THE WIND director Emma Tammi will participate in a Q&A on Thursday, 4/4 following the 7:30 pm show.
Francois Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS 60th Anniversary Screenings March 20th in Encino, Pasadena, and West LA
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present this month’s installment of our Anniversary Classics Abroad program. In keeping with the start of spring, we commemorate Francois Truffaut’s evergreen feature film debut, THE 400 BLOWS, which earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Original Screenplay of 1959.
Truffaut’s autobiographical picture, drawn from events in his own childhood, helped to introduce American audiences to the French New Wave. Truffaut had started as a critic for Cahiers du Cinema along with fellow aspiring directors Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. When he unveiled his first feature, he dedicated it to pioneering French critic Andre Bazin.
Critics around the world hailed the arrival of a major new talent. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther declared, “Not since the 1952 arrival of Rene Clement’s Forbidden Games…have we had from France a cinema that so brilliantly and strikingly reveals the explosion of a fresh creative talent in the directorial field.” Indeed Truffaut won the award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959.
Jean-Pierre Leaud starred as the director’s alter ego, Antoine Doinel, and the character re-appeared in four more films over the course of Truffaut’s career. Albert Remy and Claire Maurier co-star. Another of Truffaut’s frequent collaborators, Henri Decae, provided the lustrous black-and-white cinematography.
The screenplay by Truffaut and Marcel Moussy follows the exploits of Antoine as he battles with his parents, teachers, police, and administrators of the reformatory where he is sent. The director employed an arsenal of fresh cinematic techniques to capture the hero’s irreverent spirit and journey toward liberation. The final freeze frame became one of the most imitated shots in cinema history.
Almost all critics endorsed the film. As Roger Ebert wrote, “The 400 Blows, with all its simplicity and feeling, is in a class by itself.” Directors around the world, including Akira Kurosawa, Luis Bunuel, and Jean Cocteau, also praised Truffaut’s audacious vision. Writing many years later, The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane said, “time has fortified this sharp, slender account of a misbegotten boyhood into one of the unassailable monuments of French cinema.”
THE 400 BLOWS (1959) screens Wednesday, March 20 at 7PM at the Royal, Town Center, and Playhouse. Click here for tickets.
Format: DCP
ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: JEFFREY SKLAN: ELEGY in Glendale
ART IN THE ARTHOUSE proudly presents a timely and important exhibit, JEFFREY SKLAN: ELEGY in Glendale. The art is for sale and on display till June 2019. Sales benefit the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles. Stop by our gallery – no need to buy a movie ticket to view.
About the exhibit
A seasoned photographer, JEFFREY SKLAN understands the essence of his subjects, allowing them to reveal themselves and honoring their light. Born in Miami in 1954, Sklan is self-taught. From the moment he absconded with his father’s camera to photograph Hurricane Betsy (1965) at age 10, Sklan has been drawn to dramatic, moving incidents. Now with 45 years behind the lens, Sklan has created a significant body of work. Each image is deeply concentrated and form-driven, with his still-life and portraiture especially resonant. This powerful series entitled ELEGY is part of larger traveling exhibition. Calla lily flowers are developed into bruised, poetic, and stunningly beautiful imagery and then juxtaposed against the idea of brutal tragedy. According to the artist: “It pays homage and respect to those who have been taken from us by unjustifiable acts of violence – starting with the Pulse Nightclub/Orlando shooting in June, 2016 and ending with the local Thousand Oaks murders in late 2018.”
“The show came to life through an amazing series of synchronicities. I knew two of the victims of homicides. This project is meant to be a teaching aide, a catalyst for dialogue and civil discourse, and a call to action.”
Sklan’s recent exhibitions include a show at PhotoLA and solo exhibits at The Icon and Gabba Gallery. He is currently working on a book project called Brush Off featuring 200 artist portraits that will coincide with a solo exhibition in 2020. He works daily at his studio in downtown, Los Angeles.
– Joshua Elias, curator
UPDATED! NEVER LOOK AWAY Q&A’s with Filmmaker at the Playhouse and NoHo.
NEVER LOOK AWAY director/screenwriter Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck will participate in a Q&A after the 7:40 pm show on Saturday, 3/16 and at the NoHo following the 4:50 pm show on Sunday, 3/17.
STYX Q&A with Filmmakers Opening Night at the Royal.
STYX director Wolfgang Fischer and writer Ika Künzel will participate in a Q&A on Friday, 3/15 following the 7:20 pm show.
LAS SANDINISTAS! Q&A’s Opening Weekend with Filmmaker at the Monica Film Center.
LAS SANDINISTAS! Q&A’s with filmmaker Jenny Murray on Friday, 3/15 and Saturday, 3/16 following the 7:10 pm shows and on Sunday, 3/17 after the 4:20 pm show.
