Category: TCM Classic Film Festival

Once again, it was time for our favorite film festival, the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, and as usual, the Stars were shining brightly!

Movie lovers from around the globe descended upon Hollywood for the 15th edition of the festival, which took place Thursday, April 18 – Sunday, April 21. Over four packed days and nights, fans were treated to a lineup of great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, fascinating presentations and panel discussions.

There were quite a few big-name notables, both on the red carpet and introducing some of our favorite classic films.

Thursday’s opening night gala was a stunner, with the 30th anniversary screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). Many of the iconic film’s stars walked the red carpet for a reunion that included John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Harvey Keitel.

This set the tone for what was to come, with some very impressive guests that also attended the festival.

Friday night saw none other than Steven Spielberg introduce, with a discussion with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, his classic sci-fi Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). This being only his 3rd film, Spielberg said he was surprised the studio gave him the money to make it, even after the success of his mega-hit Jaws (1975). He told of much wrangling with the studio as a young director, for a bigger budget and creative control. One of these negotiations included a compromise, where the studio agreed to give the director more money (over budget) to complete scenes he thought were important to the film – in return for Spielberg agreeing to add a scene at the end that he hated, but the studio insisted upon. Ironically, Spielberg got the last laugh, showing us his “director’s cut” of the film WITHOUT that scene (in case you are wondering, it was a totally unnecessary scene at the end, where protagonist Roy Neary is shown on the alien spacecraft.)

Spielberg also told a story that directly points to his genius as a director. When attempting to get 3-year-old Carey Guffy (Barry) to emote facial expressions of wonderment and awe when he first sees the spacecrafts approaching his farm, Spielberg climbed up on a ladder in the young actors sight-line and said, “roll camera…” As Guffy watched intently, Spielberg held an ornately wrapped present, complete with ribbons and bows and fancy paper, and proceeded to slowly unwrap the gift, one ribbon and bow at a time, finally revealing a toy truck, to the young boy’s sheer and utter delight.

Another surprising tidbit that Spielberg shared was that not only was Richard Dreyfuss working on Jaws and Close Encounters at the same time, but he wasn’t the only actor considered for the part of Roy Neary. Some of those approached at the time were James Caan, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, and Gene Hackman. Also of note, famous French director Francois Truffaut (Lacombe) was cast after Spielberg passed on a young Gerard Depardieu, and on a hopeful whim, sent the script to Truffaut’s assistant.

What a different movie it might have been with such different casting!

On Saturday, WeAreMovieGeeks.com took in 2 screenings.

The first was the classic British rom-com, Four Weddings and A Funeral (1994), starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, and John Hannah. This decidedly “lovely little indie-film” ended up not only making Hugh Grant a huge star, but is also one of the highest grossing British films of all time.

Director Mike Newell was in attendance to introduce the film. One of the experiences he spoke most highly of was working with Hugh Grant. Despite the star’s fumbling, sort of aloof persona, he would not be content until his scenes and dialogue were perfect, no matter how many times he was asked to do it. He was an absolute stickler when it came to getting it just right.  The 30-year-old movie holds up surprisingly well, and for anyone who enjoys a good, fun comedy, it’s worth a watch!

Saturday evening saw the absolute sweetest reunion between stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, for the 30^th anniversary screening of The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

The sold-out crowd in attendance (938 seats at TCL’s IMAX theater) delightfully gave the pair a well-deserved standing ovation as they made their way onto the stage.  They seemed genuinely charmed by the audience’s reaction. The two friends reminisced about being on location in Ohio, which stood in for Maine, where the story takes place. To their surprise, some of the filming locations in Ohio have become tourist attractions, thanks to the film.

One of the things that both Freeman and Robbins attribute to the success of the film is the genuine friendship that the characters Red (Freeman) and Andy Dufresne (Robbins) have for each other.

The absolute highlight of the interview was when both actors were asked, what was the favorite performance of the other. Morgan Freeman thought for a minute before saying “Mystic River” for Tim Robbins. Robbins, on the other hand, took less than a split second to say “The Electric Company” (yes, the PBS classic children’s show) and the crowd went completely nuts. The thunderous applause and whistles lasted a few minutes and it left 86 year old Morgan Freeman speechless. Suffice to say, his old friend Robbins knew what he was doing.  Another great movie that holds up all these years later and one not to be missed if you haven’t seen it.

This past weekend, WAMG attended the annual TCM Film Festival (honestly this writer’s favorite event of the year) and as usual, it did not disappoint! There was a ton of great programming this year, with something for just about everyone.

Opening Night of the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival kicked off with a screening of Rio Bravo (1959) in celebration of Warner Bros.’ 100th anniversary, featuring a conversation with WBD CEO David Zaslav and The Film Foundation Board members Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson about the mission of The Film Foundation as well as Rio Bravo star Angie Dickinson.

