And finally, you can read my full-scale coverage of the 2015 TCM Classic Film Festival posted this week at Slant magazine and their blog The House Next Door, which you may have heard something about occasionally around here over the last 10 years or so. Here's a taste:
"Even in the heart of Hollywood, where costumed hustlers and tourists daily trample over sidewalk stars dedicated to the memory of entertainment legends, few are likely to pause over names like Lloyd Bacon, Ralph Bellamy, Stanley Kramer, Gregory La Cava, or Una Merkel. Except, perhaps, during one long weekend near the end of March, when classic-film historians, scholars, and everyday movie buffs gather, as they have since 2010, for the TCM Classic Film Festival, where this year the work of each of these less-well-known actors and directors was greeted with wild enthusiasm. To crib the title of one of the fêted films at this year's gathering, it may be true, especially in Los Angeles, that nothing lasts forever, but TCMFF seems dedicated to the perception that some things, some people, some films just might be able to buck the inevitable disappearing act into the mists of history."
I get to attend TCMFF each year not because I'm some sort of brilliant writer or extraordinary chronicler, but instead because of the good graces of my editor Ed Gonzalez, who works with me to get this piece in shape and vouches for me so I can get the press credential which allows me to hobnob in Hollywood every year for four days or so. I thank him for this opportunity to indulge my critical love for Hollywood's past. TCMFF is always one of the big highlights of my year, like Christmas in April (to evoke yet another great movie I saw here this year). I hope I've done my experience with it this year some sort of justice. Lights out!
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