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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI 50th Anniversary Screenings March 2, at the Royal, Playhouse, Glendale & Newhall.

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To launch our Anniversary Classics Series in 2022, and during Oscar season, we celebrate the first woman ever to be nominated for Best Director, Lina Wertmüller, who died at the end of last year at the age of 93. Just two years earlier, she had won an honorary Oscar at the Academy’s annual Governors Awards for her sterling body of work, spanning more than 50 years. For our Anniversary screening, we are presenting one of the first movies that brought her to the world’s attention, The Seduction of Mimi.

Wertmüller had served an apprenticeship with the great Federico Fellini, and she began directing her own films in the 1960s. When she presented The Seduction of Mimi at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972, she won widespread acclaim. Mimi and the director’s subsequent film, Love and Anarchy, were both released in the United States in 1974, and the press and the public took notice. The following year she scored an even bigger success with the controversial Swept Away, and in 1976 her unique World War II drama, Seven Beauties, earned four Oscar nominations, including two for Wertmüller, for Best Screenplay as well as Best Director. This historic nomination of a female director was not repeated until 1993 when Jane Campion earned a nod for The Piano.

In The Seduction of Mimi, Wertmüller’s favorite leading man, Giancarlo Giannini, plays a laborer torn between the Mafia and the Communist Party. As he travels from Sicily to Rome, he also gets involved with several women in addition to his wife. One of his lovers is played by another of Wertmüller’s favorite actors, Mariangela Melato, who co-starred with Giannini in Love and Anarchy and Swept Away as well as Mimi. Giannini’s other co-stars in The Seduction of Mimi include Elena Fiore and Agostina Belli.

Writing in The New York Times, Nora Sayre said, “the politics and sex are so well balanced that all the raw emotions and the devastating jokes ring true.” Sayre added, “The Seduction of Mimi is one of the best films of this season.” The Los Angeles Free Press declared, “Wertmüller is a supreme satirist.”

Lina Wertmüller

This 50th anniversary screening will play at four Laemmle locations: the Royal in West Los Angeles, the Playhouse in Pasadena, Glendale and Newhall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytGPSC35SfI

Moviegoers, start your guesses: The Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest has begun.

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The Oscar nominations are out, and in spite of the fact that Bradley Cooper was robbed of one and possibly even two nominations, it’s time for our Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest! Correctly guess how the Academy will vote and win movie passes good at all Laemmle venues and Laemmle Virtual Cinema.

“Haroun shows how the strength of sisterhood extends beyond family to unite women in resistance.” LINGUI, THE SACRED BONDS opens this Friday at the Royal.

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Celebrated Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (A Screaming Man) makes a remarkable return to his home country with Lingui, The Sacred Bonds, in which a mother struggles to secure an abortion for her pregnant teen daughter. Honest and poignant, gorgeously shot and superbly acted, this official submission to the 2022 Academy Awards is a stunning vision of female solidarity. Film critics have noticed:

“Haroun has a gift for distilling volumes of meaning in his direct, lucid, balanced visuals, which he uses to complement and illuminate the minimalist, naturalistic dialogue.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Achouackh Abakar Souleyman and Rihane Khalil Alio. All photos courtesy of MUBI.

“It’s a bracing work that passes quickly in 87 minutes. But the world it shows us, etched in fully felt performances and beautifully hued compositions, feels vividly, sometimes overwhelmingly present.” ~ Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Rihane Khalil Alio.

“Beautiful to look at, impeccably shot and boasts a righteous, perfectly judged, weapon-wielding climax.” ~ Kevin Maher, Times [UK]

Achouackh Abakar Souleyman and Rihane Khalil Alio.

“Haroun shows how the strength of sisterhood extends beyond family to unite women in resistance, and the movie’s powerful vision of their furtive heroism reflects the overwhelming forces that they confront.” ~ Richard Brody, New Yorker

Rihane Khalil Alio.

“As we tag along with Harouns characters, we learn to appreciate their story as a small, but vivid study of lives that are so much more than their progressive developments.” ~ Simon Abrams, RogerEbert.com

Rihane Khalil Alio.

“But it’s the silent allegiances of sisterhood, a near-underground network operating to safeguard women’s rights, which exercise Haroun’s imagination throughout this excellent piece.” ~ Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph [UK]

Rihane Khalil Alio and Achouackh Abakar Souleyman.

“The intense, focused performances from the two central women keep this drama in a hyper-alert state.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

Writer-director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun.

“A beautiful portrait of community.” ~ Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DFew16WifY

Oscar Update: Contests, KStew, Sleepers from India and Bhutan, Plus Doc, Animated and Live Action Shorts!

