Traci Baker, Director, Community Activities and Communications
Cinema Society Summer: Frozen Film Festival—Aug. 21
It may be hot here in PebbleCreek in August, but for one day on Aug. 21, movie-lovers will be COOL, literally and figuratively, when they attend our Cinema Society of PebbleCreek Summer Frozen Film Festival! Tickets are on sale now.
Featuring three film classics, Groundhog Day, Fargo, and Dr. Zhivago, these movies will transport us to cooler climates, and this year’s summer film fest is going to be a blast! In addition to watching three amazing films, we are going to get really ‘cool’ with two fun pre-film ‘frozen mixer’ events included to make the day even more cool!
Tickets are $75 and include the three films, two mixers with a special event-themed food treat, pre-show introductions and film information, and after-show Q&A for each film hosted by Cinema Society Director Andy Friedenberg. For any residents who just want to come to an individual film(s), that is an option and priced at $30 per film screening and would include the mixer, where applicable.
The opportunity to see these films on the big screen, with fantastic sound equipment, along with Andy’s insider knowledge, makes this event all the more “cool.” And there is just something about watching a movie, in a theater with other people—there is an energy and feeling you just cannot get watching at home, no matter the size of the screen.
Itinerary, Friday, Aug. 21
9 a.m. Sno Ball and Coffee Morning Mixer, Portofino Coffee Bar. Start our day off visiting with Andy and your fellow film lovers. Includes regular coffee or decaf and a package of event-themed Hostess Sno Ball cakes.
9:30 a.m. Screening Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day, originally released in 1993, is an American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliott. It tells the story of a cynical television weatherman covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who becomes trapped in a time loop, forcing him to relive Feb. 2, a VERY cold day, repeatedly. Principal photography took place from March to June 1992, almost entirely in Woodstock, Ill. Filming was difficult, in large part because of bitterly cold weather.
In the years since its release, the film has grown in esteem; it is often considered among the greatest films of the 1990s and one of the greatest comedy films. It has also had a significant effect on popular culture: the term “Groundhog Day,” meaning a monotonous, unpleasant, and repetitive situation, has become part of the English lexicon. Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish scholars have analyzed the film as a religious allegory. Groundhog Day is also credited with having ushered in mainstream acceptance of comedy films with fantasy-genre elements, and popularizing time loop narratives. In 2006, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry. (Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes)
12 p.m. Break for lunch on your own
1:15 p.m. “Ice Cream is COOL” Afternoon Mixer. After lunch, we can satisfy our sweet tooth and get back into the really cold spirit and we get ready to screen one heckofa a movie, yah, you betcha.
2 p.m. Screening Fargo. Fargo, widely considered as among the best American films ever made, is a 1996 black comedy written, directed, produced, and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen, “The Coen Brothers.” It stars Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell, and Peter Stormare. McDormand plays pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson, who investigates after a car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (Macy), hires two dimwitted criminals (Buscemi and Stormare) to kidnap his wife to extort a ransom from her wealthy father.
Selected for our festival because much of the action takes place in the bitter cold and snow, and because it’s a fantastic film!
Filmed in the United States in early 1995, Fargo premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d’Or. Joel Coen won the festival’s Prix De La Mise En Scène (Best Director Award). The film was a critical and commercial success, earning particular acclaim for the Coens’ direction and script and the performances of McDormand, Macy, and Buscemi. Fargo received seven Oscar nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Macy, winning two: Best Actress for McDormand and Best Original Screenplay for the Coens.
In 1998, the American Film Institute named Fargo one of the 100 greatest American films, the most recent film on that list; but it was omitted from its 2007 list. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” (Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes)
4 p.m. Break for dinner on your own
6 p.m. Screening Dr. Zhivago. Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 film epic directed by David Lean, based on the 1957 novel by Boris Pasternak. The story is set in Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War. The film stars Omar Sharif in the title role as Yuri Zhivago, a married physician and poet whose life is altered by the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war, and Julie Christie as his lover Lara Antipova. Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna, and Rita Tushingham play supporting roles.
Although immensely popular in the West, Pasternak’s book was banned in the Soviet Union for decades. As the film could not be made there, it was instead filmed mostly in Spain. It was an international co-production between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Italian producer Carlo Ponti. Much of the story is set in winter, rounding out our three-film frozen theme.
At the 38th Academy Awards, Doctor Zhivago was nominated for 10 Oscars (including Best Picture) and won five: Best Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design. It also won five awards at the 23rd Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture. As of 2022, it is the ninth highest-grossing film worldwide after adjusting for inflation. In 1998, it was ranked 39th by the American Film Institute on their “100 Years … 100 Movies” list, and by the British Film Institute in 1999 as the 27th greatest British film ever. (Running time: 3 hours 17 minutes)
I hope you will join us for this really special day curated by me, Traci Baker, your Director of Community Activities, and Communications with Andy Friedenberg, Director of Cinema Society of PebbleCreek giving his endorsement and support.
I think these movies will be entertaining and each brings something different—we won’t feel like we have seen anything like the film before, or after, any of these at the end of our day together.
Unique in their story and genres, but alike in their being among the greatest films ever made—I genuinely believe this will be a fantastic day that we will remember, as fellow film lovers here in PebbleCreek for years to come.
See you at the movies!