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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

REDISCOVER SAUTET July 24 – 30 at the Royal

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FIVE SAUTET CLASSICS TO PREMIERE IN NEW DCP VERSIONS
JULY 24 TO JULY 30 AT LAEMMLE’S ROYAL
FIRST TIME ON DCP

UPDATE: REDISCOVERING SAUTET is Kenneth Turan’s “Critic’s Pick” in today’s L.A. Times!

Claude Sautet (1924-2000), who began his filmmaking career in the early 1950s assisting such directors as Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face) and Jacques Becker (Touchez Pas Au Grisbi), first tasted success with the crime thriller Classe Tous Risques (1960), but was unfairly overlooked as the New Wave directors dominated French cinema.

Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli in Claude Sautet’s LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal; Photo by Claude Mathieu
Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli in Claude Sautet’s LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal; Photo by Claude Mathieu

After spending much of the 1960s as a screenwriter – and earning a reputation as a master “script doctor” – Sautet re-emerged as a director to watch. His collaborations with Austrian-born actress Romy Schneider, leading men Michel Piccoli and Yves Montand, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, and cinematographer Jean Boffety, yielded romantic, yet haunting films that embodied the privileges and struggles of the French bourgeoisie following the political upheavals of the 1960s. The series features three of his collaborations with Schneider – Les Choses De La Vie (1970), the policier Max et Les Ferrailleurs (1971), and César and Rosalie (1972) – along with the rarely-seen Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (1974), starring Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, and Gérard Depardieu, and Sautet’s final film, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995).

According to Bob Laemmle, Laemmle Theatres hosted the Los Angeles premieres of all five of these films — his favorite is César and Rosalie — at the Royal. We are proud to host their DCP premieres next month. (Note: none is available on Blu-ray or DVD.)

For more info and tickets, visit REDISCOVERING SAUTET.

FULL SCHEDULE:

Friday 7/24
12:00 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
02:35 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
05:10 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
07:45 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
10:15 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

Saturday 7/25
12:00 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
02:35 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
05:10 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
07:45 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
10:15 – CESAR AND ROSALIE

Sunday 7/26
12:00 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
02:35 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
05:10 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
07:45 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
10:15 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE

Monday 7/27
12:00 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
02:35 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
05:10 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
07:45 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
10:15 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD

Tuesday 7/28
12:00 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
02:35 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
05:10 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
07:45 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
10:15 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS

Wednesday 7/29
12:00 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
02:35 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
05:10 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
07:45 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
10:15 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

Thursday 7/30
12:00 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
02:35 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
05:10 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
07:45 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
10:15 – CESAR AND ROSALIE

GABRIEL Filmmaker Lou Howe in Person for Q&A’s this Weekend at the Music Hall

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GABRIEL (Rory Culkin), a troubled young man, is convinced that reuniting with his first love will bring him the stability and happiness he craves. Against his family’s wishes, he sets out to find her, but as the obstacles mount, his grip on reality begins to slip and his behavior becomes more erratic. In the end, he risks everything in an increasingly obsessive and desperate pursuit.

GABRIEL filmmaker Lou Howe will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:40 PM screenings at the Music Hall on Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAGQ8CumFYQ

THE STRONGEST MAN Filmmaker and Cast at the Music Hall Saturday Night

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The Strongest Man is a Miami-set comedy about an anxiety-ridden Cuban-American who fancies himself the strongest man in the world. In a quest to recover his most beloved possession, his golden BMX bicycle, he finds and loses so much more.

The Strongest Man filmmaker and co-stars will introduce and participate in a Q&A after the Saturday, June 27 7:30 PM screening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK20g6CNg-k

Ken Loach’s lovely, heartfelt JIMMY’S HALL opens July 3

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A week from Friday we are very pleased to open JIMMY’S HALL, the latest from prolific — 49 turns in the director’s chair and counting, beginning in 1964 — British filmmaker Ken Loach. A drama set in 1921 and based on a shameful episode in Irish history, follows Jimmy Gralton, whose sin was to build a dance hall on a rural crossroads in an Ireland on the brink of Civil War. The Pearse-Connolly Hall was a place where young people could come to learn, to argue, to dream…but above all to dance and have fun. As the hall grew in popularity, its socialist and free-spirited reputation brought it to the attention of the church and politicians who forced Jimmy to flee and the hall to close.

A decade later, at the height of the Depression, Jimmy returns to County Leitrim from the U.S. to look after his mother. He vows to live the quiet life. The hall stands abandoned and empty, and despite the pleas of the local youth, remains shut. But as Jimmy reintegrates into the community and sees the poverty, and growing cultural oppression, the leader and activist within him is stirred. He makes the decision to reopen the hall in the face of what they may bring…

In his Variety review from Cannes, Scott Foundas wrote, “Ken Loach has taken a despicable episode of modern Irish history — the 1933 deportation without trial of one of its own citizens, James Gralton — and made a surprisingly lovely, heartfelt film from it with JIMMY’S HALL.”

