeking her place in the art world while grappling with the agonies and joys of womanhood and relationships in a world dominated by patriarchy, capitalism, and war.

Featuring a “spine-tingling” lead performance, NOWHERE SPECIAL opens April 26.

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Uberto Pasolini’s new film Nowhere Special stars the gifted English actor James Norton as a single father who dedicates the last few months of his life to finding a new family for his four-year-old son. It’s based on a true story. We open Nowhere Special April 26 at the Royal and May 3 at our Claremont, Glendale and Encino theaters. Pasolini wrote the following about how he, his cast and crew were able to create this brilliant, understated movie:

“I wanted to make this film as soon as I read about the case of a terminally ill father attempting to find a new family for his toddler son before his death. Although the situation the main characters find themselves in is very dramatic, the decision at script level was to approach the story in a very subtle, “quiet” way, as far away from melodrama and sentimentalism as possible, as in a film by Yasujirō Ozu, or, more recently, the work of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. This approach was reflected in the style of the filmmaking we adopted, direct and free from distracting stylistic flourishes. Marius Panduru’s camera work was designed to be both fluid and unobtrusive, when appropriate even reflecting the child’s point of view. The main directorial challenge of the film was that of working with a very young child, and of creating a believable and moving father-son relationship on camera. Fortunately, in young Daniel Lamont, then four years old, we have an extraordinarily aware and sensitive natural performer, and in James Norton a most generous actor, who was happy to dedicate long days into creating a connection with the boy well ahead of the shoot, and to support and guide Daniel throughout what for any child would have been an intense and at times bewildering experience.”

“In spite of myself I invested totally in Norton’s spine-tingling, intimate performance; and, in spite of myself, the end had me in floods of tears.” ~ Cath Clarke, Guardian

“Uberto Pasolini’s film takes a real-life story as his starting block and turns this tiny Northern Ireland-set tale into an almost sensory experience.” Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
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“Be warned: you will need to keep a box of tissues to hand, if not all the tissues in the world.” ~ Deborah Ross, The Spectator

Anniversary screenings of Claire Denis’s debut, “a film of infinite delicacy,” CHOCOLAT.

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The next film in our Anniversary Classics Abroad series is Claire Denis’s intense 1988 debut feature, Chocolat, screening April 24 at our Claremont, Encino, Glendale, Newhall and West L.A. theaters. Denis drew on her own childhood experiences growing up in colonial French Africa for her visually beautiful, multilayered, languorously absorbing movie. She explores many of the themes that would recur throughout her work. Returning to the town where she grew up in Cameroon after many years living in France, a white woman (Mireille Perrier) reflects on her relationship with Protée (Isaach De Bankolé), a Black servant with whom she formed a friendship while not fully grasping the racial divides that governed their worlds.

Roger Ebert was quick to identify Chocolat as a major accomplishment. His review is worth reading in full, but here’s its final paragraph:

“Chocolat is one of those rare films with an entirely mature, adult sensibility; it is made with the complexity and subtlety of a great short story, and it assumes an audience that can understand what a strong flow of sex can exist between two people who barely even touch each other. It is a deliberately beautiful film – many of the frames create breathtaking compositions – but it is not a travelogue and it is not a love story. It is about how racism can prevent two people from looking each other straight in the eyes, and how they punish each other for the pain that causes them. This is one of the best films of the year.”
Denis was nominated for several major prizes for Chocolat: the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the Best First Feature at the César Awards, and the Best Foreign Language Film prize by the New York Film Critics Circle. Some of her later career highlights include Beau Travail, High Life, White Material and 35 Shots of Rum.

RESISTANCE: THEY FOUGHT BACK Q&As May 11-13 at the Town Center.

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Resistance: They Fought Back Q&A’s at the Town Center will be hosted on May 11th at 7:10 PM by Co-Director & Executive Producer Paula S. Apsell, Co-Director Kirk Wolfinger, along with Roberta Grossman, Co-Executive Director of Jewish Story Partners, and actress and writer Romy Rosemont. On May 12th at 1:10 PM, Co-Director & Executive Producer Paula S. Apsell and Co-Producer Yael Beals will host a Q&A and on May 13th at 7:10 PM, Co-Director & Executive Producer Paula S. Apsell and Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Jewish & Holocaust Studies at American Jewish University, will host a Q&A.

