TCM/Fathom 2018 (1 Viewer)

[Garysb]

Here is the rest of the 2018 TCM/Fathom Schedule

MAY 13, MAY 16 Sunset Boulevard
JUNE 3, JUNE 6 The Producers 50th Anniversary
JUNE 24, JUNE 27 West Side Story
JULY 15, JULY 18 Big
AUGUST 5, AUGUST 8 The Big Lebowski
AUGUST 26, AUGUST 29 South Pacific
SEPTEMBER 23, SEPTEMBER 26 Rebel Without a Cause
OCTOBER 14, OCTOBER 17 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
NOVEMBER 11, NOVEMBER 14 Die Hard
DECEMBER 9, DECCEMBER 12 White Christmas

 

[Jake Lipson]

Both The Producers and West Side Story in June?

Cool. They don't usually do more than one a month.

 

[bujaki]

That's because WSS was just added to the schedule.

 

[Wayne_j]

Took my mom to see Sunset Boulevard today. We both enjoyed it very much. I think it was the first time seeing that film, I am more familiar with the ALW musical version.

For once the theater got the technical aspects right.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Of course I went to Sunset today -- it's one of my favorite films -- and I was the only person in the room who wasn't a senior citizen. It was a very small crowd, maybe 30-40 people filling a few rows but that's it. One person nodded off during it and began to snore. Everyone else seemed to like it but only audibly reacted a few times. Once I saw this on the TCM list for this year, I deliberately didn't watch my Blu-ray for a while so that it would be somewhat fresh (although of course I know the film relatively well anyway, but still.) I was glad to see it on the big screen. Max's revelation got the biggest laughs from th audience, although I didn't think that line was particularly funny. I had forgotten how darkly hilarious it frequently is in other spots though.

I thought the TCM intro was basically useless, especially talking about famous quotes before the movie starts. There was also an ad for TCM Big Screen Classics as I was coming in which showed Norma's final line of the film in the ad. I get that they would like to promote the series, and I also get that it's a famous line and most people know it, but I still think showing that clip as part of a precursor to the movie for which it is the conclusion is rather dumb. I also chuckled at the pre-show card that said "The film will be presented in its original aspect ratio." Do you think anyone would have complained abut "black bars" on the sides if that had not been there?

I love The Producers and would enjoy seeing that one, but it's on a bad weekend for me so will probably have to skip it. I'm looking forward to West Side Story though. Oddly, they mentioned Producers and Big in the ad before the screening, but not West Side even though it comes between the two. I do hope my theater books it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Do we need spoiler tags for a 68 year old movie?

Just in case...re: Sunset...

Spoiler

Norma tells Joe that she bought a revolver, which she eventually uses to kill him, initially as a threat to herself, since she thinks he will do what she wants to prevent her from committing suicide.

But...how did she get the revolver?

Max always drives her -- she is never shown going out without him -- and he is fully aware of her mental state and her previous suicide attempts. So he wouldn't allow her to get a revolver on his watch. Are we really to believe that she went out on her own to buy a revolver, or that he would take her out and not know she was buying a gun? Could she have ordered it from somewhere without his knowledge? That seems unlikely, and even if she had, he would have answered the door when it was delivered and would know she had it. Considering his numerous attempts to safeguard her from her more extreme impulses, such as eliminating all the locks from the house, it seems unusual for him to not do anything to prevent her from having access to a revolver.

 

[TravisR]

Do we need spoiler tags for a 68 year old movie?

Just in case...re: Sunset...

Spoiler

Norma tells Joe that she bought a revolver, which she eventually uses to kill him, initially as a threat to herself, since she thinks he will do what she wants to prevent her from committing suicide.

But...how did she get the revolver?

Max always drives her -- she is never shown going out without him -- and he is fully aware of her mental state and her previous suicide attempts. So he wouldn't allow her to get a revolver on his watch. Are we really to believe that she went out on her own to buy a revolver, or that he would take her out and not know she was buying a gun? Could she have ordered it from somewhere without his knowledge? That seems unlikely, and even if she had, he would have answered the door when it was delivered and would know she had it. Considering his numerous attempts to safeguard her from her more extreme impulses, such as eliminating all the locks from the house, it seems unusual for him to not do anything to prevent her from having access to a revolver.

Guns were even easier to get back in 1950 so she could have had Max drive her to a pawn shop under the guise of buying something else, had him stay in the car and bought the gun at the same time as whatever she pretended to need.