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It’s Oscar nomination week which means it’s time for our Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest! Correctly guess how the Academy will vote and win movie passes good at all Laemmle venues and Laemmle Virtual Cinema.
Plus, there’s still time to win Laemmle passes by telling us your favorite ten films of 2021. That contest ends February 21.
Oscar nominations mean we’re almost ready to start screening the perennially popular Oscar-nominated shorts. We’ll open the documentaries February 25 at the Royal with other venues TBD. We’re planning to open the animated and live action shorts at the Claremont, Newhall, Playhouse, Town Center, NoHo and Monica Film Center, exact dates TBA.

Please note: this year neither the animated nor live action short programs are appropriate for children.

We have many other brilliant Oscar nominees on screen now, including Best International Film nominee Lunana and multiple nominees Drive My Car and Flee (Best International, Animated and Documentary Feature nominee!), and this Friday we’re bringing back Spencer to make sure everyone sees Kristen Stewart’s performance on the big screen. Beginning March 4 we’ll have Best Feature Documentary nominee Writing with Fire on our virtual platform.

 

 

Anniversary Classics Abroad Returns with Wertmüller, Almodóvar, Truffaut and more.

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With the fifth wave of the pandemic fading, we’re ready to restart Anniversary Classics Abroad, our repertory series of great foreign films. First up is the raucous sex comedy THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI. A tribute to Lina Wertmüller, who recently passed away and was the first female director to be nominated by the Academy, the film provides the best medicine, copious laughter. We’ll follow that up with Almodóvar’s TALK TO HER, Truffaut’s JULES & JIM and the Liv Ullmann-Max von Sydow drama THE EMIGRANTS. We are planning eight more films for the rest of 2022, titles to be announced!

03/02/22 – THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI
03/23/22 – TALK TO HER
04/13/22 – JULES & JIM
05/11/22 – THE EMIGRANTS

We’ll screen them all at our Glendale, Newhall, Pasadena and West L.A. theaters.

Reminder: Submit your 2021 Top Ten Movie List for a chance to win fabulous prizes (gift cards)!

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Tell us your favorite ten films of 2021 for a chance to win a Gift Card valid at all eight Laemmle locations and at home on watch.laemmle.com! The deadline for submission is February 21, 2022.

For inspiration, here’s Greg Laemmle’s Top 10 list:

#10 – SHIVA BABY – This true indie gem came out just as theatres were reopening in April, and got a little lost in the shuffle.  I understand that director Emma Seligman and star Rachel Sennott are teaming up on another project, and can’t wait to see the results.
#9 – THE CARD COUNTER – Writer-director Paul Schrader is again at the top of his game with this meditation on the collective guilt arising from our country’s adventures in nation building and the ensuing crimes against humanity.  Oscar Isaac is terrific as Schrader’s scapegoat, and Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan provide excellent support.
#8 – THE VELVET QUEEN – We wonder if patience will be rewarded as the subjects of the documentary wait for a glimpse of an elusive Himalayan snow leopard.  But either way, the audience’s patience is rewarded in this quiet and contemplative documentary.
#7 – JOCKEY – Clifton Collins Jr. has always been a welcome presence on screen.  But also such a chameleon that even the most astute moviegoer may miss his presence.  But he’s hard to miss as the aging jockey at the center of this quietly powerful story.  If there is any justice in Hollywood, he will be remembered when nominations for Best Actor are announced.
#6 – C’MON C’MON – Writer-director Mike Mills may only have four films to his credit (previously THUMBSUCKER, BEGINNERS, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN), but he has yet to deliver a bad film.  Anchored by strong performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Gaby Hoffmann and young newcomer,Woody Norman, this is worth searching out.
#5 – tick, tick…BOOM! – I’m not a fan of RENT.  And although I was familiar with the songs from this earlier Jonathan Larson musical, I wasn’t particularly a fan of the music.  But I loved what director LIn-Manuel Miranda did to blend Larson’s musical within a documentary framework to create something that goes above and beyond the source material.  And in a year when he also delivered amazing performances in MAINSTREAM and THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, Andrew Garfield is beyond fabulous in the lead.
#4 – DRIVE MY CAR – Adapted from a short story by Murakami Haruki, this breakthrough film from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi is the foreign language sleeper of the year.
#3 – DUNE – It should come as no surprise that Denis Villeneuve delivers a visual feast in this epic telling of the first part of Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi novel.  But the emotional and philosophical aspects of the tale are given equal attention, and the result is that rare Hollywood blockbuster that satisfies on all fronts.  How often does one get to say that they eagerly look forward to the sequel to a Hollywood blockbuster.
#2 – BELFAST – Too sentimental? Who cares.  It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.  And like Dickens, writer-director Kenneth Branagh shows us both the beauty and terror of his youth in Belfast in this elegiac tale.  The cast is uniformly excellent, from old pros like Judy Dench and Ciaran Hinds to newcomer Jude Hill.
#1 – THE POWER OF THE DOG – I beg you.  Please find a way to see this on the big screen.  Or if you must stream it, put your phone in another room and commit yourself to giving this film the same level of care and attention that director Jane Campion and her cast and crew clearly delivered in bringing this into existence.  This may be Ms. Campion’s finest work yet and coming from the director of AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE, THE PIANO and BRIGHT STAR, that is saying a lot.  I sincerely hope that she does not take off for another 12 years (the span between BRIGHT STAR and THE POWER OF THE DOG) from making feature films, but if that kind of break is needed to produce a movie as perfect and complete as THE POWER OF THE DOG, I will patiently wait.  This film is that good.

