Stepping Out (1991) and A Matter of Time (1976)
Posted: December 14th, 2010, 6:26 pm
Stepping Out (1991)
Wed. Dec. 15th at 1:00 AM ET on TCM
I used to be like many people who thought Liza Minnelli was too over the top for me, but then I saw Stepping Out (1991), a charming movie about a professional dancer down on her luck (two experiences that the performer knew first hand). Taking on a group of amateurs, she takes a job as an adult ed dance instructor for a motley crew in Buffalo, ranging from a subdued (honest) Shelley Winters to lovely Jane Krakowski to the brilliant, born too late for silents Bill Irwin. Minnelli's heroic efforts to help each of the individuals in her class learn to dance and to feel alive are quite touching in this small scale movie that I once thought may have been a direct to video film. Directed by Lewis Gilbert (Alfie, several of the Roger Moore Bond flicks).
A Matter of Time (1976)
Wed. Dec. 15th at 1:00 AM ET on TCM
The last film directed by one of the great stylists of the American screen, Vincente Minnelli. Long out of circulation, A Matter of Time was chopped up by the production company and brutalized further by critics who did not respond to it well when it opened in a time of enormous anger and strife in the world and little room for whimsy. The movie stars Ingrid Bergman (her penultimate film), Charles Boyer (his last film) and Liza Minnelli as a chambermaid who relives the romantic adventures described to her by a mysterious countess living at the hotel where Minnelli works. Aren't you curious? I sure am.
I hope others will post about these movies after seeing them.
Wed. Dec. 15th at 1:00 AM ET on TCM
I used to be like many people who thought Liza Minnelli was too over the top for me, but then I saw Stepping Out (1991), a charming movie about a professional dancer down on her luck (two experiences that the performer knew first hand). Taking on a group of amateurs, she takes a job as an adult ed dance instructor for a motley crew in Buffalo, ranging from a subdued (honest) Shelley Winters to lovely Jane Krakowski to the brilliant, born too late for silents Bill Irwin. Minnelli's heroic efforts to help each of the individuals in her class learn to dance and to feel alive are quite touching in this small scale movie that I once thought may have been a direct to video film. Directed by Lewis Gilbert (Alfie, several of the Roger Moore Bond flicks).
A Matter of Time (1976)
Wed. Dec. 15th at 1:00 AM ET on TCM
The last film directed by one of the great stylists of the American screen, Vincente Minnelli. Long out of circulation, A Matter of Time was chopped up by the production company and brutalized further by critics who did not respond to it well when it opened in a time of enormous anger and strife in the world and little room for whimsy. The movie stars Ingrid Bergman (her penultimate film), Charles Boyer (his last film) and Liza Minnelli as a chambermaid who relives the romantic adventures described to her by a mysterious countess living at the hotel where Minnelli works. Aren't you curious? I sure am.
I hope others will post about these movies after seeing them.