kingrat

Filmlover, I'm with you 100%. Almost every film these days is too long. I believe the philosophy is "If Director X's comic book sequel is two and a half hours long, then MY comic book sequel has to be two and a half hours long." Because so much money is spent on special effects, there is probably a great deal of pressure not to cut any of those scenes, even if it would make a better picture. Can we blame Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Cimino for at least some of this? Their long, sluggishly paced films did win Oscars, after all. The Birdcage is one of the first comedies in recent years to last two and a half hours, so there's a precedent. La Cage aux Folles was a farce; Mike Nichols turned The Birdcage into a comedy plus political overtones plus sentimental weepie like Stella Dallas. You're right: Two and a half hours for Sex and the City II is ridiculous.

I hope some newcomers will try the programming challenge. It's great fun, you get to schedule some of your favorite films and some you're dying to see, and it only takes a gazillion hours and most of your sanity when you have one 90-minute slot left and all the movies that fit your theme are longer than that. TCM's real programmers do read our suggestions, so there's always a chance that something on your schedule will pop up on the real schedule.

I love this film. Cigarjoe, thanks so much for sharing your review.

Actually, both Junior Bonner and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid have been shown at least twice in the last year.

No one is opposed to possible alternative sites for the festival. However, Hollywood has these advantages, let alone the convenience for the stars: 1. Affordable hotels. I belong to an organization which would love to hold its annual convention in New York but cannot find a hotel that offers both adequate convention space and reasonable rates. 2. Major airport with no need for rental car. This rules out attractive locales like Santa Fe. You can fly into LAX and go directly to the Roosevelt without needing to rent a car. Those who drove to the festival could leave their cars parked for four days because everything was within walking distance. 3. With the theaters so close together, if you missed one screening, you could easily get to another venue in time for another film. This was also good for people with limited mobility. 4. There were many options for quick and inexpensive meals. I believe there were seven fast-food places around the perimeter of the Mann's Chinese Theater (second floor of the open-air Hollywood & Highland mall), and many more within a block. An acceptable meal with drink for under $10 was not hard to find. If you know of other locations that can also provide this combination of plus factors, by all means let the TCM people know.

For me, MARNIE is a film that diminished on second viewing. I don't hate it, but I do find it slow and dull, and the Freudian stuff does not appeal. A better actress than Tippi Hedren--Lee Remick comes immediately to mind--would have helped. Sean Connery's acting improved after he made THE HILL (1965) with Sidney Lumet. He's not bad in MARNIE, but a couple of years later he would have been much better. A version with the Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten of LOVE LETTERS would have salvaged the material if anything could have. The contemporary audience felt that Hitchcock was trying to push an inferior actress on them and resented it. Auteurist admirers of Hitchcock, who were right about his importance as a director, went to the other extreme, exaggerating their praise of the film. For them, lighting candles at the shrine of the Virgin Marnie showed one's adherence to the true faith, and "Drink the Kool Aid" auteurists like Robin Wood found the hideous and cheap back projections to be works of art little short of the Sistine Chapel. It's not unusual for the works of aging directors to be more sluggish than the films of their prime. To me there's a noticeable difference between the pacing of PSYCHO, which is exactly right, and the pacing of MARNIE, TORN CURTAIN, and TOPAZ.

Hey, movieman! When is the challenge coming?

My respect for Vincente Minnelli increased even more by seeing the gorgeous archival print of The Bad and the Beautiful shown at the TCM festival. The directing is brilliant, the performances too. According to Cheryl Crane, the automobile scene with Lana Turner (if you've seen the movie, you'll know which one) was filmed six weeks after the rest of the film because Minnelli hadn't figured out how to film it. When he set it up, Lana nailed this difficult scene in one take.

Cinemafan, if they used my interview, I'm talking mostly about Frank Capra's "Dirigible" and a little about blogging on the TCM website. Here's how the process went. Some of you will be experiencing this next year! The staff member who had spoken with me asked me to come to the VIP Lounge at Mann's Chinese Theater. At one of the lounge was the camera set-up where Ben Mankiewicz was interviewing attendees. There were comfortable chairs for the people waiting to be interviewed. A very nice makeup artist named Stacy tried to get us ready for our close-ups. After Ben M. finished one interview, a production staffer introduced me to him, mentioning that I posted on the website. Ben: "What's your handle?" Me: "Kingrat." Ben (with a look and a perfectly timed line): "You write a lot." Um, true. He told me to imagine we were hanging out at a coffee shop talking. (That's the way his intros usually seem, come to think of it.) When the camera started rolling, he mentioned my posting on the website. We both talked about the great variety of people at the festival and I talked about how exciting it was to see the restored Dirigible on the big screen. At the end of the segment the cameraman asked Ben M. to redo his closing remarks, so he did. Mr. M and all the TCM staffers did everything they could to make the process easy for all of us interviewees who are not used to being on camera. I hope some of you will be interviewed next year.

