Sorry about the lateness of this. I blame Oscar-related busyness and tiredness. Also, procrastination. Anyway. TCM finishes out Thirty Days of Oscar this week, fittingly completing their globe-hopping theme by heading to outer space. They return to their standard Essentials programming later in the week, so there’s still plenty of good stuff to watch. IFC and Sundance are keeping up the quality, too, in between their runs of existing and new scripted shows.

Monday, February 27

11:30pm – TCM – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis both won acting awards for their parts in Mike Nichols’ version of Edward Albee’s dysfunctional dinner party play. Remains probably the most well-remembered team-up of erstwhile couple Taylor and Richard Burton.
1966 USA. Director: Mike Nichols. Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sandy Dennis, George Segal.

2:00am (28th) – TCM – Good Will Hunting
A solid entry in the “inspirational teacher” genre, with Matt Damon making his mark as both actor and writer (he and co-writer, co-actor Ben Affleck won an Oscar for their screenplay) as the underprivileged but brilliant Will Hunting, working with a therapist and a professor to face his emotional issues and achieve his potential.
1997 USA. Director: Gus Van Sant. Starring: Mann Damon, Robin Wililams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgard.
Newly Featured!

4:15am (28th) – TCM – The Last Detail
A quintessentially New Hollywood film, directed by Hal Ashby from a script by Robert Towne, and starring Jack Nicholson and Otis Young as seasoned Navy sailors assigned to escort a young sailor to prison – along the way the trio get into hijinks, pushing the envelope on content, especially language, for the ’70s.
1973 USA. Director: Hal Ashby. Starring: Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Otis Young, Clifton James, Carol Kane.
Newly Featured!

Tuesday, February 28

7:50am – Sundance – Summer Hours
In what sounds like a very beautiful and meditative film, Olivier Assayas explores a French family as the matriarch prepares for her own passing and then the actions of her family after she does. It got the Criterion treatment almost immediately upon release, which is enough for me to get excited on its own, but I’ve also heard really good things about it.
2008 France. Director: Olivier Assayas. Starring: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier.
(repeats at 2:45pm)

9:35am – Sundance – A Girl Cut in Two
One of the last films from great French director Claude Chabrol before his death, with Ludivine Sagnier as an up-and-coming TV personality faced with choosing between two men – with Chabrol at the helm, you know there’s more than that to it, and his touch for black comedy thrillers should make this one an enjoyable watch.
2007 France. Director: Claude Chabrol. Starring: Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît magimel, François Berléand.
(repeats at 4:35pm)

11:15am – TCM – The Red Shoes
Almost all of the films Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger made together are incredibly good, but The Red Shoes might just be the best. In the film, a mix of the tale of Svengali and of Hans Christian Anderson’s story about a ballerina who couldn’t remove the red shoes and was doomed to dance to her death, actual ballerina Moira Shearer is the dancer made successful by a jealous ballet impresario, though she loves a poor composer. The centerpiece of the film is a Technicolor extravaganza performance of the titular ballet, still one of the greatest ballet sequences on film.
1948 UK. Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. Starring: Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, Anton Walbrook.
Must See

11:15am – IFC – Dancer in the Dark
Bjork plays a factory worker whose increasing blindness threatens to keep her from being able to do her job, which will keep her from earning the money she needs for an operation that will prevent her son from suffering the same blindness. Add in the relationship with her not-as-happy-as-they-seem neighbors and a trenchant critique of the justice system and death penalty, not to mention several musical numbers juxtaposed throughout, and you have a film that’s unlike any other.
2000 Denmark. Director: Lars von Trier. Starring: Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare.

6:00pm – TCM – To Catch a Thief
Not one of my personal favorite Hitchcock films, but certainly one of his classiest, most sophisticated entries. Cary Grant is a notorious cat burglar, Grace Kelly the Monte Carlo socialite he woos. It’s one of Kelly’s last films, and she’s already looking like the princess she was about to become.
1955 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring; Cary Grant, Grace Kelly.

