Landmark Theatres Film Club Q&A Podcast

John Scheinfeld (director) and John Densmore (musician) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Film synopsis: Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary is a thought-provoking, uplifting and powerful film about jazz giant John Coltrane, an outside-the-box thinker whose boundary-shattering music continues to impact and influence people around the world. This rich, textured and compelling portrait of a remarkable artist reveals the critical events, passions, experiences and challenges that shaped his life and revolutionary sounds—a story of demons and darkness, of persistence and redemption. The beauty, poignancy, energy, pain, joy and inspiration heard in nearly 50 Coltrane recordings from throughout his career brings alive the artist and the times in which he lived. Although Coltrane never participated in any television interviews (and only a handful for radio), he has an active and vibrant presence in the film through his print interviews. These words—spoken by Academy Award winner Denzel Washington—illuminate what Coltrane was thinking and feeling at critical moments throughout his life and career. Includes appearances by Coltrane’s children, President Bill Clinton, Common, John Densmore of The Doors, Wynton Marsalis, Sonny Rollins, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Dr. Cornel West and more. Directed by John Scheinfeld (The U.S. vs. John Lennon).

James Gray (writer/director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Kevin Lincoln (New York Magazine). Film synopsis: Based on author David Grann’s nonfiction bestseller, The Lost City of Z tells the incredible true story of British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), who journeys into the Amazon at the dawn of the 20th century and discovers evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization that may have once inhabited the region. Despite being ridiculed by the scientific establishment who regard indigenous populations as “savages,” the determined Fawcett—supported by his devoted wife (Sienna Miller), son (Tom Holland) and aide-de-camp (Robert Pattinson)—returns time and again to his beloved jungle in an attempt to prove his case, culminating in his mysterious disappearance in 1925. An epically scaled tale of courage and passion, The Lost City of Z is a stirring tribute to the exploratory spirit and a conflicted adventurer driven to the verge of obsession. Written and directed by James Gray (We Own the Night, The Immigrant, Two Lovers, Little Odessa).

Jessica Chastain (actor) and Niki Caro (director). Interviewed by Dan Gorski (Landmark Theatres). Film synopsis: The Zookeeper’s Wife tells the real-life story of one working wife and mother who became a hero to hundreds during World War II. In 1939 Poland, Antonina Żabińska (portrayed by two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty and The Help) and her husband, Dr. Jan Żabiński (Johan Heldenbergh of The Broken Circle Breakdown), have the Warsaw Zoo flourishing under his stewardship and her care. When their country is invaded by the Germans, Jan and Antonina are stunned—and forced to report to the Reich’s newly appointed chief zoologist, Lutz Heck (Daniel Brühl of Captain America: Civil War). To fight back on their own terms, Antonina and Jan covertly begin working with the Resistance—and put into action plans to save lives out of what has become the Warsaw Ghetto, with Antonina putting herself and even her children at great risk. Written by Angela Workman (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan), based on the international bestselling book by Diane Ackerman. Directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider, North Country).

Kristen Stewart (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Gregory Ellwood (The Playlist). Film synopsis: Olivier Assayas, the internationally-acclaimed director of Clouds of Sils Maria, Clean and Summer Hours, returns with this ethereal and mysterious ghost story starring Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria, Twilight) as a high-fashion personal shopper to the stars who is also a spiritual medium. Grieving the recent death of her twin brother, she haunts his Paris home, determined to make contact with him. Winner of the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Shirley MacLaine (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Ted Mundorff (Landmark Theatres President and CEO). Film synopsis: In the new comedy The Last Word, Shirley MacLaine stars as Harriet Lauler, a once successful businesswoman in tight control of every aspect of her life. As she reflects upon her accomplishments, she's suddenly inspired to engage a young local writer, Anne Sherman (Amanda Seyfried), to pen her life's story. When the initial result doesn’t meet Harriet's high expectations, she sets out to reshape the way she is remembered, with Anne dragged along as an unwilling accomplice. As the journey unfolds, the two women develop a unique bond which alters not only Harriet’s legacy, but also Anne’s future.

