The Official Blog of Laemmle Theatres.

blog.laemmle.com

The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION 65th Anniversary screening with the fabulous Ruta Lee in person!

by

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 65th anniversary screening of Billy Wilder’s courtroom classic, Witness for the Prosecution, based on Agatha Christie’s popular stage play, featuring the Mistress of Mystery’s celebrated surprise ending. At the time of its release, the studio took the unprecedented step of cautioning viewers not to reveal the surprise twists of the movie’s finale. The screening is Tuesday, October 18 at the Royal at 7 pm.

The movie, adapted by Wilder, Harry Kurnitz, and Larry Marcus, was an enormous box office success in 1957 and 1958 and went on to earn six top Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor Charles Laughton, and Best Supporting Actress Elsa Lanchester (who was married to Laughton in real life). Tyrone Power, in his last completed film, and the legendary Marlene Dietrich round out the star-studded lead cast.

Laughton plays a barrister in London’s Old Bailey, who is recovering from a heart attack and advised to avoid any strenuous cases. But when he learns of a tantalizing murder trial about to begin, he cannot resist the opportunity. Power plays a former airman accused of murdering a wealthy older woman who had made him the beneficiary of her will. Dietrich plays Power’s wife, who supposedly can provide an airtight alibi for the night of the murder. But Laughton soon discovers more complexities in the case, and the challenges excite his interest.

The courtroom scenes are the heart of the movie, but Wilder’s skill keeps the film from ever seeming static. What’s more, he works wonders with the imposing cast. Writing in the Times of London, Kevin Maher said, “Marlene Dietrich was never better than she is here.” New York Times critic Bosley Crowther declared, “The air in the courtroom fairly crackles with emotional electricity, until that staggering surprise in the last reel.” Leonard Maltin hailed Witness for the Prosecution as a “fantastically effective London courtroom suspenser… Dietrich is peerless as the wife of the alleged killer, Laughton at his best as defense attorney, and Lanchester delightful as his long-suffering nurse.” Agatha Christie herself considered it the finest film derived from one of her stories.

The lone surviving cast member, Ruta Lee, joins us for a Q&A. Her role is a brief but crucial one that contributes to the impact of the shattering conclusion. Lee will share memories of the four stars and of Wilder. She will also reminisce about other highlights of her long career. In the 1950s she sang and danced in several musical films, including ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,’ ‘Anything Goes,’ and ‘Funny Face.’ Her other films of that era include ‘Marjorie Morningstar’ and the popular Rat Pack vehicle ‘Sergeants 3.’ She also appeared in many of the most popular TV series of the time, including ‘Perry Mason,’ ‘Maverick,’ ‘Twilight Zone,’ ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents,’ and ‘The Fugitive.’ She was also a regular on game shows ‘Hollywood Squares,’ ‘High Rollers,’ and ‘Match Game.’ Later she performed on stage and in nightclubs, in the TV version of ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’ with Elizabeth Taylor, the hit series ‘Roseanne,’ and the movie ‘Funny Bones’ with Jerry Lewis. Expect juicy reminiscences of her lengthy career and her many costars.

Documentary about Laemmle ONLY IN THEATERS plays Saturday at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

by

     This Saturday presents a chance for an advance screening of the documentary Only in Theaters at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The filmmaker and some cast members will be there for a Q&A. We’ve been in business since 1938 but this is the first time we’ve been the subject of a film. Director Raphael Sbarge started filming a few months before the pandemic started and it was an opportune moment in terms of dramatic content because of course COVID-19 shut us down for a year, but he kept on filming. Variety Magazine described the film as “2022’s most emotional theatrical experience so far…watching Greg Laemmle struggle with the fate of his family’s eponymous arthouse business.”
     Synopsis: The Laemmle Theatres, a beloved 84-year-old art house cinema chain in Los Angeles, is facing seismic change. The family members behind this multigenerational business—whose sole mission has been to support the art of film—remain determined, despite enormous challenges.
     Some of the people interviewed for Only in Theaters include Ava DuVernay, Cameron Crowe, James Ivory, Nicole Holofcener, Kevin Thomas, Leonard Maltin, Kenneth Turran, Allison Anders, and Greg Laemmle.
     If you want to wait to see Only in Theaters at a Laemmle Theatre, we’ll open it on 11/18 at the Royal and other venues.

