What's the Buzz?

The Big Blue

Second Time Around

Dulled by the rash of testosterone turbo-charged event movies? Leery of hearing a generation raised by bubblegum pop spout out Shakespeare? A host of vintage rereleases take the anxiety out of going to the movies: You already know they're gonna be good. On July 7, Dobie Theatre presents a remastered print of Billy Wilder's 1950 classic rip on Hollywood decadence, Sunset Boulevard. Gloria Swanson shines as the Original Diva, Norma Desmond. And for the experimental set, Dobie's dishing out Andy Warhol's Trash (1970) for one week, starting this Friday, May 26 . Written and directed by Paul Morrissey, Trash examines the Factory friendship between a drug addict and a transvestite. After Martin Scorsese's successful rerelease of Luis Buñuel's Belle du Jour, the granddaddy of surrealism is getting another one of his classics dusted off with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Buñuel's exploration of middle-class morals won the 1972 Academy Award for best foreign film and serves as the template for later suburban dystopias The Ice Storm and American Beauty. Even the Eighties are finally getting their due with the rerelease of two "new-school" classics. In Luc Besson's 1988 diving-and-dolphins pic The Big Blue (July 14), best friends Enzo (The Professional's Jean Reno) and Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr) compete in a new variation on extreme sports -- deep sea diving, sans oxygen tank. A fabulous Eighties synthesized score, stunning visuals, and those just-so-damn-cute dolphins make for a feel-good experience that's still arthouse enough to maintain your indie credentials. And the Coen brothers' first feature film, the 1984 noir-esque Blood Simple (Aug. 4), returns to theatres this summer. A Texas tale of sex and sin, Blood Simple boasts a cast including Frances McDormand (before she was immortalized as Fargo's Marge Gunderson) and the beautifully weather-beaten M. Emmet Walsh.