Reviews and commentary about current and classic cinema. Curated by Stanford Clark.
I am still having fun with and learning a lot with my 2020 movie project of watching all 50 movies listed in the cool book from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) called Must-See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies that Are Out of This World by Sloan De Forest (Running Press, 2018; available at Amazon.com and Shop TCM). The complete list of 50 films is here.
Here’s the current rundown on the films I watched in April (courtesy of my Instagram feed; and sorry to be slow in posting this).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the good folks at Turner Classic Movies (TCM) had to cancel this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival that was scheduled to take place in Hollywood, California on April 16-19, 2020. I was scheduled to attend this event and felt quite sad when it inevitably was called off.
However, TCM turned lemons into lemonade and they decided to turn this year’s festival into a “remote, stay the heck at home celebration” (to quote TCM host Ben Mankiewicz) by programming four days of great films along with a lot of special features that they played on the TCM network and on the TCM social media channels.
TCM host Ben Mankiewicz recorded this ad for this year’s festival.
As they do every year, TCM created passes for the festival. Here’s mine.
Even though it was really a bum deal not to be able to travel this year to California (or anywhere for that matter), the festival weekend ending up being a total blast. I watched 16 films (14 features and two documentaries) over the four days and it was such a happy diversion during such an unsettling time.
Here’s a rundown of the films I watched, courtesy of my Instagram and Twitter feeds.
And one final sentimental tweet.
A huge thanks to all of the TCM team for giving this gift to classic movies fans everywhere. I hope to see you (and thank you) in person in Hollywood in 2021 at next year’s TCM Classic Film Festival.
I am still carrying on with my 2020 movie project of watching all 50 movies listed in the cool book from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) called Must-See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies that Are Out of This World by Sloan De Forest (Running Press, 2018; available at Amazon.com and Shop TCM). The complete list of 50 films is here.
Here’s the current rundown on the films I watched in March (courtesy of my Instagram feed; and sorry to be slow in posting this). Most of the March movies were alien invasion or monster movies (or both)…not necessarily comforting viewing during the COVID-19 pandemic currently happening, but these are still great sci-fi films.
I am still having a blast with my 2020 movie project of watching all 50 movies listed in the cool book from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) called Must-See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies that Are Out of This World by Sloan De Forest (Running Press, 2018; available at Amazon.com and Shop TCM). The complete list of 50 films is here.
Here’s the current rundown on the films I watched in February (courtesy of my Instagram feed).
Sorry I’m a little slow in posting this, but I’ve been having a blast with my 2020 movie project of watching all 50 movies listed in the cool book from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) called Must-See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies that Are Out of This World by Sloan De Forest (Running Press, 2018; available at Amazon.com and Shop TCM). The complete list of 50 films is here.
Here’s the current rundown on the films I watched in January (courtesy of my Instagram feed).
Happy 2020! This year’s movie watching project has me over the moon, truly.
I am planning to watch all 50 movies listed in the cool book from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) called Must-See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies that Are Out of This World by Sloan De Forest (Running Press, 2018; available at Amazon.com and Shop TCM).
Here’s the list of the 50 films (plus I’m also going to watch Disney’s wild and wacky sci-fi flick The Black Hole from 1979 which is not included in the book but is a total sci-fi guilty pleasure).
* Watched in 2019
** Never seen before
I hope you’ll join me in following along or, better yet, watching some or all of these films with me! I will be keeping a log of the films on my Instagram feed (@moviespap), my Letterboxd page (stanfordclark), and will be reporting regularly here on the blog and podcast.
I had a wonderful and enlightening time this year watching all 52 films listed in the the great book from Turner Classic Movies called The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter by Jeremy Arnold. Here are 10 standout films (although I really loved them all) as documented in my personal Instagram feed (and I hope you’ll also follow my Movies Past and Present Instagram feed, too).
Of course, films on the list like Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, Some Like It Hot, and Sunset Boulevard remain forever favorites; however, these 10 films listed really spoke to me this year.
Thanks again for following along! More movie watching projects are coming soon (like tomorrow)!
The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter is available on Amazon.com and Shop TCM.
This year’s Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Classic Film Festival just wrapped up and it was wonderful.
The festival was held April 11-14, 2019 in Hollywood, California. Headquartered at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the festival screenings and events were held in nearby theaters, including the TCL Chinese Theater and Multiplex, the Egyptian Theater, the ArcLight Cinerama Dome, and the American Legion Post 43 Theatre.
I had a Classic Pass again this year, which provided access to all festival venues during all days of the festival (with the exception of the opening night gala screening and party) and it worked great. I got in line usually about 60 minutes before each screening and was able to get in every screening that I wanted to attend. I tweeted pics and summaries of the 14 films I saw at this year’s festival (copied below) in case you’re interested.
I also attended two presentations: the “Meet TCM” presentation on day one of the festival with a panel discussion from the TCM management team and a cool 20th Century Fox retrospective presented by Schawn Belton, Executive Vice Present of Media and Library Services at 20th Century Fox. Both were terrific.
