Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Watching a Movie with 50,000 Strangers:
Chicago's Movies in the Park Festival
7-14-04 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Singin’ In The Rain, often cited as the greatest musical ever made, has many highlights other than its famed
Gene Kelly title number and as an unabashed movie musical maven, I’d seen the film many times – on television,
video and DVD – but I’d never managed to see a revival house screening. So when the City of Chicago’s
Outdoor Film Festival was announced five years ago my little showtune queen heart starting beating
furiously. Singin’ In The Rain was on the bill.
I’ve been watching movies avidly for 40 years and can probably relate in detail every film experience that has
Meant Something to me. Nothing really unusual in that – everyone who loves movies has their own list. For me,
the majority of these have been communal encounters – those rare times when a group of strangers sitting in
the dark has the same elevated movie experience (Fahrenheit 9/11 was a recent example).
But I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older and seen a lot more movies than the average Joe and Joanne filmgoer; that
my tastes have often diverged wildly from the popular mainstream. I’ve liked a lot of stuff that a lot of people
have hated or ignored or maybe just thought was old hat. Stuff like The Band Wagon and The Red Shoes and
Singin’ In The Rain.
Sitting down on the blanket my friends and I spread out on the grass five years ago I felt a little anxiety beneath
the shared food and laughter. Looking around Butler Field in Grant Park I saw every age, race and gender
represented and wondered how Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor would tap dance their way
into the hearts of all these crude, uncultured urbanites. At the film’s end I was stunned to find every one of my
fears and prejudices wiped away, like so much rain under Kelly’s soft shoes.
This long preamble is merely to highlight the intensity of that evening. The pert, dazzling Singin’ In The Rain
projected on a 50 foot screen aside, the weather was perfect, the view, breathtaking – to the north and west,
our city’s gorgeous skyline, to the east beyond a clump of trees, the pulsing Lake Shore Drive traffic with the
lake just beyond. And all around, perhaps 30,000 people or more, sang along with EVERY SONG, laughed
uproariously (especially when Kathleen Freeman as the affected diction coach coached obnoxious silent star
Jean Hagen with the phrase, “And I Cawwwn’t stand him” and Hagen, with her nails on the chalkboard voice,
piped back, “An I kent stan im”), and were silent as the grave when things got tense between Kelly and
Reynolds toward the end of the movie.
Even better – walking back to the parking garage I saw the same assortment of races and genders discussing
their favorite parts of the movie, laughing and carrying on, as delighted as any group walking out after a bracing
Showtune Night at Sidetrack. One group of 20-somethings even sang snatches of “Make ‘Em Laugh” as we
waited in line at the pre-pay self-park. Amazing!
Since that movie night that Meant Something, I’ve returned to the Grant Park series each year hoping to have it
repeated – and it has to some degree (particularly for Meet Me In St. Louis) but – and here comes the warning –
as the popularity of the series has grown, so have the crowds. And now, not all of them are coming for the
movies. The festival at times has seemed like a latter day Lover’s Lane – and a loud one to boot. Also, the
blanket-vs.-chair-hey-you’re-blocking-my-view-I-was-here-first debate continues to rage and the City has
never officially addressed the problem other than to suggest “courtesy toward your fellow movie goers” which is
a decided drawback.
But then again, on a night when the Movie Gods are smiling….
This year’s festival kicked off last night with His Girl Friday and continues each Tuesday evening at sunset. The
schedule:
July 20 – The Birds (The last great Hitchcock film, a terrific choice.)
July 27 – Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (Capra’s dialogue heavy political tract saved by James Stewart and
the master comedienne, Jean Arthur.)
August 3 – Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? (Tracy-Hepburn-Portier talk and talk and talk and talk in this very
dated mixed marriage comedy-drama. With Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton – who resided at Chicago’s 3-
Arts Club for a while.)
August 10 – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (The paranoid sci-fi classic – this year’s best selection.)
August 17 – Roman Holiday (Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck in Billy Wilder’s film that rightfully made Hepburn
an international sensation.)
August 24 – Guys and Dolls (This inflated musical, now sadly pertinent with Brando’s passing, is going to make
for a very long evening.)
