Triple feature—Unrequited love

This post Valentine's Day triple feature might seem unromantic, but these three films really are all about the L-O-V-E. . . even if it's a bit one-sided.

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Onegin — made in 1999, starring Ray Feinnes and Liv Tyler

This is a beautiful adaptation of the Aleksander Pushkin novel. In a nutshell, Onegin (Ray Feinnes, way before he was Voldemort) is a blasé urban hipster who is bored with the St. Petersburg social scene in the 1820s. Onegin's recently deceased wealthy uncle has bequeathed him a large estate in the country, where he goes and soon falls in love with a beautiful neighbor, Tatyana (Liv Tyler). She makes her feelings known to Onegin in a love letter, but he cruelly rejects her advances to him because he feels she is too young and provincial for him. That's one unrequited love story.  Onegin flees the country after a duel, and returns six years later—older and less cocky—then re-encounters Tatyana, moe noble via a marriage, and he begs her for a second chance, but by this time she it is she who disses him! So that makes for two heartbreaking unrequited love stories in this film. Evgeny Onegin—"If you but knew the flames that burn in me which I attempt to beat down with my reason."

Orlando — made in 1992, starring Tilda Swinton and Billy Zane, and an amazing cross-dressing performance by Quentin Crisp

This film is an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's sui generis tale of a man floating through the ages... and through sexes. Confused? Well, you just have to see it. The tagline on IMDB reads: Orlando lived for 400 years and hardly aged a day; but, because this is England, everyone pretends not to notice. Orlando has been ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to —"Do not fade, do not wither, do not grow old." Indeed. So Orlando, first as a man, loves a woman, but is rejected, and comes to understand this feeling when later as a woman, she loves a man but he rejects her. Orlando—"Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates melancholy from happiness." The film has some gender-bending madness, but it's so very beautifully filmed, so do stick with it because it's a great film with stunning costuming and set designs. Love the winter skating scenes in Russia. "Oh the treachery of men, and the treachery of women!"

The Age of Innocence — made in 1993, starring Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder

Edith Wharton's brilliant story of starchy Archer Newland and an intriguing Russian woman sucks me in every time. He loves her, but she is a free spirited and scandalous woman who has been ostracized by proper 19th century New York society. He is a proper 19th century New York society gentleman, who furthermore, is already engaged to another woman! It simply would never work out. There's lots of fancy dinner parties, pretty dresses, tuxedos, white ties and gloves in this film, along with seductively beautiful vignettes. Love, resistance, and mad obsession. OK—respectably mad obsession. Ellen to Newland—"Don't you see? I can't love you unless I give you up." 

Vertical viewing—A Christmas Carol

It seems so obvious, but I've never done a vertical viewing of my favorite holiday film—A Christmas Carol! Charles Dickens wrote a terrific story (and even coined an adjective!), which of course has been adapted into dozens of films, both for TV and the big screen. My vertical viewing* is only going to cover a few of of these films, and I've gotta lead with my all time fave—the 1951 version with Alastair Sim. He just plays a super grumpy Scrooge! For comedy, Bill Murray in Scrooged is just hilarious, though Carol Kane steals the show as ghost of Christmas Present. George C. Scott and Reginald Owen both play excellent Ebenezers, nice and grumpy. I generally dislike most musicals but I admit to liking the Scrooge film with Albert Finney, which only has minimal singing and nothing too sappy. Each of these Scrooges and each of these films has me smiling by the end, and tonight on the Turner Classic Movies, several of these Christmas Carol films will be showing. Have your Bailey's and hot chocolate ready!

A Christmas Carol

—the 1951 version with Alastair Sim

—the 1988 version (called Scrooged) with Bill Murray
—the 1984 version with George C. Scott

—the 1938 version with Reginald Owen

—the 1971 version (called Scrooge) with Albert Finney

*Vertical viewing defined by me—In wine tasting, there is a term called vertical tasting—sampling one wine varietal from the same producer from several vintages. So I call it Vertical Viewing when I watch and compare several different versions of films. It's great to really get into the storyline and compare the acting and the strengths and weaknesses of each film. 

