Exciting news for classic movie fans: Turner Classic Movies will host their first Classic Film Festival in Hollywood April 22-25, 2010!
No information yet on what films they'll be showing, but with historic venues like Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian theatres, almost any film would be worth watching.
Passes go on sale November 18. Hopefully there will be more programming information by then.
Needless to say, I have a deep interest in this festival. Can't wait to see more details!
http://www.tcm.com/festival.jsp
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Classic Movie Picks: November
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 TCM is showing two of their original documentaries from 2009. First up is Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me, featuring archival footage and film clips tracing the career of the famous lyricist. The doc debuts on 11/4 followed by Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, for which Mercer wrote the lyrics; it replays on 11/18 in honor of Mercer's birthday, along with 24 hours of films containing his songs. On 11/14, TCM will replay the excellent 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year, an original doc about that legendary year in film which produced Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, and many other beloved films.
Unofficially, TCM is also spotlighting Alfred Hitchcock this month. Catch thirteen Hitch classics, including all three collaborations with the ultimate "cool blonde" (and TCM Star of the Month) Grace Kelly.
11/2: Vertigo (8:00 PM), North by Northwest (10:15 PM)
11/7: Family Plot (10:00 AM)
11/9: Topaz (8:00 PM)
11/12: Dial M for Murder (8:00 PM), Rear Window (10:00 PM)
11/13: To Catch a Thief (8:00 AM)
11/14: Saboteur (8:00 PM)
11/16: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (4:15 PM)
11/23: The Man Who Knew Too Much [1934] (1:30 AM), Blackmail (3:00 AM), Jamaica Inn (4:30 AM)
11/26: To Catch a Thief (8:00 PM)
11/28: The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956] (2:00 PM)
11/30: Rear Window (2:15 AM)
Also this month:
11/7: Tonight's line-up highlights directorial debuts. I'm especially interested in The Duellists (1978) directed by Ridley Scott at 10 PM followed by Gumshoe (1971) directed by Stephen Frears.
11/15: Stay up late or wake up early to see A Matter of Life and Death (1947) at 4:00 AM. David Niven stars as an injured aviator who must argue before a heavenly court for the chance to go on living. Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger bring a wonderful sense of fantasy and romance to this truly unique film.
11/20: An 11-film marathon dedicated to "society sleuth" The Falcon starts at 6:00 AM. The Falcon was first portrayed by the debonair George Sanders and the role was later taken over by Sanders's brother Tom Conway. The marathon includes 4 films starring Sanders and 7 starring Conway; however, they look and sound so alike that you may not notice the switch.
(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 TCM is showing two of their original documentaries from 2009. First up is Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me, featuring archival footage and film clips tracing the career of the famous lyricist. The doc debuts on 11/4 followed by Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, for which Mercer wrote the lyrics; it replays on 11/18 in honor of Mercer's birthday, along with 24 hours of films containing his songs. On 11/14, TCM will replay the excellent 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year, an original doc about that legendary year in film which produced Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, and many other beloved films.
Unofficially, TCM is also spotlighting Alfred Hitchcock this month. Catch thirteen Hitch classics, including all three collaborations with the ultimate "cool blonde" (and TCM Star of the Month) Grace Kelly.
11/2: Vertigo (8:00 PM), North by Northwest (10:15 PM)
11/7: Family Plot (10:00 AM)
11/9: Topaz (8:00 PM)
11/12: Dial M for Murder (8:00 PM), Rear Window (10:00 PM)
11/13: To Catch a Thief (8:00 AM)
11/14: Saboteur (8:00 PM)
11/16: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (4:15 PM)
11/23: The Man Who Knew Too Much [1934] (1:30 AM), Blackmail (3:00 AM), Jamaica Inn (4:30 AM)
11/26: To Catch a Thief (8:00 PM)
11/28: The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956] (2:00 PM)
11/30: Rear Window (2:15 AM)
Also this month:
11/7: Tonight's line-up highlights directorial debuts. I'm especially interested in The Duellists (1978) directed by Ridley Scott at 10 PM followed by Gumshoe (1971) directed by Stephen Frears.
