SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
DIVINE WORLD CINEMA DOUBLES! Thursday, July 29, 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 WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957, wri/dir Ingmar Bergman, Janus, 92mns, 35MM)
10pm THE RULES OF THE GAME(1939, wri/dir by Jean Renoir, Janus, 110mns, 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 community@secretmovieclub.com 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, two of the heaviest heavy weight world cinema champions of all time. The Mohammed Alis of world cinema.
First up, Ingmar Bergman's absolute summit of his craft Wild Strawberries. Aging professor Isak Borg (played to perfection by Bergman mentor and Swedish silent cinema filmmaker legend Victor Sjostrom) takes a road trip to accept an award.
Along the way, he is beset by unsettling dreams, memories of his youth, hitchhikers who remind him of more carefree days, and reminders of his conflicted relationship with his son and daughter in law.
It's hard to fully explain why this movie is so brilliant (as it often is with the greatest of cinema), one just has to go on this road trip to realize the movie, in a strange way, becomes about everything we go through in life until we too finally realize that time moves very fast and there isn't a lot of time to repair relationships.
A huge influence on Martin Scorsese's recent masterpiece The Irishman, Wild Strawberries lives somewhere at the intersection of dreams, memories, and fleeting moments of life as we live it.
We follow this with Jean Renoir's stunning upper class-working class, upstairs/downstairs, societal sex farce The Rules of the Game.
Rules tells the story of an ill-advised weekend retreat at a kind but philandering Marquis' chateau where everyone, including everyone's lovers, are invited. At first a hilarious upstairs/downstairs look at the sexual escapades and love longings of both the rich guests and the servants, Rules deepens into something altogether more unsettling and brilliant. A kind of revelation that people who are too idealistic and who refuse to play by the hypocritical rules of society will soon find themselves exiled. . .or worse.
Orson Welles called Jean Renoir the greatest of all directors. And this movie is example #1 of how Renoir was somehow able to make a hilarious entertainment almost musical in its brilliance that simultaneously is one of the most subversive scathing takedowns of "society" you will ever see.
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.
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 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.