Welcome to Radar, where we run down the up-and-coming arts events to mark your calendar for. Today’s edition is a masterpiece of American cinema, which screens this weekend at the historic Tampa Theatre.
The eight-time Oscar-winning epic our heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, is waging an emotional battle of her own. The charming Southern belle (played to stunning effect by Vivien Leigh) is sought after by many a man in her native Georgia, but she's spurned by the only one she wants. The rejection leads to a string of marriages – borne of spite, necessity, and just about everything but love. Even roguish hubby number three, Rhett Butler (played by Clark Gable) can't win Scarlett's affection. Destined for a life of tribulation, like a 19th-century Britney Spears, Scarlett faces more ups and downs than the Dow Jones – including the deaths of two husbands, the destruction of the family estate, and ridicule by the detractors who deem her too bold for proper society. But, like Britney, Scarlett isn't going quietly. (Pictured: Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind) The film is presented as part of the Summer Classic Movie Series, and is preceded by tours of the theater and a performance on the theater's Wurlitzer organ. Aug. 15-16, Sat.-Sun, 3 p.m., Tampa Theatre, 711 N. Franklin St., Tampa, $8, 813-274-8981, tampatheatre.org – Franki Weddington
This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2009.