The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

Now more than ever: Greg Laemmle on singing along to FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in times like these.

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From Greg Laemmle: “I started this as a Christmas Eve event (tradition!) specifically because I wanted to celebrate that as Jews in America, we did not need to hide in our homes. My grandmother hated this time of year because she had memories of her childhood in Tsarist Russia and the frequent episodes of violence (pogroms) against the Jewish communities there around the holiday. The America that I grew up in was open enough that it could accept the diversity of our society, recognizing that Americans of all religious (or non-religious) backgrounds were free to celebrate the end of year period in their own fashion. I’m not sure America is as accepting right now, but I’m not prepared to cede this ground to those pushing for a more restrictive vision of what America is. Now, more than ever, it is important that we not hide.  And now, as much as ever, we need to feel the joy of the free association that is a Constitutional right of living in America. Fiddler on the Roof tells a complicated tale about the fragility of living as a minority in an oppressive state. But it also shows the joy and beauty of life, and hints at the potential of modernity to provide a freer world that does not discriminate based on race, religion or gender. LOVE is the force that truly shakes the foundations of Tevye’s world. And LOVE, not HATE, will save us from our current predicaments.”

JOIN US on DEC. 24th for our umpteenth annual alternative Christmas Eve, the Fiddler on the Roof Sing-a-Long! Screening at 7 o’clock at our Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, NoHo, West L.A. and Encino theaters.

Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations. Either way, you’ll feel better as you croon along to all-time favorites like “TRADITION,” “IF I WERE A RICH MAN,” “TO LIFE,” “SUNRISE SUNSET,” “DO YOU LOVE ME?” and “ANATEVKA,” among many others.

We encourage you to come in costume! Guaranteed fun for all. Children are welcome (Fiddler is rated “G”) though some themes may be challenging for young children.

Prices this year start at $16 for General Admission and $13 for Premiere Card holders. Typically, Fiddler sells out … so don’t miss the buggy!

Originally based on Sholem Aleichem’s short story “Tevye and His Daughters,” Norman Jewison’s adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in a Russian village at the beginning of the twentieth century. Israeli actor Topol repeats his legendary London stage performance as Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the prejudice of non-Jews, and the romantic entanglements of his five daughters. Fiddler was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Director and Actor, and won three, for Cinematography, Sound and Score (John Williams).

Greg Laemmle on deactivating Laemmle Theatres’ Twitter accounts.

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From Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle:

My wife’s uncle Bert has been guiding a Sunday morning family Zoom that started up during the early days of the pandemic.  While listening in, I have often heard him repeat a guiding principle for the group discussion.  Before speaking, ask yourself these questions:

1.) Is it true?
2.) Is it kind?
3.) Is it necessary?

A quick online search provides a number of different attributions.  This could come to us from Socrates (via Plato).  Another version is attributed to the great Sufi mystic, Rumi.  Or maybe it comes from radio host Bernard Meltzer …who may have picked it up from any number of Buddhist sources.  Whatever the origin, the point is that across multiple cultures and philosophic traditions, we are urged to think before we speak.

And then there’s the platform formerly known as Twitter.

While Twitter has always had a confrontational side, adequate content moderation kept rancid contributors in check, allowing it to better serve more positive activities like fostering community, encouraging democracy, providing a space for underserved voices, and allowing for a bit of irreverent fun. However, since its sale last year, Twitter is increasingly a bullhorn for hate and harassment, and the unfettered dissemination of conspiracy theories, disinformation, and outright lies. The new owner, who has loudly proclaimed himself a “free speech absolutist,” recently crossed a dangerous line into fascist hypocrisy by suing journalists for using their free speech rights to point out how corporations’ ads are appearing next to neo-Nazi content.  He regularly amplifies hateful posts and memes to his 164 million followers and for his latest provocation he has re-platformed the ghoulish torturer of Sandy Hook families, Alex Jones.

Twitter is not the only problematic platform.  Social media in general has encouraged disinhibition, contributing to a coarsening of public discourse. But whatever their faults (and crimes), at least these other platforms are working to improve so that they can have a greater positive influence.  Twitter has crossed into territory where the bad most definitely outweighs the good.  And from what we can see, they are aiming to go even lower.

