The official blog of Laemmle Theatres
The autobiographical documentary ELENA opened to terrific reviews and big crowds of cinefiles last week in New York. In the Village Voice, Alan Scherstuhl described the film this way: “a pained and gorgeous summoning, Petra Costa’s haunted doc ELENA dances with death, memory, and family, seducing viewers and then breaking their hearts.” In the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote the film “unfolds like a cinematic dream.” We are excited to open ELENA at the Royal next Friday, June 13.
ANITA director Freida Lee Mock will participate in Q&A’s at the Royal after the 5:20 and 7:30 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29 and after the 7:30 screening on Sunday, March 30.
California Institute of Technology Professor of Physics Mark Wise will participate in a Q&A after the 7:10 PM screening of PARTICLE FEVER at the Playhouse on Friday, March 14.
This scene from THE GODFATHER always makes me want Italian food. And that’s just one scene. Films in which food is a major part of the plot are a beloved genre all their own. Time will tell, but the new Indian movie THE LUNCHBOX may join the ranks of other great foodie movies like BABETTE’S FEAST, BIG NIGHT and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE. We at Laemmle Theatres humbly recommend you try preceding lunch or dinner at one of the many Indian restaurants near our theaters by taking in THE LUNCHBOX to whet your appetite. Here are some close by:
Fourteen minute walk west down Santa Monica Blvd. from the Royal: All India Cafe
Across the street from the Playhouse (where we open THE LUNCHBOX this Friday): Sitar Indian Cuisine
Two minute walk west down Ventura Blvd. from the Town Center (where we open THE LUNCHBOX this Friday): Anarbagh
Or choose one of your personal favorites. Bon appetit!
Recently posted on the Jewish Exponent site, an excellent think piece about two films — OMAR, from Palestine, which we are currently screening, and BETHLEHEM, from Israel, which we open Friday. They are both terrific films and both tell stories with the same basic subject matter from different sides of the conflict. The piece is by Greg Salisbury:
Israeli Politics at the Oscars: Two Films, One Issue
February 26, 2014
At the 86th Academy Awards ceremonies on March 2, a film about the morally ambiguous and lethal world inhabited by Palestinian informants and their Israeli handlers will be one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. Win or lose, the evening will cap a successful year in which the film has won awards across the world.
ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME filmmaker Chiemi Karasawa will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:40 PM screenings at the Royal on Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8 as well as after the 5:20 screening on Saturday.
OMAR writer-director Hany Abu-Assad, producer-co-star Waleed Zuaiter and actress Leem Luban will participate in a Q&A on Sunday, February 23 after the 4:30 PM screening at the Royal.
From today’s L.A. Times:
Filmmaker flashes back to her ’90s girlhood in Georgia for IN BLOOM
Nana Ekvtimishvili recalls things being even worse than depicted in her movie IN BLOOM, which is set in a newly independent Georgia. She and husband/co-filmmaker Simon Gross discuss the film.
By Susan King
“In Bloom,” the foreign language film Oscar submission from Georgia, revolves around two 14-year-old girls coming of age in 1992. Best friends Eka and Natia live in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a newly independent country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but independence hasn’t made life any easier.
There’s violence and unrest, with justice doled out vigilante style. Food is scarce and bread lines are long. And a lot of young girls don’t even get the opportunity to be teenagers because they are kidnapped by men and forced into marriage.
Nana Ekvtimishvili, who was raised in Tbilisi, wrote the film, which opens Friday, and co-directed it with her German-born husband, Simon Gross. The two met in Munich, Germany, as film students and currently live and work in Tbilisi.
Read the interview on the L.A. Times website.
