Well, it’s that time of the year again. It’s time to live and breathe movies for four glorious days in Hollywood. Today was day 1 of the TCM Classic Film Festival. Here’s my recap.
First on the agenda was So You Want To Plan A Classic Film Festival. It was a great insight into all the hard work the festival organizers put in. It’s not just planning the films themselves. It’s the logistics of the venues and coordinating the talent. It was a fun tour down memory lane. And we got some great stories from past festivals.
After that I went to the bleachers to watch the red carpet arrivals. Always fun to get on some people watching.
I was originally going to pass on Pulp Fiction because I have seen it on the big screen. But I decided to at least go for the cast reunion. And it did not disappoint.
My first full film of the festival was Clue. The poolside screenings are a completely different vibe from the others. I try to do one a festival. Clue was a movie I rented at the video store all the time as a kid. That’s how I got introduced to the great Tim Curry. Dave Karger and. Lesley Ann Warren introduced it. There were also fun photo ops, my favorite being one where you could take your own mugshot. The screening was a hoot!
Once Clue was over, I booked it over to the TCL Multiplex for The Small Back Room. It was completely new to me. What a treat! Another great film from the dynamic duo of Powell and Pressburger. This one follows the adventures of a troubled research scientist and military bomb-disposal expert who is tasked by the government to devise a plan to deal with a new German weapon. The last 15 minutes are packed with excruciating suspense! Alfred Hitchcock eat your heart out.
Well, that’s it for day one. It was quite a start to the festivities.
Film Perspective 