Amma Asante (director) and David Oyelowo (actor/producer) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Nicole Sperling (Entertainment Weekly). Film synopsis: A United Kingdom is the true story of the forbidden love of King Seretse Khama of Botswana (David Oyelowo, Selma) and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl), a white woman from London, which caused an international uproar when they decided to marry in the late 1940s just as apartheid was being introduced into South Africa. It was a decision that altered the course of African history. Directed by Amma Asante (Belle) and written by Guy Hibbert (Eye in the Sky), A United Kingdom also stars Jack Davenport, Laura Carmichael, Terry Pheto, Jessica Oyelowo, Arnold Oceng and Anastasia Hille.

Mike Mills (writer/director) and Elle Fanning (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Gregory Ellwood (The Playlist). Film synopsis: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right, American Beauty) gives one of her best performances ever as Dorothea, a determined single mother raising her adolescent son Jamie (newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann, in a breakout performance) at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. In the late 1970s in Santa Barbara, Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women in Jamie’s upbringing—Abbie (Greta Gerwig), a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in their home, and Julie (Elle Fanning), a savvy and provocative teenage neighbor. Acclaimed filmmaker Mike Mills (writer/director of the Academy Award-winning Beginners) brings us a richly multi-layered, funny, heart-stirring celebration of the complexities of women, family and adulthood. 20th Century Women is a poignant love letter to the people who raise us—and the times that form us—as this makeshift family forges fragile connections that will mystify and inspire them through their lives. Also starring Billy Crudup.

Martin Scorsese (co-writer/director) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Scott Feinberg (The Hollywood Reporter). Film synopsis: Martin Scorsese’s Silence tells the story of two Christian missionaries (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) who face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan in search of their missing mentor (Liam Neeson)—at a time when Christianity was outlawed and their presence forbidden. After a 28-year journey, the celebrated director finally brings Shusaku Endo’s acclaimed 1966 novel to life.

Denzel Washington (producer/director/actor), Saniyya Sidney (actor) and Mykelti Williamson (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Jenelle Riley (Variety). Film synopsis: Fences is directed by Denzel Washington from a screenplay by August Wilson, adapted from Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. The film stars Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Jovan Adepo, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, and Saniyya Sidney. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington and Todd Black.

J.A. Bayona (director), Lewis MacDougall (actor) and Sigourney Weaver (actor) speak with Landmark Theatres. Film synopsis: A Monster Calls is a spectacular and unabashedly emotional drama from director J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, The Orphanage). Lewis MacDougall stars as 12-year-old Conor, who’s forced to deal with far more than other boys his age. His beloved and devoted mother (Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is ill. He has little in common with his imperious grandmother (Sigourney Weaver). His father (Toby Kebbell) has resettled thousands of miles away and started a new family. But Conor finds a most unlikely ally when the Monster (portrayed by Liam Neeson in performance-capture and voice) appears at his bedroom window one night. The Monster—a huge walking and talking yew tree—agrees to help Conor, but there are conditions. First the Monster will tell Conor three stories. On the fourth night, Conor will have to tell a story to the Monster. Ancient, wild and relentless, the Monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith and truth that powerfully fuses imagination and reality. Screenplay by Patrick Ness, based on his award-winning novel.

Kenneth Lonergan (writer/director) and Casey Affleck (actor) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Pete Hammond (Deadline Hollywood) and film critic Leonard Maltin. Film synopsis: Manchester by the Sea, the story of a working-class family living in a Massachusetts fishing village for generations, is a deeply poignant, unexpectedly funny exploration of the power of familial love, community, sacrifice and hope. After the death of his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler), Boston janitor Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is shocked to learn that Joe has made him sole guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Taking leave of his job, Lee reluctantly returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea to care for Patrick, a spirited 16-year-old, and is forced to deal with a past that separated him from his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) and the community where he was born and raised. Bonded by the man who held their family together, Lee and Patrick struggle to adjust to a world without him. Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me) seamlessly weaves past and present together, crafting a tension-filled tale that deftly eschews sentimentality in favor of penetrating emotional insight.

