TCM Reframed Plus Film Fest Monthlies
Speaker 1: 00:00 Earlier this month, Turner classic movies launched a new series called reframed classic film and the rear view mirror, KPBS arts reporter Breathtec Amando speaks with TCM host Eddie Mueller about what this month long series is doing to contextualize films that might be problematic and often downright offensive for contemporary audiences. Speaker 2: 00:21 Eddie, you are one of the hosts for the TCM program called reframed. Explain what this is, Speaker 3: 00:29 Uh, reframed as an attempt to take classic films and contextualize them for a contemporary audience. That's it? I mean, they are quote unquote problematic films. And so that's why we're taking the time all the hosts are involved and we're taking the time to address what these concerns might be. Speaker 2: 00:50 I really love the idea of this program because as someone who loves movies, I do feel that there are elements in certain films that are problematic from a contemporary point of view, but I hate the idea of completely removing them from availability because sometimes they have importance in other ways. And in terms of either how they fit into a genre or a person's particular, uh, body of work, uh, what was the main interest for you in kind of revisiting these films? Speaker 3: 01:19 I do not want to see the films disappear. I mean, you know, me a little bit, Beth already, you know, that I do work with a film noir foundation. Uh, the goal is to preserve movies that would otherwise be lost. It is not lost on me, that there is problematic content in most, every movie that I've actually restored and or preserved for a contemporary audience. But the idea that the movies would be lost or not seen is actually kind of offensive to me. That's, what's offensive to me because I know movies are our cultural consciousness. They are a shared history, if you will. And that is for everyone there, isn't one way history gets written. It's constantly rewritten and reformed and it, you know, there's a metamorphosis into a fresh way of looking at things so far from canceling these movies out like, Oh, we know better now. Speaker 3: 02:20 I mean, I feel our job is to say, well, here's how we got here. And these movies are an example of that. And as you pointed out, I mean the artistry of these films, this is many of these films built the language of cinema that we're now so familiar with. And it would pain me to think. And I, this I'm especially thinking of younger people, if they think like we invented this language 20 years ago, it's like, no, actually you can go way back. But if you go way back and there are scenes in those films that are offensive to people today, they just need to be put in context. That's the way I feel about it. Uh, I, I don't think they should just be eliminated. I'd like to think that we're intelligent enough as a culture that we can understand this context we're providing so that we can continue to broadcast the films. Yeah. Speaker 2: 03:16 Well, the other thing I think is important too, is this sense that if you don't know where we've been, we don't know how far we've come or how far we still need to go. And to remove these films kind of erases what w what was considered okay. Or what was considered, you know, mainstream at the time, Speaker 3: 03:36 If you remove it and cancel it, people are going to have miss assumptions. Like, Oh, I guess there weren't racist things in these movies. There weren't sexist things in these movies. Like, no, there were, and we're just pointing it out, but it's much better to point it out than it is to hide the film. That's my attitude. Speaker 2: 03:56 This Thursday, one of my favorite John Ford, John Wayne films is going to be highlighted. And this is the searchers, and you're going to be hosting this one. What are you going to have to say about this Speaker 3: 04:06 Killer film? To me, I love to talking about this movie because it cut right to the essential point. Is this a racist movie, or is this a movie about racism? That's a conversation that is that you have to have with a lot of these films. I mean, there are a lot of racist westerns, right? Then there are these westerns that are about racism. And, and honestly, John Ford, who has made both of them, the searchers is where I think he started to second guess the history that he was putting out there and saying, Hmm, there are some problematic things here. Speaker 2: 04:44 Next week. TCM is going to focus on films that deal less with racial stereotypes and more with things that deal with sexual orientation. And you have films like the children's hour and psycho Speaker 3: 04:57 The conversation about the children's hour was really interesting to me because William Wyler was intent on bringing that played back onscreen. I mean, Lillian Hellman wrote the play in the early 1930s and had already been filmed once by Hollywood, where all the homosexuality was taken out. So he was determined to put this back on screen, you know, it's 1961. So now it's intriguing to me that a lot of people in the LGBTQ community are like, well, the film didn't do enough, you know, because it's still stigmatizing the Shirley McClain character who is the lesbian in the film, but it's totally compassionate towards her. The film is totally compassionate towards her. Speaker 2: 05:41 The other thing about the children's hour is the context allows it to be a step towards something better, even though it may not be the perfect film. Speaker 3: 05:53 Uh, Beth, that is a beautiful, very succinct way of putting it. All of these things are incremental. You know, history is a wheel and the wheel turns and we seem to be compelled to repeat the same things over and over again. But the wheel is always rolling forwards. The wheel doesn't go back. History does not go back. It repeats, but it doesn't reverse. So now we are learning these things and the wheel is going forward. And do you want these movies to be with us on that trip? Or do we leave them behind? I don't want to leave them behind. In fact, I've dedicated my whole life to ensuring they're not left behind. I mean, cinema is a community thing, right? It's a, it's a popular entertainment that is about having an audience. People watch these films, you have to maintain that audience. So if that requires putting these classic films in context so that younger people will continue to watch them and understand this was a step towards something, right. Speaker 3: 07:04 And appreciated as such. I just think that's vitally important, honestly, but that's what I think my job is, you know, when people say, so what do you do at TCM? I say, well, my job is to keep this stuff vital for another generation. I love the best of what we've created. I want it to continue to resonate, and it's not always going to resonate in a pleasant way, but it's going to resonate. And if it requires a bit of context to understand why don't, don't shut it out, if it doesn't resonate pleasantly for you, just learn how to deal with it. All right. Well, I want to thank you very much for talking about TCM reframed, uh, Beth, my pleasure. I hope I get to see you in person one of these days, because that is always a pleasure. Speaker 1: 07:52 That was Beth Huck. Amando speaking with Eddie Mueller, TCM reframed releases a new collection of films each Thursday in March tonight's films include stagecoach breakfast at Tiffany's and swing time.
