#Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival

[hollywoodcomet]

An interview with Russ Tamblyn

When you think of actor Russ Tamblyn, the first image that comes to mind is an energetic young man. Tamblyn stood out in his films, particularly because of his acrobatic style of dancing, whether the role was in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954), HIT THE DECK (1955), WEST SIDE STORY (1961) or THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BROTHERS GRIMM (1962). Russ Tamblyn on the red carpet at the Turner Classic…

[citizenscreen]

A Plan for the 15th TCMFF

We have been getting details of this year’s Turner Classic Movies Film Festival (TCMFF) for quite some time now but we all waited with bated breath for the full schedule to drop. Until that time, when the challenging task of selecting begins, we are not satisfied. That event happened on Thursday, March 28, and it is a doozy. This year’s TCMFF feels special from where I sit in New Jersey. For…

[backlots]

TCM Classic Film Festival Day 2

I would like to preface this post with the assurance that we are all safe and unharmed. This evening, TCM Classic Film Festival attendees received an alert on their apps that a shelter-in-place order had been issued for our area of Hollywood Blvd. I was waiting in the ticket line for Ball of Fire, set up outside, when I was quickly ushered into the building by festival staff. Word spread quickly…

[piafmunchkin]

Some updates

Readers, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on Backlots! I’ve been very busy with activities related to Captain of Her Soul, which is now out as of September 27. I wanted to share a few things I’ve been up to, and some upcoming events, so you might have some context as to why Backlots has been inactive for a while. -Captain of Her Soul has been profiled in a beautiful article in Alta…

[cherrygeek]

CHERRY THE GEEK TV: TCM'S BEN MANKIEWICZ TALKS "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK" AND OTHER FILM CLASSICS

Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz was the special guest at film historian Bruce Crawford’s 50th Omaha Classic Film Event celebrating Steven Spielberg’s 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Mankiewicz remembers seeing Raiders in the theater as a teenager. “There are certain movies where the entire theater-going experience is imprinted on you. I remember how the milk duds tasted,”…

[maroon5gurl88]

TCM Classic Film Festival 2024 Review

It’s been a few weeks since this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival came to a close. It’s always bittersweet when the festival ends because this means that I’m left waiting for next year’s event. I equate it to post-Christmas malaise. But with a few weeks removed I’m able to see things differently than if I’d written this review in the immediate aftermath of it. This year’s festival had a lot to…

[sotangledupinit]

Hey, because I don’t see it much outside of the small circle of TCM fans on Twitter, but there’s a HUGE shakeup with the Turner Classic Movies channel that may mean its downfall. Maybe it’s me being dramatic but giving the track record of the head of WB/Discovery at the moment, I don’t have a lot of faith.

Essentially a couple of key players for the channel, including the head of its programming and the TCM Film Festival, are now out. TCM is unique in that it was a non-commercialized television channel that aired classic films, shorts, cartoons, etc. from the first days of cinema to now. It has exposed so many generations of film fans to movies they never would’ve seen otherwise, and it’s the only way to watch certain movies now.

Losing TCM would be detrimental, imo, to classic films and film lovers. It’s already been through some changes but this about-face from the previous statements re: TCM and preserving it are worrying.

I hope I’m wrong but I don’t have faith.

[dweemeister]

August 7, 2023

By Maureen Lee Lenker

(Entertainment Weekly) — We'll always have Paris, but for a time, it seemed as if we might not always have Turner Classic Movies.

Since 1994, TCM has aired films, uncut and commercial-free, 24 hours a day, all enhanced by monthly themed and curated programming, hosted introductions and conclusions (known as outros), conversations with filmmakers and talent, and original content. In its nearly 30 years of existence, the network has expanded beyond its already estimable remit as a cable network-meets-film-school, with fan events including a film festival and cruise.

The brand also plays a key role in global film preservation efforts. Restorations of bigger studio titles are typically done by the studios themselves, but TCM is more often than not the showcase for such work — both on air and at the annual film festival. TCM won a Peabody Award in 2008 for its "commitment to film preservation and restoration." 

