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Happy Earth Day from Laemmle Theatres!

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Dear Laemmle Fans,

Wednesday, April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Although much has been accomplished in the years since, it’s important to step back and remember all the serious environmental issues that we will still need to address after this pandemic passes. So to honor Earth Day, Laemmle Virtual Cinema is bringing you films from around the globe that remind us to show respect to our planet, and find ways to connect with the natural word.

Eating Up Easter examines the history of exploitation and social collapse on Easter Island, while offering hopeful lessons for the future. Away, crafted singlehandedly by 25 year old filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis, is an animated feast for the eyes, and an awe-inspiring portrait of nature. The Women’s Adventure Film Tour is a compilation of short films celebrating women who connect with the outdoors in their pursuit of athletic mastery. And finally, we want to remind you that Fantastic Fungi is still available for viewing via the Laemmle Virtual Cinema program.

Even if you’re holed up indoors, find a way to celebrate Earth Day on Wednesday. Mother Earth (and Laemmle Theatres) will thank you.

All the best,

Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle Virtual Cinema
New Releases for APRIL 20 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

            

Young Love (and Old Men) on Laemmle Virtual Cinema

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Dear Laemmle Fans,

One month since we shut down. Another month (at least) to go. We know you’re aching to come see a movie in our theatres again, and we hope one of these Laemmle Virtual Cinema offerings will keep your hopes alive for now.

The Booksellers and Beyond The Visible: Hilma af Klint are documentaries that were supposed to open theatrically, and should appeal to fans of our Culture Vulture series. Straight Up is a delightful and well-reviewed American indie that we were able to show just before the closure, and which deserves another opportunity to connect with audiences. And finally, we have a pair of documentaries on one of the great minds of the 20th century, Ram Dass: Dying to Know, and Becoming Nobody. He left us in December of last year but his teachings are eternal and can help guide us through these difficult times.

Please support us by buying a ticket to watch one of these movies, or any of the two dozen films we’ve previously added to the program. The revenue is meaningful, but the contribution to the community of arthouse cinema is equally important. And you’ll be helping to preserve one of the things you love most about Los Angeles.

All the best,

Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle Virtual Cinema
New Releases for APRIL 17 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

               

Javier Barden, and a Trio of Classics

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Dear Laemmle Fans,

I don’t know about you, but I’m loving these April showers. It’s a nice excuse to stay home and watch a movie (not that we need an excuse), and today we’ve got some more good films to help get you through the rainy weekend.

Sally Potter’s Orlando is one of my all-time favorites, and she returns here with The Roads Not Taken, starring Elle Fanning and the always fabulous Javier Bardem. Tarantino fans may enjoy Clover, an action packed crime story starring Mark Webber and Jon Abrahams, alongside Chazz Palminteri and Ron Perlman. We’re also proud to feature a trio of repertory films: Istvan Szabo’s monumental drama Mephisto, Bruno Barreto’s sexy and beguiling comedy Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands starring a breakout Sonia Braga, and Luchino Visconti’s sumptuous period piece L’Innocente (which played for a week in February before things got crazy).

All previously promoted films continue to be available for rental. And for those who still have questions about the program, click here to learn more. Thank you as always for the support.

All the best,

Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle Virtual Cinema
New Releases for APRIL 10 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

                

Don’t Pass-Over These Movies!

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Dear Laemmle Fans,

Every Passover, the Jewish community asks the question, “Why is this night different from all other nights.” This year, that’s a loaded question. We’re sharing virtual Seder dinner on Zoom, and ordering Gefilte fish on Amazon. So to embrace this new observance, we’ve partnered with our friends at Menemsha Films to offer up a few films worthy of Passover viewing.

