We hate it when things end. Seriously. We cry at funerals (end of life), weddings (end of freedom), heck we even cried at the end of the last Harry Potter book for no other reason that that it was all over. Needless to say, we are all sadfaced at the moment because our favorite excuse to sit on our rear ends all summer is coming to a close this week. Yep, that's right, the Paramount is presenting it's final four films of the Summer Classic Film Series, with then end beginning tonight, and as always, the price of admission is only $7.

Raise the Red Lantern
Tuesday, September 4 @ 7:30 pm
Wednesday, September 5 @ 7:30 pm

We probably weren't allowed to watch this movie when it came out because of the whole multiple-wife-concubine thing (we were, however, allowed to watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High. WTF Mom and Dad?!), but we will definitely be making up for lost time tonight. Gong Li plays the fourth wife/third concubine/fourth mistress of the wealthy Master Chen, and soon realizes that she is more of an attention whore hound than she thought. Ladies, faking a pregnancy to trap a man is never the best course of action. Lesson learned.

Army Of Shadows
Thursday, September 6 @ 7:30 pm
Friday, September 7 @ 7:30 pm

Not released in the U.S. until last year, this gem from 1969 was proclaimed "the best foreign film of 2006" by the New York Film Critics Circle and earned raves from critics coast-to-coast. Based on Joseph Kessel's 1943 book, the film uses cold gray tones to depict a few short months in the winter of 1942/43, following the lives of a band of French Resistance fighters who must silently endure repetitive capture, hope of escape, seemingly futile battle against the enemy and capture again. Although panned by french critics, Army of Shadows is now widely know as Jean-Pierre Melville's greatest and most affecting work.

The Great Dictator
Saturday, September 8 @ 4 pm
Sunday, September 9 @ 7:30 pm

Much like us, silent-film-king Charlie Chaplin didn't like to see things end. Talkies were in existence for 13 years before he finally emerged from his silent world and stunned audiences by not only speaking, but by satirizing the political devil-of-the-day, Adolf Hitler. In the film, Chaplin plays both a Jewish ghetto barber and the Hitler-esque dictator, Adenoid Hynkel of Tomania. Amidst increasing negative pressure from the studio, it is reported that FDR himself corresponded with Chaplin during the making of the film and encouraged him to finish it. "Hitler must be laughed at," Chaplin said, and indeed he was. The Great Dictator turned out to be Chaplin's most commercially successful film and definitely his most socially important.

Gone With The Wind
Saturday, September 8 @ 7:30 pm
Sunday, September 9 @ 2 pm

Tomorrow is another day, but since this is the finale there isn't really a tomorrow. Dang. We actually hated this movie when we were children because it was soooooo long and we couldn't have cared less about the Civil War (sorry, forefathers) but now, in our wiser years we can appreciate what an amazing achievement this picture is. Not only did the novel by Margaret Mitchell win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937, but the film garnered eight Academy Awards including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress (which was significant in that Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to be nominated for and win an Oscar), Best Cinematography and Best Picture. A sweeping and glorious spectacle of the antebellum south, the State of Georgia has never looked so beautiful or so strong (nevermind that everything but the title credits was filmed in Cali.)

For the love of all that is holy, go see these movies. We promise that you will not regret it.
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