The struggle to love, @ TCM Fest 2019

Film
HOLLYWOOD, CA – APRIL 11: Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal attend the 30th Anniversary screening of “When Harry Met Sally” at the 2019 10th Annual TCM Classic Film Festival on April 11, 2019. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for TCM) There was a happy feeling when hordes of classic film fans descended upon Hollywood Boulevard ...

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre buried in chazzerai at TCM Fest

Architecture & Design · Film
It’s still going, more or less. The quaint tradition begun by showman Sid Grauman at his Chinese Theatre (which by some miracle, still stands): hands, feet, and autographs plonked into a square of still-wet cement. The photo above was taken from across Hollywood Boulevard looking toward the footprint ceremony for Cicely Tyson at TCM Fest ...

Farber on Film: the strong cinematic women of TCM Fest 2018

Film
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In the year of #MeToo, it seems only appropriate that some of the most resonant films shown at the TCM Classic Film Festival had strong women front and center. Both onscreen and off, 100-year-old Marsha Hunt has long been an inspiring figure. Known for her principled stand against the Hollywood blacklist, which damaged her career, ...

Respected film biographers converse @ TCM Fest

Film · Ideas & Opinion
A Friday panel discussion—one of many such interesting events at “Club TCM,” a special gathering place for attendees of TCM Classic Film Festival—tapped the minds, memories and methodologies of three prominent film biographers: Donald Bogle, Scott Eyman, William J. Mann, with smart moderation by TCM’s Alicia Malone. Invited by Ms. Malone to consider their careers ...

Farber on Film: TCM Fest 2018 brings home the power of the press

Film · Ideas & Opinion
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This year’s TCM Classic Film Festival, which opens in Hollywood tomorrow night, is divided into several theme-related programs. One of the most intriguing—and certainly the timeliest—is called “Power of the Press” and celebrates movies about journalists. All the President’s Men was the Festival’s opening night film in 2016, so this year’s selections are not such ...

Farber on Film: ‘Lady in the Dark’ @ TCM Fest 2017

Film
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A strong female character is at the center of Lady in the Dark, a forgotten 1944 film that was presented in a beautiful 35mm nitrate print at the Egyptian Theatre on the final night of the festival. This movie was adapted from a Broadway play written by Moss Hart, with music by Kurt Weill and ...

Go Grover! Grover Dale does the boogaloo in ‘The Landlord’

Dance · Film
I so enjoyed seeing “The Landlord” (1970), Hal Ashby’s maiden voyage as a film director, screened at TCM Fest 2017. One of those rambling and intriguing seventies movies that is so direct, so real, and wearing its heart on its sleeve. As the credits rolled, an added bonus — the name of arts·meme friend, Grover ...

Farber on Film: ‘The Landlord’ @ TCM Fest 2017

Film
One of the special guests at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival was actress and director Lee Grant, who gave a spirited interview before the screening of The Landlord, the film that earned her one of her four acting nominations for best supporting actress. Grant’s first nomination came for William Wyler’s Detective Story in 1951, ...

Farber on film: ‘David and Lisa’ @ TCM Fest 2017

Film
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Many out-of-town patrons attend the TCM Festival to catch the big productions with the big stars in attendance: In the Heat of the Night, The China Syndrome, Saturday Night Fever. Or they line up for perennial audience pleasers like Casablanca, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in the large Chinese Theatre. But for some of us, ...

“Baby Jane” never better than at poolside screening, TCM Fest

Film
The highlight of our first day of this, our eighth TCM Turner Classic Film Festival, was hands down WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1964) screened poolside of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. We so enjoyed viewing the Gothic horror movie so smartly directed by Robert Aldrich and graced by the outre performance of Bette Davis and ...