Black Narcissus, playing Sunday on TCM.
Keep an eye out this week for gung-ho adventure Gunga Din on Tuesday, acclaimed Angry Young Man drama This Sporting Life on Wednesday, Tony Jaa’s martial arts extravaganza The Protector and first-class homage Murder by Death on Thursday, class gangster flick Scarface on Friday, and most of all, Powell & Pressburger masterpiece Black Narcissus on Sunday. Sundance also has the full Red Riding trilogy late Thursday/early Friday, which is nice to see after they’ve just had the first one playing periodically for a few weeks. Also, if you’re into silent comedy, check out TCM’s tribute to the Hal Roach studios on Wednesday, starting with a bunch of Charley Chase shorts – I’ve seen a few of these, and they’re definitely worthwhile.
Monday, January 17
8:15am – IFC – Before Sunrise
Before Sunrise may be little more than an extended conversation between two people (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who meet on a train in Europe and decide to spend all night talking and walking the streets of Vienna, I fell in love with it at first sight. Linklater has a way of making movies where nothing happens seem vibrant and fascinating, and call me a romantic if you wish, but this is my favorite of everything he’s done.
1995 USA. Director: Richard Linklater. Starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy.
Must See
(repeats at 3:15pm)
1:15pm – TCM – The Defiant Ones
Convicts Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier escape, but are chained together and must learn to work with each other to evade the authorities. Made in 1958, just a few years into the Civil Rights Movement, it probably falls squarely into the message picture arena, but sometimes those are needed.
1958 USA. Director: Stanley Kramer. Starring: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel.
3:00pm – TCM – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Interracial marriage may not be quite the hot topic now that it was in 1967 (although if you check some parts of the American South, you might be surprised), but at the time, Katharine Houghton bringing home Sidney Poitier to meet her parents Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (in his last film) was the height of socially conscious filmmaking.
1967 USA. Director: Stanley Kramer. Starring: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton, Cecil Kellaway.
Tuesday, January 18
8:30am – Sundance – The Darjeeling Limited
Not perhaps my favorite Wes Anderson film, but that’s not really that much of a negative statement for one of my favorite directors. Certainly the central image of the train is a fitting one for his flat, widescreen visual style, and the Indian setting allows for great use of color, so if nothing else, it looks freaking gorgeous.
2007 USA. Director: Wes Anderson. Starring: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Angelica Huston.
(repeats at 2:05pm)
10:15am – TCM – Bringing Up Baby
Poor Cary Grant just can’t get away from delightfully ditzy Katharine Hepburn, especially after her dog steals his museum’s priceless dinosaur bone. Oh, and after her pet leopard escapes (and a dangerous zoo leopard escapes at the same time). Incredible situation follows incredible situation in this zaniest of all screwball comedies.
1938 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, May Robson, Barry Fitzgerald.
Must See
12:00N – TCM – Gunga Din
Three British soldiers and an Indian water bearer join forces against an Indian cult gearing up for a murderous rampage. A classic adventure story, and one I should rewatch at some point.
1939 USA. Director: George Stevens. Starring: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe.
Newly Featured!
2:00pm – TCM – Only Angels Have Wings
I’ve never gotten into Only Angels Have Wings as much as I have into other Howard Hawks films – why I don’t know. It has elements I like – Cary Grant as a daring pilot making dangerous cargo runs in exotic locales, Jean Arthur in an uncharacteristically dramatic turn, and a sighting of a young Rita Hayworth. Just doesn’t seem to come together in a memorable whole for me.
1939 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell.
4:00pm – IFC – The Aviator
A relatively safe film for Martin Scorsese, perhaps, but a really solid one, with DiCaprio solidifying his place in Scorsese’s films as legendary aviator/producer/hypochondriac Howard Hughes and a host of near-perfectly cast supporting players as the stars and starlets of 1930s Hollywood.
2004 USA. Director: Martin Scorsese. Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale.
(repeats at 10:30am on the 19th)
5:25pm – Sundance – No One Knows About Persian Cats
A pair of Iranian rock musicians, unable to perform their music publicly because the government won’t give them a permit, try to put together a final underground gig to raise money to escape the country – it’s based on the actual story of the two people playing the musicians, so there’s an intriguing intersection of reality and fiction.
2009 Iran. Director: Bahman Ghobadi. Starring: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad.
(repeats at 4:10am on the 19th)
1:20am (19th) – IFC – Wassup Rockers
Small film about a group of teenage Latino skateboarders from South Central LA. They go up to Beverly Hills to skateboard, get caught by cops, escape, meet up with some girls, get in fights with preppy 90210 guys, and try to get home. But the moments that’ll get you are when they’re just talking, to the camera, or to the girls, about their life and what it’s like to live in South Central. It doesn’t go anywhere, really, but it’s a wonderful slice of life.
2005 USA. Director: Larry Clark. Starring: Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco Pedrasa, Milton Velasquez, Usvaldo Panameno, Eddie Velasquez.
