Posts Tagged ‘Les Diaboliques’

  • 07 Jun

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    Film on TV: June 7-13

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    Caché, playing on IFC on Friday

    This week, look out for TCM’s memorial tribute to Dennis Hopper, with four of his films on Tuesday night, culminating in the iconic Easy Rider. Also, Thursday would be Judy Garland’s birthday, so TCM has a marathon for that, with a few good, off-beat choices, and a few pretty mediocre films, but your mileage may vary. IFC’s also bringing out a few new ones, including Thank You For Smoking on Wednesday and Caché on Friday. Also newly featured this week, classic cop-and-car-chase movie Bullitt, on TCM on Saturday. And something I’m not sure has ever happened before – both IFC and TCM are playing Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic thriller Les Diaboliques, so look out for it on either channel.

    Monday, June 7

    8:30m – IFC – Mon Oncle
    Jacques Tati’s Chaplin-esque character, Mr. Hulot, this time takes on modern life in the form of his sister’s house that has been mechanized with all the most modern electronic aids – think Disney’s 1950s House of Tomorrow. Of course, everything goes wrong, hilariously.
    1958 France. Director: Jacques Tati. Starring: Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Servantie, Jean-François Martial.
    (repeats at 2:05pm)

    11:30am – TCM – Some Came Running
    Frank Sinatra gets to prove his acting chops again as a cynical soldier returning to his small-town home. Shirley MacLaine is a revelation, and Dean Martin gets probably his best role, as well. Meanders a bit in the middle, but thanks to strong performances and incredibly well-done yet subtle mise-en-scene from Minnelli, ends up staying more memorable than you might expect.
    1959 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine.

    12:15pm – IFC – Crimes and Misdemeanors
    When Martin Landau’s long-time mistress threatens to expose their affair unless he marries her, he’s faced with the decision to let her ruin his life and career or have her murdered. In a tangentially and thematically-related story, Woody Allen is a documentary filmmaker forced into making a profile of a successful TV producer rather than the socially-conscious films he wants to make. One of Allen’s most thoughtful and philosophically astute films – there are few answers here, but the questions will stay in your mind forever.
    1989 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Claire Bloom, Joanna Gleason.
    Must See

    8:00pm – IFC – A Fish Called Wanda
    It’s not a Monty Python picture, but with John Cleese and Michael Palin on board as participants in a zany crime story, along with ambiguous-relationshiped Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline, it has some of the same absurd charm.
    1988 USA/UK. Director: Charles Crichton. Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson.
    (repeats at 3:00am and 1:05pm on the 8th)

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  • 19 Oct

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    Film on TV: October 19-25th

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    Monty Python and the Holy Grail, playing on IFC at 10:00pm on Monday, October 19th (with several repeats).

     

    Mostly repeats this week again. Of the new stuff, check out IFC’s ongoing tribute to Monty Python, which has Holy Grail and Life of Brian playing a couple of nights each, as well as a bunch of Flying Circus episodes and other archival docs and footage of the zany comedy group. That’s going on every weeknight starting at 6pm EST, I do believe. Also watch out for Shadow of the Vampire on IFC on Saturday night and its inspiration, the original Nosferatu on TCM late Sunday night.

    Monday, October 19th

    5:15am – Sundance – Nights of Cabiria
    Nights of Cabiria, one of the films Federico Fellini made during his sorta-neo-realist phase, casts Masina as a woman of the night, following her around almost non-committally, yet with a lot of care and heart. And Masina is simply amazing in everything she does – not classically beautiful, but somehow incredibly engaging for every second she’s onscreen.
    1957 Italy. Director: Federico Fellini. Starring: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi.
    Must See

    7:35am – IFC – Jules et Jim
    Jules and Jim are best friends. Then Catherine falls into their lives like a hurricane – she’s almost a force of chaotic primal nature. She marries Jules, but when Jim reconnects with the couple after WWII (in which the two friends fought on opposite sides), their relationship gets…um…complicated. This is one of the classics of the New Wave, and exemplifies the movement’s realistic style, dispassionate camera and narration, and intellectual pursuits.
    1963 France. Director: François Truffaut. Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre.
    (repeats at 12:35pm)

