Paramount Theatre Announces 50th Summer Classic Film Series

Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland, Point Break, and Burning, just three of the 120 movies screening as part of this year's Paramount Theatre Summer Classic Film Series

The Paramount Theatre has been a home to classic cinema for so long that many films now called classic weren't even made when they launched their Summer Classic Film Series in 1974. Five decades on, the annual fixture on the movie lovers calendar is back with another packed lineup.

This big kickoff to this year's season comes when Robert Rodriguez is honored on the Avenue of Paramount Stars, but there's no rest for the wicked. The Sin City filmmaker goes back to moontlighting as a booker with Robert Rodriguez presents. This run kicks off with screenings that highlight the best of the action-packed '80s: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, First Blood, and a double bill of Romancing the Stone and Three Amigos!. He'll follow this up with something a little newer, Like Water for Chocolate and then wrap up his season with a Peter Bogdanovich classic, What's Up, Doc?

And proving that Austin is a film town without barriers, Austin Film Society is celebrating its old home (yup, it screened at the Paramount pre-AFS Cinema) with two double features: a night down under with Muriel's Wedding and Dogs in Space, and a brace of feminist punk classics in Out of the Blue and Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains.

That's not the only partnership going on this year, as the Paramount teams up with Hyperreal Film Club for a specially curated season-within-the-season that includes whacko cult fave Phantom of the Paradise, Cronenbergian horror in Videodrome, and a chance to catch a movie that's increasingly seen as a cornerstone of Black horror, Eve's Bayou.

If you don't want all your moviegoing experiences to be indoors, Hyperreal, the Paramount, and Austin Beerworks will hold a special all-day beach party with Jaws and the surf-crime gem Point Break.

Austin Asian American Film Festival is helping fill the schedule too, with two nights of the best of Asian cinema, including a chance to catch Steven Yeun's masterful performance in Korean psychodrama Burning in a double-bill with a touching 2004 Japanese drama, Tony Takitani.

For those of you with an eye for the truly transgressive, Austin Public Library and BookPeople will be presenting Banned Camp: some of the greatest movies adapted from controversial and censored novels, including American Psycho, Lolita, and I Am Not Your Negro.

As always, the series includes multiple themed sections. The Paramount had already announced their kid-friendly family film series will launch with Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, so now it's time to add more classics like The Muppet Movie, Alice in Wonderland, and The Sound of Music to the schedule. Film Noir Classic and Hitchcock Week give you all the crime nastiness you can handle, while you'll get to ask of the greatest sequels of all time such as Superman II and The Godfather Part II Is This One... Better? Meanwhile, there could well be dancing in the aisles for Soundtrack(s) of Our Lives, including special anniversary screenings of Do the Right Thing and Repo Man.

Of course, the Paramount isn't just about movies. This June sees the return of the Majestic Ball, just in time for Pride, and the Grand Dame of Congress will be working it with six queer classics, including the original version of The Color Purple, The Birdcage, and Paris Is Burning.

And as for those of you that like your cinema truly extra-sized, the Paramount is breaking out the big projector for 70mm week, with gigantic prints of The Searchers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the original rock & roll fable, Streets of Fire.

For the rest of the schedule, a full list of all titles, and news of a very special double bill of Jackie Brown and one of the blaxploitation classics that inspired it, Foxy Brown, visit austintheatre.org