Filmgoddess

The problem there is that TCM doesn't run every movie you'd like to see. Cathy Cartee

I get 8 or 9 different Encore channels and I've watched a number of films. I've never seen an edited one. Cathy Cartee

Except if you take the original premise that kids don't like watching black and white films, how is showing them a colorized film going to ever lead them to liking black and white films? It would seem that all it will do is make them insist on all black and white films be shown in a colorized version. Once you give someone something they want in a certain form (chewable tasty vitamins) you can never get them to go back and enjoy something in the less palatable way. This thread makes absolutely no sense. Cathy Cartee

Pardon me, but I think you are somewhat the "big bad wolf." You are defending colorizing and pan and scan but seemingly hiding behind sales figures. I don't really get it. What difference do the sales figures have to do with whether or not it's right or wrong? No, I wouldn't rather have kids -- and have you provided any actual evidence to support your contention that the colorized films are selling and kids are watching them? -- watch some bastardized attempt to spoon feed them some films. Cathy Cartee

You are no more going to get the vast majority of kids to watch old, classic movies than you are to get them to listen to Cole Porter. Any attempt to do so will fail. There are kids that are just going to find it interesting or not. Using all sorts of gimmicks to try to "lure them in" is destined to fail. I'm surprised that any film lover would condone "colorizing" -- which is about as unnatural as it gets -- in any way, shape or form. I find that simply astonishing. Not liking black and white fiilms is not confined to the young. I have a couple 60-something female friends who won't watch black and white movies or musicals as they say "people aren't black and white and they don't sing in public." What would one suggest for that? Take out the musical numbers in those classic films? Cathy Cartee

Of course, she looks great. That face has had almost as much plastic surgery and botox as Joan Rivers (although much more tastefully done). As a woman of a certain age, I love it when people say how great a woman looks as if the knife and chemicals had nothing to do with it. The only women who look great are the ones who age naturally! Cathy Cartee

Ben isn't my cup of tea and he makes more mistakes, on average, than any other person on TCM. He has a smug, self-satisfied way about him that I find off-putting especially when he's tooling around that car with that -- whoever the heck it is -- doing their "Entourage" impersonation. Every time he introduces a film I wait for the "oh, no" moment when he makes some snarky contemporary reference or makes a mistake. Cathy Cartee

The poster, David in Seattle, in response to another post decided to bring in the name of former Congressman Foley -- I suppose because he was a Republican and not a liberal -- and label him a pedophile. For what reason, I have no idea. Ask the original poster. It was unfortunate, unnecessary, incorrect, and wrong. But like with post people the OP chooses to stand by what they've said even when confronted with the wrongness of it all. Gosh, this is really repulsive. Cathy Cartee

David: that's very unfortunate. Your description of the situation is not accurate and your willingness to smear someone because they are not of your political persuasion is really not something I would want to discuss any further. This is really just yelling fire in a crowded theater. I suppose using your rationalization it would be okay to describe Democrat Bill Clinton as a rapist, Democart David Wu as a rapist, Democrat Anthony **** as a sex pervert, Woody Allen as a pedophile, and on and on. I prefer a higher standard than that. It's sad when a message board about films has to become about politics and using very charged words in order to advance a political agenda. I'm sorry we "veered" off-topic but I wasn't the one who brought the name of the former congressman into this thread. Cathy Cartee

Very interesting. That makes sense. And I see last night that Tippi Hedren was seated as well. Cathy Cartee

I enjoyed seeing her this past week as a guest host on TCM. I've just finished watching most of last week's films on my DVR so that's why I waited to ask this question. Does anyone know why she was seated throughout the series? Most of the hosts at least stand up or walk around a bit. I'm just wondering if she's just too fragile or it was just the way they chose to do it. She looked terrific by the way and I've loved all the cheerful colors she was wearing. Cathy Cartee

David: I agree with your sentiments here but hope you'll remove the reference to former Congressman Mark Foley just for the sake of accuracy. It's a serious thing to call a person a pedophile and no jury, court, ethics committee, or admission ever indicated that Mr. Foley was a pedophile. He sent inappropriate e-mails. That's wrong, but it doesn't make one a pedophile. Pedophilia knows no political party or political philosophy and we don't make our point by smearing someone who has never been charged yet alone convicted of such a thing. Cathy Cartee