11/15: Stay up late or wake up early to see A Matter of Life and Death (1947) at 4:00 AM. David Niven stars as an injured aviator who must argue before a heavenly court for the chance to go on living. Directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger bring a wonderful sense of fantasy and romance to this truly unique film.
11/20: An 11-film marathon dedicated to "society sleuth" The Falcon starts at 6:00 AM. The Falcon was first portrayed by the debonair George Sanders and the role was later taken over by Sanders's brother Tom Conway. The marathon includes 4 films starring Sanders and 7 starring Conway; however, they look and sound so alike that you may not notice the switch.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Horror Movie Month: The Supernatural
The movies that always scared me the most as a kid, and even now, were not about killers with knives and agendas, but the ones about things you cannot see, things that were not of this world—the supernatural. As a kid the things everyone told you weren’t real always felt like they could be real. Was there really a way to prove there wasn’t anything under the bed, or outside the window? How did you know for sure that the time you went into the house all the other kids said was haunted wouldn’t be the one time something out of this world really happened? There’s nothing there in the dark that isn’t there in the light, but how do you know? It’s too dark to see that.
In my search for good horror movies John Carpenter has come up more than a few times. He directed the original Halloween, which is, for my money, the best of the slasher sub-genre. But he has also made some very effective and spooky supernatural horror movies. In the Mouth of Madness is a movie I wanted to see but was too afraid of when it was released in 1994 and I was 9 years old. When I finally saw the movie, it gave me the creeps, but it a good way. In the Mouth of Madness is based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft though no specific work is credited. The story is about an insurance investigator John Trent, played by Sam Neill, who is hired to investigate the disappearance of the ultra popular horror novelist Sutter Cane. Sutter Cane is a combination of Steven King, Clive Barker, and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft. His macabre works seem to be driving people insane and the further Trent investigates he finds that things from Cane’s books appear to be real, and he appears to be a character in Cane’s latest book. The movie has a dated soundtrack and some obvious spooky music cues, but the visual effects, all practical as far as I can tell, are still realistic and effective. The movie plays on the line between reality and fiction, sanity and madness.
In my search for good horror movies John Carpenter has come up more than a few times. He directed the original Halloween, which is, for my money, the best of the slasher sub-genre. But he has also made some very effective and spooky supernatural horror movies. In the Mouth of Madness is a movie I wanted to see but was too afraid of when it was released in 1994 and I was 9 years old. When I finally saw the movie, it gave me the creeps, but it a good way. In the Mouth of Madness is based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft though no specific work is credited. The story is about an insurance investigator John Trent, played by Sam Neill, who is hired to investigate the disappearance of the ultra popular horror novelist Sutter Cane. Sutter Cane is a combination of Steven King, Clive Barker, and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft. His macabre works seem to be driving people insane and the further Trent investigates he finds that things from Cane’s books appear to be real, and he appears to be a character in Cane’s latest book. The movie has a dated soundtrack and some obvious spooky music cues, but the visual effects, all practical as far as I can tell, are still realistic and effective. The movie plays on the line between reality and fiction, sanity and madness.
11 years after making a movie about a book that makes people insane, John Carpenter took on the next logical step, a movie about a movie that makes people insane, or rather a short film. John Carpenter's contribution to the short lived Showtime series Masters of Horror in 2005 is called Cigarette Burns. It's only an hour long, but it's a very spooky, creepy 60 minutes. In the movie, a young theater owner, who also finds prints of rare films, is hired by a wealthy, and creepy, film buff and collector to find a print of the rarest film in the world, "Le Fin Absolue du Monde." The rare few times that the film was shown all those who saw it when insane. It might be hard to find at the local video store, but if you are able to find a copy I highly recommend it for a great spooky night.
