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See the Films on the 2016 Oscar Documentary Shortlist at Laemmle and Online

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The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced January 14th but Oscar completionists can get a head start on the Documentary Features category thanks to the Academy’s 15-film shortlist and Laemmle Theaters.

The Academy’s Documentary Branch narrowed the field to 15 from 124 submissions. While we’ve already screened many films, seven will play as morning shows over the next few weeks. Check out the schedule below.

Weekend morning shows:

WE COME AS FRIENDS – 12/12, 12/13, 12/19, 12/20, 12/26, 12/27 at the Royal.

BEST OF ENEMIES – 12/12, 12/13 at the Royal and Playhouse.

THE HUNTING GROUND – 12/19, 12/20 at the Royal and Playhouse.

HEART OF A DOG – 12/26, 12/27 at the Royal and Playhouse.

MERU – 1/2, 1/3 at the Royal and Playhouse.

LISTEN TO ME MARLON – 1/2, 1/3 at the Royal and Playhouse.

THE LOOK OF SILENCE – 1/2, 1/3 at the Royal and Playhouse.

Coming Soon:

Michael Moore’s WHERE TO INVADE NEXT is scheduled to open 2/12/16 in Claremont and NoHo.

Where to see the rest:

AMY – Amazon

CARTEL LAND – Amazon

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF – Amazon

HE NAMED ME MALALA – Amazon

3 1/2 MINUTES, 10 BULLETS – ???

WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? – Netflix

WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM – Netflix

Watch all 15 trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-lqVRCBIDPnuegC8n3YLWRVmyQYHemG7

Wonder of Wonders – It’s Fiddler Sing-a-Long Time Again!

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*** FIDDLER UPDATES  (skip to main article)
We’re pleased to announce an all-star line-up of Fiddler Hosts for 2015!
Also, as in year’s past, we’ll have food trucks out at select locations. Here’s the per-location rundown of what’s shaking in the shtetl:

Ahrya Fine Arts
Dr. Ron Wolfson – author, professor – BUY TIX
BONUS! – Dr. Wolfson will be signing a copies of his new book, The Best Boy in the United States of America: A Memoir of Blessings and Kisses.

Claremont 5
Cantor Paul Buch – BUY TIX

NoHo 7
Craig Taubman – entertainer, community organizer – BUY TIX
FOOD TRUCK – The Deli Doctor (truck food welcome inside the theater)

Playhouse
Gary Wexler – blogger, public speaker – BUY TIX
FOOD TRUCK – Hungry Nomad (truck food welcome inside the theater)

Royal
Naomi Ackerman – actress, social activist – BUY TIX
BONUS! – Naomi will be joined by BARBARA ISENBERG who will be signing copies of her book TRADITION!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World’s Most Beloved Musical.
FOOD TRUCK – The Hurricane Kitchen (truck food welcome inside the theater)

Town Center 5
Cantors Herschel Fox & Phil Baron – BUY TIX

See below to find out more about our hosts.

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Wonder_of_Wonders_edit_2Will the matchmaker make you “the perfect match?” There’s only one way to find out … join us this year for our 8th annual FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Christmas Eve SING-A-LONG!

(Scroll down to watch the event trailer.  For tickets, visit Laemmle.com/Fiddler).

This year, the popular Fiddler program has been extended to more venues to accommodate demand including, for the first time, the recently reopened AHRYA FINE ARTS in Beverly Hills.

In addition to exuberant movie and song, the evening will feature TRIVIA with PRIZES being awarded to Fiddler buffs with the quickest recall.  Dressing in COSTUME is not required, but highly encouraged!  Will the best costume will garner a prize?  That will be up to the emcee.

Craig_pix_01_edit_lr_crop_4_p
CRAIG TAUBMAN will be hosting at the NoHo 7
Ron_Wolfson_pix_02_crop_p
RON WOLFSON will be hosting at the Fine Arts

Speaking of which, we’re very excited to announce two new, dynamic hosts for this year.  Acclaimed Jewish singer-songwriter and founder of the Pico Union Project CRAIG TAUBMAN will be bringing his signature blend of charisma and high-powered energy to the NOHO 7.  Over in the city side, professor, author, and community mensch Dr. RON WOLFSON will be headlining at the stunning AHYRA FINE ARTS in Beverly Hills. Wolfson is most recently the author of The Best Boy in the United States of America: A Memoir of Blessings and Kisses offered by Jewish Light Publishing. You can’t go wrong with either of these incredible gentlemen!

