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Sunday Too Far Away isn't to be missed as well. A great exploration of masculinity through the twin obsessions of beer and sheep shearing!

Needs some Duigan in there.

colinr0380 wrote:Sunday Too Far Away isn't to be missed as well. A great exploration of masculinity through the twin obsessions of beer and sheep shearing!

I will check this one out Colin. Thanks for the recommendation!

Here is TCM's official promo for their Australian spotlight. Does anyone know the film shown at :45? It appears to be a man running to attack an elderly woman.

Feego wrote:Does anyone know the film shown at :45? It appears to be a man running to attack an elderly woman.

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

Yes, if you don't know Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith prepare for a bit of violence!

Thanks to both of you. That film was already on my list to see this month, along with The Devil's Playground.

By the way, if anyone is interested in Australian cinema of this period I would highly recommend the recent trailer compilation DVD Ozploitation Trailer Explosion put out by Intervision. It covers most of the big names such as Patrick, early Bruce Beresford (the Barry McKenzie movies and Don's Party. Also Money Movers, which is another in the crime subgenre of armored car heist films! Though unfortunately Puberty Blues and The Fringe Dwellers aren't featured), Long Weekend, Last Wave, and a number of films by Tim Burstall (Attack Force Z (Vietnam war drama with Sam Neill and Mel Gibson), Stork, Alvin Purple, End Play, Petersen and Kangaroo), but also throws up a host of other titles. It also does the job that any good trailer compilation should do and creates the sense of a particular period and community, especially when actors familiar in some films turn up again and again in other trailers, seemingly in typecast roles!

It is also great for re-establishing Donald Pleasance as having a number of interesting Australian credits! Although one of his most interesting films he was in, Ground Zero does not feature on this disc. (In fact one of the key actors in Australian film of this period, Colin Friels, doesn't turn up on that trailer compilation much at all, but is an actor worth investigating, particularly his diverse roles in Ground Zero, Malcolm, Grevious Bodily Harm and Warm Nights On A Slow Moving Train)

A lot of the more artier Australian entries, outside of the borderline Peter Weir films, are not represented here either, so there is still a lot of room for exploration. I'm particularly thinking of the director Paul Cox who made the great film The Golden Braid.

Erice's El sur gets its TCM debut first thing this Sunday morning. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict an impending Criterion announcement as well.

"Pete Kelly's Blues" Thursday November 16, 9 A.M. Set the DVRs.

Jack Clayton's rare and eerie Our Mother's House is airing this Wednesday, November 12 at 6:00 pm Eastern time. This film has popped up in a few discussions here before, including the Films for Children thread, where it came up as one of Martin Scorsese's favorites. I give the movie a solid recommendation. It's by turns creepy, touching, and suspenseful, with some great performances by its cast of child actors, including the always wonderful Pamela Franklin.

Yes, definitely worth checking out, assuming you still have TCM (DISH Network recently dropped it).

Lo and behold, TCM-HD finally switched over to true HD this week! For the last five years or so, all programming was just up-coverted standard definition. Not sure how many HD masters they have on hand, but it's nice to see the channel join the 21st century.

swo17 wrote:DISH Network recently dropped it

If you subscribe to DISH Network, I'd highly recommend that you call and complain about them having dropped TCM. They'll likely offer you a credit to your account, but more importantly, it lets them know that this is programming that people value. (They're probably mostly just hearing about people missing Cartoon Network and CNN.)

The first 4 films have been announced for the upcoming (March 2015) TCM Classic Film Festival. All brand spanking new restorations.
Apollo 13 (Ron Howard 1995)
Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle, 1939)
Steamboat Bill, Jr (Buster Keaton, 1928)

The one that intrigues me is the Hunchback. I thought the elements were in poor shape. Warner is doing the resto. Pretty good track record, so this could be exciting.

Perhaps a Blu upgrade of "Spartacus" at last? One of my least favorite Kubrick films, but I'd still get it in a shot.

Who doesn't immediately go to Apollo 13 when thinking of classic films in need of restoration and attention by Turner Classic Movies?

Yeah, that song from Sesame Street was starting to rumble a little bit in my mind when I saw that.

This has already been mentioned in the Criterion/Warner thread, but it's worth repeating. Tom Schiller's Nothing Lasts Forever airs tonight at 2 AM EST. Never released on theatrically or on video, and I believe this marks the first time it has ever aired on U.S. television.

On the heels of Nothing Lasts Forever, TCM will air another buried early-'80s film from the Warner vault at 2:15 AM on 1/31: Twice Upon a Time. This apparently hasn't been seen on TV since 1998 and the only home video release was on VHS (though it was very briefly on Amazon Instant when it was still called "Amazon Unbox").

Does TCM ever run any tv miniseries? I have been searching far and wide for a dvd copy of the 1986 Peter The Great, starring the awesome Max Schell and can't find anything online except for an unavailable copy from Europe.

stroszeck wrote:Does TCM ever run any tv miniseries?

I seriously doubt it if they ever have. Not in my 15+ years of frequently scanning their schedule.

They've played serials and I believe Fanny and Alexander.

Spartacus has been pulled from the TCM Classic Film Festival "due to unforeseen circumstances." Wonder what that could be.