Starring Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, The Penguin Lessons is a poignant dramedy inspired by a true story, set against the backdrop of Argentina’s political turmoil in 1976. Tom (Coogan), a disillusioned Englishman, arrives in Buenos Aires to teach at a prestigious boarding school, expecting an easy experience. But as the city spirals into crisis, and his students remain unteachable, Tom’s life takes an unexpected turn when he rescues an oil-slicked penguin from a nearby beach. The bird’s surprising loyalty and unique presence forces Tom to confront his own repressed past and awaken to the responsibilities of both personal and political change
Born in 1994, Louise Courvoisier grew up in the Jura region of France before studying cinema at the Cinéfabrique in Lyon. Her graduation short, Mano a Mano, won first prize at the Cinéfondation at Cannes in 2019. Vingt dieux (Holy Cow) is her first feature film, a sentimental cheese epic set in the village of her childhood. It follows 18-year-old Totone. After the tragic death of his father, he's thrust into the unexpected and very adult role of looking after his younger sister and their failing family farm. He assumes even more responsibility when he enters a cash competition for the best Comté cheese made in this western part of the French Alps
It says a lot that the grandest French movie theaters are designed by famous architects. (Renzo Piano designed the Pathé Palace in Paris.) Over the weekend, the New York Times published a fascinating glimpse into cinema's profound place in French culture and how that strength has led to a renaissance of moviegoing. "France was one of the few countries that saw an increase in movie theater attendance last year over 2023, with more than 181 million attendees, an uptick of nearly a million. Brazil, Britain and Turkey also saw an increase."One reason is the French version of American exceptionalism: The French people believe their culture is superb
The 2025 Oscars are in the history books. It was a good night, with a funny, skilled host in Conan O'Brien and a fairly equitable distribution of statuettes for some terrific movies. It was also a good night for theatrical exhibition, better known as good, old-fashioned moviegoing. As he did during his speech accepting the Palme d'Or last year in Cannes, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker gave a passionate, trenchant speech in favor of seeing movies as filmmakers have always intended them to be seen, in theaters. After accepting the Oscar for Best Director from filmmaker (and movie theater owner) Quentin Tarantino, Baker said the following to almost 20
If you still haven't seen some of the films honored at the Academy Awards on Sunday, you can still see all of the following this week: Anora (winner for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and Actress), The Brutalist (Best Actor, Score, and Cinematography), Flow (Best Animated Feature), I'm Still Here (Best International Film), and No Other Land (Best Feature Documentary). All are fantastic and, as one social media user posted after listening to Sean Baker's speech extolling the virtues of seeing movies in movie theaters, "movies just hit different at the cinema."And if you've already seen these films, check out The Fishing Place
The Way, My Way, which we open March 7 at our Claremont, Santa Monica, and Encino theaters, is the charming and captivating true story of a stubborn, self-centered Australian man who decides to walk the 800 kilometer-long Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Spain. He doesn’t know why he’s doing it… but one step at a time, it will change him and his outlook on life forever. Based on Bill Bennett’s best-selling memoir of the same name.Bennett penned the following about The Way, My Way:"I really didn't want to make this film. I didn't want to make a film about myself; about my failings and vulnerabilities, and hardships which took me right to
Our movie-loving customers have votes for their favorite films of 2024! The top ten customer-chosen films are, in order from 1 to 10: Anora Conclave The Brutalist Dune: Part Two A Complete Unknown Emilia Pérez Wicked A Real Pain Challengers The SubstanceThe lucky randomly chosen winners for free passes (soon to be mailed) are:1) Jeff W.2) Mia S.3) Riley K.Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone for playing!
