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A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY opens July 31st in West LA! Do you remember your favorite LEGO set?

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Show of hands– How many of you still play with LEGO as adults? Yeah, me too. There’s no shame in being an Adult Fan of Lego. Other AFOLs include NBA star Dwight Howard, South Park co-creator Trey Parker, and musician Ed Sheeran.

The new documentary A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY explores the extraordinary impact of the LEGO® brick, its massive global fan base, the LEGO® master builders who create human scale (and larger) structures, and the innovative uses for LEGO® that have sprung up around the world.

6890A LEGO BRICKUMENTARY opens Friday, July 24th July 31st at our Royal Theatre in West Los Angeles.

If you’re in the mood for a trip down memory lane (or a distraction from writing blog posts), spend a few hours browsing brickset.com‘s LEGO set database. I found my favorite set– 1982’s Cosmic Cruiser! Share your favorite set, new or old, in the comments!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XlsKXif85c

THROWBACK THURSDAY Screenings in July

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tbacktdayWe’ve joined forces with EAT|SEE|HEAR for a special THROWBACK THURSDAY film series with movies, music, and food trucks every Thursday night at one of our venues!

The current slate of films are hand-picked classics that are paired to upcoming major Hollywood releases.  Think 2001: A Space Odyssey vs. Terminator; Innerspace vs. Ant-Man; Raging Bull vs. Southpaw.

Not only do you get to see these gems on the big screen and listen to a curated music playlist while you wait, but you can also bring your gourmet Food Truck grub inside the theatre!  How cool is that?

The latest schedule is:

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
Thursday, July 2
@ NoHo 7
Food Truck Arrives 6:30pm
Film Begins 7:30pm
Why? For those who can’t get enough of killer machines, there’s TERMINATOR GENISYS. And then there’s the iconic Kubrick film that started it all. All we can say is ‘Do you read us H.A.L.? Open the theatre doors…’

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (2003)
Thursday, July 9
@ Royal
Food Truck Arrives 6:30pm
Film Begins 7:30pm
Why? Taking the kids to see Universal’s MINIONS? Consider adding a delicious French appetizer to the summer animation menu. When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters–an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire–to rescue him.

INNERSPACE (1987)

Thursday, July 16

@ Playhouse

Food Truck Arrives 6:30pm
Film Begins 7:30pm
Why? Paul Rudd’s ANT-MAN is the latest Marvel hero to save the universe, using the ability to shrink to the size of ant while gaining the proportional strength, but Dennis Quaid was there first. Martin Short plays a hapless store clerk who must foil criminals to save the life of a man (Quaid) who, miniaturized in a secret experiment, was accidentally injected into him. Winner of the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Directed by Joe Dante (GREMLINS).

RAGING BULL (1980)

Thursday, July 23

@ NoHo

Food Truck Arrives 6:30pm
Film Begins 7:30pm
Why? SOUTHPAW looks to be the latest good boxing movie, but there’s little doubt that the champion of the genre is Martin Scorcese’s RAGING BULL. The story of Jake LaMotta, a former middleweight boxing champion, whose violence and anger brought him success in the ring but destruction outside it. “Though RAGING BULL has only three principal characters, it is a big film, its territory being the landscape of the soul.” (Vincent Canby, New York Times)

RISKY BUSINESS (1983)

Thursday, July 30

@ NoHo

Food Truck Arrives 6:30pm
Film Begins 7:30pm
Why? Sometimes “star-making turn” is not a cliché. In RISKY BUSINESS plays a Chicago teenager looking for fun at home while his parents are away, but the situation quickly gets out of hand. Before seeing the latest iteration of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise, see where it all began.

Each night will feature a themed FOOD TRUCK for patrons to grab dinner and a movie! For instance, a truck serving French cuisine (frog legs) may accompany a screening of The Triplets of Belleville. All movie-goers (not just those attending Throwback Thursday) will be allowed to bring food truck items inside the venue.