 

[Jake Lipson]

When I saw Sunset Boulevard last month, it was priced the same as a regular movie ticket here, which I appreciated. It made it easy to justify going to the movie theater for it even though I own it.

West Side Story next weekend is going back to the Fathom Event old-movie price of $13.59 here, which is a significant bump over the $7.61 regular matinee price. As much as I love it and would like to see it, that's going to be tough for me to swallow and I'm not sure if I will do it or not. If it was the only movie I was seeing for a while, I might consider it, but now that we're in the thick of the summer movie season, there's at least major new movie release every week that I want to see. And I also want to see the Fathom Event of Bandstand, the Broadway musical, which is the day after West Side Story and will cost $20...but is something new that I've never seen before and which I can't get on Blu-ray yet.

Given all that, I think it's very likely that I will skip West Side Story in theaters, which I would definitely see if it were priced more in line with normal admission rates here. Considering that I'm going to the theater every week for at least one normal priced movie AND I'll pay Fathom prices the next day for something else, it's really hard to swallow paying $13.59 to see something that I already own, even if it is in the theater, which I normally love. Paying extra for special events I get, but paying extra for catalog movies during the peak summer season seems much more of an ask to me. I've paid $13.59 occasionally if the movie was REALLY one of my all-time favorites, but especially not in the summer when there are so many other options to see. The cost of the ticket to see something once should not exceed the cost of buying it on disc.

 

[Wayne_j]

West Side Story looked great today. They showed the cinemascope version as opposed to the 70mm version that is on the blu-ray.

It included a 10 minute intermission.

 

[Wayne_j]

Just got back from the South Pacific Fathom Event. The film was cropped to scope (probably by the theater since graphics were off the screen during the pre-show). The film still looked properly framed as it was probably released In theaters in scope for the 35mm release.

Picture looked great. There was a decent sized crowd, probably a few dozen.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The film still looked properly framed as it was probably released In theaters in scope for the 35mm release.

Same here. Fathom ran the graphic that said "The film will be presented in its original aspect ratio," but it was lettrboxed like a Blu-ray.

They haven't had any 2.35:1 films filling the screens at that theater, even the larger screens, in a few years. It's my greatest annoyance about attending that theater. I don't mind the unused space (I don't want to call them black bars), but a movie theater, where screening films is their entire job, really should not have a problem running a widescreen film in its original ratio and filling the big screen with the image.

 

[Wayne_j]

My theater filled the 2.39 screen by cropping the 2.2 image to a 2.39 one. The official way to show South Pacific probably would be to show the movie with letterbox bars on a 1.85:1 screen.

 

[Jake Lipson]

The thing is I've seen 2.39 films at this theater not letterboxed, but not since about 2014-2015. Lately, they're letterboxing everything, as though they lost the ability to not do that. I'm not aware of their having changed screens, but it seems like everything is a 1.85 screen now, or if not, they're treating it as though it is. Which is weird.

Anyway, it still looked great.

 

[LeoA]

Was surprised to see an ad for The Sound of Music on TCM the other day for the 9th and 12th of September. I didn't see it on the schedule a while back (Didn't think I'd be back until Mr. Smith Goes to Washington next month), so it must be a semi-recent addition.

I had heard something about a new transfer a while back, so will this be a fresh restoration they'll be showing?

Bought tickets for Sunday. This will be my first time seeing this classic, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Bob_S.]

I wish they would show some Universal monster movies this Halloween. About three or four years ago my local theater showed Frankenstein and Bride back to back. My son and I had a blast.

Leo: They showed SOM 1 or 2 years ago at my local theater. That was my first time seeing it on the big screen. My whole family enjoyed it.

 

[TravisR]

I wish they would show some Universal monster movies this Halloween. About three or four years ago my local theater showed Frankenstein and Bride back to back. My son and I had a blast.

The year after that, they played the English and Spanish language Dracula back to back.

 

[Wayne_j]

Fathom is promoting a 2 minute intermission for The Sound of Music.

 

[Malcolm R]

Fathom is promoting a 2 minute intermission for The Sound of Music.

Two minutes? Start training now for the sprint-and-pee.

 

[Wayne_j]

My theory is that the entr'acte is 2 minutes and they are touting that as an intermission.

 

[Tino]

Catching the 2pm showing today.