Who I Met, Who I Saw and My Thoughts on the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival

This year's festival theme was History According to Hollywood but it might as well been something else. My nomination? Stars on the Red Carpet. TCM pulled out the big guns with their line-up of special guests this year. Not only that I got to see even more of my online friends at the festival than the past two years. And to me those friends are stars themselves. 

Here's who I saw at TCMFF 2015.

Friends, bloggers and social media gurus:

Alan of TCM Party

Angela of Hollywood Revue

Ariel of Sinamatic Salve-ation
Aurora of Once Upon a Screen...
Carley of The Black Maria
Casey of Noir Girl
Chris of Blog of the Darned
Christina Rice, author and AnnDvorak.com

Danny of PreCode.Com
Diane of Classic Movie Blog
Dianna 
Elise of The LA Rambler
Emily of The Vintage Cameo
Eric of Classic Era Movies
Jeff of TCM Party
Jessica of Comet Over Hollywood and her parents!
Jill of The Black Maria
Joel of Joel's Classic Film Passion
K.C. of A Classic Movie Blog
Kaci of Hollywood Time Machine
Karen from The Dark Pages and Shadows and Satin
Kellee of Outspoken & Freckled and her husband!
Kendra of Viv and Larry
Kim of I See a Dark TheaterKristen of Journeys in Classic Film and ClassicFlix
Kristina of Speakeasy
Lara Gabrielle of Backlots
Laura of Laura's Miscellaneous Musings and her husband Doug!
Lindsay of Lindsay's Movie Musings
Marya of #AYearWithWomen
Matt from Warner Archive
Nora of The Nitrate Diva and her mother Colleen
Paula of TCM Party and Cinema Detroit
Robby of Dear Old Hollywood
Stephen of Classic Movie Man
Trevor of TCM Party
Vincent of Carole & Co 
Wade of The Black Maria
Will of Cinematically Insane

and more...

If I forgot you, I apologize! I'm happy to add anyone I missed. 

I also met plenty of people in line before events and I ended up having really in-depth and quite lovely conversations with them all. Where else but TCMFF could you strike up a conversation with any stranger in line and immediately bond over shared interests? Everyone I talked to was an absolute pleasure.

Special guests:

Alex Trebek - Jeopardy! (okay not really but TCMFF but still...) and the Plummer Imprint Ceremony

Ann-Margret - Club TCM and The Cincinnati Kid (1965) screening

Anne V. Coates - Red Carpet

Christopher Plummer - Red Carpet and Plummer Imprint Ceremony

Diane Baker - Red Carpet and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) screening

George Lazenby - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) screening

Keith Carradine - Red Carpet

Millie Perkins - The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) screening

Norman Lloyd - Red Carpet, The Reign of Terror (1949) screening, A Conversation with Norman Lloyd filming at the Montalban Theatre. 

Peter Fonda - Red Carpet and Club TCM

Robert Morse - Red Carpet

Rory Flynn - Red Carpet and Club TCM

Scott Eyman - Club TCM

Shirley Jones - Club TCM

Shirley MacLaine - Roosevelt Hotel, Club TCM and the Plummer Imprint Ceremony
Sophia Loren - Marriage Italian Style screening

William Shatner - Plummer Imprint Ceremony

Part of the cast of Grease - Red Carpet

TCM staff/rock stars:

Noralil Flores, Ben Mankiewicz, Charlie Tabesh, Genevieve McGillicuddy, Scott McGee, David Byrne, Sean Cameron and more. We missed Robert Osborne!

My thoughts:

This year's festival was fantastic. But not without its problems.

In comparison to the two previous years, this TCMFF excelled in guests and special events where it might have disappointed some in the selection of films. 

TCM had the highest attendance on record this year but the festival still felt very intimate. There was more competition for events which made for a lot of shuffling around figuring out what to do next. I had never been shut out of a screening before but it happened this year. And waiting in line for 2 hours? Not my thing. I could easily do without that.

The execution was still very good. Few events started late and there weren't many projection issues from what I heard. The volunteers do a great job handling the lines and the social media producers often kept us entertained with photo ops, quizzes and other opportunities to earn buttons. The Chinese Multiplex lines are not great, especially when people got out of line after receiving their numbers. Handling lines of people is no easy task and I commend the TCMFF volunteers for doing what they can to keep order amongst the chaos.

Every single event I went to was amazing. No event was even remotely close to being mediocre; they were all spectacular. In fact I found myself overwhelmed by going from one amazing event straight to another without enough time to bask in the glow of the first one. These are wonderful problems to have.

The social experience at TCMFF is second to none. Classic film fans are one big family. When you arrive at the festival you feel like you found your people. The TCM staff are a friendly bunch and very approachable. I said good morning to Ben Mankiewicz, I thanked Charlie Tabesh, I met Scott McGee, I chatted with David Byrne and Sean Cameron and Jessica and I had a great talk with Noralil. TCM embraces their fans with open arms and you feel like your part of their family.

Thank you to everyone at TCM and all my friends both new and old ones for making the 2015 TCMFF an experience I'll never forget.

