New Films Guests Announced for TCMFF 2018

Yesterday, TCM announced new guests and films for the 2018 Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival (TCMFF), April 26-29, 2018. You can read the full announcement here or at the end of this post, you can check my brief recap of the original announcement.

What does this all mean? Obviously, different things to different people. To me, it means I have some research to do.  About half the films announced I haven't seen and some I hadn't even heard of. For example, I was in high school when My Brilliant Career was released, so I wasn't watching many foreign films at the time. I have very mixed feelings about Merchant Ivory films, I loved A Room with a View. Remains of the Day left me kind of cold, and I hated— hated, hated, hated Howard's End. This means I'm going to have to think long and hard about Maurice. On the nitrate films, I think I've seen all of them, but I not a real big fan of any. For some people, seeing a film in nitrate was an earth shaking experience, me, not so much. I only saw one film in nitrate last year, Laura, and while I thought it looked very good in some spots. The earth did not move. I must be nitrate frigid. 

I've never heard of Windjammer: The Voyage of Christian Radich,  and I don't think I've seen any of the Pre-Code films announced, so again, some research is required. Going forward, I think I need to find some of my TCMFF/Twitter #TCMParty cronies whose opinions I trust and see if they can help fill in the gaps on some of the films I'm unfamiliar with it.

What I mostly remember from Grand Prix as a kid, aside 

from the cool race cars, Eva Marie Saint, screaming, 

"Blood! Blood! Is that what you want to see! Blood!

So, what am I most psyched about with all of this at this moment in time? I think it comes down to four things. For me, two biggies are the Billy Wilder offerings, Sunset Boulevard and Witness for the Prosecution. Both are brilliant films and have stars appearing with them. Also I really love the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet, and considering my now 18-year-old daughter will be attending with me, I think this is likely to be a must-see for both of us. Finally, Grand Prix at the Cinerama Dome with Eva Marie Saint would be awesome. That said, I know it's a three hour movie and with it being a bit far away from the rest of the festival, that means you're likely to miss two other films to see the one, always a tough sell at TCMFF.  That said, I do have a personal connection to the film. It's one of the first movies I remember seeing in the theater as a very small child, and I haven't seen it in the theater since. 


I think I'm going to refrain from revising the top five picks I posted at the end of January. I need to give this some time to sink in. It will take some real soul searching to rectify this with what has already been announced.

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The big TCMFF announcements included both new guests and film titles. Director Gillian Armstrong will appear at a screening of her film My Brilliant Career (1979) and screenwriter/director James Ivory, who will be in attendance for a screening of his film Maurice (1987).

A 50th anniversary screening of Romeo and Juliet (1968) will be shown with stars Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, and Michael York in attendance. Eva Marie Saint returns to TCMFF for a screening of her film A Hatful of Rain, and Nancy Olson will be in attendance at a screening of Sunset Boulevard (1950). Other guest screenings include Nancy Kwan for The World of Suzie Wong (1960), Melvin Van Peeble for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), and Ruta Lee for Witness for the Prosecution (1957). Finally, Jacqueline Bisset will appear at the previously announced 50th anniversary presentation of Bullitt.

Films presented in nitrate return to the Egyptian Theatre with A Star Is Born (1937), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Spellbound (1945), and Stage Door (1937). Also TCMFF returns to the Cinerama Dome for two presentations, Grand Prix with Eva Marie Saint in attendance and Windjammer: The Voyage of Christian Radich (1958) presented in Cinerama. Finally, TCM announced a selection of Pre-Code films, Frances Dee and Ginger Rogers in Finishing School (1934); Carole Lombard and Gary Cooper in I Take This Woman; and Kay Francis and Joel McCrea in George Cukor’s Girls About Town (1931).