Want to Watch it Your Way?...There's a List for That

Coordinating your personal taste and schedule with TV and movie theater listings can sometimes be next to impossible.

If you want to look up classic must-see movies on your own, there are plenty of places for you to begin your search and start your film-watching experience.

The American Film Institute has several lists ranking the greatest films of all time, from the funniest to the most romantic.

If you are looking to branch out into international cinematic waters, there is also the British Film Institute’s version which lists Britain's 100 best films.

Turner Classic Movies has a weekly series called “The Essentials” in which film historian Robert Osborne and Alec Baldwin choose and discuss films that impacted cinema and popular culture. Luckily for the busy film fan, there is also a list of these movies on TCM’s website.

Once you have made your own short-list of the films you want to see, the next step is finding a way to watch them.

Netflix is a good place to watch classic films because of their extensive selection and their online feature which streams a bunch of classic films.

For non-Netflix subscribers, YouTube can be a great alternative and has several films under its classic category.

TCM’s Media Room has a few feature-length films among its sea of movie clips. Just be sure to type “feature film” into the search box.

So, with a little Internet surfing, you can enjoy classic films whenever you choose.

UCLA Archive - Preserving and Restoring Cinematic History

If you are a classic film fan, you often hear about these older films being “preserved” or “newly restored.” After a while you might ask yourself just who it is that restores these films to the quality you are enjoying. Chances are good that the answer to that question is University of California, Los Angeles’s Film and Television Archive.

UCLA’s Archive comprises one of the largest media collections in the United States with over 220,000 film and television titles, according to its Web site. UCLA’s Archive also has a preservation program that has already successfully preserved almost 300 films.

Why is this so important? Until 1950, movies were produced on nitrate cellulose film, a material which eventually turns to dust. Half of the films made before 1950 have already disappeared completely. And films made after 1950 are made on a new type of film which is better, but discolors after time. This means that part of American cinema and culture is quickly fading away.

The good news is that programs like UCLA’s are working to preserve and restore these films so that cinephiles can continue learning from and enjoying these classic movies.

Even better news is that you can enjoy classic films right on the UCLA campus. As part of its “Archive Treasures” series, UCLA’s Archive screens movies from its extensive collection and on May 21st it will showcase the 1939 film “Midnight.”

For more information on the UCLA Archive’s film screenings, visit its Web site for upcoming events.

The Way We Were: Racial Portrayals Spotlighted on TCM

One great thing about classic films is that they can offer a glimpse into the societal prejudices that existed in decades past and offer some perspective on conventions that have remained in a culture.

This month Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will present its fourth installment of “Race in Hollywood” with this year’s theme being “Native American Images in Film.” TCM host and noted film historian, Robert Osborne, will present the films along with Professor Hanay Geiogamah, UCLA’s director of American Indian Studies.

Tuesdays and Thursdays in May, Osborne and Geiogamah will introduce the films with a different themed discussion each night, including the evolution of their portrayals by director John Ford, Native Americans facing racism, and Native Americans as enemies.

Thirty films, including the independent movies “Smoke Signals” and “Black Robe,” as well as Best Picture Academy-Award winners “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Dances with Wolves,” will all be a part of TCM’s on-air event.

“Movies have always had such a tremendous impact – both positive and negative – on how different minority groups are viewed,” says Osborne on the TCM Web site. “Utilizing our expansive library, we have the opportunity to dig into such subjects more deeply than anyone else on television.”

Previous installments of “Race and Hollywood” have examined Hollywood portrayals of African Americans (2006), Asian Americans (2008), and Latinos (2009).

For more information on this month’s series, visit the Race and Hollywood: Native American Images in Film Web site.

Movies on a Mausoleum

Film festivals are not the only way to enjoy classic films. If you’re looking to break out of the theater, Cinespia’s cemetery screenings are a fun, outdoor, and slightly morbid way to enjoy classic movies. Cinespia holds film screenings at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, a place steeped in Hollywood history and one in which many film icons are laid to rest.

On Saturday and Sunday evenings from May to September, over 2,000 visitors sit on the cemetery lawn and enjoy the picnic dinners they brought. A DJ sets the fun, laid-back tone with music before and after the feature. Once darkness falls, movies are projected onto Rudolph Valentino’s mausoleum wall.

In a 2006 interview with NPR, Cinespia’s founder John Wyatt explained why screening classic films here seems fitting.

"I feel like people coming here to see these films, and be entertained by these films, becomes almost a celebration of Hollywood film. It's very lively and very much amongst the living that these events take place,” Wyatt said.

Past screenings have included “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” and Hitchcock films such as “The Birds,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” and many more.

The 10th season of Cinespia screenings begins again in May. For more information or to look at Cinespia’s film suggestions for you to watch on your own, visit the organization’s website.

TCM Classic Film Festival

If you’re a classic movie fan, it can be somewhat tricky to experience the wonderful films of yesteryear in new and exciting ways. Turner Classic Movie channel, or TCM, provides innovative programming that breathes new life into classic cinema, but this year it is doing it big and in style. From April 22 – April 25, 2010, TCM is hosting its first Classic Film Festival in the heart of Hollywood.

The festival will include over 50 screenings with special introductions and guest appearances from actors, directors, and producers. The festival will also have various programming themes including “Essentials,” which screens must-see films that impacted popular culture, “Discoveries,” which includes films that are rare or have recently been restored, and Vanity Fair’s presentation,“Tales of Hollywood.”

One of the film fest’s highlights will be their presentation of “The Hustons: A Hollywood Dynasty.” Anjelica Huston and her brother, actor Danny Huston, will discuss the work of their late father, director John Huston, and their grandfather, Walter Huston.

TCM’s event promises to be fun and exciting with a red carpet gala on opening night and a Club TCM lounge at the Roosevelt Hotel exclusively for passholders. Unfortunately, prices for these passes are as glamorous as the event, ranging from $500 - $600. The good news is non-passholder folks can get into these screening events by buying individual tickets for about $20 each.

For more information, check out the official TCM Classic Film Festival Web site.

"Lust and Larceny": 12th Annual Noir City Film Festival

Rain-soaked melodrama, mysterious characters, and murderous cityscapes can all be found in the film noir of the 1940s. But where can you find film noir? Look no further than the Film Noir Foundation’s 12th Annual Noir City Film Festival playing at the Egyptian Theatre through April 18.
This year’s offering is titled “Lust and Larceny” and features rare films many of which are not available on DVD.
Noir City programmers “scoured studio archives to assemble a feast of film noir that can only be consumed in its original 35mm format, in the glorious darkness of a vintage movie palace!” the foundation enthuses on its website.
Sunday night’s showing is a double feature of the films “Drive a Crooked Road” from 1954 and “Walk a Crooked Mile” from 1948. One of the films’ stars, Paul Picerni, will be on hand to discuss the movies between the screenings.
Mannequinnes will take over the silver screen at the Los Angeles premiere of “Eves Necklace.” Directed by Daniel Erickson, this bizarre, modern-day film noir from 2009 will be the festival’s Wednesday night feature.
Double features and discussions of the films with some of the films’ actors will take place Thursday through the festival’s final day on Sunday, April 18.
For more information on how you can enjoy the rest of this film noir extravaganza, click on one of the links below.

LA Times Guide

American Cinematheque