Revivals at Riviera

Do you remember the pre-streaming, pre-Tivo, pre-DVD, pre-VCR days when Santa Barbara was among nearly every artsy city in the country that had cinematic art houses showing classic movies and curated retrospective among screenings of indie and foreign films? Now with its new After Hours weekend series, SBIFF’s Riviera Theatre is in many ways returning to those days, except instead of watching scratchy old prints with bad sound in a rundown room, viewers will be treated to most 4K restorations in the brilliantly renovated Riviera that boasts the best sound in town. The 9 pm screenings might be a tad too late in the evening for most of us who actually cut our collective cinematic teeth at the art houses, but new generations of movie lovers will now have the chance to experience these cult classics and more on the big screen. 

Up first is the 1977 zombie classic Dawn of the Dead, screening April 12-13, with the rest of April and May offering local hero James Cameron’s The Abyss (April 19-20), Escape from New York (April 26-27), Moulin Rouge (May 3-4), David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune (May 10-11), American Psycho (May 17-18), Top Gun (May 24-25), and Point Break (May 31-June 1). 

Visit https://sbiffriviera.com/after-hours