Category Archives: Classic Film
Loving Lucy: Miss Grant Takes Richmond
I was going to write a lengthy post about my love for Lucy’s film Miss Grant Takes Richmond with William Holden, but as many of you know my internet connection has been non-existent for a few weeks now and my internetting has been limited to a few minutes every morning sitting on a bench in the freezing cold.
If you click the link on the title above you can read a review I wrote of the film for YAM Magazine. I wish I could have written more on the film, but I will say it is definitely worth your time if you can find it. The two of them are fantastic together. The ending is particularly fantastic. I wish I could have found a video of it to share with you.
Don’t forget to check out all the other posts in TrueClassics Loving Lucy Blogathon
The Oliviers Unhinged: A Streetcar Named Desire and Sleuth
Kendra over at Viv and Larry is hosting an Oliviers appreciation blogathon and I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to write about for my contribution for awhile. Laurence Olivier was nominated for eleven Academy Awards over a five decades (nine for Best Actor, one for Best Supporting Actor and one for Best Director), as well as receiving two honorary awards. His only competitive win was Best Actor for Hamlet (the film also won Best Picture). Vivien Leigh was only nominated for two Academy Awards over the years, both for Best Actress: Gone With The Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire. She won both times. Two were married for twenty years (it ended in divorce), made a handful of films together and worked extensively together in the theater. Have you got all of that? So, obviously, there is a lot of material there and a lot of ways to approach writing about them, together or separately. I finally decided to take a look at two of their Oscar-nominated performances, in separate films, that touch on madness. Beware: there are quite a bit of spoilers after the cut.
The Magnificent Ambersons Available For Pre-Order On DVD!
This is a film that has never been available on DVD in North America, so this is exciting news! The downside (sort of?) is that it’s only available from Amazon as part of its 70th Anniversary release of Citizen Kane. I actually just bought Citizen Kane on DVD, but I think I may have to get this regardless. This is huge news for the classic film world. You can pre-order the films here.
Guest Post: Hans Albers, Germany’s singing John Wayne
Trevor has once again written a post for Cinema Fanatic! This time it’s on a subject I have absolutely no knowledge of, so I will be learning along with you all.
What’s The Big Deal About The Big Screen?
I love seeing movies in theaters. I always have. One of my earliest memories is seeing Willow on the big screen when I was about three years old. In recent years I haven’t been able to go to movies on the big screen as often as I used to. And most recently I’ve been really into classic film, so it’s been doubly hard to see anything on the big screen. Though, when I was in college I went to the Pacific Film Archive to see classic films occasionally. I saw my first Buster Keaton film there (Seven Chances) and I saw The Shop Around The Corner (twice). One of the first things I did when I went to college was to see Nosferatu at the PFA with a live organ accompaniment. I saw a handful of other films over the years there, too. When I lived in San Francisco I only managed to see one classic film at the Castro – George Stevens’s Giant. It was amazing. I did, however, see a few cult 90s films there, too. This past weekend at the TCM Classic Film Festival I saw about 11 classic films or so on the big screen within a four day period. It was mind-blowing. Seeing Citizen Kane on the big screen at Grauman’s Chinese Theater was life-changing. I fell in love with A Place In The Sun, a film I was previously eh about. I discovered the humor in Becket. I lost all ability to function while watching West Side Story. So what is it that makes seeing a film on the big screen so dynamic?
Guest Post: Ten Great Films To Get You Hooked On Pre-Code Hollywood
Trevor Jost, whom I met this past weekend at the TCM Classic Film Festival, has graciously written this post, sharing with us some Pre-Code Hollywood films he hopes will get you hooked on the era.
TCM Classic Film Festival: Citizen Kane
As many of you know, I recently covered the TCM Classic Film Festival for YAM Magazine. You can see the first of those articles here; there will be three more posted throughout the week. I’ll keep my general comments short and just say that it was fabulous and look for my article on YAM tomorrow for more details. I saw lots of really wonderful films on the big screen and I write about those experiences in the article that will be published tomorrow. That being said, I wanted to share one revelation I had while watching Citizen Kane. It is of the spoilery nature, so I thought it best to post it here, under the safety of jump-cut.
RIP Sidney Lumet, Master of Cinema
I am the first to admit I have not seen as many Lumet films as I would like; I’ve only seen six of his films. But I loved all six of those films. I also recently finished reading his book Making Movies and realized there were so many of his films that I need to see. I would recommend that book to anyone who just likes watching movies and especially to anyone who is thinking of going into filmmaking. He was a passionate filmmaker and if you couldn’t tell that from his films, that book removes any doubt. So I’m going to talk about those films that I have seen, as well as a few I have but that were nominated for Academy Awards. Lumet himself was nominated for Best Director four times and Best Original Screenplay once. Sadly, he never won a competitive Academy Award, although he received an Honorary Oscar in 2005.
RIP Dame Elizabeth Taylor
I can’t remember life without Elizabeth Taylor. I’ve always loved her. I think for the longest time it was mostly because we both had brown hair and blue eyes (it’s amazing how powerful that kind of connection can be when you are six years old). Over the last year or so I have seen about 9 of her films (prior to that I think I’d seen five others) and I’ve grown to appreciate her talent. She was an amazing woman on and off the screen and she will be sorely missed.
TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar – The Last Three Days
Sadly, TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar is about to come to an end. What a run, though, eh? I must have watched at least 100 new-to-me films in the last few weeks (that’s a conservative estimate; I’ll do a full recap of my crazy February film watching escapades tomorrow). Did you find any new favorites? I know I sure did. So here’s my last post about this wonderful month of programming. As always there are so many great films being shown, some I’ve seen and some I can’t wait to see for the first time.
the diary of a film history fanatic 