Click on "vertical viewing" label below for other vertical viewing suggestions!

Or click to read my vertical viewing posts of Emma, Anna Karenina, Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare's Tempest!

Vertical viewing—Anna Karenina

Choo Choooo! Anna was a baaaaad wife. I've seen several film adaptations of Leo Tolstoy's classic masterpiece, Anna Karenina, but the latest one I saw was the most creative yet. Director Joe Wright, best known for his Atonement and Pride & Prejudice films (I happen to love both films.), blew me away with his unusual take on the film. The style is probably not for everyone, but I thought it was absolute genius. The film is so very, very beautifully shot, sublime in fact, and is part film, part theater and stage. It's as if he and Baz Luhrmann of Moulin Rouge fame got together for drinks and came up with this concept. Some of Wright's trademarks are long, continuous shots, often during a dance or a ball, and his shots of character's hands that portray sexual tension are pretty amazing too. But I digress. The Greta Garbo version is quite lovely, and some recent PBS adaptations are very well done too. Oblonsky, Tverskoy, Anna & Count Vronsky, Levin & Kitty, and dear, loving, patient Karenin. He really was a good sport for a while there.

“All happy families are alike; 

each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” 

Anna Karenina

—the 1935 version with Greta Garbo and Frederic March

—the 1948 version with Vivian Leigh and Ralph Richardson 

—the 1985 version with Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean
—the 1997 version with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer

—the 2012 version with Kiera Knightly and Aaron Taylor-Johnson

*Vertical viewing defined by me—In wine tasting, there is a term called vertical tasting—sampling one wine varietal from the same producer from several vintages. So I call it Vertical Viewing when I watch and compare several different versions of films. It's great to really get into the storyline and compare the acting and the strengths and weaknesses of each film.

Click on "vertical viewing" label below for other vertical viewing suggestions!

Or click to read my vertical viewing posts of Emma, A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare's Tempest!

May Fools

If April reminds me of the film Enchanted April, then surely May reminds me of a charming little French film called May Fools. Directed by Louis Maile, the film is a story of an upper-middle-class French family who has gathered at a vineyard for the funeral of their matriarch. It's the late '60s and unrest and turmoil are rampant in Paris. The grown-up children battle and bicker, but overall it's a feel good comedy.

Enchanted April

April is the cruelest month, or so wrote T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land. I think April is the most enchanting month, with the renaissance of sleeping beauties of the garden. And April always reminds me of one of my most favorite films—Enchanted April. Gorgeously filmed, the film is a great character study of four weary London women, and eventually some of their spouses, who are on holiday in a chateau on a remote Italian island. Just what one needs in April!  Each woman is searching for their own idea of bliss—searching, hiding, retreating—and the wonder and magic happens.

Parisian backdrop

I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but I really love watching Gene Kelly hoofing it in An American in Paris, and I especially love this backdrop sketch, with two stately columns, wispy clouds, and an avenue leading to the arc de triomphe. This sketch would be fun to add depth and dimension to a room.

Horizontal viewing—The grim reaper

A very theatrical Liz Taylor and Noel Coward 

in the 1968 film Boom!

It's Halloween, so I thought my horizontal viewing theme ought to showcase films about the Grim Reaper of Death. This is actually a vertical viewing and horizontal viewing combo— meaning there are some remakes of the same story, and some riffs on a theme. Forget those silly zombie or chainsaw films, these reels will make you think.

The Seventh Seal  This 1957 film by the legendary Ingmar Bergman tells the story of a man who seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague. It's beautifully done, in that cool Bergman way.

Death Takes a Holiday is a delightful romantic drama made in 1934, and based on the mystical, post-WWI era Italian play, La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella. It stars Fredric March, Evelyn Venable and Guy Standing. "Death" decided to take a vacation, so he becomes a mortal to see what he is missing. What makes us human? What brings us joy and happiness in our lifetime? Death falls for the gal, and complications ensue.

