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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

“One of the most perfect movies in the history of Japanese cinema,” UGETSU 70th Anniversary Screenings.

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By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and fortune leads them far astray from their loyal wives. Moving between the terrestrial and the otherworldly, Ugetsu reveals essential truths about the ravages of war, the plight of women, and the pride of men.

We will screen Ugetsu on October 11 at our Glendale, Claremont, Royal and Newhall theaters.

Pauline Kael wrote, “This subtle, violent yet magical film is one of the most amazing of the Japanese movies that played American art houses after the international success of Rashomon in 1951.” Japanese film scholar Donald Richie called Ugetsu “one of the most perfect movies in the history of Japanese cinema.” Many later directors, including Martin Scorsese and Andrei Tarkovsky, cited it as a personal favorite.

“With rare humanity, Mizoguchi reveals the toll these misadventures take on the souls of both men and their wives, many moments an uncanny synthesis of the realistic and the otherworldly.” ~ Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

“Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi’s most widely heralded film, is a mysterious, incantatory, and gorgeous parable.” ~ Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

“A ravishingly composed, evocatively beautiful film.” ~ Rod McShane, Time Out

CAT PERSON Screening + Conversation Between Award-Winning Filmmaker Susanna Fogel and moderated by Social Activist and Writer Monica Lewinsky.

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Join us Thursday, October 12th at 7pm for the special screening of Cat Person at Laemmle’s NoHo 7 followed by a conversation between award-winning filmmaker Susanna Fogel and social activist and writer Monica Lewinsky.

Susanna Fogel is a director, screenwriter, and novelist. Most recently, she wrapped production on Winner, a feature biopic of American whistleblower Reality Winner starring Emilia Jones, Connie Britton, Zach Galifianakis, and Kathryn Newton. Her prior feature film work includes co-writing the hit comedy Booksmart and directing and co-writing Lionsgate’s The Spy Who Dumped Me. On the television side, her directing credits include the pilot episode of the HBO Max series “The Flight Attendant”, for which she won a DGA Award and was nominated for an Emmy, the first three episodes of National Geographic’s recent WWII limited series A Small Light, the pilot of the Amazon series “The Wilds,” and episodes of Gillian Flynn’s remake of “Utopia.”

Susanna Fogel. Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Images for Disney

Monica Lewinsky is a social activist, anti-bullying advocate, keynote speaker, producer and a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair. Monica is an advocate for a safer social media environment and addresses such topics as digital resilience, privacy, cultivating compassion, overcoming shame, and equality for women. During 2014, Lewinsky authored an essay, titled “Shame and Survival” for Vanity Fair. ‘Shame and Survival’ overlapped Monica’s personal experiences and cultural observations. The essay was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In March 2015, Lewinsky was a keynote speaker at the annual TED Conference in Vancouver. Pulling from her unique experiences at the epicenter of a media storm in 1998, her TED speech, “The Price of Shame” has, to date, been viewed over 17 million times.

Monica Lewinsky. Credit: Greg Gorman

Cat Person is a genre-bending thriller which after having its world premiere out of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival has become one of the most anticipated films of the Fall. The film is an all-too-relatable modern-day dating story that rapidly turns into a boldly provocative psychological thriller questioning the limit between fantasy and reality. Cat Person is a smart, darkly funny conversation starter.

The beautifully acted late-life romance MY SAILOR, MY LOVE opens Friday.

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This Friday we’re pleased to open a touching and charming Irish indie film My Sailor, My Love. It follows Howard (James Cosmo), a widowed sailor living alone on the coast of Ireland and struggling to care for himself. His daughter, Grace (Catherine Walker), hires Annie (Bríd Brennan) to help out around the house. Though Howard initially rejects this imposition, Annie’s charm and gentle care win him over, and the two fall in love. Annie’s large and loving family welcomes Howard into their lives, but these new relationships only serve to illuminate the depth of pain and hurt between Howard and Grace, who is facing challenges of her own. Grace’s resentment tears at Howard and Annie’s otherwise idyllic seaside love story. This windswept drama deftly balances a universal family saga with a tender and timeless romance. We open My Sailor, My Love this Friday at the Town Center, Monica Film Center and Claremont with Saturday and Sunday morning screenings at our Newhall theater.

