Critic Robert Koehler’s TCM Fest 2017 game plan

Film
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Despite the untimely death of its venerated, longtime host, film historian Robert Osborne, this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival isn’t likely to take on a funereal mood. Instead, it’ll probably be more like a wake.    That’s because the overarching theme of the new edition is comedy, under the theme, “Make ‘Em Laugh: Comedy in the ...

Comedy-themed TCM Fest 2017 unfunny in oversight of women 2

Film
In our writing about TCM Classic Film Festival four years ago, we gushed in print, “We love the women of TCM Classic Film Festival 2013.” That year, the annual festival (we have covered TCM Fest since its inception in 2010) honored Barbra Streisand’s tour-de-force film debut in “Funny Girl.” Tippi Hedren, Eva Marie Saint, Mitzi ...

Tatum O’Neal’s face in “Paper Moon” 2

Film
Peter Bogdanovich’s rhapsody to the American Middle West, “Paper Moon,” is graced by the Oscar-winning performance of an eight-year-old actress who pulls one bratty expression after another at her real-life father Ryan. We saw the film the other night on the big screen of the Los Angeles Theater. Bogdanovich, in solid form with fun stories ...

Happy Birthday, Charlie Chaplin! 1

Architecture & Design · Film
Anyone who trolls mid-city Los Angeles will recognize the wonderful Tudor-style building at right (you can click on the photo). Creative dynamo Charles Chaplin, one of L.A.’s real go-getters, built it in 1917. And, there, leaning against the wall of his very own film factory stands the lovely Chaplin. It’s a pretty proud moment for ...

Breaking news from Peter Blogdanovich ….

Film
This just in from one of our smartest film maker/writer/critics: This is just to let you know that I now have a blog on older films. It’s called Blogdanovich, of course, and it is under the umbrella of indieWire, so if you want to read the entries you can go to indieWire—Blogdanovich and it’ll come ...