The Silver Screen Oasis

I can't cook at all, but I love his show. He's also doing the Iron Chef stuff as well these days. Great films for tonight, will he make RO some popcorn?

Mr. Arkadin wrote:I can't cook at all, but I love his show. He's also doing the Iron Chef stuff as well these days. Great films for tonight, will he make RO some popcorn?

So what are his choices? You're not going to make me research, are you?

I thought it was funny (strange? Haha?) that the diminutive Danny Devito chose Devil Doll, which depicts a dotty doctor who shrinks people to toy size. This could have been paired with The Incredible Shrinking Man.

What's up Tiger Lilly (1966)
Closely Watched Trains (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
Blow Up (1966)

Alton's films were the worst of the lot. Who as a guest programmer plays all films from the 60's!?!?

DID you know that this guy actually had the gall to say to Robert that he wanted to take over his job when he retired!?!?!??!?! How disrespectful can you be. This is inside info by the way from people at TCM.

I have to say it again--who guest programmes and picks all movies from the 60's. He is a fake and he is trying to weasel his way into TCM. Trust me I know all about it. It will be a cold day in hell when Alton Brown takes over for Robert Osbourne. He has no classic film info on any of his websites. He did not even have his guest programmer spot listed among his other TV appearances. Now, there is an archive of his whereabouts for Nov. 07 and there is even other stations besides the Food Network listed but no TCM.



He needs to stick with cooking and stay out of the TCM. I doubt he has been watching TCM for as long as some of us. If he had been, there is no way he would have disrespected Robert like that and there is no way he would have picked all movies from the 60's if he truly was a classic film fan.

While the Sixties time-limit didn't bother me any more than others' Fifties did, I couldn't appreciate any connections Brown may have made for those four films.

I was shocked to think ANY Woody Allen fan would choose WHATS UP TIGER LILY as The One Woody Allen Film to show off.

Then to match it with POINT BLANK?

If I look at these four films as ingredients, I'd certainly be far more cautious about joining Alton in a pot-luck supper at his place. Lord only knows what would be in the stew, soup or desserts.

I keep thinking of Woody's culinary adventures... in BANANAS, he's chasing a package of frozen spinach around the floor. In ANNIE, he's hoping she can speak "shellfish" to tame the lobsters. In PLAY IT AGAIN, Diane comes over and says she'll cook him something - what does he have? "Frozen TV dinners," he says and she say, "You actually cook those?"

"Who cooks 'em? I just suck 'em raw."

I think Brown's four films left me feeling more like Gene Wilder in EVERY THING YOU WANTED TO KNOW... broken and disheveled, laying on a sidewalk, sucking down a bottle of Woolite.

I don't think just because someone chooses films from the 60's means they have no knowlege of classic film (heck, there's a 60's film in my avatar at the moment). He obviously chose films he enjoyed.

While I would agree about What's up Tiger Lilly, and would definitely exchange Antononi's Blow up (1966) with La Notte (1961), I think Closely Watched Trains (1965) and Point Blank (1967) are both masterworks of that decade.

Ollie:

You said: "I couldn't appreciate any connections Brown may have made for those four films."

Actually, if you think about it, the connection is the sex and violence aspects, what else? You don't know me, but most others know my esteem for Woody Allen only goes as high as underneath the lowest rock in the garden. Although my disgust grew upon disclosure of his romp with his step daughter, it was always there. In all of his movies, I have only been able to stomach Radio Days, although the ones he is NOT in are better than the ones he is in. But it does seem that this cook, or chef, whatever, is just another large person who never grew up mentally.

Now before all of you guys get mad and call me a female chauvinist (if there is possibly such a thing), I know that most men prefer sex and violence, and I have no qualms with that, but usually they will intermix it with other things like sci-fi, westerns, etc. This guy is stuck in a 60's rut.

Anne

I didn't see this one. I do know that Alton used to be a cameraman - did he make any comments about his choices having anything to do with the cinematography?

