
Remember video rental stores? Just another blip in the fast-paced technological “advances” we have lived through. And yet, I used to enjoy walking to the video place on Hyperion Avenue, a second floor, full scale retail shop, with movies lovingly organized by genre, and staffed by human beings who were ready to recommend rentals to you. First, the place gave up half its square footage then one day it closed and not a single tear shed over its disappearance.
And yet, that is how and where I randomly discovered ‘Croupier.’ I just took a chance on it, brought home the disc and shoved it in the little slot on my DVD player. And I thought it was just tremendous. That’s why I’ll be in the house for a second viewing when Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a 25th anniversary screening of the sleeper directed by Mike Hodges, and starring Clive Owen.
Owen will be present for q/a after the film.
The film opened in England in 1999 but made few waves at the box office. When it came to America in 2000, veteran marketing executive Mike Kaplan (who had worked frequently with Stanley Kubrick, Lindsay Anderson, Robert Altman, Alan Rudolph, and Malcolm McDowell) devised a new marketing campaign that highlighted Owen’s resemblance to tough-guy Hollywood stars like Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark. The strategy worked, and the picture lit up art house screens for months, eventually reaching mainstream theaters as well. Mike Kaplan, you Friend of Arts Meme (F.O.A.M.), I’m thinking I picked up that DVD because I liked the cover image! Well done indeed!

In a script by Paul Mayersberg (author of Nicolas Roeg’s ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ and ‘Eureka,’ as well as Nagisa Oshima’s ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’), Owen plays an aspiring writer who takes a job at a casino where he juggles a few romantic relationships and also has to contend with a robbery threat.
The New York Times’ Stephen Holden called the film “a breezy meditation on life as a game of chance,” and he added, “Clive Owen conveys a sharp, cynical intelligence that rolls off the screen whenever he widens his glittering blue eyes.” Newsweek’s David Ansen declared, “Coolly hypnotic, the lean British sleeper ‘Croupier‘ is a reminder that movies don’t have to wave their arms and scream to hold our attention.” Roger Ebert wrote that Owen has “the same sort of physical reserve as Sean Connery in the Bond pictures.” Newsday’s Gene Seymour wrote, “Not since 1971 has British director Mike Hodges made a movie as deep, dark and compelling as this thriller.”
The movie’s success catapulted Owen to stardom. He earned an Oscar nomination when he costarred with Julia Roberts, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman in Mike Nichols’ ‘Closer.’ He costarred in Spike Lee’s ‘Inside Man’ with Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster. Owen was part of the large ensemble cast in Robert Altman’s Oscar-winning ‘Gosford Park.’ He had the leading role in Alfonso Cuaron’s futuristic thriller ‘Children of Men.’ He played Sir Walter Raleigh to Cate Blanchett’s Queen Elizabeth in ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age,’ then re-teamed with Roberts in ‘Duplicity.’ He also starred with Juliette Binoche in Fred Schepisi’s ‘Words and Pictures.’
In television as well, starring in Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed medical series ‘The Knick.’ He earned an Emmy nomination playing Ernest Hemingway in Philip Kaufman’s ‘Hemingway and Gelhorn,’ co-starring with Nicole Kidman. In Ryan Murphy’s TV miniseries ‘American Crime Story,’ Owen played President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair. And he recently played a modern-day version of detective Sam Spade in ‘Monsieur Spade.’
Mike Kaplan will introduce the screening by reporting on its troubled but ultimately triumphant history. Owen will participate in a Q&A after the film.
CROUPIER | Laemmle Anniversary Classics | Royal Theatre Santa Monica | Wednesday June 4