“A much-appreciated record of resistance,” FOUR WINTERS opens Friday at the Royal, Town Center and Newhall.

by

Torn from their families by the ravages of Hitler’s armies, men and women, many barely in their teens, escaped into the forests, banding together in partisan brigades; engaging in treacherous acts of sabotage, blowing up trains, burning electric stations, and attacking armed enemy headquarters. Against extraordinary odds, over 25,000 Jewish partisans courageously fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators from deep within the forests of WWII’s Belarus, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Sara Ginaite during the war.

The last surviving partisans relive their journey in Four Winters, sharing their stories of resistance. Director Julia Mintz shines a spotlight on their transformation from young innocents raised in closely knit Jewish communities and families, to becoming fierce partisan soldiers with enduring hope, grit, magnificent courage and deep humanity.

Featuring the photography of Faye Schulman, partisan photographer clad in her signature leopard coat, and through a fusion of inspiring and powerful first-person interviews with stunning archival footage, Four Winters uncovers secrets held for lifetimes, revealing a heartfelt narrative of heroism, determination and resilience.

Sara Ginaite being interviewed for the film.

“Four Winters offers an enduring warning amid today’s global struggle with authoritarian forces: As one speaker explains, her neighbors were already anti-Semitic before the war, but with power, they became vicious.” ~ Nicolas Rapold, New York Times

“Strikes a harrowing chord … Four Winters is an absorbing and emotional testament to a little-known aspect of the Holocaust, and a much-appreciated record of resistance.” ~ Valerie Kalfrin, AWFJ Women on Film

REEL TALK WITH STEPHEN FARBER moves to Laemmle’s Monica Film Center.

by

Laemmle Theatres is pleased to announce that veteran film critic Stephen Farber’s popular REEL TALK WITH STEPHEN FARBER screening series is moving to Laemmle’s Monica Film Center this fall! See a variety of outstanding films from the U.S. and around the world, including many top awards contenders. Then meet the filmmakers for provocative and revealing discussions led by Stephen.  The first screening — CALL JANE — will be October 17 and special guests will be announced soon. Visit laemmle.com/reeltalk for updates.

Recent films and speakers at Reel Talk have included:

MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, with director Anthony Fabian;

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, with actors Christian Lees and Jonah Lees;

HAPPENING, with director Audrey Diwan and actress Anamaria Vartolomei;

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT, with director/co-writer Tom Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten;

OPERATION MINCEMEAT, with screenwriter Michelle Ashford;

FIDDLER’S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN, with producer Sasha Berman and co-writer Michael Sragow;

AS THEY MADE US, with writer-director Mayim Bialik.

“With civil liberties in America under attack, those willing to fight to keep the liberties we have in place could learn a thing or two from the Patricio Guzmán documentary.” MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY opens Friday at the NoHo.

by

While several European nations are leaning toward or outright falling to reactionary leaders like Victor Orbán in Hungary, Latin American nations are going the other way. My Imaginary Country (Mi país imaginario), the most recent film by Chile’s master documentarian Patricio Guzmán, brilliantly shows us what is happening in Chile.

Young Chileans who demand a complete rejection of U.S.-installed/Pinochet fascism.

In October 2019, without warning, a revolution exploded across Chile. It was an event that Guzmán had been waiting for since 1973, when a violent military attack overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, and became the ending of Guzman’s most famous film, and one of the greatest documentaries of all time, The Battle of Chile.

