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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

‘Memoria,’ Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “latest wonderment,” never to be seen on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming, is coming soon.

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Laemmle fans of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul have just three (3) chances to see his “latest wonderment” Memoria: May 13 at the Laemmle Playhouse; June 3 at the Laemmle NoHo; and June 24 the Laemmle Glendale; the filmmaker and the U.S. distributor Neon have decided the film will never be released on DVD, Blu-ray or a streaming service — read Justin Chang’s rave L.A. Times review to understand why — so do not miss it! Starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton, the film is a transfixing drama about a Scottish woman, who, after hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia. She begins an investigation to find answers.

Read the last paragraph of Chang’s Times review: “And cinema, as Weerasethakul reminds us, is still a young art, one whose properties and possibilities are still in the process of revealing themselves. An explanation for those strange sounds does materialize, and even coming from a filmmaker who has primed us to expect the otherworldly, it’s something to see — and to hear. A paean to the distant past that unfolds in a rigorous present tense, Memoria finally reveals itself as a vision from the future — a declaration of faith in a medium that hasn’t lost its power to astonish.”

“You will not want to be anywhere else.” Iranian comic drama ‘Hit the Road’ delights, opens Friday at the Royal & Town Center, May 13 at the Claremont.

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Panah Panahi, son and collaborator of embattled Iranian master Jafar Panahi, makes a striking feature debut with this charming, sharp-witted, and deeply moving comic drama. Hit the Road takes the tradition of the Iranian road-trip movie and adds unexpected twists and turns. It follows a family of four – two middle-aged parents and their sons, one a taciturn adult, the other an ebullient six-year-old – as they drive across the Iranian countryside. Over the course of the trip, they bond over memories of the past, grapple with fears of the unknown, and fuss over their sick dog. Unspoken tensions arise and the film builds emotional momentum as it slowly reveals the furtive purpose for their journey. The result is a humanist drama that offers an authentic, raw, and deeply sincere observation of an Iranian family preparing to part with one of their own.

Winner of Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival and an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival (Directors’ Fortnight), New York Film Festival, and AFI Fest, Hit the Road began earning accolades the minute it premiered last year:

“Critic’s Pick! From the first jokey moments of Hit the Road until its heartbreaking end you will not want to be anywhere else.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times

“A love story, a tragicomedy, and a triumph. Panahi films the drama with aesthetic audacity to match his psychological subtlety… unites intimate conflicts and vast landscapes in framings as wry as they are rhapsodic.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Sharp and endearing. A warm and realistic comedy, with flashes of the fantastic. Introduces an exciting filmmaker whose journey is just beginning.” — Jacob Oller, Paste

 “A stunningly assured road movie.“ – Leigh Singer, Sight & Sound

“A worthy descendant—both stylistic and biological—of Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, Hit the Road maps its own journey: playful, bittersweet and wholly surprising.“ – Dylan Kai Dempsey, Ioncinema

“An intimate, frequently funny, poignant and deeply moving piece of work… damned near to being a masterpiece – if it isn’t simply one already.” – John Bleasdale, Cinevue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdgWGUX4b5M

Bring a Friend Back to the Movies ~ THE DUKE, starring Jim Broadbent & Helen Mirren.

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Laemmle Theatres and Sony Pictures Classics invite you to Bring a Friend Back To The Movies. Starting this Friday at the Playhouse and Town Center, and May 6 at the Claremont, Monica Film Center and Newhall, buy one ticket to the acclaimed dramatic comedy THE DUKE and one friend — or spouse, sibling, parent, child, etc. — may see the movie with you for free. This offer is only good at the theater box offices, not online, and runs through Thursday, May 12 only.

We want to bring audiences back to theaters and remind them that nothing beats seeing a film on a big screen with a friend and the crowd pleaser THE DUKE, which premiered at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals in 2021 and is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 95%, is the perfect movie for the purpose. “THE DUKE is a wonderfully warm and funny film,” said Greg Laemmle, “and seeing it in a theatre is the best way to enjoy it. Together with the filmmakers and the distributor, Laemmle Theatres is supporting the Bring a Friend Back program as a great way to remind audiences of the unique pleasure of seeing a movie in a public setting.”

In acclaimed director Roger Michell’s (Notting Hill, My Cousin Rachel, Blackbird) final feature film before his passing in 2021, THE DUKE is the first film to tell the extraordinary true story of 60-year-old taxi driver Kempton Bunton (Broadbent), who was accused of stealing Francisco Goya’s portrait of The Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London; it is the only painting ever stolen from the National Gallery in its 196-year history. The L.A. Times recently published a fascinating piece on the backstory, featuring interviews with the Bunton’s grandson as well as Mirren and Broadbent.

