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The official blog of Laemmle Theatres

LAEMMLE LIVE presents: Elemental Music with Rich Capparela October 13

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LAEMMLE LIVE proudly presents talented faculty members from Santa Monica-based Elemental Music, performing Rondo from Duo 2 – Opus 81 by Friedrich Kuhlaum, Sao Paulo Shimmer by Jonathan Cohen and Mozart Clarinet Quintet K. 581. Beloved radio host Rich Capparela returns to host

Since 2004, Elemental Music has provided over 2,000 young musicians with high-quality music education experiences. Elemental Music envisions a community where youth are inspired and empowered through quality music education. Students study with expert teachers to hone their musical technique while learning the art of collaboration and responsibility. Elemental Music offers exciting ensembles for elementary school students in nearly all instruments and voice, as well as beginning programs for guitar and strings, and even an advanced full orchestra for middle school students.

“I feel the real kind of happy in my heart!” This is the exclamation of an Elemental Music student overflowing with joy after performing in his very first orchestra concert. As a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to inspiring, training, and nurturing young musicians in Santa Monica and surrounding communities, Elemental Music teachers witness special moments like this all season long!

Emily Senchuk, Christie Glaser, flutes

Amanda Walker, clarinet

Susan Rishik and Sam Lorenzini, violins

Josephine Moerschel, viola

Betsy Rellig, cello

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This is a Free Event
Sunday, October 13, 2019
11:00 AM
Monica Film Center

HEADING HOME: THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL Q&A with Zack Thornton at the Royal

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HEADING HOME: THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL is a stirring story of sports, patriotism and personal growth, charting the underdog journey of Israel’s national baseball team competing for the first time in the World Baseball Classic.

After years of defeat, Team Israel is finally ranked among the world’s best in 2017, eligible to compete in the prestigious international tournament. Their line-up included several Jewish American Major League players―Ike Davis, Josh Zeid and ex-Braves catcher Ryan Lavarnway―most with a tenuous relationship to Judaism, let alone having ever set foot in Israel.

Their odyssey takes them from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where they are greeted as heroes, to Seoul where they must debunk their has-been, wannabe reputations. With their Mensch on the Bench mascot by their side, the team laughs, cries, and does much soul-searching, discovering the pride of representing Israel on the world stage.

https://youtu.be/GmILVsxSKEs

HEADING HOME: THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL  Zack Thornton will participate in a Q&A following the 5:20 pm show and into the 7:45 pm show on Saturday, 9/14.

 

FIlm Noir Double Feature: 75th Anniversary Screenings of DOUBLE INDEMNITY and LAURA

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a double dose of classic film noir in the popular Twofer program (two features for the price of one) with 75th anniversary screenings of DOUBLE INDEMNITY and LAURA, two of the most lauded films of 1944 and the entire noir canon.

The double feature will screen at two Laemmle locations: Pasadena Playhouse on September 26 and Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills on September 28.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY is writer – director Billy Wilder’s film adaptation (with co-scripter Raymond Chandler) of a crime novella by James M. Cain, a tawdry tale of an insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) and duplicitous dame (Barbara Stanwyck), who scheme to murder Stanwyck’s businessman husband for the insurance proceeds. After pulling off the seeming “perfect crime,” the lethal lovers come under the scrutiny of MacMurray’s claims adjuster colleague (Edward G. Robinson), who smells something rotten in the film’s setting, the Hollywood hills.

LAURA is producer-director Otto Preminger’s film version of Vera Caspary’s novel (adapted for the screen Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Betty Reinhardt, Ring Lardner Jr. and Jerry Cady, the latter two uncredited) about the murder of a beautiful socialite (Gene Tierney) and the spell she cast over three suitors: cynical columnist (Clifton Webb), playboy gigolo (Vincent Price), and necrophiliac detective (Dana Andrews).

The title character’s wealthy aunt (Judith Anderson), who yearns for Price, is also among the suspects. When Tierney, who is more a fascinating female than an archetypical femme fatale, turns up very much alive, the mystery deepens. Set among the sophisticates of Manhattan, Laura is a cosmopolitan counterpart to the middle class denizens and atmosphere of Double Indemnity.

Both films share key film noir elements, including sharp edged black-and-white cinematography (John Seitz, Double Indemnity; Joseph LaShelle, Laura), taut structure, well-crafted dialogue (Raymond Chandler’s main contribution to Double Indemnity), and low motives matched with high style. The two films also showcase masterful music (Miklos Rosza’s Oscar-nominated Double Indemnity score and David Raskin’s memorably haunting Laura).

Among the acting highlights, Clifton Webb’s acid-tongued turn in Laura was described wryly as “sophistry personified” by the New York Times, which also praised Dana Andrews as closely matching Webb’s incisive performance. Double Indemnity features Barbara Stanwyck’s expert take on the noir wicked woman, described by Pauline Kael as “the best acted and the most fixating of all the slutty, cold-blooded femme fatales of the film noir genre.” Kael also singled out Edward G. Robinson’s “easy mastery” in his sympathetic role.

Double Indemnity reaped seven Academy Award nominations, including best picture, director, actress, and screenplay. Laura scored five nods, including director, supporting actor (Webb), and screenplay, winning for LaShelle’s black-and white cinematography. Both films were added to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress.

