Jane Fonda and other icons walked the red carpet at the 17th annual tribute
They love the smell of nitrate in the morning. Legions of vintage movie fans swarmed Hollywood Boulevard this weekend for the 17th annual Turner Classic Movies Film Festival. Visitors came from all over the world to see nearly 90 feature films from the 20th century unspooled at the historic Chinese, Egyptian and El Capitan Theaters. We met a visitor from Japan who was hoping to see Jane Fonda’s opening night appearance on the red carpet. He didn’t get in, but the legendary actress stopped and chatted up fans who lined up to see her introduce Barefoot in the Park. “She was so charming and honest and real,” Betty, a fan from Chicago, told us later that evening.
Meeting your movie heroes is one of the biggest draws of the fest, which this year included appearances by Faye Dunaway, Carol Burnett, Laura Dern and Barbara Hershey. Glenn Close was awarded the hand and footprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese during the fest, and sneaked a paw of her tiny dog into the cement alongside hers.
Since it’s getting harder and harder to find black-and-white era stars to book, their families often speak for them. Tina Sinatra introduced her father Frank’s film Pal Joey, Ethan Peck of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds introduced grandpa Gregory Peck’s stylish 1966 spy movie Arabesque and Walter Matthau’s son Charlie introduced The Fortune Cookie. The director, writer and producer revealed that while one of their favorite moments together was when he directed Walter in the 1991 film Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love, that ultimately his dad would have much rather he became a doctor than get into show business.
Fans lined up for four days before 9 a.m. until the last movie got out around 2 a.m. They gathered around custom artworks created for the event and gawked at gowns worn by Marilyn Monroe and Ann-Margret that will soon be sold by Julien’s Auctions. You know the fans by their own apparel, with loud T-shirts advertising Buster Keaton and VistaVision that finally have their moment to get out of the closet and really shine. The hardcore ones fill their lanyards with custom pins from the movies and previous festivals. We’re still waiting for the full-blown Turnerbounding Disney adult era to kick in.
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One of the most fascinating and unexpected speakers was John Dean, White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon, known for his involvement in the Watergate cover-up. He was interviewed by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz at the 50th anniversary screening of All the President’s Men. Having this extraordinary and erudite figure from the historical event depicted in the film was very meta. When Dean mentioned that he had not seen the film since it came out, Mankiewicz replied. “You don’t need to see it… you lived it!”
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