All About Eve, playing on TCM on Tuesday
Mostly repeats this week, but the newly featured ones that do pop up are extremely worthwhile, with classically caustic showbiz drama All About Eve hitting TCM on Tuesday, then a couple of Wes Anderson films, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, on Thursday and Sunday, respectively (The Darjeeling Limited is also playing on Tuesday). Among previously-mentioned films, do watch out for double features of A Star is Born (showing both the 1937 and 1954 versions) and Cyrano de Bergerac (with the 1950 and 1990 versions) showing on TCM on Tuesday.
I do apologize for the day’s delay – I got caught up with Oscar shenanigans yesterday and didn’t get this done until today.
Tuesday, March 1
9:15am – 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.
10:30am – TCM – A Star is Born (1937)
This is not the better-known Judy Garland version, but the non-musical version featuring Janet Gaynor in one of her last roles. Gaynor’s not well remembered now, but she won the very first Academy Award for Best Actress back in 1928, and she holds this story of a hopeful ingenue married to a has-been actor together. 1937 USA. Director: William A. Wellman. Starring: Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, May Robson.
11:30am – IFC – Away From Her
A very strong directing debut film from actress Sarah Polley, about an older woman (Julie Christie) suffering from Alzheimer’s and her husband’s difficulty in dealing with essentially the loss of his wife as she has more and more difficulty remembering their life together. It’s a lovely, heartbreaking film, bolstered by great understated performances.
2006 Canada. Director: Sarah Polley. Starring: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Stacey LaBerge.
12:30pm – TCM – A Star is Born (1954)
Judy Garland’s comeback role after several years off the screen remains one of her best, crystalizing both the hope and sorrow that her later life represents. The fact that she’s playing a wanna-be star at the beginning of her career makes it just that much more poignant – and watch out for her rendition of “The Man That Got Away.”
1954 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Judy Garland, James Mason.
Must See
3:30pm – TCM – Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
In this adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s play, Jose Ferrer (who won an Oscar for the role) plays the title character, a poet marred by the extreme size of his nose, whose love for Roxanne is such that he helps handsome but dull Christian woo her since he thinks she’ll never notice him.
1950 USA. Director: Michael Gordon. Starring: Jose Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince.
5:30pm – TCM – Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
Probably the best version of the play, with Gerard Depardieu a moving and sympathetic Cyrano, helping Christian woo Roxanne as she remains oblivious as to who is really behind Christian’s pretty words.
1990 France. Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Starring: Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez.
Newly Featured!
6:30pm – IFC – The Claim
A typically complex film from Michael Winterbottom, with Peter Mullan anchoring the ensemble cast as the rich leader of an old West mining town faced with pressure from the railroad and echoes from his past. The rest of the cast, including Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich (in one of her rare actually good movies), are superb as well and make this well worth seeking out.
2000 UK/Canada. Director: Michael Winterbottom. Starring: Peter Mullan, Milla Jovovich, Wes Bentley, Sarah Polley, Nastassja Kinski, Shirley Henderson.
6:40pm – Sundance – Mary and Max
This adult-aimed stop-motion film from Australia got a number of positive reviews last year on the festival circuit, but didn’t get much of a release in the United States despite having a fairly recognizable voice cast. Anyway, here it is on Sundance (it’s also on Netflix Instant Watch), and I’m greatly looking forward to catching it one of these days.
2009 Australia. Director: Adam Elliott. Starring: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana.
(repeats at 2:00am on the 2nd)
8:20pm – 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 3:40am on the 2nd)
10:00pm – TCM – All About Eve
One of the very best show business movies ever made, with Bette Davis in one of her many signature roles as Margo Channing, a Broadway actress just about to fade from the top of her game, with Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington, the kid waiting to take her place. The supporting cast are all wonderful as well, and the script? One of the greatest Hollywood has ever seen. It just crackles.
1950 USA. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Gary Merrill, Celeste Holm, Thelma Ritter.
Must See
Newly Featured!
12:30am (2nd) – TCM – Cabaret
Every time I see Cabaret I think more highly of it – Weimar Germany doesn’t seem like a particularly obvious setting for a musical, but this one weaves together the story of expatriots in Berlin with the background of the beginning of the Nazi party menacingly well, with great music and absolutely fantastic choreography by Bob Fosse. It’s stunning.
1972 USA. Director: Bob Fosse. Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey, Helmut Griem.
Must See
(4/5)
,” the show is nothing to write off as simple drivel. Yes, the original scope would have been much more interesting but the series is not, by any means, bad.
