Archive for the ‘Film on TV’ Category

  • 10 Apr

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    Film on TV: April 11-17

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    Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, playing Saturday on Sundance

    Only a few new ones this week, but they include the first great (and equally controversial) American epic Birth of a Nation on Monday, the late Sidney Lumet’s last film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead on Sunday, and Chantal Ackerman’s experimental feminist treatise Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles late Sunday/early Monday. Plenty of quality repeats as well.

    Monday, April 11

    7:00pm – TCM – The Birth of a Nation
    Both revered for its groundbreaking synthesis of cinematic language on an epic scale and reviled for its heroic depiction of the Ku Klux Klan, watching The Birth of a Nation is an experience both exhilarating and horrifying. There’s no doubt of its importance in the history of cinema, but it remains one of the most problematic of classics.
    1915 USA. Director: D.W. Griffith. Sta
    Must See
    Newly Featured!

    8:00pm – 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.
    (repeats at 2:00am on the 12th)

    11:30pm – IFC – The Proposition
    Australia’s answer to the western; Guy Pearce must hunt down and capture his brothers for the law in order to save his own skin. Gritty and violent almost to a fault, and it definitely brought new life to the Western genre.
    2005 Australia. Director: John Hillcoat. Starring: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone.

    12:00M – TCM – The General
    One of the greatest silent comedies of all time; no, scratch that, one of the greatest any kind of comedies of all time. Buster Keaton is at the top of his game as a Civil War era engineer whose train (with his girl on it) gets captured by the Union army, and he’s got to get them both back, with many an amazing stunt along the way. No one did stunt-based comedy better than Keaton, and he’s never been better than this.
    1926 USA. Director: Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman. Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack.
    Must See

    5:00am (12th) – TCM – Stage Door
    I cannot describe to you how much I love this film. I’m not sure it’s wholly rational. Katharine Hepburn plays an heiress who wants to make it on her own as an actress, so she moves (incognito) into a New York boarding house for aspiring actresses. Her roommate ends up being Ginger Rogers (who’s never been better or more acerbic), and the boarding house is rounded out with a young Lucille Ball, a young Eve Arden, a very young Ann Miller, and various others. The dialogue is crisp and everyone’s delivery matter-of-fact and perfectly timed, and the way the girls use humor to mask desperation makes most every moment simultaneously funny and tragic – so that when it does turn tragic, it doesn’t feel like a shift in mood, but a culmination of the inevitable.
    1937 USA. Director: Gregory La Cava. Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, Gail Patrick, Eve Arden, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Constance Collier.
    Must See

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 03 Apr

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    Film on TV: April 4-10

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    American Madness, playing on Wednesday on TCM

    Pretty slim week this week, though make sure to watch out for TCM’s tribute to Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday, when they’re giving over the entire day to her films, from Lassie Come Home to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I’d also recommend early Frank Capra film American Madness (playing Wednesday), my favorite of an early Capra series I watched last year. Finally, look for a Mary Pickford triple feature on Friday.

    Monday, April 4

    8:00am – TCM – Mrs. Miniver
    One of the more celebrated World War II home front films has Greer Garson in an Oscar-winning turn as the stalwart title character, holding her home together against the German Blitz. It’s the kind of movie that could only be made in 1942, and it won awards all over the place. It comes off a bit over-earnest today, though.
    1942 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright.

    10:30am – IFC – Barton Fink
    One of the Coen Brothers’ most brilliant dark comedies, 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.

    8:00pm – TCM – Gone With the Wind
    Margaret Mitchell’s sprawling best-seller became David O. Selznick’s sprawling epic, the story of spoiled southern belle Scarlett O’Hara coping with the horrors of unrequited love, threats to her family’s plantation, and oh, yeah, the Civil War. Gone With the Wind needs no introduction, really.
    1939 USA. Director: Victor Fleming. Starring: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel.
    Must See

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Mar

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    Film on TV: March 28 – April 3

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    Elevator to the Gallows, playing Monday on TCM.