    10:00pm – IFC – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    Easily one of the most absurd, random, hilarious, and quotable comedies of all time. A more hapless bunch of Round Table knights couldn’t be found, and Monty Python has never been better than they are here.
    1975 UK. Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones. Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones.
    Must See
    Newly Featured!
    (repeats at 1:00am on the 20th, 10:00pm on the 22nd, and 1:00am on the 23rd)

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  • 01 Jun

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    Film on TV: June 1-7

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    Persona
    Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, playing at 12:30am on the 5th on TCM

    I‘ve been posting these TV schedule recommendation run-downs on my blog for a few months, and it was suggested I crosspost them over here as well. This turned out to be a good time to start, at least for classic movie fans, because Turner Classic Movies is apparently highlighting a different Great Director every night in June, showing some of their best movies. That means they are showing a BOATLOAD of great films. I’ve included a tiny intro to each director – note that after the director blurb, all the rest of the films that day on TCM are by that director. There may be films on other channels interspersed, because I’ve kept the times chronological.

    These tend to lean heavily on TCM, because studio-era films are where my film knowledge is the strongest. I throw in films from IFC and Sundance as well, but not as many, frankly because I don’t know as many of them; if you have other channels you’d like me to include, let me know. And if any other R3 writers want to fill out the IFC and Sundance portions a bit more in the future let me know. Oh, and this month it’s going to lean especially heavily on TCM, because of the Great Director theme. I normally don’t pick almost EVERY SINGLE FILM on TCM for these posts, I swear.

    All times are Eastern Standard.

    Monday, June 1

    9:30am – TCM – Love Affair (1939)
    This film is not as well known as its remake, 1957′s An Affair to Remember, which has the advantage of having the more famous Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr rather than Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer – who were both huge stars at the time, but are less known now. Both films were directed by Leo McCarey, and tell of a shipboard romance and a fateful rendezvous. I actually like Love Affair a tad better, but that could be just because I like being contrarian.

    2:30pm – 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. Must See

    6:15pm – TCM – The Awful Truth
    This is one of the definitive screwball comedies (along with Bringing Up Baby), starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a married couple who constantly fight and decide to divorce, only to wind up meddling in each other’s lives (and screw up other relationship attempts) because they just can’t quit each other. Dunne’s impersonation of a Southern belle showgirl is a highlight. Must See

    8:00pm – IFC – Clerks
    Kevin Smith’s first feature, done for cheap, has become a cult classic, and though I think he’s done better films since Clerks, it’s definitely a worthwhile watch.
    (repeats at 2:05am on the 2nd)

    TCM – Great Director: John Ford
    TCM starts off their celebration of great directors with John Ford, usually considered one of the greatest auteurs of the American studio era. He’s best known for westerns (like Stagecoach and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, playing tonight) and war films, but turned out plenty of quality dramas as well (like The Quiet Man). Disappointingly, TCM is not playing The Searchers, arguably his best film. Pick it up on Blu-ray, though – it’s not very expensive and it looks incredible.

    10:00pm – TCM – Stagecoach
    Major breakthrough for John Wayne, here playing outlaw Cisco Kid – he and the various other people on a stagecoach form a cross-section of old West society that has to learn to get on together to make it to the end of the ride alive. The most memorable, though, is Claire Trevor’s prostitute – a woman who does what she must to survive, and is shunned by everyone except Wayne. Her reaction to him treating her as a lady is perfect. Must See

    2:00am (2nd) – TCM – The Quiet Man
    John Wayne plays a retired boxer returning to his ancestral home in Ireland, where he meets spitfire Maureen O’Hara and decides to marry her. She’s game, except her somewhat boorish brother Victor McLaglen disapproves and refuses to give up her dowry, and tradition is tradition! A great supporting cast of character actors and an epic (and comic) boxing match round out The Quiet Man into one of the most entertaining and endearing films John Ford ever made. Though I will say the last time I watched it, I was a little more concerned by its gender politics than I had been in the past.

    4:15am (2nd) – TCM – She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
    The first of John Ford’s informal “Cavalry trilogy,” which continued with Fort Apache and Rio Grande – all three films star John Wayne, though they’re unrelated in plot and character. Technically, I guess that makes them both westerns and war films, doesn’t it? Heh.

    Tuesday through Sunday after the jump, highlighting Frank Capra, King Vidor, Ingmar Bergman, Steven Spielberg, William Wyler, and Michael Curtiz. And other random films, of course.

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