Streits: Matzo and the American Dream is a terrific documentary about the challenges of running a multi-generational family business in response to the pressures of modernity, something I personally can relate to quite well. Set during a Passover seder in Mexico City, Nora’s Will is a perfect film for the holiday, and also happens to be the winner of the Ariel Award for the Best Mexican film of 2010. Romanian filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu is a favorite of the Laemmle family, and his drama Live and Become echoes biblical stories of exodus and redemption. And lastly, Matej Minac’s touching documentary Nicky’s Family. I dare you not to be touched by the story of Nicholas Winton, a hero who almost single handedly organized the rescue of over 600 children before the outbreak of WWII.

Four children. Four cups of wine. Four promises of redemption. And four terrific films to enjoy at home over the Passover holiday, each available to rent for just $1.99 via Laemmle Virtual Cinema. As always, your viewing of these films provides us with much needed financial support, as we negotiate this period of mandatory closure.

Next year, back at the movies!

Greg Laemmle

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Laemmle Virtual Cinema
New Releases for APRIL 7 • Click posters for “Watch Now” instructions.

              

EAST/WEST 20th Anniversary Screenings March 18 in Glendale, Pasadena, and West L.A.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present this month’s film in our popular Anniversary Classics Abroad program: Regis Wargnier’s compelling and increasingly timely thriller, East/West. Wargnier had won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his earlier historical epic, Indochine. The Oscar-nominated star of that movie, Catherine Deneuve, collaborated with him again in another fascinating historical drama with an exotic backdrop.

Inspired by true events, East/West tells a story of Russian émigrés living in Paris who were lured back to the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. Russian dictator Josef Stalin promised these refugees a complete pardon if they returned to their homeland. But when they actually returned, many of these refugees were executed or sent to labor camps or forced to live in squalor. The main characters in the story are a doctor (Oleg Menchikov) with a French wife (Sandrine Bonnaire). Deneuve has a vivid supporting role as a visiting French actress who ultimately plays a key role in helping the married couple.

At a time of increasing oppressiveness under the Putin regime in Russia, this reminder of harsh living conditions under the rule of an earlier dictator takes on renewed relevance. Wargnier wrote the screenplay for East/West with Louis Gardel and two Russian writers, Rustam Ibragimbekov and Sergei Bodrov. Bonnaire, the star of earlier French films Vagabond, La Ceremonie, and Monsieur Hire, confirmed her enormous appeal in this picture. Oscar-nominated composer Patrick Doyle (A Little Princess, Sense and Sensibility, Gosford Park), who had worked with Wargnier on Indochine, again contributed a vibrant score.

The Los Angeles Times’ Kevin Thomas declared, “East/West has the scale and rich period atmosphere of Indochine while gradually evolving into an acutely suspenseful thriller.” Writing in Movieline magazine, Stephen Farber paid tribute to the director: “Regis Wargnier has a gift for making sweeping popular entertainment,” and he added, “Sandrine Bonnaire gives a marvelously expressive performance.” The New York Times’ A.O. Scott called East/West a “sumptuous, moving new film,” and Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald hailed it as “a suspenseful and hugely engrossing drama.”

Our 20th anniversary presentation of EAST/WEST screens Wednesday, March 18, at 7pm in Glendale, Pasadena, and West L.A. Click here for tickets.

Format: DVD

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) Special Screenings and Book Signings March 26 in Pasadena and April 1 in West L.A.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series invite you to celebrate the publication of Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan’s new book, Cinema ’62: The Greatest Year at the Movies, with screenings of one of the most memorable movies from 1962, John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate.

The film will be shown on March 26 at the Playhouse in Pasadena (co-sponsored by Vroman’s Bookstore) and on April 1 at the Royal in West L.A. The authors will introduce both screenings and will sell and sign their book before and after the screenings. Special guests may appear at these screenings.

The Manchurian Candidate was a hit in 1962 and remains one of the most highly acclaimed of all political thrillers. In 1994 it was selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, an honor reserved for films of “historical, cultural, or aesthetic significance.”

This story of a diabolical plot to engineer a Russian takeover of the White House was provocative in 1962 and seems frighteningly prescient and startlingly relevant in the aftermath of the 2016 election. As Frankenheimer said in a prophetic interview a few years before his death, “I think our society is brainwashed by television commercials, by advertising, by politicians, by a censored press… More and more I think that our society is becoming manipulated and controlled.”