Now, millions of people took to the streets of Santiago and across the country, demanding economic justice, free education and health care and fundamentally, a new constitution.

Featuring harrowing front-line protest footage and interviews with dynamic activists—of a movement largely led by women and feminist leaders—My Imaginary Country powerfully, yet elegantly connects Chile’s complex, bloody history to the country’s contemporary social movements, and leading to the recent election of a new president.

An urgent and powerful film, My Imaginary Country also serves as an inspiring and exemplary tale for other nations of how a popular revolt can spark deep political change.

“With civil liberties in America under attack, those willing to fight to keep the liberties we have in place could learn a thing or two from the Patricio Guzmán documentary.” ~ Valerie Complex, Deadline

A Critic’s Pick in the New York Times, A.O. Scott’s review, headlined “Chile in Revolt: Patricio Guzmán, Chile’s cinematic conscience, chronicles the uprising that shook the country starting in 2019” is worth sharing in full:

The most powerful images in My Imaginary Country are of the demonstrations in the streets of Santiago, Chile, that began in October 2019. Hundreds of thousands of Chileans took to the streets, at first to protest a subway fare increase, and eventually to demand sweeping changes to the nation’s economic and political order. They were met with tear gas, baton charges and plastic bullets aimed at their eyes. Some fought back with cobblestones chiseled from the street, which they hurled at the police.

To watch scenes like that in a documentary film — or, for that matter, on social media — is to experience a strong sense of déjà vu. What happened in Santiago in 2019 and 2020 feels like an echo of similar uprisings around the world; in Tehran in 2009 (and again this week); in Arab capitals like Tunis, Damascus and Cairo in 2011; in Kyiv in 2014; in Paris at the height of the Yellow Vest movement in 2018. Those episodes aren’t identical, but each represents the eruption of long-simmering dissatisfaction with a status quo that seems stubbornly indifferent to the grievances of the people.

Accompanying the exhilaration that these pictures might bring is a sense of foreboding. In almost every case, these rebellions ended in defeat, disappointment, stalemate or worse. The buoyant democratic promise of Tahrir Square in Cairo has been smothered by a decade of military dictatorship. Ukrainian democracy, seemingly victorious after the Maidan “revolution of dignity,” has since faced internal and external threats, most recently from Vladimir Putin’s army.

Jehane Noujaim’s “The Square” and Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Winter on Fire” are excellent in-the-moment films about Tahrir and Maidan, and My Imaginary Country belongs in their company. But it also has a resonance specific to Chile, and to the career of its director, Patricio Guzmán, who brings a unique and powerful historical perspective to his country’s present circumstances. He has seen events like this before, and has reason to hope that this time might be different.

Guzman, now in his early 80s, can fairly be described as Chile’s biographer, and also its cinematic conscience. His first documentary, footage from which appears in this one, was about the early months of Salvador Allende’s presidency, which began in an atmosphere of optimism and defiance in 1970 and ended in a brutal U.S.-supported military coup three years later. Guzman’s account of Allende’s fall and the repression that followed is the three-part “Battle of Chile,” which he completed while exiled in France, and which stands as one of the great political films of the past half-century.

More recently, in another trilogy— “Nostalgia For the Light,” “The Pearl Button” and “Cordillera of Dreams” — Guzman has explored Chile’s distinct cultural and geographical identity, musing on the intersections of ecology, demography and politics in a mode that is lyrical and essayistic. In “My Imaginary Country” he cites the French filmmaker Chris Marker as a mentor, and they share a spirit of critical humanism and a habit of looking for the meaning of history in the fine grain of experience.

While this is a first-person documentary, with the director providing voice-over narration, it expresses a poignant humility and a patient willingness to listen. Guzman interweaves footage of the demonstrations into interviews with participants, most of them young and all of them women.