The Oscar nominations are out and it was another excellent cinematic year. As always, some categories will be more unpredictable than others. Last year, most contestants 59.5% thought Lily Gladstone would win Best Actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, while only 29.7% correctly divined that Emma Stone would win for Poor Things. This year, Best Picture may be the most challenging category; there are at least six real possibilities. That's where you come in because it’s time for our Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest! If you, dear cinephile, can accurately predict how the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will vote in
Can you name your five favorite films released last year? Enter our contest here, use our handy-dandy drop-down menus to quickly choose five, and you'll automatically be entered into a raffle to win a gift card! Also, we'll create an overall customer top ten list from all the entries. In case you need your memory jogged, Greg Laemmle composed the following:*"I'm actually kind of glad that we are only asking for everyone's five favorite films this year. Yes, we will compile all the submissions and ultimately turn it into a Laemmle Patron Top 10 list, so maybe that's a cheat. But as I sit here looking at my top films from 2024, it's actually kind of
Laemmle Theatres is pleased to announce our new weekly series of fresh international films, Worldwide Wednesdays. See below for the current schedule. Some are older films enjoying new restorations, but most are newer obscure films that we want to bring to a broader L.A. audience. Putting them in a weekly series format will hopefully help with create more awareness and help overcome the absence of what used to be a reliable marketing platform for smaller foreign films like these, critics' reviews in the L.A. Times Calendar section. Also this format allows the films to play in multiple venues all over L.A. County rather than forcing interested
Acclaimed filmmakers Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck, three-time Sundance honorees who previously took audiences to the secret corners of the Italian countryside in search of white truffles with The Truffle Hunters, recently sat down with Inside the Arthouse hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge to talk about their latest striking nonfiction work. Gaucho Gaucho paints an Argentinian western with images and sounds of operatic beauty, building on their earlier success with The Last Race, a film that explored the last stock car racetrack on Long Island.Kershaw and Dweck’s focus is now on the vast mountains of Argentina, expressed in stunning black
Our eclectic Culture Vulture series returns this weekend. After ten years of screening filmed theater, opera, ballet/dance, gallery/art, and much more at our Town Center/Encino, Glendale, Monica Film Center/Santa Monica, and Claremont 5 theaters, we are now adding our Newhall theater. What's more, we will now show the films on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 A.M. and Mondays at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are now on sale for the first nine films of the new year:*February 1-3: Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips ~ Embark on the epic ride of Jim Phillips, the genius behind skateboarding and rock culture's electrifying art. Drawing inspiration from his life
It has been another excellent year for animated features. Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, Look Back, Art College 1994, Chicken for Linda and Memoir of a Snail stand out; Moana 2 just had a record-setting weekend; and we still have The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, The Colors Within and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie to look forward to.But, as Yoda said, "there is another." The adventure-fantasy Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive
JOIN US on DECEMBER 24th for our umpteenth annual alternative Christmas Eve! That's right, It's time for the return of our Fiddler on the Roof Sing-Along! Screening in five shtetls: Claremont, NoHo, West L.A., Encino, and Newhall.Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations. Either way, you'll feel better as you croon along to all-time favorites like “TRADITION,” “IF I WERE A RICH MAN,” “TO LIFE,” “SUNRISE SUNSET,” “DO YOU LOVE ME?” and “ANATEVKA,” among many others.We encourage you to come in costume! Guaranteed fun for all. Children are welcome (Fiddler is rated "G") though some themes may be challenging for young children.Prices
On December 20th we are opening Pedro Almodóvar's first movie in English, The Room Next Door, at the Royal. We'll bring it to Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, North Hollywood, and Encino in January. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as two friends who reconnect after decades apart and embark on an unusual new phase of their friendship. Writing in Time Magazine, Stephanie Zacharek describes how "the colors of The Room Next Door are its secret message, a language of pleasure and beauty that reminds us how great it is to be alive. If it's possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it." "The Room Next Door, as driven by the
The newest episode of Inside the Arthouse just dropped and it's a fascinating one. Hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge discuss the centenary of arthouse film with professor, historian, author and Academy Film Scholar Ross Melnick. It's a lively conversation about the amazing history of arthouse film -- Where it started, how far it's come, and where is it today. Laemmle, third generation arthouse theater owner, adds his perspective, as the trio explores the last century considers the future of arthouse.Here's a taste from the beginning of their conversation:ROSS MELNICK: The history of arthouse theaters is about a hundred years old. It really
Tomorrow we open Blitz, the latest film English filmmaker Steve McQueen (Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Occupied City), at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, and Town Center. Starring Saoirse Ronan, it follows the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II. Top film critics have been singing its praises:"McQueen—a director who understands we can only look forward by looking back—gives us a new lens through which to examine WWII in this masterful film." ~ Emily Zemler, Observer"I’ve been to whole film festivals with less cinema than Steve McQueen packs into just two hours." ~