“The deal Mr. Haffmann tries to strike is wild. But they were wild times, and nothing was normal.” Daniel Auteuil on his new film FAREWELL, MR. HAFFMANN.

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French star Daniel Auteuil (Caché, Jean de Florette, The Well-Digger’s Daughter, many more) stars in Farewell, Mr. Haffmann as a talented Jewish jeweler in Nazi-occupied Paris who arranges for his family to flee the city and offers one of his employees (Gilles Lellouche) the opportunity to take over his store until the conflict subsides. When his own escape is thwarted, he has to rely on his employee to protect him. We open the film this Friday at the Royal and Town Center.

M. Auteuil recently sat for an interview about Farewell, Mr. Haffmann:

WHO IS JOSEPH HAFFMANN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FILM?

He is a man whose sole purpose is to save the lives of himself and his family. He is hunted, in danger, and the whole situation is closing in on him. But I’d say that deep down, his purpose is the same as that of François (Gilles Lellouche): both men are obsessed with their children. The children Haffmann hopes to see again, and the one François hopes to have.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN THE TWO MEN?

It’s a relationship where the power dynamic immediately shifts. It’s what I liked when I first read the script. The deal Mr. Haffmann tries to strike is wild. But they were wild times, and nothing was normal. There was no “normal” behavior. It was the law of survival. War and danger create a context in which you react however you can to the crazy violence around you. When Haffmann comes up from the basement, he “acts crazy.” He can’t take it anymore. Because there is a moment when people who are persecuted want to revolt. Even if it puts their lives on the line. Anyway, that’s how I experienced it… or how I acted it!

THE FILM IS SHOT BASICALLY ON ONE SET, AND CENTERS ON THE INTIMACY OF THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERS. WERE YOU AFRAID TO BE IN SUCH CLOSE QUARTERS?

Not at all! There are wonderful examples like Claude Miller’s GARDE À VUE (THE INQUISITOR) where Lino Ventura and Michel Serrault face off in a room throughout the entire film. It’s more of a challenge for directors, who need to find more ideas for shots, than it is for actors. And we shot in a studio. When I was young, I preferred shooting on location, but certain films work better in studio. Farewell, Mr. Haffmann is one of them. We are more concentrated on these characters, who are obliged to dig within themselves. And Fred Cavayé hones things down up until the very last minute. He is constantly streamlining his writing. He removes more than he adds. He pares down, cuts to the bone. It’s amazing because it gives the actors more room to let themselves go in front of the camera.

HAFFMANN IS NOT AT ALL TALKATIVE. HE ONLY SAYS THE STRICT MINIMUM. DO YOU ENJOY ACTING SILENCES AND PREGNANT STARES?

Not particularly. I play the score I’m given. What can I say? I’m alone in a basement, so…! But it’s true I’ve been told that before, especially for Claude Sautet’s A HEART IN WINTER. I often heard: “You don’t say much, but your eyes.” And when I saw the movie, I realized I was speaking all the time. But it’s not what people remembered …

SARA GIRAUDEAU REFERS TO YOUR EXTREME CALM ON THE SET. IS THAT ALWAYS THE CASE OR WAS YOUR CHARACTER THAT CALLED FOR IT?

Well, I know I’m going to be spending 12 hours doing the same thing over and over, so I try to go about it as serenely as possible! And it’s a pleasure for me to be there. Film shoots are a privilege. They allow me to work in good conditions. I love the atmosphere on sets, love watching the actors and the crew. When you work in cinema, you’re protected from the outside world. But I must say that is calming. But sometimes, actors do become their characters, unconsciously. Haffmann’s discretion, his silent presence, may have rubbed off on me…

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU’VE ACTED WITH GILLES LELLOUCHE…

Yes, and I accepted the film because I knew who my partners were. It was wonderful to witness Gilles’ enthusiasm, his method, his search, his questioning… He overflows with an energy that I must now try to preserve. Everyone on the set was extremely absorbed, focused. There was a lot of pleasure in doing as we were doing it. That’s already pretty good, right?