TCM Classic Film Festival 2017 Starts Today!
Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 9:00AM 
Greetings, classic Hollywood fans! Anne Marie, here, returning to the blog! The sun is shining, the stars on Hollywood Blvd are gleaming, and there's been an uptick of tourists taking pictures of Bette Davis's handprints outside the TCL Chinese Theatre, all of which mean just one thing: it's time for the TCM Classic Film Festival!
This year, the most explosive news of the festival is the screening of several movies on nitrate film. TCM has always prided itself on screening 35mm at its festival side by side with new digital restorations. However, projecting nitrate prints requires a retrofit of the projection booths that handle the infamously flammable film stock. Fortunately, the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood recently underwent just such a renovation thanks the Hollywood Foreign Press, The Film Foundation, and Turner Classic Movies. As a result, movies ranging from Laura to Black Narcissus and the original The Man Who Knew Too Much will once again get the chance to light the screen ablaze - metaphorically, of course...
Memorials loom large in this year's TCMFF. The recent passing of TCM icon Robert Osborne sparked an outpouring of fan testimonials and mourning on social media, which is sure to continue in the retrospective dedicated to the beloved host on the first day of the festival. TCMFF closes this year with a memorial of a different kind, a screening of Postcards from the Edge hosted by Todd Fisher, who will use Carrie Fisher's stranger-than-fiction send up of her relationship with mom Debbie Reynolds to talk about the two icons only a few months after their passing.
Despite these somber occasions, the festival is bound to be a joyful occasion. The theme this year is Make 'Em Laugh, so the majority of the films not prone to causing fires or nostalgic tears will be comic ones like Harold and Maude, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Dr. Strangelove. Father/son duo Rob and Carl Reiner will add their handprints to the concrete outside the Chinese Theatre as well. And at the center of it all, I'll be running up and down Hollywood Blvd bringing you updates on new film restorations and Old Hollywood gossip.
What would you most like to see at the TCM Classic Film Festival?
Reader Comments (4)
Hey, Anne Marie. I'll be out of town during the festival, but I have tickets to see Laura in June at the old Million Dollar Theatre downtown ("Last Remaining Seats").
I'm so jealous. I've always wanted to attend this fabulous event. Rest in peace, Mr. Osborne.
Paul Outlaw - That's great! There's no bad way to watch LAURA, and that theater is incredible.
How does a civilian get to attend something like this?