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Greg Laemmle to Host the Opening Night of LAST REMAINING SEATS featuring “The Lady Eve” (1941)

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It’s nearly time for Last Remaining Seats, the always-compelling series of film classics presented by the L.A. CONSERVANCY in our city’s grand, vintage movie palaces. The program opens this year on June 11, 2014, 8pm with the iconic comedy THE LADY EVE (1941, Preston Sturges) at the downtown LOS ANGELES THEATRE. What’s more, the evening will be hosted by our own GREG LAEMMLE who will be in conversation with PRESTON STURGES JR. and TOM STURGES, sons of the legendary director. It promises to be a captivating evening and we invite you to join in our support of the L.A. Conservancy by attending. If you haven’t been to the lavish LOS ANGELES THEATRE on Broadway, you are sure to be astonished.

Tickets for this event and other screenings are available through the L.A. CONSERVANCY who produces the series as a way to highlight the treasure trove of beautiful and historically significant theaters that remain in our city. In addition to the Los Angeles Theatre, this year’s line up includes the PALACE THEATRE (The Great Madcap), ORPHEUM THEATRE (Citizen Kane, Footlight Parade), the THEATRE AT ACE HOTEL (Back to the Future), and the DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION (West Side Story).

Tickets are pre-sold to Conservancy members, but are now also available to the general public. Seating is limited, however, so you must act quickly. We’ve already learned that one of the screenings has been sold out.  GO HERE for more program and ticketing info.

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Program notes from the Conservancy:

The Los Angeles Conservancy has assembled an esteemed slate of special guests for its twenty-eighth season of Last Remaining Seats. This annual series presents classic films as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen, in a beautiful historic theatre, surrounded by fellow fans. Each event in the series is full of extras, including live entertainment, special guests, cartoons, and more. What began in 1987 as a way to draw attention to Los Angeles’ historic theatres is now a summer tradition, drawing thousands of people from the region, the nation, and outside the U.S.

While subject to change, the special guests and live entertainment for 2014 are outlined below.

The season kicks off June 11 with a screening of The Lady Eve at the Los Angeles Theatre. Evening host for opening night is Greg Laemmle, president of Laemmle Theatres. Laemmle will interview Preston Sturges, Jr. and Tom Sturges, sons of Preston Sturges, who wrote and directed the acclaimed 1941 comedy.

On June 14, West Side Story at The Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will feature one of the film’s stars, George Chakiris, in conversation with dance critic Debra Levine. Chakiris won an Academy Award® for his performance as Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, in this classic 1961 musical.

Guests at 1933’s Footlight Parade at the Orpheum Theatre on June 18 will enjoy two live performances. Robert Salisbury will perform on the theatre’s 1928 Mighty Wurlitzer organ, followed by Maxwell DeMille Presents “The Lullaby of Broadway:” A Tribute to the 1930s Movie Music of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, with Dean Mora and his Orchestra.

Renowned film critic and historian Leonard Maltin will host the sold-old evening screening of Back to the Future at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on June 21. Maltin will interview cast members Lea Thompson, Claudia Wells, and Don Fullilove. A DeLorean Time Machine will make a special appearance at both the matinee and evening screenings.

Co-presented with the Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles, the screening of Luis Buñuel’s El gran calavera (The Great Madcap) on June 25 will be hosted by Oscar Arce, director of the Luis Buñuel Film Institute. Arce will appear on stage before the film with special guest Pablo Ferro, award-winning film title designer.

The season ends June 28 with two screenings of Citizen Kane at the Orpheum Theatre. Both screenings will be preceded by a live performance by Tony Wilson on the Mighty Wurlitzer organ. The matinee will be hosted by author and film historian Alan K. Rode, with the evening screening hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, weekend daytime host of Turner Classic Movies and the grandson of the film’s co-writer with Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Details and tickets are available at laconservancy.org.

Tickets cost $16 for L.A. Conservancy members and $20 for the general public.

THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE Q&A’s with Kristen Johnston, Mackenzie Phillips and Others

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We have three Q&A’s/discussions planned for the 7:50 PM screenings of THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE at the Monicas Friday and Saturday, April 11 and 12, and after the 5:30 PM screening on Sunday, April 13:

April 11: Kristen Johnston, actress and author of Guts with Harold Owens, Senior Director of Musicares;

April 12: Mackenzie Phillips, actress and author of High on Arrival with Leonard Buschel, Director of the REEL Recovery Film Festival;

April 13: Greg Williams, director of THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE with students from the Haven at USC recovery community.

