Posts tagged ‘Film Festival’
2013 TCM Film Festival – My Pictorial Picks
In just over a week, Hollywood is getting, well, the Hollywood treatment with the 4th annual Turner Classic Movie Film Festival. The billboards are already up over town and, as a Hollywood local, I gotta say: forget the holidays. This is the most wonderful time of the year. For three days, I get to see Hollywood as it used to be: glamorous, sophisticated and exciting.
It’s my fourth straight year and, of course I’m looking forward to rendezvous-ing with good friends and eager to meet new film fans from all over the world. Deciding on the schedule is always torture– one I look forward to eagerly each year– and here are my picks for this year’s fest in true Pictorial fashion:
Call for Entries: The 2012 Laugh and Live Silent Film Festival
Next year, an entirely new kind of silent film festival is coming to Hollywood. The Laugh and Live Film Festival, presented by Los Angeles-based film historian Sparrow Morgan, will be the first festival of its kind: focusing on reviving, not just interest in silent film, but the very medium of silent film itself.
The Pictorial is, quite frankly, STOKED.
Fairbanks at UCLA
Sparrow Morgan is a Los Angeles-based film historian who has founded the festival in honor of Douglas Fairbanks Sr.– a man who was an early champion of the medium of film itself, as a founding member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and a founding faculty member of the UCLA film school. It is a fitting full-circle tribute, naming a festival dedicated to the revitalization of silent film in honor of a man so vital to the medium itself. Morgan is also responsible for founding of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Fairbanks Memorial: a yearly celebration of silent film and the history of Hollywood, taking place on the Fairbanks Lawn at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, coinciding with the birthday of Douglas Fairbanks Sr, on May 23.
The festival’s first press release was recently released and it is with the highest of excitement that we post it here:
Los Angeles based film historian Sparrow Morgan is proud to
announce The Laugh and Live Festival, the first and only event showcasing contemporary silent films.
Scheduled for May 2012, time, date, and details on speci!c events will be forthcoming.
Founded in honor of Douglas Fairbanks Sr, for whose charming book of advice the festival is named, The Laugh and Live Festival aims to increase the participants’ and audience’s understanding and appreciation of
silent film not only as an historical art form, but challenges them to consider silent film as a viable modern format.
“Interest in silent film has been increasing in recent years, but most of the viewing public still consider it an acquired taste, something one needs a film degree to understand, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” says Morgan. “Silent film, especially the early one-reel nickelodeon serials, were made with the express purpose of entertaining a wide audience. It was all about the action, the drama, and the excitement, not unlike modern day soap operas. The art came later.”
It is in this spirit that The Laugh and Live Festival will be offering a lecture track devoted to the entertainment and enrichment of the general public, as well as workshops and lectures for aspiring filmmakers hosted by historians and filmmakers alike.
The crown jewel of the Laugh and Live Festival will be its screenings of contemporary short-format silent films by student and non-professional filmmakers.
Kitty Packard Pictorial of the Month: The TCM Classic Film Festival
Welcome to Paradise
Last night, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was aglow with Beethoven and Bach and elegance, and tonight … it’s Thor. See what happens when you leave town, TCM?
Last year’s was fun… this year’s festival was special. Building on last year’s framework, what was noticeable this year was a close-knit sense of community. This shared, communal experience was instant and electric, making fast friends of complete strangers, simply because they happened to be waiting in a queue for the same film. Film is a universal language that unites people regardless of background or distance or age or even language– I’ve been to many a film festival and, without question, nowhere is the power of film more apparent than at TCM’s Classic Film Festival. If for no other reason than the simple fact people are not there simply to watch a movie– nor are they simply there to be seen. (cough, Sundance, cough) but rather to embrace the beauty of film and to engage in an exchange of expression with like-minded enthusiasts.
And that is why The Kitty Packard Pictorial is breaking with tradition and our next Pictorial of the Month is not dedicated to a classic film star… but rather classic film’s reigning patron saint: Turner Classic Movies.
Four days of films, fans and fast new friends, here is our farewell to the TCM Classic Film Festival with a send-off of highlights and a collection of newly released press-photos.
Enjoy, and see you at the Festival next year!
Mickey Rooney, Leslie Caron attend the Vanity Fair party
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Jane Powell and Eva Marie Saint at the Vanity Fair party
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Rose McGowan in Robert Osborne's arms... the luckiest girl in the world.
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Debbie Reynolds signed autographs in Club TCM
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Jane Powell signing an autograph
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Mickey Rooney and Ben Mankiewicz discussing Girl Crazy (1943)
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Peter O'Toole at the screening of Becket (1964)
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Julie Andrews remembers her late husband Blake Edwards @ Breakfast at Tiffanys
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"How Do I Look?" Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
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Hayley Mills and Leonard Maltin discussing The Parent Trap
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Alec Baldwin and Warren Beatty discussed the film Reds (1981)
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Drew Barrymore chatting with Robert Osborne
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Rose McGowan, Robert Osborne, and Anjelica Huston
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The TCM Billboard at Orange and Hollywood
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A long way from home... yet very much at home!
