JonasEB

> {quote:title=Watasha wrote:}{quote} > No, Ive never seen it. I do like Vidor though. I actually haven't seen that much with Gilbert to tell the truth. One thing I've seen, children REALLY lock on to silent films. It must be the over-exaggerated gestures and such. My sister is 9 and has been exposed to them (and classics in general) her whole life. You should see folks faces when she tells them that she and I watch A Christmas Carol every year, they assume it's the cartoon until she tells them it was made in 1938! lol That's very true in general with children and older films. The exact problem is indeed really just a lack of exposure. Most people aren't invested enough in cinema to show older films to their children, they go out to the movie theater every week and see something new or watch whatever is on the general cable channels. And of course these newer films are often (or rather mostly) of lesser quality. Similarly, most people never read because they don't grow up around literature (it seems most people buy self-help books or Dan Brown novels nowadays.) And this extends to a lack of appreciation of art and culture in general. Schools can't do this alone, as many expect them to. Kids need a highly personalized experience to adopt an appreciation for these things (parents, siblings, family, role models.) They don't get it anymore. Another problem specifically pertaining to silent movies: The image most people have of a silent movie usually comes from the 1910's or perhaps even earlier. They've never experienced any of the highly sophisticated films of the late 1920s. I think showing someone a Garbo film like last Sunday's The Single Standard would be eye opening for many with its naturalism. Chaplin, Birth of a Nation, Caligari, and Nosferatu: Unfortunately, that's the deepest most people tend to go. > {quote:title=Watasha wrote:}{quote} >It's like the scene in The Scarlet Letter where Lillian Gish is holding her baby staring at Lars Hanson while he begs her to name her accomplice in front of the town, if you can watch that scene and not get chills you just don't get chills. There were a few scenes in this movie that were a bit like that, definitely one of the best silents I've had the pleasure of seeing. So true.

> {quote:title=BruceGhent wrote:}{quote} > I think you're overreacting just a little. Cousteau was innovative for many different reasons. Firstly he coninvented the aqualung or scuba system. He experimented with different gas mixtures to prolong deep diving which is commonplace now. He also developed several underwater camera systems to enable cinematographers to freely film beneath the sea. He developed a diving saucer ; a submersible years before others did.To say that TCM couldn't honor the man for one day is not asking too muc. Perhaps they should show several movies with key underwater scenes.That way, you might begin to more readily appreciate the man's greatness. He won two academy awards for his "The Silent World" and "The Living Sea". That should count for something. Best, BruceG. I agree. It's a great left-field addition to the June theme of underwater films.

Of course many absences are due to the studios the director worked for. TCM has served up some great Frank Borzage films recently and some more are coming in the near future but I'd like to see his Fox films on TCM (since the Fox Movie Channel isn't interested in them.) I don't believe TCM has ever shown anything by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, or if they have, not in quite a long time.

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/month/?cid=N&timezone=EST&oid=6/1/2010

Well, my problem only lasts about 30 seconds or so then the channel returns to whatever I was watching at the time (it's universal, not TCM specific, but that's when it's most annoying.) I don't know specifically what it is, I assume it's just Comcast resetting its own signal causing the box to temporarily tune into a specific basic channel it's programmed to start on (in my case, sometime between 12:00 - 2:00 in the morning; infomercials are on so it's probably channel 2, 3, or 4.) After 15-30 seconds, the channel automatically switches back to what I was watching. You're unable to control the box in that period of time between the reset and the resolution.

Comcast struck again tonight...TCM Import debut Cruel Story of Youth, a movie I personally requested and one that isn't on DVD (and being a TCM Import, only one airing in the near future, and one that won't return again for a LONG time, if ever.) I'm pretty ****. Comcast also has a very annoying habit of resetting the signal so anything you're watching from midnight to 2:00 AM may suddenly have an obnoxious infomercial pop up without warning. One particularly egregious example was when it recently happened during the ending of To Have and Have Not.

I was disappointed at first. I was really looking forward to What Price Glory but was pleasantly surprised to see Four Sons in its place. I recently requested it on the suggest a movie page (Seventh Heaven too.) It's a shame the Fox Movie Channel doesn't care about the silent films they have at their disposal. I think only Three Bad Men has aired over there in the past year.

Update: If you haven't heard by now, What Price Glory? has been dropped from the May schedule. In its place will be John Ford's Four Sons.

