LOVES OF A BLONDE (8p) & SMILES ON A SUMMER NIGHT (950p) 35mm @ SMC Theater
Schedule
Fri Jul 23 2021 at 08:00 pm to 11:59 pm
Location
Secret Movie Club | Los Angeles, CA
LOVES OF A BLONDE (8p) & SMILES ON A SUMMER NIGHT (950p) 35mm @ SMC TheaterSECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
DIVINE WORLD CINEMA DOUBLES! Friday, July 23, 2021
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate. We’ll have staff to help guide/park you.
8p LOVES OF A BLONDE (1965, co-wri/directed by Milos Forman, Janus, 82mns, 35MM)
950pm SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT(1955, wri/dir by Ingmar Bergman, Janus, 109mns, 35MM)
IMPORTANT NOTES:
**WE ARE NOW OBSERVING THE EASED HEALTH PROTOCOLS PUT OUT BY THE COUNTY AS OF 6/15/21
***ALL GUESTS WILL BE TAKEN THROUGH PROTOCOLS PRIOR TO ENTERING THEATER SO EVERYONE CAN HAVE A FUN AND SAFE TIME.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE PURCHASE ALL TICKETS FOR FOLKS IN YOUR “HOUSEHOLD” AT THE SAME TIME. THIS WILL HELP US KNOW HOW TO LAY OUT THAT NIGHT’S SEATING PLAN. So for example, if you are attending in a group of 3 people all of whom will be sitting together, please purchase ALL 3 TICKETS at the same time.
For the time being, we are capping the maximum “household” number to 4 tickets/4 people who can sit next to each other.
2)PLEASE BRING AND BE READY TO WEAR A PROPER MASK AT ALL TIMES INSIDE THE THEATER. All folks not yet fully vaccinated MUST wear their masks when not eating/drinking concessions for their safety.
3)PRE-ORDER ANY CONCESSIONS OR MOVIE MERCHANDISE you would like from the additional Add-Ons. You can pick up all concessions & merchandise at our tables in our lobby prior to the screening.
We will be able to sell concessions & merchandise at the theater. But it will make everything much quicker and easier if you pre-order!
4)PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ANYONE EXHIBITING COVID OR FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS AT THE DOOR, WILL BE OFFERED COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO A FUTURE SHOW AND ASKED TO RETURN WHEN HEALTHY. So please, if you’re feeling sick, just write us at [email protected] and we’ll offer your complimentary tickets to a future screening when you’re healthy. Let’s all do our part to beat this thing so we can go back to the complete movie going experience!
All cinema is subjective. And cinema is vast. Thank God.
But this programmer humbly dares to screen a number of the movies that inspired him at a young age and continue to inspire him. The movies he snuck into his living room to watch when the rest of the family had gone to sleep as a teenager and consumed, discovering a hidden underground ocean of inspiration.
Tonight, we kick off with Milos Forman's hilarious and heart breaking Czech new wave classic Loves of A Blonde. In a town of young female factory workers, the factory owners decide to invite a regiment of soldiers for a dance so the ladies can let off some steam and socialize. But when the soldiers all turn out to be middle aged duds, Andula ends up having a one night stand with the funny, charming, awkward piano player Milda.
However when she decides to take Milda up on his not really serious offer to visit him in the city, Andula learns that promises made in the heat of passion in the middle of the night are seldom as heartfelt as they seemed.
As true, modern, hilarious, devastating, and bracing today as it was 50 years ago, Loves of a Blonde (shot by the amazing Miroslav Ondricek) is a masterclass in how to tell truths and get laughs at the same time.
We follow Loves with one of this programmer's personal favorite Ingmar Bergman movies Smiles of a Summer Night.
Bergman (wrongfully) sometimes gets remembered as that dour Swede who made really intense movies about messed up people. While that's sometimes true, Ingmar Bergman really is one of the very select few filmmakers who somehow found a way to wring every cinematic drop out of the medium. Along with Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Jean Renoir (a personal subjective list to be sure), Bergman was a restless endlessly creative experimenter.
Here Bergman is in full out comedy farce mode yet delivers a movie that still delivers (slyly) the emotional goods by the end. Smiles is a sex farce about middle aged Frederick Egerman who has just married a much younger beautiful woman. Yet he still pays visits to his ex-lover, the wildly independent famous actress Desiree.
When Desiree invites Frederick, his bride, Frederick's son (who is in love with his dad's wife), a jealous soldier, his philandering wife to a weekend retreat, a kind of Mozartian game of musical beds ensues.
The sex farce is incredibly hard to do, especially since, paradoxically, it works best when the sex is really a metaphor for much deeper emotions, conflicts, yearnings, unrequited loves, etc.
Here Bergman delivers the laughs only to slyly pull the rug out to reveal that sometimes the best players in the game really do have love and long term relationships on their mind.
Remade decades later as Stephen Sondheim's musical A Little Night Music , Smiles on a Summer Night is just pure summer cinematic joy.
Join us for two divinely inspiring world cinema classics. Your cinematic mind will get blown.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
35mm Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR OUR IN-DOOR THEATER SCREENINGS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write us at: [email protected] and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.
WHY ARE THE TICKET PRICES HIGHER THAN NORMAL?
In order for us to re-open, maintain health protocols and screen movies on 35MM, we need to temporarily raise our ticket prices. We apologize.
However, if you could look at this as partially helping the Secret Movie Club Theater re-open, make the improvements as we go to turn this into the amazing movie watching, movie making center we know it can be, we would be eternally grateful.
As we can increase capacity, we will IMMEDIATELY LOWER ticket prices.
If you could look at this as all of us being in this together, we WILL remember your kindness.
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
We will have a staff member on duty to monitor all cars parked in the street-art alleyway at our entrance.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW WILL OUR STAFF MAKE SURE THE THEATER IS AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE:
We will have staff in the theater at all times who make sure everyone is wearing masks and obeying protocols. We will have signage at entrance, markings at concessions, restrooms, etc so folks keep 6 ft distance at all times.
Anyone not observing safe protocols will kindly be asked to leave. On top of this, we’ll be making announcements at the head of each screening to make sure everyone understands the rules & regs!
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm or Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter by writing us at [email protected] and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at [email protected] with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.
Where is it happening?
Secret Movie Club, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Tickets
USD 1.00 to USD 28.00