Damien Chazelle (writer/director), Ryan Gosling (actor), Justin Hurwitz (composer), Tom Cross (editor) and Jordan Horowitz (producer) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by by Jenelle Riley (Variety). Film synopsis: Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), La La Land tells the story of Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress who serves lattes to movie stars in a studio lot café between rushing out to unsuccessful auditions, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a dedicated jazz musician, reduced to tinkling out tunes in a cocktail lounge to earn a living. They meet cute and initially resist each other, but quickly fall in love. Both are romantics pursuing their dreams in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts. Los Angeles has never looked more beautiful than in this loving tribute to musicals, both classic Hollywood and those of Jacques Demy, miraculously revitalizing the genre. Composer Justin Hurwitz provides the lovely songs, with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. With John Legend, Finn Wittrock and J.K. Simmons. Dazzling and delightful, La La Land won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, and the Best Actress Prize (Emma Stone) at the Venice Film Festival.

Pablo Larraín (director), Noah Oppenheim (screenwriter) and Juan de Dios Larraín (producer) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Gregory Ellwood (The Playlist). Film synopsis: Jackie is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie Portman), set in the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Overwhelmed by grief and trauma, Jackie struggles to orchestrate a memorable funeral (taking Lincoln’s as her model), console her young children, and attempt to preserve and elevate her husband’s legacy in history. The narrative is structured around an interview Jackie gives a week later to a journalist (Billy Crudup) summoned to Hyannis Port to publicize her version of events, flashbacks to the television tour she conducted through the White House earlier in the presidency (revealing her nerves and insecurity), and nightmarish flashbacks to the assassination itself. Academy Award-winning actress Portman (Black Swan) gives an unforgettable performance in this moving psychological profile. Also starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Hurt, Greta Gerwig and Richard E. Grant. Directed by Pablo Larraín (Neruda, No).

Dev Patel (actor), Sunny Pawar (actor) and special guest Saroo Brierley (author/film subject) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by journalist Andrew Warne. Film synopsis: In the heart-wrenching drama Lion, five-year-old Saroo (wonderfully played by Sunny Pawar) gets lost on a train that takes him thousands of miles away from his home and family, ending up bewildered and afraid in chaotic Kolkata (Calcutta). Somehow he survives living on the streets, before finding shelter in an orphanage that is itself not exactly a safe haven. Eventually Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple (Nicole Kidman, David Wenham), and finds love and security as he grows up in Hobart. Not wanting to hurt his adoptive parents’ feelings, Saroo (Dev Patel, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Slumdog Millionaire) suppresses his past, his emotional need for reunification and his hope of ever finding his lost mother and brother. But a chance meeting with some fellow Indians reawakens his buried yearning. With just a small store of memories, his unwavering determination, and the help of a new technology called Google Earth, Saroo embarks on one of the greatest needle-in-a-haystack quests of modern times. The true story of a life lost and found, Lion also stars Rooney Mara.

Matt Damon (producer) at The Landmark in West Los Angeles. Moderated by Scott Mantz (Access Hollywood). Film synopsis: Manchester by the Sea, the story of a working-class family living in a Massachusetts fishing village for generations, is a deeply poignant, unexpectedly funny exploration of the power of familial love, community, sacrifice and hope. After the death of his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler), Boston janitor Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is shocked to learn that Joe has made him sole guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Taking leave of his job, Lee reluctantly returns to Manchester-by-the-Sea to care for Patrick, a spirited 16-year-old, and is forced to deal with a past that separated him from his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) and the community where he was born and raised. Bonded by the man who held their family together, Lee and Patrick struggle to adjust to a world without him. Writer/director Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me) seamlessly weaves past and present together, crafting a tension-filled tale that deftly eschews sentimentality in favor of penetrating emotional insight.