This revolution, which culminated in the election of Gabriel Boric, a leftist in his 30s, to Chile’s presidency and a referendum calling for a new constitution, arose out of the economic frustrations of students and working people. But Guzman and the activists, scholars and journalists he talks to make clear that feminism was always central to the movement. They argue that the plight of poor and Indigenous Chileans can’t be understood or addressed without taking gender into account, and that the equality of women is foundational to any egalitarian politics.

My Imaginary Country ends with a new constituent assembly — including many veterans of the demonstrations — meeting to write a new constitution that they hope will finally dispel the legacy of Augusto Pinochet’s long dictatorship. After the film was completed, voters rejected their first draft, a setback to Boric and to the radical energy Guzman’s film captures and celebrates. Whatever the next chapter will be, we can hope that he is around to record it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-2FUeZYL8

Luis Buñuel’s THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL 60th Anniversary Screenings October 12 at Three Laemmle Locations

by

Continuing the 60th anniversary celebration of the milestone film year 1962, Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Abroad Series present Luis Buñuel’s scathing surreal satire, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL. The film plays one night only, Wednesday, October 12 at 7:00 PM at three Laemmle locations: The Royal in West Los Angeles, the Laemmle Glendale, and the Laemmle Newhall in Santa Clarita.

Buñuel, a Spanish-born iconoclast and provocateur, spent most of his career working outside his native country. In 1962, at the age of 62, Bunuel was enjoying international acclaim after being coaxed out of Mexican exile the year before to make ‘Viridiana,’ which was suffused with his characteristic caustic wit and anti-religious sentiment. The film’s notoriety revived his career and placed him at the center of international film culture for the remainder of his career. THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, made in Mexico, further cemented his credentials as a mordant satirist. The story, written by Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza, deals with a lavish dinner party at the home of wealthy opera patrons in which the upper-class guests find themselves unable to leave after the meal. After a few days a rescue party is organized but the would-be rescuers cannot enter the house, and chaos ensues. During the ordeal the guests find their veneer of civilization slowly stripped away.

Critics were struck by Buñuel’s unrepentant approach to skewering the ruling elites.Andrew Sarris, the esteemed film critic of The Village Voice, called Buñuel “The last of the classic surrealists of the screen,” and was impressed with his “stylistic serenity. Where he was once merely profane, he is now eminently profound.” Leonard Maltin called it a “wry assault on bourgeois manners,” while Roger Ebert more exuberantly cited it as “a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets.” Although a curmudgeonly Bosley Crowther of the New York Times gave it an unfavorable review upon its  delayed U.S. release in 1967 after years of legal issues over distribution rights, the film’s stature and influence were fully recognized by its inclusion in The New York Times publication, “The  Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made” in 2004.

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL premiered at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and was selected as the  opening night entry of the first New York Film Festival the following year. Buñuel was propelled into the most successful phase of his long career, and he followed it with a number of  memorable films, ‘Belle de Jour’ (1967), ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ (1972), and his final film, ‘That Obscure Object of Desire’ (1977) among them. Later, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL’s influence extended beyond the screen—in 2016 it was adapted as an opera of the same name by composer Thomas Ades.

“Accountability is a big issue in the world right now. This is a film about people in power being held accountable.” ARGENTINA, 1985 opens September 30 at the Royal.

by

Argentina, 1985 is inspired by the true story of public prosecutors Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, who dared to investigate and prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship in 1985. Undeterred by the military’s still considerable influence within their fragile new democracy, Strassera and Moreno Ocampo assembled a young legal team of unlikely heroes for their David-vs-Goliath battle. Under constant threat to themselves and their families, they raced against time to bring justice to the victims of the military junta.

Ricardo Darín & Peter Lanzani

The journey to making Argentina, 1985 began with a meeting of two old friends. Director Santiago Mitre and producer Axel Kuschevatzky are long-time creative collaborators, on films including Paulina (2015) and The Summit (La Cordillera) (2017). Argentina, 1985 was devised while discussing their love of cinema. “We love to pick each other’s brains,” says Kuschevatzky. “We were sitting in a bar in Buenos Aires having a conversation about movies we adore. We were talking about political thrillers we love, like All The President’s Men or Judgment At Nuremburg. We wondered why there was no equivalent in Argentina. We talked about what might be the subject of such a film. Santi said, ‘It has to be the Trial of the Juntas.’”