David: I hadn't heard that story before and I'm sure glad it wasn't my comments that prompted that memory X-( Artists, seemingly more so than the general public, can be very flawed and troublesome people. I always try to separate the art from the artist even though many people claim that's impossible. Cathy Cartee

I'm not sure they are really choosing any films for that series that present positive images. It would sort of defeat their purpose, I think. I would have chosen HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG which presents an amazing clash between Middle Easterners in the USA (Iranians) and Americans. While the film is loaded with gray and there are no bad guys, really, it certainly makes you empathetic with the Iranian family. Cathy Cartee

I don't think that's snooty. As a long time teacher, I have never found that putting sugar on asparagus makes kids want to eat it. I don't think "dumbing down" a film to get a kid to watch it is going to work. You can no more get someone to like opera by listening to Charlotte Church or Andrea Bocelli than you are going to get a kid to like a classic film by making everyone's face colorized in pink. That's not snooty. And it's also completely ineffective. You will lead kids to classic films, or literature, or art, by not assuming they are dumb and need things presented in a way to make them watch it. Let's also not forget that classic things are not appealing to everyone. It's a niche market. We don't need everyone to like what we like. I think they should present the film in an intelligent way, use a hook that might draw kids in, and then we'll see what happens. But colorizing or editing or dumbing it down is not going to be effective. In the past few weeks here, I've seen people argue that pan and scanning a film is okay if that's how someone wants to watch it and now that colorizing is okay if it makes kids watch a film. I wonder if the people who advocate these kinds of things really love and understand film? In 60 plus years of watching movies I've never met a passionate film buff who though colorizing or pan and scan was ever acceptable. I still remember James Stewart testifying before Congress is the most passionate way possible against the colorizing of films. I'm with him. Cathy Cartee

I loathed AMERICAN BEAUTY. It was one big cliche wrapped in several smaller cliches. The only good performance in the film was Annette Bening's. Spacey seemed to know it was crap and had this permanent smirk. It felt like a high-gloss Lifetime Movie for Women. I'll never understand the acclaim and the Oscars it received. Cathy Cartee

You can always do what I did. I watched Part One at home on DVD and then headed out to the theater for Part Two. I didn't mind the changes early on in the series when they didn't really affect the overall arc of the story line. I also don't mind changes when they are in the spirit of the book. We all know not everything can be done exactly the same. But when they make changes that change meaning that really irritates me. They did that a lot in the previous two films and I don't understand why Rowling approved it unless she's just about money at this point. In particular, the way that the death of Dumbledore in relation to Harry was changed was mind-boggling. It completely changed the meaning of the book. I wanted to yell at the screen. Cathy Cartee

I'm not sure I would call it "snooty" to insist that films not be debased by being colorized. Should the colors of a painting be changed? The ending of a book? No. Neither should a film be changed in any way. Cathy Cartee

Get stinking drunk? That's the only way to watch that film ] Cathy Cartee

I find JOHNNY GUITAR so unbelievably campy. You just can't take it seriously. I always wish that McCambridge and Crawford would just a get a room! Cathy Cartee

I loved the two part ender to the series and it surprised me because I thought that director David Yates ruined the previous two films by changing so much of the content and meaning of the two books. I was so disappointed in them so these were a pleasant surprise. I do think that Dobby's death would have had far more impact in Part One if Yates hadn't cut him out of the previous two films and his pivotal role in them. But the finale -- both parts -- were really superb. It's hard to believe that the entire series -- now the highest-grossing film franchise in history -- has only garnered 9 total Oscar noms and no wins. Cathy Cartee

True. They're just not my cup of tea but here musicals "send me" as they used to say. Cathy Cartee

I've always liked early Doris Day better than the Doris Day of the 1960s. I think it's really just a preference for those lovely musicals of her rather than the later comedies which feel so dated now -- not because of her, but because of the lame material. Cathy Cartee

Absolutely. With tomato juice and spices. It's a Bloody Mary. Cathy Cartee

I never liked the low ceilings in HOWARD's END (which is the name of the estate). It makes me feel claustrophobic just watching it. Now, the London house I could go for! Cathy Cartee