Off the top of my head...The Circus and Manhattan.

Ah, I was watching TCM by that point but not yet a hardcore follower. Did they show anything special that hasn't re-aired since? IFC has unfortunately ditched their weekly Janus Films two-fers (and the Samurai Saturday too.) Now they usually only do the standards (Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Seven Samurai, etc.) and a rare one-day-only showing of interesting choice films (Agnes Varda's La Pointe Courte a month ago, Polanski's Knife in the Water this month.)

Masterpiece. For those of you with the Fox Movie Channel, this has aired over there in the last 12 months so keep an eye out for it (it's one of the films that they should run more often; does anyone need to see the 1997 remake of Vanishing Point so often?)

A Janus Films retrospective might be more logical but it would be very worthwhile to do a highlight of Criterion's important and historic work in making their films widely available in the best possible condition. Anything that makes more people aware of them would be worth a look. But I actually wish TCM would license from Kino more often as they possess many films that never show up on TV (most notably, Murnau films that aren't called Nosferatu. Lang silents that aren't called Metropolis. G.W. Pabst, D.W. Griffith, etc. Lots of films that could use some TV time to help expose them to new people.)

Oops, missed the official schedule page... http://www.tcm.com/schedule/month/?cid=N&timezone=EST&oid=6/1/2010 The TCM Imports selections, with the exception of A Nous la Liberte, is underwhelming (although a little seen American Malle film, Alamo Bay, airs after Au Revoir.) I guess if you haven't already seen The 400 Blows, My Life as a Dog, and Au Revoir Le Enfants, all relatively common on US TV, on IFC, TCM, or on demand here's your chance. Edited by: JonasEB on Mar 31, 2010 12:42 AM

City Lights, Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Passion of Joan of Arc...too many to think of and I couldn't possibly choose just one. Out of the Past was mentioned below. I CAN say that is the film noir I would pick if I could only have one noir.

Jean Renoir's Swamp Water is the big fish in April. Not that there aren't other goodies, of course, but it's Renoir's first American film and it's extremely rare.

The Wild Child by Francois Truffaut.

Curiously, the new Metropolis has premiered elsewhere in the world but I haven't heard any word about the quality of it from anyone. If I had the time and money I would certainly go to the TCM festival to see it.

Todd Haynes' I'm Not There and Steven Soderbergh's misunderstood Che are a couple that have yet to be mentioned.

Kino offered the authorized restoration of that time on DVD, making the film readily available in a quality edition for people who wanted to see it. The discovery of the nearly complete Metropolis a few years ago was a miracle quite unexpected. No one thought it would happen. It's not Kino's or anyone's fault. And besides, the new restoration of Metropolis, probably the most complete it will ever be, is to be released on blu-ray, itself a worthy upgrade. It seems you're implying that Kino is shaking people down. That isn't the case at all.

Be sure to watch High and Low if you've never seen it before, it's one of Kurosawa's under-appreciated masterpieces.

Yep, just an honest mistake. TCM should keep the bad copy of Contempt around and make an interstitial piece on the importance of subtitling like the great letterboxing short they frequently run. This version of Contempt would be a great example of the folly of dubbing.

I'm not sure if there's anything missing content-wise but TCM certainly is showing a butchered version of Contempt right now.

I'm glad to see Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow on the schedule, it's one of the Fuller films still not on DVD. There are several silent films, Nanook of the North chief among them, that I'm interested in. Although I already have the The Patsy and The Big Parade it's always good to see King Vidor on the schedule. I haven't picked up the new Criterion Rosselini box yet so I'm eager to see if they are airing their restored version of Paisan. Also Truffaut's Story of Adele H. and Preminger's Angel Face, both of which I've been meaning to check out.

"It's always problematic for foreigners to try to define another country, since it's hard to separate the learned stereotypes from the live there actuality," That pretty much sums it up for me. I'd have to consider something either cinematically French, not the cliche idea of a French film, or distinctly about France. I feel a lot of the films listed have more to do with people in general than France in particular as far as subject matter goes or veer towards the cliche. And on the other side this topic has turned to: The French certainly helped us win our Revolution.

Out of those scheduled, Woody Allen's Take The Money And Run. There are lots of obvious ones to pick from but I'll post a more recent debut... Bottle Rocket (gets better and truer every year.)