At Laemmle Theatres, we have a high degree of tolerance for diverse and provocative voices.  But this chorus is offered in the hope that our community will be enriched by open discourse.  It is the exact opposite of the negative and hateful commentary that has become the bread and butter of Twitter.

At this time, we are deactivating our accounts on Twitter.  We hope to return, but only after serious efforts have been undertaken to provide greater content moderation and to root out hate speech.  This is not a First Amendment issue.  The Constitution limits the government’s ability to restrict speech.  But as a private platform, Twitter has the right (and responsibility) to restrict the most extreme and hateful speech.  They just don’t want to.

To connect with us on other platforms, visit laemmle.com/connect.

And for the New Year, let’s all make a resolution to better follow Uncle Bert’s maxim.  Whether in person or online, always remember the three rules when communicating.  Be truthful and kind, and always try to only say what is necessary for a listener to hear.

Greg Laemmle

ONLY IN THEATERS wins award from Film Threat. DVDs now on sale at all venues.

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Only in Theaters, the documentary about the history and future of Laemmle Theatres that includes interviews with Allison Anders, Cameron Crowe, Ava DuVernay, Nicole Holofcener, James Ivory, Kenneth Turan, Leonard Maltin and more, just won the Film Threat’s Award This! award in the Film About Movies or Filmmaking category. The ceremony was last Sunday at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana. In his acceptance speech, which you can watch below, director Raphael Sbarge spoke about the century-long story he sought to tell and said “there’s been a Laemmle in the movie business since there’s been a movie business.”

The just-released Only in Theaters DVD is now available for sale at all seven of our theaters. In his recent Film Factual review of the release, Brent Simon described the film as “a rich and fortifying watch, and it thankfully isn’t fanciful enough to peddle easy solutions, or clear skies on the horizon. It’s funny and sad and at times emotionally piercing, but most of all it’s honest — a quality we should all want more of in movies, big and small.”

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “staggeringly heartbreaking” MONSTER opens Friday.

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Gently devastating in its compassion, Monster, the latest from Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda (After Life, Shoplifters, Broker), is a masterpiece of shifting perspectives that defies expectations. It begins with a mother who confronts a teacher about her child’s behavioral changes. This is the first time Kore-eda has directed a film he did not write in almost 20 years. (The film was the last scoring project by Ryuichi Sakamoto.) We open Monster this Friday at the Laemmle Monica Film Center, Glendale, Town Center/Encino and Claremont 5.

Leading film critics have weighed in:

“Monster is one of the finest films of the year, and its structure — like its circle of characters — carries secrets that can only be unraveled through patience and empathy.” ~ Natalia Winkelman, New York Times

“If possible, watch Monster more than once.” ~ Anthony Lane, New Yorker
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“It poetically shows the power of perspective. So well-observed, nuanced, and compassionately told.” ~ Claudia Puig, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)
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“As you’d expect from Kore-eda, it’s all told with the utmost detail and care, and a gentle score from the late Ryuichi Sakamoto only adds to the overarching air of thoughtfulness and empathy.” ~ Dave Calhoun, Time Out
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“There is so much beauty in Monster, and so much sadness.” ~ Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

“What Monster most comes to resemble is a reminder of the rich inner and emotional worlds of children — of their autonomy, even, in the context of a culture reluctant to acknowledge it. ~ Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal

“Monster’s three perspectives are not so much in argument with one another as they are pieces of the same puzzle. And once they are locked together, the final portrait is staggeringly heartbreaking.” ~ Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

“While Monster depends on dramatic irony and revelatory twists, it’s also a showcase for director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose knack for collaboration brings out the best in his actors, especially his younger cast members.” ~ Simon Abrams, RogerEbert.com

“One of the director’s finest, its thematic scope and emotional power growing with each new revelation.” ~ Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

“Across the film, you can feel the push and pull between a master technician who built his career on the patient, delicate plucking at our heartstrings and his newfound desire to please a wide audience with the broadest of affective strokes.” ~ Kyle Turner, Slant Magazine

“Monster is another striking piece of work from a master, a movie that’s so carefully calibrated that you get lost in these characters, forgetting they’re performers and not people caught up in a genuinely traumatic chapter of life.” ~ Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“Monster keeps its secrets until its final moments, leaving us with the feeling that we have earned its trust and are worthy of the precious, beautiful truths that lie at its heart.” ~ Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, AWFJ.org

“A case of Kore-eda’s incredible felicity in handling child actors, or perhaps the kids challenging and inspiring Kore-eda yet again.” ~ Namrata Joshi, The New Indian Express

“Kore-eda is a master of directing children’s performances, so it’s no wonder that Monster is at its best when there are no adults on screen, the children living in their own world of fantasy and adventure and emotion.” ~ Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

FANNY AND ALEXANDER 40th Anniversary Holiday Season Screenings of Bergman’s Final Masterpiece December 13.

