{"id":393797,"date":"2026-07-10T19:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393797\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:40:09","slug":"a-golden-age-of-moviegoing-returns-at-oaklands-paramount-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393797\/","title":{"rendered":"A Golden Age of Moviegoing Returns at Oakland\u2019s Paramount Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paramount Movie Classics are back; also, artists choose the films at the Roxie&#8217;s Fraenkel Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Jul 10, 2026<\/p>\n<p>Updated 12:15 pm PT<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ParamountTheatre.Oakland-scaled.jpg\"  alt=\"The inside of an ornate movie theater, shown from the balcony, with a large red curtain and seats\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Paramount Theatre is a fully restored Art Deco theater in Oakland, designed by San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger and opened in 1931.\u00a0(Courtesy Paramount Theatre)<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">Two different film series on opposite sides of the Bay are partway through their runs, and both are can\u2019t-miss affairs for different reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">At the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, it\u2019s all about the atmosphere. For the first time since 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paramountoakland.org\/events\/movie-classics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount Movie Classics<\/a> are back at the beautifully restored 1930s movie palace.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13b669_b315bda779a54943a214a15c6ae99a89mv2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13991529\"  \/>A scene from \u2018The Maltese Falcon\u2019 (1941), with Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet (clockwise from top left).<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">Jason Blackwell, general manager of the Paramount, <a href=\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/2026\/05\/08\/oakland-paramount-movie-classics-relaunch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Oaklandside in May<\/a> that this year\u2019s relaunch will serve as a test to \u201cgauge audience interest.\u201d Paramount Movie Classics continue through the end of the month, with Mrs. Doubtfire (July 10), The Mark of Zorro (July 17) and The Maltese Falcon (July 24).<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">Meanwhile, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, it\u2019s all about cross-pollination. The <a href=\"https:\/\/fraenkelgallery.com\/exhibitions\/fraenkel-film-festival-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fraenkel Film Festival<\/a>, running through July 18, screens movies picked by visual artists associated with Fraenkel Gallery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">Now in its third year, the festival so far has featured films like the neo-horror Get Out, chosen by interdisciplinary artist Carrie Mae Weems, and the 1950s film noir Pickup on South Street, chosen by photographer and activist Nan Goldin.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/solaris-1972-featured-1400x590-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13991530\"  \/>A scene from \u2018Solaris\u2019 (1972), with (L\u2013R) Natalya Bondarchuk and Donatas Banionis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">For those familiar with each artists\u2019 work, the program invites deeper viewing through their eyes. What does photographer Lee Friedlander see in Hitchcock\u2019s North By Northwest (July 11)? Why does Grey Gardens (July 18) resonate with artist Sophie Calle?<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\">The upcoming lineup includes films like Solaris, Klute and Mystery Train, worthy of seeing in any context. But for a film like Princess Mononoke (July 10), one can\u2019t help but think of the artist and actress Martine Gutierrez\u2019s remarks that \u201cthe ethereal realm is what matters, and every day we are convinced otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"blocks-v1-Paragraph-__Paragraph__paragraph wp-block wp-block-paragraph container\" title=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paramountoakland.org\/events\/movie-classics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount Movie Classics<\/a> run Fridays through July 24 at the Paramount Theatre (2025 Broadway, Oakland); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paramountoakland.org\/events\/movie-classics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">program and details here<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/roxie.com\/series\/fraenkel-film-festival-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fraenkel Film Festival<\/a> runs through Saturday, July 18 at the Roxie Theater (3125 16th Street, San Francisco); <a href=\"https:\/\/roxie.com\/series\/fraenkel-film-festival-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">program and details here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount Movie Classics are back; also, artists choose the films at the Roxie&#8217;s Fraenkel Film Festival. Jul 10,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-393797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}