#CurateMyLife: Classic Film

After reading Aurora's post for the #CurateMyLife #ClassicMovies project I decided to attempt to tackle it as well.  I was also motivated because I had to do a major apartment clean-up for a small Oscar Party this weekend.  Anyway, be sure to check out Aurora's post and check out the #CurateMyLife blogathon which was created by Margaret Perry.

The deadline for the blogathon has extended through February 29th (Happy Leap Day!), which means I can partake.

While working on this post I kind of realized that my life and most definitely my classic movie life is split between my apartment in LA and my parent's house in NY, so my collection is a bit bi-coastal.  But, I'm going to try to just focus on the things I have in my apartment currently since those are the items I have chosen to have here in LA with me.  Here we go!


1. DVD/Blu ray Collection
My current collection covers a number of different shelves in my apartment and are organized in a few different ways.  The majority of the DVDs and Blu rays are simply alphabetized, yet separated one area for DVDs another for Blu ray in the tower shelves, however I recently attempted some categorizing.  This came about mostly because I had purchased more bookshelves.  The current categories include: Musicals, Hitchcock, My Top 30, Criterion, Disney, TCM releases, Holiday Films, Box Sets, and Film Franchises.

I honestly get a lot of flack about my collection from some of my friends and peers.  They are flabbergasted that anyone would, in this day and age, be actively building a physical media collection while so many movies are available digitally.  I get their point of view, but I'm a physical/tangible media kind of gal.  I like knowing that I have that access to a particular film without having to rely on the internet, a thumb drive or a cloud.  There are also so many titles that come and go from streaming services that I really appreciate the perceived permanency of DVDs and Blu rays.

2.  VHS Collection
I don't currently have any VHS titles in my apartment, I do still have a bit of a VHS collection in NY though.  I do have a VCR here though for VHS rentals.

3.  Favorite DVD/Blu ray
I am terrible when it comes to favorites, which is evidenced by my shelf of top 30 films, but those don't even include movies from my other categories, so with that preface, I guess if I had to pick my favorite DVD or Blu ray, I guess I would go with the Criterion edition of Charade because I love that movie so much and it was nice that it got a proper home video release, even though it's in public domain.  My other favorite is the Beatles movie Help! partially because I love it so much, but also because it was such a treat when it came out on DVD/Blu ray.

4. Favorite VHS
My most sentimental VHS tapes are the old clam shell Disney movies, they're not here with me, but I would say they're my faves.

5.  Classic Film Related Wall Art
This was one of the categories that got me super excited to do this project.  I love being able to display my Classic Film wall art and it makes me feel better when I see it.  I feel like Charlie Chaplin is greeting me when I come home from work.  I'll start with the amazing pieces from Dorothy, their stuff is so creative and really beautiful:

It's hard to tell from my not so great pictures, but they are a Film Map, a Hollywood Star Chart and a Love Star Chart.  The map is a street map of an area that could be LA which is made up of over 900 film titles including Sunset Blvd, Valley of the Dolls, Chinatown, and Gosford Park.  The Hollywood Star Chart is based on the sky over LA on October 6, 1927 and includes constellations of 62 films (chosen from the films selected for preservation by the National Film Preservation Registry) and their 'stars.'  The Love Star Chart is made up of 74 romantic films (from the BFI Love season) and is based on the sky over NY on November 26, 1942.  That ended up being long winded, but I love these prints!

Here are some other items all around my apartment, movie posters, cooking shots from classic films in the kitchen, and TCM-ness.

6.  Classic Film related household product (i.e. mug, dishtowel, picture frame, etc.

I don't have that many household classic film related products, so this may be a stretch, but I have some magnetics and mugs!

7. Classic Film Movie Ticket

I decided to go with my TCM Classic Film Festival Pass because those are essentially tickets to many wonderful Classic Films.

TCMFF passes from 2010-2014

2015 TCMFF Pass

8.  Picture of you and friends/family enjoying a classic movie experience
While looking for pictures for this section I noticed that I don't really take too many selfies or pictures of myself or the people with me at or before events.  I typically take pictures of the event, which in hindsight is a bit of a bummer.  I should be better about including pictures of the people with me at that time.

I also noticed that all of these pictures are from TCM events, I'm not surprised, just an interesting observation.  The top row is a picture of me and my dad is from last year's TCM Film Festival and a snapshot of my mom on the red carpet for the opening night screening of Cabaret.  The next row is a picture of me with my friend Tracy who stopped by Hollywood to talk to me while I waited in line for Singin' in the Rain at the first TCM Film Festival and me and my cousin at I can't remember what screening that was but it was at a TCM Film Fest and the final picture is me and my brother during the NYC TCM Classic Film Bus Tour.