With respect to the “Hear” aspect, patrons will relax inside the auditorium to playlists specifically curated for each event as they wait for the program to start. What’s more, on certain occasions, celebrities connected to the film will be on hand to make a special presentation or stay afterward for a Q&A.

Tickets and more info will be available at http:/EatSeeHear.com/TBT

Tickets are $12 and may be purchased online at http://www.laemmle.com or at the theater. As with regular screenings, discounts are available for children, seniors, and Laemmle Premiere Card holders.

*Venues and movies subject to change – check http://www.eatseehear.com/tbt or www.laemmle.com for possible updates to the schedule.

Typical Event Schedule
· 6:30pm – Food Truck Arrives
· 7:30pm – Movie begins

For more information about the #TBT series, guests are encouraged to visit the Eat|See|Hear website or Laemmle website as well as the Eat|See|Hear Facebook page, Twitter feed (@EatSeeHear) and Instagram for the latest updates.

REDISCOVER SAUTET July 24 – 30 at the Royal

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FIVE SAUTET CLASSICS TO PREMIERE IN NEW DCP VERSIONS
JULY 24 TO JULY 30 AT LAEMMLE’S ROYAL
FIRST TIME ON DCP

UPDATE: REDISCOVERING SAUTET is Kenneth Turan’s “Critic’s Pick” in today’s L.A. Times!

Claude Sautet (1924-2000), who began his filmmaking career in the early 1950s assisting such directors as Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face) and Jacques Becker (Touchez Pas Au Grisbi), first tasted success with the crime thriller Classe Tous Risques (1960), but was unfairly overlooked as the New Wave directors dominated French cinema.

Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli in Claude Sautet’s LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal; Photo by Claude Mathieu
Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli in Claude Sautet’s LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970). Courtesy: Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal; Photo by Claude Mathieu

After spending much of the 1960s as a screenwriter – and earning a reputation as a master “script doctor” – Sautet re-emerged as a director to watch. His collaborations with Austrian-born actress Romy Schneider, leading men Michel Piccoli and Yves Montand, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, and cinematographer Jean Boffety, yielded romantic, yet haunting films that embodied the privileges and struggles of the French bourgeoisie following the political upheavals of the 1960s. The series features three of his collaborations with Schneider – Les Choses De La Vie (1970), the policier Max et Les Ferrailleurs (1971), and César and Rosalie (1972) – along with the rarely-seen Vincent, François, Paul and the Others (1974), starring Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, and Gérard Depardieu, and Sautet’s final film, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995).

According to Bob Laemmle, Laemmle Theatres hosted the Los Angeles premieres of all five of these films — his favorite is César and Rosalie — at the Royal. We are proud to host their DCP premieres next month. (Note: none is available on Blu-ray or DVD.)

For more info and tickets, visit REDISCOVERING SAUTET.

FULL SCHEDULE:

Friday 7/24
12:00 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
02:35 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
05:10 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
07:45 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
10:15 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

Saturday 7/25
12:00 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
02:35 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
05:10 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
07:45 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
10:15 – CESAR AND ROSALIE

Sunday 7/26
12:00 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
02:35 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
05:10 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
07:45 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
10:15 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE

Monday 7/27
12:00 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
02:35 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
05:10 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
07:45 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
10:15 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD

Tuesday 7/28
12:00 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
02:35 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
05:10 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
07:45 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
10:15 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS

Wednesday 7/29
12:00 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
02:35 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
05:10 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
07:45 – CESAR AND ROSALIE
10:15 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

Thursday 7/30
12:00 – VINCENT, FRANCOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS
02:35 – MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS
05:10 – NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD
07:45 – LES CHOSES DE LA VIE
10:15 – CESAR AND ROSALIE

Ken Loach’s lovely, heartfelt JIMMY’S HALL opens July 3

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A week from Friday we are very pleased to open JIMMY’S HALL, the latest from prolific — 49 turns in the director’s chair and counting, beginning in 1964 — British filmmaker Ken Loach. A drama set in 1921 and based on a shameful episode in Irish history, follows Jimmy Gralton, whose sin was to build a dance hall on a rural crossroads in an Ireland on the brink of Civil War. The Pearse-Connolly Hall was a place where young people could come to learn, to argue, to dream…but above all to dance and have fun. As the hall grew in popularity, its socialist and free-spirited reputation brought it to the attention of the church and politicians who forced Jimmy to flee and the hall to close.

