Classic Movie Picks: September 2014

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule 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.)

Star of the Month: Melvyn Douglas
I always enjoy it when Melvyn Douglas appears in a film, whether he's a suave continental in Ninotchka (9/10, 8 PM), the sardonic best friend in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (9/3, 10:15 PM), or a wily, but ailing, politico in Being There (9/3, 8 PM) -- a role for which he won an Oscar. His parts in these great films, as well as his other Oscar-winning turn as a tough rancher in Hud (9/24, 9:45 PM), are the Douglas roles I know best;  watch any of these films and you'll soon be a Melvyn Douglas fan. But the Star of the Month tribute also presents the chance to catch Douglas in other roles and displays his incredible range as an actor. The whole schedule looks strong, but I'm especially interested in the pre-code horror of The Vampire Bat (9/10, 3:15 AM), the jewel caper Arsene Lupin Returns (9/11, 7:45 AM), and the screwball comedy She Married Her Boss (9/10, 1:45 AM).

9/4: Rick's Picks
8 PM - Some Came Running (1958)
10:30 PM - The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
12:45 AM - Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Writer-director Richard Linklater is one of my favorite filmmakers working today and for his stint as a Guest Programmer, he's chosen films by three iconic directors of classic cinema: Vincente Minnelli, John Huston, and Ingmar Bergman. It's no surprise that Linklater is a student of classic cinema -- as a co-founder and artistic director of the Austin Film Society, he actively champions the appreciation of classic, arthouse, and independent films. His own varied filmography -- from high school comedy Dazed and Confused, to experimental animated dramas Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, to the close examination of romance & relationships in the Before trilogy -- suggests a filmmaker interested in taking risks and not being pigeonholed into a single genre, something that could also be said for Minnelli, Huston, and Bergman. 
(If Linklater's latest film Boyhood is playing in your area, it is well-worth seeing -- a beautiful and groundbreaking film!)

9/22: Belle Brigitte 
8 PM - And God Created Woman (1956)
9:45 PM - Une Parisienne (1957)
11:30 PM - En Effeuillant la Marguerite (1956)
1:30 AM - The Night Heaven Fell (1958)
3:15 AM - Contempt (1963)
Tonight TCM has programmed five films starring the woman for whom the term "sex kitten" was invented: French actress Brigitte Bardot. The plots of most of her films generally revolve around Mme. Bardot beguiling every man who crosses her path, just by virtue of Bardot being Bardot. That's certainly true of the films directed or written by Roger Vadim, the director who discovered and married Bardot when she was still a teenager. Both Vadim and Bardot gained international fame with their film And God Created Woman. While the thinly plotted film is mostly concerned with presenting Brigitte in various provocative outfits, the uninhibited sexuality of Bardot's character was something notable and new; an example of postwar filmmakers testing the boundaries of what was permissible to show onscreen after decades hampered by the restrictive Hays Code. Bardot's status as an international movie icon is undeniable and for this reason, her  films remain relevant, a chance to experience the sex symbol who once captivated the world.

9/28: Whit Stillman Double Feature 
8 PM - Metropolitan (1990)
10 PM - Barcelona (1994)
Whit Stillman is another of my favorite contemporary filmmakers, so of course, I was delighted to see that he would be appearing on TCM to introduce two of his films, including one of my all-time favorites, Barcelona. Stillman makes comedies of manners, chronicling the social and romantic misadventures of young, bourgeois WASPs with a satirical eye, sharp wit, and obvious affection. His films have a sense of authenticity and specificity, probably because his stories are inspired by personal experience;  Metropolitan draws upon his season attending NYC debutante balls, while Barcelona is informed by time spent living & working in Spain in the 1980s, in the wake of a sexual revolution and during a period of anti-American politics.