Thursday, March 12, 2015

My thoughts on the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival Schedule

Robert Osborne at last year's TCM Classic Film Fesitval

On Monday TCM released the much anticipated (and rather late) festival schedule. Reactions were mixed however when everyone had time to analyze the full schedule and make their selections. I’m thrilled by many of the festival offerings, most notably the special events and guests, but I did notice fewer conflicts this year because many of the films were a pass for me. I consider this a blessing because it gives me a lot more flexibility and a lot less heartbreak.

Folks online have complained about an increase of newer films added to the line-up as well as some missed opportunities. There has been a slight shift but as my Excel chart below shows it isn’t very much. Most of the films still cluster in the 1930-1970 time frame and this year TCM tested the waters with films from the edges of film history, most notably from the 1910s and the 1990s. There was a shift in which titles selected and which ones got the big venues and prime spots. The term “classic” is very subjective and everyone has a different definition. While I like to see the older classics, my husband likes to see the more modern ones. Our festival experiences are very different from each others because of that.

Quick count by decade and festival year. Not a final tally.



I think the 2015 festival has a lot to offer and personally I’m very excited about it! Looking back at previous festivals the 2013’s schedule was really the best in terms of films selected but this one has even better events. My biggest disappointment was the cancellation of the Spartacus (1960) restoration event. I was hoping to see this film on the big screen, possibly with Kirk Douglas in attendance, but it wasn’t meant to be. Also, actress and singer Monica Lewis has been reaching out to the folks at TCM for years but keeps getting overlooked for the festival. TCM missed an opportunity having her there this year at the screening of Earthquake (1974) which features Lewis and was produced by her late husband Jennings Lang.

I noticed TCM was much later in their communications this time around. We knew very little from the start and even with an earlier festival the information was released much later than in the two previous years. TCM’s restructuring as well as the hiring of a new top-level executive might have had some big effects on the festival and how it was put together.

The TCM Classic Film Festival can be compared to a subscription box much like Birchbox, Quarterly, etc. You pay up front, not exactly knowing all of what you’ll get but having a rough idea of what to expect. The element of surprise makes it a gamble. You could be very happy with what you get or you could be disappointed. You trust the brand to deliver but still cross your fingers that they do.

This year I’ll be covering the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival as a member of the media and below is what I plan to cover. I have back-ups for everything and my focus is primarily on seeing the special guests. My picks are subject to change.

Too Late for Tears (1949) - Photo Source

Thursday
Opening night red carpet event for The Sound of Music (1965)

Too Late for Tears (1949)
Special Guest: Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation

Ann-Margret in The Cincinnati Kid (1965)


Friday

Christopher Plummer Imprint Ceremony
Special Guest: Christopher Plummer, Shirley MacLaine, William Shatner and more.

Reign of Terror (1949)
Special Guest: Norman Lloyd

The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Special Guest: Ann-Margret

Fonda The Actor, Fonda the Man Panel
Special Guest: Peter Fonda

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Special Guest: George Lazenby

The Apartment (1960)


Saturday
A Conversation with Norman Lloyd
hosted by Ben Mankiewicz (to be televised at a later date)

1776 (1972)
Special Guests: William Daniels, Ken Howard and Peter H. Hunt

The Apartment (1960)
Special Guest: Shirley MacLaine

The Loved One (1965)
Special Guest: Robert Morse


The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) - Photo Source
Sunday
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Special Guests: Millie Perkins & Diane Baker

TBA
TCM repeats earlier screenings so I left this spot open as a surprise

Marriage Italian Style (1964)
Special Guest: Sophia Loren

Malcolm X (1992)


My husband has a Palace Pass this year and here are a few of the events he’s excited about.