When he accepted the Palme d'Or for his colorful, authentic, surprising, exciting, thrilling comedy Anora earlier this year at Cannes, writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) spoke eloquently about seeing movies in theaters. You can watch the whole thing online, but here's the key excerpt:"This literally has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years. So I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of my life, but I do know that I will continue to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical
In Exhibiting Forgiveness, which we open on October 18 at the Laemmle Claremont, Monica Film Center, NoHo and Town Center, Tarrell (Andre Holland) plays an admired American painter who lives with his wife, singer Aisha (Andra Day), and their young son, Jermaine. Tarrell’s artwork excavates beauty from the anguish of his youth, keeping past wounds at bay. His path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), a conscience-stricken man desperate to reconcile.Tarrell’s mother, Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) a pious woman with a profound and joyful spirituality, hopes that Tarrell can open his heart
In his latest movie, The Critic, Ian McKellen plays a powerful London theater critic who lures a struggling actress into a blackmail scheme with deadly consequences. Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, and Lesley Manville co-star. We open the film on September 13 at the Laemmle Claremont, Newhall, and Town Center.Director Anand Tucker wrote this about the film:The Critic is an astonishingly contemporary piece of work, speaking directly to our time and condition. Set in the 30’s, a period of similar febrile upheaval and intensity to our present, with old certainties falling away, and the rise of the right and its instinct-based politics triumphing over
Starring Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, The Penguin Lessons is a poignant dramedy inspired by a true story, set against the backdrop of Argentina’s political turmoil in 1976. Tom (Coogan), a disillusioned Englishman, arrives in Buenos Aires to teach at a prestigious boarding school, expecting an easy experience. But as the city spirals into crisis, and his students remain unteachable, Tom’s life takes an unexpected turn when he rescues an oil-slicked penguin from a nearby beach. The bird’s surprising loyalty and unique presence forces Tom to confront his own repressed past and awaken to the responsibilities of both personal and political change
Born in 1994, Louise Courvoisier grew up in the Jura region of France before studying cinema at the Cinéfabrique in Lyon. Her graduation short, Mano a Mano, won first prize at the Cinéfondation at Cannes in 2019. Vingt dieux (Holy Cow) is her first feature film, a sentimental cheese epic set in the village of her childhood. It follows 18-year-old Totone. After the tragic death of his father, he's thrust into the unexpected and very adult role of looking after his younger sister and their failing family farm. He assumes even more responsibility when he enters a cash competition for the best Comté cheese made in this western part of the French Alps
The 2025 Oscars are in the history books. It was a good night, with a funny, skilled host in Conan O'Brien and a fairly equitable distribution of statuettes for some terrific movies. It was also a good night for theatrical exhibition, better known as good, old-fashioned moviegoing. As he did during his speech accepting the Palme d'Or last year in Cannes, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker gave a passionate, trenchant speech in favor of seeing movies as filmmakers have always intended them to be seen, in theaters. After accepting the Oscar for Best Director from filmmaker (and movie theater owner) Quentin Tarantino, Baker said the following to almost 20
If you still haven't seen some of the films honored at the Academy Awards on Sunday, you can still see all of the following this week: Anora (winner for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and Actress), The Brutalist (Best Actor, Score, and Cinematography), Flow (Best Animated Feature), I'm Still Here (Best International Film), and No Other Land (Best Feature Documentary). All are fantastic and, as one social media user posted after listening to Sean Baker's speech extolling the virtues of seeing movies in movie theaters, "movies just hit different at the cinema."And if you've already seen these films, check out The Fishing Place
The Way, My Way, which we open March 7 at our Claremont, Santa Monica, and Encino theaters, is the charming and captivating true story of a stubborn, self-centered Australian man who decides to walk the 800 kilometer-long Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Spain. He doesn’t know why he’s doing it… but one step at a time, it will change him and his outlook on life forever. Based on Bill Bennett’s best-selling memoir of the same name.Bennett penned the following about The Way, My Way:"I really didn't want to make this film. I didn't want to make a film about myself; about my failings and vulnerabilities, and hardships which took me right to
The Oscar nominations are out and it was another excellent cinematic year. As always, some categories will be more unpredictable than others. Last year, most contestants 59.5% thought Lily Gladstone would win Best Actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, while only 29.7% correctly divined that Emma Stone would win for Poor Things. This year, Best Picture may be the most challenging category; there are at least six real possibilities. That's where you come in because it’s time for our Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest! If you, dear cinephile, can accurately predict how the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will vote in
