Classic Couple

What are you watching?

It’s the question all TCM Classic Film Festival goers ask one another at the festival. This year, even though we’re all attending virtually, we still want to know. Classic Couple recently had the opportunity to ask filmmaker Bill Morrison about his plans to enjoy TCMFF 2021 from home. Here are Bill’s picks and plans.

Well, I got to say, I will really miss attending the TCM Film Festival in person. It is an amazing festival. 

They curate wonderful films, they present restorations, they project nitrate, they get the actual filmmakers to discuss their work, they have the most knowledgeable interviewers and audiences. It’s in Hollywood, but no one is trying to promote their new film. So it is really a unique festival and I can’t wait to go back.

That said, here are the titles on the festival line-up that, time permitting, I would like to catch at home.

Films I’ve Never Seen But Always Meant To:
The Decline Of Western Civilization
Scarecrow
The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three
To Sleep With Anger
Lady Sings The Blues

Film Related To A Long Simmering Idea For A New Film:
Wuthering Heights

Film I Saw When It Was Released And I Was 9, But Haven’t Seen Since:
The Man Who Would Be King

Nitrate Restorations:
Annie Get Your Gun
They Won’t Believe Me

New Docs:
The Mystery Of Méliès (2021) (U.S. Premiere) – (I’ve recently seen this, and it is an absolutely stunning story!)
Nichols And May: Take Two

If You Haven’t Seen It, See It:
Cléo From 5 – 7
News From Home

And Classic Couple Recommends…

Bill’s too modest to recommend his own film, and we’ve got to say we greatly admire him for that and a whole lot more. His film “let me come in” made our Classic Couple TMCFF 2021 must-see list. TCM will air the broadcast premiere of “let me come in,” his experimental short featuring decayed film reels from the lost, 1928 German silent film Pawns of Passion during the festival. Listed on the Friday TCM Classic Film Festival schedule—actual TCM airtime is 3:15 am ET in the morning on Saturday, May 8, 2021.

About Bill Morrison—Filmmaker

Bill Morrison makes films that reframe long-forgotten moving images. His films have premiered at the New York, Rotterdam, Sundance, and Venice film festivals. In 2014 Morrison had a mid-career retrospective at MoMA. His found footage opus Decasia (2002) was the first film of the 21st century to be selected to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The Great Flood (2013), was recognized with the Smithsonian Ingenuity Award of 2014 for historical scholarship. Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) was included on over 100 critics’ lists of the best films of the year, and on numerous lists ranking the best films of the decade, including those of the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, and Vanity Fair.