Wednesday, January 19
6:00am – TCM – Charley Chase / Hal Roach shorts
TCM is paying tribute to the Hal Roach studios, famous for its comedy shorts of the 1920s, all this month. This week, they have a bunch of Charley Chase films (often considered the fourth of the great silent comedians, though today he’s all but forgotten behind Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd), then a whole bunch of other Roach-produced films. Good times if you like silent comedy.
Newly Featured!
6:45am – IFC – Hero
Jet Li is the titular hero in this Zhang Yimou film, arguably the best of Yimou’s period action-on-wires films (though I’m partial to House of Flying Daggers myself). The story unfolds in flashback as Li explains to a warlord how he eliminated three would-be assassins (who happen to be three of Hong Kong cinema’s biggest stars, incidentally) – but all may not be precisely how it seems.
2002 China. Director: Zhang Yimou. Starring: Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung.
(repeats at 2:00pm)
8:00pm – TCM – Badlands
Terrence Malick’s first film is a meditative outlaw film, as two youths commit a murder and go on the run. The combination of road trip, crime spree, young romance, and nature-filled hideaway has been imitated (notably by the Tarantino-Scott True Romance, though that was less interested in the meditative aspects), but never matched.
1973 USA. Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan Vint, Gary Littlejohn, John Carter.
Must See
10:00pm – TCM – This Sporting Life
One of the foremost examples of the British “Angry Young Men” dramas of the early 1960s, known for their gritty and realistic portrayal of the working class. This one has a Northern England man gain rankings in the local rugby league, but he can’t be content with either his professional or personal situation.
1963 UK. Director: Lindsay Anderson. Starring: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel.
Newly Featured!
12:30am (20th) – TCM – Duck Soup
Leo McCarey directs the Marx Brothers in what many think is their best and zaniest film. This is the one with Groucho becoming the dictator of Freedonia and declaring war on nearby Sylvania. Frequent Marx Brothers foil Margaret Dumont is on board as the wealthy woman who causes the rivalry that leads to the war. Personally, I prefer A Night at the Opera to Duck Soup, but this may be your best bet if the idea of musical interludes from Allan Jones (of which Opera has several) turns you off.
1933 USA. Director: Leo McCarey. Starring: The Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern.
Must See
2:00am (20th) – TCM – The Bridge on the River Kwai
British prisoners of war are commanded to build a bridge over the River Kwai for their Japanese captors – a task which becomes a source of pride for old-school British commander Alec Guinness. But American William Holden is having none of that and makes it his mission to blow the bridge up. One of the great war films.
1957 USA/UK. Director: David Lean. Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa.
Must See
Thursday, January 20
3:55pm – Sundance – Bob le flambeur
Jean-Pierre Melville’s noirish crime film about an aging gambler/thief who takes on one last job – knocking over a casino. Melville was the master of French crime films, and an important figure leading up to the New Wave – Godard name-checks this film in Breathless, mentioning Bob le flambeur (Bob the Gambler) as an associate of Michel’s.
1956 France. Director: Jean-Pierre Melville. Starring: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Gérard Buhr, Daniel Gauchy.
8:00pm – Sundance – Carlos
Sundance has all of Olivier Assayas’ 5 1/2 hour long epic about Venezuelan revolutionary Carlos the Jackal playing. I’ve heard the film is quite a good one and worth the length, so check it out here to see it in its entirety.
2010 France/Germany. Director: Olivier Assayas. Starring: Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Alejandro Arroyo.
8:00pm – TCM – The Pink Panther
Most people would agree that A Shot in the Dark is the best of the Pink Panther series, but the first entry is still well worth watching. Peter Sellers is perfect as bumbling detective Jacques Clouseau, trying to recover a stolen diamond for David Niven.
1963 UK/USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Robert Wagner, Capucine.
10:00pm – TCM – A Shot in the Dark
Here’s your counter example for the “sequels are never as good as the original” argument. This second film in the Pink Panther series is easily the best, and stands as ones of the zaniest 1960s comedies ever.
1964 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom.
Must See
6:00pm – IFC – The Protector
Whatever you do, don’t mess with Tony Jaa’s elephants. Consider yourself warned. Here Jaa takes on a city full of gangsters intent on stealing his elephant (and the mystical power they possess); the story here isn’t anything special, but Jaa’s fighting ability and choreography certainly is.
1995 Thailand. Director: Prachya Pinkaew. Starring: Tony Jaa, Nathan Jones, Petchtel Wongkamlao.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 4:00am on the 21st)
12:00M – TCM – Murder by Death
A parody/homage to detective stories has a bunch of detectives (based on literary standards like Miss Marple, Mr. Wong, Nick and Nora Charles, Sam Spade, and others) joining forces to solve a mystery in a strange house. It’s good fun, with an all-star cast on board for the shenanigans.
1976 USA. Director: Robert Moore. Starring: Peter Falk, Eileen Brennan, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers.
Newly Featured!
1:35am (21st) – Sundance – Red Riding Trilogy
Sundance is playing all three of the Red Riding films, 1974, 1980, and 1983, back to back, which is probably the best way to see them. Opinions differ on which of the three gritty crime films is the best, so check them out and let us know which is your favorite.