Of course there are a number of other sub-genres that fall into the category of the Supernatural, but I wanted to highlight these two particular films because I feel that they're largely unseen but very effective, well-made scary movies. Ghosts and demons are two other supernatural creatures featured in many movies. The best haunted house/ghost movie, in my opinion, is, of course, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. People will say, and I agree, that The Shinning isn't so scary as it is creepy, but that's all this movie needs to be. Rather than going for easy scares Kubrick sets a tone of dread and fear best exemplified in the scene that follows. Steven Spielberg said that in this scene if Kubrick had not used the point-of-view shot and instead had Jack Nicholson just appear over Shelly Duvall's shoulder, he'd have had people jumping out of their seats. But Kubrick used the point-of-view shot to created that feeling of impending danger. It's not meant to create mystery, we know that Danny is in their room, so it must be Jack. This shot means that her husband, whom she is trapped with in this hotel, is now a predator.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Horror Movie Month: The Slasher Film
“I didn’t mean to put an end to the sexual revolution, and for that I deeply apologize.”
-- John Carpenter, on Halloween
It’s hard to find praise for a subgenre that became such a crystallized formula in the 80’s and has since devolved into what has been dubbed “torture porn.” The formula is simple: a masked man (sometimes a woman) with a knife or bladed weapon kills young adults one by one until only the lead female character (whom pop culture has dubbed “The Virgin”) is left alive and she kills the slasher, or the male lead comes in saves her. From the plethora of films that simply followed this formula it became just a fact that the teenagers that did drugs and had sex were the ones to get killed and only the “good girl” would get to live. This led to these movies being likened to campy urban legends intended to keep teens away from premarital sex. But these 80’s slasher movies weren’t aiming for any kind of moral commentary; they just lifted the plot of Friday the 13th. In Friday the 13th Mrs. Voorhees is killing the counselors having sex and doing drugs because Jason drowned while the counselors were having sex and doing drugs. Her motivations make sense in the story of the movie. In Halloween Michael Myers is a psychopath obsessed with killing his sister; the other teens he kills were just doing what teens do- having sex and doing drugs.
-- John Carpenter, on Halloween
It’s hard to find praise for a subgenre that became such a crystallized formula in the 80’s and has since devolved into what has been dubbed “torture porn.” The formula is simple: a masked man (sometimes a woman) with a knife or bladed weapon kills young adults one by one until only the lead female character (whom pop culture has dubbed “The Virgin”) is left alive and she kills the slasher, or the male lead comes in saves her. From the plethora of films that simply followed this formula it became just a fact that the teenagers that did drugs and had sex were the ones to get killed and only the “good girl” would get to live. This led to these movies being likened to campy urban legends intended to keep teens away from premarital sex. But these 80’s slasher movies weren’t aiming for any kind of moral commentary; they just lifted the plot of Friday the 13th. In Friday the 13th Mrs. Voorhees is killing the counselors having sex and doing drugs because Jason drowned while the counselors were having sex and doing drugs. Her motivations make sense in the story of the movie. In Halloween Michael Myers is a psychopath obsessed with killing his sister; the other teens he kills were just doing what teens do- having sex and doing drugs.
Pop culture has also erroneously dubbed Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho the first slasher movie. I can only pretend to see links between Psycho and the slasher genre: the killer uses a knife, that’s it. Prototypes for the slasher movie come with Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972), Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974), all of which are good, effective movies, but it wasn’t until John Carpenter’s Halloween in 1978 that the slasher film as we know it came to be. Not only was Halloween the first real slasher movie but it may also be the only one of real quality. John Carpenter, rather than going for blood and effects, uses almost Hitchcockian techniques to set tone and atmosphere and build suspense.
The structure of Halloween was taken and used effectively, though on a campier level, a couple years later in Friday the 13th. That movie went more for shocks and thrills, but it did its own thing. That’s more than can be said for Sleepaway Camp; My Bloody Valentine; Silent Night, Deadly Night; Prom Night; He Knows You’re Alone; Happy Birthday to Me (which actually has a great final image and closing titles song); and the anti-slasher movie April Fool’s Day. Most of those have been remade and most were named after dates.
Slasher movies have since turned into geek shows like the Saw and Final Destination series where gore effects and gruesome scenes of horrendous violence are more pivotal than story or characters. As much as Eli Roth’s Hostel is reviled I believe it’s a well made film and has a story that unfolds, like a movie should. Unlike in the Saw franchise where the slim plot exists only to frame the scenes of torture and gore. Slasher movies have always walked a fine line between campy entertainment and exploitation, but in the last decade they've lacked such quality and merit that they can only be exploitation films. I think my friend Gene Siskel would agree.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
For the completist...