8:00pm – Sundance – Mammoth
A favorite among a few Row Three writers, though not unanimously, this film from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson gives a three-faceted look at the modern world, contrasting an American businessman, his family, their Filipino maid, and her family.
2009 Sweden. Director: Lukas Moodysson. Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Michelle Williams, Marife Necesito.
(repeats at 1:50am on the 29th)

10:15pm – TCM – Lawrence of Arabia
Most epics are over-determined and so focused on spectacle that they end up being superficial – all big sets and sweeping music with no depth. The brilliance of Lawrence of Arabia is that it looks like an epic with all the big sets and sweeping music and widescreen vistas, but at its center is an enigmatic character study of a man who lives bigger-than-life, but is as personally conflicted as any intimate drama has ever portrayed.
1962 UK. Director: David Lean. Starring: Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jose Ferrer.
Must See

10:15pm – IFC – The Thin Red Line
Breaking Terrence Malick’s twenty-year filmmaking silence since 1978′s Days of Heaven, this film applies his contemplative and poetic view of the world to a WWII story. It remains a favorite among Malick fans, and an interesting counterpoint to Spielberg’s action-oriented Saving Private Ryan, released the same year.
1998 USA. Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, Ben Chaplin.

4:00am (29th) – TCM – Topkapi
One of the classic heist capers, with a group of ragtag criminals (led by Melina Mercouri and including comic relief Peter Ustinov) planning to steal a jewel-encrusted dagger from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. Suspenseful and funny, with great scenery.
1964 USA. Director: Jules Dassin. Starring: Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximillian Schell.

Wednesday, February 29

6:00am – IFC – The Protectorg
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.
(repeats at 12:00N)

10:20pm – Sundance – Looking for Richard
Part performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III (one of Shakespeare’s more enduring history plays, about the deformed usurper king who many believe murdered the young heirs to the throne) and part documentary about the production of such a play and indeed the relationship of Shakespeare to modern culture in general. An unusual project, but definitely an intriguing one.
1996 USA. Director: Al Pacino. Starring: Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Penelope Allen, Winona Ryder.
Newly Featured!

Thursday, March 1

7:15am – TCM – The Good Earth
This adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s novel of China won Luise Rainer her second consecutive Oscar for her portrayal of a Chinese farmer’s wife struggling with famine and hardship.
1937 USA. Director: Sidney Franklin. Starring: Luise Rainer, Paul Muni, Walter Connolly.

12:15pm – TCM – Dodes’ka-den
For Akira Kurosawa’s first color film, he chose the perhaps unlikely location of a city dump, following the day-to-day activities of a variety of characters who make their home there, notably a mentally challenged young boy who makes the title noise as he plays out his fantasy of being a tram conductor.
1970 Japan. Director: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Yoshitaka Zushi, Kin Sugai, Toshiyuki Tonomura.
Newly Featured!

12:15pm – 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.

2:45pm – TCM – Kwaidan
Japanese ghost stories have a long and hallowed history, and this omnibus film is perhaps the most classic example of them on film. Collecting three stories from Japanese folklore, Kwaidan retains its spookiness despite some high stylistics and slow pacing.
1964 Japan. Director: Masaki Kobayashi. Starring: Rentaro Mikuni, Keiko Kishi, Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Nakadai.
Newly Featured!

10:00pm – Sundance – Domino
I don’t like this film at all, so don’t take its inclusion here as a recommendation. Rather, I had to mention it simply because it has come up recently in our Movies We Watched column and sparked some rather heated debate among R3ers over on Letterboxd, and if you’ve been left out of all that because you haven’t seen the film, here’s your chance to rectify that. Or, if you want to revisit it to see if you actually like/dislike it more than you thought. Here you go.
2005 USA. Director: Tony Scott. Starring: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 3:20am on the 2nd)

10:30pm – TCM – From Here to Eternity
There’s the famous part, yes, where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr make love on the beach among the crashing waves. But there’s also a solid ensemble war tale, involving young officer Montgomery Clift and his naive wife Donna Reed, and embittered soldiers Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb.
1953 USA. Director: Fred Zinnemann. Starring: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Montgomery Clift, Lee J. Cobb.

1:00am (2nd) – Sundance – 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.

Friday, March 2

4:15pm – TCM – Cabin in the Sky
One of the more watchable/interesting films of the black-cast-centric films that Hollywood did in the 1940s, probably because it’s also Vincente Minnelli’s first directorial effort, a musical fantasy about the battle over a man’s soul. You’ll find a lot of stereotypes that were unfortunately common at the time, but the film does have stylish direction and some great musical moments from Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, and others.
1943 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Ethel Waters, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram.

6:00pm – TCM – The Bishop’s Wife
Cary Grant is an angel sent to help Anglican bishop David Niven, but not in the way he expects – Niven wants to get a new cathedral built, but his single-minded drive is hurting his family and parish more than he realizes. This has never been one of my favorite Christmas movies, but most people I know seem to love it.
1947 USA. Director: Henry Koster. Starring: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven.

