Paris Theater - A Century of Romance: Star-Crossed, On the Run, and Happily Ever After

February 14 - April 17, 2025

A Century of Romance: Star-Crossed, On the Run, and Happily Ever After

A Cinematic Rendezvous at the Paris

DETAILS

Valentine's Day may only happen once a year, but why spend only one day celebrating when there's so much love to give?

The Paris Theater is thrilled to announce A Century of Romance: Star-Crossed, On the Run, and Happily Ever After, a four-week series kicking off on Valentine’s Day weekend, picking up again Wednesday, March 5 and extending through April 17. Featuring a treasure trove of beautiful 35mm prints, special in-person guest appearances, and some of your favorite love stories in dazzling 4K, this series will bring you films from across one hundred years of cinema history that explore love, romance, heartbreak, and longing in a myriad of genres, tones, and time periods. Whether you’re looking to lose yourself in passionate affairs from bygone eras, young first loves, or volatile relationships that seemed destined for tragedy, A Century of Romance will pull on your heartstrings in more ways than one, collecting dozens of great love stories into four categories:

Silents & Screwballs, starting March 5
An Unlikely Pair, starting March 21
Lovers Abroad and Against the Odds, starting April 4
All’s Fair in Love and Boors: Lubitsch & Sturges, starting April 11

The series kicks off on Valentine’s Day weekend with three previously-announced screenings – Casablanca, Amélie, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

A special guest joining us during this series will be Matthew Modine, who celebrates the 40th anniversary of Vision Quest at the Paris on Thursday, March 13. The film will screen from an archival 35mm print courtesy of Warner Bros.

A Century of Romance will feature 50 films, including 27 on 35mm, with additional screenings to be announced in the coming weeks. Film lovers of any age are guaranteed to find a new favorite amidst this abundant celebration of screwball comedy, tear-jerking drama, period costumes, and modern heartache….all in the name of love!

Highlights of the Series include:

IN-PERSON Q&As:

Saturday, February 15: A Double Bill for a Double Bassist: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans preceded by Academy Award nominated short documentary The Only Girl in the Orchestra. Q&A with filmmaker Molly O’Brien and doc subject Orin O’Brien, daughter of Sunrise leading man George O’Brien.
Thursday, March 13: 40th Anniversary Screening of Vision Quest, followed by a Q&A with Matthew Modine. Archival 35mm print courtesy of Warner Bros.

WORLD PREMIERE OF 4K RESTORATION: Out of Africa

Celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, seven-time Academy Award-winning Out of Africa, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, makes its 4K Restoration debut at the Paris.

ARCHIVAL 35MM PRINTS:

Letter from an Unknown Woman, courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Morocco, preserved by the Library of Congress

My Favorite Wife, preserved by the Library of Congress

The Shop Around the Corner, from the Collection of the Library of Congress

A Century of Romance in Four Weeks:

Silents & Screwballs, starting March 5

From the early days of Hollywood, romance was writ large onscreen by the silent clowns like Chaplin and Keaton, as well as captivating silent dramas. When sound took over, the rapid fire dialogue and farcical plots of the great screwball comedies took over, whose inspiration stretched onward through the decades. Films this week include:

An Unlikely Pair, starting March 21

“They’ll never end up together!” ….or will they? Some of the greatest cinematic romances involve couples long kept apart by issues of class, race, or their seemingly totally incompatible personalities. Discover the joy of watching the unlikely become inevitable in these films:

Lovers Abroad and Against the Odds, starting April 4

Nothing sweeps you up in a great romance quite like a breathtaking vista as its background, or all-but-insurmountable odds stacked up against your favorite onscreen lovers. Sometimes it all works out, sometimes it doesn’t, but either way you can’t take your eyes offscreen for a moment:

All’s Fair in Love and Boors: Lubitsch & Sturges, starting April 11

A Century of Romance’s final week will bring you a fantastic collection of double-features that pair enduring classics from two of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers - Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges - in a series we’re calling All’s Fair in Love and Boors, a fitting title for two filmographies that frequently depicted tug-of-war romances with haughty men and clever women battling for the upper hand. During this final week, we’ll also show 1935’s The Good Fairy, an under-appreciated discovery that feels like it could have been a collaboration by the two auteurs, on 35mm. Years before he became a director, screenwriter Sturges adapted this contemporary Hungarian play, replete with a cast of Lubitsch veterans: Margaret Sullivan, Herbert Marshall and Frank Morgan. But the script’s dazzling comedic wordplay is pure Sturges, and - on first viewing - you’ll find yourself wondering if this is Lubitsch adapting Sturges or Sturges channeling Lubitsch! (The film was, in fact, directed by William Wyler.)

In celebration of all things “love,” you can also “Match with Your Perfect Love Story” with a brand-new Collection of series and films designed for every kind of romantic journey, right in your Netflix queue. In addition to new Netflix movies like Kinda Pregnant, La Dolce Villa alongside beloved favorites like To All the Boys, Set It Up, Always Be My Maybe and The Kissing Booth, you can also discover licensed films like 13 Going on 30 and Notting Hill to Sixteen Candles and An Affair to Remember.

CURRENT AND UPCOMING FILMS

Fri Feb 14 - Sun Mar 23