9.  Picture of Fan Art
This is by far my favorite set of fan art, the drawings were done by the amazing artist Kate Gabrielle, you can check out here work here: Kate Gabrielle

What I like most is the difference in the style, yet each one is amazing (just a note: the 2 center-ish pictures are actual photos, not drawings by Kate).

10.  Classic Movie Related Souvenir
I don't think I have anything that fits this category.
11.  Object that once belonged to a Classic Film Star
Another category that I don't have anything for, but that would be awesome.

12.  Picture of yourself with a Classic Film Star
All of these are thanks in large part to TCM:

13.  Selfie from TCM Film Festival
Not big on selfies in general

14.  Selfie with Robert Osborne
Haven't been lucky to snag a selfie with Mr. Osborne, but I have spoken to him on a couple of occasions at the film festival.

15.  Classic Film Book Collection

16.  Favorite movie star biography/autobiography
I don't currently have a favorite biography or autobiography here in LA.  In fact, a large majority of my book collection is currently in NY.  I was always partial to biographies written by Charlotte Chandler and I think Ginger Roger's autobiography is my favorite.

17.  Misc. anything missing from this list that you feel is part of your classic film life.  Be Creative!
This might not be super creative, but in the last year or so I've started making these little montages, sometimes they're themed and sometimes they're not.  The first one I made was with actual 4X6 photos, which I arranged and fit together and then got laminated.  I then started creating them using different collage/montage programs like Picasa and Fotor.

This project was extremely enjoyable, it was a great opportunity to evaluate the items that I have decided to surround myself with and to think about the reasons why they're a part of my life.  And I think the conclusion, at least for me, is that these classic film items add something special to my life and just genuinely make me happy.

I think Margaret came up with a wonderful blogathon/hashtag and it's been a pleasure to participate.  Be sure to follow her and Curate My Life on Twitter and here is her blog with more information about the project: Margaret Perry

AMIA 2015 Conference- Portland, OR

I had first heard about the AMIA annual conference at The Reel Thing, which was held August 20th-August 22nd 2015 in Los Angeles, CA.  The AMIA conference (November 18th-22nd, 2015) sounded like the perfect event for someone who was new to the Moving Image Archive field. At the time I didn’t know if I would be able to attend the event, but thanks to the generosity of CAIDP and UCLA, I was able to embark on a wonderful four day journey to Portland.

A common theme throughout the conference, for me, was copyright law and copyright issues facing archives and libraries.  These are issues that plague small archives, large archives and every archive in between.

My conference began with The Copyright 101 Workshop, which was presented by Andy Sellars from the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic.  It provided an amazing overview of what copyright is, who it impacts and how it is dealt with by archives all around the world.  The workshop was held all day Wednesday, November 18th.  The workshop covered everything from the history of copyright law, the first movie that was copyrighted (Fred Ott’s Sneeze), works in Public Domain, through who holds the rights to Pizza Rat.

Fred Ott's Sneeze 1894

By the end of the workshop I felt like I had a greater understanding of both the limitations of copyright law and some of the ways that archives can work within the parameters of the current laws.  It is still a tough issue and certainly continues to prevent unlimited access to archival holdings without compromising.  We also learned about a great resource, Creative Commons, which is a website that provides some education about copyright and provides access to some content that can be accessed.

For the next 3 days I attended numerous sessions that covered a great deal of information and introduced me to many different types of people and different types of archives.  I learned about the history of FIAF, the George Eastman House Nitrate Picture Show, and even got to see some wonderful screenings, just to name a few things.  I noticed that in the end the types of discussions and panels that I gravitated towards and enjoyed the most often related to the tackling of a project or a problem and how it was navigated.  This was the case for both the BFI panel and the Paramount Studios panels that I attended.

From BFI.org

The BFI panel: From Acquisition to Access at the BFI National Archive: Case Studies, was presented by, Helen Edmunds and Katrina Stokes.  What was so compelling about this presentation and this project was how committed the BFI is to encouraging people from all over the country to take part in this project.  This project is meant to help preserve British film heritage, as well as British history.  This means that they don’t just focus on produced films or studio films, but they are actively looking for home videos and amateur films.  Unfortunately, access to the BFI player and all of their material is not available in the US (an interesting copyright issue).

The Paramount Studios panel: 21st Century Film Preservation: A Case Study – Paramount Pictures was presented by, Andrea Kalas, Laura Thornburg, Nikki Jee, Sean Vilbert, and Charlotte Johnson.  This was a panel that covered a lot of information in what felt like a short period of time.  Each presenter discussed a different area of the preservation process, from the policy to determining which films were to be preserved first to the policy for data management storage.  It was very interesting to hear what it is like to tackle film preservation from a studio perspective.  Something that I found particularly interesting is that the driving force behind the preservation of many of the titles is not distribution.  Just because a film is preserved, it doesn’t mean that there are plans for home video distribution of the title.  Rather it is a means to preserve their “assets.”  This seemed like another obstacle concerning access, it seems like all archives, whether big or small still have some kind of hurdle when it comes to providing access to their holdings.