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

 

L.A. Times: “Baroque architect reaches across centuries to influence another in ‘La Sapienza'”

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We open the exquisite new Italian-French production LA SAPIENZA this Friday at the Royal. Eugène Green’s film begins with a brilliant architect plagued by doubt and loss of inspiration as he embarks on a quest of artistic and spiritual renewal guided by his study of Borromini. His wife, similarly troubled by the crassness of contemporary society, as well as the couple’s listless marriage, decides to accompany him. A chance encounter with adolescent siblings upends the couple’s plans and changes their lives.

This morning the L.A. Times published arts reporter David Ng’s piece about the film, featuring an interview with the filmmaker. Mr. Ng will attend and introduce the 7:10 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27. He adds, “Eugene kindly sent me a few humorous words to say before the screenings.”

Here’s the beginning of the Times article:

“Widely regarded as one of the most important architectural achievements of the Baroque era, the Church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome stands out for its bold juxtaposition of geometric shapes, its spiral dome and its resplendent, light-filled interior.

“Though not a large church by European standards, it nonetheless remains the supreme accomplishment of its creator: 17th century Italian architect Francesco Borromini, whose prodigious talents unfortunately brought him more misery than joy. He committed suicide in 1667 at the age of 67.

“Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza still operates as a church and as the home of Rome’s municipal archives. It also plays a key role in “La Sapienza,” opening Friday, a fictional movie that explores how Borromini’s architecture changes the life of a contemporary architect who himself is suffering from an existential crisis.

“The movie’s title refers to Borromini’s church but also evokes the somewhat archaic Italian word used during the Renaissance.

“”When people try to define it, they either say it is ‘knowledge’ or ‘wisdom.’ But for me it’s knowledge that leads to wisdom,” writer-director Eugène Green said.

“The Paris-based filmmaker is a Baroque specialist who once led the French stage company Théâtre de la Sapience. He recalled that as a young student pursuing art history, he dreamed of making a biopic of Borromini, using the real architecture as a backdrop.

“”He’s an artist who didn’t make concessions,” the director said by phone from Paris, in an interview conducted in French. “It’s a mystical architecture. In the context of Roman Baroque architecture, it’s a pared-down style — even the decorative aspects have a purpose in the larger form. I conceived my own artistic work in that manner.”

“Once he began making movies in the late ’90s, Green realized he had no interest in costume dramas.

“”As soon as you put a period costume on an actor, they try to act differently, like they’re in the theater,” he said.”

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

“This is California. Maybe this is what dinner parties are like.” Stop by for THE OVERNIGHT starting this Friday.

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This Friday we’ll be opening the comedy that killed at Sundance earlier this year, THE OVERNIGHT, at our Pasadena, Claremont and Encino theaters (planning a July 3 opening in NoHo as well). In an attempt to acclimate to L.A., a young couple (Taylor Schilling and Adam Scott) spends an increasingly bizarre evening with the parents (Judith Godrèche and Jason Schwartzman) of their son’s new friend. In Rolling Stone Peter Travers called it “an indecently hot and hilarious sex comedy with quartet of playfully scrappy actors who couldn’t be better suited to their roles or more eager to rouse our prurient interest.” Below is a featurette in which, amusingly, the actors, one a native Angeleno, another a Frenchwoman, talk about how their real-life experiences of polite society in our city always remain exceedingly polite (read: dinner at 5:30; good-night at 8). But that would have made for a boring movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHxMGkxZ49U
Taylor Schilling gets an eyeful.
Taylor Schilling gets an eyeful.

The Royal Opera’s Production of LA BOHEME Screening July 6 and 7

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Swoon-inducing opera, coming your way: LA BOHEME. The Royal Opera recently posted some fantastic interviews and making-of videos to YouTube. We’ll be screening the production in all six Laemmle venues on Monday, July 6 and 7:30 PM and Tuesday, July 7 at 1 PM.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFEuShFvJzBy-1RQBQYz_VFVYAs1NzqCk

STRAY DOG Filmmaker Debra Granik in Person at the Music Hall

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Harley-Davidson, leather, tattooed biceps: Ron “Stray Dog” Hall looks like an authentic tough guy. A Vietnam veteran, he runs a trailer park in rural Missouri with his wife, Alicia, who recently immigrated from Mexico. Gradually, a layered image comes into focus of a man struggling to come to terms with his combat experience. When Alicia’s teenage sons arrive, the film reveals a tender portrait of an America outside the mainstream. STRAY DOG is a powerful look at the veteran experience, a surprising love story, and a fresh exploration of what it takes to survive in the hardscrabble heartland.

We are pleased to open STRAY DOG at the Music Hall on Friday, July 24. Filmmaker Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone) will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:20 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, the 24th and 25th.

https://vimeo.com/96957663