THE DUKE stars Academy Award® winners Broadbent (Iris, Another Year) and Mirren (The Queen, The Last Station), with a screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. We open the film this Friday at the Playhouse and Town Center and May 6 at the Claremont, Newhall and Monica Film Center. The Bring a Friend Back program is good through Thursday, May 12, only for THE DUKE, and only for in-person ticket purchases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrmwbkq780E

Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in THE EMIGRANTS ~ 50th Anniversary Screenings May 11.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present our latest installment in our Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Jan Troell’s Oscar-nominated Swedish epic, THE EMIGRANTS. Troell made his feature film debut in 1966 with the acclaimed coming-of-age film, ‘Here Is Your Life.’ After seeing that, producer Bengt Forslund tagged Troell to direct the adaptation of the series of popular Swedish novels by Vilhelm Moberg about a family’s decision to emigrate from 19th century Sweden to America. Troell turned the novels into two films: THE EMIGRANTS and its follow-up, ‘The New Land.’ Revered Scandinavian actors Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann starred in both movies, along with Eddie Axberg, the star of ‘Here Is Your Life.’

THE EMIGRANTS begins by documenting the travails of a family struggling to survive in rural Sweden in the 1840s. With their prospects narrowing, they and a few of their neighbors make the decision to migrate to America in search of a better life. The film chronicles their grueling ocean voyage and then their further travels by train and river boat to unsettled land in Minnesota, where they battle to set down roots in a world that is completely alien to them.

The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar of 1971. Warner Bros. decided to distribute the film, and in 1972, it earned four additional Oscar nominations: for Best Picture, Best Actress Liv Ullmann, Best Director for Troell and Best Screenplay by Troell and Forslund. It was only the third foreign language film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, following Jean Renoir’s ‘Grand Illusion’ from 1938 and Costa-Gavras’ ‘Z’ in 1969.

Troell not only directed and co-wrote the film but also acted as his own cinematographer and editor. As critic Pauline Kael wrote, “In the whole history of the screen there have been only a handful of directors who actually shot their own movies, and no other cinematographer-director has ever undertaken a work of this sweep.” She added that Troell “brings a new visual and thematic unity to fiction films.” Roger Ebert wrote that THE EMIGRANTS was “infinitely absorbing and moving.” Writing in Life magazine, Richard Schickel declared, “Jan Troell has made the masterpiece about the dream that shaped America.”

We will screen the original 190-minute version of the film at the Laemmle Glendale, Newhall, Playhouse and Royal on Wednesday, May 11. The version that played in America in 1972 was shortened by 40 minutes and lost some of the rich detail of Troell’s groundbreaking immigrant saga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h-rHuPF5Ww

Q&As this Friday with HATCHING filmmaker Hanna Bergholm.

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HATCHING filmmaker Hanna Bergholm will participate in Q&As after the 7:30 PM screening at the Monica Film Center and after the 10:15 PM screening at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, April 29.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS1oDoElwqc

 

Virtual Q&A with the CHARLOTTE filmmakers this Sunday, April 24.

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CHARLOTTE co-directors Tahir Rana and Éric Warin, screenwriter David Bezmozgis and producer Julia Rosenberg will participate in a virtual Q&A on Sunday, April 24. Johanna Schneller of the Globe & Mail will moderate. Click here or scan the QR code below to register.

“Smashing…touching and piercing. A stirring and true-spirited romantic film.” The overlooked 1970 British classic ‘Bronco Bullfrog’ gets a proper U.S. release starting April 29 at the Laemmle Glendale.

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The debut film by “one of the forgotten heroes of British cinema” (Matthew Sweet, BBC Radio 4), Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog is “remarkable” (Mollie Panter-Downes, The New Yorker), a “breathtaking time capsule” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian), and a “revelation” (Kieron Corless, Sight & Sound).

Seventeen-year-old Del, with no money and nowhere to go, breaks into train cars with his cool, fresh-out-of-borstal (reform school) pal Bronco Bullfrog. But one day he meets the lovely Irene, and despite an earful from his dad (and her mum), the two young lovers run away together… but to where?

Shot in London’s East End in 1969, cast with Doc Marten-wearing “suedehead” locals, and set to a dynamic soundtrack by early ’70s art rock band Audience, Bronco Bullfrog has been compared to the work of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, but with a punk rock spirit. After a minuscule American release following its Edinburgh and Cannes premieres, this “lost gem” (Dave Calhoun, Time Out) returns over 50 years later as a cult landmark of two teens in love, in black and white and cockney—with subtitles.

Del Walker and Anne Gooding in Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog. (Credit: Seventy-Seven.)

Sadly, filmmaker Barney Platts-Mills passed away last year so is not here to be part of the re-release of his film. In his stead, Oscar-winning director James Scott will participate in a Q&A after 7:30 PM screening of Bronco at the Laemmle Glendale on Friday, April 29.

From Sasha Frere-Jones recent piece in the Observer:

“The British 1970 film Bronco Bullfrog…is about kids in the streets, full stop. Del (Del Walker) starts up a romance with Irene (Anne Gooding) and bounces around with his friend Joe, aka Bronco Bullfrog (Sam Shepherd), running from cops and parents through Stratford, East London. A year before starring in this neo-realist dream, Walker was talking to director Barney Platts-Mills while they made a short documentary of Walker and his friends doing improvisatory theater with director Joan Littlewood.

Left to Right: Anne Gooding, Tina Syer, Chris Shepherd, and Del Walker in Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog. (Credit: Seventy-Seven.)