Malcolm X (1992)
Special Guest: Spike Lee

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Special Guest: Christopher Plummer

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Christopher Plummer Imprint Ceremony
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

The Apartment (1960)

Here are some films I might not be able to see at the festival but I highly recommend:

42nd Street (1933)
Adam’s Rib (1949)
Calamity Jane (1953)
Imitation of Life (1959)
My Man Godfrey (1936)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
They Won’t Forget (1937)
Why Be Good? (1929)

What are your picks for the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival?

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

A Custom-Made Classic Film Calendar

A few months ago I was shopping online for a movie themed calendar. My search was in vain. What's available on the market is not great and for classic film fans like me the only calendar available is the same movie posters one that's been recycled year after year.

I wrote to Kate Gabrielle on the chance that she might be able to create a custom classic film calendar suited to my movie tastes. And what I got was beyond my wildest dreams!

I emailed Kate some of my ideas. I picked some of my favorite stars and a couple of my favorite films, suggested a couple of themes and an emphasis on New Year's because it's my favorite holiday. She put together a fantastic calendar and I'm very happy to share it with you.

Kate's work is incredible. I've commissioned a few works from her, including this excellent painting of Norma Shearer, and her Flapperdoodle artwork plus her excellent classic film Christmas cards adorn my cubicle at work.

I encourage you to visit Kate's shop and blog to see her amazing work. Now on to the calendar!

Kate Gabrielle
January
Bachelor Mother (1939)
 Design by Kate Gabrielle


Kate Gabrielle
February
 Sidney Poitier
Design by Kate Gabrielle

Kate Gabrielle
March
Robert Mitchum
Design by Kate Gabrielle

Kate Gabrielle
April
Doris Day
Design by Kate Gabrielle

Kate Gabrielle
May
Bonita Granville
Design by Kate Gabrielle

Kate Gabrielle
June
Joan Blondell
Design by Kate Gabrielle
Kate Gabrielle
July
Susan Peters
Design by Kate Gabrielle
Kate Gabrielle
August
George Sanders
Design by Kate Gabrielle

Kate Gabrielle
September
Edward G. Robinson
Design by Kate Gabrielle
Kate Gabrielle
October
The Rat Pack/Ocean's 11 (1960)
Design by Kate Gabrielle

Kate Gabrielle
November
Kirk Douglas
Design by Kate Gabrielle
Kate Gabrielle
December
Norma Shearer
Design by Kate Gabrielle

What did you think of the calendar? If you had your own custom calendar made, which of your favorite stars would be featured?

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd


Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life
by Peter Ackroyd
Hardcover, 304 pages
ISBN: 9780385537377
October 2014
Nan A. Talese (Knopf - Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House)

Barnes and Noble
Powell's
IndieBound


“Like a dancer he needed the full revelation of his art. He seemed to have a speed and movement that distinguished him from other performers.” - Ackroyd 

Charlie Chaplin is one of those major figures of whom I know little about. I’ve been eager to fill the gaps in my classic film knowledge and it was essential that I learn about the man who has such an enormous impact on film history. Peter Ackroyd’s biography follows the life and career of this legend in a neatly packaged 300 pages. It’s not all-inclusive but seems to hit all the main highlights.

“South London would remain the source and center of his inspiration.” – Ackroyd

Chaplin had a very difficult childhood growing up in London. Chaplin and his family lived in abject poverty, his mother was in and out of asylums and it’s not clear who is father was. Facts in the book are often presented with observations about the effects certain events in Chaplin’s early years affected his adult life. These observations also note patterns, influences, themes and symbolism later to be found in Chaplin’s work. He was poorly educated and what he learned was from experience.

Ackroyd draws parallels with Chaplin to figures like Charles Dickens and Adolf Hitler. He also spends quite a lot of the book discussing in details Chaplin’s relationships with women. I learned many of the sordid details involved with the disastrous marriages to Mildred Harris, Lita Grey and Paulette Goddard. It was quite a relief to finally get to Oona O’Neill. Oona was Chaplin’s fourth and final wife. Their marriage was a mostly happy one. They were devoted to each other, had 8 children together and Oona was instrumental in helping him get through a major scandal.