Some great ideas, guys. They all sound good to me. Here's one that's probably quite doable: a showing of MIRAGE with Diane Baker and someone from Gregory Peck's family. Miss Baker attended the showing of A STAR IS BORN and looked terrific. Also, how about: Claire Bloom (many films to choose from) Diane Cilento - Tom Jones or Hombre Leslie Caron Films: The African Queen At least one Western in color and CinemaScope--The Searchers or one of the Anthony Mann films The Red Shoes or Black Narcissus or The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp Any newly restored classic film--the ones this year were incredible A major silent film with live musicians This year, we had The Stunt Man, a more recent film that has been neglected. For that spot next year, how about one of these? The World According to Garp (Robin Williams, Glenn Close) North Dallas Forty (Nick Nolte) The Onion Field (Ted Danson, James Woods, John Savage) Panelists: All these are authors whose books I have enjoyed. Mick LaSalle (Complicated Women) - introducing a pre-Code film Mark Harris (Pictures at a Revolution) - probably introducing a 1960s film William Mann (Behind the Scenes; biographies of William Haines, John Schlesinger, and Katharine Hepburn) - perhaps introducing a William Haines film

She played the actress in Calamity Jane; Red Buttons' dance partner in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I forgot to mention that everyone raved about the graphics for the festival. About some of the restored films: The words "glorious Technicolor" were made for Leave Her to Heaven. As Robert Osborne said, "It doesn't get any better than Gene Tierney in Technicolor." Excellent restoration, although there was some fuzz on the soundtrack (not during the music). Wild River has a muted autumnal palette which is beautifully captured. This film was not well attended, but those who saw it were deeply moved. This CinemaScope film looked wonderful. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is incredibly beautiful. Albert Lewin and Jack Cardiff put images on the screen that took my breath away. The colors have a rich look, deeper than Leave Her to Heaven. Dirigible is now one of my favorite Frank Capra films. Some surprisingly poetic images that looked so good on the big screen. The Story of Temple Drake isn't yet fully restored, but I was aware of only one patch that really needs work. Most of the film looked quite good. Amazing work has been done on these films. They will probably show up on TCM and will probably appear on DVD and/or Blu-Ray as well.

Some random thoughts about a fantastic film festival: --This was a superbly run event. If there were glitches, most of us didn't know anything about it. --You saw smiling faces everywhere you looked. Waiting in line or waiting in the theater for the show to start, many people began chatting with strangers about what they'd seen and what they were planning to see. --The audience was very diverse. Many young people were there. --Robert Osborne, Ben Mankiewicz, and Leonard Maltin were very friendly and approachable. --The TCM network people, when they weren't working, were also very approachable. No one from the network had the "I'm important and you're not" attitude which pops up in so many walks of life. The corporate culture of the network obviously is to be responsive to the fans. --The special introductions or interviews with each film were usually fun and informative. Bruce Goldstein's intro to No Orchids for Miss Blandish was hysterical. Robert Osborne's mini-interviews with Cheryl Crane and with Darryl Hickman were terrific. --The mix of favorites and rarities was probably just right. Several people commented how much they loved seeing an old favorite like Singin' in the Rain on the big screen. I went for the newly restored films and the obscure titles and couldn't have been more pleased. Some unexpected special moments: --When the credits ran at the beginning of The Bad and the Beautiful, people applauded for Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Gloria Grahame, etc. MissGoddess would have been pleased at the applause for Gilbert Roland. When the screen showed "Music by David Raksin," there was also some applause, because there were people who recognized Raksin as the composer of Laura, among other works. Where else is that going to happen? --When the credit of "Photography by Jack Cardiff" appeared in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, again there were people who applauded. If that credit had run at the end of the film, people would probably have stood up and cheered--but that's another blog entry. --Some people hadn't seen Leave Her to Heaven, so there was a wonderful gasp at that crucial moment mid-film. That's what seeing a movie with a live audience means. --When the picture credit "Miriam Hopkins as Temple Drake" appeared at the beginning of The Story of Temple Drake, a man near me said "Wow!" Miriam did indeed look good. Our pre-Code mavens would have cherished that moment. --I talked with a woman whose teenaged son is considered high-functioning autistic (I hope this is the correct terminology) and is a savant about classic film. Both mother and son were having a great time.

Jackie, in Jeanine Basinger's A WOMAN'S VIEW (about women's films in the classic era) she makes a distinction between the woman as heroine (most of the women's films) and a few movies like WESTWARD THE WOMEN where the women are heroes. They're not just the main characters, they perform heroic actions. That's one reason that WESTWARD THE WOMEN resonates so much with us.

