Classic Movie Picks: February

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

This month's "31 Days of Oscar" programming takes us on a trip around the world, and even out of this world, with 348 films which are Academy Award winners or nominees, grouped according to the location where their stories occur - from the Great Plains to the South Seas. The current crop of Best Picture nominees are not quite so far-flung; their stories are confined to Western Europe and the U.S. So instead of a trip around the world, I will endeavor to go on a trip through time, connecting 2011 Oscar nominees to winners and nominees past. (For more information about this year's Academy Awards ceremony and nominees, visit Oscar.com)

2/11, 4:45 AM - Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Meryl Streep has made a career playing uncommon women - from haunted Holocaust-survivor Sophie Zawistowski of Sophie's Choice to ebullient celebrity chef Julia Child in Julie and Julia. Along the way, Streep has received 2 Academy Awards and a record 17 nominations. This year she is nominated for her performance as Britain's first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, in The Iron Lady. However, Magnificent Meryl's first Oscar (Best Supporting Actress)was for her portrayal of the comparably ordinary Joanna Kramer in tonight's film. The story of the Kramer's divorce and custody trial may seem mundane alongside the story of PM Thatcher, who coincidentally came to power the same year Kramer was made; but in the hands of great actors like Streep and co-star Dustin Hoffman (Best Actor winner), this small-scale story is vastly compelling.

2/14, 7:30 AM - The Bicycle Thief (1948)

In 2011's A Better Life, Demian Bichir plays a hardworking immigrant father in East L.A. whose life is thrown off-course when his truck & landscaping tools are stolen. Bichir's heartbreaking performance has earned him a Best Actor nomination. The story of A Better Life immediately brings to mind The Bicycle Thief. In this seminal Italian neorealist film, the thief of the title upends the life of a humble laborer struggling to provide for his family. The film was awarded an honorary Oscar for best foreign film (this was before that category had formal nominations) and was also nominated for Best Screenplay, an honor rarely bestowed upon foreign-language films.

2/14, 6:30 PM - A Farewell to Arms (1932)

One of the most memorable parts of Best Picture nominee Midnight in Paris is Corey Stoll's hilariously straight-faced portrayal of author Ernest Hemingway. As presented by writer/director Woody Allen, himself a double nominee this year, Hemingway speaks as he wrote - of men who are brave and true. The real Hemingway was unhappy with the 1932 film adaptation of his novel A Farewell to Arms because the screenplay softened his story of love and jealousy during WWI. Paramount actually made two versions of the film - one with a happy ending, the other more ambiguous - and allowed theater owners to choose which version to screen depending upon the audience! However, Hemingway did approve of leading man Gary Cooper: "Cooper is a fine man, as honest and straight and friendly and unspoiled as he looks." A Farewell to Arms was nominated for Best Picture, Art Direction, Cinematography, and Sound Editing, but did not win a single Oscar.

2/17, 12:30 PM - Sounder (1972)

This year Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are front runners in the Best Actress and Supporting Actress categories for their roles as maids in 1960s Mississippi in The Help, itself a Best Picture nominee. Their co-star Cicely Tyson received a Best Actress nomination almost 40 years ago for her performance as the resilient matriarch of a poor Louisiana family in Sounder. That film also received nominations for Best Actor (Paul Winfield), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture; however, the big winners that year were The Godfather and Cabaret. Sounder is considered groundbreaking for its dignified portrayal of a Depression-era African-American family and Tyson herself is a pioneer whose success helped pave the way for contemporary black actresses like Davis and Spencer.

2/25, 1 AM - Harry and Tonto (1974)

Alexander Payne excels at making films about ordinary men in crisis. He may be nominated this year as Best Director for The Descendents, which stars Best Actor nominee George Clooney as a father of two whose wife is in a coma, but my favorite of Payne's films is About Schmidt. Jack Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, a retiree searching for his place in the world following the death of his wife. Throughout the film Schmidt confides his inner thoughts through letters to an African child named Ndugu, whom he is sponsoring through a children's aid charity. In Harry and Tonto, Art Carney goes on a journey similar to Schmidt's after he is forced to leave his long-time apartment. His companion on his cross-country trip is his beloved cat, Tonto. Writer/director Paul Mazursky received a nomination for Best Screenplay and Carney won the Best Actor Oscar that year in what was considered an upset. Carney's competition? Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes in Chinatown.

2/26, 1 PM - Singin' in the Rain (1952)

In my report from 2011's Austin Film Festival, I mentioned the many classic film influences to be found in The Artist. It was my favorite film of the festival and now it looks to be a heavy favorite in the Best Picture race. The story of The Artist perhaps owes its greatest debt to Singin' in the Rain, as both films deal with an silent film actor's struggle to adapt to the talkies. However, the two films couldn't be more different in their presentation - The Artist is black and white, and virtually a "silent film;" Singin' is of course a vibrant Technicolor musical. Singin's only Oscar nominations were for its Musical Score and for Jean Hagen, a.k.a Lina Lamont, as Best Supporting Actress. Hagen lost to Gloria Grahame in The Bad and the Beautiful, another inside-Hollywood story. However, the circus trumped the movies that year, with The Greatest Show on Earth winning Best Picture.

Enjoy this month's schedule of cinema's best and see how the 2011 nominees fare in the Oscar telecast, Sunday, February 26th!