I was browsing my local video store with AJ, looking for something Halloween-ish (i.e. featuring ghosts, vampires, pumpkins, etc. or just any "scary" or suspenseful movie). I don't really enjoy horror movies, so I was on the lookout for something that could be more correctly classified as a thriller. I walked along the wall devoted to famous directors until I came to the Alfred Hitchcock shelves. Aah, Hitch - the king of the thriller, this is exactly what I was looking for! But as I surveyed the selection, I realized I had already seen all of these films. And as much as I love Hitchcock, I wanted to use my precious rental money for a "new-to-me" movie. (By the way, we ended up with The Monster Squad-kind of lame, honestly; The Parallax View-kind of boring, unfortunately; and Death on the Nile, really good, surprisingly.)
I had a similar experience last month while looking over the schedule for a film series of Billy Wilder's comedies. Wilder is a favorite director of mine, and he is especially adept at comedy, so of course I was excited. However, I had seen all of the films in the series except one, Avanti!. (I finally saw it last night. This film has alluded me for years as it seems to play exclusively in the 3 a.m. timeslot on Turner Classic Movies and I can never seem to stay up that late).
I love old films. Since my appetite for cinema first blossomed when I was a teenager, I have been devouring the classics. And since I tend to be a completist, if I happen to like a certain director or actor I will seek out all their films. So maybe it was inevitable that eventually I would watch all of Billy Wilder's films. But I had always thought about my completism in terms of the chase and discovery, rather than the end of the journey. Now I realize that if I've seen all of Billy Wilder's films, I'll never see a "new" Billy Wilder film again - and that makes me a little sad. While I will always enjoy watching his films again (and again, and again), there's no longer any mystery lying behind the title or that wonderful feeling of what-happens-next.
So, maybe I'll put off watching Buddy, Buddy for a little bit longer...
I had a similar experience last month while looking over the schedule for a film series of Billy Wilder's comedies. Wilder is a favorite director of mine, and he is especially adept at comedy, so of course I was excited. However, I had seen all of the films in the series except one, Avanti!. (I finally saw it last night. This film has alluded me for years as it seems to play exclusively in the 3 a.m. timeslot on Turner Classic Movies and I can never seem to stay up that late).
I love old films. Since my appetite for cinema first blossomed when I was a teenager, I have been devouring the classics. And since I tend to be a completist, if I happen to like a certain director or actor I will seek out all their films. So maybe it was inevitable that eventually I would watch all of Billy Wilder's films. But I had always thought about my completism in terms of the chase and discovery, rather than the end of the journey. Now I realize that if I've seen all of Billy Wilder's films, I'll never see a "new" Billy Wilder film again - and that makes me a little sad. While I will always enjoy watching his films again (and again, and again), there's no longer any mystery lying behind the title or that wonderful feeling of what-happens-next.
So, maybe I'll put off watching Buddy, Buddy for a little bit longer...
Monday, October 5, 2009
Horror Movie Month: Intro
October is one of my favorite months. The weather begins to cool, the seasons are changing, and it’s time for Halloween, which means it’s time for scary movies. I am definitely a fan of horror movies; the problem with that is I like good horror movies and the great majority of horror films made today are schlock, dreck, geek shows, gore fests…etc. However, there are still several high points in the genre, past and present.
I think all horror films fall into 3 general categories: the Slasher movie, the Supernatural, and the Monster movie. Each week in October I’ll go over what I think are some of the highlights from each horror category and give my own thoughts on the genre as a whole. I’ll also name some titles I think are can’t miss movies for Halloween.
I think all horror films fall into 3 general categories: the Slasher movie, the Supernatural, and the Monster movie. Each week in October I’ll go over what I think are some of the highlights from each horror category and give my own thoughts on the genre as a whole. I’ll also name some titles I think are can’t miss movies for Halloween.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Ride the Movies!