“‘Is this better than hanging about in the streets? Is that all you do?’ Platts-Mills asks him.

“‘It’s all I’ve ever done,’ Walker says. “Streets—Stratford, Plaistow, Green Gate, East Ham, Leyton, Sleaford. Everywhere. Get a bit sick of it.’

“That film is called Everybody’s An Actor, Shakespeare Said, but that statement is the plot of Bronco Bullfrog, almost in total. Now rereleased by Gabriele Caroti and Seventy-Seven, a “boutique movie and music label focusing on vintage, underseen, and underappreciated work,” Bronco Bullfrog is a funnel right back into 1969 East London, a bright black-and-white look at several working class kids with no future and all the time in the world. Before Quadrophenia, before the Jam, before the Sex Pistols, there was this.

Del Walker, Anne Gooding, and Roy Haywood in Barney Platts-Mills’ Bronco Bullfrog. (Credit: Seventy-Seven.)

“‘We both loved the Italian neo-realists, Barney and me,’ cinematographer Adam Barker-Mill told me. ‘Joan and the boys had something.’ In the late ‘60s, Littlewood had been working in a theater in East London, putting on shows with local teens. The gang of boys hanging about in front of the theater was slowing things down, so she put them to work.”

Read the rest of Frere-Jones’ piece here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8SRdee-j0&t=1s

‘Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen,’ the engrossing behind-the-scenes story of one of our finest movie musicals, opens May 6.

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The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael called “the most powerful movie musical ever made.” Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. We have an advance screening of Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen May 5 at the Royal followed by week-long engagements at the Royal, Playhouse and Town Center beginning May 6.

For a taste of the film, here’s a clip in which composer John Williams and Jewison discuss enlisting the brilliant violinist Isaac Stern to provide the title character’s music.

We are planning a series of Q&As at the Royal: Thursday, May 5th – evening show for LAJFF – Q&A with Daniel Raim (director), moderated by Hilary Helstein (LAJFF); Fri. May 6 – 7:30pm – Q&A with Daniel Raim (director), Sasha Berman (producer), and Michael Sragow (co-writer, co-producer); Sat. May 7th – 7:30pm – Moderated by film critic Kenneth Turan, Q&A with Daniel Raim (director), Sasha Berman (producer), and Michael Sragow (co-writer, co-producer); Wed. May 11 at 7:30pm – Q&A with Michael Sragow (co-writer, co-producer).

Director Norman Jewison (pointing) and star Tevye (holding hat) on the set of The Fiddler on the Roof. As seen in Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen. A film by Daniel Raim. A Zeitgeist Films release in association with Kino Lorber.

Finally, here’s an excerpt from a rave review Raquel Stecher recently posted on her site Out of the Past:

“Director Daniel Raim continues his quest to champion the art of filmmaking with his latest documentary Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen (2022). Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, this documentary takes a deep dive into the making of Fiddler on the Roof (1971), director Norman Jewison’s personal and professional journey and all of the key players who came to together to make one of the greatest musical films of all time.

Director Norman Jewison (right) and star Tevye on the set of The Fiddler on the Roof. As seen in Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen. A film by Daniel Raim. A Zeitgeist Films release in association with Kino Lorber.

“Fiddler on the Roof was the brainchild of composer Jerry Bock, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and writer Joseph Stein. The inspiration came from a selection of short stories by Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem called Teyve and his Daughters as well as artist Marc Chagall’s 1912 painting The Fiddler. The play opened on Broadway in 1964 and there was some concern that the story would only appeal to a small Jewish audience. However, Fiddler’s tale of a Jewish dairy farmer who attempts to marry off his five daughters in pre-revolutionary Russia, is a story of family, tradition and the inevitability of change. This gave the story a universal appeal and along with the excellent story and top-notch musical numbers, Fiddler was an international success. And naturally it was destined to become a film.

Filming The Fiddler on the Roof. As seen in Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen. A film by Daniel Raim. A Zeitgeist Films release in association with Kino Lorber.

“Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen explores the history behind the Broadway show, how Norman Jewison came to be involved, the casting, musical direction, art direction, location scouting, choreography, cinematography and many other elements that came to make the film as well as Fiddler‘s legacy. There is so much here to take in but it never feels overwhelming.

“The documentary includes interviews with director Norman Jewison, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, musical director John Williams, actresses Rosalind Harris (Tzeitel), Michele Marsh (Hodel) and Neva Small (Chava) and film critic Kenneth Turan. There are also archival interviews of Jewison back in 2000 as well as actor Topol and art director Robert F. Boyle. The interviews add so much to this documentary. There is nothing quite like firsthand accounts of an important moment in film history. And much like Daniel Raim’s other documentaries, there are illustrations from artist Patrick Mate as well as plenty of archival footage and behind-the-scenes photographs. The documentary is also is chock full of interesting facts even beyond just the making of Fiddler on the Roof. Watching it felt like I was getting two documentaries for the price of one: the making of a film and the biography of its director.”

Read the rest of Ms. Stecher’s review here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D19flnSG79Q