The film was adapted from Richard Condon’s novel by screenwriter George Axelrod, who also wrote such films as The Seven-Year Itch and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It tells the chilling story of a soldier in the Korean War, played by Laurence Harvey, who is captured and brainwashed by Russian and Chinese Communists into becoming an assassin in the employ of the Soviet government. Frank Sinatra plays a fellow soldier trying to halt the assassination plot. Angela Lansbury was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Harvey’s manipulative mother, who plays a crucial role in the conspiracy.

In addition to its achievements as a political thriller, the film was one of the first to satirize the anti-Communist hysteria that had gripped the country and divided the Hollywood community during the 1950s. James Gregory plays Lansbury’s husband, a U.S. Senator modeled on Joseph McCarthy. As Frankenheimer told one reporter, “This country was just recovering from the McCarthy era and nothing had ever been filmed about it. I wanted to do a picture that showed how ludicrous the whole McCarthy Far Right syndrome was and how dangerous the Far Left syndrome is. It really dealt with the whole idea of fanaticism, the Far Right and the Far Left being exactly the same thing.”

As a result of these controversial themes, the film was attacked by both right-wing and left-wing pundits at the time of its release. But the reviews were mainly positive. As Variety wrote, “Every once in a rare while a film comes along that works in all departments…Such is The Manchurian Candidate.” The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther had high praise for John Frankenheimer’s direction, which he called “so exciting in the style of Orson Welles when he was making Citizen Kane.”

When the film was re-released in 1987, reviews were even more ecstatic, and it has continued to resonate. Roger Ebert called it “a work as alive and smart as when it was first released.” Pauline Kael said, “The picture plays some wonderful, crazy games about the Right and the Left; although it’s a thriller, it may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood.” Writing in TIME magazine in 2007, Richard Corliss said, “Lansbury and Harvey are both sensational in a movie that remains pointed and current. It still touches you like a clammy hand in the dark.” Lansbury’s portrayal of the malevolent Mrs. Iselin was ranked as one of the 25 greatest villains in film history by the American Film Institute. The supporting cast includes Janet Leigh, Henry Silva, Leslie Parrish, and Khigh Dhiegh. Ferris Webster earned an Oscar nomination for his superb editing of the movie’s suspense sequences.

Cinema ’62 provides fascinating anecdotes about this classic thriller and about many of the other masterpieces of this landmark year. Read all about them after you enjoy this innovative, frightening, wickedly funny, and ever-timely highlight from a year full of cinematic wonders.

Farber and McClellan are the co-producers of Laemmle’s Anniversary Classics series. Stephen Farber has written film criticism for many prominent newspapers and magazines and has published four previous books on film. Michael McClellan is the former Senior Vice President/Head Film Buyer for Landmark Theatres.

The Manchurian Candidate screens on March 26 at 7pm in Pasadena and on April 1 at 7pm at the Royal in West L.A. Cinema ’62: The Greatest Year at the Movies will be available for purchase at the screenings. It is also available at retailers like Vroman’s Bookstore and Amazon.com.

Format: DCP

“Forever Looking for Love.” Kenneth Turan on the Newly Restored PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN in the L.A. Times.

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From Kenneth Turan’s February 14, 2020 Critics Choice column in the Times:

“Independent films were not an invention of Sundance, they existed in the golden age Hollywood as well, and one of the most unusual, and the most gorgeous, was 1951’s Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. It was directed by Albert Lewin and starred James Mason and, looking especially beautiful, Ava Gardner in a pleasantly surreal supernatural tale of a cursed sea captain and a heedless young woman who lives only for pleasure. Or so she thinks.

“Gardner looked as photogenic as she did because Pandora’s cinematographer was the great Jack Cardiff, famous for works like Black Narcissus, and because the film was shot in the knockout process known as three-strip Technicolor.