The festival also celebrated 50th anniversary screening of The Exorcist (1973) featuring director William Friedkin and executive vice president, Library, Archive and Scitech for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Randy Haberkamp.

The official closing night film was the 40th anniversary screening of The Big Chill (1983) with discussion by actor Tom Berenger and actress JoBeth Williams.

In between that, we saw some pretty great films!

Airport (1970)

First up was a special 70MM screening of Airport (1970), pretty much the first of the great “disaster movies” that came out in the ‘70’s. It was filled with some of the big movie stars of the day, including Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Jacqueline Bisset, Maureen Stapleton, and the unforgettable Helen Hayes, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal as a ditzy senior stowaway. The highlight for me was the introduction of the character Joe Patroni, the hard-as-nails, but always optimistic Chief Mechanic played by George Kennedy. Kennedy was the only actor that appeared in all 4 of the “Airport” movies, including sequels Airport ’75 (1974), Airport ’77 (1977), and The Concorde – Airport ’79 (1979).

The Three Musketeers (1973)

Next was the 50^th Anniversary screening of The Three Musketeers (1973), the fun swashbuckler starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, and Charlton Heston.

Interesting story: The film was originally intended to be an epic which ran for three hours including an intermission, but during production, it was determined the film could not make its announced release date in that form, so a decision was made to split the longer film into two shorter features, the second part becoming 1974’s The Four Musketeers.  This incensed the actors and crew, since they were being paid for one film, and their original contracts made no mention of a second feature, resulting in lawsuits being filed to receive compensation for salaries associated with the sequel. This led to the Screen Actors Guild requiring all future actors’ contracts to include what has become known as the “Salkind clause” (named after producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind), which stipulates that single productions cannot be split into film instalments without prior contractual agreement.

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

The success of the syndicated The Muppet Show on TV naturally led Jim Henson’s creations to the big screen, starting with The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981). With more time and a bigger budget, Henson and director Frank Oz were able to show Muppets in full form by combining marionettes with the hand and rod puppets seen on TV. They also tried to find new things for the Muppets to do, with a group of rats cooking breakfast to the tune of “Rat Scat” among the film’s highlights. The fantasy sequence with the characters as children inspired the Muppet Babies TV series.

Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson, was on hand to introduce the film, telling some great behind-the-scenes anecdotes and raving about director Frank Oz, whom he calls “extraordinary” in his directing style for the film. Later in the festival, Henson returned for “The Evolution of Henson Puppetry” – a discussion and demonstration that guided us from the very beginning of his father’s work, through the evolution of Henson inventions and techniques, to the magic of today’s digital puppetry and creatures – as created by the renowned Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, which we gotta say was pretty cool!

Amadeus (1984)

Set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, the film is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg, described as a “fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri”. Mozart’s music is heard extensively in the soundtrack. The film follows a fictional rivalry between Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri at the court of Emperor Joseph II. The film stars F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart. Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning.

Another plus was the work of Oscar-winning art directors Patrizia von Brandenstein and Karel Černy, who built convincing 18^th century interiors in Prague’s Barrandov Studios while also turning historical streets and buildings, including the Count Nostitz Theatre in Prague (now the Estates Theatre), into credible facsimiles of the places rival composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri worked and lived.

A Mighty Wind (2003)

Every year, a favorite of festival-goers are the “poolside” screenings at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. This year we attended A Mighty Wind (2003).

With this warmhearted lampoon of the world of folk music, writer-director-actor Christopher Guest transitioned from the blistering satire of earlier films like Waiting for Guffman (1996) and Best in Show (2000) to a more affectionate tone. As with the earlier films, Guest and co-writer Eugene Levy created a detailed scenario and then turned their cast loose to largely improvise. With guest regulars like Catherine O’Hara, Levy, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, and Jennifer Coolidge on hand, it was a safe bet that they would come up with something hilarious. The surprise was that they also came up with something heartfelt—and a few clever earworms.

On hand to present the film were actor Michael McKean and wife, actress Annette O’Toole. Together, they are prolific songwriters; they co-wrote the Academy Award-nominated song “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” for the film.

Xanadu (1980)

Yes, this is one of the 2 movies that led to the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards, aka the Razzies, honoring the “worst of cinematic failures” (the other being the Village People floppo “Can’t Stop The Music”, also 1980).

But it’s so much more than that! It’s an explosion of vintage sounds and styles, from roller disco to flowing midi dresses, with musical performances by the Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard and The Tubes, and stars Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, in his last film role.

This one was especially bittersweet, as we just lost Olivia Newton John in August of 2022, but somehow the joy was not diminished at this year’s midnight screening. Yep, midnight. I didn’t think there would be that many interested night owls, but was I ever surprised to see a packed theater with a standby line! By the time we got to the title song at the end, it was a full-blown sing-a-long!

