SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our THE HEART WANTS & BIRTHDAY GUEST PROGRAMMER: JOSH OAKLEY Series, Friday, February 3, 2023
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.
7:30pm NOTTING HILL (1999, dir. Roger Michell, STUDIO, UK, 124mns, DCP)
9:50pm LOVERS ROCK (2020, dir. Steve McQueen, STUDIO, UK, 68mns, Digital)
Two birthday screenings in a row! Tonight, Secret Movie Club Team Member and birthday boy Joshua Oakley programs a fascinating double bill of movies that comment on each other much more than you might think.
First off, both the 1999 Richard Curtis-penned Notting Hill and the 2020 hour long Steve McQueen directed Lovers Rock are romance movies that center around two characters who meet in the Notting Hill/West London area.
Lovers Rock additionally acts as a kind of corrective to Notting Hill in re-establishing and re-focusing on that area’s vibrant black communities.
Notting Hill is one of the best of the Richard Curtis penned (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, About Time) British rom-coms of the late 1990’s/early oughts. Although it requires a stretch to view Hugh Grant’s William as an everyman who, through a series of events, finds himself in a relationship with visiting American star Anna (Julia Roberts), the movie actually pulls off the premise.
Maybe even more interesting is how the premise of a Hollywood star falling for a regular person actually mirrored Julia Robert’s own personal life when she married cinematographer Daniel Moder just a few years later in 2002.
Notting Hill is the equivalent of getting to spend an afternoon in an exquisite bakery sampling wares, drinking rich coffee, just having a great time.
We follow it up with Lovers Rock, a romance movie by Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Shame), he made as part of his multi-episode Small Axe series exploring themes of race, being black, culture in the UK. Lovers Rock is a celebration both of a specific musical genre that combined reggae and soul in the 1970’s and of two people meeting and falling in love. Franklyn and Martha (played by Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn respectively) meet at a house party in West London in the 1980’s and soon fall for each either.
The movie by and large is festive, positive, and celebratory, a wonderful surprise from McQueen who has made some of the most intense and unflinching movies of the last 15 years.
So join us for a double bill of wonderful love stories that comment on each other in fascinating ways.
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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 to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
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.
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 CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
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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.