Now on to some pictures...

Social Media screen at Club TCM. It was plastered with familiar faces.

Aurora, Laura, myself, KC and Casey at Formosa Cafe

Marya's annual Formosa Cafe get-together

Jill, Jessica, Laura, KC, Doug, Matt and me

Fun fact: I have more TCMFF photos of Jessica than of anyone else.

Well-dressed Angela going old school by snapping away at her disposable camera

Trevor with Casey and Lindsay. I spy Nora in the background.

Trevor had some room for more ladies so Jessica and Marya jumped in.

My partner-in-crime, my husband Carlos.

Anne-Marie, social producer extraordinaire 

Jessica, Nora, myself and KC at the Plummer Imprint Ceremony. We were missing Daniel!

See you at TCMFF 2016!

The Ten Commandments (1923) with Jeff Rapsis at the Somerville Theatre

What's Easter without a good Biblical epic? When Jeff Rapsis told me he'd be performing at a screening of The Ten Commandments (1923) on Easter Sunday I knew I had to be there. I've been studying Cecil B. DeMille's life and work recently and was really curious about his part-historical part-modern take on the ten commandments story. And as Rapsis often reminds us seeing a silent on the big screen with live music was the best way to watch it.

This screening was one of several in the ongoing Silents, Please! series at the historic Somerville Theatre. There were about 50 in attendance on Easter Sunday. I overheard someone say that seeing a silent film with live music was something on his "bucket list". This intrigued me especially since I've been spoiled by many silent film screenings with live music and I forget that there are people out there who haven't had the pleasure of the experience yet. It's good to remember what a treasure it is to have talented musicians who love to perform alongside silent films and how we are blessed with the availability of many films from the past.

David and Jeff Rapsis at the Somerville Theatre

David, the theatre's projectionist, gave a brief talk before the start of the film. He  told us that Cecil B. DeMille's success with Biblical epics made him a household name. Audiences back then wanted to see a DeMille movie not because of the acting but because of what David called "that peculiar DeMille touch." DeMille knew how to do lavish productions and this was reflected in his work. David also went into DeMille's conservative politics and his involvement in blacklisting during the McCarthy era. I didn't understand why this was brought up except to give some context to DeMille's penchant for Biblical stories. DeMille also really liked to put sex in his films (Cleopatra and The Sign of the Cross anyone?) but that's a story for another time.

The Egyptian set from The Ten Commandments (1923)

The sets used in The Ten Commandments were full scale and not miniatures as Jeff Rapsis explained in his intro the film.  They were built in the Guadalupe Sand Dunes in California, quite a ways away from Hollywood. Since they couldn't bring back the sets to the lot and DeMille was hesitant to have them used for other films, they were bulldozed, covered in sand and hidden for decades. Ninety years later archaeologists found them and are keeping themselves busy digging up the sets to restore them for public display.

Carlos and I right before the film started

The Ten Commandments (1923) is almost two-and-a-half hours long. The story of Moses and ancient Egypt takes up the first hour of the film and is followed by a contemporary morality tale. We essentially get the history of the ten commandments followed by their significance in a post-WWI world.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy for us to judge the past. We can point our fingers at this film and make fun of it or we can chose to appreciate it for what it is: a fine melodrama with a religious message. I found myself happily lost in DeMille's style of dramatics, visuals and symbolism. I knew about the shift from the distant past to the "modern day" 1920s which helped because otherwise a viewer might be caught off guard.

I was intrigued by the film's consistent use of quotes from Exodus (and Numbers) for the title sequences in the first part. Those larger-than-life Egyptian sets are a feast for the eyes. The special effects used in the parting of the Red Sea will seem a bit hokey to contemporary eyes. To get the effect, the filmed water flowing over blue gelatin backwards. When you see it you can spot the gelatin right away.

The modern story in the film was used to convey several themes and storylines: the breaking of the ten commandments, the moral conflict between older and younger generations during the roaring twenties, a love triangle, sibling rivalry, good versus evil, corporate corruption, etc. They even managed to put leprosy into the contemporary tale.

This is the first film I've seen featuring actress Nita Naldi. She plays the French-Chinese seductress Sally Lung. Her character escapes from a leprosy colony on a shipping vessel and wreaks havoc on the life of Danny McTavish played by Rod La Rocque. Naldi's curvaceous figure and smoldering stare makes her the perfect choice for a silent screen temptress. I was quite mesmerized by her scenes and now I want to see more of her work.

As always Jeff Rapsis did a fine job with the musical accompaniment. I'm not sure how he can keep his energy ip through longer films but he does. I love tapping my feet to the music and am always excited to hear the dramatic music he plays during climactic scenes. He'll be performing again throughout the year at the Somerville Theatre and I hope to catch a few of his upcoming performances.

What film did you watch this Easter?

TCM & Starline Movie Locations Tour - Hollywood

Cue the Gilligan’s Island theme song! We’re going on... a three hour tour... a three hour tour.

