TCM Film Festival Part 2

I got a decent amount of sight-seeing done on this trip, so I'm looking forward to concentrating a bit more on the actual festival when I go back. I saw eight films total which I think is pretty pale in comparison to most festival-goers. I think even all of my friends saw more movies than I did (I can't blame sight-seeing for that though, I just overslept every morning. And skipped one movie for a mid-day nap. oops!)



The first movie that I saw at the festival was The World of Henry Orient with Paula Prentiss in attendance! I've seen it before but I don't remember finding it as funny as I did this time. The film is about two teenagers who stalk a pianist around New York City. The teen girls have a very Mary Clancy-Rachel Devery dynamic, with one kooky adventurous troublemaker and her slightly-less kooky stooge. The pianist was played by Peter Sellers. If you think he's usually too over-the-top, in this movie he is not. If you think he's perfectly lovely in his other movies, in this one he's just as awesome but a little toned down. Either way, he's brilliant. And his love interest is a nervous, paranoid married lady played by Paula Prentiss.

Do you ever think that somebody's acting is just SO funny that laughing doesn't seem like a sufficent expression of how joyful they make you feel? I wanted to invent a new form of comedic appreciation for how funny Paula Prentiss was in this movie. The movie is available on amazon instant watch here.



This is just an awesome mural that I saw on Hollywood Blvd.

The second movie that I saw was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. My dad is a big fan of 1950's science fiction movies so I knew he'd disown me if I didn't go see it, lol ;) In all seriousness, though, I love me a 50's sci-fi too, and I was pretty excited about seeing this one on the big screen!

I've been to quite a few classic film screenings at repertory theaters and so many times I've been disappointed and annoyed by how many people in the audience laugh at things that aren't funny. I assumed that most people coming to this festival would probably be more respectful, but I was still very apprehensive seeing a movie like this in a theater. Thankfully, the audience was amazing. Nobody laughed, except at lines that were obviously intended to trigger a giggle. The credits were met with applause, and you could hear a pin drop when the movie was playing, it was so quiet. I wish that every movie-going experience could be like this one! The movie is available on amazon instant watch here.

The next movie that I saw was a midnight screening of David Lynch's Eraserhead.



This is me, Millie and Sarah pre-Eraserhead.



This is Sarah, Millie and me post-Eraserhead.

I'm a big fan of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet so I thought -- yay! David Lynch! I'm in! But this was much more disturbing than I could have imagined. I don't even know how David Lynch imagined it. I'm not sure I can even really describe it? It starts out having a semblance of a plot -- a man finds out his girlfriend is having a baby and they get married. At dinner with his girlfriend's parents he cuts into a cornish hen and the little chicken starts convulsing and oozing a thick liquid. Later on, the baby (which looks kind of like an alien/hairless horse hybrid?) is just constantly crying, in a pitch that lies somewhere on the border between a human infant and a velociraptor. Large worms shaped like pieces of funnel cake start falling from the sky and slithering around. A head explodes.

I'm sure that its reputation as a cinematic masterpiece is apt and I'm just missing something -- I generally try to have an open mind about movies, even disturbing ones, but I just didn't get it. I had a lot of fun attending the midnight screening with my friends, though, and it's going to be a lifelong memory, for sure. Not my favorite movie of the festival though, ha! It's available on amazon instant watch here.

TCM Film Festival Part 1

The first day was pretty amazing. My friends and I have known each other for five years but this was our first time getting together as a group. We've been discussing it ever since we met, dreaming about our "five year epic meetup" but I think all of us were doubtful that it would ever actually happen. We all have busy lives and the thought that everyone would be able to drop what they're doing for a week to meet at the same time seemed so unlikely! But when the TCM Film Festival idea came up, we all jumped on board. We originally met through our classic film blogs and it was just SO fitting.



Left to right: Millie, Me, Nicole, Sarah, Casey

On our first day we went out to eat at a cute little restaurant and then split up temporarily. Casey got to go to a really cool TCM social networking party, and the rest of us played typical tourists on Hollywood Blvd. I majorly freaked out at Grauman's Chinese Theater. I've been dreaming about seeing Frank Sinatra's handprints since I was thirteen, so that was beyond exciting for me. (That's me with Frank's prints in the picture at the top.)

Some of the highlights of the trip were seeing Alec Baldwin in person (Jack Donaghy!) falling in love with The Beatles at the Hard Day's Night screening, seeing my all time favorite movie, Sunday in New York, on the big screen (I wept with happiness, omg!), two midnight screenings (I've been trying to get people to go to midnight movies with me forever and nobody ever wants to do it with me!), late night chats with Millie, and I finally got to go to Disneyland!! At the end of the trip I also got to meet up with Danielle and Diana, too! All in all this was one of the best weeks of my whole life. I can't possibly fit everything in one post so I'm going to break it up by day.

hey, that's not funny!

A few days ago I took the train up to New York to see The Two Mrs. Carrolls on the big screen, as part of The Film Forum's Barbara Stanwyck festival. She's my favorite actress so I was beyond delighted to see how many of her lesser-known movies were being shown, and I had a pretty hard time deciding which ones to go see on my meager budget and busy schedule. I settled on The Two Mrs. Carrolls and Banjo on my Knee (which I'm seeing next week.)

