TCM Classic Film Fest promises feast of quality films


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There is nothing quite like seeing a classic movie in the theater. Watching a film on the large screen, in the dark, while sharing the experience with hundreds of other people creates an immersive experience that can’t be recreated on a regular television. Theaters like the American Cinematheque and New Beverly do their best to screen as many classic films as they can, but for most classic films, one usually has no choice but to watch them on a screen much smaller than they were intended for. Turner Classic Movies knows that these classics need the opportunity to shine on the big screen once again, so this weekend they are putting on the sixth annual TCM Classic Film Festival dedicated exclusively to showcasing some of the best films ever made in a handful of the most storied cinema houses scattered around Hollywood.

The Chinese Theatre, Egyptian Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, Montalban Theatre and the Roosevelt Hotel are all within walking distance of each other on Hollywood Boulevard (or just off of it in the case of the Montalban), and they will serve as the home to 80 classic films over the course of the four-day festival. The selections this year were very loosely based around the theme of “History According to Hollywood,” but the thread of the theme is not very strongly felt through the lineup, which instead is overshadowed by the sheer amount of classics on display.

The festival kicked off on Thursday afternoon with a celebration of the Sound of Music featuring special guest appearances by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, the actors who played Maria and Captain Von Trapp in the 1965 musical. Aside from that tasty appetizer, the main course of the festival is certainly concentrated in the stellar Friday and Saturday lineups.

The Friday lineup is so stacked that upon first glance, a festival-goer will surely be torn as to which films to attend, as so many classics are being played, and often at overlapping times in different theaters. For example, the El Capitan Theatre will be playing David Lean’s 1962 desert masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia at 10 a.m. before the 1940 Disney classic and Avengers trailer fodder Pinocchio at 3 p.m., which will be followed by the often imitated, but never duplicated, Raiders of the Lost Ark at 5:45 p.m. and William Wyler’s irresistibly charming Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck vehicle Roman Holiday at 9:15 p.m. That right there is an amazing day of films in a classic theater.

Unfortunately for the indecisive, there are four other venues offering conflicting classics throughout the day. If the choice is to see Peter O’Toole ride out into God’s Anvil on his camel to save a member of his caravan, then kudos — there are few movies which are more enhanced when seen on the big screen — but the festival-goer who attends that screening will have the nagging thought throughout about the screening of Bob Fosse’s sneaky-great Lenny Bruce biopic Lenny over at the Egyptian, especially with Dustin Hoffman himself scheduled to make an appearance.

The Pinocchio time slot is downright stacked, with concurrent screenings of An Affair to Remember, The Cincinnati Kid (featuring an appearance by Ann-Margaret), Young Mr. Lincoln (featuring an appearance by Peter Fonda) and Limelight all overlapping with the run time. You can’t go wrong, but you’re fated to miss four great classic movie experiences no matter which film you choose.

Perhaps the biggest conflict on Friday is Raiders of the Lost Ark being played against the world premiere of the new restoration of French classic heist film Rififi across the street at the Chinese. Raiders is one of the best pieces of cinema ever produced. It combines artful direction with a plot that never slows down. Seeing it on the big screen is always a treat. On the other hand, Rififi is quite possibly the best answer to the question, “If I like Raiders what else should I watch?” among the films on the festival docket. Jules Dassin’s 1955 film is so completely cool every time you watch it. Any heist film worth its salt owes a debt to this film, and especially to the legendary 28-minute heist scene that generates an incredible amount of suspense and excitement without a word of dialogue or a single note of music. It is downright criminal to make a festival-goer choose between the two. This is not to mention the showing of the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr., which sneaks in at 7:15 p.m.

To close out the day, Roman Holiday is scheduled against an Apollo 13 screening, featuring an appearance by none other than real-life Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell himself; Alfred Hitchcock’s gothic classic Rebecca; and one of the best James Bond films of all time, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, featuring the one-hit-Bond himself George Lazenby.

Saturday is less jam-packed, but it still features some killer movies. Another, albeit slightly colder, David Lean masterpiece, Doctor Zhivago, starts the day off at 9:15 a.m. Malcolm X, featuring an appearance by Spike Lee, is scheduled against Rebel Without a Cause at 1:30 p.m. The 6 p.m. slot is more crowded, with The Apartment (and a Shirley MacLaine appearance) being put up against Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part 1 and Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata!, but the 9:15 p.m. showing of The French Connection featuring William Friedkin himself towers over everything else at that time slot.

For dessert on Sunday, TCM saved room for Patton, The Philadelphia Story, Marriage Italian Style and Psycho. A fitting quartet of bona fide classics to close out the show with less drama, as the four films do not overlap their time slots.

The lineup TCM put together this year is quite impressive. And while passes are likely no longer available, a USC student can purchase tickets to individual shows for $10 with a student ID. A couple of days in cinematic heaven is within reach right around the corner in the heart of Hollywood.