A Little of This, A Little of That: AFI Summer Movie Picks

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

THE AFI SILVER THEATRE and Cultural Center in Silver Spring always makes summers worth a cinephile's while. First there's Silverdocs, which features more than 100 films from around the world and draws both celebrities and tens of thousands of film-lovers to the center. Then there's AFI's annual "Lawrence of Arabia" screening, where it shows the award-winning film every Sunday from July to August.

And if you're not interested in documentaries about boxer Muhammad Ali ("Facing Ali"), Vogue editor Anna Wintour ("The September Issue") or Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James ("More Than a Game") and David Lean's epic film about T.E. Lawrence's partnership with the Arabs during World War I, then AFI has different film series during the summer that honor different genres, actors and directors who changed cinema as we know it.

Beginning this month and continuing into September, AFI will recognize the '80s, Steven Spielberg, French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut and Michael Douglas — an utterly random collection, but one that will probably appeal to most film fans. Each series has a few different flicks, but if you can't afford spending $10 on each, then we made it easy for you: We picked the ones from "Totally Awesome 3: More Films of the 1980s," "Steven Spielberg Retrospective, Part II," "The Films of Francois Truffaut, Part I" and "AFI Life Achievement Award Retrospective: Michael Douglas" that are totally worth your while. See them all, if you can afford to splurge — it's what we're planning on doing.

» GHOSTBUSTERS
As cheesy as it is charming, "Ghostbusters" was a different kind of '80s movie, one without Molly Ringwald or teenage melodrama but with science fiction, black comedy and one Bill Murray. Starring Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson as the wranglers of the ghost world, the film featured hilarious effects (especially the neon Slimer and huge Stay Puft Marshmallow Man), tons of quotable lines ("Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown!") and was actually, genuinely funny, with the kind of non-smutty humor that ceases to exist these days. Aykroyd and Ramis, who wrote the film together, play a backseat to the deadpan, perfectly funny Murray, and though their characters aren't fantastically developed, they don't need to be — the film is wonderfully frothy summer fun. Plus, Slavitza Jovan as the deity Gozer is the best David Bowie impression we've ever seen.

» JURASSIC PARK
Steven Spielberg's highest-grossing film may be markedly different than the Michael Crichton novel it's based on, but it's one of the most timeless, kid-pleasing thrillers ever, with its basic plot of man-makes-dinosaurs-they-escape-and-eat-people working to great effect. Could it get simpler, and could the special effects get any cooler? Scenes such as the one with the ripples in the water cup, the Tyrannosaurus Rex throwing the Jeep over the embankment and the raptors attacking the T. Rex haven't aged at all, and while seeing the film on the big screen won't make the dinosaurs real (bummer), it does make them more horrifying (especially when the raptors open doors!). And you can thank Spielberg for inspiring tons of other directors — especially Peter Jackson — to use special effects to make their own cinematic dreams (namely "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) come true.

» THE 400 BLOWS
If you're even remotely interested in French film, Francois Truffaut is a name you need to know. A filmmaker who helped usher in the country's New Wave movement, Truffaut was first a film critic, the man who developed the auteur theory — the idea that films are a reflection of a director's creative and personal vision — and was banned from the Cannes Film Festival because of his brutally unforgiving opinions. However, when he transitioned into filmmaking, "The 400 Blows" was praised and adored — as a semi-autobiographical account of Truffaut's own life, it exhibited a rejection of authority and an existentialist outlook that would drive Truffaut's future work and the entire New Wave movement. If you like Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson — both who say they have been influenced by New Wave — then you may very well like "The 400 Blows."

» ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
It's weird to think of Michael Douglas as anyone other then the guy who bagged Catherine Zeta-Jones, but before he was that slick husband, he was a legitimately talented actor and producer, appearing in "Basic Instinct" and "Fatal Attraction" (RIP, rabbit) and winning an Academy Award for producing "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which took home the Best Picture award that year. An adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, the film swept the rest of the awards that year, too - also winning for Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress in a Lead Role — and showcased Jack Nicholson just being Jack. As McMurphy, who is spending time in a mental institution for statutory rape, Nicholson is fantastically good, building up resistance against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) and inspiring confidence in the ward's other patients before Ratched's final tragic power play. And though Kesey himself doesn't like the film (a tidbit Chuck Palahniuk revealed in the foreword of the 2007 edition of the book) don't let that stop you — Douglas definitely knew what he was doing with this one.

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi
Photos courtesy Sony Pictures Home, NBC, AFI, United Artists/Photofest