The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

SOME FREAKS filmmaker and cast in person 8/4

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SOME FREAKS is an unromantically told story of romance between teen outcasts and has been acclaimed for both its tone and the quality of the cast’s performances.

On Friday, August 4th following the 7:20 pm screening of SOME FREAKS at the Music Hall, there will be a Q&A with writer/director Ian MacAllister-McDonald along with cast members Thomas Mann, Lily Mae Harrington, Ely Henry, and Lachlan Buchanan.

Click here and then click on Friday’s 7:20 pm showtime in order purchase tickets for this exciting Q&A.

Our #TBT Series goes ‘Hog Wild’ with Biker Films and Amazing Special Guests Every Throwback Thursday in August at the NoHo 7

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Put the rubber to road and head on down to the Laemmle NoHo 7 because our #TBT series is going HOG WILD! Every Throwback Thursday in August, Laemmle and  Eat|See|Hear present some of our favorite biker classics! Doors open at 7pm, trivia starts at 7:30, and films begin at 7:40pm. It all starts Thursday, August 3rd with Director Richard Rush and HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS! Check out the full schedule and guest appearances below!

August 3: Hells Angels on Wheels

A bunch of hairy guys on Harleys are causing trouble again in this, one of the best-remembered examples of the biker flicks of the 1960’s. Poet (Jack Nicholson) is a moody gas station attendant who is looking for more excitement in his life. When a gang of bikers roars through town, Poet is intrigued, and after he pitches in to help the Hell’s Angels in a bar fight (and pulls a well-timed stick up), one of the gang’s higher-ups, Buddy (Adam Roarke) asks Poet to join. Director Richard Rush and actress Sabrina Scharf in person! BUY TICKETS.

August 10: Born Losers


One of the first recognizable “vigilante” films in American cinema, The Born Losers tells the story of Billy Jack (writer-director Tom Laughlin), an ex-Green Beret and Vietnam veteran who makes it his business to rescue a cute mod girl from a crew of vicious bikers. Frank Laughlin (son of Tom Laughlin) and William Wellman Jr. in person!  BUY TICKETS.

August 17: Easy Rider

After scoring cocaine in Mexico, then reselling it in California, two bikers set off on a cross-country trek to New Orleans. Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson star.  BUY TICKETS.

August 24: The Wild Angels

A gang of wild bikers, led by Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda), cause havoc and destruction while paying tribute to a dead gang member, “Loser” Josey Kerns. Directed by Roger Corman and starring Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and Nancy Sinatra. BUY TICKETS.

August 31: Knightriders

A hardcase motorcycle gang led by Ed Harris has found itself a neat money-making gimmick. Dressed as the knights of the round table, the cyclists pick up a few bucks at local “renaissance” fairs, selling handicrafts made by the more talented members of the gang. Harris’ great rival is Tom Savini, who has his own band of “black knights.” Keep an eye out for an unbilled appearance by novelist Stephen King. Directed by George A. Romero. BUY TICKETS.

Details about September #TBT screenings are coming soon. Remember to check www.laemmle.com/tbt for updates!

LAEMMLE LIVE presents: McCabe’s Guitar Shop on August 13

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RSVP USING EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event

It doesn’t get much better than this! Sunday, August 13 LAEMMLE LIVE welcomes McCabes Guitar Shop for a free pop-up celebration of all things guitar, banjo, ukulele and harmonica. McCabe’s renowned teachers and students share their musical wit and wisdom with lively performances and demos. Hosted by Head of Music School Denny Croy at the Monica Film Center. If you miss out, no need to worry! There are some excellent guitar lessons available at austinguitarlessons.net.

It began in 1958. Furniture designer Gerald McCabe repaired guitars for his folk-singer wife’s musician friends who had no local music store. Gerald and his friend Ed Kahn decided to open a small music shop on Pico Blvd in Santa Monica. They began repairing instruments, selling folk music books and records, carrying Mexican guitars and old banjos. Whilst nowadays people can look at Magical Instruments to get a recommendation for a guitar, back then the options were much more limited. Still, word spread and local musicians began hanging out, relishing one of the only guitar shops in the Southern California area. One of those young musicians was Bob Riskin. Bob started as an employee in 1960. In the early 60’s lessons and classes were added. In 1969 McCabe’s began presenting live concerts. Bob Riskin became sole owner in 1986. Bob and his wife Espie are still running McCabe’s today! Over the years, musicians from all aspects of the musical spectrum, from gifted amateurs to seasoned professionals, have come to appreciate McCabe’s friendly, knowledgeable sales staff, expert repair shop and world class teaching staff. Join us for memorable music from a local treasure!

EVENT DETAILS
Sunday, August 13, 2017
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

RSVP USING EVENTBRITE
This is a Free Event

500 YEARS director Pamela Yates in person & a chance to see her earlier films

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500 YEARS: LIFE IN RESISTANCE is a brilliant new stand-alone documentary, but it’s also the third part of a trilogy by acclaimed documentarian Pamela Yates beginning with the 1983 film WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE and continuing with the 2011 follow-up GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR. We are very excited to present her earlier films in the trilogy as weekend morning screenings July 29th & 30th only at our Monica Film Center and Pasadena Playhouse 7 locations.