The Two Mrs. Carrolls is an atmospheric, super creepy mystery that always gives me shivers whenever I watch it. Sadly I had the misfortune of sitting in an audience with moviegoers who couldn't appreciate the chilly charm of this classic thriller. Everyone kept laughing at things that were decidedly not funny. It happens so often whenever I venture into the world of classic film screenings and it breaks my heart every time. I can't tell if people intentionally go see old movies just to make fun of them, or if they're fans of modern action films and somehow mistakenly wandered into the wrong theater. You can't possibly be a classic movie fan and laugh at a mystery unless it's horribly bad (which this isn't.)

I've seen The Two Mrs. Carrolls countless times so this experience didn't color my opinion of the movie in the slightest, but unfortunately my brother was seeing it for the first time and said that he had a hard time concentrating on the film because he was so mad at our fellow moviegoers :( I'm going to lend him my dvd so he can have a proper watch at home on a dark stormy night. In the end I wonder if that's really the best way to view classic films, despite my constant desire to see them the way they were intended. It's difficult to enjoy a movie if you're surrounded by people who aren't. Or maybe I need to just limit myself to seeing comedies (but then I suppose I'll be upset if nobody laughs! ha!)

I'm going to the TCM Film Festival next year (yay!) and I'm hoping for a much better experience there since everyone attending will be a bona fide classic film fan. Maybe it'll make up for all the lousy theater experiences I've had over the last few years..

my first time: carrie and alien

I'm on a mission to finally catch-up on all the modern classics I've never seen, and this month I've been focusing on modern classics of the horror variety because, you know, Halloween.

First I watched Alien (1979) which I really loved! One of my favorite attractions in Disney World is the Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios, which features set replicas and animatronic figures recreating classic films like Casablanca, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz and.. Alien. I've always loved the Alien part of the ride (it's so creepy!!) but I couldn't really appreciate how incredibly accurate it was until I finally saw the movie.

Alien was the only movie featured in the ride that I hadn't seen before so I thought it definitely deserved a spot on my to-watch list. I ended up really enjoying it, especially since it reminded me of one of my favorite tv shows, The X-Files. It even starred Veronica Cartwright, who plays a key role in the mythology of the sci-fi series! The movie is about a horrific, violent alien that attacks a ship crew in outer space. I was definitely on the edge of my seat towards the end and might have jumped right out of it a few times, too.

Tonight I watched Carrie (1976) for the first time. This was a difficult movie to watch since me and my brother were both bullied in school. I think for anyone that's been on the receiving end of taunts, whispers and pranks, the genre of high school outcast films can be a tough pill to swallow. They seem to usually come in two varieties -- ones like She's All That (I can't believe how often I've mentioned this movie here recently) where the outcast winds up with the jock-with-a-heart-of-gold and everything is hunky dory happily ever after; and ones like Carrie where the outcast just can't take it anymore and things go horribly haywire. For most of us* on the outskirts of popularity, though, high school ends with a huge sigh of relief, not bloodshed or wedding bells.

That being said, Carrie was a very good movie. Although I think the bullying aspect made it more tragedy than horror, at least to me. I thought the whole film was just incredibly sad. Unless you've been living under a rock your whole life (if you have, skip this next part) you know that someone dumps a bucket of blood on Carrie's head at her prom. It's kind of like the Janet Leigh shower scene in Psycho -- you just KNOW that it's coming. And it makes it all the more sad to see her enjoying herself right beforehand, finally feeling accepted and liked. The pre-bloodbath prom scenes were shot like a dream sequence (if you're familiar with I Dream of Jeannie at all, they reminded me a lot of the scenes where Jeannie is watching her own wedding) and you just wish so badly that it didn't have to end... that she could hug Freddie Prinze Jr. and go to art school and be oh so happy. But somehow I think that ending is even more far-fetched than a girl with malfunctioning telekinetic powers.

This was only the second movie I've seen based on a Steven King story (the other being Secret Window, which I watched countless times during a little Johnny Depp phase in 2004) and I think, this being the month for all things spooky, I need to watch The Shining next. Do I need to have company for that one? I'm under the impression it's pretty darn scary...

***

*I'm lucky to be included in the "most of us" I reference. For the most part, I came out unscathed. But for a lot of kids bullying results in lifelong scars, depression, self-harm and, unfortunately, suicide. October is National Bullying Prevention Month and you can find out ways to help here.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Millie loathes Tyrone Power!

Millie has FINALLY come around on Tyrone Power. *And there was much rejoicing!*

With regards to her post that I changed my mind and actually like Tyrone Power? Well -- as she stated above-- that goes against the laws of the universe so therefore it is physically impossible.

DEVELOPING STORY: Millie loves Jimmy Stewart

We're unearthing all kinds of Millie dirt tonight on Silents and Talkies! After some diligent research, we've just discovered these startling quotes from the internet's most fervent James Stewart opponent! Who knows what other secrets lie lurking beneath the mind-smushing brilliance of Classic Forever!?

ps. Reports of my dislike for Dirk Bogarde are greatly exaggerated (cough, and falsified, cough)