On the morning before the TCM festival, members of the media hopped on board the TCM & Starline bus for a three hour tour of Hollywood and Los Angeles. We saw roughly 50 movie locations and 100 movie clips and made two stops: the Bradley Building and Union Station.

Ben Mankiewicz on the TCM Movie Locations Tour

 To kick off the tour TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz made a brief appearance on the bus and talked to us about the merits of the tour and the bus including its stadium seating and panoramic views. There were also pre-recorded talks from Mankiewicz shown on the monitor throughout the tour which introduced each of the four areas we visited: Hollywood, 2 parts of Downtown LA and LA neighborhoods.

Michael our tour guide

This tour is curated by both TCM and Starline. Note that this is not called a classic movie locations tour. There are contemporary movies featured and I would say there was a 50/50 split between older movies and newer movies. It’s good to know this beforehand because if you expect only old movies to be discussed then you will be disappointed. I think it was necessary for them to show the newer movies especially because locations change over time and it’s easier to compare the location in person to the location in a more recent film. Would I have liked for it to be a classic movie locations tour with a strict date cut-off? Sure. However, I think the mix of old and new is the new normal for TCM and it’s something we’ll have to start getting used to.

The bus tour runs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 12:30 PM and meets at the Starline pick-up area next to the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX. There is also a New York City tour as well.

Formosa Cafe

Paramount Studios 

The entrance where they shot a scene from Sunset Blvd.

Driving through the 2nd Street Tunnel while watching a clip of someone driving through the 2nd Street Tunnel. Very meta!

The Biltmore Hotel

Other locations included:
Roosevelt Hotel
Hollywood High School
old location for Chaplin’s Studio (Sunset Blvd)
The Lot
Gilmore Gas Station
Red Studios Hollywood
Ravenswood Apartment Building
RKO
Raleigh Studios
Wiltern
Wilshire Boulevard Temple
old location for the Cocoanut Grove
The Talmadge
Bullocks Wilshire
Park Plaza Hotel
Asbury Apartments
old location for the Warner Bros. Theatre
Mayan Theatre
Orpheum Theatre
Tower Theatre
State Theatre
The Palace
The Los Angeles Theatre
City Hall
Angeleno Heights
Music box steps (from afar)
Silver Lake
Vista Theatre
Hollywood sign & Griffith observatory (from afar)
Newman’s Drugstore
Mayer Building
Pantages Theatre
Capitol Theatre Building

Films featured include:
Intolerance (1916)
Safety Last (1923)
Battling Butler (1926)
Blotto (1930)
The Miracle Woman (1931)
The Music Box (1932)
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Topper (1937)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Road to Utopia (1945)
He Walked By Night (1948)
D.O.A. (1950)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Union Station (1950)
Cry Danger (1951)
A Star is Born (1954)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The Graduate (1967)
Chinatown (1974)
Ghostbusters (1984)
La Bamba (1987)
The Grifters (1990)
Pretty Woman (1990)
Barton Fink (1991)
Bugsy (1991)
Chaplin (1992)
Ed Wood (1994)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Aviator (2004)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Stops on the tour include:
The Bradbury Building
Union Station

Bradbury Building

Posing with the Charlie Chaplin statue

The famous Bradbury staircases

Angela of Hollywood Revue

Palm trees outside Union Station

Union Station sign

Inside Union Station

Information desk at Union Station

Union Station

My thoughts:

I had a lot of fun on this tour and would definitely do it at least one more time. The experience also made me want to go on the New York City tour. My favorite location we saw was the Art Deco apartment building on the corner of Orange Drive and Romaine Street used in the film Cry Danger (1951). This might seem totally random but I had just walked past that building the previous evening, oblivious to its importance in film history and I just plain love anything Art Deco.

From what I understand, the guide will playfully pick on one person calling them out several times throughout the tour. On this trip it was me and I had fun with it. He also kept calling out Jessica of Comet Over Hollywood who was sitting next to me. Some folks wouldn’t like this sort of attention so I hope the tour guides pick their targets wisely.

Pros
lots of history and facts provided for context
plenty of movie clips shown simultaneously as we drove by their related locations
an inexpensive way to see a lot of Hollywood and Los Angeles
Michael was for the most part a funny tour guide, he was a fan of TCM and knew his stuff
Not an open air bus, enclosed and air-conditioned
Newer films are mostly historical pieces
L.A.’s gorgeous weather made sightseeing very easy

Cons
A few sexist jokes by tour guide
You don’t get a view of sites on the opposite side of the bus
Aisle seats are not as good as window seats
Some clips were incredibly loud, especially the ones from action films
One minor projection error
Tour guide made a location error (this was pointed out by someone else)
Bus size does not allow to drive by famous Music Box steps

Jessica of Comet Over Hollywood and I on the bus tour

Overall I thought this was a great tour and I had a lot of fun. On the flip side, I did speak to another person who was on the same tour and he said he hated it. It’s not for everyone but seeing as there are so many crappy Hollywood bus tours I figure this one is probably the best of the best. And the fact that TCM is involved means the quality level goes up exponentially. I hope I’ve provided you enough information to pique your interest in this excellent bus tour.