TCM Film Festival Offers an Inclusive View of 'Love at the Movies'

TCM Film Festival Offers an Inclusive View of "Love at the Movies"

"Follow Your Heart: Love at the Movies" is the theme of this year's TCM Classic Film Festival, and it's a wide-ranging vision of love, encompassing friendship, familial bonds, romance, and obsession -- and including same-sex couplings, with a special nod to the lesbian classic Desert Hearts. There's plenty more for LGBTQ cinephiles to enjoy, from Montgomery Clift's Oscar-nominated turn in From Here to Eternity to the unadulterated campiness of The Opposite Sex. The festival, now in its 10th year, is a movie fan's paradise, taking over multiple theaters in the heart of Hollywood for four days, showing films as they're meant to be seen -- on the big screen -- and featuring many celebrity guests to offer insights. Read on for some of the highlights of this year's fest, running Thursday through Sunday.

Desert Hearts (1985)

Director Donna Deitch's debut feature, adapted from Jane Rule's esteemed novel, was a rarity when it premiered -- a story of romantic love between women that (spoiler alert!) ends happily, or at least hopefully. Unfortunately, such films are still rare. Set in mid-20th-century Nevada, the plot has East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) arriving in Reno to get a divorce, only to catch the eye of lovely, artistic Cay Rivvers (Patricia Charbonneau). Their developing relationship is riveting to watch as it unfolds against a breathtaking desert landscape. Deitch, Shaver, and Charbonneau will discuss the movie with Allison Anders after the screening. 9:30 p.m. Friday, Legion Theater at Post 43.

Holiday (1938)

This teaming of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn isn't as well-known as Bringing Up Baby or The Philadelphia Story, but it's a delight that deserves to be seen. Grant plays a self-made man who wants to take a "holiday" while he's still young and go back to work once he understands what he's working for. That doesn't sit well with his wealthy fiancee (Doris Nolan), but her unconventional sister (Hepburn) believes she's found her soul mate. George Cukor directs from a script adapted by Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman from Philip Barry's play; Cukor, Stewart, Grant, and Hepburn would reunite for The Philadelphia Story. An added pleasure of Holiday is the great (and gay) character actor Edward Everett Horton as Grant's professor friend, in a typically hilarious performance. The wonderful actress Diane Baker will be there to discuss the film. 9:15 a.m. Sunday, Chinese Multiplex House 1.

Also, if you can't get enough Cary Grant -- and who possibly can? -- the festival is showing four more of his movies, all romantic comedies. In My Favorite Wife, he and real-life friend (and maybe lover) Randolph Scott vie for the affections of Irene Dunne; Grant's daughter, Jennifer, and gay actor-comic Mario Cantone will chat at the screening, 2:45 p.m. Friday at the Egyptian Theatre. In The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, he's the object of teenager Shirley Temple's crush but has eyes for her older sister, a judge played by Myrna Loy; 9:30 p.m. Thursday at the Egyptian. Father Goose finds him scruffier than usual as a beachcomber and World War II intel operative wooing stranded schoolteacher Leslie Caron; 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Chinese Multiplex House 1. And in Indiscreet, he's an international banker pretending to be married so his actress lover, Ingrid Bergman, won't expect him to put a ring on it; 9:15 p.m. Saturday, Legion Theater at Post 43.

From Here to Eternity (1953)

To suit the censors and the U.S. military, screenwriter Daniel Taradash softened many aspects of James Jones's novel about life on a Hawaii Army base in the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the film, one of several festival entries dealing with wartime romance, is still pretty powerful stuff, with a star-studded cast -- Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, and, of most interest to LGBTQ audiences, the great Montgomery Clift as a tough private who sticks stubbornly to his own code of honor. The beautiful bisexual actor was Oscar-nominated along with Lancaster in the Best Actor category, but both lost to Stalag 17's William Holden, who indeed gave a fine performance. The film won Best Picture, and Oscars also went to Reed and Sinatra in the supporting categories, writer Taradash, and director Fred Zinnemann, who credited Clift with raising the bar for his fellow actors. Legend has it that Clift practiced his bugle-playing at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (the festival's headquarters) and that sometimes you can hear a ghostly bugle there. Unlikely, but fun to believe. Reed's daughter Mary Owen will be on hand for the screening. 9 a.m. Saturday, TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.

Hello, Dolly! (1969)

No, not all gay men love musicals, and not all of them love Barbra Streisand, but how could we not include this movie among the LGBTQ highlights of the film festival? The Gene Kelly-directed adaptation of the smash Broadway hit, featuring the fabulous tunes of Jerry Herman, wasn't particularly well-received on its initial release, as traditional musicals were going out of fashion in the late 1960s, but it's found an audience in succeeding years. Streisand stars as matchmaker Dolly Levi, opposite Walter Matthau as Horace Vandergelder, a merchant seeking a wife. And look for a young Michael Crawford, decades before his Phantom of the Opera fame, as Vandergelder's hapless clerk Cornelius Hackl. One gay man who certainly adores Hello, Dolly! is famed ornament designer Christopher Radko, who was entranced by the movie when he saw it on its original release at age 9. He later found out it was filmed in his adopted hometown of Garrison Landing, N.Y., and he organized a lavish festival last year for the 50th anniversary of the shoot. Radko will attend the screening to talk about his love of all things Dolly. 9 a.m. Sunday, TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

From the masters of mid-century melodrama -- director Douglas Sirk and producer Ross Hunter -- came the movie that made Rock Hudson a major star. Hudson plays Bob Merrick, a playboy whose carelessness causes Helen Phillips (Jane Wyman) to lose her husband and then her sight. Bob, in love with Helen and obsessed with making amends to her, becomes a doctor in hopes of curing her blindness. It's based on Lloyd C. Douglas's inspirational novel, which was previously adapted for film in 1935, starring Robert Taylor and Irene Dunne. The remake is quite over-the-top but magnificently so, and it led to a string of lush romantic dramas from Sirk and Hunter. 11:45 a.m. Sunday, Chinese Multiplex House 1.

