August Movie Club: Romance, Aliens & Hollywood Icons Light Up OETA Screens
August on OETA Movie Club offers a dazzling range of movie moments, from sweeping Italian romance to gender-bending jazz-age hijinks, to mind-bending sci-fi and alien adventures. Whether you’re a fan of golden age comedy, modern classics, or heartfelt journeys, our lineup is packed with iconic stories, legendary stars, and exclusive trivia you won’t get anywhere else. Settle in Saturday nights at 9 p.m., with encores the following Friday at 11 p.m.
🎬 Double Feature: Letters to Juliet (2010) & Some Like It Hot (1959)
📅 Airs Saturday, August 2 at 9 p.m. | Encore Friday, August 8 at 11 p.m.
Letters to Juliet (2010)
Starring:Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal
In this charming modern-day fairytale, aspiring writer Sophie stumbles upon a decades-old love letter tucked into a Verona wall—and sets off on a journey across Italy to reunite two long-lost lovers. Amanda Seyfried brings warmth and heart to a tale that celebrates timeless romance, while Vanessa Redgrave stuns as a woman who never gave up on her first love.
🎬 Fun Facts
• Talk about a legendary love story—Dame Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero aren’t just a couple on screen. They’re married in real life and once played the iconic lovers Lancelot and Guenevere in Camelot (1967). Knights, castles, and true romance!
• Juliet’s secretaries are real! Known as The Juliet Club, these dedicated volunteers in Verona, Italy, lovingly reply to thousands of letters left for Juliet each year, and even organize events celebrating Romeo and Juliet’s timeless tale of love.
• Letters to Juliet features “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, a song inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Like the film, the hit track puts a romantic spin on the classic tragedy by imagining a happy ending instead of heartbreak.
• Ashley Lilley, who plays Patricia in Letters to Juliet, is real-life best friends with Amanda Seyfried. The duo also starred together in Mamma Mia! (2008), making this film a sweet reunion on screen.
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Starring:Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon
When two musicians witness a mob hit, they go on the run disguised as women in an all-female band. What follows is chaos, charm, and pure comic genius. Marilyn Monroe shines in one of her most iconic roles, while Lemmon and Curtis deliver legendary performances in this Billy Wilder masterpiece often ranked as one of the greatest comedies of all time.
🎬 Fun Facts
• Marilyn Monroe famously struggled with her lines in Some Like It Hot, it took 47 takes to get “It’s me, Sugar” right, and 59 takes for “Where’s the bourbon?” Director Billy Wilder eventually taped the line inside every drawer on set to help her remember!
• Marilyn Monroe insisted all her movies be shot in color, it was in her contract! But for Some Like It Hot, director Billy Wilder convinced her to go black and white after a funny costume test: Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon’s makeup gave their faces an unexpected green tint.
• To test their disguises, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon wandered the Goldwyn Studios lot in full makeup and heels, and even touched up their faces in public ladies’ rooms. When no one batted an eye, they knew they could pass. Their real-life test run inspired a scene on the train in Some Like It Hot!
• In 2008, a California man discovered a little black dress in his closet, only to learn it once belonged to Marilyn Monroe! Appraisers from Antiques Roadshow confirmed it was the very dress she was sewn into for Some Like It Hot, valuing it at a jaw-dropping $250,000.
▶️Watch the Antiques Roadshow clip
Arrival (2016)
📅 Airs Saturday, August 23 at 9 p.m. | Encore Friday, August 29 at 11 p.m.
Starring:Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
When mysterious alien ships land across the globe, an elite linguist is recruited to decipher their language and intentions. What follows is a profoundly emotional exploration of memory, communication, and humanity’s place in the universe. Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival is one of the most critically acclaimed sci-fi films of the 21st century, and a visual and intellectual marvel.
🎬 Fun Facts
• Arrival was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, taking home the Oscar for Best Sound Editing, but one name was shockingly missing from the list: Amy Adams. Despite earning Best Actress nominations from the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, SAG Awards, Critics Choice, and even the Saturn Awards, Adams was not nominated for an Oscar. Critics, audiences, and major film groups widely considered it one of the year’s biggest snubs.
• Director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Bradford Young described the look of Arrival as “Dirty Sci-fi,” a grounded, moody aesthetic far from the glossy space epics we’re used to. Villeneuve said he wanted the film to feel like “a bad Tuesday morning, like when you were a kid on the school bus on a rainy day and you’d dream while looking out the window at the clouds.”
• Denis Villeneuve’s daughter, Salomé Villeneuve, is credited as the film’s “Hazmat Suit Specialist,” a title that sounds straight out of a sci-fi tech manual. Despite the industrial flair of the credit, Salomé is actually best known as a Canadian film director and screenwriter, not someone with a technical specialty in hazmat suits. The role was likely a playful or affectionate in-house nod.
Super 8 (2011)
📅 Airs Saturday, August 30 at 9 p.m. | Encore Friday, September 5 at 11 p.m.
Starring:Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler
In 1979, a group of Ohio kids filming a zombie movie witness a catastrophic train crash, and discover something otherworldly has escaped. Directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, Super 8 is a nostalgic love letter to coming-of-age sci-fi films like E.T. and The Goonies, blending wonder, suspense, and heart in a single reel.
🎬 Fun Facts
• During the filming of Super 8, young actor Riley Griffiths (a.k.a. Charles Kaznyk) pulled an epic April Fool’s prank on director J.J. Abrams. With Oscar-worthy panic, he told Abrams he’d lost his top-secret script at a mall in L.A., and that someone had posted it online. “He totally fell for it,” Griffiths said. “I think I might have been more scared than J.J., I was trembling.”
• Long before Super 8, a teenage J.J. Abrams and his friend Matt Reeves (future director of Cloverfield) were hired by Steven Spielberg to restore his old Super 8 home movies. Fast-forward a few decades, and the trio reunited, this time with Spielberg producing and Abrams directing Super 8. Spielberg was reportedly on set often, and both he and Abrams have said it was some of the most fun they’ve ever had on a film.
• Those flies buzzing around Dr. Thomas Woodward (played by Glynn Turman) in Super 8? Totally real. Drawn to the bloody makeup, they weren’t part of the plan, but Turman insisted they stay. “They were going to get rid of them,” he said, “but I thought no, it’s just so disturbing.”
• The Super 8 casting team auditioned 5,000 kids before landing on the film’s young stars. But due to strict child labor laws, they only had limited hours to film with them. The clever solution? Stand-ins. So, nearly every time you see a reverse shot showing the kids from behind, you’re probably looking at someone else entirely.
📺 Why Watch on OETA?
OETA Movie Club airs every Saturday night at 9 p.m., with encore showings the following Friday at 11 p.m. Enjoy commercial-free screenings, expert commentary, and behind-the-scenes trivia that will deepen your appreciation of every film. Whether you’re discovering these classics for the first time or falling in love with them all over again, there’s no better way to watch.