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.)
Carson on TCM
On Tuesdays at 8 PM, TCM will air 1-hour blocks of interviews which originally aired on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson between 1972 and 1987. It was a transition period in celebrity culture; gone were the days of the studio publicity machine which crafted each star's public persona, but we had not yet achieved the "all-access" overkill of today in which any mystique is quickly dissolved by looking at a star's Twitter feed.
I find these interviews intriguing because for many of the featured stars, such as James Stewart (1976) and Lauren Bacall (1980), the height of their careers occurred decades earlier, so we are seeing Hollywood royalty with nothing to prove. For other stars, like Diane Keaton (1972) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (1982), the interviews took place as they were getting their big breaks and a good appearance on Carson was an important step in their careers. Plus, the 70s and 80s era fashions are always a delight. (Check out Ed McMahon shilling Jaymar slacks in this clip from 1973.)
This month's spotlight rests upon films in which food plays a major role -- whether it drives the plot, as in Big Night, or features in one memorable scene, as in Cool Hand Luke. There are 16 films total, each introduced by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Here are a few that I'm looking forward to, including two of my favorite foodie films on 3/28.
3/7, 8 PM - Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
3/7, 10:15 PM - Mostly Martha (2001)
These two films both center around the complicated personal lives of talented chefs. In the first film from Taiwan and directed by Ang Lee, the chef must deal with the tangled love lives of his three daughters. The second film features romance between a driven female chef and her more carefree sous-chef. Mostly Martha, which is a German production, was blandly remade in the U.S. in 2007 as No Reservations.
3/14, 12 AM - My Dinner with Andre (1981)
Featured under the theme "Dinner and Conversation," this film is more about food for thought than what's on the plate. (And after an evening of banter with Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, the whole family will surely be begging for My Dinner with Andre action figures to act out the scenes again and again.)
3/28, 8 PM - Big Night (1996)
3/28, 10 PM - Babette's Feast (1987)
Best not watch either of these on an empty stomach. The feasts which make up the climax of each film are truly extraordinary, though I might give the edge to Big Night's timpano.
One year, in honor of Thanksgiving, I devised a "filmable feast" of great movies which went from cocktails to dessert; you can read that here.
3/12: William Powell's Birthday
William Powell was one of the suavest leading men of the 30s and 40s, a reputation well-deserved from films such as My Man Godfrey and the Thin Man series. However, I think that half of the fun of a Powell movie is seeing the interplay between him and his leading lady. In Godfrey, he is the calming force opposite Carole Lombard's dizzy heiress. As Nick to Myrna Loy's Nora in The Thin Man, he gets to be a bit goofy and broad while Loy maintains the more even keel. Today's birthday tribute includes nine of Powell's less familiar films, each one featuring a different co-star. They all sound intriguing, but here are my top 5 picks based on the top actresses starring in each. I can't wait to see what different dynamics develop with each pairing.
10 AM - Rendezvous (1935), Rosalind Russell
11:45 AM - Reckless (1935), Jean Harlow (Powell's off-screen girlfriend, as well)
1:30 PM - The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937), Luise Rainer
3 PM - I Love You Again (1940), Myrna Loy
5 PM - The Heavenly Body (1943), Hedy Lamarr
3/23, 2 AM - Fists in the Pocket / I pugni in tasca (1965)
Director Marco Bellocchio's feature debut belongs to the radical mid-sixties movement of Italian cinema. Often the films of this era just don't capture my interest; however, Fists did stand out to me, perhaps because it is a bit weird. The story centers on a provincial Italian family consisting of an elderly widowed mother and her four grown children. The members of the family are all in their own way perceived as "defective" -- the mother is blind and utterly dependent, the youngest son is severely handicapped, the daughter is emotionally stunted, and the middle son suffers from epileptic seizures. The oldest son would like to get married, but lacks the financial resources to break away. So, the middle son, Alessandro, devises a plan to kill off the members of his family, ending with himself, so that his older brother can be free of their burden. Alessandro, as portrayed by Lou Castel, is a magnetic and memorable character. His rejection of religion, nationalism, and family pride would be echoed by rebels in the counterculture movement of the late sixties, as well as the punks of the late seventies. If you are looking for movie glamour, this is not your film. As Renata Adler put it in her (positive) NY Times review from 1968, this film is "about as attractive as somebody coughing wretchedly beside you on a subway." However, if you are looking for a unique movie experience, you might give this one a try.
3/31, 8 PM - Eva Marie Saint: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival
In this interview filmed at the 2013 festival, the Oscar-winning actress discusses her long career in which she co-starred with such greats as Marlon Brando, Montogomery Clift, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Newman. The interview is followed by three of Saint's best-known films: On the Waterfront (1954), Raintree County (1957), and North by Northwest (1959).
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