Overall, this was an extremely wonderful experience.  I feel like I learned a great deal about the current state of moving image archives and archivists.  The conference also provided a really nice atmosphere to socialize and engage with all different types of professionals.  I also got a deeper understanding for the wide variety of obstacles that many different archives face and how each of these archives overcome these obstacles.  I feel extremely lucky to have gotten the opportunity to attend this conference and look forward to implementing what I’ve learned and gained as I continue to navigate through this profession.

I also really enjoyed getting to see a new city.  I had never been to Portland before and I really enjoyed it.  There wasn't much downtime during the conference, but I took advantage of the breaks and got to explore the city, a little bit.  I walked myself over to Powell's Books, which was unbelievably amazing.  I had never seen such a haven for book lovers.  Unfortunately, they did not have the classic film books that I've been trying to hunt down for the last few years, they're still awesome.  I also had lunch a couple of times at some food trucks with my classmates.  It was a bit chilly, but still fun.


This conference was a really wonderful experience, it definitely took me out of my comfort zone (I tend to be a little shy), but it allowed me to interact with so many different types of people and learn so much about this amazing industry.  As I've been going through this career change I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "That's a job?"  "oh, so you'll just be organizing things?" "I didn't know films needed to be preserved," but going to this conference really helped me feel more comfortable and confident with this big career change.

George C. Scott in Petulia (1968)

Today the subject of TCM's Summer Under the Stars is the very versatile and sometimes controversial George C. Scott.  He starred in so many different types of films and is probably most recognized for his title role in Patton and his over the top comedic performance in Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb.  Some of my favorite roles of his are in The Hospital, They Might be Giants and Petulia.

From Journeys in Film's SUTS Blogathon Page

I had first heard about the movie, Petulia, about 5 years ago while reading Kate Gabrielle's delightful film blog: Silents and Talkies.  Her post encouraged me to check out the movie and I ended up really enjoying it.  It will be airing tonight on TCM at 12:15am Eastern/9:15pm Pacific, if that's too late try to set your DVR, it's definitely worth a watch.

It has a wonderful cast led by Julie Christie (Petulia) and George C. Scott (Archie) and includes Richard Chamberlain (David), Shirley Knight (Polo) and a cameo by Joseph Cotton (Mr. Danner).  It is directed by Richard Lester, who I know and love for being the Director of The Beatles movies: A Hard Day's Night and Help!.  The movie is extremely stylized and very much a product of the 60s.

Opening Credits

The opening credits are surprisingly minimalistic, the names appear over a solid black background and the music is almost ominous.  Not really preparing the viewer for what they are about to experience.

We then get whisked into the film.  There is then a mixture of juxtaposing images, wealthy people attending a fund raiser intercut with a musical performance by Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company (there are also cameos by The Grateful Dead).  The opening sequence pretty much sets the tone for the film.  Anything goes.

Then we are introduced to Petulia and Archie.

Petulia is a free spirit (with a fabulous wardrobe) who is married to an abusive and controlling man, David and she sees Archie as an escape, someone who is a healer, who is gentle and who can take care of her.  Archie doesn't exactly agree.  

Archie is a soon to be divorced surgeon who doesn't know what he wants out of life.  He tries to do the right thing, but also tends to do what he feels.  There are many scenes where he vacillates between two very different motivations.  The scenes with his soon to be ex-wife Polo really show how difficult it is for him to live with his decisions, as do the scenes with his 2 young sons.

The movie also makes use of it's location.  Set in San Francisco there are many beautiful shots of iconic and memorable locations around San Francisco.  In one scene, Archie takes his 2 children to visit Alcatraz. 

Some examples of the camera angles, imagery, and framing

At times it is a bit difficult to follow what is going on in this movie, there are intercuts, flashbacks, abrupt scene/location changes and unclear passages of time.  Oddities like an outdoor motorized stairway, a tuba, George C. Scott in tighty-whities, an automated motel complete with light up key that lets you know when you’ve arrived at your room.  There are many things to pay attention to in this film, there is a lot of seemingly random imagery (lots of nuns), many stylistic choices, especially when it comes to camera angles, framing, editing and storytelling.  But all these techniques make the movie that much more interesting and help exemplify some of the main points of the movie.  

At it's core the movie is about trying to be true to yourself and doing what makes you happy and realizing sometimes that doesn't work out the way you hope, but you can still maybe make an impact.  When the stylistic choices are removed the film is about relationships, connections, strength, weakness and regret.  One conversation that I think really sells the heart of this movie is this exchange:

Archie's friend Barney asks, “What do you want, Archie?”  

