We’re celebrating Norman Lloyd’s 102nd birthday tomorrow starting with a presentation of Live From TCM Classic Film Festival interview at 8pm ET / 5pm PT
TCM Classic Film Festival News! 2017 Passes on sale now at myt.cm/2017Fest. Head over soon. Passes sell out quickly.
Gina Lollobrigida in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968). I did a write-up of Lollobrigida’s interview at the TCM Classic Film Festival, during which she shared old Hollywood memories and feisty feminist wisdom!
A week ago we were still in Los Angeles, enjoying each other’s company
at the TCM Classic Film Festival. Relive the memories with us at http://myt.cm/zbNFLy.
Wherein TCM Programmer Stephanie Thames worries about your immortal soul and confesses her love for Cinema Paradiso (1988).
Here’s the thing, I love Cinema Paradiso. Blindly. With childlike purity. Don’t try and tell me it has any faults. I’ll fight you over this one. Over the years I’ve kind of started using it to judge people that I meet. If Cinema Paradiso doesn’t make you cry, I really worry that you may be some kind of Darth Vader, Voldemort type. And if you tell me you don’t like this movie, I have to straight up question your humanity. You may not have a soul.
So what’s so great about this movie, you ask? Well, besides EVERYTHING, if I had to get specific…it’s the bittersweet way it weaves together coming of age nostalgia with movie romance (that’s both romance in the movies and love for the movies). And then there’s that score. We all know that Ennio Morricone is one of the all time great film composers. I guess most people hold up his Leone western scores (like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) as his best work. But for me, Cinema Paradiso is Morricone’s masterpiece. And when the two things come together at the end – Morricone’s Love Theme plays over the montage of romantic movie splices – I dare you not to cry. I dare you.
Cinema Paradiso also features great performances, especially from Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio. We were lucky enough to have Cascio, who played young Toto, in attendance at tonight’s screening. He was just 8 years old when Cinema Paradiso was made, and was cast, as he told us tonight, by director Giuseppe Tornatore while walking to school one day. According to Cascio, there was no audition. Tornatore simply liked the look of him – the contrast in size between how small Cascio was and the big man Noiret. When asked if he had any acting experience before Cinema Paradiso, Cascio got cheers from the audience for his answer – “I was born an actor.”
Cascio is now an all grown up 36 year old. He made a number of films after Cinema Paradiso, but he is still so identified with the role, that everyone in Italy calls him Toto. “Cinema Paradiso is my life,” he said. “It will be in my heart forever.”
I can’t argue with that. For me, Cinema Paradiso was one of the highlights of this year’s Festival. Seeing it on the big screen, at the Chinese, with Toto in the audience was a near religious experience. And, to give everyone’s soul the benefit of the doubt, I have to believe there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Certainly not mine.
PS - I’m sort of kidding. A little. About the soulless thing. But really, I am judging you.
PSS – That’s a wrap on TCMFF2016. See you next year!
TCM Programmer Stephanie Thames talks movie favorites and admits her age??
This one flew by! I can’t believe we’re on the final day of TCMFF 2016. It has been another amazing festival! We can’t thank you enough for going on this journey with us once again. I’ve had a great time covering some films for you here on Tumblr. Today I’m going to be a little selfish. I’m checking out two movies that are personal favorites. Hopefully they’re some of your favorites too (or maybe I can convince you why they should be)!
Not to date myself, but Children of a Lesser God (1986) was one of the first “grown up” movies I remember seeing. You remember the age? When you finally get to watch the R-rated Oscar movies and not just the PG stuff? I swear I wasn’t technically old enough to see this one in the theater. I’d guess I watched it on HBO. Still, it holds a special place in my heart. It just seemed so mature…the tortured romance, the naked under water shots. I was sure that watching this one (and understanding probably half of it) made me an adult.
And how lucky we were at today’s screening to have Best Actress winner Marlee Matlin in attendance. If possible, she made me like the film even more. Matlin was interviewed briefly before the movie (by film historian Cari Beauchamp) – she was funny and candid, and I have to say, of all the interviews at this year’s festival, this was one of my favorites. I’m not sure how I missed it, or if I’ve just forgotten over the years that Matlin and co-star William Hurt were involved during the filming of Children of a Lesser God. To hear Matlin describe the relationship, “we hit it off, really hit it off, REALLY hit it off,” and then watch the dynamic play out on screen, added another layer to the story and the performances for me.
Matlin also openly shared her story of substance abuse and rehab. “What actor can say they got nominated for an Academy Award while in rehab?” she asked, proudly adding that she is 29 years sober. And she discussed working with director Randa Haines, “she got me and wasn’t afraid to try [to communicate].” Matlin joked that she and Haines developed special signs during filming that were something like baseball signals.