11:30pm – TCM – 2001: A Space Odyssey
The benchmark for intellectual science fiction, Kubrick’s probable masterpiece is a mindbending ride through a mysteriously alien-driven evolution, with plenty of time for man vs. machine conflict, beautiful space ballet, and gorgeous cinematography.
1968 USA. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Keir Dullea, Douglas Rain, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester.
Must See

4:15pm (3rd) – TCM – Forbidden Planet
What’s better than Shakespeare’s The Tempest? Why, a science fiction film set on a planet run by a maverick genius, his robot, and his daughter, of course. Okay, Forbidden Planet isn’t really better than The Tempest, but it is an interesting take on the play, and an obvious influence on the original Star Trek.
1956 USA. Director: Fred M. Wilcox. Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis.

Saturday, March 3

6:00am – TCM – Island of Lost Souls
The first film version of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, with mad scientists, human-beast surgical experiments, wild half-human, half-animals running around, and more than a hint of beastiality. Not too shabby for this cusp-of-Pre-Code film, which just recently got a Criterion release.
1933 USA. Director: Erle C. Kenton. Starring: Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, Bela Lugosi, Kathleen Burke.
Newly Featured!

8:00pm – TCM – Some Like It Hot
After musicians Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon unwittingly witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, they have to escape the mob by impersonating women and joining an all-girls band. The fact that Marilyn Monroe is the band’s lead singer doesn’t help them stay undercover. Easily one of the greatest comedies ever put on film.
1959 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Joe E. Brown, George Raft.
Must See

9:00pm – IFC – Se7en
A taut and dark film, as you might expect from David Fincher, of a pair of homicide detectives hunting a serial killer who uses the Seven Deadly Sins as a template for his murders, seeing himself as a righteous justice-dealer against those who indulge in these particular sins. Good performances all around as well as the intricate script and solid direction take Se7en a notch above the average serial killer thriller.
1995 USA. Director: David Fincher. Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey.
(repeats at 2:45am on the 4th)

2:00am (4th) – TCm – This is Spinal Tap
One of the first and greatest mockumentaries, about a fictional band that now has several albums and tours under its belt, this film goes to eleven. I don’t even like metal, but I love this film to pieces.
1984 USA. Director: Rob Reiner. Starring: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer.
Must See

Sunday, March 4

10:00am – TCM – Dark Victory
A signature role for Davis (among many), and a stylish melodrama to boot, with Davis a socialite diagnosed with a brain tumor and deciding how to live our her last days. It’s a three-hanky weepie for sure, but a classy one. Also some unintentional humor stemming from a young Bogart cast as an Irish (!) stablehand.
1939 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Betty Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart.

11:35am – 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, 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 5:05pm)

4:00pm – 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

6:00pm – TCM – The Snake Pit
One of the earlier films to deal with the realities of mental illness seriously, with Olivia de Havilland as a woman in an insane asylum, brilliantly moving back and forth between lucidity and falling back in the fog of illness. She got an Oscar nom for her role, based on a true story.
1948 USA. Director: Anatole Litvak. Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm.

10:00pm – Sundance – Thank You For Smoking
Jason Reitman’s breakout film was also one of my favorites of 2005 – sure, it’s a bit slight and isn’t perfect, but its story of a hotshot PR guy working for cigarette companies struck just the right note of cynical and absurd humor. The really high-quality cast doesn’t hurt either, with everybody, no matter how small their role, making a memorable impression.
2005 USA. Director: Jason Reitman. Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, Maria Bello, David Koechner, J.K. Simmons, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott.
(repeats at 3:15am on the 5th)

12:00M – IFC – Bad Lieutenant
The Abel Ferrara original version of Bad Lieutenant, before Werner Herzog decided to co-opt the name for his own over-the-top opus. Here Harvey Keitel is the eponymous lawman working through his own deep-seated issues with a surprising amount of depth.
1992 USA. Director: Abel Ferrera. Starring: Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Robin Burrows, Frankie Thom.

4:00am (5th) – TCM – La Jetee
Very few short films become classics (outside of silent films and arguably Looney Tunes), but Chris Marker’s La Jetee, told entirely in sequences of still photographs, is one of them. In a postapocalyptic future, a man is sent back in time to try and stop WWIII from happening. But he both falls in love and is haunted by a childhood memory – two things that are fatefully interconnected.
1962 France. Director: Chris Marker. Starring: Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain, Davos Hanich.