Friday, August 7 – Siskel Film Center — 164 N State Street
Tickets: $14 at the door or purchase in advance

6:00 PM
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Directed by Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly • 1952
A warmhearted look back at the period in the late 1920s when studios were scrambling to make the transition from silent films to talkies, Singin’ places a typical Hollywood mirror before a trio of plucky troupers forced to adapt to the unknown world of sound cinema. As in Grease or Dazed and Confused (both successful period pieces similarly distant from the eras they depict), the film puts forth a resonant vision of an age passing just beyond the edge of recent cultural memory. Filtered through the rosy postwar sensibilities of the then-present, Singin’ creates a false but irresistible pop monument which has all but overtaken the actual era it depicts. But the songs! Debbie Reynolds’s sunny flirtations saturate the cheerfully tender “Good Morning,” the platonic ideal of a morning-after celebration. Donald O’Connor leaves no gag unattempted in his breathless, bravura “Make ‘Em Laugh.” And top-billed Gene Kelly’s miraculous solo performance of the title song has come to exemplify all the optimism, pathos, and dream-magic of the American film musical itself. (GW)
103 min • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer • 35mm from the ConstellationCenter Collection at the Academy Film Archive, permission Park Circus

8:30 PM
HORROR OF DRACULA
Directed by Terence Fisher • 1958
Dracula has been interpreted by a wide range of actors, from Udo Kier and Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman and William Marshall. But no one wore the cape quite like Christopher Lee, who returned to the role again and again with unmatched intensity. Horror of Dracula marks his first turn as the Count, a performance that reshaped the character into something befanged and sexier. Opposite Lee, Peter Cushing is a honed, relentless Van Helsing, grounding the film’s supernatural terror. Breaking from the black-and-white gothic look of Universal monster movies, Hammer traded shadows for garish Technicolor, fully exploiting the lurid palette to full blood-soaked effect. The result is lush, visceral, and unforgettable. (TV)
88 min • Hammer Film Productions • 35mm from private collections, permission Park Circus

NEXT UP: TECHNICOLOR WEEKEND – Day Two!