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The Anniversary Classics Series and Laemmle Theatres present 40th anniversary screenings of Ingmar Bergman’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1983) on Wednesday, December 13 at 7:00 PM at four Laemmle locations: the Royal, Newhall, Glendale, and Claremont. The Academy Award-winning film is the last entry of the year of the popular Anniversary Classics Abroad series, and a timely program for the holiday season.

Bergman, one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, was a towering figure in international cinema who came to prominence in the mid-twentieth century “golden age of the arthouse” era, with such meditative classics exploring the psyche and soul as ‘The Seventh Seal,’ ‘The Virgin Spring,’ ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ (the latter two winning consecutive Foreign Film Oscars in 1960-61), ‘Persona,’ and expanding into the 1970s with ‘Cries and Whispers,’ a best picture Oscar nominee in 1973, and ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ among others. In the 1980s the Swedish auteur originally planned his memory piece FANNY AND ALEXANDER as his cinematic swan song, with a six-part version for television along with a shortened theatrical release, which premiered internationally first. The theatrical version went onto global acclaim and is widely considered one of Bergman’s finest films.

Set in the first decade of the twentieth century, the film opens with the Ekdahl family’s Christmas celebration, with extended family members and servants gathering for a merry holiday in the town of Uppsala (Bergman’s birthplace). The film unfolds principally through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander Ekdahl (Bertil Guve) and his younger sister Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) who are soon separated from this warm family after the death of their actor-manager father, and the subsequent marriage of their mother (Ewa Froeling) to a strict, cold bishop (Jan Malmsjo). Familiar themes of religious zealotry, which Bergman explored throughout his career, are reexamined with a ghostly supernatural touch in Bergman’s haunted memories of his own clergyman father.

Plaudits for the film ranged from Variety’s “a sumptuously produced period piece (with) elegance and simplicity,” to Vincent Canby in The New York Times, “a big, dark, beautiful, generous family chronicle,” as a prelude to both the New York Film Critics and L.A. Film Critics naming it the best foreign film of the year. Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Examiner described it as “an epic family film that revisits Bergman’s favorite subjects—marriage, passion, infidelity, death, God—and yet in ways more generous and less austere than in his other films.” Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian praised “the glorious acting ensemble, an amazing collection of pure performing intelligence,” and summarized the film as “a brilliant—in fact maybe unique—fusion of Shakespeare and Dickens.”

The film went on to garner a record six Academy Award nominations, with directing and writing nods for Bergman, along with four wins: Foreign Language Film (Bergman’s third), Cinematography (Sven Nykvist, his consummate collaborator over two decades and his second win, both with Bergman), Art Direction (Anna Asp), and Costume Design (Marik Vos-Lundh). The four Oscars were the most for an international film in the twentieth century, and a fitting tribute to the legacy of a master filmmaker. Experience FANNY AND ALEXANDER back on the big screen this holiday season for one showing only on December 13.

“Sometimes the best reason to watch a movie is because Isabelle Huppert is in it.” LA SYNDICALISTE Opens December 8 at the Royal.

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La Syndicaliste is the stunning true story of Maureen Kearney (Isabelle Huppert), the head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse. She became a whistleblower, denouncing top-secret deals that shook the French nuclear sector. Alone against the world, she fought government ministers and industry leaders tooth and nail to bring the scandal to light and to defend more than 50,000 jobs. Her life was turned upside down when she was violently assaulted in her own home and the investigation is carried out under pressure: the subject is sensitive. Suddenly, new elements create doubt in the minds of the investigators. At first a victim, Maureen becomes a suspect. We open La Syndicaliste this Friday, December 8 at the Royal.