ART IN THE ARTHOUSE presents: ISABELLA KELLY-RAMIREZ now in NoHo
Art in the Arthouse’s exhibit, ISABELLA KELLY-RAMIREZ: WHO IS SHE, has moved to NoHo! Explore the bold, dynamic works of Kelly-Ramirez on display until the end of June. All of the art is for sale and a portion of the proceeds benefits the Laemmle Foundation and its support of humanitarian and environmental causes in Los Angeles.
About the Exhibit
Isabella Kelly-Ramirez creates paintings and collages that introduce a host of fascinating females. Modern-day saints and superheroes, champions of the avant-garde, and fashionable figures to be reckoned with; these are icons of a new mythology from the imagination of the artist. Her arresting collages are playful acts of defiance. Kelly-Ramirez coopts images from fashion and art magazines, repurposing them to create surreal urban legends and ironic emblems of commercialism.
The works address the unattainable standards of beauty in fashion and life by reconstituting mainstream imagery into something quirkier and more humane. Kelly-Ramirez’s visual world continues in the striking paintings framed in soft sculpture. Bright, colorful portraits of humanoid figures appear in whimsical, unearthly settings. Somehow this creative, alternative place is more human, more generous, and more authentic than our curated “reality.”
Isabella Kelly-Ramirez lives and works in Los Angeles. Born in Santa Barbara, she has been involved in the art and theatre communities since she was a child. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2008 and works primarily in painting, collage, soft sculpture, and assemblage—with a pop surrealist flair.
– Stacey Ravel Abarbanel, Curator
KRAMER VS. KRAMER 40th Anniversary Screening with Co-stars Justin Henry and JoBeth Williams In Person
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 40th anniversary screening of the Academy Award-winning best picture of 1979, KRAMER VS. KRAMER. The film, produced by Stanley R. Jaffe, won four other major Oscars — Best Actor Dustin Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress Meryl Streep, Best Director Robert Benton, and Best Adapted Screenplay by Benton, working from the poignant, timely novel by Avery Corman. The film was also named Best Picture of the Year by both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle.
The picture touched a nerve for audiences because it was one of the first films to dramatize changing gender roles and the bitter aftermath of divorce. In the opening scene Joanna Kramer (Streep) leaves her self-centered, workaholic husband Ted (Hoffman), forcing him to take over the primary parenting role with their six-year-old son, Billy (Justin Henry). Although Ted bungles the job at first, he eventually establishes a deep bond with his son that is threatened several months later when Joanna returns and sues for custody of Billy. The tense courtroom scenes build to a riveting dramatic climax with an unexpected denouement. Award-winning cinematographer Nestor Almendros made the most of interior and exterior Manhattan locations.
Benton’s achievement is in finding sharp, telling details that illuminate character and heighten the drama inherent in everyday life. As Frank Rich wrote in TIME magazine, “Benton gives his film its depth and complexity by challenging the audience’s preconceptions and snap opinions at every turn.” David Denby of New York magazine concurred: “The Robert Benton movie is a major dramatic work—startling and emotionally involving.” Leonard Maltin called it an “intelligent, beautifully crafted, intensely moving film…acted to perfection by entire cast.”
That ensemble included Jane Alexander, Oscar-nominated for her performance as a caring neighbor; veteran actors Howard Duff and George Coe; and two actors making their film debuts, JoBeth Williams and Justin Henry. Williams, who has a couple of vivid scenes as an advertising colleague of Hoffman’s, went on to star in two of the most memorable films of the early 1980s—Steven Spielberg’s production of ‘Poltergeist’ and Lawrence Kasdan’s ‘The Big Chill.’ She also co-starred in ‘American Dreamer,’ ‘Teachers’ with Nick Nolte, and ‘Memories of Me’ with Billy Crystal. She has had a long career in the theater, in several powerful television movies, and has also worked behind the camera as director and producer.
Justin Henry became the youngest actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar for his piercing performance as Billy. The New Republic’s Stanley Kauffmann declared that Henry “goes through as wide a range of scenes as he could possibly be asked for, and he is true, absolutely true, every moment. He’s enchanting.” Gene Shalit added, “I have never seen such realistic acting from a child so young.” When he grew older, Henry appeared in such films as John Hughes’ ‘Sixteen Candles,’ ‘Sweet Hearts Dance,’ and in John Frankenheimer’s award-winning TV drama, ‘Andersonville.’ Today he works as an entrepreneur in digital media.
KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979) plus Q&A with co-stars Justin Henry and JoBeth Williams screens Thursday, March 14 at 7pm at the Laemmle Royal in West LA. Click here for tickets.
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