    Tuesday is the last day for TCM’s Jean Harlow tribute, with a couple of films I’ve seen and a couple I haven’t (and thus didn’t highlight), then they’ve got a short series of sparkling Lubitsch comedies on Wednesday night. Somehow I apparently haven’t ever had a chance to feature the original Frankenstein in this column, which I find surprising, but it’s coming up on Saturday – probably my favorite of the Universal monster cycle. Also don’t miss Louis Malle’s great proto-New Wave Elevator to the Gallows late Monday night, or extremely solid British noir The Fallen Idol on Wednesday. Most everything else has played before, but there’s still some definite gems in there.

    Monday, March 28

    8:00pm – TCM – Annie Hall
    Often considered Woody Allen’s transition film from “funny Woody” to “serious Woody,” Annie Hall is both funny, thoughtful, and fantastic. One of the best scripts ever written, a lot of warmth as well as paranoid cynicism, and a career-making role for Diane Keaton (not to mention fashion-making).
    1977 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane.
    Must See

    11:45pm – TCM – Elevator to the Gallows
    A jazz-infused odyssey through Paris juxtaposing Maurice Ronet being caught in an elevator after murdering his boss, and his fiance Jeanne Moreau’s attempts to find Maurice, unsuspecting his plight. A fresh breath of barely pre-New Wave crime from Louis Malle, with Miles Davis’ score tying everything together gorgeously.
    1957 France. Director: Louis Malle. Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly.
    Must See
    Newly Featured!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Mar

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    Film on TV: March 21-27

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    Open City, playing on TCM late Sunday/early Monday

    Very few newly featured ones this week, but still a lot worth seeing, both new and repeated. TCM’s tribute to Jean Harlow continues on Tuesday – I’ve only highlighted Red Dust, as the only one I’ve seen, but I’m hoping to check out Wife vs. Secretary and Saratoga (her final film) myself. Also look out for Sam Fuller’s B-movie thriller Shock Corridor on Wednesday, a mini-marathon of David Lean films on Friday, the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers on Saturday, and Neorealist classic Open City late Sunday/early Monday.

    Monday, March 21

    6:15am – 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.
    (repeats at 2:45pm)

    6:20am – Sundance – Ran
    Akira Kurosawa’s inspired transposition of King Lear into medieval Japan, mixing Shakespeare and Japanese Noh theatre tradition like nobody’s business.
    1985 Japan. Director: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu.
    Must See
    (repeats at 1:50pm)

    10:30am – 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 4:35pm)

    2:30am (22nd) – TCM – The Seven Samurai
    Probably Kurosawa’s best-known film, The Seven Samurai is an eastern version of a Western, with down-on-their-luck samurai (led by Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune) working together to help a ravaged village hold off bandit invaders. Completing the cycle of cinematic borrowing, the film was remade in the US as The Magnificent Seven.
    1954 Japan. Director: Akira Kurosawa. Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima.
    Must See

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 14 Mar

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    Film on TV: March 14-20

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    Band of Outsiders, playing on TCM late Sunday/early Monday

    This month sees continuing tributes to Jean Harlow (Tuesday, note especially Libeled Lady, easily on of her best) and MOMA (Wednesday) on TCM, as well as a Jean-Luc Godard double feature late Sunday/early Monday that you should not miss if you share my film taste at all – both Band of Outsiders and Breathless are in my all-time Top 50. Beyond that, don’t miss classic hesit film Rififi on Thursday, and hilarious comic western The Paleface (costarring the recently deceased Jane Russell) on Saturday.

    Monday, March 14

    10:45pm – TCM – The Man from Laramie
    One of several westerns that James Stewart and Anthony Mann made together, and this one is one of the most solid; in this one, Stewart is a wagon train leader who gets pulled into a territorial feud against his will when one side torches his wagons. These westerns begin to show the dark side of the west, where the hero is only a hero because it’s expedient for him, or because he has some personal gain to get out of it.
    1955 USA. Director: Anthony Mann. Starring: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O’Donnell.