Meet Joe Black is the 1998 remake (of the remake Death Takes a Holiday.) 

Brad Pitt portrays a quirky Angel of Death, and Anthony Hopkins is his victim, and Claire Forlani as the love interest. Well done.

Boom! made in 1968 stars a brilliant Elizabeth Taylor,  Richard Burton, and Noel Coward as the Angel of Death. This film is an awesomely theatrical interpretation of Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore. It's set on a remote Greek island and Liz and Dick are in top form. It's campy, it's gritty, it's vulgar, and it most certainly booms!

Happy Halloween!

Click on "vertical viewing" label below for other vertical viewing suggestions!

Or click to read my vertical viewing posts of 

Emma, Love Affair, Anna Karenina,  A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare's Tempest!

Vertical viewing—Love Affair

Love Affair is another suggestion in my vertical viewing* series.

Love Affair is one of those nostalgic, old school films that require at least three hankies. There are three versions of the film that I know of—two called Love Affair, and one called An Affair to Remember. Puuhh-LEESE tell me you've seen one of these film adaptations already, yes? It's a good story, good enough to remake twice. All three of these adaptations are each very well done, and although I enjoy all the actors and the costuming in each I think the first two adaptations are the best. I love the piano theme song from the third film though. In all three films of this love story some details change, such as names, occupations, and locations, but the basic story is this:

An aimless playboy and a singer, each romantically attached to someone else, meet and fall in love on a journey far from home. They both agree that if the affection is real and true (and after they dump their respective partners of course), they would meet several months later in New York, at the top of the Empire State building. Well, the months pass, and on the appointed day, one of the lovers shows up, but the other has an unfortunate accident and is a no show. Has their love and destiny passed, or will they some day reunite? You'll just have to watch to find out. Here are the film versions:

The famous boat balcony scene from each film adaptation.

—the 1939 version with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer

—the 1957 version with Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant
                                  (called An Affair to Remember)

—the 1994 version with Annette Benning and Warren Beatty

In the meantime, watch the trailer from the 1994 version—the piano theme music is beautifully melancholic.

*Vertical viewing defined by me—In wine tasting, there is a term called vertical tasting—sampling one wine varietal from the same producer from several vintages. So I call it Vertical Viewing when I watch and compare several different versions of films. It's great to really get into the storyline and compare the acting and the strengths and weaknesses of each film. 

Click on "vertical viewing" label below for other vertical viewing suggestions!

Or click to read my vertical viewing posts of Emma, Anna Karenina, 
A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare's Tempest!

Always summer...

If it could only be like this always – 

always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe 

and Aloysius in a good temper... 

—from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited
(spoken by Sebastian Flyte)

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As I watched the 2008 version of Brideshead Revisited (again, for the millionth time) I realized that I get an ache of melancholy during this "always summer" segment. The entire film is heavyhearted of course, and makes me pensive and woeful, but this bit, in particular, does. It's a gorgeous film, with sentimental vignettes that tug at your heart, and amazing cinematography; the kind that moves and wraps around the characters in each scene. It's quite beautiful. And so is the music, composed by Adrian Johnston. I am convinced that Waugh can't write a bad sentence, and the quote above from the book is such a lovely  example... A metaphor—a longing for simpler times and endless, languid summer days.

Please click here to watch and listen to these amazing scenes 

from the 2008 film version.

Now have a watch of the older 1981 film version, 

with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.

...at any rate, believed myself very near heaven, 
during thoselanguid days at Brideshead.

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It is thus I like to remember Sebastian, 
as he was that summer, when we wandered 
alone together through that enchanted palace; 
Sebastian in his wheel-chair spinning down 
the box-edged walks of the kitchen gardens 
in search of alpine strawberries and warm figs, 
propelling himself through the succession of hothouses,
from scent to scent and climate to climate, 
to cut the muscat grapes and 
choose orchids for our buttonholes...

