31 Days of Oscar on Turner Classic Movies. A whole month of Academy Award-nominated or winning movies uncut and commercial-free.
I swear I'm not working for Turner, I just find this to be the most exciting thing that's happened to me in quite some time.
Right up until March 3rd, I have a tight, complex taping plan, making attempts to group by theme and run time so as to not waste tape.
Some of the themes include:
- Movies pertinent to my area of academic interest: Cabin in the Sky and both versions of Imitation of Life. Representations of African-American characters in popular culture are entirely fascinating to me in looking at where they fit in the time that they were made and what the audience is supposed to take away from them.
- Musicals: My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls and Bye Bye Birdie. Some people disparage musicals, but I love them and their sense of altered reality. I watched Bye Bye Birdie at the first sleepover that I went to, and cannot stop loving it despite the high cheese quotient. Among other things, the movie somewhat alters the story of the stage show for some completely absurd Cold War-era smack-talking of the Russians. It also has one of my new favorite pieces of movie dialogue, when before "Hymn for a Sunday Evening," Paul Lynde says "Ed Sullivan? He's my favorite human!" My sister and I watched this over the summer and could not get over how unbelievably hyperbolic and strange that statement is, and started applying it to random celebrities as we saw them on television. My favorite human, for instance, is Fat Joe.
- Sixties and Later Pop-Culturally Important Films: Kramer vs. Kramer, American Graffiti, The Last Picture Show, Dr. Strangelove, Lolita. It sounds pretentious to me when I say this, but I consider myself to be a scholar of popular culture, particularly that of the late 20th century. It makes me feel like I'm using my mind if I consider this to be even a little academic.
- Mid-Seventies Romance Classics with Hot Leading Men: The Way We Were, Love Story. The title of this category is pretty self-explanatory. Robert Redford was way hot in the seventies (Ryan O'Neal somewhat less so,) and frankly, it makes me a little sad that he's so old now.
- Movies that I've Already Seen and Enjoyed: The Big Chill, Sense and Sensibility. Both viewed over the past year, both loved. I can't figure out why, but I discovered over the past year that I love Kevin Kline's work, thus The Big Chill. In regards to Sense and Sensibility, besides being awesome because of Emma Thompson's ab-fab script and such, it's one of those rad British movies with loads of good actors that just don't seem to happen as much in the U.S. Also, another great film from Ang Lee.
- Early Classics: Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard, On the Waterfront, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Blackboard Jungle. The kind of old Black & Whites that one would expect on TCM, and carry that "Really? You haven't seen (movie title)?" implication within their old, classic standing.
Even with the soul-consuming depression that usually surrounds Valentine's Day, I think it's going to be a great month.