    12:45am (15th) – TCM – Strangers on a Train
    Guy Haines is a tennis star all set to marry into a posh, loving family, if it weren’t for that pesky and annoying wife he’s already got – a problem that fellow train-passenger Bruno has a solution for: all Guy has to do is kill Bruno’s troublesome father and Bruno will take care of Guy’s wife. This criss-cross setup begins one of Hitchcock’s best films, full of memorable shots and set-pieces, not to mention one of the most mesmerizingly psychotic performances in all of cinema in Robert Walker’s portrayal of Bruno.
    1951 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Patricia Hitchcock, Leo G. Carroll, Laura Elliott.
    Must See

    2:45am (15th) – TCM – The Graduate
    One of the classic coming-of-age stories, with Dustin Hoffman in one of his first roles as the recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock. Unsure of what to do with his life after college, he takes advantage of his family’s upper middle-class wealth and does nothing – oh, except for fall into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, his father’s partner’s wife. When Elaine Robinson returns home from Berkeley, Benjamin’s attentions waver from mother and daughter. There’s no question that the film has become a cultural milestone.
    1967 USA. Director: Mike Nichols. Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross.
    Must See

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 07 Mar

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    Film on TV: March 7-13

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    City Lights, playing Tuesday on TCM

    Make note of TCM’s marathon of swashbuckler films on Monday, a few of which I’ve noted, but there are more that I haven’t seen and thus didn’t write up. If you like the genre, they’re on most of the morning and afternoon. Also note that Jean Harlow is TCM’s star of the month, so they’re playing her films Tuesday evenings all month – I happen not to have seen any of the ones this week (including Red-Headed Woman), but look out for those if you’re interested, and I’m sure I’ll highlight some in the weeks to come. Chaplin’s City Lights plays on Tuesday, which is apparently a newly featured film for this column, a fact that surprised me a bit. It’s a good one, don’t miss it if you haven’t seen it. Most everything else has played before, but there are still a TON of gems this week, and a lot of variety to enjoy.

    Monday, March 7

    6:15am – TCM – The Mark of Zorro (1920)
    Douglas Fairbanks’ silent version of the Zorro story, detailing Zorro’s exploits against the colonial government in Spanish California. I love the Zorro story, but haven’t made it to this Fairbanks film yet…glad to see it pop up on TCM.
    1920 USA. Director: Fred Niblo. Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Noah Beery, Marguerite De La Motte.
    Newly Featured!

    7:00am – Sundance – Man on Wire
    One of last year’s most highly-acclaimed documentaries tells the story of high-wire walker Philippe Petit as he embarks on perhaps his most dangerous stunt yet.
    2008 UK/USA. Director: James Marsh. Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau.
    (repeats at 2:45pm)

    8:15am – IFC – The Station Agent
    One of the most pleasant surprises (for me, anyway) of 2003. Peter Dinklage moves into a train depot to indulge his love for trains and stay away from people, only to find himself befriended by a loquacious Cuban hot-dog stand keeper and an emotionally delicate Patricia Clarkson. A quiet but richly rewarding film.
    2003 USA. Director: Thomas McCarthy. Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale.
    (repeats at 3:45pm)

    10:00am – TCM – The Three Musketeers (1948)
    This is not the best version of The Three Musketeers, maybe not even in the top three best versions. But where else are you going to see Gene Kelly in a non-musical role as a swashbuckling hero? Nowhere. That’s where.
    1948 USA. Director: George Sidney. Starring: Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Angela Lansbury.
    Newly Featured!

    2:00pm – 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.