—from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited

(spoken by Charles Ryder)

Triple feature—Matters of the heart

Hopefully by now you've read about my quirky vertical viewings of films habit, where I watch and compare 3 different film adaptations of the same film. No? Click to see my Cyrano de Bergerac, Shakespeare's Tempest, and Jane Austen's Emma posts on this blog. It's really fun.

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How about another type of film viewing? Instead of a vertical viewing, how about a double feature... or even better, how about a triple feature? It could refer to a common theme in the title alone (for example, films with the word heart in it), or be common in theme (for example, baseball films such as Field of Dreams, the Natural, and Moneyball ). Hopefully you are getting ideas for your own Triple Features. These days, with Netflix and instant downloading of films, these flicks are just a click away.

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To start, I will use the first example, film titles with the words heart in them. The three films I chose all portray amazing character studies, and each film captured my heart in three different ways.

The Hasty Heart — made in 1949, starring Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal and Richard Todd

We're in Burma in 1945, and the war is over! A Scottish soldier, Corporal Lachlan "Lachie" MacLachlan (Richard Todd) is at a M.A.S.H. unit with other recovering wounded soldiers for surgery to his back. Unknown to Lachie, he is dying from kidney failure and has only a few weeks to live. Nurse Sister Margaret Parker (Patricia Neal) and the other five remaining soldiers in her ward have been asked by the hospital commander to befriend Lachie, who is a very proud man who wants no help or friendship from anyone. Slowly however, relationships are formed and Lachie begins to appreciate his new M.A.S.H. friends, something he has never had with anyone. He's a tough nut to crack, but if you are like me, you'll be swelling up with tears by the end of the film.

Dear Heart — made in 1964, starring Glenn Ford, Geraldine Page and Angela Landsbury

Single and alone, Evie (played delightfully well by Geraldine Fitzgerald) arrives in New York for the annual Postmasters' convention. Also staying at her hotel is a womanizing salesman (played by Glenn Ford) who has just become engaged. Their paths cross and although her quirky ways annoy the salesman, their time together is simply enchanting. 

Any Human Heart — made in 2010, starring Jim Broadbent, Matthew McFadden, and many others

Jim Broadbent superbly portrays a novelist starting out in 1920s Paris. We follow him back and forth and in flashbacks to '50s New York and '80s London. During his extraordinary life, he meets Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. As the writer comes to the end of his life, his recalled memories and nostalgia will no doubt bring tears to your eyes.

Vertical viewing—Emma

Hi movie fans! I explained my Vertical Viewing  film obsession before (watching and comparing several different versions of films), and here is another 'VV' to consider—Jane Austen's Emma.


Anything Jane Austen was all the rage in the nineties, which is fine by me because I love all 7 of JA's novels, and can't get enough of the films. There was such a flurry of Austen flicks in the '90s; her 1815 novel Emma is bright and refreshing every time I see it. I love the characters in this classic—the smarmy Mr. Elton (played brilliantly, BTW, by the talented Alan Cumming in the Gwenyth Paltrow film), the dashing Frank Churchill, and poor, frumpy, Harriet Smith. who gets her heart and emotions trampled on, but fear not, she also finds love by the end of the book (and films). And Mr. Knightly—do you love that he adores Emma so much, even though he scolded her when she was mean to that penniless bore, Miss bates ("Badly done Emma, badly done."). Sure Emma is rich and spoiled, but her heart is in the right place, and who doesn't love she and Mr. Knightly hook up at the end?


Now, for my fave film adaptations—Wikipedia says that there are over twenty film, TV and stage adaptations of Emma. I do wish there were older film versions—can't you just picture, say... a young Olivia de Havilland in the starring role and Charles Boyer as her Mr. Knightly? Swoon. Alas, there is not. One film that I have not seen yet that intrigues me like crazy is a mod, 2010 Indian version... does Emma go to Bollywood? It's on my list, but for now, here are the adaptations I have seen:

—the 1972 version with Doran Godwin (BBC TV)
—the 1996 version (called Clueless) with Alicia Silverstone  (film)
—the 1996 version Gweneth Paltrow (film)
—the 1996 version with with Kate Beckinsale  (film) 
—the 2009 version with Romola Garai (BBC TV)

