Old Pasadena Film Festival July 5-28

Old Pasadena Management presents the fifth annual Old Pasadena Film Festival, a four-week, free movie series showcasing a variety of audience pleasing movie titles and genres, happening on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, July 5-28, 2012. With nineteen screenings, the Old Pasadena Film Festival is the largest outdoor film festival in California and is expected to draw upwards of 8,000 attendees.



This year the Old Pasadena Film Festival hosts an eclectic mix of unique films on Thursday nights including cult favorites Napoleon Dynamite, Sunset Boulevard, Batman, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Friday nights are date nights in Old Pasadena with popular romantic comedies screened at the One Colorado Courtyard with Serendipity, While You Were Sleeping, What’s Up, Doc? and The Philadelphia Story all being screened.



Other highlights include five time Oscar nominee Laura, award winning western High Noon and four time Academy Award winning film A Streetcar Named Desire. This year’s program also includes three very special screenings at Central Park highlighting the horror and thriller genre including Alfred Hitchcock’s Pyscho (1960), Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist, and the number two thriller of all time according to AFI, Jaws.



Distant Lands, the specialty travel bookstore in Old Pasadena will once again host travel films, including Sophia Copola’s popular Lost in Translation and Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. All screenings are free and open to the public, full schedule below.





Old Pasadena Film Festival schedule



Thursday, July 5, 8:30PM– One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
Batman (1989)

The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker. Academy Award winning film directed by Tim Burton, and starring Jack Nicholson (The Joker), Michael Keaton (Batman), and Kim Basinger (Vicki Vale).



Friday, July 6, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
Serendipity (2001)

Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) meet while shopping for gloves in New York. Though buying for their respective lovers, the magic was right and a night of Christmas shopping turns into romance. Jon wants to explore things further but Sara isn't sure their love is meant to be. They decide to test fate by splitting up and seeing if destiny brings them back together. This is a touching and charming romantic comedy also starring Molly Shannon and Jeremy Piven.



Friday, July 6, 8:00PM – Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91105
A Map for Saturday (2007)

On a trip around the world, every day feels like Saturday. A Map for Saturday reveals a world of long-term, solo travel through the stories of trekkers on four continents. The documentary finds backpackers helping neglected Thai tsunami victims. It explains why Nepal's guesthouses are empty and Brazil's stoplights are ignored. But at its core, the film tracks the emotional arc of extreme long-term travelers; teenagers and senior citizens who wondered, "What would it be like to travel the world?" and then did it.



Saturday, July 7, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
The Miracle Worker (1962)

Young Helen Keller (16 year-old Patty Duke), blind, deaf, and mute since infancy, is in danger of being sent to an institution. Her inability to communicate has left her frustrated and violent. In desperation, her parents seek help from the Perkins Institute, which sends them a "half-blind Yankee schoolgirl" named Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft) to tutor their daughter. Through persistence and love, and sheer stubbornness, Annie breaks through Helen's walls of silence and darkness, and teaches her to communicate.



The Miracle Worker was nominated for 5 Oscars, and won for Best Actress (Bancroft), and Best Supporting Actress (Duke). It was Duke’s first film role and, at 16, made her the youngest Oscar recipient at the time. Three Golden Globe nominations included Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. The Miracle Worker is one of AFI’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies.



Thursday, July 12, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Three-time Academy Award winning Sunset Boulevard, set in 50s Hollywood, focuses on Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a silent-screen goddess whose pathetic belief in her own indestructibility has turned her into a demented recluse. The crumbling Sunset Boulevard mansion where she lives with only her butler Max (Erich von Stroheim), who was once her director and husband, has become her self-contained world. Norma dreams of a comeback in pictures and she begins a relationship with Joe Gillis (William Holden), a small-time writer who becomes her lover, which will soon end with murder and total madness.



Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Actress (Swanson), Best Supporting Actress (Nancy Olsen), Best Actor (Holden), Best Supporting Actor (Stroheim), and Best Cinematography. It was also nominated for 7 Golden Globes, winning 4: Best Picture, Director, Actress and Score. Sunset Boulevard is on the AFI list of Top 100 Films of All Time.