    5:45pm – IFC – Maria Full of Grace
    Once in a while a film comes out of nowhere and floors me – this quiet little film about a group of South American women who agree to smuggle drugs into the United States by swallowing packets of cocaine did just that. Everything in the film is perfectly balanced, no element overwhelms anything else, and it all comes together with great empathy, but without sentimentality.
    2004 USA. Director: Joshua Marston. Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza, Yenny Paola Vega.
    (repeats at 8:45am on the 8th)

    9:30pm – TCM – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
    Perhaps the definition of Hollywood Gothic, with aging stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as aging former actresses. Davis was a child star whose glory was utterly usurped by sister Crawford as they grew up, making her bitterly long for their roles to be switched again. Add in a crippling car accident, psychological abuse, and delusions of continued fame, and you have an engrossing (and deliciously campy) cult film and possibly one of Davis’s best performances ever.
    1962 USA. Director: Robert Aldrich. Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Wesley Addy, Maidie Norman.

    12:00M – TCM – The Uninvited (1944)
    Not to be confused with the 2009 film The Uninvited, which is actually a remake of Korea’s A Tale of Two Sisters, this unrelated ghost story film is a lovely example of a certain style of 1940s horror – quiet, understated, atmospheric, and yet chilling and haunting.
    1944 USA. Director: Lewis Allen. Starring: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp.

    1:45am (8th) – 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.

    3:45am (8th) – TCM – Do the Right Thing
    Probably Spike Lee’s best film, chronicling a few sweltering days in the New York Bed-Sty neighborhood, with escalating racial relations threatening all-out war between the African-American and Italian contingents in the area.
    1989 USA. Director: Spike Lee. Starring: Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, Giancarlo Escondito, Bill Nunn.
    Must See

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Feb

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    Film on TV: March 1-6

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    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

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Feb

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    Film on TV: February 21-27

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    La Strada, playing on TCM late Wednesday/early Thursday

    A lot of good repeats this week on all channels, with a good chunk of newly featured Oscar winners on TCM, still celebrating Academy Award nominees throughout February. This week TCM has edged into much newer films than they usually show, but still solidly in the “great movie” category. Note especially Amadeus and Thelma & Louise on Tuesday, a triple Fellini feature overnight on Wednesday/Thursday, and serial killer Oscar-sweeper The Silence of the Lambs on Saturday.

    Monday, February 21

    7:35am – Sundance – A Town Called Panic
    One of the most delightful films I saw in 2009, a whacked out stop-motion film from Belgium that follows Horse, Cowboy, and Indian throughout a series of adventures, mostly focused on trying to rebuild their house which keeps getting stolen every night. This is mile-a-minute absurdity with more inventiveness in 75 minutes than I usually see all year.
    2009 Belium. Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar. Starring: Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Bruce Ellison, Vincent Pater.
    (repeats at 12:20pm and 5:50pm)

    10:45am – IFC – The New World
    Terrence Malick may not make many films, but the ones he does make, wow. Superficially the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, The New World is really something that transcends mere narrative – this is poetry on film. Every scene, every shot has a rhythm and an ethereal that belies the familiarity of the story we know. I expected to dislike this film when I saw it, quite honestly. It ended up moving me in ways I didn’t know cinema could.
    2005 USA. Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Colin Farrell, Q’orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer.
    Must See

    10:00pm – TCM – The Best Years of Our Lives
    One of the first films to deal with the aftermath of WWII, as servicemen return home to find both themselves and their homes changed by the long years of war. Director William Wyler and a solid ensemble cast do a great job of balancing drama and realism without delving too much into sentimentality.
    1946 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Herbert Russell, Cathy O’Donnell.

    1:00am (22nd) – TCM – Pygmalion
    A straight non-musical version of the George Bernard Shaw play that would later become My Fair Lady, with Leslie Howard as the prickly Professor Higgins who takes in street vendor Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) to turn her into a lady. A bit more acidic than the musical version.
    1938 USA. Director: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard. Starring: Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr.
    Newly Featured!

