Turner Classic Movies

[fiddlesticks]

I read in the New York Post this morning that Rose McGowan will begin co-hosting The Essentials with Osborne beginning March eighth. An odd choice. I only wish this had happened before she so majorly messed up her face.

I'm chagrined by the devolution of the Essentials hosts:

Sydney Pollack -> Peter Bogdanovich -> Molly Haskell -> Carrie Fisher -> Rose McGowan

I can only assume that Pauly Shore is next in line.

Yeah, I didn't think they could find anyone more irritating than Carrie Fisher, but they're sure giving it the ol' college try. I guess this means that "Guest Programmer Month" was just an extended audition. McGowan only won the categories of "Best Legs" and "Biggest Osborne Kiss-Up" (the latter was hotly contested), but I guess that was enough.

The devolution from Bogdanovich to Haskell is even more pronounced when you take into account that Pollack and Bogdanovich were permitted to fly solo, while Haskell had to endure Robert Osborne and his empty observations as a co-host.

[Matt]

You forgot Rob Reiner in your declension of hosts. Eeesh.

In the long history of TCM's shameless appeals to the "youth" demographic, this is surely a better decision than the hiring of Ben Mankiewicz and Rob Zombie combined. McGowan had classy picks for her Guest Programmer spot (Night of the Hunter, Out of the Past, A Place in the Sun, That Touch of Mink), which is more than can be said of many of the Hollywood veterans in the lineup. Her brief comments about the films coming up in "The Essentials" in this article (press release?) are a lot pithier than anything that ever came out of Bogdanovich's mouth when he hosted:

[quote]McGowan's first film as co-host of THE ESSENTIALS will be Billy Wilder's serious-yet-comic classic The Apartment, which earned the Oscar® for Best Picture of 1960. McGowan notes that Wilder is “the master of humorous loneliness.â€

[toiletduck!]

I, for one, enjoyed Monkeybone.

-Toilet Dcuk

[Dylan]

I, for one, enjoyed Monkeybone.

It was sliced to pieces in the editing room (at the time I knew several people who were animators on it, and about half of their work was discarded) but I too kind of enjoyed what was left when Fox finally released a highly compromised cut in 2001 (complete with a marketing campaign that made it look like that year's Dude Where's My Car?). Aside from the animation, Rose was arguably the best part.

[SheriffAmbrose]

In the long history of TCM's shameless appeals to the "youth" demographic, this is surely a better decision than the hiring of Ben Mankiewicz and Rob Zombie combined.

I get the sense that Mankiewicz is supposed to possess youth appeal too, but why? He is unattractive, unlikable, and, as far as I can tell, reading from the same cue cards that Osborne would if he were there. And it's not like the films that are shown on weekend afternoons are all that different (or different at all) from the ones that are shown at any other given time.

McGowan had classy picks for her Guest Programmer spot (Night of the Hunter, Out of the Past, A Place in the Sun, That Touch of Mink), which is more than can be said of many of the Hollywood veterans in the lineup.

You raise a good point there. Her picks were less lightweight than a lot of what was on that month. Does anyone have an opinion on who was the best guess programmer yet? I can't be bothered to look up his name but I do recall that the man who voices Sponge Bob had some pretty solid picks if only because it seemed as though he played one or two things that don't air pretty much constantly.

[domino harvey]

You're thinking of comedian Tom Kenny

[Jack Phillips]

That poor girl has never caught a break. Her best movie is probably The Doom Generation, which on anyone else's resume would be their worst movie.

She did catch a break. It was called Grindhouse, and that's her best movie.

Does anyone have an opinion on who was the best guess programmer yet?

I was pretty impressed by Thelma Schoonmaker.

[souvenir]

Does anyone have an opinion on who was the best guess programmer yet?

James Ellroy chose Stakeout on Dope Street, Murder by Contract, The Lineup, and Armored Car Robbery. His were closest to my heart, for sure. I thought Mark Mothersbaugh and Neil Labute had excellent taste also.

[Matt]

Does anyone have an opinion on who was the best guess programmer yet?

James Ellroy chose Stakeout on Dope Street, Murder by Contract, The Lineup, and Armored Car Robbery.

I'd second this. I'd never heard of any his picks and they were all worth watching. I got a little tired of his schtick, though, but it was fun for a few minutes to watch Osborne trying to keep up with him.

[Polybius]

In the long history of TCM's shameless appeals to the "youth" demographic, this is surely a better decision than the hiring of Ben Mankiewicz and Rob Zombie combined.

McGowan had classy picks for her Guest Programmer spot (Night of the Hunter, Out of the Past, A Place in the Sun, That Touch of Mink), which is more than can be said of many of the Hollywood veterans in the lineup.

Agreed, on both counts.

[tryavna]

Does anyone have an opinion on who was the best guess programmer yet?

James Ellroy chose Stakeout on Dope Street, Murder by Contract, The Lineup, and Armored Car Robbery.

I'd second this. I'd never heard of any his picks and they were all worth watching. I got a little tired of his schtick, though, but it was fun for a few minutes to watch Osborne trying to keep up with him.

FWIW, my father, who doesn't care for the guest programming format at all, liked Ellroy best. As my dad put it, "he was the only one who actually said something more insightful than 'he's just such a beautiful actor.'"

Schoonmaker was also a good choice -- though her insights for three of her picks came from personal experience (for obvious reasons).

