Local News
Summer Film Festival tickets on sale; event begins Friday
HUNTSVILLE — Tickets are still on sale for the City of Huntsville’s annual Summer Film Festival set to begin this Friday at the Old Town Theatre.
Tickets for any of the four films set to screen during the festival, as well as tickets that include dinner at the Stardust Room to accompany the two evening shows, are available at several Huntsville businesses and city buildings, including Cloud Nine Coffee Bar, Mt. Vernon Gift Shop, FatBoys, The Stardust Room, Lisa’s Gift Box, the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce office, the Wynne Home Arts Center and the Huntsville Main Street Program office.
The festival will kick off Friday at 8 p.m. with a screening of the Italian film “La Vita e’ Bella,” or “Life Is Beautiful.”
Co-written, directed by and starring famed Italian comic actor Roberto Benigni, the film follows a Jewish Italian family during the Holocaust, and features a compelling blend of tragedy, romance and Benigni’s trademark slapstick comedy. The film was released in the United States in 1998 to immense critical acclaim, and garnered four Oscars at the 1998 Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor for Benigni.
The festival will continue on Saturday at 1 p.m. with “Swiss Family Robinson,” the classic 1960 family adventure produced by Walt Disney studios.
The film follows a shipwrecked family on a remote island in the Pacific, and their efforts to construct a comfortable life from the wreckage of their ship. Starring John Mills and Dorothy McGuire, the film is today regarded as one of the highlights of the Walt Disney Company’s early live-action golden age.
“Swiss Family Robinson” will be followed at 4 p.m. by a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller “Rear Window,” starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.
The film follows a photographer (Stewart) confined to his apartment due to a broken leg who amuses himself by watching his neighbors through binoculars.
The apartment complex set built for the film was, in 1954, one of largest indoor sets ever constructed.
The film was an immediate success and one of the key precursors to Hitchcock’s most successful period in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 2007 the American Film Institute listed Rear Window as No. 48 on its list of the 100 greatest American films ever made.
The festival will conclude Saturday evening with an 8 p.m. screening of the classic comedy “Some Like It Hot,” starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe and co-written and directed by the legendary Billy Wilder.
The film follows two out of luck musicians (Lemmon and Curtis) who take to cross-dressing in order to find work in an all-girl orchestra fronted by the scintillating Miss Sugar Kane (Monroe).
As romances develop, hilarity ensues. Widely hailed as one of Wilder’s best films and one of Monroe’s best performances, the film was listed in 2000 by the American Film Institute as the greatest American comedy of all time.
Tickets for all four films are five dollars, while combination tickets that include dinner at the Stardust Room are $20. Only 50 combination tickets will be sold for each of the evening shows.
For more information, contact the Huntsville Main Street Program office at (936) 295-2150.
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