A decade later, at the height of the Depression, Jimmy returns to County Leitrim from the U.S. to look after his mother. He vows to live the quiet life. The hall stands abandoned and empty, and despite the pleas of the local youth, remains shut. But as Jimmy reintegrates into the community and sees the poverty, and growing cultural oppression, the leader and activist within him is stirred. He makes the decision to reopen the hall in the face of what they may bring…

In his Variety review from Cannes, Scott Foundas wrote, “Ken Loach has taken a despicable episode of modern Irish history — the 1933 deportation without trial of one of its own citizens, James Gralton — and made a surprisingly lovely, heartfelt film from it with JIMMY’S HALL.”

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

 

L.A. Times: “Baroque architect reaches across centuries to influence another in ‘La Sapienza'”

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We open the exquisite new Italian-French production LA SAPIENZA this Friday at the Royal. Eugène Green’s film begins with a brilliant architect plagued by doubt and loss of inspiration as he embarks on a quest of artistic and spiritual renewal guided by his study of Borromini. His wife, similarly troubled by the crassness of contemporary society, as well as the couple’s listless marriage, decides to accompany him. A chance encounter with adolescent siblings upends the couple’s plans and changes their lives.

This morning the L.A. Times published arts reporter David Ng’s piece about the film, featuring an interview with the filmmaker. Mr. Ng will attend and introduce the 7:10 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27. He adds, “Eugene kindly sent me a few humorous words to say before the screenings.”

Here’s the beginning of the Times article:

“Widely regarded as one of the most important architectural achievements of the Baroque era, the Church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome stands out for its bold juxtaposition of geometric shapes, its spiral dome and its resplendent, light-filled interior.

“Though not a large church by European standards, it nonetheless remains the supreme accomplishment of its creator: 17th century Italian architect Francesco Borromini, whose prodigious talents unfortunately brought him more misery than joy. He committed suicide in 1667 at the age of 67.

“Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza still operates as a church and as the home of Rome’s municipal archives. It also plays a key role in “La Sapienza,” opening Friday, a fictional movie that explores how Borromini’s architecture changes the life of a contemporary architect who himself is suffering from an existential crisis.

“The movie’s title refers to Borromini’s church but also evokes the somewhat archaic Italian word used during the Renaissance.

“”When people try to define it, they either say it is ‘knowledge’ or ‘wisdom.’ But for me it’s knowledge that leads to wisdom,” writer-director Eugène Green said.

“The Paris-based filmmaker is a Baroque specialist who once led the French stage company Théâtre de la Sapience. He recalled that as a young student pursuing art history, he dreamed of making a biopic of Borromini, using the real architecture as a backdrop.

“”He’s an artist who didn’t make concessions,” the director said by phone from Paris, in an interview conducted in French. “It’s a mystical architecture. In the context of Roman Baroque architecture, it’s a pared-down style — even the decorative aspects have a purpose in the larger form. I conceived my own artistic work in that manner.”

“Once he began making movies in the late ’90s, Green realized he had no interest in costume dramas.

“”As soon as you put a period costume on an actor, they try to act differently, like they’re in the theater,” he said.”

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

The Royal Opera’s Production of LA BOHEME Screening July 6 and 7

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Swoon-inducing opera, coming your way: LA BOHEME. The Royal Opera recently posted some fantastic interviews and making-of videos to YouTube. We’ll be screening the production in all six Laemmle venues on Monday, July 6 and 7:30 PM and Tuesday, July 7 at 1 PM.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFEuShFvJzBy-1RQBQYz_VFVYAs1NzqCk

“Unsung Mekons are a musical beacon of persistence and creativity.” ~ Randall Roberts in today’s L.A. Times

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REVENGE OF THE MEKONS is playing today through Thursday at the Playhouse and tonight only at the Royal! The L.A. Times just posted this feature story about the band and the film.