I found the 1972 adaption to be a bit stuffy and dry—Emma wasn't 'delightful' enough for my taste. But in a completely different and clever updated twist, the 1996 the film Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, was set in modern day California; that was fun! Next came a flurry of Emma films. There is a 1996 version of the story with Kate Beckinsale as the lead role that was very good, but not my favorite. That honor has to go to 

Gweneth in the 1996 version. Loved it! It was made two years before GP starred in Shakespeare in Love—both films show her command of a darn good faux English accent. In 2009 BBC TV had a version of Emma with the beautiful Romola Garai playing the perpetually matchmaking Emma Woodhouse. This was fabulous and refreshing too, and I found Romola to be appropriately delightful. 

If you love all things Emma (and surely you must, if you are bothering to read this) I found a blog called Emma Adaptations that is completely dedicated to it!

Click on "vertical viewing" label below for other vertical viewing suggestions!

Or click to read my vertical viewing posts of 

 Love Affair, Anna Karenina, A Christmas Carol, 
Cyrano de Bergerac and Shakespeare's Tempest!

Vertical viewing—Cyrano de Bergerac

In wine tasting, there is a term called vertical tasting—sampling one wine varietal from the same producer from several vintages. So I call it Vertical Viewing when I watch and compare several different versions of films. It's great to really get into the storyline and compare the acting and the strengths and weaknesses of each film. A fine example of this movie obsession I have would be Cyrano de Bergerac. IMDB shows 16 different version of C.D.B., if you include TV productions, and (so far) I have seen 4 versions of the story:

—the 1945 version with Claude Dauphin
—the 1950 version with with José Ferrer
—the 1987 version (called Roxanne) with Steve Martin
—the 1990 French version with Gerard Depardeau

You get the idea, right? José and Gerard do the best jobs, IMHO, and also Kevin Kline and Joseph Feinnes have taken on this role, and both done smashing jobs.

We all know the basic story...Cyrano de Begerac helps an army officer woo Roxanne, the woman he actually loves. Cyrano is a soldier, musician, philosopher, poet, and fantastically witty, but best known for his enormous....gigantic...huge... um... nose! My favoroite bit in each film is right at the start, when Cyrano challenges a man to a duel, basically defending his big snozz. He describes the magnificence of his nose... well, read below and watch the video.

José Ferrer's Cyrano Nose Speech video (Click to watch)

Cyrano Roars...
What? How? You accuse me of absurdity? Small, my nose? Why Magnificent, my nose! You pug, you knob, you button-head. Know that I glory in this nose of mine, for a great nose indicate a great man genial, courteous, intellectual, virile, courageous as I am and such as you poor wretch will never dare to be, even in imagination.  Don't you realize that a nose like mine is both scepter and orb, a monument to my superiority? 

My nose is Gargantuan! You little Pig-snout, you tiny Monkey-Nostrils, you virtually invisible Pekinese-Puss. A great nose is the banner of a great man, a generous heart, a towering spirit, an expansive soul--such as I unmistakably am, and such as you dare not to dream of being, with your bilious weasel's eyes and no nose to keep them apart! 

With your face as lacking in all distinction, as lacking, I say, in interest, as lacking in pride, in imagination, in honesty, in lyricism, in a word, as lacking in nose as that other offensively bland expanse at the opposite end of your cringing spine, which I now remove from my sight by stringent application of my boot!


The dialog continues and turns into a sword fight. Good Swashbuckling indeed!

Click on "vertical viewing" label below for other vertical viewing suggestions!

Or click to read my vertical viewing posts of 
Emma, Love Affair,  A Christmas Carol, Anna Karenina, and Shakespeare's Tempest!

31 days of Oscar

Add caption

photos from the TCM website

Graphic, Diane Carnevale

I've been all around the world this month. Let me explain: During the month of February the Turner Classic Movies channel has been playing "31 Days of Oscar," — 349 films made over 5 decades — all leading up to the Academy Awards at the end of February. Each film they've shown had won some sort of Academy award Oscar. They are breaking the films into locations and they marketing this series on their always amazing Web site with an old school leather suitcase and travel labels. Great idea, don't you agree?

