From SHELTER filmmaker Eran Riklis, (Lemon Tree, The Syrian Bride):
AARDVARK Q&A’s with Zachary Quinto.
On Friday April 13th at the Playhouse AARDVARK actor Zachary Quinto will participate in a Q&A following the 7:20 PM show. On Saturday, April 14th at the Monica Film Center Mr. Quinto will sit for a Q&A following the 7:20 PM show. The moderator for the latter Q&A will be actor-producer Matt Bomer and they will also be joined by AARDVARK producer Neal Dodson.
55th Anniversary Screening of TOM JONES March 21st in Pasadena, Encino, and West LA
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present the latest in our Anniversary Classics Abroad program: a 55th anniversary presentation of the Oscar-winning film of 1963, TOM JONES.
Tony Richardson’s spirited comic romp was the first all-British production to be named best picture by the Academy since Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet in 1948. The film won three other Oscars—best director for Richardson, best adapted screenplay by award-winning British playwright John Osborne, and best musical score by a gifted new composer, John Addison. The film received six other nominations, including a record-tying five acting nods—Albert Finney for best actor, Hugh Griffith for best supporting actor (he had won in this category four years earlier, for Ben-Hur), and an unprecedented three nominations in the supporting actress category—for Diane Cilento, Edith Evans, and Joyce Redman.
Up to this point, Richardson was best known for hard-hitting social protest dramas filmed in black and white—Look Back in Anger (based on Osborne’s hit play), A Taste of Honey, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. For his new film, adapted from Henry Fielding’s 18th century novel, Richardson made his first period piece, his first comedy, and his first film in color, with superb lensing by Walter Lassally. The director took a playful approach to the material, experimenting with a variety of film techniques, including a silent film opening, and a number of moments when characters broke the fourth wall to address the camera. Yet Richardson and Osborne retained the essence of Fielding’s picaresque tale of a young orphan adopted by a rich nobleman but then thrown into jeopardy by scheming enemies.
The film is remembered for several striking set pieces, including a savage hunt sequence and an erotic eating scene that commingled lust and gluttony. The outstanding cast also includes Susannah York, David Warner, Joan Greenwood, and Peter Bull.
In addition to its Oscar win, the film was named best picture of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle. The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther called Tom Jones “surely one of the wildest, bawdiest and funniest comedies that a refreshingly agile filmmaker has ever brought to the screen.”
Time magazine also extolled “a way-out, walleyed, wonderful exercise in cinema” but added that the film was not completely different from Richardson’s gritty earlier films. As the magazine noted, “It is also a social satire written in blood with a broadaxe.” Audiences turned the innovative film into a box office smash.
TOM JONES screens at 7:00pm on Wednesday, March 21st in Pasadena, Encino, and West LA. Click here for tickets.
Format: DCP
GOLDSTONE Q&As in Pasadena & Santa Monica this Saturday, March 10.
GOLDSTONE star Alex Russell and U.S. distributor Arnie Holland will participate in Q&A’s on Saturday, March 10 after the 1:50 PM screening at the Playhouse and the 5 PM show at the Monica Film Center.
SUBMISSION Q&A’s with the Filmmaker Opening Weekend at the Monicas & Playhouse.
SUBMISSION writer-director Richard Levine will participate in Q&A’s following the 7:30 PM screening at the Monica Film Center on Friday, March 9 and after the 7:30 show at the Playhouse on Saturday, March 10.
Sublime Israeli Drama FOXTROT Opens Friday
This Friday we are excited to open Samuel Maoz’s FOXTROT at the Royal in West L.A. Cinephiles in the Valley and and Pasadena area can see the film starting March 9 at the Town Center and Playhouse. A biting social satire in which a troubled family copes with the death of their son at his isolated military post, FOXTROT is the official Oscar submission from Israel that wrecked audiences and earned rave reviews at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. It won the Grand Jury prize at Venice, as well as eight Ophir Awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor.
American film critics have been universally overwhelmed by the movie. Writing in the L.A. Times, Kenneth Turan said that “no matter what you’re expecting, FOXTROT is not the film you expect it to be. It’s better.” In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis called it “a movie that builds into a devastating indictment of a nation, shock by shock, brutal moment by brutal moment.” Jay Weisberg of Variety was similarly rapturous in his appraisal: “[FOXTROT is] brilliantly constructed with a visual audacity that serves the subject rather than the other way around, this is award-winning filmmaking on a fearless level.” Deborah Young of the Hollywood Reporter called it “bold modernist cinema at its most harrowing.”
When asked about his film, Mr. Moaz shared the following:
“Einstein said that coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. FOXTROT is a dance of a man with his fate. It’s a philosophical parable trying to deconstruct this vague concept called ›fate‹ through a story about father and son. They are far from each other, but despite the distance and the total separation between them they change each other’s fate, and of course their fates. The challenge I set for myself was to deal with the gap between the things we control and those that are beyond our control.
“I chose to build my story as a classic Greek tragedy in which the hero creates his own punishment and fight against anyone who tries to save him. He is obviously unaware of the outcome that his action will bring about.
“On the contrary, he is doing something that seems right and logical to do. And that’s the difference between a casual coincidence and a coincidence that looks like a plan of fate. Chaos is settled. The punishment corresponds to the sin in its exact form. There is something classic and circular in this process. And there is also an irony that is always associated with fate. A structure of a Greek tragedy in three sequences seemed to me like an ideal dramatic platform to deliver my idea.
“I wanted to tell a story that would be relevant to the crooked reality in which I, and we, live. A story with a relevant statement – local and universal. A story about two generations – the second generation of the Holocaust survivors and the third generation – and each of them experienced trauma during his army service. Part of this endless traumatic situation was forced upon us and part of it could have been avoided. A drama about a family that breaks apart and reunites. A conflict between love and guilt; love that copes with extreme emotional pain. And as in my previous film, Lebanon, I wanted to continue to investigate, in an intensive manner that combines criticism and compassion, a human dynamic created in a closed unit. The film has a shot where you see a screen of a laptop with a notice of mourning and next to it a bowl withnoranges. This frame is the story of my country in four words – oranges and dead soldiers.
“When my eldest daughter went to high school, she never woke up on time, and in order not to be late she would ask me to call for a taxi. This habit cost us quite a bit of money, and it seemed to me like a bad education. One morning I got mad and told her to take the bus like everyone else. And if that’s why she’d be late, then she’d be late. Maybe she should learn the hard way to wake up in time. Her bus was line 5. Half an hour after she left, I see in a news site that a terrorist blew himself up in line 5, and that dozens of people were killed. I called her but the cellular operator collapsed because of the unexpected load. Half an hour later, she returned home. She was late for the bus that exploded. She saw him leave the station and took the next bus. And I’m still considered lucky because I have girls …”
A TABOO IDENTITY Q&A’s March 27-29
A TABOO IDENTITY subject Kay Parker, producer Craig Muckler, and actress Jill Schoelen will participate in Q&A’s after all screenings.
YOUNG KARL MARX Filmmaker Raoul Peck in Person for Q&A’s.
YOUNG KARL MARX filmmaker Raoul Peck will participate in Q&A’s after the 7 PM show on Tuesday, February 27 at the Royal and after the 7:10 show on Wednesday, February 28 at the Playhouse.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- …
- 62
- Next Page »