In 2023 alone, TCM partnered with the Film Foundation and the studio to restore 10 classics for the Warner Bros. 100th anniversary, including 1932's One Way Passage, 1941's The Strawberry Blonde, 1959's Rio Bravo, and 1955's East of Eden, all of which screened at the film festival and aired on the network. Last year, TCM celebrated its expanded partnership with the Film Foundation with the premiere of a 4K restoration of the Elizabeth Taylor/James Dean/Rock Hudson epic Giant at the 2022 festival. (Going even further back, in 2007, TCM tracked down the rights to six "lost" RKO films, including William Powell comedy Double Harness and Ginger Rogers rom-com Rafter Romance, not seen in over 50 years).

But on June 20, all of that seemed to be in peril as news broke that the entire executive leadership team of TCM (most of whom boasted 20-plus years of experience with the network) were being laid off alongside other members of the staff. The latest round of layoffs, which network staff tell EW they were blindsided by, are part of Warner Bros. Discovery's continuing attempts to cut costs across the studio.

Some backtracking from the executives at WBD is alright (especially in terms of staff rehires and bringing back the TCMFF Director), but they cut away at something that wasn't broken to begin with!

[filmnoirfoundation]

NOIR CITY 21

Celebrating its 21st year, NOIR CITY, the largest annual film noir festival in the world, returns to Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre, January 19-28, 2024. FNF president Eddie Muller will present a dozen double bills pairing an English language noir with a similarly themed foreign language film—24 films over 10 days. Whatever the country of origin, there are heists, prison breaks, missing persons, cultural alienation, love triangles, and lots of plain old-fashioned murder.

Muller says this edition "has been tailored to satisfy those folks who love noir filled with the colorful vernacular slang so essential to American and British noir—as well as adventurous viewers intrigued by seeing a familiar story—typically a crime committed for passion or profit—play out in cultures with different values, mores, and styles." Through his programming of NOIR CITY festivals around the nation and his hosting of the popular Noir Alley franchise on Turner Classic Movies, Muller aims to move audiences past the idea that film noir is a strictly American genre.

Joining him this year, as co-programmer and co-host, is acclaimed film scholar Imogen Sara Smith, a familiar commentator on The Criterion Channel streaming service. "Attending NOIR CITY in the Bay Area has been a highlight of my year for over a decade," says Smith, "and I'm thrilled to be joining Eddie as co-host this year. I'm especially excited that the program we've put together will introduce audiences to some rare international titles, alongside Hollywood classics. It's going to be a stellar festival."

Kicking off the collection of rarities is the FNF's most recent restoration — 1952's Argentine film Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) — based on two short stories by American master of suspense fiction, Cornell Woolrich. The picture was preserved by the Film Noir Foundation in 2013 and has now been completely restored by the FNF through UCLA Film & Television Archive, thanks in part to a grant from the Golden Globe Foundation (formerly HFPA). Fernando Martín Peña, Argentina's pre-eminent cinephile, will be on hand to introduce the film with Eddie Muller.

Included on the 2024 schedule are English-language rarities such as Black Tuesday (1954), Plunder Road (1957), Across the Bridge (1957), and Strongroom (1962). Little-seen international titles include The Human Beast (France, 1938), Aimless Bullet (South Korea, 1960), Bitter Rice (Italy, 1949), Four Against the World (Mexico, 1950), Zero Focus (Japan, 1961), and Smog (1962), a forgotten surrealist masterpiece by Italian director Franco Rossi freshly restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive. Explore the full line up, buy tickets for individual double features and Passports (All-Access Passes) at the festival website.

GO TO NOIR CITY

[eptodaytommorowforever]

rare outtakes from turner classic fims movies of Elvis Presley Summer Festival at The International Hotel In Vegas 1970 left in the Vaults till now! we have to ask dumb turner classic films movies WHY?

[film-classics]

Norma Shearer - The First Lady of MGM

Edith Norma Shearer (born in Montreal, Quebec on August 11, 1902) was a Canadian-American actress known for her glamour, versatility, and determination. Despite her talent and good looks, her fortuitous marriage to legendary MGM producer Irving Thalberg is mostly credited in her becoming one of the studio's leading ladies and becoming known as "The First Lady of MGM."