    2:00am (22nd) – 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.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 14 Feb

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    Film on TV: February 14-20

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    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, playing on Monday on IFC.

    More Oscar-winning goodness from TCM this week, along with a few notable films on the other channels – more must-see additions than usual. Make sure to check out Julian Schnabel’s lovely The Diving Bell and the Butterfly on Monday on IFC, Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion on late Tuesday/early Wednesday on TCM, Frank Capra’s Lady for a Day on Wednesday on TCM, and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing Thursday on TCM. All those are fantastic and well worth your time, plus there’s plenty more greats among the repeats.

    Monday, February 14

    10:00am – TCM – The More the Merrier
    A World War II housing shortage has Charles Coburn, Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur sharing an apartment; soon Coburn is matchmaking for McCrea and Arthur, and we get a wonderful, adorable romance out of it.
    1943 USA. Director: George Stevens. Starring: Jane Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn.

    10:30am – IFC – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
    Julian Schnabel’s intensely moving retelling of the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was almost completely paralyzed in a car accident, able only to move his left eye. The impressionist storytelling lends an otherworldly beauty to the film, already solid due to the script and acting.
    2007 France. Director: Julian Schnabel. Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze.
    Must See
    Newly Featured!

    4:00pm – TCM – The Philadelphia Story
    Katharine Hepburn is Tracy Lord, a spoiled socialite about to marry Ralph Bellamy when ex-husband Cary Grant turns up. Throw in newspaper columnist James Stewart and his photographer Ruth Hussey, along with a bunch of great character actors filling out the cast, and you have both rollicking wedding preparations and one of the best films ever made.
    1940 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Katharaine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, Ralph Bellamy, Virginia Weidler.
    Must See

    10:00pm – TCM – Casablanca
    Against all odds, one of the best films Hollywood has ever produced, focusing on Bogart’s sad-eyed and world-weary expatriot Rick Blaine, his former lover Ingrid Bergman, and her current husband Paul Henreid, who needs safe passage to America to escape the Nazis and continue his work with the Resistance. It’s the crackling script that carries the day here, and the wealth of memorable characters that fill WWII Casablanca with life and energy.
    1943 USA. Director: Michael Curtiz. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains.
    Must See

    12:00M – TCM – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
    One of Humphrey Bogart’s best films casts him as greedy prospector Fred C. Dobbs, who teams up with old-timer Walter Huston and youngster Tim Holt to find a horde of gold. Along the way, they uncover instead the darker sides of human nature. One of director John Huston’s most impressive films.
    1948 USA. Director: John Huston. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, Walter Huston.
    Must See

    2:15am (15th) – TCM – Victor/Victoria
    Pretty classic among gender-switching comedies, this one has Julie Andrews as a singer who finds she has more success pretending to be a man working as a female impersonator. Lots of fun and confusion ensues.
    1982 UK/USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston.
    Newly Featured!

    6:15am (15th) – Sundance – A Town Called Panic
    One of the most delightful films I saw in 2009, a whacked out stop-motion film from Belgium that follows Horse, Cowboy, and Indian throughout a series of adventures, mostly focused on trying to rebuild their house which keeps getting stolen every night. This is mile-a-minute absurdity with more inventiveness in 75 minutes than I usually see all year.
    2009 Belium. Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar. Starring: Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Bruce Ellison, Vincent Pater.
    (repeats at 11:50pm on the 17th and 4:20am on the 18th)

    6:30am – TCM – Au revoir, les enfants
    A new boy arrives at a French school and becomes close friends with one of the French boys. But it’s the early 1940s and the new boy turns out to be Jewish, and hiding from the Nazis. Louis Malle directs this achingly lovely portrait of schoolboy friendship in an uncertain time.
    1987 France. Director: Louis Malle. Starring: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö, Francine Racette.

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  • 06 Feb

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    Film on TV: February 7-13

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    Red.jpg
    Red, playing late Tuesday/early Wednesday on TCM.