GOODBYE WORLD Q&A at the Monica with Actors Adrian Grenier & Mark Webber + Producer & Co-Writer

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GOODBYE WORLD actors Adrian Grenier and Mark Webber, producer Mary Pat Bentel and co-writer Sarah Adina Smith will participate in a Q&A after the 7:10 PM screening at the Monica on Friday, April 4. Director Denis Henry Hennelly will be at the Monicas for a Q&A after the 7:10 screening on Sunday, April 6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlULt_4Oz8w

ROB THE MOB Q&A’s this Weekend at the Monicas

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ROB THE MOB director Raymond De Fellita will participate in Q&A’s after the 7:10 PM screenings at the Monicas on Friday and Saturday, March 28 and 29.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9KVxlC_ITc

Support the Environment with Our New Healthy Snack Specials

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Looking for an easy way to support sustainability, active transportation, and environmental causes? Buy one of our new tasty treats the next time you’re at Laemmle and we will donate a portion of sales to Climate Ride! One dollar of every Kind Bar, $2 of any O.N.E. Coconut Water, and $3 of all Climate Ride Combo purchases will go to help the environment. The combo includes a Small popcorn, one Kind Bar, and a Coconut Water.

This short video featuring company president Greg Laemmle will run before each film we screen to help raise awareness. Watch it here first and enjoy an exclusive outtake not in theaters:

Climate Ride Wine Country 2014 is a fully-supported, four-day group ride covering 250 miles of stellar Northern California scenery starting in San Francisco and winding through the famous wine growing regions of Napa Valley and the Russian River Valley.  It culminates at the iconic state capitol building in Sacramento. Interested in doing more for Climate Ride? You can support the winners of our Climate Ride contest or register to participate in the ride yourself! Special thanks to our partners at Kind, O.N.E. Coconut Water, Climate Ride, and the Laemmle Charitable Foundation.

Jackson Pollock at the Getty

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Jackson Pollock is a giant of American painting and one of his largest and most important pieces has been restored and is now on display here in Los Angeles through June 1st. From the Getty website:

“Commissioned by art collector and dealer Peggy Guggenheim for the entry to her New York City apartment in 1943, Mural by Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956) is considered one of the iconic paintings of the twentieth century. Now in the collection of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, it represents a transitional moment in Pollock’s career, as he moved toward an experimental application of paint. Following extensive study and treatment at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute, this exhibition presents the newly conserved work alongside findings from the Getty’s research.”

This is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to see a part of our American heritage as it was meant to be seen, not on a computer monitor or the page of a book, but in person with one’s own eyes.

And if you go, consider supplementing your weekend of visual arts with one of two excellent films about fine art we are currently showing as Saturday/Sunday morning screenings– THE RAPE OF EUROPA and TIM’S VERMEER.

THE RAPE OF EUROPA: The L.A. Times’ Kenneth Turan on this Essential Documentary

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Posted this afternoon on the L.A. Times website:

MOVIES NOW

FILMS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Critic’s Pick: The feature film ‘The Monuments Men’ has brought about the re-release of the documentary “The Rape of Europa,’ which details the Nazi wartime theft of European art.

By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film Critic

If George Clooney’s “The Monuments Men” did nothing else, it made possible the theatrical re-release of “The Rape of Europa,” a splendid documentary that shows the true story behind the Nazi theft of European art and interviews some of the real-life Monuments Men who got it back. The film is packed with information and also tells a series of wonderful truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tales. “The Rape of Europa” even details the postwar fights about who owns which paintings that culminated in the sale of Gustav Klimt’s gold portrait for a record $135 million. This documentary paints a picture that is vivid and timely. Playing on Saturday and Sunday at [11 AM at] Laemmle’s Monica 4 in Santa Monica, Town Center 5 in Encino, Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and Claremont 5 in Claremont.

Adolf HItler was drawn to art. “The Rape of Europa” details Nazi looting of Europe’s works. (Lynn Nicholas Collection / Agon Arts & Entertainment)

 

 

OMAR and BETHLEHEM: “Two Films, One Issue”

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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.

The film in question is not Bethlehem, Israel’s entry, by first-time director Yuval Adler, which recently won six Ophirs, the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars, as well as the top prize at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. It is Omar, the Palestinian submission, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Abu-Assad was also nominated in 2006 for his film Paradise Now, about a pair of Palestinians preparing to become suicide bombers.
Both films, with two different viewpoints of the same controversial subject, are among the record 76 submissions from countries looking to take home a statuette. Only the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences know why one of these films was selected and not the other — the “arts” part of the academy’s name underscores the subjective nature of judging what is best about the form.
Sahdi Marei as Sanfur in BETHLEHEM