Ricardo Darín

The Trial of the Juntas was one of the most seismic moments in Argentinian history. During the dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, from 1976 to 1983, Argentina was ruled by a pitiless military government. The country lived in a state of terror, with supposed enemies of the government tortured, killed or ‘disappeared’ on an unimaginable scale. In 1985, two years after the government had collapsed and democracy had been tentatively restored, nine of the former military leaders were tried for war crimes. The Trial of the Juntas was the largest such case since the Nüremberg Trials. Securing a judgement against the dictators seemed close to impossible given how much power they still wielded.

Peter Lanzani & Ricardo Darín

Trying the case fell to veteran public prosecutor Julio Strassera and a young and eager deputy, Luis Moreno Ocampo. With few people willing to assist on a surely unwinnable case, they had no choice but to gather a team of very young, very inexperienced assistants. As much as the majority of the country wanted them to succeed, they had little faith in their
chances. The trial last five months, during which time 833 witnesses gave their testimony. The country was on a knife-edge through the trial. Strassera and Moreno Ocampo received multiple death threats. Bomb threats were regularly made and several bombs were detonated at government buildings. It was an extremely dangerous time. Despite all the odds stacked against them, Strassera and Moreno Ocampo never gave up. It was a story with all the makings of a political thriller.

“This was an event that had a big impact on my family,” says Mitre, who was just five years old when the trial took place. “My mother worked in the justice system her whole life. Beyond that, it had a huge impact on me as an Argentinian and the way I see my country. I’ve always wanted to tell this story. These were just ordinary men doing their jobs in the best way they could. It’s a story about how regular people can change society.”

Mitre also saw that this story had a lot of relevance today. While it’s about a specific time in Argentina, this inspiring tale of people fighting back against oppressive leaders, and fighting for democracy, will resonate with audiences everywhere. The story of Argentina in 1985 has many echoes in what’s happening around the globe right now. “This is a story that speaks to Argentinians, but it will speak to people anywhere in the world,” says Mitre. “Strassera achieved this extraordinary thing for Argentina, which also sent a message about justice to people all over the world.”

Santiago Mitre

“Accountability is a big issue in the world right now,” says Kuschevatzky. “This is a film about people in power being held accountable.” With such a rich historical story and such contemporary resonance, both Mitre and Kuschevatzky were surprised they were the first to bring The Trial Of The Juntas to film. “We wondered why nobody had made this story before,” says Kuschevatzky. “It’s like a superhero film. These are everyday guys who are facing a seemingly insurmountable force. It’s a very complex story and it’s a period piece, which brings extra complications, so we knew it was going to be a challenge, but it is such an amazing story that we knew we had to make it.” Neither man realised quite how much of a challenge, and quite how rewarding, it was going to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xOqgolOHPg

Time to say goodbye. The end (for now) of Laemmle Virtual Cinema.

by

After helping Laemmle Theatres survive the pandemic and theater closures, the last day to secure a rental on Laemmle Virtual Cinema will be Sunday, October 9. Thank you to everyone who rented movies and brought world cinema home to feel less isolated during dark days. Highlights among the several hundred titles we were proud to feature are Shiva Baby, the Eric Rohmer series A Tale of Springtime, A Tale of Summer, A Tale of Autumn and A Tale of Winter, Berlin Alexanderplatz; The Man Who Sold His Own Skin; and Murina. We continued LVC after reopening in April 2021 for those who enjoyed and found it useful but our core mission is and always has been theatrical exhibition. We firmly believe movies are simply better seen on a big screen with an audience and want to encourage and focus on that.