Our own Greg Laemmle is enthusiastic as ever about the Fiddler experience, declaring that “Christmas Eve isn’t just Chinese food anymore!”  Furthermore, “we welcome all those in the community who are looking for an alternative Christmas Eve experience.”

He continues, “This is your once-a-year chance to be the star of the shtetl. Join voices with friends and neighbors and sing your heart out alongside Fiddler’s screen legends. And it’s okay if you haven’t memorized all the songs. We provide the lyrics.”

Song highlights include the iconic “TRADITION”, “IF I WERE A RICH MAN”,  “TO LIFE”, “SUNRISE SUNSET”, “DO YOU LOVE ME?” and “ANATEVKA”, among many, many more.

Don’t miss the buggy! Those who wish to attend the program are advised to purchase tickets in advance as the program has traditionally sold to capacity.

See you in the shtetl…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnuyNaOEBt4&feature=youtu.be

Fiddler Hosts – 2015

Ron_Wolfson_pix_02_crop_p

Dr. Ron Wolfson at the Ahrya Fine Arts (Beverly Hills)
Renowned educator and author DR. RON WOLFSON will be our host at the Fine Arts in Beverly Hills. Wolfson is a Fingerhut Professor of Education at the American Jewish University and, most recently, author of The Best Boy in the United States of America: A Memoir of Blessings and Kisses offered by Jewish Lights Publishing. A pioneer in the field of Jewish family education, Dr. Wolfson is a frequent scholar-in-residence for synagogues and communities and a co-founder of Synagogue 3000. He is also the author of the well-known Art of Jewish Living book series.

Craig_pix_01_edit_lr_crop_4_pCraig Taubman at the NoHo 7 (North Hollywood)
Beloved Jewish singer/songwriter and community builder CRAIG TAUBMAN will be our host at the NoHo 7 venue in North Hollywood. Taubman is renowned for original compositions and live performances that speak to the Jewish American experience. He is the originator of events such as Friday Night Live, The Big Jewish Tent, and A Sacred Noise, among others. Most recently, he founded the Pico Union Project, an interfaith community center near L.A.’s downtown that celebrates diversity and unity within the framework of art, music, and worship.

Herschel Fox_prCantor Herschel Fox
at the Town Center 5 (Encino)
For over three decades, HERSCHEL FOX (top) has shared his knowledge, talent, and Yiddishkeit with Temple Valley Beth Shalom (Encino) and the greater L.A Jewish community. Born in Europe and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, among Holocaust survivors, he became a cantor at the age of 13.  In his early career, he performed in Yiddish theater, opening for Molly Picon, Fiddler’s “Yente the Matchmaker” for many years. Fox teaches classes in Yiddish language, culture and song, prayer and the art of the cantor.

Phil Baron_prCantor Phil Baron
at the Town Center 5 (Encino)
Also of VBS (Valley Beth Shalom), cantor PHIL BARON (left) is the son of a violinist and the grandson of a Vilna rabbi. Before becoming a cantor, he took a successful detour into children’s entertainment, where he had over 300 original songs recorded – nearly 200 of these by the Walt Disney Co. He co-created two television series for Jewish children, Bubbe’s Boarding House, and the multiple award-winning series Alef…Bet…Blast-off! As a vocalist he has been featured with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New Orleans Philharmonic.

Gary Wexler_prGary Wexler at the Playhouse 7 (Pasadena)
GARY WEXLER is a USC Adjunct Professor in the Masters program at the Annenberg School of Communication, teaching both Nonprofit Marketing, as well as Advertising and Copywriting. Wexler’s first career was as a Clio-winning copywriter for ad agencies such as Chiat-Day, DDB-Needham and others with clients ranging from Apple to Coca Cola. He since made the switch to the non-profit world, working with over 1000 nonprofits, including the foundations of Steven Spielberg, the Ford Foundation, United Ways and Jewish Federations. Today, he is an active blogger, consultant, seminar leader, and public speaker.