2009 UK. Director: Julian Jarrold/James Marsh/Anand Tucker. Starring: Andrew Garfield, Rebecca Hall/Paddy Considine, Warren Clarke/David Morrissey, Lisa Howard.
Newly Featured!
Friday, January 21
9:30pm – TCM – Scarface
Howard Hawks’ early take on the gangster genre, with small-time hood Tony making his way up in the ranks of the mob. For me, this one really shines in its treatment of Tony’s sister and the conflict between his professional life and his care for his family.
1932 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft.
Newly Featured!
11:15pm – TCM – Little Caesar
One of the classic early 1930s gangster films, the one that essentially typecast Edward G. Robinson in the role of the cigar-chewing tough guy. It’s a little more abrupt than some of the others in the genre, but still worth watching if you’re a fan.
1931 USA. Director: Mervyn LeRoy. Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell.
Saturday, January 22
9:10am – Sundance – Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog’s fascination with the duality of nature’s beauty and destructiveness continues into documentary, as he brings the story of grizzly researcher Timothy Treadwell to the screen.
2005 USA. Director: Werner Herzog.
10:15am – IFC – Harlan County, U.S.A.
Often considered one of the finest documentaries ever put on film, Barbara Kopple’s film documents a 1973 coal miner’s strike in Kentucky which lasted over a year.
1976 USA. Director: Barbara Kopple.
12:30pm – IFC – Che
Steven Soderbergh’s ambitious two-part epic about South American revolutionary Che Guevara. IFC is playing both parts back to back.
2008 USA. Director: Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Julia Ormond, Rodrigo Santoro.
6:00pm – TCM – Scaramouche
Stewart Granger was sort of a poor man’s Errol Flynn in his 1950s swashbucklers – never quite had Flynn’s panache, but hey, he tried. Scaramouche (from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, who also wrote Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, which became Flynn vehicles) is one of his better films, and does boast the longest sword fight in cinema history. So there’s that.
1952 USA. Director: George Sidney. Starring: Stewart Granger, Janet Leigh, Eleanor Parker, Mel Ferrer.
8:00pm – IFC – Alien
Often considered one of the best sci-fi/horror creature features of all time (or just behind its sequel Aliens). Sigourney Weaver gets an iconic role as ass-kicking astronaut Ripley.
1979 USA. Director: Ridley Scott. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt.
(repeats at 2:45am on the 23rd)
5:15am (23rd) – TCM – Broken Blossoms
A few years after D.W. Griffith’s controversial Birth of a Nation and epic Intolerance, he made this much smaller, much quieter film about a Chinese man (the non-Chinese Richard Barthelmess – and yes, there is some inherent racism is the plot, though you get the feeling that Griffith is trying in his somewhat hamfisted way to apologize for the way people took Birth of a Nation) who becomes enamored with a young girl (Lillian Gish) whose father abuses her. At its core, though, it’s a really simple yet beautiful story, and shows Griffith at his sentimental best.
1919 USA. Director: D.W. Griffith. Starring: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp.
Sunday, January 23
2:30pm – TCM – Hannah and Her Sisters
Though I love Manhattan and Annie Hall to bits, I throw my vote for best Woody Allen movie ever to Hannah and Her Sisters. It has all the elements Allen is known for – neurotic characters, infidelity, a tendency to philosophize randomly, New York City, dysfunctional family dynamics, acerbic wit – and blends them together much more cogently and evenly than most of his films do.
1986 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Barbara Hershey, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Woody Allen.
Must See
4:30pm – TCM – Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
What do you do when you’re seven brothers in the backwoods and need wives? Why, go kidnap them of course! Patriarchal values aside, Seven Brides is one of the most entertaining movie musicals ever made, and I defy anyone to outdo the barn dance/raising scene.
1954 USA. Director: Stanley Donen. Starring: Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Russ Tamblyn.
6:15pm – TCM – The Palm Beach Story
Similar in tone but less consistent than The Lady Eve, this Preston Sturges film follows bickering couple Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert as she leaves him to gold dig for a richer man. He follows her, pretending to be her brother, and they get all entangled with a wealthy brother and sister. The ending is a weak bit of trickery, but there are enough moments of hilarity to make it worth watching.
1942 USA. Director: Preston Sturges. Starring: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Rudy Vallee, Mary Astor.
8:00pm – TCM – Black Narcissus
Powell & Pressburger bring their fantastic use of color and solid understanding of melodrama to this story of a group of nuns in the Himalayas, battling nature, the nearby townspeople, and their own inner natures along the way.
1947 UK. Director: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. Starring: Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, Jean Simmons, David Farrar.
Must See
Newly Featured!
10:00pm – Sundance – Barton Fink
One of the Coen Brothers’ most brilliant dark comedies (heh, I think I say that about all of their dark comedies, though), Barton Fink follows its title character, a New York playwright whose hit play brings him to the attention of Hollywood, where he goes to work for the movies. And it all goes downhill from there. Surreal, quirky, and offbeat, even among the Coens work. It’s based loosely on the experiences of Clifford Odets, whose heightened poetic style of writing has clearly been influential on the Coens throughout their career.
1991 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, Tony Shalhoub.
