It was 50 years ago that cinemagoers first watched the Fab Four legging it through the title sequence of A Hard Day’s Night. It happens all over again when the Dick Lester–directed classic returns to the big screen—complete with brash opening chords and Paul’s grandfather—in a newly restored print debuting at the Cinematheque on July 4 (www.thecinematheque.ca/).

“I think it’s a film that was key in the worldwide explosion of Beatlemania. It kind of cemented it as a phenomenon,” said Cinematheque executive and artistic director Jim Sinclair, in a call to the Straight. Sinclair added that the 1964 film “took the aesthetic advances of the French new wave and reinvented the movie musical for the rock ’n’ roll era”. The opening-night event features UBC rockumentary scholar Michael Baker holding forth on this and all the other reasons that A Hard Day’s Night still makes us feel all right.

There could hardly be a better reason to get yourself out of the above-average temperatures and below-normal rainfall predicted for the Lower Mainland this summer, and into a dark, comfortable cinema. Actually, there are plenty of good reasons, with a raft of special movie events lined up for the Metro Vancouver area in the next three months.

This Saturday (June 14), the Cinematheque invites you all to its sixth annual open house. Come for the projection booth, library, and archive tours, stay for the free popcorn and screening of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Still at the Cinematheque, July is also Alejandro Jodorowsky month with a retrospective of the visionary Chilean’s films, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, plus a return engagement of Frank Pavich’s dazzling doc, Jodorowsky’s Dune, and—best of all—the Vancouver debut of Jodo’s latest, The Dance of Reality.

On July 20, the Cinematheque joins hands with the Indian Summer festival for an all-ages Cinema Sunday screening of 2008’s “astonishingly original” (thank you, Roger Ebert) animated feature Sita Sings the Blues. A Bollywood dance class follows the film.

Meanwhile—and in stark contrast to Gen. Jack D. Ripper’s precious bodily fluids—the reality of war comes to the Vancity Theatre from Friday to Sunday (June 13 to 15). Apocalypse WWI is possibly the definitive treatment of the Great War, with over four hours of painstakingly colorized archival film assembled into a vast, five-part overview of events. Producer Josette D. Normandeau is on hand for introductions and panel discussions.

The Film Centre (www.viff.org/) has still more reality for us. Running from June 20 to 26, the Best of Hot Docs brings us nine acclaimed features, covering everything from the not-so-great skeptic-in-chief James Randi (An Honest Liar) to the life story of Sesame Street vet Caroll Spinney (I Am Big Bird).

Spreading itself out over the entire course (almost) of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, The Beautiful Game is a five-film series of soccer-themed movies from Latin America brought to you by Iberoamerican Images. The Game finally ends on July 7 with Maradona by Kusturica, although serious soccer enthusiasts might want to take advantage of Thursday’s (June 12) Brazil vs. Croatia match, getting a live broadcast on the Vancity’s big screen from the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo.

Right before returning to the summer-stock portion of its ongoing Woody Allen 4 Seasons program—kicking off, appropriately enough, with A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (July 7)—the Vancity hosts the eighth annual Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival. Shou-Ho’s Good Luck! Boy opens the three-day event on June 27. The two-day Venezuelan Film Festival follows at the same venue from July 25 to 26.

If summer is an otherwise slow time for film festivals in Vancouver, Richmond’s ever-expanding Your Kontinent Film and Media Arts Festival consistently programs a variety of hard-to-see Asian features. This theme of this year’s festival, running July 17 to 26, is Technology and Society.

For something completely different, you could head to the Scotiabank Theatre Vancouver or Cineplex Odeon International Village theatre in Vancouver on July 20 for the HD broadcast of Monty Python Live (mostly), wherein the five remaining members of the Python team reunite for a one-off stage performance at London’s O2 Arena. The late Graham Chapman will no doubt be remembered (mostly). Encore screenings will be held on July 23 and 30.

But if you really need to break out of the mould, there’s always the reliable Rio Theatre (riotheatre.ca/ ) to upset the apple cart with a plethora of fun, from the action-packed Bruce Lee Night (July 20) to the shark-jumping Sharknado 2 (August 1).

If you feel like taking a breather in the fresh air after all of the above, Stanley Park’s free outdoor movie schedule begins with The Lego Movie on July 8, and continues with a whole bunch of classic faves (Pretty in Pink, Footloose, and Mean Girls, among others) before wrapping things up on September 2 with the closing film, The Princess Bride.