Friday, July 13, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Lucy's (Sandra Bullock) life consists of constant loneliness; that is until she saves Peter's (Peter Gallagher) life. Now she is a part of his family and with a strong heart and fate on her side, others begin to realize what a terrific person she is, especially Jack (Bill Pullman), Peter's brother. An extraordinarily true-to-life sequence of events begin to take place as Lucy and Jack become closer and learn more about each other and themselves than one would ever expect from such coincidental, yet believable events.



Sandra Bullock received a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for the role.



Friday, July 13, 8:00PM – Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91105
Lost in Translation (2003)

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is an American film actor, far past his prime. He visits Tokyo to appear in commercials, and he meets Charlotte (Scarlet Johansson), the young wife of a visiting photographer. Bored and weary, Bob and Charlotte make ideal if improbable traveling companions. Charlotte is looking for "her place in life," and Bob is tolerating a mediocre stateside marriage. Both separately and together, they live the experience of the American in Tokyo. Bob and Charlotte suffer both confusion and hilarity due to the cultural and language differences between themselves and the Japanese.



Lost in Translation won an Oscar for Best Screenplay (Sofia Coppola), and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Sofia Coppola), and Best Actor (Murray).



Saturday, July 14, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
Laura (1944)

Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura, found dead on her apartment floor before the movie starts. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love? To make matters worse, McPherson finds himself falling under her spell too. Then one night, halfway through his investigations, something seriously bizarre happens to make him re-think the whole case.



Directed by Otto Preminger and starring Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price; Laura was nominated for 5 Oscars, including Best Director, Supporting Actor (Webb), Screenplay, Cinematography, and Art Direction. Laura is one of AFI’s Top 10 Mystery Movies, and is also on their list of Top 100 Thrillers of All Time.



Saturday, July 14, 8:30PM – Central Park, 99 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91103
Jaws (1975)

Three time Oscar winning film that tells the story of a gigantic great white shark that begins to menace the small island community of Amity. The local police chief (Roy Scheider), a marine scientist (Richard Dreyfuss) and grizzled fisherman (Robert Shaw) set out to stop it.



Jaws is Steven Spielberg’s second feature film, and remains one of the most recognizable franchises of all time, literally inventing the genre of “summer blockbuster”, and re-inventing the way films are released and marketed. Jaws was nominated for 4 Oscars, and 4 Golden Globes, and won a Grammy for its iconic soundtrack (John Williams). It also appears on AFI’s list of Top 100 Movies, is #2 on the list of Top 100 Thrillers of all Time, and is on the list of 100 Best Movie Quotes: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”



Thursday, July 19, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

In a tale that almost redefines sibling rivalry, faded actresses Blanche (Joan Crawford) and 'Baby' Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) live together. Jane was by far the most famous when she performed with their father in vaudeville, but as they got older it was Blanche who became the finer actress, which Jane still resents. Blanche is now confined to a wheelchair - Jane ran her over with the car while drunk, even though she has no memory of it - and Jane is firmly in control. As time goes by, Jane exercises greater and greater control over her sister, intercepting her letters and ensuring that few if anyone from the outside has any contact with her. As Jane slowly loses her mind, she torments her sister, going to ever greater extremes.



One studio head at the time quipped “Who’s gonna want to see a picture with those two old broads?”, but this film revived the careers of both Davis and Crawford and has become one of the great cult classics of all time. It was nominated for 5 Oscars, including Best Actress (Davis), Best Supporting Actor (Victor Buono), Best Cinematography and Best Sound, and won for Best Costume Design. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes and is on the AFI list of 100 Top Thrillers of All Time.



Friday, July 20, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story tells the story of a beautiful and sophisticated heiress (Katherine Hepburn), whose ex-husband (Carey Grant) and a tabloid-type reporter (Jimmy Stewart) who both turn up just before her “wedding-of-the-year” remarriage.



The Philadelphia Story won 2 Oscars: Best Actor (Stewart), and Best Screenplay; and was nominated for 4 others: Best Picture, Best Director (George Cukor), Best Actress (Hepburn), Best Supporting Actress (Ruth Hussey). It is on the AFI list of Top 100 Movies of All Time, Top 100 Love Stories, Top 100 Comedies, and the list of Top 10 Romantic Comedies of All Time.



Friday, July 20, 8:00PM – Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91105
The Way (2010)

A father heads overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling the "El Camino de Santiago," and decides to take the pilgrimage himself. The Way is a powerful and inspirational story about family, friends, and the challenges we face while navigating this ever-changing and complicated world. Directed by Emilio Estevez, and starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.