Naomi Ackerman_prNaomi Ackerman at the Royal (West L.A.)
An actress, social activist, and special education teacher, NAOMI ACKERMAN’s credits include theater, musicals, films, television as well as being an accomplished street performer and professional clown. She was a founding member of View Points an Arab Jewish dialogue theater produced by the Shimon Peres Center for Peace. In addition, she wrote, directed and performed the acclaimed one woman show Flowers Aren’t Enough. In 2011 she founded The Advot Project, transforming the lives of incarcerated girls in the L.A. probations system through drama instruction. This garnered her KCET’s Local Hero Award in 2014.

Paul Buch_prCantor Paul Buch at the Claremont 5 (Claremont)
Cantor PAUL BUCH has served Temple Beth Israel in Claremont since 2003. He came to the cantorate after a 25 year career in TV and film production in Los Angeles, New York, and Portland. In addition to his cantorial duties, Buch is President of the Claremont Interfaith Council and serves on the Faith-Based Roundtable of the Pomona Unified School District. He is also Chair of the City of Claremont’s Human Relations Committee and serves on an advisory committee at the Claremont School of Theology. This will be his third consecutive year as our Fiddler host in Claremont!

 

Epic adventure film THEEB opens November 27

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Please note: On Sunday, 11/29, at the Fine Arts, THEEB screens at 1:50pm only. THEEB screens on a full schedule on Friday, and Sunday through Thursday. Check showtimes here: http://www.laemmle.com/films/40117

After winning acclaim and awards at the best film festivals on five continents, Jordan’s official submission to the Oscars, THEEB , begins engagements at the Playhouse, Town Center and Fine Arts on the day after Thanksgiving. Writing in Variety, Jay Weissberg called it “a classic adventure film of the best kind, and one that’s rarely seen these days.”

It’s 1916. While war rages in the Ottoman Empire, Hussein raises his younger brother Theeb (“Wolf”) in a traditional Bedouin community that is isolated by the vast, deadly desert. The brothers’ quiet existence is suddenly interrupted when a British Army officer and his guide ask Hussein to escort them to a well located along the old pilgrimage route to Mecca. So as not to dishonor his recently deceased father, Hussein agrees to lead them on the long, treacherous journey. The young, mischievous Theeb secretly chases after his brother, but the group soon find itself trapped amidst threatening terrain riddled with Ottoman mercenaries, Arab revolutionaries, and outcast Bedouin raiders. Naji Abu Nowar’s powerful and assured directorial debut, set in the land of Lawrence of Arabia, is a wondrous “Bedouin Western” about a boy who, in order to survive, must become a man and live up to the name his father gave him.

“A beautifully simple and stunningly elegant film – that can be seen as something of a companion piece to Lawrence of Arabia – Naji Abu Nowar’s delightful THEEB is a striking film, old-fashioned in tone and structure but always watchable and modestly powerful.” – Mark Adams, Screen Daily

“It is a spectacularly epic film with a wonderfully intimate human story. It possesses everything that allows me fall in love with cinema, again and again…THEEB is…the kind of film that grabs a hold of you and doesn’t let go.” – E. Nina Rothe, Huffington Post

https://vimeo.com/137044587

WHAT OUR FATHERS DID and WELCOME TO LEITH: Two superb docs about Nazis, long ago and far away, but also here and now.

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Next month we’ll be opening two acclaimed documentaries about that notorious and virulent ideology, Nazism, one that deals with its incarnation in Germany during World War II and another about its presence here and now.

A poignant, thought-provoking account of friendship and the toll of inherited guilt, WHAT OUR FATHERS DID: A NAZI LEGACY explores the relationship between two men, each of whom are the children of very high-ranking Nazi officials and possess starkly contrasting attitudes toward their fathers. Eminent human rights lawyer Philippe Sands investigates the complicated connection between the two, and even delves into the story of his own grandfather, who escaped the same town where their fathers carried out mass killings. The three embark on an emotional journey together, as they travel through Europe and converse about the past, examining the sins of their fathers and providing a unique view of the father-son relationship, ultimately coming to some very unexpected and difficult conclusions.