The Bad Seed (1956)

The idea that a child could be a serial killer was so controversial in the 1950s that this film was labeled "Adults Only," even after screenwriter John Lee Mahin changed the ending in adapting Maxwell Anderson's play. The Bad Seed was nonetheless a big hit of 1956 and has built a cult following over the years for its campiness. It's also inspired a few remakes, including a Varla Jean Merman parody and a Lifetime version last year with Rob Lowe as the father of the demonic child. In the original, Patty McCormack stars as dastardly little Rhoda Penmark, supported by capable players including Eileen Heckart, Nancy Kelly, Henry Jones, William Hopper, and Paul Fix. McCormack went on to a considerable career, working in much live TV as a child -- she originated the role of Helen Keller in Playhouse 90's production of The Miracle Worker -- and as an adult she's been involved in projects as diverse as The Ropers and Frost/Nixon. She will be on hand for the film, and we're pretty sure she's a nice woman and not a murderer. 8 p.m. Saturday, poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The Opposite Sex (1956)

Speaking of camp, it's the primary reason to see The Opposite Sex, a musical remake of 1939's The Women. Unlike the original, it puts the men in the ladies' lives on-screen, including a pre-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen as a straying husband and hunky Jeff Richards as a wannabe stage star, but like the original, it's really all about the women. It has June Allyson as Nielsen's wronged wife, Dolores Gray as her bitchiest friend, and most important, Joan Collins as the devious husband-stealer played by another Joan, Crawford, in the 1939 film. Other terrific actresses in the cast include Ann Sheridan, Agnes Moorehead, Ann Miller, Charlotte Greenwood, and Joan Blondell, who in real life considered Allyson a husband-stealer (Dick Powell was married to Blondell before Allyson), leading to some tension on the set. Some fans of the original find this version a sacrilege, but it offers a lot of campy fun, with lavish Helen Rose costumes and garish production numbers. Special guests at the screening will be actress and TCM host Illeana Douglas, who in addition to being a fine performer really knows her classic Hollywood -- she's the granddaughter of Melvyn Douglas and Helen Gahagan -- and Dennis Miller. 8 p.m. Friday, poolside at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Nashville (1975)

Not camp but a great film: Director Robert Altman, famed for his ensemble studies, turned his lens on the country music capital to tell the stories of various residents amid a campaign by a demagogic political candidate. Critics hailed it as one of the year's best movies, and it's still highly relevant today. The fantastic cast includes Lily Tomlin, Oscar-nominated as a singer and mother of deaf children who gets involved with a sexy troubadour played by Keith Carradine, likewise Oscar-nominated Ronee Blakley as a troubled country star, Barbara Harris, Karen Black, Henry Gibson, Jeff Goldblum, Geraldine Chaplin, and Shelley Duvall. Tomlin, Carradine, Blakley, Goldblum, and screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury are scheduled to discuss the film. 6 p.m. Saturday, Chinese Multiplex House 1.

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun became the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway, and in 1961 she adapted her tale of a black Chicago family buying a home in a white neighborhood for the screen. Hansberry's story was revolutionary at the time, and it still has much to say about racial inequality. In her too-brief life -- she died of cancer in 1965 at age 34 -- Hansberry, a lesbian, was not only a notable writer but a dedicated activist for the civil rights of all; find out more about her here. The cast includes Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, and, in his film debut, Louis Gossett Jr., who will be a guest at the festival screening. 3:15 p.m. Saturday, Egyptian Theatre.

Steel Magnolias (1989)

Another play adapted for film by its original writer, Steel Magnolias has won a devoted LGBTQ fan base with its witty and sometimes tragic story of female bonding in the Deep South. Gay writer Robert Harling based the work on his sister's struggle with diabetes and the women who supported her. Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts provide the star power. Expect the audience to eagerly await the film's lines about gay men's names and taste in home decor, and to recite "Drink your juice, Shelby" along with the actors. Harling will be on hand to talk about the movie. 5:45 p.m. Friday, TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.

But wait -- there's more! These films are just the tip of a titanic-size iceberg. (No, Titanic isn't being shown, but it does figure in a salute to Twentieth Century Fox.) There are silent movies such as Sunrise with Janet Gaynor and A Woman of Affairs with Greta Garbo; a screening of Gone With the Wind and a panel on its complicated legacy, including film experts Molly Haskell and Donald Bogle; musicals like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Dolly Sisters; an opening-night gala showing of When Harry Met Sally, with Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, and Meg Ryan in attendances; tributes to movie historian Kevin Brownlow (this year's recipient of the Robert Osborne Award) and TCM founder Ted Turner; and much, much more. Passes to the festival were snapped up months ago, but if there are seats left after pass holders are accommodated for each film, single tickets will be sold on standby. So if you're in L.A., go for that, or start planning for next year! Find the full festival schedule here.