Chicago's Movies in the Park Festival
7-14-04 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Singin’ In The Rain, often cited as the greatest musical ever made, has many highlights other than its famed
Gene Kelly title number and as an unabashed movie musical maven, I’d seen the film many times – on television,
video and DVD – but I’d never managed to see a revival house screening. So when the City of Chicago’s
Outdoor Film Festival was announced five years ago my little showtune queen heart starting beating
furiously. Singin’ In The Rain was on the bill.
I’ve been watching movies avidly for 40 years and can probably relate in detail every film experience that has
Meant Something to me. Nothing really unusual in that – everyone who loves movies has their own list. For me,
the majority of these have been communal encounters – those rare times when a group of strangers sitting in
the dark has the same elevated movie experience (Fahrenheit 9/11 was a recent example).
But I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older and seen a lot more movies than the average Joe and Joanne filmgoer; that
my tastes have often diverged wildly from the popular mainstream. I’ve liked a lot of stuff that a lot of people
have hated or ignored or maybe just thought was old hat. Stuff like The Band Wagon and The Red Shoes and
Singin’ In The Rain.
Sitting down on the blanket my friends and I spread out on the grass five years ago I felt a little anxiety beneath
the shared food and laughter. Looking around Butler Field in Grant Park I saw every age, race and gender
represented and wondered how Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor would tap dance their way
into the hearts of all these crude, uncultured urbanites. At the film’s end I was stunned to find every one of my
fears and prejudices wiped away, like so much rain under Kelly’s soft shoes.
This long preamble is merely to highlight the intensity of that evening. The pert, dazzling Singin’ In The Rain
projected on a 50 foot screen aside, the weather was perfect, the view, breathtaking – to the north and west,
our city’s gorgeous skyline, to the east beyond a clump of trees, the pulsing Lake Shore Drive traffic with the
lake just beyond. And all around, perhaps 30,000 people or more, sang along with EVERY SONG, laughed
uproariously (especially when Kathleen Freeman as the affected diction coach coached obnoxious silent star
Jean Hagen with the phrase, “And I Cawwwn’t stand him” and Hagen, with her nails on the chalkboard voice,
piped back, “An I kent stan im”), and were silent as the grave when things got tense between Kelly and
Reynolds toward the end of the movie.
Even better – walking back to the parking garage I saw the same assortment of races and genders discussing
their favorite parts of the movie, laughing and carrying on, as delighted as any group walking out after a bracing
Showtune Night at Sidetrack. One group of 20-somethings even sang snatches of “Make ‘Em Laugh” as we
waited in line at the pre-pay self-park. Amazing!
Since that movie night that Meant Something, I’ve returned to the Grant Park series each year hoping to have it
repeated – and it has to some degree (particularly for Meet Me In St. Louis) but – and here comes the warning –
as the popularity of the series has grown, so have the crowds. And now, not all of them are coming for the
movies. The festival at times has seemed like a latter day Lover’s Lane – and a loud one to boot. Also, the
blanket-vs.-chair-hey-you’re-blocking-my-view-I-was-here-first debate continues to rage and the City has
never officially addressed the problem other than to suggest “courtesy toward your fellow movie goers” which is
a decided drawback.
But then again, on a night when the Movie Gods are smiling….
This year’s festival kicked off last night with His Girl Friday and continues each Tuesday evening at sunset. The
schedule:
July 20 – The Birds (The last great Hitchcock film, a terrific choice.)
July 27 – Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (Capra’s dialogue heavy political tract saved by James Stewart and
the master comedienne, Jean Arthur.)
August 3 – Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? (Tracy-Hepburn-Portier talk and talk and talk and talk in this very
dated mixed marriage comedy-drama. With Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton – who resided at Chicago’s 3-
Arts Club for a while.)
August 10 – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (The paranoid sci-fi classic – this year’s best selection.)
August 17 – Roman Holiday (Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck in Billy Wilder’s film that rightfully made Hepburn
an international sensation.)
August 24 – Guys and Dolls (This inflated musical, now sadly pertinent with Brando’s passing, is going to make
for a very long evening.)
Everybody Sing Along!
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