I was trying to come up with a quick list of films from the 1960s which could genuinely point to the obvious fact that classic films were produced during that decade but these are all I could come up with: THE APARTMENT, PSYCHO, SPARTACUS, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, DR. NO, GOLDFINGER, ONE TWO THREE, POINT BLANK, THE WILD BUNCH, CLOSELY WATHCHED TRAINS, DR. STRANGELOVE, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, WEST SIDE STORY, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, LOLITA, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, THE GREAT ESCAPE, BONNIE AND CLYDE, DARLING, THE BIRDS, FAIL SAFE, ALL NIGHT LONG, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, SHOCK CORRIDOR, THE NAKED KISS, THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, LONELY ARE THE BRAVE, CAPE FEAR, CHARADE, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, MADIGAN, THE KILLERS, PETULIA, SHADOWS, FACES, THE HUSTLER, HUD, HEAD, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, HELP!, THE BELLBOY, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, KISS ME STUPID, THE HAUNTING, A PATCH OF BLUE, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, THE MUSIC MAN, LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, THE MIRACLE WORKER, THE TRAIN, A THOUSAND CLOWNS, THE PAWNBROKER, ROSEMARY'S BABY, PEEPING TOM, THE INNOCENTS, THE MISFITS, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, EASY RIDER, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, REPULSION, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, WORLD.
Sorry; that's all I could come up with. Can anyone else help?

Anne, Actually only What's new and Point Blank have any violence. What's New is ham handed silliness. It might be better to see the films before writing your review.

Judith, Alton did mention cinematography and stated that h picked these films because he grew up enjoying them and also because how cameras and camera movement in the sixties had chnaged the way films were being shot.

Dewey, I very much agree that the sixties were an important period of film. No, they weren't the same as the thirties or forties, but that's what I love about them. Sixties films took lots of chances and were very daring in subject matter, filming, use of color, etc. Great films are made in all eras.

I'm here to help, Dewey.

PROCES DE JEANNE D'ARC, AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, MOUCHETTE, GERTRUD, ALPHAVILLE, THE TRIAL, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, ANDREI RUBLEV, VIRIDIANA, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, BELLE DE JOUR, CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, THE LADIES' MAN, CONTEMPT, 8-1/2, THE LEOPARD, LA JETEE, THE VIRGIN SPRING, PERSONA, THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY, SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, STOLEN KISSES, MISSISSIPPI MERMAID, LE SAMOURAI, ARMY OF SHADOWS, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

Dewey:

Where did I say good films weren't made in the 60's? Although I do disagree with some of your choices of good films, I don't object to your liking them. Perhaps I should have lengthened my last sentence to . . . stuck in a sex and violence 60's rut. Every decade has their great movies and their awful movies, and I think I should be free to give my opinion to something I HAVE SEEN.

I lived the sexual revolution guys, and the movies were a big part of that revolution. Many of the movies were simply 'how far can I go with sex and violence', and unfortunately tore down all of the barriers that had been built up, leaving us with the race for gore we have now. My ex husband was one of those big men who never grew up mentally. My sons were disgusted with how he went on and on about Janet Jackson at the Superbowl, but one reminded the other, "Don't forget, we're both in our 40's, Dads only 65". Nice huh?

Mr. Arkadin: Remember, I added sex to that comment, along with violence. . . . Trains is nothing but sex, the whole movie is about that guy and his search for 'the big one'. My first husband went to all of them, and dragged me along, that's how I was lucky enough to see Night of the Living Dead, Last House on the Left, Babarella, and many more. I used to go and at about half way through, I went out to the quiet foyer which was my night out from 4 our little kids.

I do know what I'm talking about, I don't say anything if I don't know. That is why I pretty much stay out of the Silent thread, and most of the foreign language threads.

Anne

Anne said: Where did I say good films weren't made in the 60's? Although I do disagree with some of your choices of good films, I don't object to your liking them...
Anne, my post was not aimed at or addressed to you; it was in response to Kim's post from earlier today. But thank you nevertheless for not objecting to my liking films that I like. Or mentioning classic films that I don't like but realize that many other people do... Oh, and by the way:
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, YOJIMBO, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, Z, IN COLD BLOOD, THE GRADUATE, BILLY LIAR, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, CUL DE SAC, THE DAMNED, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, THE IPRESS FILE, THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM, THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, THIS SPORTING LIFE, VICTIM, SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, THE TRIP, WILD IN THE STREETS, THE PINK PANTHER, THE SWIMMER, THE SERVANT, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, ALFIE and INHERIT THE WIND.

If I were ever fortunate enough to be chosen as a guest programmer-I would choose two films from the '60's. It was an explosive (and "exposed") decade of movies...filled with classics from seasoned veterans as well as raw, experimental material from new talent weened on '40's/'50's studio "comfort food." And boy did they spice up their offerings.
I would also include two pre-code talkies...because they are simply delicious.
If I had to choose two favorite "eras" for films it would be pre-code talkies and the '60's. I find many similarities in the bulk of films from these "eras." They're shocking, cynical, hip, dark, rebelious explorations of "the human condition."
On another note-Do I detect some "sourness" in this thread?
I thought I was on the TCM message boards for a minute.