The Beatles will return to the El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival — by popular demand.
Their 1965 comedy “Help!” will be part of this year’s PCFF lineup. It stars John, Paul, George and Ringo in a caper that spoofed the popular James Bonds movies and their imitators. It will be shown by special arrangement with the Beatles’ company, Apple Corps. It is one of the Plaza Classic’s most requested movies this year, following last year’s showing of a 50th anniversary restoration of “A Hard Day’s Night.”
The Plaza Classic Film Festival returns for its eighth year Aug. 6-16 in and around the Plaza Theatre.
Also announced:
• “Yankee Doodle Dandy” — The 1942 musical starring James Cagney as singer, songwriter, playwright and producer George M. Cohan, who wrote the title song, among other standards.
• “The Mark of Zorro” — Douglas Fairbanks stars in the 1920 silent classic about the so-called Mexican Robin Hood. PCFF regular Walt Strony will accompany on the Plaza Theatre’s Wyler Mighty Wurlitzer organ.
• “Hondo” — Western icon John Wayne headlines the 1953 classic, shot on location in Chihuahua, one of the first movies made by Wayne’s Batjac Productions. It will be shown by special arrangement with Batjac.
• “Y Tu Mama Tambien” — Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron’s controversial 2001 road/coming-of-age story, which helped launch the careers of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.
• “Stop Making Sense” — Jonathan Demme’s absorbing concert documentary of new wave auteurs the Talking Heads’ 1983 American tour.
They join the previously announced “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The King and I,” “Shall We Dance,” “The Bicycle Thief,” “Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Tickets go on sale in early July. Festival passes are $200 and include admission to all ticketed events, an express lane and more. Film Club passes, for teenagers 14 to 18, are $100. They are available at 915-533-4020 and plazaclassic.com.
Two very different classics from 1975 — five-time Academy Award-winner “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and Arthurian send-up “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” — are among the first titles announced for the El Paso Community Foundation’s Plaza Classic Film Festival. The eighth annual edition will be Aug. 6-16, 2015 in and around the historic Plaza Theatre.
Director Milos Forman’s Cuckoo’s Nest, about a mental institution’s attempt to tame anti-authoritarian patient Randle McMurphy, was the first movie since 1934’s “It Happened One Night” to win Academy Awards in the five major categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), and Best Actress (Louise Fletcher).
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is the cult comedy that made the British troupe a global sensation. It spawned the Tony Award-winning musical Spamalot and introduced memorable characters such as the not-so-brave Sir Robin, the Black Knight, the Knights Who Say Ni and the French Taunter.
Also scheduled for PCFF 2015:
• “The King and I” (1956) — Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, and PCFF 2013 guest Rita Moreno star in the heartwarming Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about a stubborn king and the woman who tames his heart. It includes the standards Getting to Know You and I Whistle a Happy Tune.
• “Shall We Dance” (1937) — Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this musical about a ballet star who falls for a tap dancer. It features the Gershwin brothers’ classic Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, which features an Astaire-Rogers routine on roller skates.
• “The Bicycle Thief” (1948) — Vittorio de Sica’s poignant post-WWII story about a destitute father’s frantic search for his stolen bicycle is one of the most famous examples of neorealism in Italian cinema and is considered one of the greatest movies of all time.
• “Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones” (1974) — This no-frills concert documentary captures the legendary band, who just announced their “Zip Code” American tour, at their best during the Texas leg of their 1972 American tour supporting the classic Exile on Main St.
Tickets for the Plaza Classic Film Festival go on sale in early July. Festival passes are $200 and include admission to all ticketed events, an express lane and other perks. Plaza Classic Film Club passes, for teenagers 14 to 18, are $100. They are available at 915-533-4020 and plazaclassic.com.
The Plaza Classic Film Festival is about more than classic movies. It’s also about showcasing future classics by area filmmakers in PCFF’s popular Local Flavor series.
Submissions for this year’s Plaza Classic Film Festival Local Flavor series are now being accepted. Just go to the Submissions page for details.
There is no cost to enter a film. Shorts, features, documentaries, animated, videos and other types of films will be accepted.
Local Flavor, which is sponsored by the Texas Film Commission, is not a competition. It’s a showcase for area filmmakers seeking a wider audience for their work, and an opportunity to network.
Last year’s Local Flavor series, the first held in the El Paso Community Foundation’s Foundation Room, included “Los Chidos,” by writer, director and At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta/Antemasque guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Jellyfish Colectivo’s award-winning animation “9:30am,” and “El Fuego Detras,” short by El Paso’s Leo Aguirre that was accepted into the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and more.
The deadline for submissions is June 12. The list of movies chosen will be announced closer to this year’s film festival.
Email us at local@plazaclassic.com if you have questions.
The eighth annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be Aug. 6-16 at the Plaza Theatre and other venues in downtown El Paso.
PCFF tickets will go on sale in early July. Festival passes, which are transferable and include admission to all movies, are on sale now for $200. Teen Film Club passes are $100. They are available at 915-533-4020 and the Tickets & Passes page on this site.
Don’t be left out in the cold. Get an early, and cheaper, jump on PCFF 2015 with a Festival Pass. They will be for sale for $175 from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31. That’s $25 off the regular price. A Festival Pass is a great gift for the classic film fans in your circle. Perks include admission to all PCFF movies, an express lane, reservations for Philanthropy Theatre movies, special events and more. So what are you waiting for? Call 915-533-4020 or go to the Tickets & Passes page on this website and get a jump on next year’s festival. The eighth annual Plaza Classic Film Festival will be Aug. 6-16, 2015.
The El Paso Community Foundation would like to give thanks to the numerous sponsors who helped make the seventh annual Plaza Classic Film Festival such a big success. They help make PCFF such a magical experience each year. They help us bring in more than 80 movies, like “The Wizard of Oz” and “A Hard Day’s Night,” and stars such as Shirley Jones and Robert Wagner.
Many have been with us before. Some were new this year. They are all important to the world’s largest classic film festival.
In the spirit of the season, we’d like to say a big “Thanks!” to all of the local businesses that helped make PCFF 2014 such a box-office smash. Please support them. They are all local businesses.
If you’d like to become a sponsor for the 2015 PCFF, which returns Aug. 6-16, please email us at “info@plazaclassic.com(info@plazaclassic.com)”: or call 915-533-4020.
This year’s sponsors are:
• Airport Printing
• Ardovino’s Desert Crossing
• Barragan’s Salon & Spa
• Camino Real Hotel
• Capital Bank
• Charlotte’s Furniture, Gifts & Flooring
• Clear Channel Radio
• The El Paso Bar Association
• The El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department
• The El Paso Times
• Fuzzy Red Panda
• The Garick Group, Inc.
• Perry and Debbi Hester/ERA Real Estate
• Holiday Inn Express El Paso Central
• Hunt Companies, Inc.
• KFOX14
• KTSM/NewsChannel 9
• KVIA/ABC7
• Mills Plaza Properties
• Modern Iron Works
• Mounce, Green, Myers, Safi, Paxson & Galatzan
• OneSource Federal Credit Union
• Reyes and Reyes Law Firm
• Jonathan Rogers
• Rudolph Honda Chevy Mazda Volkswagen
• ScottHulse Law Firm
• The Texas Film Commission
• Townsquare Media
• UBS Financial Services/Brackett Group
• Viva + Impulse Creative Co.
• Wells Fargo
• Windle Hood Alley Norton Brittain and Jay