Critics around the world have been writing about the acting. The film’s director, acclaimed Finnish filmmaker Klaus Härö, said this about his experiences working with the actors:

“The cast has been an immense joy, from the moment the roles were confirmed and when we first went on set. I would often sit very close by to the actors and get to witness what goes into their work, which left me very impressed. Sometimes when I looked around, I could see the emotions brought to surface after a take. Someone might have tears in their eyes, or the crew might burst into applause after a scene. This isn’t very common on a movie set, and it might even seem unprofessional in a way. The atmosphere at the set has been exceptional, and the actors left a very strong imprint on the whole crew.”

“Sharp writing, subtle acting, and a winning Irish setting. My Sailor, My Love will play to any nation where humans struggle to make themselves understood.” – Donald Clarke, The Irish Times

“A quiet yet profoundly powerful feature, aching in emotional sophistication and depth. Cosmo and Brennan are divine.” – Andrew Murray, The Upcoming

“A lovely indie. Klaus Härö’s gentle and special family drama has much more at play than rote tear-jerking. Magnificently shot and acted. Sailor is filled with sage wisdom and vulnerable people struggling to do the best that they can even when they are at their worst.” – Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

“Prepare to be moved.” – Christopher Llewellyn Reed, Hammer to Nail

National Silent Movie Day: See Restored Classic THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD September 27.

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In honor of Silent Movie Day, we are presenting screenings of Irving Cummings’ THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD (1926), a pioneering disaster and special effects movie, starring Janet Gaynor and George O’Brien. A highlight of this year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the film has been restored with a lush musical soundtrack by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. We are screening the film September 27 only at our Royal, Glendale, Claremont and Newhall theaters.

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD re-creates one of the greatest disasters in American history, when, in 1889, over 2,000 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, lost their lives. In her first major role, Gaynor plays a teenage girl smitten with dashing engineer O’Brien, whose pleadings about the imminent collapse of the local dam are ignored. It’s up to Gaynor to ride through the streets à la Paul Revere to warn the townspeople of the imminent disaster. After 97 years, the movie’s flood sequence is still a pre-CGI marvel of optical effects, matte paintings, and miniatures.

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD has been newly restored in 4K by The Film Preserve, Ltd. and The Maltese Film Works, from 35mm elements preserved at George Eastman Museum. Noted preservationists Robert Harris and James Mockoski (archivist for Francis Ford Coppola) worked on the restoration.

Academy Award winners and film scholars Ben Burtt (sound designer of Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and more) and Craig Barron (visual effects supervisor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Batman Returns, and more), have recorded a 30-minute illustrated conversation deconstructing the movie’s visual effects, that will be screened following the feature.

“There is so much more to who we are! Our music, our food, our passion, our ‘over-the-top’ generosity, our love for life.” Filmmaker Michael Goorjian on his Armenian-American comedy-drama AMERIKATSI, opening Friday at the Royal and Town Center.

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The new comedy-drama Amerikatsi is set in 1948, when an Armenian-American repatriates to Armenia only to end up in a Soviet prison. He discovers he can see into a nearby apartment from the confinement of his cell window, and through that man’s lively home life he discovers the rich culture of his native Armenia hidden behind the Iron Curtain. Veteran film critic Thelma Adams described the film as “a stirring labor of love that witnesses the darkness of the past, and seeks out the light.”

From Armenia-American Filmmaker Michael Goorjian: Films about Armenia have mostly focused on the Genocide, which is crucial. But as a people, there is so much more to who we are! Our music, our food, our passion, our “over-the-top” generosity, our love for life. Amerikatsi celebrates and shares this side of Armenia with the world, a side which since my boyhood, I have longed to know and reconnect with.  

 

In many ways, the main character Charlie’s dream of returning to his homeland reflects the dream of not only the Armenian Diaspora, but hundreds of millions of people throughout the world who long to connect to their native land. For many, especially in America, we feel that far-away-land pulsing in our blood, calling for us to return. But, like Charlie, the reality of our ancestral homeland doesn’t always turn out to be what we imagined it would be. The connection we long for is always just out of reach, as if residing on the other side of a prison wall.

To learn more, here’s an interview with Mr. Goorjian that MovieWeb just published headlined “Exclusive: Amerikatsi Filmmaker Michael Goorjian on His Armenian Passion Project.”

Exclusive clip: THE STORMS OF JEREMY THOMAS opens September 29 at the Royal and Town Center.