Hi, Miss G. Am enjoying reading about some of these early films I haven't seen. About the later films: I'm with you all the way about FRENZY. That is, I think a case could be made for FRENZY, but I am definitely not the person to make it, finding it as repulsive and misogynistic as you do. In some ways, it's more like a 1970s or 1980s imitation of Hitchcock than the real thing. For me, Hitchcock as a major director ends with THE BIRDS. Every film after PSYCHO except for TORN CURTAIN is undercast. FAMILY PLOT desperately needs Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, not Bruce Dern and Barbara Harris. Hitchcock's kind of film needs stars, but the comparative lack of financial success of the later films left him with smaller budgets. I don't think these later films are awful, just comparatively slight. They have good sequences here and there, but they lack the energy and strength of his major period, which was quite long and remarkably productive.

deepdiscount.com has the AK100 Kurosawa box on sale for about $260, the best price in some time.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is very interesting to compare with The Big Country and Red River. They have similar conflicts. LV & BC frame this as East vs. West; RR and BC (in its subplot) frame this as a conflict of generations. In The Big Country Peck = Stewart in LV; Heston = Wayne; Burl Ives and to some extent Charles Bickford play the Liberty Valance role. The Big Country is much more optimistic. Peck proves that he has the same manly skills as Heston. Each man gets the right woman at the end. Neither Ives nor Bickford is as totally evil as Liberty, and by the end of the film they are out of the way of the younger generation. Red River has the same conflict of new ways/old ways values as Liberty Valance, but, though respectful of the necessity of the old ways, sides with the "audacity of hope" and the younger generation. Clift is right and Wayne is wrong about the right way to treat the deserters who return; when Brennan switches sides (with a huge, unsubtle close-up for his key speech), we're in no doubt. Clift is right, too (or maybe just lucky) about the new place to lead the cattle. The anarchic part of the younger generation--John Ireland as Cherry--self-destructs by undervaluing Wayne. Old and new, conservative and liberal are reconciled at the end, but under the leadership of Clift, not under the leadership of Wayne. Red River encourages us to applaud Clift as a leader, whereas TMWSLV questions Ranse as a leader. MissG, your interpretation of LV fits with my finding most of the early scenes with Stewart hard to watch. Something horrible has happened to him, but he's not really sympathetic. Even when he says true things about the importance of law, the way he says them sounds wrong. Because Stewart plays the role, you could read LV as a darker view of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, just as you can see LV as a more pessimistic view of Red River and The Big Country.

My questions have all been answered by the excellent Festival 101 e-mail. It's just what we needed to know.

Great writing about Liberty Valance, MissG. Weirdly, I find LV a much more interesting film to think about than to watch, but that's another discussion. I really liked Firecreek and wanted to mention a couple of points there. Throughout the film we can see Fonda deciding how much leeway to give his gang. They're pretty well under his control, but he knows they could turn against him if he presses too hard. The white collar/blue collar distinction is a good one. He would exercise more control over them during the church and wake scenes except that he's having a bullet removed and then wants to spend more time with Inger Stevens. Understandable, that. I also like the church scene where Stewart and the rest of the community must decide how to handle the gang, who have weapons when the churchgoers don't. You can see parallels here to dealing with neighborhood gangs or bullies. The first approach Stewart tries is to defuse the situation through a kind of easygoing humor. trying to jolly Elam out of his angry mood. This isn't a bad beginning, but it doesn't work. Then you're faced with the question of how strongly to stand up to the gang, when and how. There's a clear worst case scenario where the town and everyone in it get destroyed. Isn't a little appeasement until morning the way to go? If not, what's the alternative? You might Firecreek as developing a more realistic or commonplace situation than High Noon. Alfred Newman's music for Firecreek is excellent. For instance, the very opening of the film has dissonant chords with the five gang members spread across the screen, a very imaginative opening from director and composer. The guitar theme for the first scene between Fonda and Stevens is lovely.

The Man Who Would Be King Man of the West or The Man from Laramie?

I have a question about seating for events. Will the different levels of passholders be put in separate lines with the Spotlight passholders seated first, etc., and people buying individual tickets seated last? Will these lines be outside the theaters? I'm thinking about the need for sunscreen here. How early do you recommend that we arrive to be sure of getting a seat for a showing? Thank you for all the time and effort that has gone into making the festival happen.

Kordagirl, thank you so much for the translation of the passage in Greek on the blackboard. The film could scarcely have been better. The Browning Version would make a great double feature with The Remains of the Day, which I also love.

Miriam Hopkins was in THE CHASE with Angie Dickinson Angie Dickinson was in THE SINS OF RACHEL CADE with Peter Finch Peter Finch was in THE PUMPKIN EATER with Maggie Smith Next: Merle Oberon to Rita Tushingham

Clore, I saw the last 10 or 15 minutes of A Time for Killing, and it seemed just as bad you suggested. However, you had to love that Inger Stevens had a (bad) 1960s hairdo, not an 1860s coiffure. Stevens is so good in Firecreek, but there she was in A Time for Killing overacting like everyone else, obviously what the director wanted.

Skimpole, thank you for taking the time to consider the ways and waywardness of Oscar. One of the unwritten rules is that an unfamiliar young actress can occasionally break through to an Oscar in her first starring role (J. Jones, A. Hepburn, J. Christie, H. Swank), but a new male star must wait.