In her Screen Daily review, Fionnuala Halligan described the film as “chilling” and “a layered examination of brutality, self-deception, guilt and the nature of justice which is compelling throughout.” We’ll screen WHAT OUR FATHERS DID beginning November 2nd at the Royal and November 13th at the Town Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGWY59hFBsI

WELCOME TO LEITH, which we’ll open November 6th at the Music Hall, chronicles the attempted takeover of a small town in North Dakota by notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb. As his behavior becomes more threatening, tensions soar, and the residents desperately look for ways to expel their unwanted neighbor. With incredible access to both longtime residents of Leith and white supremacists, the film examines a small community in the plains struggling for sovereignty against an extremist vision. In his Variety review, Dennis Harvey called the film “as engrossing as a fictional thriller.” In the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote, “Mr. Cobb is a truly scary presence whose eyes burn with fervor as he describes his racist, anti-Semitic agenda. At the same time, he is articulate, intelligent, determined and dangerous.”

https://vimeo.com/131895164

“Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem” ~ Join Aimee Ginsburg Bikel and Leonard Maltin to Celebrate the Legendary Actor-Singer-Author-Activist

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Portraits of two beloved icons — Sholom Aleichem and Theodore Bikel — are woven together in the enchanting new documentary Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem. The two men had much in common: wit, wisdom and talent, all shot through with deep humanity and Yiddishkeit. The film combines Bikel’s charismatic storytelling and masterful performances with a broader exploration of Aleichem’s remarkable life and work.

We will screen Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem Monday, 10/19 at 7:30 PM and Tuesday, 10/20 at 1 PM at the Ahrya Fine Arts/Beverly Hills, Town Center 5/Encino, Playhouse 7/Pasadena and Claremont 5. Film critic Leonard Maltin and Mr. Bikel’s widow, Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, will introduce and participate in a Q&A after the Monday screening in Beverly Hills. Mrs. Bikel will also participate in a Q&A after the 1 PM screening of the film on Tuesday, October 20th in Encino.

Mrs. Bikel wrote the following about her husband: “Nothing gave Theodore Bikel more pleasure than telling stories and singing songs that connected deeply to his own roots. “I sing the songs of all nations,” he would say, “and all of humanity are my brothers and sisters, we are like flowers in a garden. So,” he would add, “I sing my songs not because they are better, but because they are mine. And if I don’t tend to them, they will wither, and die.”

“On July 21 Theo Bikel passed away, leaving us with an enormous vacuum. Theo was a giant and there will be no one who can walk in his shoes. Actor, singer, author, activist for peace and human rights, he did everything with a deep joy and a commitment to making our world a better place.
“Theo considered this film his crowning achievement, and spent this past year appearing in person at the many film festivals that screened it. The audiences, cheering and clapping, loved it. Theo, who made the film at 88, improved with the years, his voice and performance deepening and softening; his humor and humanity shining bright.
“This will be the first public screening and Theo would have wanted to appear in person. Please come with your friends and family and share with us in the legacy of the one and only and forever Theodore Bikel.”

Mr. Maltin wrote the following, which he titled “Celebrating Theodore Bikel.”

“The challenge in discussing Theodore Bikel is where to start? He led so many lives—as an actor, folksinger, Civil Rights activist, union leader, and more. He is the only person I could think of who could say he worked with Humphrey Bogart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Frank Zappa! (He played a band manager in 200 Motels, but gently refused Zappa’s request to dress as a nun for one scene.) He was the original Baron von Trapp in The Sound of Music on Broadway, a best-selling recording artist, and a busy character actor who earned an Oscar nomination playing a Southern sheriff in The Defiant Ones. Those are just a handful of his many credits.

“His lifelong connection to the celebrated author Sholom Aleichem predates his casting as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. (He logged more than 2,000 performances, and acknowledged that the play’s universal appeal is based in part on its ability to make the author’s work palatable to a non-Jewish audience. He described it as “Sholom Aleichem lite.”)