    More Oscar-nominated goodness from TCM this week, including some that are more current than TCM’s usual fare, though no less worthy of inclusion, like 1994′s Red, one of my all-time favorites, playing in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. See also political thriller Z on Wednesday on TCM, Danny Boyle’s reinvigoration of the zombie genre in 28 Days Later on IFC on Friday, and holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street on TCM on Sunday. And don’t miss TCM’s all-day tribute to 1939, one of the best years of film in all of cinema history.

    Monday, February 7

    12:00N – TCM – Libeled Lady
    Throw William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Jean Harlow all together in an MGM comedy, and you’re almost guaranteed a winner. And Libeled Lady delivers with a twisty story, fast-talking script, and the best these stars have to offer.
    1936 USA. Director: Jack Conway. Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin.

    12:30pm – IFC – Spirited Away
    Often considered Hayao Miyazaki’s finest film, it’s easily among the best family-friendly animated films in existence, full of magic and wonder, gods and spirits, and shapeshifting spells.
    2001 Japan. Director: Hayao Miyazaki. Starring: Rumi Hiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki.

    5:15pm – TCM – South Pacific
    This is actually one of my least favorite Rodgers & Hammerstein films, yet it has one of my favorite Rodgers & Hammerstein scores. I think I just never liked the use of colored filters in the film. Yet, I do love the score.
    1958 USA. Director: Joshua Logan. Starring: Rosanno Brazzi, Mitzi Gaynor, France Nuyen.

    10:00pm – TCM – Mrs. Miniver
    One of the more celebrated World War II home front films has Greer Garson in an Oscar-winning turn as the stalwart title character, holding her home together against the German Blitz. It’s the kind of movie that could only be made in 1942, and it won awards all over the place. It comes off a bit over-earnest today, though.
    1942 USA. Director: William Wyler. Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 31 Jan

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    Film on TV: Jan 31-Feb 6

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    Breathless, playing on TCM on Monday.

    February launches TCM’s “31 Days of Oscar” festival, wherein every film they program has been nominated for an Academy Award. What this means: lots and lots and lots of very good films on TCM this month. Not everything is great, since a film could’ve been nominated for Best Sound Design in 1947 and that’s it (plus the Academy is far from perfect in their choices), but the concentration of good-to-great films is always very high in February on TCM. And this week is no exception – a lot of the things playing we’ve featured before, but do look through because there’s a ton of great stuff. A few new-to-this-column highlights: Godard’s Breathless on Monday, Thomas More biopic A Man for All Seasons on Tuesday, a quartet of Jack Nicholson films on Wednesday, solid courtroom thriller Witness for the Prosecution and still-powerful anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front on Thursday, and first-ever Best Picture Winner Wings on Sunday. Also, Sundance has Charlize Theron’s Oscar winner Monster and young Che Guevara biopic The Motorcycle Diaries on Thursday, then awesomely absurd stop-motion A Town Called Panic on Friday. Plus more I didn’t mention.

    Monday, January 31

    7:55pm – Sundance – L’auberge espagnole
    A French student moves into an apartment with six other people in Barcelona. The interactions of these roommates with diverse cultural backgrounds and personalities forms the basis of the film as a whole, which may be short on plot but is great on the interpersonal relations and conversations that the French are so good at putting on film.
    2002 France. Director: Cédric Klapisch. Starring: Romain Duris, Judith Godrèche, Kelly Reilly.
    (repeats at 4:05am on the 1st)

    8:00pm – TCM – Breathless
    One of the most iconic films of the French New Wave, and incredibly influential in films ever since. Jean-Paul Belmondo redefines cool as a petty thief who’s more interested in seducing American in Paris Jean Seberg. The breezy mixture of romance, crime drama, realistic location shooting, and artsy style make Breathless often imitated, but never matched.
    1960 France. Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg.
    Must See
    Newly Featured!