I was a little shocked to realize this is Children of a Lesser God’s 30th anniversary (with a gorgeous new 35mm print). I mean I’m glad I finally got to see it on the big screen, but wow, really…30 years? Now I might be feeling like too much of an adult!
TCM Programmer Stephanie Thames watches Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) and enjoys an interview with Carl Reiner.
Here we are at TCMFF day #3 already! Today I’ll be hitting a couple of the big name interviews at the TCL Chinese. First up, I’m excited to watch the noir homage-spoof Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. I’ll admit that it’s been years since I’ve seen this one. As always, it was great fun to see Steve Martin wind his way through (and get shot in) scenes from classic movies like The Killers (1946), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), and White Heat (1949) among so many others – and to receive a little help solving the crime from Bogart’s Philip Marlowe. My personal favorite scenes are the just for laughs bits – Barbara Stanwyck from Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) and the Bette Davis choking scene in Deception (1946) (cleaning woman!). Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid is entertaining for any moviegoer, but it’s really perfect for a TCMFF audience – folks who know the movies, love the noirs and get the inside jokes.
Writer-director Carl Reiner came out for an interview with Illeana Douglas following the film. To sum up, he may be a near perfect human being. He was hilarious (as expected), proud of and bragging appropriately on his children, he’s still best friends with Mel Brooks (they see each other 5-6 times a week, eat dinner and watch TV at night together), and he’s the most modern nonagenarian you’re likely to meet. How many 94 year olds are all over Twitter?
Reiner also told several stories about the making of Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. He recalled watching noirs for about six months, making notes on characters and dialogue and pasting these together into what he called a “labor of love” that became the Dead Men script. He said they paid about $10,000 a minute for the classic footage used in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, but because of residual laws, actors in the films received no compensation. He remembered getting a call from Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller, who’d heard they might be using footage from one of his films. When Weissmuller admitted that he couldn’t pay his rent, Reiner sent him $2,000 from the film’s budget, even though none of Weissmuller’s footage made it into the movie.
Reiner also briefly discussed the creation of The Dick Van Dyke Show – the subject of his latest book, Why & When The Dick Van Dyke Show Was Born. A book signing was held in the lobby following the event.
Quotes from the still gorgeous Gina Lollobrigida’s interview with Ben Mankiewicz before a screening of Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968) today at the TCL Chinese.
“She made Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple,” Humphrey Bogart on his Beat the Devil (1953) co-star Gina Lollobrigida.
“I’m here to be directed by Carol Reed,” Lollobridiga to co-star/producer Burt Lancaster who got a little too involved in trying to direct his fellow actors on Trapeze (1956).
“Howard Hughes was too rich,” Lollobrigida on the producer who brought her to the US and then never put her in a picture.
“We are not objects. We’re equal,” Gina Lollobrigida on women and success.
Wherein TCM Programmer Stephanie Thames revels in more rarities and ponders whether we can change our destinies.
It’s totally noir meets It’s a Wonderful Life. At least those were my expectations going into Repeat Performance (1947). I knew it was a high class outing from Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion, with a good pedigree – a cast that included Joan Leslie and Louis Hayward, as well as Tom Conway, Richard Basehart and narration by John Ireland. I knew it hadn’t been seen much in years. And I knew we were seeing it now thanks to a fantastic restoration from The Film Noir Foundation.
But that’s almost all I’d heard about Repeat Performance. And I was excited to experience it that way. I’m a planner – I can barely go into a movie without reading all the reviews, knowing the run time, etc. I like to know what to expect. But on occasion, especially at a festival like this, it can be refreshing to just relax, trust the programmers, and walk into a movie blind.
And clearly a lot of other folks had the same idea. It was a very respectable turn out at the Egyptian for an obscure 10 PM movie (on a night when festival exhaustion is starting to set in!) Noir guru Eddie Muller was on hand to give us a little primer on the film. He said that Repeat Performance has been his most requested movie over the years. And he was thrilled they were able to find a complete print and do a total restoration with help from the UCLA Film and TV Archive and The Packard Institute.
The end result was a gorgeous 35mm projection – and quite a fun little bit of time-rewinding intrigue. In Repeat Performance, Joan Leslie plays a woman who kills her husband on New Year’s Eve. She then wishes she could take it back and live the past year over. Her wish is granted and she attempts to alter her fate (don’t worry, no spoilers here!) For me, the movie became less of a noir as we went. It turned into less a story of murder and more an answer to the question – can we change our destiny? Again no spoilers, but I will say…I think Repeat Performance gives a different answer to that question that most films!
