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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

Frederick Wiseman’s Latest: “Inside the Secret World of London’s NATIONAL GALLERY”

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Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, now in his sixth decade of filmmaking, always gets good reviews but his latest, a film that immerses its audience in London’s National Gallery and we open November 21 at the Royal Theater, is garnering raves. From Manohla Dargis at the New York Times (“Like most of Mr. Wiseman’s work, the movie is at once specific and general, fascinating in its pinpoint detail and transporting in its cosmic reach.”), to Tim Grierson at Paste Magazine (“Nourishing and enthralling, NATIONAL GALLERY is the work of a man still invested in the arts, in the world and in people.”), to David Denby at the New Yorker (“Holds the movie viewer in a state of intense and pleasurable concentration”), even the toughest of critics are telling us that Mr. Wiseman’s latest is not to be missed.

The Daily Beast just published a good piece about the film by Tim Teeman:

Inside The Secret World of London’s National Gallery

“Frederick Wiseman’s entrancing ‘National Gallery’ roves freely around the great British institution, turning its lens on both visitors and the people that run the show.
“Observing the observers observing: there is a brave and remarkable poise to Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, a three-hour documentary presently showing at New York’s Film Forum—before a wider release on November 21—which takes the viewer on an ambling, extremely nosey tour of London’s National Gallery, focusing on both visitors and the staff who run it.”The most wonderful thing about it, the moments Wiseman keeps studding the documentary with, are images of people looking at pictures on walls. This, unexpectedly, is fascinating: you watch as they/we crinkle our faces up, really looking at brushwork; or walk in front of a canvas, and then walk back; or quickly move on, and then return; or sit, rapt in contemplation; or look confused or elated, tired or utterly immersed.”Given the amount of explosions and dumb sex comedies on our cinema screens, how can you not applaud a three-hour film that explores our reception and appreciation of art, and how that art is curated, lit, and displayed for us?“National Gallery is Wiseman’s latest, burrowing journey into an institution in a film-making career that has spanned almost sixty years, including movies like High School (1968), Missile (1987), Central Park (1989), and La Danse (2009), about the Paris Opera Ballet. Wiseman goes to places or into the reality of a lived experience—a hospital, army basic training, or a police precinct—and quietly, without his presence overtly felt, interrogates and observes it.”There is something imperiously subversive about National Gallery. Unlike the loud, pantomimishly structured documentaries of today, the parade of freaks and freakish, combusting and self-combusting, and warzones in gruesome close-up, there is no dramatic arc, no salivating over conflicts, no set-ups. There are no captions explaining who anybody is, no explanations of what they are doing. There is no spoon-feeding of anything.”

Read the complete Daily Beast piece by clicking here.

Frederick Wiseman by Larry Busacca for Getty Images

Art in the Arthouse Painter Mary Woronov on KCET: “Artist, Chelsea Girl, and B-Movie Queen”

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The woman behind our Art in the Arthouse exhibition “Mary Woronov: Something About Mary,” on view at the NoHo 7 through December 15, was recently profiled by KCET. It’s by the award-winning arts journalist Victoria Looseleaf, features a generous selection of Woronov’s striking pieces and begins “At almost 71 years old, Mary Woronov is still a beauty whose quick wit, sharp mind and striking countenance belie the decades. Born in Palm Beach’s five-star Breakers Hotel in 1943 — then a converted hospital during World War II, she recalled.

“It was a mistake,” Woronov, her gray eyes matching her stylishly cut gray hair, the latter tinged with mint green, said with a boisterous laugh, adding, “no…it wasn’t.”

Talking in her airy apartment near downtown, one filled with dozens of her oil paintings, hundreds of books and a cache of memorabilia, this erstwhile star of numerous classic Andy Warhol films, including 1966’s “Chelsea Girls,” continued, “I was a preemie, preemie, preemie and they immediately put me in a box. My grandmother looked at me and I had black fur on me — pre-natal hair — and a coccyx cyst. So I had a tail and my grandmother said, ‘That’s not ours. Take that back.'”

Woronov, who went on to appear in some 80 films, including such B-classics as “Death Race 2000” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” as well as making mainstream TV appearances in “Charlie’s Angeles,” “Knight Rider” and on the soap, “Somerset,” is a walking Wikipedia of several by-gone eras.

As to her rebel nature, well, that’s obviously embedded in her DNA.”

Read the full piece by clicking here.

Mary Woronov

Q&A’s with KURMANJAN DATKA QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAINS Star and Director

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KURMANJAN DATKA QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAINS is a historical epic about a strong-willed and courageous woman who sacrificed everything to save her nation from total destruction when the Russian imperial forces conquered the Central Asian country in the 1870s. The most expensive film ever made in Kyrgyzstan, the movie is filled with passion, intrigue, bloody battle scenes, spectacular landscapes and lavish costumes.

