Monday, March 19, 2007

This week in Athens...


...Georgia - a film festival, hosted by Robert Osborne.

What a treat it would be to attend this forum and witness Osborne doing what he does best: indulging in his passion for classic cinema.

Those of us who are fans of 'old movies', and who particularly favor black & white films, know Osborne as the debonair host of Turner Classic Movies.
Actually, the man wears multiple career hats: TV host, writer, actor, movie critic.
I know him best as TV host, but if I could get hold of and linger over his '75 Years of the Oscar' book, I know I'd have an appreciation of his writing/research skills as well.

'Bobby' provides enlightening movie trivia in the interim minutes between TCM's scheduled movies. Turner Classic Movies also features in depth, one-on-one conversations between Osborne and film makers. These interviews are sweeeeeeet to watch and one can actually LEARN a great deal about classic movies from them.

Another thing:
You never get embarrassed watching an interview conducted by Robert Osborne.
Some interviews can get me to cringing - like, OMG I can't believe he/she asked that stupid/obvious/uninformed/unrelated to anything question....

Bobby Osborne possesses the knack for NOT being starstruck when in the company of celebrity (even the most narcissistic actors don't need to be idol-worshipped any more than they already are on any given day).
Oprah has been known to take to gushing when she could be interviewing, for example.
But not our little Bobby, Oh No.

How refreshing it must be for actors, directors and producers to be interviewed by someone who is both respectful and knowledgeable of their body of work; and at the same time, inquisitive. Bobby has the ability to move those he interviews to speak candidly and introspectively about their cinematic labors.

He does a very nice job indeedy.

Oh, how I envy the lucky attendees of this week's filmfest!

PostScript:
M-I-L once stated to me 'I love Robert Osborne as host of TCM...he's so good at it....and...he's...so.........pretty'.

I totally agree.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi b

did you happen to see his interview with the recently late betty hutton, a few days ago? she seemed a bit flaky, but he was so composed and kept things going. i enjoy those interviews, and TMC. so glad I found it on my tv. although, it does at times prevent me from doing things in the real world!

D

baffle said...

Sorry to say I missed the interview, though I did see it over a year (or more) ago. I wasn't aware that Betty Hutton passed away this week.
Hopefully, the interview will show again someday - soon.

baffle said...

P.S.

Ah....the 'real world'.
Somewhat over-rated, wouldn't you say?

I myself often go for those flights of fancy n' fantasy!