Sunday Afternoons at the Paradise
Join TFS for Season 78’s Sunday Matinée Series generously sponsored by our good friend, author and documentary filmmaker, Mr. Don Hutchison.
Please save these dates and visit us regularly for further updates on the films, added shorts, and to purchase tickets:
Sunday, June 28th Purchase your tickets HERE!
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Director: Édouard Molinaro. Run Time: 92 min. Release Year: 1978 Language: French
Starring: Carmen Scarpitta, Claire Maurier, Michel Serrault, Rémi Laurent, Ugo Tognazzi
Two gay men living in St. Tropez have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men announces he is getting married. They try to conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the drag club downstairs when the fiancée and her parents come for dinner.
Before it inspired countless adaptations, La Cage aux Folles was already a sharp, joyful comedy with a lot to say. Set in Saint-Tropez, it follows a long-time couple – one a nightclub owner, the other its star performer – as they attempt to “play it straight” to impress ultra-conservative in-laws. What unfolds is a fast, character-driven farce that’s as heartfelt as it is hilarious, anchored by unforgettable performances and a story that still feels surprisingly current. Best experienced on the big screen, where each moment plays even better with a shared éclat de rire.
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SOME LIKE IT HOT
Director: Billy Wilder. Run Time: 123 min. Release Year: 1959
Starring: George Raft, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Pat O’Brien, Tony Curtis
In Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob hit, and flee the state in an all-female band disguised as Josephine and Daphne, but further complications set in.
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Sunday, July 12th Purchase your tickets HERE!
LOLA
Director: Jacques Demy. Run Time: 89 min. Release Year: 1961 Language: French, English Subtitles
Starring: Alan Scott, Anouk Aimée, Élina Labourdette, Jacques Harden, Marc Michel
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.
Jacques Demy’s Lola is French romance with a bittersweet edge – all chance meetings, missed timing, and lingering feelings. Anouk Aimée is magnetic in the title role, bringing warmth and mystery to a character you can’t quite forget. Stylish, wistful, and quietly devastating in the best way, it’s a film that rewards the big screen – where the atmosphere and emotion really settle in!
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THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
Director: Jacques Demy Run Time: 93 min. Release Year: 1964 Language: French, English Subtitles
Starring: Anne Vernon, Catherine Deneuve, Marc Michel, Mireille Perrey, Nino Castelnuovo
This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy’s return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.
A candy-coloured knockout of a musical where every line is sung, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is pure cinematic emotion. Catherine Deneuve is luminous at the centre of it all, and Michel Legrand’s score is the kind that gets under your skin and stays there – including the unforgettable “I Will Wait for You.” Romantic, heartbreaking, and visually electric, this is one of those films that feels made for a theatre – you don’t just watch it, you get washed over by it.
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Sunday, August 16th Purchase your tickets HERE!
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Director: Byron Haskin. Run Time: 85 min. Release Year: 1953
Starring: Ann Robinson, Frank Kreig, Gene Barry, Les Tremayne, Lewis Martin
The residents of a small town are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills, until they discover it is the first of many transport devices from Mars bringing an army of invaders invincible to any man-made weapon, even the atomic bomb.
As one of the defining blueprints for science fiction and alien invasion movies, H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1953) is a stunning thriller that blends visual style with meaningful themes. Set in a small American town, scientist Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) come in contact with a meteor. Suddenly, a horrifying Martian invasion takes place and overtakes the humans! What follows next is a deep reflection on war anxiety in the 1950s and the everlasting question of humanity’s place in the universe. Made for the big screen in glorious Technicolor, this magnificent film is renowned for its groundbreaking and Academy Award-winning special effects, as well as its indelible stamp on the sci-fi genre. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience it on the big screen!
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THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE
Director: Val Guest. Run Time: 98 min. Release Year: 1961
Starring: Bernard Braden, Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Michael Goodliffe
British reporters suspect an international cover-up of a global disaster in progress… and they’re right. Hysterical panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it hurtling towards the sun.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) is known as one of the most unsettling science fiction films of its time, and a classic in the apocalyptic genre. This compelling British drama takes place in near-future London. It follows a reporter (Edward Judd) and a veteran journalist (Leo McKern) who investigate odd shifts in the climate after the US and the Soviet Union have detonated nuclear explosives, causing the orbit of the Earth to change, and moving it closer to the Sun! The film explores whether humanity has pushed the Earth past the point of recovery, and gives a newsroom drama apocalyptic stakes. It’s best seen on the big screen, where the panic and dread feel even more ominous.
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Thank You from TFS!
Our matinée on Sunday, August 17th – at the blessedly air conditioned Paradise Theatre – will conclude the Toronto Film Society’s 77th season! But take heart, as we’ll be...
Sunday Afternoons at the Paradise
Join TFS for Season 78’s Sunday Matinée Series generously sponsored by our good friend, author and documentary filmmaker, Mr. Don Hutchison. Please save these dates and visit us regularly...
