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Film Reviews & Previews

SUNSET EDGE Filmmaker Daniel Peddle in Person at the Playhouse 7

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SUNSET EDGE is an exquisitely crafted, meditative portrayal of disaffected youth set in a graveyard of abandoned mobile homes. Part gothic thriller, part coming-of-age tale, filmmaker Daniel Peddle’s narrative feature film debut is a Hitchcockian mash-up that upends teenage horror films. On a lazy afternoon, we follow four aimless suburban teenagers as they explore the ruins of an uninhabited trailer park. As the unsuspecting teens find escape and companionship in this ghost town-turned-amusement park, a lonesome boy lurks amongst them, unearthing clues to his horrific past.

We open SUNSET EDGE on Friday, May 29 at the Playhouse 7. The filmmaker will be there to participate in Q&A’s after the 7:50 PM screenings on Sunday, May 21 and Monday, June 1.

https://vimeo.com/84540744

THE NIGHTMARE Filmmaker Rodney Ascher in Person for a Q&A at the NoHo 7

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From the director of Room 237, THE NIGHTMARE is a documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. People who suffer this condition find themselves trapped between the sleeping and waking worlds, unable to move but aware of their surroundings, while subject to disturbing sights and sounds, including ghostly ‘shadow men.’ This is one of many reasons many people insist this is more than just a sleep disorder.

We open THE NIGHTMARE on Friday, June 5 at the NoHo 7, Music Hall and Playhouse 7. Director Rodney Ascher will participate in a Q&A after the 7:40 PM screening at the NoHo on Saturday, June 6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoPsjWqvwT4

Girl Talk HQ on MARIE’S STORY: “Incredible True Story of Marie Huertin: A Deaf & Blind Girl Whose Life was Transformed by a Nun”

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The new French drama MARIE’S STORY is set in a nineteenth-century convent, where the idealistic Sister Marguerite sees in a deaf and blind girl a unique potential, and despite her Mother Superior’s skepticism, vows to bring the wild young thing out of the darkness into which she was born. Based on true events, MARIE’S STORY recounts the courageous journey of a young nun and the lives she would change forever, confronting failures and discouragement with joyous faith and love. We are pleased to open the film at the Royal on Friday, May 29 as well as the next day at the Playhouse 7.

This week Girl Talk HQ, “a daily news blog dedicated to female empowerment and inspiration for millennial women,” posted a great piece about MARIE’S STORY that begins:

marie2 all about supporting films that feature female stories and lead characters, which is why we fell in love with French film MARIE’S STORY, directed by Jean-Pierre Ameris. The film stars Ariana Rivoire as the difficult yet extraordinary Marie Heurtin, and Isabelle Carre as the Catholic Nun Sister Margeurite who saw the beauty and depth in a girl who society shunned.

At the turn of the 19th century, a humble artisan and his wife have a daughter, Marie, who is born deaf and blind and unable to communicate with the world around her. Desperate to find a connection to their daughter and avoid sending her to an asylum, the Heurtins send fourteen-year-old Marie to the Larnay Institute in central France, where an order of Catholic nuns manage a school for deaf girls. There, the idealistic Sister Marguerite sees in Marie a unique potential, and despite her Mother Superior’s skepticism, vows to bring the wild young thing out of the darkness into which she was born.

It is a true story depicting a stunning visual sequence of a life transformed despite the odds. Sister Marguerite’s persistence is the most heart-warming part of this film. We were glued to the screen watching how on earth she was going to transform the life of this teen girl who everyone else had pretty much given up on.

Read the rest of the piece at girltalkhq.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HG-bDNEumw

 

Actress Diane Lane in Person at the Music Hall for EVERY SECRET THING

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In the new the new drama EVERY SECRET THING, opening tomorrow at the NoHo and Music Hall, a detective (Elizabeth Banks) tries to unravel a mystery surrounding missing children and the prime suspects: two young women (Dakota Fanning and newcomer Danielle Macdonald) who, seven years ago, were imprisoned for an infant’s death. The screenplay is by Nicole Holofcener, based on Laura Lippman’s novel and actor Frances McDormand is the executive producer.

EVERY SECRET THING director Amy Berg, along with actors Diane Lane and Danielle Macdonald, will participate in a Q&A after the 2:10 screening at the Music Hall on Saturday, May 16.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QT0zKjvRfE

GROUNDSWELL RISING Q&A’s at the Music Hall

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GROUNDSWELL RISING, the new documentary from Emmy Award-winning Resolution Pictures which we open at the Music Hall on Friday, captures the passion of people engaged in a David and Goliath confrontation. They stand together, challenging a system that promotes profit over health. We meet mothers, fathers, scientists, doctors, farmers and people from all sides of the political spectrum taking a hard look at energy extraction techniques that have not been proven safe. With the oil and gas industry’s expansion of fracking seen as a moral issue, this provocative documentary tracks a people’s movement, a groundswell rising towards reason and sensitivity, to protect life, today and tomorrow.