“They had a delight in one another’s company that seemed sometimes to be at the cost of excluding their children. They held hands constantly...” - Ackroyd

If you want to learn about Chaplin’s many films, there is plenty of detail here too. Films covered extensively include The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940) and Monsiuer Verdoux (1947). Chaplin worked with Fatty Arbuckle, Marie Dressler, Edna Purviance, Rollie Totheroh (his principle cameraman for 38 years), Mabel Normand, Stan Laurel, Mack Sennett, Jackie Coogan, Virginia Cherrill, Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren among others.

The author refers several times to Chaplin’s autobiography with the understanding that while it can be an unreliable source of facts it is also an insight into Chaplin as a person. Ackroyd navigates a minefield of mistruths, exaggerations and outright fabrications to get at the true story of Chaplin. Doing so he seems to capture Chaplin’s personality and it shows when reading the book. Chaplin was a man of many quirks. He was a loner, perfectionist, clean freak, a penny pincher and a fiercely independent man. Chaplin bounced from studio to studio and worked best independently. He was notoriously difficult to work with because of his controlling nature.

“Chaplin was a fearsomely cruel man... probably the most sadistic man I’d ever met.” – Marlon Brando

There are good things about the book and bad things about it. I struggled reading it and was very disconcerted by Ackroyd sometimes judgemental tone. Structurally the book reads well. It sticks to a chronological timeline of Chaplin’s life and has a very approachable narrative. There is not much for extras in the book, it’s really just a straightforward biography of Chaplin. There are a handful of black-and-white photos throughout the book that are awkwardly placed and could have been more thoughtfully arrnaged. A small photo often takes up an entire page. I thought this was wasteful and unnecessary. Over the years I’ve become particular about photograph placement in biographies but this was just flat out poorly done. If this goes to paperback, I hope they’ll reconsider the placement of photos.

Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life is a primer on all things Chaplin. It’s a problematic book but does its job as a good introduction to Chaplin for those who are unfamiliar with him. Fans of Chaplin who are well-versed should look elsewhere or pick up this book solely as a refresher.

Note: "A Brief Life" refers to Ackroyd's series of short biographies. It does not refer to the number of years Charlie Chaplin lived.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of this book for review!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

New & Upcoming Classic Film Books (2)

Find your next read with this list of new and upcoming classic film books! I have selected a variety of titles with publication dates ranging from January to July 2015 (specific on sale dates are subject to change). Links lead to Goodreads or the publishers' page. Books include biographies, memoirs, scholary texts, coffee table books and more from a variety of publishers.

There are still several new and upcoming titles featured in my last post. Please make sure to peruse that one before starting on this one so you don't miss out on some of the new spring releases.



by Julie Levinson
Palgrave Macmillan
232 pages – January 2015



How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry
by Michael Glover Smith and Adam Selzer
Wallflower Press
240 pages – January 2015



An Insider’s Journey through Hollywood
by Tom Mankiewicz and Robert Crane
The University Press of Kentucky
400 pages – January 2015



by William March
Vintage Books (Vintage Movie Classics series)
224 pages – February 2015



by Walter D. Edmonds
Vintage Books (Vintage Movie Classics series)
672 pages – February 2015



by Dan Dietz
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
618 pages - February 2015




by James Layton et. al
George Eastman House
448 pages - February 2015



Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962
by David Meuel
McFarland
224 pages – February 2015


The Hero’s Encounters with the Beast
by Maria Garcia
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
288 pages - March 1st, 2015



by Laurence Maslon and Julie Andrews
Universe
192 pages – March 3rd, 2015 




Female Film Stardom in the Age of Television and Video
by Mary R. Desjardins
Duke University Press Books
320 pages - March 6th, 2015 



by Various and Foreword by Martin Scorsese
Amsterdam University Press/University of Chicago Press
258 pages – March 15th, 2015



Behind the Scenes of the Pivotal Western
by Brian Hannan
McFarland
277 pages – March 15th, 2015



by James L. Neibaur
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
208 pages - March 16th, 2015



