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| Movies: Coming soon to a wall near you |
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| By Jim Aquino |
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In the recently rereleased Cinema Paradiso,
the 1990 Oscar winner for best foreign film,
there's a memorable sequence in which a young
movie theater projectionist discovers a way
to project the feature presentation onto a
giant wall outdoors, to the delight of
townspeople who couldn't get inside the
already crowded theater. For those moviegoers
who always wanted to replicate the outdoor
moviegoing experience in that scene, San Jose
is offering two outdoor cinema festivals,
both beginning this summer.
As part of a yearlong public space
programming project to bring more foot
traffic to downtown San Jose, POPULUS
Presents and Giant Creative Services recently
launched both the Friday night Gypsy Cinema
outdoor movie festival at the Circle of Palms
Plaza and the Wednesday night Cinema San
Pedro series at San Pedro Square. All
screenings for each festival begin at sunset.
Gypsy Cinema is actually not new to downtown,
having popped up in a previous summer-only
incarnation presented by Circa 2000. As for
Cinema San Pedro, this year is the series'
first.
"San Pedro Square is a nice street. It has a
very European feel to it. We really like the
concept of outdoor movies and thought a
dinner and a movie in the same area would be
nice," says Blage Zelalich, project manager
for POPULUS and promotions director for the
San Jose Downtown Association.
Gypsy Cinema, which opened July 26 with the
1996 art-house hit Big Night, focuses on
avant-garde selections, while Cinema San
Pedro, which opened the same evening with
Casablanca, shows more recognizable and
classic fare. For Cinema San Pedro, Zelalich
and her colleagues chose titles they thought
would play well in an outdoor setting,
including the original version of King Kong, The Maltese Falcon and The Graduate.
"We're really happy with the lineup right
now. It's a solid lineup that has appeal for
a lot of different audiences," Zelalich says.
The remaining titles in this year's edition
of Gypsy Cinema are:
- The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her
Lover (Aug. 23). British art-house icon
Peter Greenaway's most controversial and
successful movie.
- A Great Day in Harlem (Sep. 20). The
acclaimed 1995 documentary about photographer
Art Kane's 1958 photo shoot of the era's
biggest jazz musicians. A live performance by
the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra will
accompany the screening.
- The Shining (Oct. 25). Which is better?
The original Stephen King novel or Stanley
Kubrick's surreal screen adaptation, which
reportedly rankled King himself? You make the
call. (The next Gypsy Cinema screening is
tentatively scheduled for Nov. 29.)
- It's a Wonderful Life (Dec. 20). Director
Frank Capra's classic 1946 film, which has
become a holiday favorite.
As for Cinema San Pedro, the remaining titles
in the festival are:
- King Kong (Aug. 21). The original 1933
version.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (Sep. 4). Audrey
Hepburn's most famous movie.
- The Maltese Falcon (Sep. 18). This is the
classic Humphrey Bogart version, which was
actually the second film adaptation of
Dashiell Hammett's novel. (In an earlier,
1931 version, Ricardo Cortez played Sam
Spade.)
- The Graduate (Oct. 16). The film that
launched both Dustin Hoffman's film career
and counterculture cinema.
- Frankenstein (Oct. 30). Fortunately, it's
the Boris Karloff version, not the weak
Robert De Niro version.
Gypsy Cinema takes place at the Circle of
Palms Plaza, between the San Jose Museum of
Art and the Fairmont Hotel. Cinema San Pedro
is located at San Pedro Square, between Santa
Clara and St. John Street. For more
information about both festivals, call
408.882.5064.
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