“Touchingly absurd and absurdly touching,” BRIGHTON 4TH comes to L.A. February 11 via Tbilisi, Georgia and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

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In this portrait of parental sacrifice and the love of a father for his son, former wrestler Kakhi (played by real-life Olympic champion Levan Tediashvili) embarks on a journey from his home in the Republic of Georgia to visit his son Soso (Giorgi Tabidze) in the Russian-speaking neighborhood of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. There he finds him living in a shabby boarding house populated by a colorful group of fellow Georgian immigrants. Soso is not studying medicine, as Kakhi believed, but is working for a moving company and has accrued a $14,000 gambling debt to a local Russian mob boss. Kakhi sets his mind to helping his hapless son out of his debt, leading to situations as often comic as they are dire. Lensed by Oscar®-nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Nebraska), Levan Koguashvili Brighton 4th won three major awards at the Tribeca Film Festival – Best International Film, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay – and is Georgia’s official submission to the 94th Academy Awards®.

Laemmle Theatres is proud to open Brighton 4th on February 11 at our Encino, Pasadena and West L.A. theaters.

“Touchingly absurd and absurdly touching… A slow-burn family drama infused with welcome doses of deadpan dark humor.” ~ Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

(l. to r.) Levan Tediashvili (Kakhi) and Giorgi Tabidze (Soso) shopping on the boardwalk of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, in Brighton 4th, directed by Levan Koguashvili. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber.

“A tragicomedy that sneaks up on you stealthily before flooring you with an emotional sucker punch in the final reel.” ~ Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com

(l. to r.) Nadezhda Mikhalkova (Lena) and Giorgi Tabidze (Soso) on the beach in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, in Brighton 4th, directed by Levan Koguashvili. Image courtesy of Lorber.

“The melancholy-infused narrative neatly balances rueful humor with genuine sweetness.” ~ Alissa Simon, Variety

Levan Tediashvili (Kakhi) in Brighton 4th, directed by Levan Koguashvili. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber.

“A near-perfect, semi-comic portrait of the low-rent Georgian enclave in Brighton Beach.” ~ Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice

Levan Tediashvili (Kakhi) in Brighton 4th, directed by Levan Koguashvili. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber.

“A touching and surprising exploration of masculinity that features a stunning central performance from former Olympic wrestling champion Levan Tediashvili.” ~ Kaleem Aftab, Cineuropa

Levan Koguashvili, director of Brighton 4th. Photo credit: Eliso Sulakauri

“Koguashvili deftly blends tones in his vividly realised snapshots of Georgian manhood.” ~ Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“A compelling portrait of the Eastern European community that exists in Brighton, [featuring] a great performance by Tediashvili, in his first film role.” ~ Christian Gallichio, The Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6R0js4LoqI

Greg Laemmle: “Now is the time to show that arthouse audiences still want to support the theatrical experience.”

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Michael Ordona’s piece in today’s L.A. Times Calendar section — headlined “Movie theater safety during COVID, the sequel: This time it’s personal” —
and the latest newsletter from the National Association of Theatre Owners got Laemmle Theatres President Greg Laemmle thinking about the state of American arthouse exhibition:

“In addition to #CinemaSafe measures, Laemmle Theatres is providing a one-seat lateral buffer even though this is not required. You never have to share an armrest with someone who isn’t part of your party. And in addition to the distancing benefit, the reduced capacity also likely enhances the ability of the ventilation system to clear the air.

“For those who are vaxxed and boosted, there’s arguably a greater risk to one’s health in driving to the theatre than the likelihood of getting sick from an infection acquired while in the theatre (or other “regular” activity). And that’s not me saying that. See journalist David Leonhardt’s quote in the New York Times daily email for January 25, 2022:

“It’s a remarkable disconnect between perception and reality. A majority of the boosted say they are worried about getting sick from Covid. In truth, riding in a car presents more danger to most of them than the virus does.”

“If people want to wait another week or two to let numbers continue to drop, I can’t argue with that. But with Oscar nominations coming on February 8, and absent a new variant, now is the time to show that arthouse audiences still want to support the theatrical experience. With that show of support, distributors will feel confident that movie theatres are back for all audiences and all types of films. Without that show of support, you can expect a future where going to a movie theatre is just for blockbusters like SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.”

Learn more about Laemmle Theatres’ health and safety measures to combat the pandemic here.