Laemmle’s Anniversary Classics twofer program of Double Indemnity and Laura will screen on separate dates and venues: Thursday, September 26 at the Pasadena Playhouse, and Saturday, September 28 at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills.

On Thursday, September 26th in Pasadena, LAURA screens at 5:15pm and 9:15pm. DOUBLE INDEMNITY screens at 7pm. Click here for tickets to the 5:15pm LAURA with the 7pm DOUBLE INDEMNITY included. Or, click here for tickets to the 7pm DOUBLE INDEMNITY with the 9:15pm LAURA included.

On Saturday, September 28th in Beverly Hills, DOUBLE INDEMNITY screens at 7:15pm with the 9:15pm LAURA with included. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE Q&A’s Opening Weekend.

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THE SOUND OF SILENCE co- writer and producer Ben Nabors  will participate in a Q&A at the Royal  on Saturday, 9/14 after the 8:00 pm show. Director and co-writer Michael Tyburski will join him for a Q&A on Sunday, 9/15 after the 5:50 pm show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejZ75QFesgE

RAISE HELL: THE LIFE & TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS Q&A’s with Filmmaker and Guests Starting Thursday, 9/12 through Sunday, 9/15 at the Royal

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RAISE HELL: THE LIFE & TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS Q&A details below.

https://youtu.be/7h9U0b8SHlU

Thursday, September 12th  7:30 pm

Special screening with the World Affairs Council – moderated by Terry  McCarthy – with director Janice Engel.

 

Friday, September 13th 7:30 pm

Director Janice Engel and producers Carlisle Vandervoort and James Egan and moderated by Nev Schulman (Catfish)

 

Saturday, September 14th  5:20 pm

Smith Alumni Association. Moderator is Kristin Matthews, president of the Smith Southern California  Alumni Group, and director Janice Engel and producer James Egan who will be joined by Molly’s Smith college friend Anne Seifert.

 

7:30 pm                        

CODEPINK with director Janice Engel and producers Carlisle Vandervoort and James Egan Moderated by Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder

 

Sunday, September 15th  5:20 pm

Women on a Roll – with director Janice Engel moderated by Andrea Meyerson

 

3 DAYS WITH DAD Q&A’s Opening Weekend with Cast & Crew at the Music Hall.

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3 DAYS WITH DAD filmmaker and star Larry Clarke will participate in Q&A’s following the 7:20 pm show on Friday, 9/13 and Saturday, 9/14. Larry will be joined by actress Lesley Ann Warren on Friday.

 

DESOLATION CENTER Q&A’s with Filmmaker and Guests at the Playhouse and Monica Film Center.

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DESOLATION CENTER Q&A’s after select showtimes:

Monica Film Center – Saturday 9/14 at 7:40pm: Director Stuart Swezey, Cinematographer Sandra Valde-Hansen, and Co-Producer Mariska Leyssius. Moderated by Andrew Crane (American Cinematheque)

Playhouse 7- Sunday 9/15 at 1:30pm: Director Stuart Swezey and a short reading by Elise Thompson (LA BEAT).

https://youtu.be/8WkQRFfZV9Y

 

 

25th Anniversary Screenings of BELLE EPOQUE September 18 in Glendale, Pasadena, and West LA.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest offering in their monthly Abroad program with 25th anniversary screenings of the American release (and Oscar winner) of the delightful Spanish comedy BELLE EPOQUE. The Academy Award winner for foreign-language film will play at three Laemmle locations: West Los Angeles, Glendale, and Pasadena on September 18.

Starring Penelope Cruz (Oscar winner for Vicky Christina Barcelona) in only her second film, the period pastorale is set in 1931 with the beginning of the disruptive Spanish Civil War, chronicling the amorous adventures of a young Army deserter, Fernando (Jorge Sanz), who seeks refuge in the country house of a reclusive old anarchist painter, Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez). After finding employment as the household cook, Sanz also finds his carnal appetites stimulated by Gomez’ four daughters, played by Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, and Cruz. As the youngest of the siblings, Cruz impatiently awaits her turn as the amorous partner of Sanz. As the sexual games seemingly reach a climax, the return of the opera singer family matriarch from a world tour with her manager-lover brings the plot to a boil.

Writer-director Fernando Trueba (co-scripting with Rafael Azcona and Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez) concocts the right recipe of food and sex, with a soupçon of political commentary, and the result charmed the Academy, audiences, and critics of the day.

Roger Ebert noted how the film celebrated sensuality and the human body: “Here is a film so inviting you would love to sit in the sun with old Manolo and his friend the priest and talk about the great matters of life.”

Leonard Maltin found the film a “delightfully earthy, cheery comedy.”

The Washington Post enjoyed the “sun-soaked lyricism” and found the performances ingratiating, extolling the film as a “recipe for sensual self-expression.”

Upon receiving the Oscar, Trueba paid tribute to his inspiration in his acceptance speech, “I would like to believe in God in order to thank him, but I just believe in Billy Wilder, so …thank you, Mr. Wilder.”

Our 25th anniversary presentation of BELLE EPOQUE screens on Wednesday, September 18th at 7pm in Glendale, Pasadena, and West LA. Click here for tickets.

Format: DCP