Archie replies, “I don’t know what I want.  To feel something.” 

Barney responds, “That’s no answer, grow up.”  

I chose to focus on this movie for George C. Scott’s special day because I think he delivers a wonderful performance (as does the rest of the cast), but also because it's really an atypical role for him.  He’s soft-spoken, kind and is in what could be classified as a romantic lead.  Not what you would normally expect from Mr. Scott.  The majority of his other roles are gruff, tough, fast-talking and more severe.  In this role he shows some vulnerability, uncertainty and the possibility of learning and growing because of another person.  It's nice to see him show some emotion.

What are your favorite George C. Scott roles?  Which movies are you going to try to catch on TCM today?  I really hope you have the opportunity to watch this movie tonight as part of George C. Scott's special day.  If you don't, it is very hard to come by on DVD.  It's currently over $40 on Amazon, but it does appear to be available to purchase through Amazon Instant.

And also be sure to check out the other contributions to the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon.

The Lighter Side of Ingrid Bergman

Today TCM is devoting an entire 24 hours to the incomparable Ingrid Bergman.  She is the focus today as part of the Summer Under the Stars programming and this is my contribution to the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon which is being wonderfully hosted over at Journeys on Film.

When most people think of Ingrid Bergman the first images that come to mind are usually these:

Looking passionately into Humphrey Bogart's eyes telling him she can't get on the plane in Casablanca (1942)

Trying to outwit Claude Rains with some slick key maneuvering in Notorious (1946)

Or questioning her sanity with Joseph Cotton in Gaslight (1944).

When I think of Ingrid Bergman these are the images that come to mind.  For some reason her two less dramatic and slightly silly roles have stuck with me.

Here she is cutting a rug with Walter Matthau, Goldie Hawn, and others in Cactus Flower (1969)

And navigating a relationship with Cary Grant in Indiscreet (1958)

I enjoy Ms. Bergman in these roles so much.  She is light, comical, shows broad emotions, laughs often and even dances!  She also seems a bit more human and fragile in these roles; instead of being seemingly untouchable and stoic like some of her other characters.  These roles show her well roundedness and ability as an actress.  It definitely would have been interesting if her filmography had more roles like these two.

These two movies have a great deal of similarities (other than Ms. Bergman's involvement).  They are both based on plays, both involve unconventional relationships, each film has an enjoyable dance scene, and both contain a lie that gets out of control.  I tend not to give away spoilers when I write about movies and I'm going to keep that streak alive with these two movies by not revealing too much of the plots.  Hopefully, that will encourage you to check them out for yourself.

In Cactus Flower, Bergman's character, Stephanie Dickinson, is the nurse to playboy Dentist, Dr. Julian Winston, played wonderfully by Walter Matthau.  She often goes above and beyond when it comes to her job responsibilities, but she doesn't have a social life to speak of and is extremely practical and pragmatic.

Eventually though she gets embroiled in Dr. Winston's relationship with (significantly) younger Toni, played by Goldie Hawn, and ridiculousness and hilarity ensue.  It should also be noted that this is the role that won Goldie Hawn her best supporting actress Academy Award.

This movie has a lot of heart, many funny lines and provides a great opportunity to see Ingrid Bergman try her hand and excel at light comedy.  And the dance scenes are a delightful added bonus, she invents a dance she names "The Dentist."

In Indiscreet, directed by Stanley Donen, Ingrid plays, Anna Kalman an accomplished stage actress who meets and has an immediate connection to the dashing traveling financier Phillip Adams, played by Cary Grant.

They carry on a not so discreet love affair.  Both Grant and Bergman behave like smitten young lovers.  They flirt, laugh, and have adorable phone conversations, complete with split screen that insinuates so much more.  This was done after the censors decided that having them in the same bed was too risque.

As in Cactus Flower, there is a great dance sequence.  As you can see Ingrid is extremely graceful and Cary has got some mad ups.

This role gives Ingrid a great deal to do.  There is a great sequence where she is putting together a plan to trick Cary's character.  In it she puts on a 30 second melodramatic performance.

Ingrid Bergman is often considered to be one of the best dramatic actresses and has been in beautifully romantic movies with some of the most dashing leading men, like Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Joseph Cotton and various others.  She is often thought to be prim, proper and lacking humor; yet, in these two roles she has a chance to shows her silly side.  And I think it's a shame that these comedic/lighter roles don't always get the same attention as some of her other roles, so I'm doing my part to bring some awareness to them.

Well that does it for my views on Ingrid Bergman's less dramatic roles.  What are your favorite Ingrid Bergman performances?  Have you seen these two films?  Did you enjoy them?

I hope you check out Ingrid Bergman's movies on TCM today, check out the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon  for other great posts and that you check out these films of hers for a good laugh.