I love Bogart. I've seen "The African Queen" in the theater twice and it wasn't something that was jumping out at me this go around. I would have loved to see "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" but I love Ann-Margret and had to see her. She also just finished filming a Guest Programmer segment with Eddie Muller that will air on TCM in the future. I enjoyed the Legion but we only saw one film there as it was so far removed from everything else. We contemplated seeing the Rin Tin Tin silent, but we didn't want to deal with the shuttle. The shuttle is a great feature and while the walk isn't really that long, it can feel much longer at the end of the night. However, I think TCM needs to hire more shuttles. When we saw "Enter the Dragon," we lucked out in that we just happened to be in the right place at the right time when the shuttles showed up. With each shuttle only being able to transport 13 people at once, if you're in a long line 3 or 4 shuttles' worth deep, it would probably behoove you to just walk. I think having all the venues centrally located w/o needing to use the Legion would be nice. We saw the Cinerama Dome from the outside, it was a shame that it was boarded up.txfilmfan wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2023, 12:01 pmThe friend I was with doesn't like Humphrey Bogart, so what did I do? I dragged him to two of them in a row (African Queen and Treasure of the Sierra Madre), neither of which he had seen. I almost opted for Bye Bye Birdie, but only to see Ann-Margaret and the dance sequence for Gotta a Lot of Livin' to Do on the big screen. I've always wondered how long that took to rehearse and shoot.speedracer5 wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2023, 11:30 amI know I probably spoiled myself with the spotlight pass. We wanted to go all out and see what it was all about. I actually liked not having to wait in line, or having to leave screenings early to draw a good queue card. I hate the idea of only watching parts of different movies. Over the 3.5 days, we managed to watch 13 movies, 2 panels and a Laurel and Hardy short. We could have seen 15 movies if we'd had more energy. I know that the movie conflicts are par for the course with the festival, I just wish they would have either spread out the blocks a little bit or maybe staggered the movies a little better? I don't know. There were so many conflicts I had where the movies overlapped by 15 minutes or so. It's a real schedule killer when the poolside screenings are staggered in a way to block out two entire blocks of movies.txfilmfan wrote: ↑April 23rd, 2023, 8:34 am
What a great post.
You've probably been spoiled for life with the Spotlight pass. The worst part (and sometimes the best part) of the TCMFF is standing in a queue waiting to go in, and the Spotlight pass lets you bypass most of the waiting. The worst is because it's a time sink. The best is because you have a lot of time to meet others while standing in the queue.
We had no overlap in our film choices. We would have if you had made it to In the Heat of the Night. I was mostly concentrating on films I hadn't seen, and I had only seen a few scenes from this one. I was surprised to see that it was less than half full. Nearly everything else I saw was in a full or nearly full house.
Re: Mank's stature - LOL. A lot of celebrities are smaller than expected when you see them IRL. We ran into Ben and his wife in the elevator at Loews a few years back. He's shorter than I am, and I'm 5'8".
Re: Grauman's, it is fun seeing a movie there. It's been modified a few times inside (the latest was for the IMAX conversion, that changed the seating configuration) but the interior decoration still remains. It's actually not owned by TCL - they just bought the naming rights in 2013, originally a 10 year deal. So the name might be changing again shortly! Hopefully the other former Grauman property - the Egyptian - will again be available next year for TCMFF. While waiting for In the Heat... we met a former projectionist who worked at the Egyptian. He said the last he heard was that it might open by the end of 2023, but they've run into unexpected problems with the renovation. Netflix now owns the Egyptian. They've also used the El Capitan in years past. It's also a great place to catch a movie (usually with an organ mini-concert and sometimes a "curtain show" before the feature).
Some of our decisions were made based on the special guest. If Ann-Margret hadn't been there for "Bye Bye Birdie," I would have gone to "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" because 'Birdie' isn't my favorite musical, but I do enjoy it. And if Russ Tamblyn hadn't been there for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," I would have seen "The Muppets Take Manhattan." Lol.
If we go next year, I hope that the Egyptian and/or El Capitan are open so that I can see the inside. I really want to do a nitrate screening, which I know can only be done at the Egyptian. If these venues were added, would the movies be more spread out? Or would there be more movies on the schedule?
RE: Mank. Yes, he is tiny, especially when standing next to Eddie. Jacqueline Stewart is very petite too, which was surprising because she strikes me as someone who would be tall. But I was literally standing next to her in the elevator and I was wearing flat sandals. I'm 5'2". Jacqueline is probably 5'3ish. Alicia was taller, but I didn't see what kind of shoes she had on. I would venture to say that she's at least 5'5-5'6". When we met Dave he was sitting, so I was never able to gauge how tall he was. On TV, it is hard to tell the host's heights because they're usually standing alone.
If they do go back to the Egyptian, there likely won't be any additional films screened. They basically substituted the American Legion post for the Egyptian and I imagine that they would keep it at 5 main venues. Adding one would increase the cost - the event management company that runs the queues, etc would have to hire more folks. Venues like El Capitan and the now-defunct Cinerama Dome were always one-off venues - showing just a title or two. They've also used the Montalban Theatre in the past for interviews and the like. Most of the venues are scheduled in 3 to 3.5 hour blocks. The problem comes when you get a film that runs longer than 2:15 or so. That throws the schedule for that venue off w.r.t. the others for the rest of the day. It seems to me that the poolside showings never quite fit into the rest of the pattern. I've never been to one, and this was my 8th visit.
I asked the former Egyptian projectionist if they were going to continue showing nitrate prints after the renovation, but he wasn't sure.
I do wish they could find a bigger room for some of the panels or limit participation in some way. It's no fun standing for an hour in a wall-to-wall crowd.
Talking to people in the TCMFF Facebook group that I'm in, a lot of them are married couples and they split up at the festival and reconvene at different points when their schedules align. Jimmy and I didn't do that, we just worked together to do a schedule that worked for both. He's pretty easy going and went along with the flow for the most part. He was interested in the panels because he wanted to see/do things that he couldn't otherwise do anywhere else. He also picked "Harvey" and "Enter the Dragon." The Henson Puppetry panel was his absolute favorite thing at the festival.
We didn't have issues finding seating in the panels, we arrived about 30 minutes early to both of the ones we attended and found seats. I do agree though that they should use a bigger space, or add more seating. I didn't notice huge crowds of people standing during the panels, so maybe they did limit participation. I wouldn't want to stand either, I'm short and wouldn't be able to see anything. That's why I never do GA tickets at concerts--unless that's the only type of ticket available, then I stand in the back away from the crowd.