SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
THANKSGIVING CINEMA Double! Saturday, November 20, 2021
LOCATION: The Million Dollar Theater Movie Palace, 307 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013
**We will open doors 1 HOUR before each screening time so audience can have plenty of time to enter, maintain 6 feet of distance, pick up or buy concessions/drink, and get their seats. We will have staff who will help guide and direct audience to their seats.
3pm ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955, dir by Douglas Sirk, Universal, 89mns, 35MM)
515pm IMITATION OF LIFE (1959, dir by Douglas Sirk, Universal, 125mns, 35MM)
IMPORTANT NOTES:
****Starting November 4th, 2021 ALL AUDIENCE will be required to show proof of vaccination at the door. PLEASE HAVE YOUR VIRTUAL OR PHYSICAL VACCINATION CARD READY BEFORE ENTERING THE THEATER. If you have a religious exemption, please have proof of a negative COVID test within 3 days of the screening.
***ALL GUESTS WILL BE TAKEN THROUGH PROTOCOLS PRIOR TO ENTERING THEATER SO EVERYONE CAN HAVE A FUN AND SAFE TIME.
***EVERYONE WILL STILL BE REQUIRED TO WEAR MASKS INDOORS WHEN NOT EATING/DRINKING CONCESSIONS IN THEIR ASSIGNED SEATS.
HOW TO:
1)PLEASE BRING AND BE READY TO WEAR A PROPER MASK AT ALL TIMES INSIDE THE THEATER. You will be able to eat and drink concessions without a mask. But AT ALL OTHER TIMES, MASKS ARE REQUIRED.
2)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!
3)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 community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you 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!
We continue our THANKSGIVING CINEMA with a double feature of Douglas Sirk 1950's melodrama classics for which we're extremely grateful.
It's because of German born director Sirk, who found a way to somehow BOTH make crowd-pleasing melodramas that turned out to be incredibly subversive critiques of American society, that we have the middle period of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Fassbinder understood immediately (much quicker than many of his contemporaries) that Sirk's movies miraculously worked on two levels: the emotional AND the satirical. But Sirk's satire was so pointed. So barbed. So brutal. That no one saw it because he made sure to wrap it up in gorgeous technicolor, handsome actors, lush music. But it was there. The barbed wire wrapped in velvet.
First up, we screen All That Heaven Allows which dared, in the mid-1950's, to tell the story of a widowed middle aged woman who felt she had the right to have a sincere romance with a younger man. This of course shocks everyone from her family to her community and soon gossip, hypocrisy, and human cruelty make her life a living hell. Even though she's really done nothing wrong.
Gorgeously shot and performed, many folks missed the clear critique of small town American hypocrisy at its heart.
Next up is Sirk's towering Imitation of Life which pulls off the near impossible: it is both extremely sincere and heartfelt AND dangerously subversive. This is at the heart of Fassbinder cinema.
Here we get the story of two single mothers-one black and one white-who join together to raise their daughters and get through life. However, African American Annie's daughter, Sarah Jane, is able to pass for white. And as the movie progresses, this forms a central conflict as Sarah Jane more and more rejects her mother and her background because SOCIETY rejects her mother and her background.
A more brutal attack on the emotional violence American racism wrecked across countless families is hard to find in the 1950's. . .WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING.
Somehow Sirk, in the guise of a tearjerker melodrama, was able to hold up a mirror to America. And America didn't like what it saw. Because it had a long way to go.
Martin Scorsese among countless others have pointed out how important Sirk's cinema is to to what would come in the 1960's and 1970's.
Come watch two of his greatest movies. On 35mm. And if you want say for our screening of Scorsese's own subversive family melodrama in the guise of a gangster movie Casino.
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: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening.
HELPFUL MILLION DOLLAR THEATER MOVIE PALACE PARKING TIPS:
If you are attending all movies on any given day (the double or triple feature), you can go to ADD ONS and pre-order an all day $6 Grand Central Parking Lot Pass. The Grand Central Parking Lot is at the corner of 3rd Street and Hill Street just 1 block from the Million Dollar Theater entrance on 3rd & Broadway.
Folks just attending one feature can also park at this lot and as long as you grab food/drink from GCM you can get a 90 minute validation stamp that will help the cost of parking.
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 community@secretmovieclub.com 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 community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.