Director Pamela Yates and her Producing Partner Paco de Onís will appear in person for Q&As:

following the 7:10 pm showings of 500 YEARS at the Monica Film Center on Friday, 7/28 and Sunday, 7/30

for a joint Q&A following the 10:45 am screening of 500 YEARS, the 11:20 am screening of WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE, and the 11:00 am screening of GRANITO at the Monica Film Center on Saturday, July 29th only. All 3 films should end at the same time, and the audiences will be escorted into a single auditorium for the Q&A.

following the 7:00 pm show of 500 YEARS at the Playhouse in Pasadena on Saturday, 7/29

for a joint Q&A following the 10:45 am screening of 500 YEARS, the 11:20 screening of WHEN THE MOUNTAINS TREMBLE, and the 11:00 am screening of GRANITO at the Pasadena Playhouse on Sunday, July 30th only. All 3 films should end at the same time, and the audiences will be escorted into a single auditorium for the Q&A.

Pamela Yates will briefly introduce each screening which is followed by a Q&A.

 

Pamela Yates in 1982

 

BIRTHRIGHT: A WAR STORY Opening Weekend Q&A’s

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BIRTHRIGHT: A WAR STORY examines how the anti-choice movement has gained prominence and continues its work to roll back access to abortion for women in the United States. A fast-growing radical movement is leading an aggressive campaign to take control of women’s reproductive health care and to encourage states, courts and religious doctrine to govern whether, when and how women will bear children.

There will be Q&A’s after the following weekend screenings at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills:

Fri, 7/28 after the 7:30PM show: Director Civia Tamarkin & Michele Goodwin – Professor at UC Irvine

Sat, 7/29 after the 7:30PM show: Director Civia Tamarkin & Producer Luchina Fisher

Sun, 7/30 after the 7:30PM show : Director Civia Tamarkin

Watch the trailer

Purchase tickets by selecting the day and clicking on your preferred time here

Twofer Tuesday: Robert Mitchum Centennial on August 1st in Beverly Hills, NoHo, and Pasadena

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series celebrate the centennial of Hollywood icon Robert Mitchum (b. August 6, 1917) with two of his best roles, OUT OF THE PAST (1947, 70th anniversary) and CAPE FEAR (1962, 55th anniversary). The two acclaimed film noirs will be shown as a double feature on August 1 as part of the popular Twofer Tuesday (two for the price of one) program at a choice of three locations: the Ahrya Fine Arts, NoHo 7, and Pasadena Playhouse 7. Presented on blu-ray.

Click here for tickets to the 5:10pm OUT OF THE PAST and 7:15 CAPE FEAR
or
Click here for tickets to the 7:15 CAPE FEAR and 9:30 OUT OF THE PAST

Mitchum was a contract player at RKO when he starred in Out of the Past, directed by Jacques Tourneur with a script by Geoffrey Homes (Daniel Mainwaring), adapting his novel, “Build My Gallows High.” Mitchum plays an ex-private eye entangled in a web of double-dealings by former criminal associates (gangster Kirk Douglas and old flame Jane Greer). Mitchum, described in the New York Times review of the day as “magnificently cheeky and self-assured,” entrenched his cynical, antihero image in this film.

Out of the Past, as author Jeremy Arnold notes in TCM’s The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, “is the quintessential film noir. It has a tough hero, a supremely alluring femme fatale, hard-boiled dialogue, a commingling of sex and violence, expressionistic lighting…all set in an ominous world where death and double-cross are the norm.” The movie has been added to the National Film Registry.

Cape Fear came at the end of the classical black-and-white film noir period (1942-62), and stars Mitchum in his most memorable villainous role, Max Cady. In this adaptation by James R. Webb of James D. MacDonald’s novel, “The Executioners,” an ex-con plots insidious revenge on the lawyer (Gregory Peck) whose testimony sent him to prison. Director J. Lee Thompson was an admirer of Alfred Hitchcock, and paid homage to the Master of Suspense with camera angles and the use of his frequent collaborator, composer Bernard Herrmann, who provided a superbly menacing score. Mitchum was so convincing in the role that co-star Polly Bergen (as Peck’s wife) said she was genuinely frightened in an improvised scene with him. Leonard Maltin calls Mitchum’s performance “believably creepy,” and the American Film Institute cited his portrayal of Cady as one of the top 30 “All-Time Screen Villains.” Martin Balsam, Lori Martin, Telly Savalas, and Barrie Chase co-star.

Barrie Chase had other memorable roles in films of the 1960s, including Stanley Kramer’s It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Robert Aldrich’s The Flight of the Phoenix. She was a dancer in many hit musical films of the 1950s and co-starred with Fred Astaire in several of his top-rated TV specials.