    11:35pm – 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, forced to defend herself as her crew gets devoured by the insidious alien.
    1979 USA. Director: Ridley Scott. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt.

    2:00am (1st) – TCM – The Tramp and the Dictator
    A documentary examining the parallel lives of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler; I’m curious to see how this goes, given Chaplin’s outspoken opposition to Hitler (culminating in The Great Dictator, programmed next, conveniently enough).
    2002 USA. Director: Kevin Brownlow. Starring: Walter Bernstein, Ray Bradbury, Sydney Chaplin.
    Newly Featured!

    3:00am (1st) – TCM – The Great Dictator
    Chaplin’s first completely talking film, and one in which he doesn’t play his Little Tramp character. Instead, he’s both Hitler and a Jewish man who looks strikingly like Hitler. This obviously creates confusion. Brilliantly scathing satire – it always amazes me that it was made as early as 1940.
    1940 USA. Director: Charles Chaplin. Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard.
    Must See
    (repeats at 3:00pm on the 1st)

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 23 Jan

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    Film on TV: January 24-30

    6
    Pandoras-Box.jpg
    Pandora’s Box, playing on TCM late Sunday/early Monday

    The last week of TCM’s tribute to Hal Roach finishes up on Tuesday with a few Laurel and Hardy sound films and some other comedies, then switch comedy styles entirely to European sophistication with Love Me Tonight on Wednesday and Trouble in Paradise (along with a bunch of other Lubitsch films) on Friday. Don’t miss the classic silent Pandora’s Box on Sunday/early Monday, plus lots of other great repeats on all channels.

    Monday, January 24

    7:45am – 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.
    (repeats at 2:00pm)

    Tuesday, January 25

    7:40am – 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 11:35am)

    9:50am – 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.
    (repeats at 4:20pm)

    4:45pm – 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 10:15am on the 26th)

    7:00pm – IFC – Monty Python’s Life of Brian
    After dismantling the King Arthur legends, Monty Python turn their attention to the Bible itself, satirically suggesting what might happen if a random 1st century baby got mistaken for the Messiah. Irreverent and hilarious, though not as consistently so for me as Holy Grail.
    1979 UK. Director: Terry Jones. Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin.
    (repeats at 4:00am on the 26th)

    8:00pm – TCM – Sons of the Desert
    One of Laurel and Hardy’s better known films has them making up stories to tell their wives so they can attend a convention – but that story doesn’t hold up for long. TCM’s finishing up their tribute to Hal Roach Studios tonight with several comedies moving into the ’30s and ’40s, including more Laurel and Hardy later in the evening.
    1933 USA. Director: William A. Seiter. Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase.
    Newly Featured!

    10:30pm – TCM – Topper
    Cary Grant and Constance Bennett are hard-living young couple who crash their fancy car after a night of drinking and end up as ghosts. They choose to spend their afterlife haunting Grant’s uptight boss Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) and teaching him to enjoy life again. Something of a screwball comedy without the battle of the sexes part; slight but a lot of fun. If you like the Topper films, the two sequels are playing on Wednesday at 10am and 2:45pm.
    1937 USA. Director: Norman Z. McLeod. Starring: Roland Young, Cary Grant, Constance Bennett.

    11:35pm – IFC – Blood Simple
    The Coen Brothers’ first feature is already a pretty good indication of their style – a noirish thriller with a black comedy edge where everything goes more and more wrong the more people try to fix their mistakes. When the “mistakes” involve murder, leaving evidence at murder scenes, and having the worst time ever trying to get rid of a body, you’re in for a good time at pretty much every character’s expense.
    1984 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh.

    1:35am (26th) – IFC – The Proposition
    Australia’s answer to the western; Guy Pearce must hunt down and capture his brothers for the law in order to save his own skin. Gritty and violent almost to a fault, and it definitely brought new life to the Western genre.
    2005 Australia. Director: John Hillcoat. Starring: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone.

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