“As for his facility with languages, Theo explained that his father spoke only Yiddish at home and prided himself on his library of Sholom Aleichem books, which they were forced to leave behind when his family fled from Vienna to Palestine in 1938. The postscript is quite amazing: his grandmother, who stayed behind, hounded the Nazis who guarded confiscated property—so much so that they eventually let her reclaim the books, which turned up on the Bikels’ doorstep in Palestine, to the utter amazement of Theo and his parents.

“His mother spoke German at home, his father spoke Yiddish, he was given Hebrew lessons as a child, and learned French while visiting a family retreat during the summer. English was his fifth language—the fifth of many. (When he played linguist Zoltan Karpathy in My Fair Lady and George Cukor asked him to draw on his skill with dialects, Bikel reminded Cukor that of the two of them, he was not the one with Hungarian roots.)

“My wife remembers attending protest rallies at Washington Square Park in the 1960s when Theo’s folk songs roused the young people. When Alice and I moved to Los Angeles and went to our first Rosh Hashanah service, we found ourselves sitting in front of Theo and had the thrill of hearing his sonorous voice in prayer all night long.

“He continued performing, and making a difference, to the very end of his life. In 2013 he was invited to appear before the Austrian Parliament to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Krystallnacht—the dreadful night that synagogues were burned to the ground throughout Germany and Austria. He recognized that today’s Austria is not run by, or populated by, the same people who were responsible for those atrocities, and while he could never forget, he was willing to move on.

“Many of his achievements are covered in the documentary Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem.  No one film could include every facet of Theo’s remarkable life…but this one provides a welcome overview. And, like Theo himself, it is consistently entertaining.”

https://vimeo.com/114923514

 

ROGER WATERS THE WALL to Screen Thursday, October 15th in Claremont, Pasadena, NoHo, and Beverly Hills

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ROGER WATERS THE WALL is not just an immersive concert experience of the classic Pink Floyd album. It’s also a road movie of Waters’ reckoning with the past and a stirring anti-war event. Moviegoers will also have a unique opportunity to see The Simple Facts, a twenty-minute conversation with Roger Waters and his Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason where they answer questions submitted by fans from around the world.

ROGER WATERS THE WALL screens at 8PM on Thursday, October 15th at the Ahrya Fine Arts in Beverly Hills, the Claremont 5, Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, and the NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Purchase your tickets now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZgJqX8Dxzg

Maurice Pialat Retrospective Coming Soon to the Royal

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“The director who has the strongest and most consistent influence on young French filmmakers is not Jean-Luc Godard, but Maurice Pialat.” — Arnaud Desplechin, filmmaker.

“To say that Pialat marched to the beat of a different drummer is to put it mildly. In fact, he didn’t really march at all. He ambled, and fuck anybody who got it into their head that they’d like to amble along with him. Or behind him. Or ahead of him.” — Kent Jones, film critic.

From September 25th to October 1st the Royal Theater will host a collection of masterworks by French filmmaker Maurice Pialat (1925-2003). We’ll be screening five of his ten feature films: 1987’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, “Under the Sun of Satan,” with Gérard Depardieu and Sandrine Bonnaire; “Loulou,” a tale of tortured love with Isabelle Huppert and Depardieu; “Van Gogh,” a chronicle of the last days of the artist; family drama “The Mouth Agape,” with Nathalie Baye; and the slice-of-life film about teenagers in suburban France “Graduate First.”

Maurice Pialat’s influence in the years after his death in 2003 was everywhere, but while he was alive he wasn’t part of any movement. A late bloomer who was 40 before he finished his first fiction feature (1968’s “Naked Childhood”), he missed the New Wave—a fact he seemed to resent, though his irascible personality likely meant he wouldn’t have belonged to any club which would have had him as a member.

Pialat made rule-breaking, violently disorienting movies full of temporal leaps and jagged improvisations, impolite movies about insoluble dilemmas and impossible personalities—women and men who can’t or won’t allow themselves to be tamed, and the tug-of-war between desire and responsibility. While intensely grounded in the cinema, citing the Lumière Brothers as his masters, Pialat rejected cinephile culture and lunged headlong into the material stuff of life, love, sex, and death. (He’s often compared to John Cassavetes, but this overlooks the particularities of both men.) Pialat’s films aren’t exercises but exorcisms, wounded howls at the injustice of existence whose anguished power is intensified by an acute awareness of the beauty of being alive. In a national cinema often associated with dainty sophistication, Maurice Pialat is the epitome of raw power.

