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I noticed recently that if you search “TCM schedule” in Google, you get a nice visual preview of what’s on right now and what’s coming up. It’s much faster and more useful than using TCM’s own website (and it calculates start times for your time zone).

Matt wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:00 pm I noticed recently that if you search “TCM schedule” in Google, you get a nice visual preview of what’s on right now and what’s coming up. It’s much faster and more useful than using TCM’s own website (and it calculates start times for your time zone).

Great. Thanks, Matt.

Programming alert....July 4th 2:30 AM EDT A Brighter Summer Day

Wait til newbies get to the end and realize how dark it is as the sun comes up

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Jul 02, 2022 2:28 am Programming alert....July 4th 2:30 AM EDT A Brighter Summer Day

Welp... time to become one with the coffee bean. I'm gonna need this guy in my life

Tonight a bit of brilliant programming. Noir Alley has Scarlet Street programmed starting at 12:15 AM, followed by La Chienne at 2:15 AM.

Another bit of clever programming: tomorrow night (Saturday) 8PM, The Phantom Thread (god, how I wish Criterion would release this) followed by Becker's Falbalas . All things dress makers.

Aside from wanting extras, why push for a Criterion edition of Phantom Thread? I adore the film too, but it's already out on both UHD and blu-ray in excellent editions

It's just me. As my favorite PTA, I prefer a shiny Criterion edition with all the bells and whistles

It was my favorite too actually until I revisited it recently for the fourth or fifth time and it no longer packed the same punch that destroyed me when I related way too much to the ethos of that relationship. Now I'm floating more in Licorice Pizza zone and it feels good. Phantom Thread is still an all-timer though, and the most brutally honest film about relationship dynamics amongst fear-driven individualists

Call me an old fart but I've lost interest in films featuring adolescent themes
Anyway, good for TCM that they are airing The Phantom Thread. It's definitely a classic in waiting.

Huh, the older I get the more I realize that those "adolescent themes" unlock a key to seeing more peripherally, beyond the limiting perspectives we funnel into as "adults" in a jaded, self-serious, and heavily-influenced milieu. It's ironic, like most of life, but I hope that as I age I find myself embracing more of those "adolescent themes." I think in many ways that's the key to leading a happier and fuller life. Though so is seeing the optimism of self-acceptance around the conditioning we can't entirely undo, as Phantom Thread suggests (yes, I think it's an incredibly optimistic film!)

One if the favorite things TCM produces are the shorts titled What a Character where they highlight the character actors of the 30s, 40s and 50s. I always thought the very familiar chracter actors got little love, but TCM has changed that. Today they had one on Ned Sparks. They're so much fun

A Noir Alley alert.... tonight at midnight they will air El vampiro negro (Argentina, 1953), which is a rescue by Eddie Muller's Film Noir Foundation. It is supposedly a remake of Lang's M. Sounds juicy. It will also be repeated tomorrow at 10AM

I’m seriously tempted to sign up for Sling just for TCM.

Unfortunately I've had to keep cable for TCM as well as some sports channels and a few other channels I watch. I can't do without TCM.

Tomorrow evening at 8PM TCM is airing a 2021 documentary, The Automat. For those who may not know the Automats are restaurants from a bygone era of early fast food before the McDonalds and the rest. TCM will follow it with movies that have scenes that take place in an Automat.

I saw the director of the doc on CBS Sunday Morning sometime in the last year— as I recall, automat Superfan Mel Brooks was involved in some capacity in getting the film made and I believe plays a large role in the doc itself

He does indeed, and the song he composed for it (which can be heard in the trailer) is one of the best parts of a documentary which is otherwise disappointingly lackluster.

TCM needs to throw in whichever Bugs Bunny shorts have him using an automat to pull out food items to fling at someone else. That's the first thing I think of when I think of automats. Which one does constantly, of course

I just think of that scene from Dark City. And wow, that linked video is part of a whole series of "At the Automat" clips from films such as That Touch of Mink, Just This Once and You're A Big Boy Now!

(Also since I am posting so much about it in the other thread, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Automat scene in the William Gibson and Bruce Sterling book The Difference Engine, where it appears as a newly imported fad from the US in the alternate 19th century Steampunk London, with the main character of that section introducing his Japanese friend to the place, who at the end in wonder declares that he is going to learn the secrets of the place and put the same 'automated diner' principles into place back in Japan!)

Millie De Chirico (TCM Underground's programmer) tweeted that she was let go from TCM and tomorrow is her final day

Well, it’s been a great 18 1/2 years, but my job was cut in a company restructure recently which means tomorrow is my last day at TCM. Very grateful to anyone who supported my programming work over the years, including @TCMUnderground
. Means a lot!

Ben Mankiewicz in introducing Paths of Glory said 1957 was the greatest year in film. Who agrees? I'm still partial to 1939 but 57 is a great one

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 3:23 am Ben Mankiewicz in introducing Paths of Glory said 1957 was the greatest year in film. Who agrees? I'm still partial to 1939 but 57 is a great one

Very subjective of course, but my personal favorite would probably come down to 1932, 1964, or 1975.

FrauBlucher wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 3:23 am Ben Mankiewicz in introducing Paths of Glory said 1957 was the greatest year in film. Who agrees? I'm still partial to 1939 but 57 is a great one

1985 is handily my favorite, but good arguments can be made for 1961 and 1993

Edit: My rationale for 1985-

Ornette: Made in America

A Zed and Two Noughts

Ran

Prizzi’s Honor

Vagabond

Young Sherlock Holmes

Brazil

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

The Black Cauldron

After Hours

Explorers

The Breakfast Club

Capone Cries a Lot

Head Office

Back to the Future

The Adventures of Mark Twain

Come and See

Legend

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure