Unmissable! ‘Vera’ Takes You on a Sizzling Italian Summer Adventure – Top LA Movie This Week!

Welcome! This is Mark Olsen bringing you your regular guide to the world of Exceptional Movies.

We have been experiencing a remarkable period for movie lovers in Los Angeles. However, this week marks a setback with the closing of the Westwood Village and Bruin theaters. The Westwood Village has been a long-standing venue for glamorous movie premieres, whilst the Bruin is perhaps most famously known for its unforgettable scene in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”, where Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate watches her own movie.

Both theaters had their final day on Thursday, as reported by Meg James. After 14 years of managing the theaters, Regency Theatres’ contracts ended on July 25.

The Village Theatre, which first opened its doors in 1931, is set to reopen under new ownership led by Jason Reitman. However, the exact details and timeline for its reopening are yet to be confirmed.

“We have a thrilling plan that includes dining, drinking, movie watching, gallery viewing and programming of both new and old films, and we are eager to share this with everyone,” said Reitman in a February interview with The Times.

The future of the Bruin, which opened in 1937, remains uncertain.

Summer in Italy, a chat with ‘Vera’

At this time of year, most people yearn for a getaway, a pause from regular life to experience somewhere new. Not everyone has the luxury to make this happen, so the American Cinematheque has organized a series called “How I Spent the Summer in Italy”

This series features movies like David Lean’s 1955 “Summertime” starring Katherine Hepburn, Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 “Call Me by Your Name” with Timothée Chalamet, Roberto Rossellini’s 1954 “Journey to Italy” and 1950 “Stromboli”, and Anthony Minghella’s 1999 “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

The series commences today with Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s “Vera” which was awarded the directing and actress prizes at the 2022 Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar. (The film was also Austria’s submission to this year’s Academy Awards for the international feature Oscar.)

The docudrama follows the life of Vera Gemma, daughter of renowned Italian spaghetti Western actor Giuliano Gemma. Initially portraying an aging party girl, the film takes an emotional twist when she becomes increasingly involved in the lives of a small boy and his father after Gemma’s driver accidentally hits them.

Some of the film’s highlight scenes include Gemma visiting her real-life friend Asia Argento, daughter of director Dario Argento, as they discuss the challenges of growing up in the shadow of a famous father. They visit Rome’s famed Cimitero Acattolico (non-Catholic cemetery) to stand before a grave marked as Goethe’s son, with no name of his own.

I had the opportunity to speak to Gemma earlier this week while she was in Los Angeles. When the filmmakers first approached her about doing a project, she assumed they were seeking funding, not offering her a starring role.

The concept of beauty forms a recurring theme throughout the film, as Gemma grapples with her self-image in contrast to her father’s cinematic persona.

“The idea of beauty has always been a struggle for me, because my father was incredibly handsome,” said Gemma. “He was one of the most attractive European actors. I constantly felt inadequate compared to him. In Italy, they still criticize me. They always say, ‘Oh, the father was so handsome. She’s not beautiful.’ But I truly believe I am very beautiful now and I don’t understand why people can’t see my beauty.”

Gemma is often seen wearing a cowboy hat, a seeming tribute to her father, but it also makes her appear like a Western hero, a lone figure navigating the landscape, resolute to keep going.

“Life isn’t always perfect, but never give up, never stop believing,” Gemma said. “I told this to the directors. I said I wanted this to be a Western. And they were more into the mood of Fellini’s ‘Giulietta degli spiriti’ [‘Juliet of the Spirits’], then they realized that with me, automatically, the movie was becoming a Western. And not just because of the hat, I think it’s more about an attitude.

“I have Westerns in my blood. I grew up in a Western movie, so this is part of me in some way,” Gemma added. “I wear the hat not because it’s fashionable, but because it’s part of my family’s story.”

The screening of “Vera” will be hosted by screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Sean Baker, followed by a Q&A with Gemma moderated by Baker. Via email, Smith shared her immediate reaction after first viewing the movie.

“I didn’t know anything about Vera before seeing Tizza and Rainer’s movie,” Smith said. “I was captivated by the movie and by Vera. She’s so witty and funny, vulnerable, honest, and unique. Her essence made an impact on me the way Madonna or Courtney Love made an impact on me when I first saw them interviewed. I was just like, Who is this woman?! I was instantly obsessed with her.”

Tsai Ming-liang and Lee Kang-sheng arrive in L.A.

The American Cinematheque is introducing a 14-film retrospective of Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang, with both the filmmaker and his iconic star Lee Kang-sheng in attendance. The mere act of watching these films in a theater is thrilling enough; having Tsai and Lee present adds an extra level of excitement.

The series kicks off Wednesday with a 30th anniversary screening of “Vive L’Amour,” a film that brings together three characters in an apparently vacant apartment. The centerpiece of the series will be a screening of Tsai’s melancholic and mystical 2003 film “Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” about the happenings in a movie theater showing King Hsu’s wuxia classic “Dragon Inn” on its final day before permanently closing.

Reviewing Tsai’s 2002 film “What Time Is It There?” Kevin Thomas of The Times wrote: “Tsai’s films are explorations of solitude and isolation set in Taipei, which has transformed into a modern, impersonal metropolis amid a nation that has experienced drastic social changes due to rapid economic growth and the end of martial law. Those who are unfamiliar with Tsai’s previous films, which are all austere and demanding, would be surprised to learn that ‘What Time’ is actually his most light-hearted work, its open ending offering a glimmer of hope. The darkly absurd humor that permeates Tsai’s films is stronger here than in any of his previous works.”