Actress Barrie Chase will introduce the 7:15 CAPE FEAR at the Ahrya Fine Arts. Film historian Jeremy Arnold will introduce the 9:30 OUT OF THE PAST, only at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills.

Out of the Past screens at 5:15 & 9:30; Cape Fear screens at 7:15, at all three locations.

ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: ART ON ART by Robert Cenedella at Claremont 5

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Art in the Arthouse revisits the works of ROBERT CENEDELLA with a new showing of his special edition silk screens entitled ART ON ART. Cenedella’s series, currently on display in Claremont until September 17, is a part of The Laemmle Collection.

About the Exhibit:
Previous works by Robert Cenedella, shown at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center along side the documentary film ART BASTARD,  gave an in-depth example of what is controversial. Our current show, reveals another side of the artist. The numbered editions of silk screens on archival paper, are less political statement, more tailored etchings of clever positioning and whimsical humor. They are signed by the artist and museum framed to ensure preservation with handmade Italian frames from all natural materials.

“I am a product of starting my career circa 1959 just when all the “isms” came to be – Absract Expressionism, Abstract Illusionism, Constructivism, Minimalism, Hypermodernism, etc – and the very kind of work that I was developing under GEORGE GROSZ at the Arts Students League of New York was literally being not just looked down upon, but verbally scorned and ridiculed by art critics, art schools and the public in general. 

Having fought the notion that skills were no longer necessary, in particular drawing, PROTEST, has in some ways become part of my work. This has not been intentional on my part; it just has become a fact of sorts after fifty years of having never fit into the ART ESTABLISHMENT on any level.  To this day, my work continues to be considered controversial one way or another.”

 – Robert Cenedella, Artist

Q&A with MY FAVORITE YEAR Director Richard Benjamin, Co-stars Lainie Kazan and Joseph Bologna, and Producer Michael Gruskoff on Thursday, July 27 in West LA

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35th Anniversary Screening of MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982) Followed by a Q&A with Director Richard Benjamin, Co-stars Lainie Kazan and Joseph Bologna, and Producer Michael Gruskoff on Thursday, July 27, at 7:30 PM at the Royal. Presented on DVD.

Click here for tickets.

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 35th anniversary screening of the popular comedy, MY FAVORITE YEAR, which earned Peter O’ Toole his seventh Oscar nomination for Best Actor. The year is 1954, and O’Toole plays an aging, dissolute movie star (a cross between John Barrymore and Errol Flynn) who creates havoc when he is hired as a guest star of a TV comedy series modeled on Sid Caesar’s groundbreaking variety show.

Mark Linn-Baker plays a young writer on the show (said to be based on Mel Brooks), and the extraordinary cast also includes Jessica Harper, Joe Bologna, Lainie Kazan, Bill Macy, Lou Jacobi, and Cameron Mitchell, with Gloria Stuart in an unbilled cameo. Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo wrote the screenplay, and Richard Benjamin made an impressive directorial debut.

Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Robert Osborne said, “Benjamin keeps everything rolling merrily from start to finish.” Variety’s Todd McCarthy declared, “MY FAVORITE YEAR provides a field day for a wonderful bunch of actors headed by Peter O’Toole in another rambunctious, stylish starring turn.” Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner touted the film as “a comic triumph” and added, “It’s as jam-packed with invention and eccentricity as a Preston Sturges romp.”

After shining as an actor in ‘Goodbye, Columbus,’ ‘Diary of a Mad Housewife,’ ‘The Last of Sheila,’ ‘Westworld,’ and ‘The Sunshine Boys,’ Richard Benjamin made a successful transition to directing with the film. He went on to direct such others as ‘Racing with the Moon’ with Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, and Nicolas Cage, ‘The Money Pit’ with Tom Hanks, ‘Little Nikita’ with Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, and ‘Mermaids’ with Cher and Winona Ryder.

Lainie Kazan has had a long career as a singer as well as an actress. Her feature films include ‘One from the Heart,’ ‘Beaches,’ and the smash hit comedy ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding.’ She co-starred in the TV series ‘The Paper Chase,’ ‘The Nanny,’ and ‘Desperate Housewives.’ She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in ‘My Favorite Year,’ and Newsweek’s David Ansen wrote of her performance, “Lainie Kazan as Benjy’s mother poses a serious threat to Shelley Winters in the funniest-Jewish-Mama sweepstakes.”

Joseph Bologna has worked as an actor, writer, and director. He earned an Academy Award nomination for co-authoring the screenplay of ‘Lovers and Other Strangers,’ which was adapted from the play he wrote with Renee Taylor. He and Taylor co-starred in other films they wrote, ‘Made for Each Other’ and ‘It Had to Be You.’ Bologna has also co-starred in such films as Neil Simon’s ‘Chapter Two,’ ‘Blame It on Rio,’ ‘The Woman in Red,’ and ‘Boynton Beach Club.’

Michael Gruskoff produced ‘Young Frankenstein,’ ‘Silent Running,’ and ‘Pink Cadillac.’ He won Cesar Award for ‘Quest for Fire’.

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