Modern Times, playing on TCM on TuesdayThe few new ones this week are certainly worth highlighting – Chaplin’s masterpiece Modern Times on Tuesday, Academy Award winner Midnight Cowboy on Wednesday, David Fincher’s meticulous Zodiac on Thursday, and epic Spartacus on Sunday, among others. TCM also has a bunch of great ones as part of their “Summer under the Stars” series, with a different star featured every day – Marlon Brando on Monday, Bette Davis on Wednesday, Lucille Ball on Saturday (featuring many of her pre-Lucy roles that are either dramatic or decidedly different styles of comedy), and Charles Laughton on Sunday – each with some of the greatest films ever as part of the lineup.
Monday, August 1
1:05pm – Sundance – Encounters at the End of the World
Werner Herzog has made the savage beauty of nature one of his themes throughout most of his fiction films, so perhaps it’s only natural that he has moved onto explicitly non-fiction explorations of some of nature’s most remote locales, in this case, Antarctica.
2007 USA. Director: Werner Herzog.
5:15pm – TCM – Guys and Dolls
Marlon Brando seems like an unusual casting choice for a musical, and indeed, he’s a bit uncomfortable for a good part of this. But the rest of the cast (especially second leads Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine) make up for it, bringing Damon Runyon’s colorful underground New York gambling scene come to life.
1955 USA. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine.
6:05pm – Sundance – The Royal Tenenbaums
My favorite of all of Wes Anderson’s films (and indeed, one of my favorites of the whole decade), a web of fine characterizations surrounding Royal Tenenbaum, an eccentric old man whose imminent mortality forces a reunion with his family. But its morbidity is tempered by absurd humor and quirk.
2001 USA. Director: Wes Anderson. Starring: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray.
Must See
9:30pm – TCM – A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire won Vivien Leigh her second Oscar as fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois, and made a star out of Marlon Brando – with good reason in both cases. The film is somewhat campy, but compellingly so, with Leigh’s classic Hollywood style battling Brando’s Method style, making their on-screen rivalry that much more powerful. Add in a stickily languid New Orleans setting that comes through despite the obvious heightened reality of Hollywood sets, and this is a much odder film than you might expect, but one that plays like gangbusters.
1951 USA. Director: Elia Kazan. Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Stanley, Karl Malden.
Must See
10:00pm – MGM – Fiddler on the Roof
A Tzarist-era Russian Jewish village doesn’t seem a particularly likely place to set a musical, but Fiddler on the Roof does a good job of it, exploring the clashing cultures as patriarch Tevye tries to marry his daughters off to good Jewish husbands with decreasing success.
1971 USA. Director: Norman Jewison. Starring: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, Neva Small, Michael Glaser.
10:45pm – IFC – Requiem for a Dream
Darren Aronofsky’s breakthrough film (Pi remains a cult favorite) follows a quartet of people as their lives spiral out of control due to drug addiction.
2000 USA. Director: Darren Aronofsky. Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans.
(repeats at 3:45am on the 2nd)
12:00M – TCM – On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando’s performance as a former boxer pulled into a labor dispute among dock workers goes down as one of the greatest in cinematic history. I’m not even a huge fan of Brando, but this film wins me over.
1954 USA. Director: Elia Kazan. Starring: Marlon Brando, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint.
Must See
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Happily married for a few years, Joanna (Keira Knightley) and Michael (Sam Worthington) are comfortable in their relationship. At a party, Joanna sees Michael having what appears to be an intimate conversation with Laura (Eva Mendes) a co-worker he has been spending a lot of time with. At home that evening the two argue about it before Joanna concedes that she was over reacting, reading into an attraction Michael swears isn’t there and the next morning, Michael goes on a business trip with the sexy Laura. While he’s away, Joanna bumps into Alex (Guillaume Canet), a man we later find out was the object of her attention while she and Michael were taking some time apart before getting back together and eventually getting married.