Born to Irish and Scottish parents, Shearer moved to New York City in 1920 at the behest of her mother, in hopes that her daughter would become an actress. However, she did not find immediate success, with both Florenz Ziegfeld and D. W. Griffith pronouncing her dream of being a star impossible because of her nonaligned eyes. Undeterred, Shearer risked some of her savings on a consultation with Dr. William Bates, a pioneer in the treatment of strabismus, who prescribed a series of daily eye muscle-strengthening exercises.

A string of bit parts eventually brought Shearer to the notice of Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a contract in 1923 in Hollywood. After some success in minor roles, she contributed to the meteoric rise of the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by starring in the studio's first official production, He Who Gets Slapped (1924). The film was a success and and to Shearer's visibility. By late 1925, she was carrying her own films, and was one of MGM's biggest attractions, a bona fide star. She also made a smooth transition to sound films, even winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for The Divorcee (1930).

Nevertheless, her 1927 marriage to Thalberg gave her a degree of power in Hollywood that was resented by rivals such as Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Jean Harlow. Sadly, Thalberg's unexpected death in 1936 resulted in her slow withdrawal from Hollywood, and she eventually retired from acting just several years after, in 1942.

Shearer died of bronchial pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, where she had been living for a few years. She was less than a month shy of her 81st birthday.

Legacy:

Was the first person to receive three, four, five, and eventually six Academy Award nominations for acting: Their Own Desire (1929), A Free Soul (1931), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), and Romeo and Juliet (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938) and winning with The Divorcee (1930)

With her brother Douglas Shearer, became the first Oscar-winning sibling in 1930

Won the Venice Film Festival – Volpi Cup for Best Actress for Marie Antoinette (1938)

Won the Photoplay Awards - Best Performances of the Month for a record six times: June 1929, January 1927, February 1926, May 1925, and October and November 1924

Listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America’s top-10 box office draws from 1931 to 1934

Is one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the "Secret Annex" in 1942

Credited for discovering discovering actress Janet Leigh and actor-producer Robert Evans

Commemorated by Canada Post in 2008 in its "Canadians in Hollywood" special series stamps

Inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2008

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for November 2015

Nominated in a 2018 edition of Entertainment Weekly for greatest actress of all time

Has had a permanent exhibit at the Canadian Women in Film Museum since 2021

Was the subject of “A Free Soul: The Unexpected Life & Legacy of Norma Shearer” Exhibit at The Hollywood Heritage Museum in 2023

Is one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the "Secret Annex" in 1942

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6636 Hollywood Boulevard for motion picture

[hollywoodcomet]

Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival 2024

Covering TCMFF in 2023 I’ll be returning to the Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival to attend the 2024 event. This will be my ninth festival and it will be the 15th year that Turner Classic Movies has hosted the film festival. This year’s festival theme is Crime and Justice in Film, and special guest stars will include Jodie Foster, Billy Dee Williams and Lesley Ann Warren, just to name a…

[citizenscreen]

Recap of The 15th TCMFF

[backlots]

TCM Classic Film Festival Day 1

The 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival kicked off this afternoon, and it already feels like the big family reunion that the festival always is. For four days in April, Hollywood Blvd. turns into its own self-contained world. When I arrived this afternoon, I found it swarming with TCM fans, identifiable by their badges and TCM-themed bags and apparel. The TCM Festival has begun. For my first event of…

[piafmunchkin]

Egyptian Theatre Returns to the TCMFF

A flurry of excited emails arrived in my inbox yesterday, announcing that for the first time since 2019, the Egyptian Theatre will screen movies for the TCM Classic Film Festival. This is welcome news for classic film fans, who have worried about the fate of the theatre since Netflix acquired the property in the spring of 2020. Corporate ownership of historic theaters has usually meant that…

[dopescissorscashwagon]

Ann-Margret & General Manager, Turner Classic Movies Pola Changnon attend the screening for “Bye Bye Birdie” during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.