Veterans, Hollywood, and WWII
by Suzanne Broderick
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
172 pages – March 16th, 2015 



Film Stars series
by John Mercer
BFI
168 pages - March 20th, 2015



Footlights with The World of Limelight
by David Robinson
Cineteca di Bologna
224 pages - March 24th, 2015



Hollywood, Black Celebrities and the Civil Rights Movement
by Emilie Raymond
University of Washington Press
352 pages – April 1st, 2015



by David Resha
Wesleyan
304 pages - April 8th, 2015



by Jennifer Wild
University of California Press
360 pages – April 10th, 2015



A Romantic Biography of Audrey Hepburn
by Edward Z. Epstein
Running Press
272 pages - April 14th, 2015



The Making of a Monster Smash & Other Hollywood Tales
by Jack H. Harris
TV Guestpert Publishing
April 15th, 2015



by Thomas S. Hischak
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
768 pages – April 16th, 2015



The Making of The Other Side of the Wind
by Josh Karp
St. Martin’s Press
352 pages – April 21st, 2015



Cinematographers, Directors, and the Collaborative Process
by Christopher John Beach
University of California Press
248 pages – April 24th, 2015



The Father of Science Fiction on Screen
by Brian Taves
The University Press of Kentucky
360 pages - May 6th, 2015


by J.R. Jones
Wesleyan
360 pages – May 11th, 2015


The Treatment of Women in the Film Industry, 1900-1999
by Aubrey Malone
McFarland
May 31st, 2015


A Critical Study of 1960s and 1970s Soundtracks
by Matthew J. Bartkowiak and Yuya Kiuchi
McFarland
May 31st, 2015


Technology, Society and the Horror Film
by Brian N. Duchaney
McFarland
May 31st, 2015



A Memoir
by Stevie Phillips
St. Martin’s Press
288 pages - June 2nd, 2015



A Biography of Broadway’s Greatest Producer
by Cynthia Brideson and Sara Brideson
The University Press of Kentucky
600 pages – June 5th, 2015


by the Editors of Plexus
Plexus Publishing
128 pages – June 9th, 2015



Little Book of Audrey Hepburn in the Movies
Little Book of Marilyn Monroe in the Movies
by Timothy Knight
G2 Entertainment
128 pages – June 15th, 2015



The Great Films – and Personal Favorites – of a Moviegoing Liftime
by Richard Schickel
Knopf
320 pages – June 23rd, 2015



Mass Culture and the Production of Historical Knowledge
by Alison Landsberg
Columbia University Press
240 pages – June 9th, 2015



by Deborah Cartmell
Bloomsbury
160 pages - June 18th, 2015



edited by Paul Duncan
Taschen
560 pages - July 1st, 2015



A Biography and Filmography
by Claudia Sassen
McFarland
July 1st, 2015



Hollywood to Rome, 1961-1974
by Tom Lisanti
McFarland
July 1st, 2015


Full-Throttle Cool
by Dwight Zimmerman and illustrated by Greg Scott
Motorbooks
96 pages - July 1st, 2015


A Biography
by Pascal Merigeau (with a foreword by Martin Scorsese)
Running Press
1,126 pages – July 7th, 2015
Postponed until 2016!


My Life
by Sophia Loren
Atria Books
352 pages - July 7th, 2015


Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu
by Brian Neve
University of Wisconsin Princess
272 pages - July 21st, 2015



Haunting and Spectrality from Silent Cinema to the Digtial Era
Edited by Murray Leeder
Bloomsbury
288 pages - July 30th, 2015


by Ron Backer
McFarland
July 31st, 2015


A Life on Stage and Screen
by Peter Shelley
McFarland
July 31st, 2015


Notable Mention!


by William Wellman Jr. 
Pantheon 
656 pages - On Sale April 7th, 2015

Did any of these books catch your eye? Tell me in the comments section below.

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