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Wings, Guns and Dancing Shoes: Summer Classic Film Series Continues
Unless you have been under a very large boulder, you are well aware that the Original Alamo Drafthouse is closing its Colorado Street doors this Wednesday night. Soon you will see people wandering the downtown streets, suffering from celluloid withdrawal and desperately looking for their next film reel hit. We know it’s hard, we’re suffering too, but the Paramount Theatre knows what you want and they’ve got what you need, as they continue their 32nd annual Summer Classic Film Series.
This week’s lineup is both scorching and precious, so rest assured that there is fun in store for everyone. And remember, if you show up for the early show, you get the second one for free. Double-features totally own! Or better yet, if you'd like to WIN TICKETS to the Mean Streets / Taxi Driver double feature this Friday, or the Breakfast at Tiffany's / Funny Face double feature this Saturday, follow the jump and enter the contests.
McCABE & MRS. MILLER
Tuesday, June 26 @ 7 pm
Wednesday, June 27 @ 9:05 pm
Seriously, if you like movies and consider yourself a cinephile, you must see this movie. Bathed in brown and orange hues, Robert Altman has created a truly different western. Not different in that it thumbs its nose at the salty-hot-desert westerns that most of us are used to, but that it is a quiet, moody tale, where the battles are not between Cowboys and Indians, but between businessmen who do not see eye to eye. It is the tale of a pimp and a whore, who become a brothel owner and a madam. There is a distinction, and as with all Altman films, you must read between the lines to absorb the full scope of the story. Paired with a knockout soundtrack of Leonard Cohen tunes, this one will leave you a little bit chilly inside, but the lingering thoughts of Julie Christie (who received an Oscar nomination for her turn as Constance Miller) and hot hot hot Warren Beatty will warm you back up.
BREWSTER McCLOUD
Tuesday, June 26 @ 9:25 pm
Wednesday, June 27 @ 7 pm
The word zany comes to mind when thinking of this film. Brewster McCloud was released the same year as another Altman flick, the polarizing M*A*S*H, but it is stylistically very different. Brewster McCloud is a man who wants to fly; in essence, he is a bird trapped in a man’s body. He sets out constructing a pair of wings that will help him soar to the top of the Houston Astrodome, and hopefully, to true freedom, but there is of course one foil that he must avoid to attain his dream. We will not give anything away here, but suffice it to say that Altman throws in heaps of bizarre characters and recurring jokes that will catch you off guard, finished off by a profound ending that will have you pondering your own existence days later. Shelley Duvall makes her screen debut as the temptress Suzanne, and we ask, do you think you could resist those peepers? We didn’t think so.
MEAN STREETS
Thursday, June 28 @ 7 pm
Friday, June 29 @ 9:40 pm
If it’s not hot enough for you outside, then perhaps you should step into the theatre for a little sizzling Martin Scorsese action. Everyone remembers Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, even The Departed (its still fresh in our minds), but Mean Streets is typically overlooked, even though it is the cornerstone of Scorsese’s mob/thug kingdom. Marking the birth of the Robert De Niro/Scorsese partnership, Mean Streets tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a small-time member of the wiseguy community who collects protection money and squares bad debts. His troublemaker friend Johnny Boy (De Niro) owes money to some of the more, shall we say, influential mobsters. When Charlie's uncle offers him a restaurant - the first step up the Little Italy ladder - Charlie is forced to choose between his desire for power, his love for his epileptic girlfriend Teresa (Amy Robinson) and his duty to protect his friends.
TAXI DRIVER
Thursday, June 28 @ 9:20 pm
Friday, June 29 @ 7:15 pm
Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a deranged, lonely man. He sees through the shattered glass of his Vietnam War experience, which filters out all goodness and rational thought. He takes Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), the woman he has been stalking, to an X-Rated film on their first date. He makes plans to “clean up” the dross of New York City. He tries to convince the young prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster) to leave her profession. But when he finds himself powerless to invoke real change in anyone’s life, he buys four handguns and sets out to induce a rain that will “wash all the scum off the streets." Look up “quintessential” in the dictionary, and the poster from this movie will be right next to it. No, Mr. Bickle, we are definitely not talking to you. Now please put the gun down.
WIN TICKETS to the Mean Streets / Taxi Driver Double Feature This Friday
This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S
Saturday, June 30 @ 7 pm
Sunday, July 1 @ 2:15 & 7:05 pm
After the intensity of the De Niro/Scorsese one-two punch, we’re sure you will be in the mood for something a little less dense and gritty. Whereas Taxi Driver and Mean Streets are the greasy pork sandwiches of film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the Ferrero Rocher, a creamy delight with a nutty center. Audrey Hepburn is Holly Golightly, a quirky call girl who aspires to socialite status. She meets Paul/Fred (the dreamy, yet wooden George Peppard) who shares her same predicament in that he doesn’t really know who he is or what he wants to be, and instead of overcoming this challenge, settles for being a kept man. The two have some laughs, adventures and love while desperately trying to find themselves. Frankly, we don’t love the movie (blasphemous, we know) as it is not a true adaptation of the biting Truman Capote character study-cum-novella that the film is based on, and we prefer Hepburn as Sabrina Fairchild, but that is just our opinion. It is still a fun romp, as they say, and if nothing else you can scoff at Mickey Rooney’s repugnant portrayal of Holly’s Asian upstairs neighbor.
FUNNY FACE
Saturday, June 30 @ 4:45 & 9:25 pm
Sunday, July 1 @ 4:40 pm
In this slightly fictionalized tale of Doe Siegel and Richard Avedon, Audrey Hepburn plays Jo, the bookish shop girl who is plucked from obscurity by a famous fashion photographer, played by Fred Astaire. Jo resists at first, but is soon wooed by a trip to Paris and by her handsome co-star. Singing and dancing and merriment abound in this film, which revived a failed Leonard Gershe Broadway musical by imbibing it with the confectionary tunes of George and Ira Gershwin. Think Pink!
WIN TICKETS to the Funny Face / Breakfast at Tiffany’s Double Feature This Saturday
This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!
You can find more information here.
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