The Oscars may be over (thank goodness, except for Lady Gaga’s exceptional performance) but that doesn’t mean that Academy Award winners have stopped airing on television, thanks to Turner Classic Movies (TCM). This means three of the best movies in recent years will soon air uncut and commercial-free, two of them for TCM’s first time. All three won Oscar’s Best Picture.
As TCM host Robert Osborne told me in an exclusive interview last month, TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar programming includes the cable channel’s premieres of both 2010’s Best Picture Oscar winner, The King’s Speech, and 2011’s Best Picture Oscar winner, The Artist, on March 3 (check TCM’s schedule here).
Both films involve leading male characters who must choose whether to rise above adversity and also about whether those who love them will choose whether to support the men through the most trying times of one’s life. They are both among the finest pictures in recent years and possess qualities many of today’s movies lack: intelligence, passion and a distinct visual style that makes them both utterly absorbing and also humorous, thought-provoking and enjoyable to watch unfold. I think it’s interesting to note that these two consecutive Best Picture winners concern two of today’s gravest problems facing Western civilization—war and economic collapse—and emotionally powerful depictions of how to triumph. Though I have both The Artist and The King’s Speech on DVD, I intend to watch them again and watch host Robert Osborne as he introduces their premieres on my favorite TV channel.
This Sunday, March 1, TCM also airs 2002’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Chicago, so I am adding my original movie review to the archive. The review of this unique musical film includes my thoughts on the brilliant DVD, too. How could I possibly enjoy a motion picture about murderers on death row set to music and dancing? This is what I wondered years ago when I went to see the stage production in Los Angeles, drawn only by the fact that one of my favorite artists and choreographers, the late Bob Fosse (Cabaret), had created it. Somehow, though the material is dark and jaded, the hard, city life of Chicago, that toddlin’ town I once lived in, comes through. The movie version does right by the musical and adds much, much more. If you haven’t seen it, and even if you hate musicals, don’t miss seeing Chicago for a grand and naughty good time.