‘Celebrate Brooklyn’
Once a week at 7:30, Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th Street and Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, 718-855-7882, ext. 45, celebratebrooklyn.org
JULY 13 ‘Shorts by Jean Painlevé: The Sounds of Science’
With live music by Yo La Tengo.
JULY 21
Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock, 1929)
Shot simultaneously as a silent and a talkie, this early Hitchcock peak wound up being the first sound film in British history. The superior silent version shows at Prospect Park, accompanied by the terrific Alloy Orchestra. Sure to be a treat.
JULY 27
Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)
With live music by Philip Glass & the Kronos Quartet.
AUGUST 3
The High Sign (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1921); One Week (Cline & Keaton, 1920); ‘Animations by Jim Woodring’; and Bill Morrison’s reimaging of The Bells (James Young, 1926): With live music by Bill Frisell.
‘HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival 2006’
Mondays at sunset, Bryant Park, 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, 212-768-4242, bryantpark.org
JUNE 19
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
The outdoor setting can only enhance the terror of Alfred Hitchcock’s most agoraphobic film, an ultimately unresolvable confrontation between everyday banality and the naked irrational. The groundbreaking special effects may have been the main attraction back in 1963, but the movie’s sine wave rhythms and radically open-ended conclusion could scarcely feel more contemporary.
JUNE 26
To Have and Have Not
(Howard Hawks, 1944)
Howard Hawks’s sparkling adaptation of Hemingway’s “worst novel” marked the first pairing of Bogie and Bacall, both on-screen and off. It’s an ideal date movie choice for a midsummer evening in the park.
JULY 3
M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)
JULY 10
Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968)
JULY 17
The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
JULY 24
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
JULY 31
A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964)
AUGUST 7
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
AUGUST 14
Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)
AUGUST 21
Rocky (John G. Avildsen, 1976)
‘Movies With a View’
Thursdays at dusk, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, 1 Main Street, Brooklyn, 718-802-0603, brooklynbridgepark.org
JULY 6
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
The Brooklyn Bridge provides a suitably iconic backdrop for this deathless American classic. Viewers are encouraged to create their own pairings between the movie’s beloved characters and their favorite Bush-administration figures.
JULY 13
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)
JULY 20
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
JULY 27
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)
True, Burton’s feature debut isn’t exactly the most technically proficient film ever made, but Paul Reubens has never gotten his due as one of the Reagan era’s most subversive entertainers, who happily warped the minds of a generation of children with Pee-wee’s irrepressible joie de vivre and ambiguous sexuality. Definitely bring the kids to this one.
AUGUST 3
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994)
AUGUST 10
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
AUGUST 17
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
AUGUST 24
The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979)
‘Movies Under the Stars’
Wednesdays at dusk, Pier A Park, 1st Street and Frank Sinatra Drive, Hoboken, New Jersey, 201-420-2207, hobokennj.org
JUNE 7
The Squid & the Whale (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
JUNE 14
Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, 2005)
Clooney’s gorgeously filmed McCarthy-era drama succeeds as both warm tribute to Edward R. Murrow & co. and cogent critique of present-day “fair and balanced” journalism. The movie’s quietly dignified tone should be nicely complemented by the view of the Manhattan skyline.
JUNE 21
Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004)
JUNE 28
The Producers (Susan Stroman, 2005)
JULY 12
Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
The not-so-secret reason for the runaway commercial success of Ang Lee’s all-world cowboy romance is that it’s at heart a pretty conventional tearjerker. Whether the movie will be able to survive its cultural-football status is an open question at best, but Heath Ledger’s performance is surely one for the ages.
JULY 19
Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005)
JULY 26
Rent (Chris Columbus, 2005)
AUGUST 2
March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, 2005)
AUGUST 9
Curious George (Matthew O’Callaghan, 2006)
AUGUST 16
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Steve Box & Nick Park, 2005)
AUGUST 23
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005)
AUGUST 30
King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005)
‘Outdoor Cinema’
Wednesdays with a live musical act at 7 and film beginning at sunset, JULY 5–AUGUST 23, Socrates Sculpture Park, Vernon Boulevard and Broadway, Long Island City, Queens, 718-956-1819, socratessculpturepark.org
‘River Flicks’
Wednesdays and Fridays at dusk, Hudson River Park, Pier 54, West 14th Street and West Side Highway; Pier 45, Charles Street and West Side Highway, 212-533-PARK, hudsonriverpark.org
Pier 54
JULY 5
Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004)
JULY 12
Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
JULY 19
The Beastmaster (Don Coscarelli, 1982)
JULY 26
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Patrons will presumably want to keep a safe distance from the water for this Hudson River Park screening of Steven Spielberg’s first megahit. As one of the progenitors of the modern summer blockbuster, Jaws has had a decidedly mixed legacy, but it remains one of Spielberg’s most enjoyable, as well as his purest, cinematic achievement.
AUGUST 2
Cruel Intentions (Roger Kumble, 1999)
AUGUST 9
Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964)
Arguably the best 007 outing, the third Bond film features two of the series’ most stylish villains in the cleverly named Auric Goldfinger and his steel-brimmed-hat-wielding henchman Oddjob. For mindless summer fun, the multiplexes will be hard-pressed to equal it this showing.
AUGUST 16
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
AUGUST 23
A ClockworkOrange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Pier 45
JULY 7
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Steve Box & Nick Park, 2005)
JULY 14
March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, 2005)
JULY 21
Chicken Run (Peter Lord & Nick Park, 2000)
If parents looking for progressive-minded children’s entertainment don’t have much to choose from these days, it can hardly be blamed on Nick Park. Showing as part of the Hudson River Park’s “family-oriented” series, this farm fable features the same lovingly handcrafted animation and unfashionably humane values that mark Park’s
Wallace & Gromit series. Perfect for kids and grown-ups alike.
JULY 28
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001)
AUGUST 4
Nanny McPhee (Kirk Jones, 2005)
AUGUST 11
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, 2004)
AUGUST 18
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971)
AUGUST 25
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
‘Rooftop Films Summer Series 2006’
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with a live musical act at 7 and film beginning at 9, JUNE 1–SEPTEMBER 15, various locations, 718-417-7362, rooftopfilms.com