Friday Night Spotlight returns

Another of TCM's features that goes on hiatus for the month of February and 31 Days of Oscar is the Friday Night Spotlight. It comes back tonight now that 31 Days of Oscar. This month's theme is food in the movies, or at least movies with famous food scenes. The presenter is celebrity chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain, who was also the TCM Guest Programmer back in April 2012.

I'll be interested to see how Bourdain does. He's quite a bit more familiar with being in front of the camera, compared to some of the other folks who have hosted the Friday Night Spotlight, so he should probably come across as more polished than some of the presenters, who probably did know about the films but looked stiff in talking about them. To be fair, I did live radio back in college, and it's hard to be up all the time when you're reading copy. Plus, it looks like they're all standing in front of a green screen with that backdrop added in, and that has to make it tough, too. I also think Bourdain showed a genuine passion for movies when he was Guest Programmer, based not only on his selections, but on his talking about sharing movies wiht his staffers.

Anyhow, this first Friday night in March sees five films, although I'm not certain whether he'll be discussing all five, or just the first four:

First up, at 8:00 PM, is Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, a wonderful film about an aging chef losing his ability to taste, and his three adult daughters.
Next, at 10:15 PM, is Mostly Martha, a film I don't know much about, so I can't really comment on it.
Tom Jones, at 12:15 AM, has one famous gluttony scene, which is presumably what got it included in the month's spotlight.
Women in Love at 2:30 AM is another of those films I haven't actually seen, amazingly enough.
Finally, at 5:00 AM, is Dinner at Eight, with all the stars in the MGM firmament giving great performances as they make their way to the dinner Billie Burke is coordinating.