One of the more interesting stories told by host and superfan, Tara McNamara, Editor-in-Chief of 80sMovieGuide.com and the co-host of the podcast ‘80s Movies: A Guide to What’s Wrong with Your Parents, was that when Gene Kelly was first approached, he was long retired and said he would do it, but would not do any dancing. However, upon learning that he would be co-starring with Olivia Newton John, he agreed to not only dance with her, but he choreographed their dance number by recreating the dance number he did with Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal (1942).

Once again, WAMG attended the 2017 Turner Classic Movie Film Festival in Hollywood, and as always, it did not disappoint!

Ahhh…so many movies, so little time to cover everything, but here are some highlights of my favorite movies of this year’s festival.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Shown poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, this classic was perfect for opening night. Brightly colored inflatable balls and lights floated in the pool like some of Wonka’s best candies as guests enjoyed snacks and cocktails on a beautiful spring evening. In attendance for this special screening were some of the cast members of the original movie. Miss Veruca Salt herself, Julie Dawn Cole; Mike Teevee, also known as Paris Themmen; and one of the original Oompaloompas, Rusty Goffe.

Along with host Illeana Douglas, they recounted some great memories of being on the set of the film in Germany more than 45 years ago. They all agreed it was a kid’s dream come true….all that candy! All had fond memories of star Gene Wilder, who was never too busy to talk to them or play with them on the set. The favorite memory seemed to be that all of the kids, with the exception of Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca), saw the “candy room” set for the first time the day the scene was shot. Director Mel Stuart famously did that on purpose to capture the wonder and excitement of their experience.
Stuart was also known for doing multiple takes – 76 to be exact – and Rusty Goffe remembers having to do hundreds of cartwheels in his oompaloompa costume! The film goes down in history as an absolute treasure and it was fun seeing it on the big screen once again.

Memorable moment from the screening: Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca) sitting in the audience mouthing the words to “I Want It Now!”

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)

In this classic horror movie starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, Hudson sisters Blanche and Jane battle for control of their own sanity. Having been paralyzed in an accident, Blanche (Crawford) must endure the cruel torment from her sister, the faded and crazy former child star Baby Jane (Davis).

What made this classic fun to watch, also poolside at the Roosevelt Hotel, was the TV series “FEUD” currently running on FX. It covers the famous feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford that surrounded the filming of the movie in 1961 and all the on-set battles that occurred between the two actresses and director Robert Aldrich. The camp factor is elevated once you know funny tidbits like while having to be dragged across the floor by Davis in one scene, Crawford filled her pockets with heavy rocks just to antagonize Davis! The drama continued when only Davis was nominated for an Oscar that year, but Crawford still managed to steal the spotlight by graciously offering to accept the prize on behalf of eventual winner Anne Bancroft, who won for The Miracle Worker, but was absent that night. Literally the stuff of Hollywood legend and audiences never get tired of seeing this classic.

Memorable moment from the screening: The entire audience reciting the line “But ya are in the chair!! And ya ain’t ever gonna leave it!”

The Jerk (1979)

Best known for his stand-up comedy act and appearances on Saturday Night Live, this was Steve Martin’s first starring role in a feature film. There to introduce and talk about the film was none other than director Carl Reiner. He spoke about the ease with which Martin took to acting and filming on such a high profile movie at the time. Sharing a car and driver to the set everyday, Martin would often pitch ideas to Reiner for certain scenes and use jokes that he would come up with on the spot.

This movie is also a genuine classic and the TCL Chinese Imax theater’s almost 1200 seats were completely full.

Memorable moment of the screening: Steve Martin and costar Bernadette Peters’ sweet duet of “You belong to me” was met with spontaneous applause from the audience.

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

For the 40th Anniversary of this classic, Paramount Pictures provided a newly remastered directors cut that was absolutely glorious. With the Bee Gees award winning soundtrack practically a character in the movie, the experience of seeing and hearing it in the TCL Chinese Imax theater was nothing less than thrilling. There to introduce the film and share memories was director John Badham and star Donna Pescow (Annette). A native of Brooklyn, Pescow had spent years trying to lose her Brooklyn accent so as not to be type-cast when she began her career. Then along comes Badham who after casting her as local girl Annette, asks Pescow to go home and stay with her parents in Brooklyn to get back some of her accent!

Badham also recounted the role that star John Travolta had as “editor” on the film. Because he was already a tv star at the time (Welcome Back Kotter), the filmmaker had wanted as many close-ups of Travolta’s face as possible. Travolta balked when he saw dailies because after all the dance training that was required, he insisted audiences get more wide shots of him dancing the highly athletic choreography in the film. Once Badham realized just how good he was, Travolta’s requests were fulfilled. Said Travolta later in an interview, “when you see Fred Astaire dance, its not close-ups of his face.”

Memorable moment from the screening: Thunderous applause after every single Travolta dance scene.

Actor Donna Pescow (L) and director John Badham attend the screening of ‘Saturday Night Fever’

If you’re ever in Los Angeles, take the TCM Bus Tour. More info here: http://www.tcm.com/tours/tour_la.html