“Born in art school at Leeds University in 1977, the Mekons long ago conceded that fame and fortune were outside their grasp, and it kind of shows. The band’s fan site, while kept current, is run by a guy named Nobby and looks like it was coded in 1996.

“Unlike university peers Gang of Four, the Mekons are seldom cited as an influence by hipster punks. There hasn’t been a “Mekons revival.” Their fans are aging with them, and the rest of the world doesn’t seem to care.

Revenge_of_the_Mekons_3

“Such creativity in the face of ambivalence is a central theme of “Revenge of the Mekons,” the aptly titled and engrossing documentary by filmmaker Joe Angio. The film traces the rises, falls and plateaus of the self-described British “fundamentalist punk rock art project,” whose eight current members are a mix of visual artists, writers, singers, gallery owners and field-recorders and are spread across three continents in Southern California, Chicago, rural England, London and Siberia. (Multi-instrumentalist Lu Edmonds is married to a Siberian.)

“The film is having a brief run at the Playhouse in Pasadena, with additional screenings at the NoHo 7 on Monday and the Royal on Tuesday.”

Read the rest of the Times piece here.

“An exquisite rumination on life, love and art that tickles the heart and mind in equal measure,” LA SAPIENZA Opens June 26 at the Royal.

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Named for the famous seventeenth-century Roman church Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, which was designed by the legendary architect (and Bernini rival) Francesco Borromini, LA SAPIENZA echoes Rossellini’s Viaggio in Italia in its tale of Alexandre Schmid (Fabrizio Rongione), a brilliant architect who, plagued by doubts and loss of inspiration, embarks on a quest of artistic and spiritual renewal guided by his study of Borromini. His wife Aliénor (Christelle Prot), similarly troubled by the crassness of contemporary society – as well as the couple’s listless marriage – decides to accompany him. In Stresa, a chance encounter with adolescent siblings Goffredo (who is about to begin his own architectural studies) and his fragile sister Lavinia upends the couple’s plans. As Borromini’s spirit and the vertiginous splendour of his structures spin a mysterious web among them, within the course of a few days the foursome experiences a series of life-altering revelations.

“Green’s richly textured, painterly images fuse with the story to evoke the essence of humane urbanity and the relationships that it fosters, whether educational, familial, or erotic.” (Richard Brody, New Yorker)

“An exquisite rumination on life, love and art that tickles the heart and mind in equal measure.” (Scott Foundas, Variety)

sapienza
From left to right: Christelle Prot Landman, Arianna Nastro, Ludovico Succio, Fabrizio Rongione in LA SAPIENZA.

 

About his film, LA SAPIENZA writer-director Eugène Green has said:

“This film has two sources of inspiration. On the one hand the desire to illustrate through film the works and life of the Baroque architect Francesco Borromini. On the other the interest for contemporary architecture and urban planning. The first inspiration would suggest a biography, while both would be very suited to a documentary style narrative. I don’t however believe that one may reconstruct a life through film, nor any other element of a distant past and, despite having all due respect for the documentary as a form of expression, I have always had the instinctive belief – that tends to be sidelined in today’s Europe – that the greater truth can be found in fiction. Thus it is through an action that is a product of my imagination, that I have attempted to approach these two themes. This story involving two couples, a man and a woman, a brother and sister, sheds light on human relations, which are further investigated by introducing a separation, a concept developed out of a long-standing western tradition whereby knowledge is acquired through emptiness, and presence is established through absence. One way or another, the characters of this screenplay face the challenge of letting the past feed the present in a harmonious fashion, and each of them achieves a new understanding of the nature of love. At the heart of the story we also encounter the problem of how tradition may be passed on, one of man’s eternal preoccupations, an issue that is of great moment for contemporary European society.

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