Venues in Hollywood, California: Grauman’s Theater, The Egyptian, Mann’s Chinese Multi-plex, Cinerama Dome.
by Paul Booth
I LOVE movies, this festival is for people who love movies. I’ve been blessed to cover Film Festivals in L.A. and around Southern California for the last three years. As a filmmaker, judge, board member or consultant, I’ve been involved with one festival or another for over a decade. TCM Classic Movies Film Festival is my favorite place to be. The audience members are not there to “be seen” or make deals or promote their work (which is fine at other festivals). This event is for movie fans, film buffs, film historians, friends, associates and people who need movies to watch movies all the time.
I was blessed to cover T.C.M. Festival in 2012 and knew last year, I’d be covering this year. To start-off the festival shows Classic movies from all genres and decades. You’ll see a ‘1940s classic like “The Razor’s Edge” (Tyrone Power), an excellent 3-D Hitchcock movie like “Dial M for Murder”, a controversial Best Picture winner (1954) “On the Waterfront” or the ’80s classic cheese-ball “Airplane” all in the same 72-hours. What makes this festival unique is most screenings have someone from the film introducing it (like Jon Voight introduced “Deliverance”) or have a Film Historian like Leonard Maltin giving you a back-story of the movie or if you’re really blessed you get Robert Osborne (the T.C.M. evening host) speaking to the audience in-person.
For fans of the channel, we’re used to Robert Osborne or Ben Mankiewicz (day-time host) joining us in our living rooms on a daily basis. They share wonderful stories of our favorite actor or studio before the movie to enhance our viewing experience. When you attend T.C.M. Festival, you get the pleasure of seeing these men in-person. They’re so humble, genuine, kind and as an audience member you quickly realize these T.V. personalities love movies as much as we do.
I saw two films and attended an excellent press conference with Robert Osborne, Ben Mankiewicz and some of the network programmers. The real blessing for me was two-fold. At the press event Robert Osborne mentioned a film titled “The Razor’s Edge”, he said “it’s one of my all-time favorite films”. Luckily my Father had the day off work, so we attended the event together. Aside from showing movies on the big-screen as they’re intended to be seen. The festival brings together generations. You see people of all ages in attendance (from all over the U.S. and world).
The film “The Razor’s Edge” was excellent. Google it, Netflix it, check your library. SEE IT! What made it more special was Robert Osborne surprised the audience and introduced it. This made my Dad’s day, from there the day continued with a screening of “On the Waterfront” at the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theater (sure it is now the TCL theater, but to real movie fans–GRAUMAN’S).
So far, I’ve listed many reasons why this is nearly a perfect festival. However it gets better. I had associates from N.Y.C. and a new associate from Atlanta in town; so I I got to expand my understanding of movies and make new friends. If you can attend a festival, see great movies, meet other fans, spend time with new associates and have father/son time; is there anything else one could ask for?
I close with the most important fact of why we must support the channel T.C.M. and this festival. They preserve films and work to educate people about the past. In the digital age, we need to remember where movies come from. Even though film has evolved from silent to sound, black and white to color, human stories to over-blown F/X and huge screens to people watching a movie on an iPod.; at the heart of movies lies humanity. We must never forget this art-form and take the time to appreciate all films. When the lights dim and the screen lights up, we’re all one.
The festival took place from April 25-28, 2013.
visit Janus Films for all your art-house and foreign film needs (they had seven films in the festival) www.janusfilms.com
by Paul Booth