Laemmle Theatres is pleased to announce our new weekly series of fresh international films, Worldwide Wednesdays. See below for the current schedule. Some are older films enjoying new restorations, but most are newer obscure films that we want to bring to a broader L.A. audience. Putting them in a weekly series format will hopefully help with create more awareness and help overcome the absence of what used to be a reliable marketing platform for smaller foreign films like these, critics' reviews in the L.A. Times Calendar section. Also this format allows the films to play in multiple venues all over L.A. County rather than forcing interested
Acclaimed filmmakers Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck, three-time Sundance honorees who previously took audiences to the secret corners of the Italian countryside in search of white truffles with The Truffle Hunters, recently sat down with Inside the Arthouse hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge to talk about their latest striking nonfiction work. Gaucho Gaucho paints an Argentinian western with images and sounds of operatic beauty, building on their earlier success with The Last Race, a film that explored the last stock car racetrack on Long Island.Kershaw and Dweck’s focus is now on the vast mountains of Argentina, expressed in stunning black
Our eclectic Culture Vulture series returns this weekend. After ten years of screening filmed theater, opera, ballet/dance, gallery/art, and much more at our Town Center/Encino, Glendale, Monica Film Center/Santa Monica, and Claremont 5 theaters, we are now adding our Newhall theater. What's more, we will now show the films on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 A.M. and Mondays at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are now on sale for the first nine films of the new year:*February 1-3: Art and Life: The Story of Jim Phillips ~ Embark on the epic ride of Jim Phillips, the genius behind skateboarding and rock culture's electrifying art. Drawing inspiration from his life
It has been another excellent year for animated features. Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, Look Back, Art College 1994, Chicken for Linda and Memoir of a Snail stand out; Moana 2 just had a record-setting weekend; and we still have The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, The Colors Within and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie to look forward to.But, as Yoda said, "there is another." The adventure-fantasy Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive
JOIN US on DECEMBER 24th for our umpteenth annual alternative Christmas Eve! That's right, It's time for the return of our Fiddler on the Roof Sing-Along! Screening in five shtetls: Claremont, NoHo, West L.A., Encino, and Newhall.Belt out your holiday spirit … or your holiday frustrations. Either way, you'll feel better as you croon along to all-time favorites like “TRADITION,” “IF I WERE A RICH MAN,” “TO LIFE,” “SUNRISE SUNSET,” “DO YOU LOVE ME?” and “ANATEVKA,” among many others.We encourage you to come in costume! Guaranteed fun for all. Children are welcome (Fiddler is rated "G") though some themes may be challenging for young children.Prices
On December 20th we are opening Pedro Almodóvar's first movie in English, The Room Next Door, at the Royal. We'll bring it to Claremont, Glendale, Newhall, North Hollywood, and Encino in January. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as two friends who reconnect after decades apart and embark on an unusual new phase of their friendship. Writing in Time Magazine, Stephanie Zacharek describes how "the colors of The Room Next Door are its secret message, a language of pleasure and beauty that reminds us how great it is to be alive. If it's possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it." "The Room Next Door, as driven by the
Tomorrow we open Blitz, the latest film English filmmaker Steve McQueen (Shame, 12 Years a Slave, Occupied City), at the Claremont, Glendale, Monica Film Center, Newhall, and Town Center. Starring Saoirse Ronan, it follows the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II. Top film critics have been singing its praises:"McQueen—a director who understands we can only look forward by looking back—gives us a new lens through which to examine WWII in this masterful film." ~ Emily Zemler, Observer"I’ve been to whole film festivals with less cinema than Steve McQueen packs into just two hours." ~
When he accepted the Palme d'Or for his colorful, authentic, surprising, exciting, thrilling comedy Anora earlier this year at Cannes, writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket) spoke eloquently about seeing movies in theaters. You can watch the whole thing online, but here's the key excerpt:"This literally has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years. So I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of my life, but I do know that I will continue to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical
In Exhibiting Forgiveness, which we open on October 18 at the Laemmle Claremont, Monica Film Center, NoHo and Town Center, Tarrell (Andre Holland) plays an admired American painter who lives with his wife, singer Aisha (Andra Day), and their young son, Jermaine. Tarrell’s artwork excavates beauty from the anguish of his youth, keeping past wounds at bay. His path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), a conscience-stricken man desperate to reconcile.Tarrell’s mother, Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) a pious woman with a profound and joyful spirituality, hopes that Tarrell can open his heart
In his latest movie, The Critic, Ian McKellen plays a powerful London theater critic who lures a struggling actress into a blackmail scheme with deadly consequences. Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, and Lesley Manville co-star. We open the film on September 13 at the Laemmle Claremont, Newhall, and Town Center.Director Anand Tucker wrote this about the film:The Critic is an astonishingly contemporary piece of work, speaking directly to our time and condition. Set in the 30’s, a period of similar febrile upheaval and intensity to our present, with old certainties falling away, and the rise of the right and its instinct-based politics triumphing over