Filmmakers turn to TCM for inspiration

Turner Classic Movies, that bastion of black-and-white, holds a unique place on the dial and in the hearts of cinephiles. In a continuous, commercialfree stream, much of the history of Hollywood is on view, 24/7, for sampling and binging — an uncorrupted corner of celluloid obsession that flickers day and night with Buster Keaton shorts, Robert Ryan series and Ernst Lubitsch marathons.

But for many filmmakers, TCM isn’t just a favorite channel, it’s their lifeblood. Among directors from Martin Scorsese to Paul Thomas Anderson, it’s a common refrain that Turner Classic is a constant source of inspiration and a beloved background in their lives.

“I tend to have it on in the kitchen,” says Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”). “I have a small TV in the kitchen, a great old Sony Trinitron. And that’s probably where I see it the most. It’s a comfort blanket. It’s like a pacifier.”

While Anderson might have once watched a string of films on TCM, he now has four children and is more likely to catch 15 minutes of something while making breakfast. But he says even a small bite of a great film is “food and drink in a way, to me.” other avenues for such study, but few that can be beckoned with a simple click or with the same sense of discovery. TCM is like radio for movies.

Martin Scorsese pens a monthly column for the network and has made the restoration of old films a personal crusade. For him, the distance between making movies and watching them on TCM is comically small. While editing his films alongside his regular editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese keeps the channel perpetually playing on a nearby monitor.

“All the time. Not with sound. And away from Thelma,” Scorsese says, chuckling. “I watch when I want to. I’ll glance over and see a certain scene. Or she’ll glance over and say, ‘What was that a minute ago?’ And I’ll say that’s so-and-so. Or I’ll show her a sequence that comes on.”

It’s also a connection for Scorsese to his earliest exposure to movies; he grew up watching films on television. Payne, too. But TV has changed considerably since then. Amid the rise of original cable programming, TCM has been one of the few to stay devoted to movies. Its original rival, AMC, became home to “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad”; it no longer goes by its full name: American Movie Classics. IFC, too, has moved away from indie films to embrace