TIME TRIP

I can say that you lose track of the time of day and even what day it is when you attend a film festival. I have found myself asking what day it is. You are not in the real world of whatever it is you do. You have stepped into a existence of viewing film, making decisions about what you want to see, trying to sneak meals in, and lining up for the pictures you decide to attend. It’s all great fun.

The 2015 TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL has been so far a whirlwind of fun, albeit hectic sometimes. The venues for the majority of pictures are located across Hollywood Blvd at Grauman’s Chinese theatre complex of six cinemas of various sizes or down the road at Grauman’s Egyptian theatre where last year I attended GODZILLA (1954). The Ricardo Montoban Theatre is also used which is farther down for interviews like the ones with Sophie Loren and Norman Lloyd.

There is the social aspect of the Festival where in elevators, queue lines, buying a drink or food or simply waiting at a stop light: someone will see your festival pass badge and strike up a conversation as to what you are seeing etc. This has occurred for us many times as you meet people from various cities and accents all doing the same thing you are doing. You share your stories and sometimes things that you missed for the same reasons. The cool thing is the togetherness that a good number of attendees have as you go about what your personal itinerary for viewing is.

I love the stories away from the crowds like one when we were in a local coffee shop away from the festival and a young fellow stuck up a conversation with us after we got our beverages because he saw our TCM badges. We found out his mother was Canadian (from Prince Edward Island). He enjoyed film and did attend the festival by purchasing individual tickets, just not this year. In contrast we stopped for some food at one of our favourite hotdog places (the hotdog can be a thing of beauty. That’s another story) and the proprietor saw our festival badges yet had no idea what it was about even though he was about three blocks away from it all.

I try to write with my voice, which sometimes I am still trying to find regarding the impressions of what we have seen or are doing. We get the pain in the feet from walking on the pavement as other do. We have been very privileged to have been given excellent resources from the TCM staff for vantage points, pictures, and actually being on the red carpet

I would like to give a huge salute to the TCM STAFF and volunteers that are at each event. I am sure there have been incidents as there always will be when handling huge crowds of personalities and technical troubles. It’s how one handles those and so far from our end of things, it has worked with flying colours.

Some images of Canadian Christopher Plummer, Julie Andrews and the 50th Anniversary screening of THE SOUND OF MUSIC from inside Grauman’s or now its TCL Chinese theater. Mr Plummer’s footprints were ‘immortalized’ in special concrete along with other Hollywood legends.