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On Friday, September 29 at the Royal and Town Center, we’ll be thrilled to open The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, a documentary which is a dream pairing of sorts: the Irish director Mark Cousins, whose brilliance lies in making movies about films and filmmakers (The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) and The Story of Film: New Generation (2021), joined legendary English producer Jeremy Thomas on his annual five-day road trip from England, through rural France to Cannes. Thomas’ filmography is breathtaking in its variety, scope and roster of superstar collaborators. (Hard to top Brando, Bowie and Bertolucci.) Highlights include The Last Emperor (1987), Naked Lunch (1991), David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), and The Dreamers (2003).

In his Guardian review of Storms, critic Peter Bradshaw wrote “I find myself considering that in a world where everyone’s a cynic and an ironist, Cousins’ unaffected rapture is unique and refreshing…[this is] “hardcore, movie-mad immersion.”

At TheWrap, Jason Solomons wrote “The Storms of Jeremy Thomas provides a colorful and entertaining canvas for some beautiful and beautifully set-up movie clips — you want to rush out and watch all of them again.”

Mr. Thomas will participate in a Q&A at the Royal after the Thursday, September 28 sneak screening of The Storms of Jeremy Thomas. Writer-director Richard Shepard moderate.

You can get a taste for Storms in this exclusive clip, wherein Thomas discusses the importance of resisting monoculture and then gets into Walt Disney’s contradictions.

26.2 TO LIFE Q&A schedule at the Royal Sept. 23-26.

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26.2 to Life Q&A schedule at the Royal:

 

DATE  SCREENING TIME Q&A TIME MODERATOR PANELIST DETAILS
September 23, 2023 5:10PM 6:40PM Executive Producer Jennifer Kroot Producer Sara Sluke

Film subject & formerly incarcerated 1000 Mile Club runner, Jonathan Chiu

Producer Sara Sluke

Film subject Marion Wickerd
September 24, 2023 Film begins:

5:10PM

 Screening begins:

6:40PM

 Ray Sheppard, Prism Way Producer Sara Sluke

 

Film subject & formerly incarcerated 1000 Mile Club runner, Jonathan Chiu

 

Film subject Marion Wickerd
September 26, 2023 7:30PM 9PM President, Skid Row Running Club & Former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, Craig Mitchell Filmmaker Christine Yoo

Film subject & formerly incarcerated 1000 Mile Club runner, Markelle “The Gazelle” Taylor

Film subject Marion Wickerd

 

Oscar-winner NOWHERE IN AFRICA 20th anniversary screenings September 20.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present 20th anniversary screenings of the Academy-Award winning film NOWHERE IN AFRICA as the next entry in the Anniversary Abroad Series of notable international films. (Following our September 13 screening of SOYLENT GREEN at the Royal with special guest Leigh Taylor-Young.) Coinciding with the High Holidays, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is about a German Jewish refugee family relocating to Kenya to escape the Nazis just before the outbreak of WWII, will play for one night only, September 20 at four Laemmle locations (Royal, Glendale, Claremont, and Newhall).

 

The Foreign Language Film (AKA International) Oscar winner in 2003, based on the autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig, was adapted for the screen by writer-director Caroline Link, who had been previously nominated in the same category for her 1996 film Beyond Silence. The story concerns the Redlich family, Walter (Mirab Ninidze), his wife Jettel (Juliane Kohler), and their daughter Regina (Lea Kurka as younger, Karoline Eckertz as older) who flee Nazi persecution in Germany in 1938. Walter leaves behind his law profession and becomes the manager of a British-owned farm in Kenya. While his nine-year-old daughter Regina takes to her new African life, his snobbish wife Jettel has difficulty with the family’s reduced status. They are attended by their Kenyan cook Owuor (beautifully played by Sidede Onyulo), who offers an African perspective to the tale. With the outbreak of WWII, the family is interned by the British along with all German citizens, an ironic twist since they had fled Germany to avoid such a fate in their homeland. The war and their plight put even more pressure on the strained relationship of Walter and Jettel, with Regina (now a teenager) caught in the middle.

Admiration from critics of the day included assessments from Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, who said the film was, “laced with poignancy, conflict, urgency, and compassion.” Roger Ebert praised Link for her “interest in good stories and vivid, well-defined characters.” Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune cited it as “a lovely film with a deeply humane perspective.” Rita Kempley in the Washington Post called it a “consistently absorbing family saga that is primarily a safari of the soul.” Newsweek’s David Ansen noted, “an absorbing tale of cultural displacement. It’s also a remarkable, complex examination of a marriage…with its lush cinematography and lush score, (it) has the sturdiness of an old-fashioned Hollywood epic.” Some critics even called it perfect Oscar bait at the time, and the Academy members agreed, rewarding it with the Foreign Language Film Oscar.