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Hollywood's very own Lady in Black, Kerrie Bible
The night’s silent festivities were introduced by the classic Burns and Allen Vitaphone sketch Lamb Chops. The perfect introduction– we were putty in their silly little hands:
Vince Giardano and the Nighthawks perform Buster Keaton's The Cameraman
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Leonard Maltin talking with Vince Giordano
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Hah-- that's me and good buddy Nicole clapping our hands numb for Vince Giordano's stupendous performance
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Robert Osborne -- our patron saint!
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Marge Champion -- the most youthful 91 year old on the planet!
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Robert Osborne visibly charmed with the charming Marge Champion. (My new favorite person in the world!!)
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TCM's Scott McGee and Anne Wilson-- THANK YOU for making this possible!!
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Passholders puttin' on the ritz outside The Henry Fonda Theatre's Music Box!
Club TCM's After Party-- Farwell, Fantasyland!
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Magic at the TCM Film Festival: The Cameraman
From the very beginning, motion pictures were… magic. Of course, the medium has evolved to become one of the most important means of artistic expression that we’ve ever had– complex, subjective and ever-evolving. But sometimes all we want– indeed, all we need– is a little magic.
Perhaps the magic of cinema is found, in its purest form, in silent comedy. Hardly a definitive statement, but after tonight’s screening of Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre for the TCM Classic Film Festival … I am hard pressed to find anything more magical than in the visual purity of silent comedy. One definition of magic is, in fact, “The exercise of sleight of hand or conjuring for entertainment.” At the ripe age of 10, it was that sleight of hand and truly magical conjuring of delightful laughter, and wrenching tears, in the films of Charlie Chaplin that gave me my first love of silent film, and my undying passion for silent comedy. And the skilled sleight of Buster Keaton’s hand in The Cameraman (indeed, the exceptional skill in most all of his work) fits Merriam-Webster’s definition to a tee. How did he do it? There are books dedicated to the exploration of it. But the result is magic.
Ask the audience at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre. A crowd of crisscrossed demographics, truly boggling in their variety. USC film students, venerated film historians (Kevin Brownlow, Leonard Maltin), Hollywood hipsters lured by word of mouth and Midwest purists on pilgrimage. Some of us clapping madly at the The Cameraman’s iconic moments (Keaton riding proudly on a fire-engine) while others’ jaws dropped in awe at witnessing Keaton’s physical fearlessness for the first time. Packed in like sardines, different (quite possibly) in the extreme, yet all with the same knee-jerk reactions of Buster’s seemingly effortless comedic… magic.
I do not mean to imply that silent films are in some way uncomplicated or without depth. Quite the contrary in fact. And it is indeed those delicate complexities and layers of humor and heart that are integral to the magic of silent film.
The live orchestra was a definite feather in Buster’s cap.
Vince Giordiano and his Nighthawks are an east-coast based jazz ensemble that are absolute purists for the music of the ’20s and ’30s. Their music has appeared in period films like Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and shows like Boardwalk Empire (also Scorsese, hmm…) and what sets them apart is that they do not imitate hot jazz– they are highly fluent in the language of early 20th century music, understand the psychology and sociology of the culture that created it and there fore play it with striking authenticity. It was that authenticity that provided a truly perfect background for Keaton’s film (their set list weaving in period hits like Because My Baby Don’t Mean Maybe, Runnin’ Wild and The Mooche), creating an extra layer of energy that ramped up the audience’s already considerable excitement.
My favorite moment of this weekend’s festival hands down. And one of my favorite experiences to have ever had at the movies period.
TCM Film Festival Update: The Third Man
Just came from this morning’s presentation of The Third Man at the Egpytian Theatre in Hollywood. Introduced by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz (who made the most charming gaffe– don’t worry Ben, anyone could’ve mixed up the American and British versions… well, not really, but we positively adore you regardless!) the film was screened to a packed audience– given the 9AM start time and the deep nature of the material, I was absolutely thrilled to be surrounded by such ardent cinema enthusiasts.
Script Supervisor Angela Allen joined Mankiewicz for a post-screening Q&A. She worked on the 2nd unit in Vienna with director Carol Reed and principal cast. Reid apparently worked all three units on this film– highly unusual– and in effect ended up working, quite literally, 24/7. While shooting in the Viennese sewers, said Allen, a waiter would come downstairs with a tray and a silver cup so Reid could have his coffee. “Only the British,” quipped Mankiewicz, would refer to the sewers as ‘going downstairs.’”
Having worked on over 70 films over 6 decades, Allen’s colorful musings went from Reid chasing Orson Welles all over Europe on Third Man, working with Huston in Africa on the African Queen to Michael Powell on Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (for which she doubled for Ava Gardner on the beach so Gardner could dine with a visiting Frank Sinatra) to The Misfits with John Huston– a director with whom she worked with 14 times.
While on The African Queen, Allen swelled with pride when Huston took her side over an altercation with leading lady Katharine Hepburn whom insisted she had indeed worn a different costume for the take. “Kate,” said Huston, “that’s Angie’s job. Put on the other dress.”
“I sweated bullets for five weeks waiting to find out if I was right or not,” said Allen.
The audience waited.
“And?” Mankiewicz asked.
“I was right.”