I am not much of a Harry Potter fan, and certainly not a fanatic, so it surprised me when I became near giddy with excitement upon hearing that a Harry Potter theme park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, will open next year at Universal Studios Florida. I suppose my excitement comes from being a fan of the Harry Potter movies, but more so because now I’ll be able to enter a world that previously existed only on the screen.
For me, a great part of the thrill and excitement of visiting Disney World and Universal Studios came from seeing scenes and characters from cartoons and movies come to life. Baloo the bear isn’t just a cartoon, I got his autograph and took a picture with him. I could visit the world of Brer Rabbit at Splash Mountain, explore the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, and at Disney’s MGM studios I could watch an Indiana Jones stunt show and go on the Great Movie Ride and ride through scenes from classic movies.
Disney’s MGM Studios was fun, but Universal Studios was a real thrill for me. I could ride in a DeLorean (the time traveling kind), be attacked by the shark from JAWS, be attacked by King Kong, see the Ghostbusters and the Blues Brothers, and visit a wonderful exhibit on Alfred Hitchcock. I was 10 years old the first time I visited these parks and 21 the last time was at either park and though childhood excitement about Mickey Mouse and Disney World had faded, I was still excited to be in an immersive world created from scenes from movies from my childhood.
As excited as I am for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it reminds me that my own childhood has long since ended. Harry Potter belongs to a different, younger generation and some of the rides and attractions from my generation are starting to fade. The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse is now the Tarzan Treehouse, the Pirates of the Caribbean is still there but now it’s known because of the movie franchise. At Universal Studios; the Ghostbusters are around only as part of a ridiculous musical show with Beetlejuice, King Kong is gone, Alfred Hitchcock is gone (replaced by Shrek 4-D), and, my personal favorite, the Back to the Future Ride has been replaced by a Simpsons 3-D ride.
I’ll be excited to go inside Hogwarts but I don’t think I’ll feel the same way as when I walked through the giant wooden gates of Jurassic Park at Islands of Adventure. When I was a kid I fantasized about traveling through time in a DeLorean, and I was lucky enough for that to come true, as much as it could come true anyway. Now it's time for a new generation to get their childhood fantasies fulfilled, in the most realistic way possible. I'll be excited but they'll be thrilled.
For me, a great part of the thrill and excitement of visiting Disney World and Universal Studios came from seeing scenes and characters from cartoons and movies come to life. Baloo the bear isn’t just a cartoon, I got his autograph and took a picture with him. I could visit the world of Brer Rabbit at Splash Mountain, explore the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, and at Disney’s MGM studios I could watch an Indiana Jones stunt show and go on the Great Movie Ride and ride through scenes from classic movies.
Disney’s MGM Studios was fun, but Universal Studios was a real thrill for me. I could ride in a DeLorean (the time traveling kind), be attacked by the shark from JAWS, be attacked by King Kong, see the Ghostbusters and the Blues Brothers, and visit a wonderful exhibit on Alfred Hitchcock. I was 10 years old the first time I visited these parks and 21 the last time was at either park and though childhood excitement about Mickey Mouse and Disney World had faded, I was still excited to be in an immersive world created from scenes from movies from my childhood.
As excited as I am for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it reminds me that my own childhood has long since ended. Harry Potter belongs to a different, younger generation and some of the rides and attractions from my generation are starting to fade. The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse is now the Tarzan Treehouse, the Pirates of the Caribbean is still there but now it’s known because of the movie franchise. At Universal Studios; the Ghostbusters are around only as part of a ridiculous musical show with Beetlejuice, King Kong is gone, Alfred Hitchcock is gone (replaced by Shrek 4-D), and, my personal favorite, the Back to the Future Ride has been replaced by a Simpsons 3-D ride.
I’ll be excited to go inside Hogwarts but I don’t think I’ll feel the same way as when I walked through the giant wooden gates of Jurassic Park at Islands of Adventure. When I was a kid I fantasized about traveling through time in a DeLorean, and I was lucky enough for that to come true, as much as it could come true anyway. Now it's time for a new generation to get their childhood fantasies fulfilled, in the most realistic way possible. I'll be excited but they'll be thrilled.
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