Saturday, July 21, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
High Noon (1952)

On the day he gets married and hangs up his badge, lawman Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is told that a man he sent to prison years before, Frank Miller, is returning on the noon train to exact his revenge. Having initially decided to leave with his new spouse (Grace Kelly), Will decides he must go back and face Miller. However, when he seeks the help of the townspeople he has protected for so long, they turn their backs on him. It seems Kane may have to face Miller alone, as well as the rest of Miller's gang, who are waiting for him at the station...



High Noon won 4 Oscars including Best Actor (Cooper), and was nominated for 3 others including Best Picture and Best Director. It also won 4 Golden Globes including Best Actor (Cooper), Best Supporting Actress (Katy Jurado), and Best Score and Best Cinematography; and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay. It is on the AFI list of 100 Top Thrillers, 100 Top Inspiring Movies, 100 Top Movies of All Time, and is #2 on the List of All Time Best Westerns.



Saturday, July 21, 8:30PM – Central Park, 99 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91103
Poltergeist (1982)

Written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hopper, Poltergeist details a young family who is visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorize the family before they "kidnap" the youngest daughter.



Poltergeist was nominated for 3 Oscars for Effects and Music, is on the AFI list of 100 Best Movie Quotes: “They’re here!” and features an iconic cameo by Zelda Rubenstein as the psychic who helps put everything right.



Thursday, July 26, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

One of the most popular of recent cult films, Napoleon Dynamite tells the story of Preston, Idaho's most curious resident, Napoleon Dynamite, who lives with his grandma and his 32-year-old brother (who cruises chat rooms for ladies) and works to help his best friend, Pedro, snatch the Student Body President title from mean teen Summer Wheatley.



Friday, July 27, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
What’s Up, Doc? (1972)

When Howard Bannister (Ryan O’Neal) arrives in San Francisco to compete for a research grant in music, he bumps into Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand) a wacky but intoxicating complication, and hysterical hi-jinx ensue. Numerous identical overnight bags containing everything from Howard’s musical rocks, to an heiress’ jewels, to stolen government secrets, to Judy’s “unmentionables”, create confusion, havoc, and non-stop hilarity.



What’s Up, Doc? was directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and features many wonderful character parts including an unforgettable first-screen appearance by Madeline Kahn as Howard’s controlling and highly-organized fiancé, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. This film is on AFI’s list of Top 100 Love Stories and Top 100 Comedies.



Friday, July 27, 8:00PM – Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91105
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

One of Woody Allen’s most commercially successful films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona stars Scarlet Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall. The film details two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain who become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.



An Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress (Cruz), as well as a Golden Globe win for Best Picture, along with nominations for Best Actor (Bardem), Best Actress (Hall), and Best Supporting Actress (Cruz).



Saturday, July 28, 8:30PM – One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley, Pasadena, 91103
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

A Streetcar Named Desire is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tennessee Williams, and directed by Elia Kazan. The film follows a disturbed Blanche DuBois (Vivian Leigh) who moves in with her sister, Stella (Kim Hunter) in New Orleans, and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley (Marlon Brando) while her reality crumbles around her. Also features a wonderful performance by Karl Malden as one of Stanley’s friends who falls for the fragile Blanche.



This iconic film won 4 Oscars: Best Actress (Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Hunter), Best Supporting Actor (Malden), and Best Art Direction; and was nominated for 8 more, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Brando), and Best Screenplay (Williams). It also won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress (Hunter), and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress (Leigh). It is on AFI’s list of Top 100 Love Stories, and Top 100 Movies of All Time.



Saturday, July 28, 8:30PM – Central Park, 99 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, 91103
Psycho (1960)

Psycho is arguably the quintessential Alfred Hitchcock film, and is now and will always be remembered as one of the pinnacles of the horror genre. This film tells the story of a young woman (Janet Leigh) who steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor (Anthony Perkins) too long under the domination of his mother. When Leigh goes missing, her sister (Vera Miles) and sister’s boyfriend (John Gavin) go searching for her, with no anticipation of the horror they will come face to face with.



Psycho was nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Leigh), Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction. It also secured a Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actress (Leigh). It is on the AFI list of Top 100 Movies of All Time, and is #1 on the list of Top Thriller Movies.



General Public: All screenings are free and open to the public, for more information including a complete schedule visit www.oldpasadena.org/filmfestival