It’s a big day at #TCMFF for film noir fans, from classic to parody to neo-noir. http://goo.gl/ZcugmV
9:00 AM
ACE IN THE HOLE (1951): A small-town reporter (Kirk Douglas at his hammy best) milks a local disaster to get back into the big time, destroying everyone, including himself, along the way. Jan Sterling gives a tremendous performance as the trapped man’s opportunistic wife. Dir. Billy Wilder
NOON:
AN AFTERNOON WITH CARL REINER/DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID
DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID (1982):The film features a series of clips from famous film noirs intercut with new footage of a hard-boiled detective (Steve Martin) and a
possible femme fatale (Rachel Ward) to form a new and suitably convoluted noir
plot. The film was the last project of both costume designer Edith Head and
composer Miklós Rózsa
Dir. Carl Reiner
Followed by a discussion with director Carl Reiner.
3:15 PM
THE BIG SLEEP (1946): In Howard Hawks’ clever and sophisticated adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel, private eye Philip Marlowe’s (Humphrey Bogart) investigates the involvement of an opium addled (and nymphomaniacal) society girl (Martha Vickers) in the murder of a pornographer. He also has to determine if her sister (Lauren Bacall) is helping or hindering him. Dir. Howard Hawks
6:15PM
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973): This surprisingly effective adaption of Raymond Chandler’s novel successfully transports Phillip Marlow to the 1970s. Marlow, played wonderfully by Elliot Gould, of all people, helps his old friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) flee to Mexico when his wealthy wife is murdered. Marlow investigates the murder and becomes embroiled with an alcoholic writer (Sterling Hayder) and his wife (Nina van Pallandt). Dir. Robert Altman
Elliot Gould in Attendance.
9:15PM
BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1964): Jean-Luc Godard once described this film as “Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka.” The Alice part certainly fits his beautiful leading lady: his then-wife Anna Karina. She stars as a bored student who takes up with two small-time crooks (Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) with whom she plots to steal some money from her aunt’s house. Much of the picture seems to be a dreamlike riff on American gangster films. It’s also a love letter to Paris, transporting the American crime figures to a Parisian world of cafes and landmarks. In one memorable scene, the three kill time before the crime by trying to break the record for racing through the Louvre. Godard needed a commercial hit at the time, after the failure of Les Carabiniers (1963). He appealed to Columbia Pictures for $100,000, then, on François Truffaut’s advice, picked an adaptation of Dolores Hitchen’s roman noir Fools’ Gold from the list of suggestions they sent him. Although the film was panned in Paris, American critics like Manny Farber and Pauline Kael hailed it as one of his most accessible works. It was also a big influence on Quentin Tarantino, who named his production company A Band Apart, for the film’s French title, Bande à part. Dir: Jean-Luc Godard (Program notes courtesy of TCM Classic Film Festival)
A discussion with Anna Karina precedes the screening.
Wherein TCM Programmer Stephanie Thames talks rarities programming and marriage holidays.
Today I’m going to be checking out two films included in the Rarities series at the Festival. These are little seen films, and even more exciting for me (and hopefully you), they have never aired on TCM. So naturally these are films that went directly onto my must see list!
Up first is the pre-code delight, Pleasure Cruise (1933) – a film so rarely seen that it has exactly two user reviews on IMDb. The sparkling plot sends husband (Roland Young) and wife (Genevieve Tobin) on separate vacations to sort out their marriage woes – the trips referred to as marriage holidays. Tobin sets off on a cruise, ripe with suitors, not realizing that her husband is also onboard attempting to sabotage her romantic prospects. Of course, along the way, Young picks up a suitor of his own. Ralph Forbes and Una O’Connor co-star.
I’ll admit I had high hopes for Pleasure Cruise (and you know how that often goes), but in this case the film managed to surpass my expectations. From the first image, through every twist of the plot, and with every wink at the audience, the film feels completely modern. I almost think Pleasure Cruise demonstrates as well as any movie I’ve seen how far the production code set back the portrayal of adult relationships on screen. I’ve read some reviewers online who were disturbed by the third act. I won’t spoil it by mentioning anything specific. But as film historian Cari Beauchamp said in her intro, the third act is so pre-code, it “called for a new code category.”
I guess you’re intrigued now? No promises, but I’m going to do my best to get Pleasure Cruise on TCM soon!
TCM Classic Film Festival News! For those of you prepping to fly out to Hollywood next week, head to the Android and Apple stores now to download the fest app for this year. Look for a new feature this year too: Not only will you be able to check the fest schedule but you’ll also be able to chat with your fellow fest goers directly through the app.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
TCM Classic Film Festival Goers, you’ve been breaking in shoes, picking out outfits and finding restaurants to visit in Hollywood. We’ve got one more checklist item for you to tackle. You can now review the full schedule of fest films at http://myt.cm/TCMFF.
We look forward to seeing you all soon!
mothermishy