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The Ancient Rome day was great—Swords and Sandals! They showed Quo Vadis, Cleopatra (the 1934 Claudette Colbert version, not the Taylor / Burton one), Spartacus, Ben-Hur, and A Funny thing happened on the Way to the Forum. Just another reason why I love TCM!

The Beauty of a Second

There is beauty in every second of our lives, and here's proof. 

You absolutely must click here to watch this "Beauty of a Second" film.

Life goes by quickly—stop and smell the roses, will ya?

A walk through Russian history

The trailer for the film Russian Ark goes something like this: 2000 actors, 300 years of Russian history 3 live orchestras, 33 rooms of the Hermitage Museum and  one... single... continuous.... shot.  Isn't that an amazing feat in itself? I happen to think that this incredibly gorgeous film is one of the greatest ever made. It's dreamy, enigmatic, full of history, hope and change, yet also reveals a kind of wondrous, ponderous, aching melancholy for a time that will never again be. 

A mournful ghost—a newly deceased, fabulously eccentric 19th century French Marquis—brings us on a grand sweep of Russian history, conversing with us and guiding us though rooms with various historical vignettes. We saunter with him though opulent, art-filled rooms of Catherine the Great's Winter Palace—now the Hermitage museum—in St. Petersburg, Russia. "Everyone knows the present, but who can remember the past?" he asks.

With this time-traveling French ghost we come across Peter the Great who is verbally thrashing a general, we see Catherine the Great running to the bathroom after watching a theater performance, and we see Nicholas II and Alexandra's daughters (including Anastasia), dashing and dancing through gilded arched hallways like giggling forest nymphs.

Towards the end of the film we see Nicholas—the last Russian Tsar—hosting the final formal Great Royal Ball just before WWI in 1913. The camera swirls with the crowd as an orchestra plays in the background. Thousands of beautifully dressed aristocrats and snappy young soldiers—all in their white gloves—waltz the evening away. After the ball when the guests are all leaving is when I felt the crushing sadness of this dying time of history... of its customs and ultimately, the ruling monarchy.

At the final scene of this glorious film we slowly leave the doors of Catherine's palace and see a peaceful misty scene outside with the flowing Neva river to which the French ghost comments, "The flow is forever. Life is forever." Having completed the past, our French guide is now ready to move into the endless silence that is "the source of all sound." He goes on to say "Look. The sea is all around. We are destined to sail forever. To live forever." Isn't that lovely?

The creative brilliance of director Alexander Sokurov and cinematographer Tilman Büttner astounded me. Brush up on your Russian history before seeing this film, but do see it... and more than once! 

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I was lucky enough to visit Russia and this beautiful palace with Dan back in 2005, so I certainly relate to this film on an intimate level. I found each and every high-ceilinged room and grand staircase I visited there to be filled with historical magic and wonder. Below are some photos we took on our visit.

photos, Dan Ryan & Diane Carnevale

Robert Osborne returns to TCM!

Here's one of my favorite peeps—Robert Osborne—movie maven and host of the Turner Classic Movies channel. He took 5 months off for some minor surgery and a well deserved rest, and is returning tonight on TCM! I am not really sure what kind of spell this man holds over me, but all I know is that even if I am not interested in the movie he's introducing each night at 8 PM, I find his voice and demeanor very warm and soothing to listen to (not to mention that twinkle in his blue eyes). He's a gentleman's gentleman, and he's a veritable encyclopedia of film knowledge—just plain crazy good. He's nearly 80 years old and no doubt his passion and love for film is keeping him young. Welcome back R.O., I missed you like mad!

