After a few days of running on all cylinders during TCMFF, by the time Sunday comes around, I’m always ready to slow things down a little bit. This was definitely a very leisurely day for me; I only ended up going to 3 different events.
On Sunday mornings, not only do you have the first block of movies to choose from, there’s always something cool going on over at Larry Edmunds Bookshop. In the past, Larry Edmunds has hosted book signings with people like Shirley Jones and Tippi Hedren on Sunday mornings and I’ve always wanted to one of their events, but I’ve never been able to get over there. So when they announced that this year’s special Sunday guest would be with Marsha Hunt, I knew I couldn’t miss it.
Getting to spend a morning with Marsha Hunt was nothing less than an honor. She’s such a remarkable woman and to be able to hear her talk about her life and career was a real treat. It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to hear about Hollywood blacklisting who experienced it firsthand. It was particularly amazing to have the chance to see her in the bookstore because it was a setting that made the event feel so personal. Marsha was joined by two people who know her very well, Eddie Muller and Roger C. Memos, director of the documentary Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity. I’ve been hearing great things about this documentary for a while now, so I was very excited that we were able to see a few clips from it during the event. I definitely hope to be able to see the whole thing in the future.
Since Marsha had turned 100 a few months before the festival, we also had the opportunity to have some cake with her and sing happy birthday. The cake was absolutely delicious, making an already incredible event even better.
After my trip to Larry Edmunds, I had a little bit of a break before catching my next movie: Silk Stockings. A musical with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse is the sort of lighthearted entertainment I typically like on a Sunday afternoon. I wouldn’t say Silk Stockings is one of my all-time favorite musicals, but it’s still the sort of movie I like to revisit every once in a while just because I have such a big soft spot for splashy technicolor musicals and because I love Fred and Cyd so much. It’s definitely a fun movie to see in a theater. The print we saw was a new digital print, which looked absolutely fantastic.
For my last movie of the festival, I finally got to catch one of the nitrate print screenings at the Egyptian. It had been a very long time since I’d seen the 1937 version of A Star is Born and it was great to finally see it again. It was much funnier than I had remembered it being and the nitrate print was absolutely stunning. Even though I’ve seen plenty of movies that feature famous locations in Hollywood, it was very cool to be able to see shots like the forecourt of the Chinese Theater while sitting down the street from the Chinese Theater. William Wellman Jr. was on hand to discuss the movie before the screening, talking about things like the real-life people and events that inspired the film and how his father fought to make the film.
And with that, my fifth trip to the TCM Film Festival came to an end. As always, I had an amazing time and I came home with a lot of great memories. I’m already looking forward to next year’s festival!
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