“A politically tinged back room drama of shifting power hierarchies…[Huppert] taps into a level of vulnerability rarely seen throughout her vast filmography.” – Nicholas Bell, IONCINEMA

“Derives its power from the knowledge that this shocking story actually happened.”  – Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

“Maureen Kearney’s story is unbelievable. Played with an electric stillness by the great Isabelle Huppert…this is the story of one individual. A heroine, in fact.” – Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline

“Sometimes the best reason to watch a movie is because Isabelle Huppert is in it.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“Mesmerising…[Huppert] is a genuinely singular talent in modern European cinema, and her ability to take a role like this and infuse it with stillness and subterranean complexities is nothing less than mesmerising.” ~ Kevin Maher, Times [U.K.]

“Salomé’s film pivots from itchy whistleblower thriller to irate courtroom drama, with institutional misogyny as its binding thread.” ~ Guy Lodge, Variety

“At no point is a link made between this narrative and The Scarlet Letter, but both the book and the film induce shivers by exposing the gross misogyny of so-called respectable establishment figures.” ~ Charlotte O’Sullivan, London Evening Standard

“This is a truly shocking story that is told with precision and sensitivity.” ~ Linda Marric, The Jewish Chronicle

“Isabelle Huppert’s gift for icy inscrutability is this film’s best asset.” ~ Edward Porter, Times [U.K.]
“Truth-based French thriller La Syndicaliste is a film of difficult, disquieting moments.” ~ Danny Leigh, Financial Times

REVOLUTION ON CANVAS Q&As at the Royal

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Revolution on Canvas Q&A schedule:

THURSDAY DEC 7 • 7:00 PM

Directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder and protagonist Nicky Nodjoumi

in-person for Q&A hosted by Houman Sarshar & Farhang Foundation

FRI DEC 8 • 7:20 PM

Directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder and protagonist Nicky Nodjoumi

in-person for Q&A

SAT DEC 9 • 4:20 & 7:20 PM

Directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder and protagonist Nicky Nodjoumi

in-person for Q&A moderated by Marjan Safinia

Reception & Art Opening of Nicky Nodjoumi’s work to follow at ADVOCARTSY West Hollywood
434 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048

MON Dec 10 • 7:20 PM

Directors Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder and protagonist Nicky Nodjoumi

in-person for Q&A moderated by Freida Lee Mock

Documentary classic THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL 20th Anniversary Release with the Filmmaker in Person for Q&As.

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An uncommon bond between man and nature is the focus of Judy Irving’s wonderful and informative documentary, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. The film follows Mark Bittner, an unemployed aging hippie, who lives off the kindness of strangers in the titular San Francisco neighborhood. His life takes on new meaning when he starts feeding a flock of wild Conures, a breed of parrot noted for its green body and cherry-red head. Native to Argentina, the birds soon feel comfortable enough to feed while perched all over Mr. Bittner. Being outcasts who yearn to remain free, a mutual respect is born between them. Daily routine soon leads to growing crowds of curious passersby, as Bittner becomes something of a local celebrity. Based on his up-close observations, Bittner gains some keen insight into the behavior of individual birds, giving them names. The resulting portraits of Connor, Mingus, Olive, Pushkin, Picasso, Sophie, and Tupelo prove that these amazing creatures deserve star credit in their own right.

Wild Parrots features some incredible close-ups, rare in-depth glimpses into the unique and often amusing habits and activities of one flock of parrots, and also a surprise ending.

 

We’re screening the film tonight at the NoHo, tomorrow at the Royal, and December 1-7 in Glendale. Irving will participate in Q&As tonight at the NoHo, tomorrow at the Royal, and after the December 2 & 3 screenings at the Glendale. Joe Lindner, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Preservation Officer, will moderate the Q&As on Nov. 29th and 30th. Screenwriter Elliott DiGuiseppi will moderate the Q&As on Dec. 2 and 3.

Irving recently wrote a piece about her film for Talkhouse. A key passage about her method:

“When I go out to shoot a place or a person or an animal, I think of it as a “rendezvous with destiny” – I do not control what will happen. The real world dictates what to shoot, how to shoot, whether I get to shoot at all. I like stories that keep unfolding in the present, not historical topics that have already closed their doors to time.”