Here's the scoop in his hiatus--in a story written by Richard Eldredge, Osborne is quoted in Atlanta Magazine as saying: “Honestly, it was no big deal, essentially, I had worked 17 years straight without a vacation. I wanted a lump of time just to relax and unwind. I wanted to go get an MRI and a CATscan. I wanted to get a facial and get some crowns put on my teeth. I wanted to start going to a gym regularly. I wanted to pamper myself a little. I feel really good and very well rested.''  Rock on Mr. O., we all need a little pamper time. Read the entire story in Atlanta Magazine here.

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Just to give you a little idea of the sheer genius of TCM, they often play strings of films featuring the same actor--tonight it's all about William Powell. All November TCM featured The Battle of the Blondes—films with peroxide lassies such as Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Kim Novak, Betty Grable, etc. (Brilliant, right?), and in the month of December they're featuring Silent Nights—Fragments: Surviving pieces of lost films. Saturdays at noon they've been featuring every Tarzan film ever made, and even if you're not into Tarzan (like me), you've gotta admit it's an awesome idea. One wintry morning last year they played 3 legendary Ingmar Bergman films, back to back. No commercials, just films—all the time. And if Robert Osborne is delivering one of his informative film introductions, even better. Check it out!

Le Cinema Francais—Rififi

One of the best heist films ever made is a classic 1955 French one called Rififi. It's the tale of several burglar pals who meticulously plan every aspect of the perfect jewel heist, even what should happen if there is a post heist fallout, which of course there is. Greed and human nature always intervene. Squirm. The pièce de résistance of the film is an extraordinarily tense 28-minute safe-cracking scene that has absolutely no dialogue or music. You can feel their adrenaline, and your palms will become sweaty! This scene—where the thieves drill a hole in the floor of the apartment above the vault—was so accurate that real criminals were copying the clever technique, which prompted the film to be banned in certain countries. There's are loads of these sorts of films including Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Italian Job, Sexy Beast, Ocean's Eleven, Sneakers, The Sting, Snatch, The Thomas Crown Affair, How to Steal a Million, To Catch a Thief, and Topkapi, just to name a few. But Rififi has a certain intelligent austerity to it, and it's really trés fab!

Movie staahhs!

Click to enlarge!

Photo graphic by Diane Carnevale 

These beautiful faces from decades-old films are my Hollywood ideal, forever captured in miles and miles of celluloid film in the Turner Classic Movies vaults. I couldn't even begin to tell you my favorite films, but here are some of my favorite pairs: Fred and Ginger... Cary and Irene... Humphrey and Lauren... Spencer and Katharine...Clark and Vivien... all classics! Although these faces cover most of my favorite film stars, sadly I had to edit out many other favorites... Shirley Mclaine, Peter Sellars, Jack Lemon, Doris Day, James Mason, Tony Curtis,  Sidney Portier, George Brent, Ava Gardner, and so many character actors...on and on the list could go... all brilliant.

I work from home designing and producing educational school books for big publishers, and it's intense work sometimes. Currently I'm working on complex chemistry equations and illustrations on a 2-year long chemistry book. If I don't have some soothing classical music playing in the background while I work, then most likely I have the Turner Classic Movies channel on TV, as I love the sound of old films.  Robert Osborne (the host of TCM) is like a favorite uncle to me, and I am so exited for him to return on December 1st after his three month-long vacation. All of these familiar faces from days long past keep me company as I tap the mouse and and click away at the keyboard. Tap?... click?...Suddenly I have an urge to watch a Fred Astaire film!

So, can you name all these movie stars?
Lemme give you some help:

Ginger Melvyn Marlene Ray Maureen John Irene

Leslie Audrey Burt Judy Cary Deborah Gene 

Olivia Spencer Bette Clark Grace Rock Vivien

Laurence Rita George Katharine James Joan Gregory

Barbara James Jean Jimmy Claudette William Myrna

Rex Lauren Humphrey Marilyn Montgomery Ingrid Fred

Joan Kirk Sophia Errol Elizabeth Richard Greta

+ + +

From Sunset Boulevard:

Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. 
You used to be in silent pictures.
You used to be big. 

Norma Desmond: I am big. 
It's the pictures that got small.