The GROUNDSWELL RISING filmmakers will be participating in Q&A’s after the 7:40 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16, as well as Wednesday and Thursday, May 20 and 21. Special guests participating will include representatives from Food and Water Watch, the Sierra Club, Californians Against Fracking and the League of Women Voters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cpCz0QPMso

Climate Ride 2015 Is This Weekend! Support the Environment and Our Riders at the Concessions Stand!

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Greg Laemmle, Team LACBC and our contest winners embark on Climate Ride 2015 this Sunday, May 17th!

Follow Greg on Twitter (@greglaemmle) for the latest ride updates as he makes his way from California’s historic Redwood Empire near Eureka, along the scenic coast, and into the famed Russian River Valley before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.

We’re halfway to our fundraising goal and your help could put us over the top. Just purchase one (or more) of our tasty Climate Ride Concession Specials the next time you see a movie at any of our locations.

When you purchase a –
• CLIF BAR, we give $1 to Climate Ride California
• O.N.E. Coconut Water, we give $2.
• Climate Ride Combo, we give $3.

Climate Ride California raises money for projects and organizations that work on climate change, clean energy, active transportation, sustainable infrastructure, and public health. It seeks to increase awareness and understanding of the inter-connectedness of environmental issues caused by the climate crisis among participants, donors, sponsors, and the general public. For more information, visit: http://www.climateride.org/

Anniversary Classics Goes Subtitled, Comes to the Valley: 50th Anniversary Screening of THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET June 9 at the Town Center 5

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Anniversary Classics Goes Subtitled, Comes to the Valley: 50th Anniversary Screening of THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET June 9 at the Town Center 5
Jozef Kroner and Ida Kaminska

We’ve been having a lot of fun hosting our Anniversary Classics screening along with Los Angeles Film Critics Association President Stephen Farber. Following EXODUS (Eva Marie Saint in person!), WHERE’S POPPA? (George Segal in person!) and LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS (Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna in person and tickets still available!), our fourth screening is our first subtitled film in the series and our first in the Valley: THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (1965) was the first film from Eastern Europe ever to win an Academy Award.  Fifty years ago this powerful Czech drama won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. Directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, it was one of the key films in the Czech New Wave that flourished in the 1960s, before the Soviet invasion of 1968 stamped out this vital movement. Josef Kroner and Yiddish theater legend Ida Kaminska (nominated for an Oscar for her performance) star in this poignant tale of an Aryan functionary who takes over the button shop of an elderly Jewish woman in a Slovakian town in 1942. They develop a tentative friendship that is threatened when the Nazis begin rounding up all the Jews in the area.

Anniversary Classics Goes Subtitled, Comes to the Valley: 50th Anniversary Screening of THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET June 9 at the Town Center 5
Ida Kaminska

Esteemed critic Kenneth Tynan said this was “the most moving film about anti-Semitism ever made.”  Oscar-nominated screenwriter Eleanor Perry (David and Lisa, Diary of a Mad Housewife) reviewed the film for Life magazine and called it “a masterpiece, a flawless examination of the toll of indecision and the penalty of passive decency.”  Perry went on to write, “The film’s lasting power is that it poses a couple of additional questions to every spectator:  ‘If it had been you, what would you have done?’ If it ever is you, what will you do?'”

Joining Stephen Farber for a post-screening discussion, special guests director Ivan Passer and Michal Sedlacek, Consul General of Czech Republic in Los Angeles. Mr. Passer was one of the directors of the Czech New Wave of the 1960s. His acclaimed film, Intimate Lighting, was also made in 1965. He was the co-writer of Milos Forman’s films Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball. Like Forman, he emigrated to America after the Russian invasion. In this country he directed such films as Born to Win with George Segal, Law and Disorder with Carroll O’Connor, Cutter’s Way with Jeff Bridges, and the Emmy-winning HBO movie, Stalin, starring Robert Duvall.

Purchase tickets here.

‘(Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies’ Q&A’s this Weekend with Best-Selling Author Dan Ariely

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It’s human nature to lie; we all do it. From scandalous headlines to little white lies, (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies explores the complex impact dishonesty has on our lives and everyday society. Interweaving groundbreaking experiments from celebrated behavioral economist Dan Ariely with personal stories from individuals affected by the unraveling of their lies, Ariely and a team of scientists uncover our propensity to be dishonest, sometimes even unknowingly. What’s revealed is a fascinating look at the forces behind our collective behavior and the many truths behind lies.

We’ll be opening (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies a week-long engagement this Friday at the Playhouse 7 and have weekend morning shows at the Claremont and Royal. Here’s the Q&A schedule:

Friday May 15, Q&A Following the 7:40pm show at the Playhouse with Director Yael Melamede and Dan Ariely;
Saturday May 16, Q&A Following the 11:00am show at the Royal with Director Yael Melamede and Dan Ariely;
Saturday May 16, Q&A Following the 7:40pm show at the Playhouse with Director Yael Melamede and Dan Ariely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4tRBlQIoU