The 20th Century Fox presentation was in a new venue for the festival—the American Legion Post 43 Theatre. Recently restored, the building and theater are just beautiful.
Overall, this year’s festival was just fantastic. The films, the presenters, the staff, and the venues for the most part were great. It was also such a pleasure to visit with so many nice people while in line at the festival and to have the opportunity to meet in person fellow TCM fans that I follow on social media.
Just a couple of gripes:
I’m already planning my trip for next year’s festival. Many thanks again to TCM for providing this one-of-a-kind opportunity to see such an eclectic and excellent curation of classic films on the big screen!
(Image ©️ TCM)
*Subject to change, of course. (Image ©️ TCM)
I am excited and grateful to be attending the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Classic Film Festival again this year. Celebrating its 10th anniversary and with the theme of “Follow Your Heart: Love at the Movies,” the wonderful team at TCM has again assembled an outstanding selection of films for this annual event. Now that the full schedule has been released, it’s time to make a plan for what films I hope to see.
As always, I want to see most everything. Since splitting into five people is not an option, I have to choose. It’s the ultimate in first world problems, but, still, it’s often a bit agonizing.
My current plan is to spend the opening night of this year’s festival at the Egyptian Theatre. I’ll kick the festival off with the musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell and part of the festival’s tribute to 20th Century Fox. Next up is a 35mm nitrate screening of the comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple.
The difficult choices begin first thing on Friday. The festival is screening another film this year at the ArcLight Cinemas’ Cinerama Dome, Cinerama’s Russian Adventure (1966), which is the last of the Cinerama compilation films. On hand will be film historian and critic Leonard Maltin and editor Hal Dennis, Jr. Seeing a film in the Cinerama Dome is always a treat and this would definitely be a unique experience.
Instead, I’m probably going to start the day back at the Egyptian with screenings of the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Walt Disney’s animated classic Sleeping Beauty (1959), which is celebrating its 60th anniversary. (Even though I’ve recently seen Sleeping Beauty on the big screen courtesy of D23, I don’t want to pass up another opportunity to see this gorgeous film.)
The next three films are in the TCL Chinese Multiplex: the classic silent film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), François Truffaut’s dramedy Day for Night (1973), and the western Winchester ’73 (1950). (Or I might change my plans entirely in order to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in the TCL Chinese Theatre.) The midnight movie (if I can stay awake) is Mexican cult favorite Santo vs. the Evil Brain (1961). Honestly, I’d enjoy seeing any of the 20 movies playing Friday afternoon and evening (and I wouldn’t be surprised if I changed my plans).
There’s a new venue at the festival this year–the Legion Theater, part of Hollywood Post 43 of the American Legion. The theater was chartered in 1919 by World War I veterans who worked in the movie business and has recently undergone an extensive restoration. The pictures of it look beautiful and I’m excited to check it out.
The first two movies on Saturday are at the Legion Theater and are part of the festival’s 20th Century Fox tribute: the musical The Little Colonel (1935) starring Shirley Temple, and then a session dedicated to the history of 20th Century Fox entitled Fox: An Appreciation with a presentation by Schawn Belston, executive vice president of Media and Library Services at 20th Century Fox.
Then, it’s back to the TCL Chinese Multiplex for the comedy Father Goose (1964) with Cary Grant or the romantic drama Love Affair (1939), and Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975) with actors Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Jeff Goldblum, and Joan Tewkesbury in attendance.
One of the toughest decisions (again, first world problems) of the festival schedule for me is between living out a life-long dream of seeing the original (well, it’s the “Special Edition”) Star Wars movie in the TCL Chinese Theater, Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), or seeing one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures Escape from New York (1981) with an intro by director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell. Star Wars is probably going to win (it’s one of my favorite movies ever), but it most likely will be a game time decision.
With five “TBA” slots on the Sunday schedule, I’m going to play it by ear that day. I also plan to attend a TCM Backlot event at 1:30 p.m. at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. I’m really hoping to be able to see The Godfather Part II (1974) on the big screen, but again, we’ll just have to see what ultimately gets scheduled and what’s going on.
While the TCM Classic Film Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary, the TCM network is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Its first day of broadcasting was on April 14, 1994 and the very first film the network played was the seminal classic Gone with the Wind (1939). The film will be shown in the TCL Chinese Theatre on Sunday afternoon at the festival, and it will also be shown on the network that same day. I’ve decided to record it on my DVR and watch it on TV when I get home, which somehow seems appropriate.
The 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival will be held April 11-14, 2019 in Hollywood, California. For details, visit tcm.com/festival.
The great team at Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has released the full schedule today for the upcoming 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival.
The full schedule is here. Read it and weep (because it is awesome).
I’m already agonizing (in a good way) about what films to see. So many choices! For the latest information and updates, visit tcm.com/festival. See you in Hollywood April 11-14!
Images ©️ TCM