[Antares]

I read in the New York Post this morning that Rose McGowan will begin co-hosting The Essentials with Osborne beginning March eighth. An odd choice. I only wish this had happened before she so majorly messed up her face.

I'm chagrined by the devolution of the Essentials hosts:

Sydney Pollack -> Peter Bogdanovich -> Molly Haskell -> Carrie Fisher -> Rose McGowan

I can only assume that Pauly Shore is next in line.

No, it'll probably be Dame Edna.

That poor girl has never caught a break. Her best movie is probably The Doom Generation, which on anyone else's resume would be their worst movie.

She did catch a break. It was called Grindhouse, and that's her best movie.

Ah...no!

[tavernier]

I'm chagrined by the devolution of the Essentials hosts:

Sydney Pollack -> Peter Bogdanovich -> Molly Haskell -> Carrie Fisher -> Rose McGowan

I can only assume that Pauly Shore is next in line.

No, it'll probably be Dame Edna.[/quote]
Edna would be an improvement on all of those names, with the possible exception of Pollack.

[Floyd]

A little late on this but I just thought about it... did anyone else see the odd Maria Menounos guest programming night where she picked Tod Browning's Freaks? Bizarre.

[tavernier]

A little late on this but I just thought about it... did anyone else see the odd Maria Menounos guest programming night where she picked Tod Browning's Freaks? Bizarre.

Now she would have been something to see!

[Antares]

I'm chagrined by the devolution of the Essentials hosts:

Sydney Pollack -> Peter Bogdanovich -> Molly Haskell -> Carrie Fisher -> Rose McGowan

I can only assume that Pauly Shore is next in line.

No, it'll probably be Dame Edna.

Edna would be an improvement on all of those names, with the possible exception of Pollack.

Is it me, or is Bogdanovich becoming the Roddy McDowell of directors? He'll do anything to keep himself in the limelight and before the public.

[Gregory]

[quote="Rose McGowan"]"[Woman of the Year] proves you can be a feminist and still be a man.â€

[fiddlesticks]

[quote="Gregory"][quote="Rose McGowan"]"[Woman of the Year] proves you can be a feminist and still be a man.â€

[movielocke]

Last night, she suggested that there were feminist undertones in Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Um, yeah.

I admit that I had low expectations for McGowan (see the post at the top of this page), but she's turned out to be entirely unwatchable. Maybe next year they can get someone more serious about film; someone like, say, David Spade.

There are. the film was written and intended as a satire (which is how audiences in the fifties received it), for example, the deliriously over-the-top lyrics of Sobbin' Women and Lonesome Polecat. and part of that satire is undermining the expectations of a woman's traditional role. Adam expects Millie to be a cook and maid for him and his brothers, as well as a bed mate for himself. She undermines their expectations of how women are supposed to act and forces them to accept changes in their behavior and lifestyle on her terms. At the barn raising the men succeed in wooing the ladies only through civilized behavior, when they act out their worst tendancies they are rejected. Later when the girls are kidnapped, the women are not helpless once they reach the farm, rather they take control and refuse the men all quarter and gain control over whether the men will live or die--and in a sense the girl's behavior at the end is a parallel to the men's kidnapping, they rope the men into marraige on their terms rather than being forced to do what the men want. The women, by the end of the film are only doing what they want to do. That this coincides with the wishes of the men is a happy coincidence.

It's sort of like a woman deciding she wants a kiss and taking it (for example Susan at the end of Prince Caspian (most recent movie I've seen)) rather than having to wait for a man to decide to kiss her or having a kiss forced upon her and submitting to it (most classic hollywood kisses).

[Banana #3]

I'm just wondering if TCM ever plays foreign films?

From memory, I believe they have a time slot set for Sundays at midnight, but I never seem to be able to catch it.

Do they actually have the rights to and play any foreign films?

[RagingNoodles]

I'm just wondering if TCM ever plays foreign films?

From memory, I believe they have a time slot set for Sundays at midnight, but I never seem to be able to catch it.

Do they actually have the rights to and play any foreign films?

TCM does actually play foreign films, they used to play them at 1 AM central time zone on Friday nights until they started doing the TCM Underground on Friday nights. They moved the "TCM Imports" then to Sunday nights at 1 AM, except during gimmick months (30 days of Oscar, Stars under the Sun, etc).

For example, some of the foreign films they are showing in the first week of September include:

Big Deal On Madonna Street (1958) - 9/1 - 10:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987) - 9/2 - 2:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
Vitelloni, I - 9/7 - 2:00 AM Eastern Time Zone

[Polybius]

They moved the "TCM Imports" then to Sunday nights at 1 AM, except during gimmick months (30 days of Oscar, Stars under the Sun, etc).

Sunday night/Monday morning at 2:00 A.M. was the one time home of TCM Imports, around ten years ago, when I first got access to the network. I had my first exposure to quite a few important parts of the canon from that time slot.

[dx23]

Even during the 30 days of Oscar, they still show several films that have won the award for Best Foreign Film usually between 1AM to 5AM on Sundays.

[Bete_Noire]

Tonight's airing of Basil Dearden's Victim had the Janus logo preceding it. Guess that puts it into the Criterion "distinct possibilities" category.

[souvenir]

Tonight's airing of Basil Dearden's Victim had the Janus logo preceding it. Guess that puts it into the Criterion "distinct possibilities" category.

It's already out from Home Vision