House of the Whispering Rose: Films by Marnie Weber
Thursday, November 13, 2025 7–9 PM
Philosophical Research Society
3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Limited free parking available on site
Free admission – RSVP link coming soon
Join LACE and emblematic multidisciplinary artist Marnie Weber for the Los Angeles premiere of her latest film, House of the Whispering Rose (2025). The screening will also feature Weber’s film Song of the Sea Witch (2020). Following the screening, LACE’s Curator and Director of Programs Selene Preciado speaks with Marnie Weber to learn more about the making of the films and her collaborations. Light refreshments are provided.
About House of the Whispering Rose (2025), 42:56 min.
An aging, washed up silent film era starlet, Rose Bloom, played by Marnie Weber, lives alone in an elegant abandoned mansion from a time of splendor and opulence. Marnie’s daughter, Colette Weber Shaw, plays Rose’s younger self. Rose is clearly from a bygone era, grasping to memories of the past when she was relevant and beloved. In her loneliness, she begins to conjure up imaginary friends to help her achieve enlightenment. Curtains move and walk, her bed shutters and quakes in a surreal dream, and imaginary costumed Wiccans involve her in a ritual of transformation. As she wanders the halls of her now abandoned home, she’s consumed by flashbacks of herself as a young woman and stage-to-screen starlet, and grows despondent with each sight of herself in the mirror.
Filmed at the historic Beverly Estate in Beverly Hills, where silent film star Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst shared their final days, House of the Whispering Rose takes place against a backdrop of forgotten wealth and grandeur. The Estate itself becomes a supporting character of sorts, mirroring Rose’s struggle with withering fame and fortune. Making reference to “Citizen Kane,” also a fictionalized portrayal of the Hearst/Davies story, the film underscores themes of relevancy, isolation and decay – but now with the hope of a transformation and rebirth. The flashback sequence was filmed at the Historic Sierra Madre Playhouse and follows Rose Bloom’s failed stage-to-screen attempt. With the start of springtime hovering in the air, Rose Bloom waits to see if she is reaching the end of her story or entering the beginning of a new life.
About Song of the Sea Witch (2020), 13:31 min.
A mysterious Sea Witch lives in isolation at a cabin on the edge of the ocean. Her solitude is broken when one day a group of raucous birds appear on the Sea Witch’s beach. Their presence threatens to take over her peaceful existence.
About the Artist
Marnie Weber’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses performance, film, sculpture, collage, painting, music and costuming. By combining her own mythology of creatures, monsters, animals and female characters with costuming on film and stage sets; she creates her own fictional narratives of passion, transformation, and discovery. Weber creates uncanny worlds that exist in a realm between fantasy and reality, and invites viewers into an exploration of the subconscious. Using fairytale-like imagery, she places women in positions of power and primacy creating a backdrop as a site of transformation and magic. Her work is in the collections of MOCA Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, LACMA, FRAC Paris, Neuberger Berman New York, and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Support
This program is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special thanks to our friends at the Philosophical Research Society for their support while LACE’s Hollywood gallery is under renovation.
