A Movie Outside

I love summertime for the sheer fact that I get to watch movies outside on the grass downtown. After experiencing it in New York and falling in love with it, I knew it had to be something I continued doing even if I wasn't in New York. There are tons of Movies in the Park all over the valley, but most of them show family films. And while I'm certainly not one to disparage family films, there's something romantic and lovely about watching an old classic in the park.

Thankfully there's the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake, which plays host to many, many free things throughout the summer, and this month was celebrating the auteur filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. For anyone that was a film major, all of Hitchcock's films are classics and masterpieces. Monday night Phaedra, Emily and I were treated to Vertigo, one that I'd never seen. It stars Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak (in the blond role) as a retired detective and the friend's wife who is possibly having her body inhabited by a dead lady. Never mind the entire scene where she wakes up in a strangers house and is not at all weirded out by it, or the fact that they fall in love after having spent ten minutes together, or the fact that poor Midge gets the shaft. It's still a great film from the master of suspense. There were moments when I was truly shocked and felt moments of anxiety for the characters, despite the way-over-the-top music that told you what was happening and what you should be feeling.










I loved the feeling I had while sitting there with snacks and my sister and cousin, with the sun going down and city lights coming on, and feeling like I was in New York.