So you have a hot date this weekend and you need to come up withsomething to do. Youùre racking your brain for cheap, original ideas, butletùs face it, youùre probably just going to settle for the classicfall-back: dinner and a movie.
While dinner and a movie is certainly a safe and reliable outing, itùs alsothoroughly unoriginal. Plus, with the ridiculous prices of movie tickets andpopcorn these days, youùre likely to be out $50 or more when itùs all saidand done, even though you and your sweetheart have shared nothing more thana typical, mundane evening out.
But the life of a moviegoer is about to get a bit more interesting this summer.
Baltimoreùs Little Italy is revamping the whole dinner and a movie concept,making it more fun, more enlightening and best of all, cheaper. As its namesuggests, the Little Italy Open-Air Film Festival blends yummy Italian food,Italian-themed movies and warm summer breeze for a charming evening thatwill make your date swoon.
Every Friday night in July and August, you can head down to Little Italy,grab some pasta at one of the many Italian restaurants, then catch a freemovie at the makeshift outdoor amphitheater at the intersection of High andStiles streets. Movies start at 9 p.m. and while there are some chairsavailable, the Little Italy Restaurant Association suggests bringing yourown seats.
The films playing at the festival range from completely American (like HughGrantùs Mickey Blue Eyes , playing August 18, or the Minnie Driver and DavidDuchovney flick Return to Me which played earlier this month) to entirelyItalian subtitles galore. Keys to the House playing July 28, is a 2004Italian film about a father getting to know his disabled teenage son. Bread and Tulips , another Italian flick showing Aug. 11, follows a housewifewho gets left by her husband and son at a roadside cafe and instead ofcrying in her soup, she hitchhikes to Venice.
Not a fan of the subtitles and cultural films? The festival has somethingfor comedy junkies as well.
In I Love You to Death , playing August 4, a family-owned pizza parlor setsthe scene for a group of women who repeatedly try, and fail, to kill acheating husband. Big Night follows two brothers planning a concert in adesperate attempt to keep their restaurant in business. It hits the outdoorscreen on August 25.
This Friday featueres a showing of Avalon , a 1990 film about a Russianfamily adapting to life in America.
For a full schedule of movies, visit the Little Italy RestaurantAssociationùs website at www.littleitalyrestaurants.com. Opa!
