What Good is Sitting Alone in your Room? (Day 1 of the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival)

So, I feel like every blog entry I write starts with an apology, this post in no different.  I apologize for not updating about the Festival in a timely fashion.  I moved back to Los Angeles in July of 2012 and had a really terrible year at work, which was also a huge time suck.  I'm now at a new job, but still not finding the time to update the blog as often as I should.  I wanted to get these posts done before the 2013 festival, but as you can see I wasn't able to do that, so now the goal is to get these up before the 2014 festival, I'm going to do my best! But enough about me! Let's jump into our time machine and go to the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival :)

The Thursday of the festival started off with heading over to the Grove with my mother.  We saw Mario Lopez (AC Slater himself) filming outside.

I also ended up getting a rain/trench coat since the weather reports were predicting rain (those reports were accurate).  I also bought some really nice red nail polish from the Gap, that I still use every once in awhile.  After our trip to the Grove we headed over to the Roosevelt and Club TCM to check out what was going on. We watched Ben Mankiewicz interview fans by the pool and caught a glimpse of Robert Osborne interviewing Rick Baker with Bela Lugosi's son, Bela Lugosi Jr. and Boris Karloff's daughter, Sara Karloff.

Robert, Bela Lugosi Jr., Sara Karloff and Rick Baker

It was then time to get ready to walk the red carpet for the screening of Cabaret.  On this trip, my mom and I had discovered a little short-cut from the hotel and the Hollywood and Highland structure.  In the previous years I had either walked around the whole structure or through it, but this year, we discovered a little alleyway that cut down the walk appreciably, I don't recommend using it alone in the middle of the night, but during daylight hours it's a nice option.  Anyway! We took this little shortcut to make our way to Cabaret and to our unbelievable surprise we ended up in this little alleyway with none other than the TCM Film Festival Rock Star: Robert Osborne!  I was in complete shock and fell silent, but my mom being the person that she is immediately said hi to him!  And he said hi back and asked how we were enjoying the festival so far.  I told him that I was really enjoying it and looking forward to the weekend.  We then had a brief conversation and it was so funny, cause he seemed so genuinely interested in being sure that we were enjoying the festival.  It was a really great way to kick off the festival.

When we made it to Grauman's (I still refuse to call it TCL) I realized that I had been traumatized by my last trips on the red carpet.  My mom wanted to stop and take pictures and soak it all in, but I was so worried that we would be reprimanded by the security people, since that's what they did the previous years.  So I became the annoying person who kept telling her we had to keep moving, I feel really guilty about it now, since I should've just enjoyed myself instead of worrying about getting yelled at, now that I'm a little older I realize just how silly it was to not do something for fear of someone telling me to move along, that's not the end of the world.  Anyway, here are some pics of me, my mom, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Osborne from the red carpet.

Also here's the cast of the new TNT Dallas being interviewed on the red carpet and G.W. Bailey who I very much associate with his Police Academy character Lt. Harris:

The opening night movie was Cabaret directed by Bob Fosse, starring Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey and Michael York.  Robert Osborne welcomed us to the festival and pointed out the Liza Minnelli connection between the opening movies of all 3 festivals: 2010- A Star is Born (Starring Judy Garland, her mother), 2011- An American in Paris (Directed by Vincent Minnelli, her father) and now 2012- Cabaret (Starring Liza Minnelli).

 First, Liza came out and discussed how she got the look for her character and how her father helped her.  Liza wanted to use a look from the 30s, but could only think of blondes and then here father suggested Louise Brooks.  She ultimately put the look together using the bob as an inspiration and picked up the eyelashes she wore on La Cienega.

I can see that

Next up was Joel Grey, it turned out that he had taken time out from performing on Broadway to come to the festival and it was his birthday.  He discussed how he was cast in the movie, apparently Bob Fosse didn't want him, eventhough Grey had been in the stage play, according to Grey, Fosse wanted to play the part himself.  He joked that one of his costumes, a coat, had been warn by the entire German population, and was so smelly. Joel and Liza seemed to be very close and really enjoyed being with one another on stage.  Joel said that he had thought of Liza as his little sister.  They seemed to still be incredibly close.

Such a character

holding hands

Last, Michael York came out, which was quite a surprise.  He talked about how he got the role.  He had heard through the grapevine that they were looking for A "Michael York type" for the role and he asked his agent if he thought he could pass as a Michael York type.  It was really great to hear the three leads talk about their experiences and what they went through to create the movie.

I really enjoyed seeing the movie on the big screen in that theater and even had the added bonus of walking out of the theater next to Michael York, which was a very surreal moment.  The movie was larger than life on the big screen.  The musical numbers were sensational, the performances were nuanced and the whole experience was very exciting.  It's not everyday that you get to see a movie like that.

After the movie, my mother and I made our way over to the Chinese 6 to see Sabrina (one of my all time faves).  It's always a pleasure to see Audrey Hepburn on the big screen, and William Holden (yum!).  The movie was introduced by Janie Bryant who is/was the costume designer for Mad Men.  She talked about the fact that the role of Linus was meant to be played by Cary Grant, but Humphrey Bogart got the role instead and was perhaps a better casting choice.  She told us that Bogart really wanted Lauren Bacall in the Audrey Hepburn role and that he was supposed to have script control, but neither of those things came to pass, I can't really imagine Bacall in that kind of role.  As a costume designer Bryant also talked about the work of Edith Head, which is always fabulous.  She discussed how Ms. Head was able to create a character through costume.  It was a great screening and a great way to close out the night.

pretty!

That does it for Day One of the festival, tune in next time for Day Two, which includes: Covergirl, introduced by Gene Kelly's widow, Patricia Kelly and Robert Osborne, Funny Face with Stanely Donen interview, Vertigo with Kim Novak interview, Nothing Sacred introduced by Deborah Nadoolman Landis and evening screening of Young Frankenstein with Mel Brooks interview.