Hello my Classic Fiction Enthusiasts-
North by Northwest will be playing at the Paramount on 8/23 for one evening, for a mere $5.00! If you like, feel free to join me for this classic Hitchcock film.

We will meet at the Paramount where I will be standing in line. The day before we meet, I will send an e-mail with my phone number and description of what I'm wearing so you can find me. We will enter the theatre to get seats at 7:00 sharp. We will have about 30 minutes (festivities begin at 7:30, curtain goes up at 8 p.m.) to have a drink and socialize.

If you've never been to the Paramount in Oakland, you're in for a real treat!

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It's like stepping back into the past, into one of those glorious movie palaces of a bygone era! And all for a five-dollar admission.Film showings at the Paramount include a half-hour organ concert of classic songs (starting at 7:30), followed by cartoons, newsreels, clips of coming attractions, and even a raffle drawing with prizes such as dinners for two at some of the area's finest restaurants! Winner of the East Bay Express's "Best Movie-Going Experience" and voted "Best Deal in the Bay Area," it's a wonderful night out on the town!

I recommend taking BART, which stops right underneath the theater at the 19th street station (20th street exit).

http://www.paramounttheatre.com/direct.html#parking

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North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".

North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets.

This is one of several Hitchcock films with a music score by Bernard Herrmann and features a memorable opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass. This film is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.

Time magazine called the film "smoothly troweled and thoroughly entertaining." A. H. Weiler of The New York Times made it a "Critic's Pick" and said it was the "year's most scenic, intriguing and merriest chase"; Weiler complimented the two leads: "Cary Grant, a veteran member of the Hitchcock acting varsity, was never more at home than in this role of the advertising-man-on-the-lam. He handles the grimaces, the surprised look, the quick smile, ... and all the derring-do with professional aplomb and grace, In casting Eva Marie Saint as his romantic vis-à-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore. Although she is seemingly a hard, designing type, she also emerges both the sweet heroine and a glamorous charmer."

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/1/3/c/event_244884892.jpegDuring its two-week run at Radio City Music Hall, the film grossed $404,056, setting a record in that theater's non-holiday gross.

The film earned an estimated $5.5 million in rentals in the US and Canada during its first year of release.

The London edition of Time Out magazine, reviewing the film nearly a half-century after its initial release, commented:

"Fifty years on, you could say that Hitchcock’s sleek, wry, paranoid thriller caught the zeitgeist perfectly: Cold War shadiness, secret agents of power, urbane modernism, the ant-like bustle of city life, and a hint of dread behind the sharp suits of affluence. Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill, the film’s sharply dressed ad exec who is sucked into a vortex of mistaken identity, certainly wouldn’t be out of place in Mad Men. But there’s nothing dated about this perfect storm of talent, from Hitchcock and Grant to writer Ernest Lehman (Sweet Smell of Success), co-stars James Mason and Eva Marie Saint, composer Bernard Herrmann and even designer Saul Bass, whose opening-credits sequence still manages to send a shiver down the spine."

Author and journalist Nick Clooney praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".

North By Northwest currently holds a 100% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 61 reviews. The site's consensus calls the film "Gripping, suspenseful and visually iconic" and claims it "laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow." The film ranks at number 98 in Empire magazines list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time. The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay #21 on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.

North by Northwest was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing (George Tomasini), Best Production Design (William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye,Henry Grace, Frank McKelvy), and Best Original Screenplay (Ernest Lehman). All three awards went instead to Ben-Hur. The film also won, for Lehman, a 1960 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 1995, North by Northwest was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In June 2008, the AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten" – the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres – after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. North by Northwest was acknowledged as the seventh-best film in the mystery genre.

American Film Institute recognition

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #40 AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #4 AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: Phillip Vandamm – Nominated Villain AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #55 AFI's 10 Top 10 – #7 Mystery Film

Carissa

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Special Film Event: North by Northwest

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Special Film Event: North by Northwest

[Bay Area] East Bay Classic Fiction Book Club

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