KURMANJAN DATKA QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAINS director Sadyk Sher-Niyaz and star Elina Abai Kyzy (who portrays the young Kurmanjan) will participate in Q&A’s at the Music Hall after the 7 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, November 21 and 22 and after the 3:40 show on Sunday, November 23.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIjhRQUsj_8
Elina Abai Kyzy
Filmmaker Sadyk Sher-Niyaz

 

THE PLAYBACK SINGER Q&A’s at the Music Hall

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THE PLAYBACK SINGER tells the story of an aimless, would-be jungle-gym architect who finds his existence disrupted – and his marriage upended – when his prickly, Indian, B-movie playback singer father-in-law comes to visit and overstays his welcome. An original feature written by director Suju Vijayan, THE PLAYBACK SINGER is an award-winning family drama liberally spiked with comedy, which gets to the heart of relationships and the challenges of finding our place in this world.

THE PLAYBACK SINGER writer-director Suju Vijayan and producer Mike Blum will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:30 PM screenings and introduce the 9:55 PM screenings Friday-Sunday, November 14-16.

http://vimeo.com/39248218

 

This Weekend at REDCAT: Elevator Repair Service and “Arguendo”

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As John Oliver recently satirized on HBO by casting nine dog actors as the United States Supreme Court Justices, one cannot see any Supreme Court proceedings (they don’t allow video cameras in their courtroom) unless you go to Washington and get in line early. Or can see artists’ renderings and listen to audio. Perhaps best of all is the brilliant theater troupe Elevator Repair Service’s take on the 1991 case in which the Court heard arguments in a case about nude dancing and its implications for the First Amendment. From REDCAT:

“Wittily inventive… A cool, obsessive genius animates the ever more fevered proceedings of Arguendo.” – The New York Times

“Full of Supremely Naughty Charm.” – The Village Voice

Thursday, November 6, 2014 to Sunday, November 9, 201f4: Elevator Repair Service: Arguendo

New York’s brilliant and provocative ensemble Elevator Repair Service, who famously turned The Great Gatsby into the stage epic Gatz at REDCAT, now brings the U.S. legal system to the stage in pure absurdist fashion. ERS portrays the Justices, lawyers and exotic dancers as they depict verbatim the U.S. Supreme Court case Barnes v. Glen Theatre, a 1991 case brought by a group of go-go dancers who claimed a First Amendment right to dance totally nude. Meanings are nuanced as the Justices attempt to define dance, ponder nudity from opera houses to strip-clubs, and ultimately answer if dancing naked is artistic expression or immoral conduct.

Tickets: $30-40 [$25-35 student/member]

For more information:
Location:
REDCAT | 631 West 2nd St. Los Angeles, CA 90012

Funded in part by the generous support of the Maurer Family Foundation and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Q&A with 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER Co-Director Tara Wood Opening Night at the NoHo

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It’s been said that the first 21 years defines the career of an artist. Few directors have single-handedly shaken up the film establishment like the godfather of indie, Richard Linklater. From the groundbreaking SLACKER to his innovative BOYHOOD, Linklater has reached the 21-year mark and has unapologetically carved his signature into American pop culture. 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER offers a raw and honest perspective on Richard through candid conversations with his collaborators.

Tara Wood, co-director of the new documentary 21 YEARS: RICHARD LINKLATER, will participate in a Q&A after the 7:40 screening at the NoHo on Friday, November 7.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duW5VFPNRhw

 

 

THE WAY HE LOOKS Cast and Crew Q&A at the Playhouse this Saturday

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Set to the music of Belle and Sebastian, Daniel Ribeiro’s coming-of-age tale THE WAY HE LOOKS is a fun and tender story about friendship and the complications of young love. Leo is a blind teenager who’s fed up with his overprotective mother and the bullies at school. Looking to assert his independence, he decides to study abroad, to the dismay of his best friend, Giovana. When Gabriel, the new kid in town, teams with Leo on a school project, new feelings blossom in him that make him reconsider his plans.

THE WAY HE LOOKS writer-director Daniel Ribeiro, producer Diana Almeida and actors Ghilherme Lobo, Fabio Audi and Tess Amorim will participate in a Q&A after the 3:10 screening at the Playhouse on Saturday afternoon, November 8th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcb0VnB2vnQ

 

THE WAY HE LOOKS director Daniel Ribeiro

Q&A with the Cast and Crew of THE LOOKALIKE Saturday Night at the Music Hall

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THE LOOKALIKE director Richard Gray, screenwriter Michele Davis-Gray and actors Steven Bauer and Scottie Thompson will participate in a Q&A after the 5 PM screening at the Music Hall on Saturday, November 8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh2RPh1LXAM