FULL SCHEDULE:

"Under the Sun of Satan"
“Under the Sun of Satan”

Friday, 9/25
12:00PM – GRADUATE FIRST
02:00PM – VAN GOGH
05:15PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN
07:35PM – LOULOU
10:15PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE

Saturday, 9/26
12:00PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE
02:00PM – GRADUATE FIRST
04:05PM – VAN GOGH
07:25PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN
09:45PM – LOULOU

"Loulou"
“Loulou”

Sunday, 9/27
12:00PM – LOULOU
02:40PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE
04:40PM – GRADUATE FIRST
06:45PM – VAN GOGH
10:00PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN

Monday, 9/28
12:00PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN
02:15PM – LOULOU
04:55PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE
07:00PM – GRADUATE FIRST
09:00PM – VAN GOGH

"Graduate First"
“Graduate First”

Tuesday, 9/29
12:00PM – VAN GOGH
03:15PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN
05:30PM – LOULOU
08:10PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE
10:10PM – GRADUATE FIRST

Wednesday, 9/30
12:00PM – GRADUATE FIRST
02:10PM – VAN GOGH
05:30PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE
07:30PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN
09:45PM – LOULOU

"Van Gogh"
“Van Gogh”

Thursday, 10/01
12:00PM – THE MOUTH AGAPE
02:00PM – GRADUATE FIRST
04:10PM – VAN GOGH
07:25PM – LOULOU
10:00PM – UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Kue5bskEY

Zhang Yimou on His Potent New Historical Romance COMING HOME: “This type of film is very difficult to make. It needs to be made in a state of serenity.”

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Zhang Yimou’s new film is set in the last days of China’s Cultural Revolution, following a newly-released political prisoner (Chen Daoming) as he tries to reconnect with his wife (frequent Yimou collaborator Gong Li), who is stricken with amnesia. We open the movie 9/9 at the Royal, 9/18 at the Playhouse and 10/2 at the Town Center. The director wrote this about his powerful new work: “Based on Yan Geling’s novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi, COMING HOME is a love story about joy and sadness, as well as separation and reunion. We used the end of the original story – with Lu Yanshi returning home – as the starting point of the script. Everyone knows that Chen Daoming and Gong Li are the finest actors working in China, and they were my first and only choices for their respective roles. I’ve learned a lot from working with them. They offered a lot of constructive opinions about even the smallest details in the story. That’s why their contribution to the film extends far beyond the portrayal of the characters.

“Having a so-called “rising star” in the daughter’s role was not a must as her character serves a very important function in the story. When I first met [Zhang] Huiwen, I noticed her bright shining eyes, which resembled the aura of young Red Guards. It was what I needed. For the second part of the film, I needed to change the way her eyes look. They should look as if they are in a trance, always hesitant. Huiwen had the ability to do that.

“This type of film is very difficult to make. It needs to be made in a state of serenity. If I thought about benefits and profits even a little, then I would lose my way. That’s why, for me, this film represents a return to an earlier state of mind and an older approach to creativity. The most important thing for me is whether the audience will keep this film in their hearts and whether they will truly remember the emotions behind COMING HOME.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoea7Cz3Hj0

One of the most important and influential filmmakers in China, and a core member of China’s “Fifth Generation” directors, Zhang Yimou started his career as a cinematographer and became a director in 1987. Over the years, Zhang has directed films which received accolades from around the world: RED SORGHUM (1987, Golden Bear winner at the Berlin International Film Festival), JU DOU (1990, In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards®), RAISE THE RED LANTERN (1991, Silver Lion winner at the Venice International Film Festival and nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards®), TO LIVE (1994, Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival), to name a few.

In 2002, his martial arts epic HERO ushered in a new era of blockbusters for Chinese cinema, and was followed by the equally successful HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (2004), and CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER (2006)