Old Pasadena Film Festival
Presented by American Cinematheque
July 11th – July 26th
American Cinematheque presents a three-week movie series taking place in basements, on walls, in courtyards, shops and theaters throughout Pasadena’s famous and historic downtown. Old Pasadena Film Festival screenings, appearances and events are all FREE and OPEN to the public.
Complete details available at: www.oldpasadenafilmfestival.com
Old Pasadena Film Festival Schedule:
Friday, July 11
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
“I’ve got to do something about the way I look. I mean a girl just can’t go to Sing Sing with a green fac.” – So sighs Audrey Hepburn’s girl-about-town Holly Golightly, breezing ever-so-gently through the real world with hardly a ripple. But when she meets sober, handsome, nice guy George Peppard, she begins to gradually re-think her anything-goes, high-living lifestyle.
10:00 PM – SCI FI: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) School House Parking structure rooftop, 33 E. Green Street.
Actress Ann Robinson will introduce the screening.
The quintessential 1950’s science fiction film, in which scientists and the military join forces to conquer an alien invasion. Even today, few films can match this movie’s triumphant blend of special effects and snappy romance (in the form of the relationship between astronomer Gene Barry and his spunky girlfriend Ann Robinson.)
Saturday, July 12
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: MY FAIR LADY One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
This unforgettable musical adaptation is PYGMALION as reinvented by Lerner and Loewe as reinvented by master director George Cukor. Oscar winner Rex Harrison plays Henry Higgins, who teaches the enchanting Audrey Hepburn how to reinvent herself and falls in love with her in the process.
Friday, July 18
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: CHARADE One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Widow Audrey Hepburn finds herself thrust into adventure when her dead husband’s war buddies come after her, thinking she has money they stole together during the war. Cary Grant is the stranger who is as mysterious as he is attractive–and who Hepburn falls for as she runs for her life.
10:00 PM – HORROR FILM: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Basement of Schoolhouse Parking Garage, 33 E. Green Street.
Director Tobe Hooper will introduce the screening.
One of the best American horror films from the 1970s and certainly one of the scariest movies ever made. It works so well because the unknown actors and real-life locations burn themselves into your memory, assuming a nightmarishly twisted reality that lingers long after you’ve seen the film. After hearing of a cemetery desecration, Marilyn Burns and friends go on a jaunt in the broiling Texas countryside to make sure her grandparents’ graves are okay, only to become stranded at the rural home of a family of inbred cannibals. Director Tobe Hooper expertly escalates the horror until you can’t stand it anymore…then goes one step further. With Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal.
Saturday, July 19
10:00 AM – FAMILY MATINEE: MARY POPPINS Laemmle’s One Colorado Cinemas, 42 Miller Alley
Julie Andrews is God’s gift to nanny-dom as Mary Poppins in this classic musical comedy/fantasy. When Poppins comes to work for the Banks family in their turn-of-the-20th-century London household, she uplifts everyone’s spirits and brings magic to their lives. Dick Van Dyke is Bert, the good-natured chimney sweep and the great Jane Darwell, in her last screen appearance, plays the bird lady. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Andrews for Best Actress and Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman for Best Original Song and Best Original Music Score.
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: SABRINA One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Chauffeur’s daughter Audrey Hepburn blooms from ugly duckling to fashion queen as she tries to choose between wealthy, middle-aged Humphrey Bogart (at his sexy, smokey best) and cocky lover-boy William Holden (a Wilder favorite). Billy Wilder’s classic romantic triangle.
10:00 PM – MENTAL HYGIENE SHORT FILMS Mercantile Alley (right behind Coffee Bean at 18 S. Fair Oaks)
Presented by Archivist and Historian Rick Prelinger.
For the quarter-century following World War II, a special kind of classroom film received wide circulation. These “mental hygiene” films thrived in a confused and nervous America. The rebellious behavior of young people challenging the social norms struck fear into the hearts of parents and educators, who saw dark futures for the teens who broke the rules and refused to fit in with society. These concerned adults embraced the metal hygiene film as a new means of delivering social guidance. The creators of the films took their cues from the wildly successful training and propaganda films of the World War II era. They used the same shock and scare techniques to warn teenagers about substance abuse, venereal disease, juvenile delinquency and the awful fate of kids who drive too fast on prom night.
Friday, July 25
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – CLASSIC HEPBURN: ROMAN HOLIDAY One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
A real-life princess (Audrey Hepburn), weary of her sheltered existence, takes off on her own to see the sights of Rome, only to encounter romance in the form of suave Gregory Peck. But unbeknownst to Hepburn, Peck is really a reporter out for a story, and this inevitably complicates things as the two grow more intimate. This sweet-natured romantic comedy won three Oscars, including Best Actress for Hepburn.
10:45 PM – CLASSIC FOREIGN FILM: SEVEN SAMURAI One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Director Akira Kurosawa’s most famous film is certainly one of the finest movies ever made – a huge, sprawling but intimate, character-driven period epic about an aging swordsman (the great Takashi Shimura) who enlists six other warriors-for-hire (amongst them, Toshiro Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isao Kimura, Daisuke Kato, Seiji Miyaguchi, Yoshio Inaba) to safeguard a remote village plagued by bandits.
Saturday, July 26
7:00 PM – EMERGING FILMMAKERS Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.
8:30 PM – GREASE with guest to be announced, 22 Mills Place
Pompadoured tough-guy John Travolta learns the meaning of true love, 1950’s style, from summertime sweetheart Olivia Newton-John, with help from a fantastic supporting cast including Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Eve Arden and Frankie Avalon. A soundtrack of wall-to-wall hits (“You’re The One That I Want,” “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee”) in director Randal Kleiser’s irresistible teen-dream of a movie musical.
8:30 PM till Dawn – LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY, One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Middle Earth.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpiece The Lord of the Rings has influenced generations of readers worldwide and continues to captivate new fans around the globe. Director Peter Jackson and a brilliantly talented cast and crew have brought to cinematic life the epic adventure of good against evil. The future of civilization rests in the fate of the One Ring, which has been lost for centuries. Powerful forces are unrelenting in their search for it. Fate has placed it in the hands of a young Hobbit named Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), who inherits the Ring – and undertakes a heroic quest revealing how, through courage, commitment, and determination, even the smallest of us can change the world.
Screening concludes with sunrise Hobbit breakfast.