“Restoring Pandora to its original glory has taken more than a dozen years, with the Cohen Media Group ultimately funding a glorious 4K version, which included more than 700 hours of digital restoration lavished on 177,120 frames of the film. Was it worth it? Absolutely.

“Begins Feb. 21 at Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles.”

Cohen commissioned several terrific new posters for Pandora by New York-based key art designer, illustrator, and art director Mark McGillivray:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcnLjk-hyP8&feature=youtu.be

 

Ava Gardner and James Mason in a scene from “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.” (Cohen Media Group)

Q&A with Actress Angie Dickinson at Our RIO BRAVO Anniversary Screening on February 25th in West L.A.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present one of the best-loved westerns of all time, Howard Hawks’ 1959 action romp, RIO BRAVO. Actress Angie Dickinson will participate in a pre-show Q&A on February 25th at 7PM.

As many modern critics have observed, the film was a box office hit in its time but wasn’t really taken seriously. Leonard Maltin wrote, “Quintessential Hawks Western, patronized by reviewers at the time of its release, is now regarded as an American classic.”

John Wayne, the star of several Hawks films, led the cast, but the director put together an eclectic group of players. In addition to veterans Walter Brennan and Ward Bond, the director cast singer and comedian Dean Martin, young TV personality and pop singer Ricky Nelson, along with Angie Dickinson in a vivid, star-making turn.

The story by B.H. McCampbell (Hawks’s eldest daughter Barbara) presents a fairly simple tale. Wayne plays a sheriff in a small Texas town who is holding a murderer (Claude Akins) in the town jail until the marshal can move him to a nearby penitentiary. But the killer’s brother, a wealthy rancher with a large gang of confederates, intends to break the prisoner out of jail. Wayne’s character is vastly outnumbered, but he turns to an unlikely posse—a drunken deputy (Martin), a helpless cripple (Brennan), and a young greenhorn (Nelson), along with a visiting lady gambler (Dickinson).

The story is fleshed out by two superb screenwriters who worked frequently with Hawks—Jules Furthman (Only Angels Have Wings, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep) and Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep, Hatari!, El Dorado). Brackett was one of the pioneering female writers of an earlier era, and she went on to work on such classics as The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back.

Brackett surely contributed to the vitality of Angie Dickinson’s character, Feathers, a tough, sassy woman who more than holds her own in confrontations with Wayne. The Los Angeles Times took special note of Dickinson, saying, “starmaker Howard Hawks has worked some of the same kind of magic as he did with Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not.” Indeed, some of the memorable repartee between Bogart and Bacall in that film was recycled effectively in Rio Bravo.

In addition to sharp dialogue and fine performances, the film incorporates several suspenseful and exciting action sequences, masterfully orchestrated by Hawks, cinematographer Russell Harlan (Oscar-nominated for both To Kill a Mockingbird and Hawks’ Hatari! in 1962), and aided by the rousing score of Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon, The High and the Mighty, Giant).

At the time of its release in 1959, Variety called Rio Bravo “a big, brawling western with enough action and marquee voltage to ensure hefty reception at the box office.” It did strong business and reviews in later years were even more glowing. Writing in The New York Times in 2012, Dave Kehr called it “one of the most purely pleasurable films ever made.” Roger Ebert raved, “To watch Rio Bravo is to see a master craftsman at work. The film is seamless. There is not a shot that is wrong.” The film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2014.

When we launched our Anniversary Classics series in 2013, Angie Dickinson was our very first guest, appearing at a 50th anniversary screening of Captain Newman, M.D. She joined us again for a 50th anniversary screening of John Boorman’s neo-noir classic, Point Blank, in 2017. Her other films include Ocean’s Eleven, Don Siegel’s The Killers, The Chase (opposite Marlon Brando), Big Bad Mama, and Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill. She also made history as the first female star of a TV action series, Police Woman, in the 1970s.

RIO BRAVO screens Tuesday, February 25, at 7PM at the Royal Theater in West L.A.

Click here for tickets.

141 minutes * USA * 1959 * DCP