When his 1992 debut feature “Rebels of the Neon God” was rereleased, I interviewed Tsai via email. On his evolution as a filmmaker and storyteller, Tsai said: “Why do we always assume that making a film is about telling a story? ‘Rebels of the Neon God’ is clearly not about storytelling. Even now, I don’t think it’s conventional. My works have always been about expressing life experiences and sensations. In terms of format, I’m not excited about ‘storytelling,’ but I’m more inclined towards the prosaic or poetic approach to movies. ‘Rebels of the Neon God’ has been just like this. When I’m shooting a film, I constantly remind myself that ‘I’m making a film, not telling a story.’ This approach has given me more freedom.”

Highlights

‘Eno’ is a unique cinematic experience every time

“Eno”, a documentary by Gary Hustwit about musician, artist, and producer Brian Eno, will be screened at Vidiots on Friday and Saturday. An innovative generative AI program created by Hustwit and his collaborator Brendan Dawes ensures the film never plays the same way twice, shuffling around 500 hours of footage from Eno’s personal archives along with original interviews, while still maintaining a general sense of structure and control.

“The generative approach was something that was really organic to what [Eno has] done,” Hustwit said prior to the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. “He’s been an early adopter of new technology and ways to integrate it into his creative process. So making a movie about him in this way seemed fitting.”

Eno had long been opposed to the idea of a documentary about him precisely because he didn’t want a film that would follow a single trajectory through his career.

“I thought, well, this sounds like a better approach — to actually make a generative piece where it will be different every time,” Eno said. “Which is, of course, how it is in memory as well. It’s only if you keep a regular diary, which I do, that you realize how unreliable your memory is. You have a memory of a period in your life and then you refer back to the diary and you realize you had a completely different experience from the one you later imagined you were having.”

‘Dìdi’

One of the most refreshing films I watched at Sundance this year was Sean Wang’s “Dìdi,” a film that authentically captures the awkwardness of adolescence. Set in the summer of 2008, the film follows 13-year-old Chris (Izaac Wang) as he prepares to start high school. The film embodies the same wild energy as someone who hasn’t yet learned the constraints of worrying about being cool, with Wang’s performance expressing a sense of playfulness, imagination, and liberation.

Sean Wang’s short documentary “Nai Nai and Wài Pó,” about his two grandmothers, was nominated for an Oscar earlier this year and is currently streaming on Disney+.

In her review of “Dìdi” for The Times, Katie Walsh wrote: “Sean Wang’s commitment to realism means that some of the storylines don’t feel entirely completed — just as storylines in life often don’t. Chris makes mistakes, he broods, he does his best to put things right and they don’t always wrap up neatly. He keeps moving forward, trying to discover who he is, what he desires and to feel confident enough to relish those brief, blissful moments of connection and liberation. Friends may come and go, but family is constant. We watch his journey to arriving at that simple but profound realization and, well, I guess this is growing up.”

Two perspectives on Watergate

In what might be one of the best double-bill matchups of the year, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the New Beverly will be showing Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 “All the President’s Men” along with Andrew Fleming’s 1999 “Dick.”

“All the President’s Men” tells the story of Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) and their relentless pursuit of the story of a break-in at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., which led to the uncovering of a scandal that ultimately resulted in President Nixon’s resignation. The film won four Academy Awards, including supporting actor for Jason Robards as editor Ben Bradlee and adapted screenplay for William Goldman.

“Dick”, on the other hand, is an imaginative story of how two high school girls from D.C. in 1972 (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) inadvertently end up in the middle of the unfolding Watergate scandal. Here, Woodward and Bernstein are played by Will Ferrell and Bruce McCulloch, while Dan Hedaya’s portrayal of Nixon could be the distinguished character actor’s greatest role.

In his original review, Kevin Thomas wrote: “At the center of the film is the transformation of two perfectly normal teenagers, who intuitively sense that the Vietnam War is wrong but who are momentarily charmed by their president, who assures them that he is laying the groundwork for peace as he speaks. Their accidental firsthand experiences, however, leave them as disillusioned with Nixon and his administration as the American public would soon be. … Dunst and Williams are a constant delight, making it clear that the girls’ naivete does not mean that they are in any way unintelligent.”

In an interview at the time, Fleming said: “How do you make a satire out of a farce? There were so many shenanigans and so many kooky characters, we kind of felt freer to be more broad. These people were being so irreverent with the public trust, we didn’t feel we were being irreverent to them.”

Other news

TIFF takes shape

The Toronto International Film Festival has started to release more details about the programming for this year’s event, which runs from Sept. 5 to 15. The Gala and Special Presentations sections will include world premieres of Angelina Jolie’s “Without Blood”, Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl” starring Pamela Anderson, and Sydney Freeland’s “Rez Ball”, co-written with “Reservation Dogs'” co-creator Sterlin Harjo.

Other notable films include Edward Berger’s “Conclave”, Morgan Neville’s animated documentary “Piece by Piece”, and Michael Gracey’s “Better Man.”

Later in the week, it was announced that the Discovery section will include the world premiere of Durga Chew-Bose’s adaptation of “Bonjour Tristesse” starring Chloë Sevigny, Lily McInerny, and Claes Bang, while the Midnight Madness section will open with the North American premiere of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.