TiVoPlex
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 through Monday, February 9, 2009
By John Seal
February 2, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 02/03/09
4:00 AM Sundance
Refugees of the Blue Planet (2006 FRA-CAN): What will happen to those displaced by increasingly common environmental disasters here on planet Earth? That's the subject of this elegant but disturbing documentary from the National Film Board of Canada. Examining a trio of ecological problems — rising sea levels threatening to inundate the low-lying island nation of The Maldives, Brazilian deforestation, and Canada's own problems with Albertan "sour gas" - the film addresses a critical issue most governments would prefer to ignore, but which isn't about to go away. There's only so much clean, high ground six billion human beings can flee to, and as sea levels rise and pollution worsens, there's less of it every day.
Wednesday 02/04/09
10:30 AM Encore Action
Ladyhawke (1985 USA): Bad fantasy films starting with "L" were the order of the day in the 1980s — Legend or Labyrinth, anyone? — but here's one a notch or two above that motley crew. Ladyhawke actually earned a couple of Oscar noms (though they were, admittedly, technical ones), and features fresh-faced Matthew Broderick as escaped felon Phillipe Gaston, who meets exiled knight Navarre (Rutger Hauer) whilst fleeing from the evil Bishop of Aquila (Shakespearian actor John Wood). The two become allies in the struggle to overthrow the Bishop — but Navarre has had a shape-shifting curse placed upon him for his illicit love affair with Lady Isabeau (the eternally luminous Michelle Pfeiffer), and he transforms into a wolf at awkward moments. Though no classic, Ladyhawke is far from the worst hand dealt us by the sword and sorcery genre during the Big '80s, and is apparently making its American widescreen television debut tonight, rendering it a must-see for fantasy fans.
9:10 PM Encore Western
Man of the East (1972 ITA-ESP): Or, if you saw it in its native Italy, E poi lo Chiamarono il Magnifico! Man of the East features popular-on-the-continent Terence Hill as Sir Thomas Fitzpatrick Phillip Moore, an effete snob sent out west by his father for seasoning and tough love. He meets Bull, Holy Joe, and Monkey (Gregory Walcott, Harry Carey Jr., and Dominic Barto), three of the orneriest critters this side of the Rockies, who help him overcome his fear of fisticuffs, guns, and hard drinking. Hackneyed narrative aside (isn't this virtually the same plot as in 1959's Sheriff of Fractured Jaw?), Man of the East is still an entertaining little picture, and ranks high amongst the "comedy spaghettis" that marked the beginning of the Eurowestern's decline and disappearance.
Thursday 02/05/09
10:00 AM HBO2
Resolved (2007 USA): I recommended this high school debate documentary sight unseen when it debuted on HBO last year. Now that I've seen it, I can confirm that it's the best film yet made about this frequently baffling, oft maddening, and occasionally intellectually stimulating extra-curricular activity. The film focuses on a pair of African-American public speakers from Long Beach who attempt to subvert the debate paradigm, and makes for compelling and thought-provoking viewing. If you missed Resolved the first (or second) time, resolve not to miss it this morning.
5:55 PM Showtime
Sicko (2008 USA): It wasn't the box office phenomenon that was Fahrenheit 9/11, nor was it the incendiary device known as Bowling For Columbine, but in my humble opinion Sicko is Michael Moore's best film yet. Cutting back on the silly gimmicks and concentrating on the factual (and pathetic) inequities of the American "health care system" (if system is not too strong a word), Moore finally got the balance between entertainment and education almost right. Some considered the final reel trip to Cuba showboating akin to Columbine's trip to K-Mart, but Moore got results both times — which is more than you can say for the Department of Health and Human Services. Also airs at 8:55 PM and throughout the month.
11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Carnal Knowledge (1971 USA): The subject of many a snickering playground joke (none of which the tellers or the tellees actually GOT), Carnal Knowledge blew the lid off the sexual revolution — or at least tried to. Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel star as college pals navigating the treacherous waters found within bedrooms nationwide during the 1950s and '60s, when America transitioned from Leave It to Beaver to Beaver Hunt. Though there's little on screen that would now (or even in 1971) be considered shocking, the dialogue is what got the film into trouble with would be censors in Georgia, who seized the film and took their case all the way to the Supreme Court, where they ultimately lost. It'll be interesting to see if TCM shows Carnal Knowledge completely uncut: it's been many years since the channel snipped out bad language, but this will certainly be an acid test for any scissor wielders still stalking the TCM corporate corridors. It's followed at 1:00 AM by the equally infamous, but much more light-hearted, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, in which a pair of suburban couples delicately inch their way towards spouse swapping.
Friday 02/06/09
3:45 PM Showtime
The Great Debaters (2007 USA): More debate fun, this time of the altered historical drama variety, arrives in the shape of last year's undervalued The Great Debaters. Denzel Washington stars as leftist Melvin Tolson, a professor at tiny Wiley College in Texas. Tolson coached the black college's debate team and turned them from underdogs into a respected powerhouse who eventually earned a berth competing against the Ivy Leaguers of the much-vaunted Harvard squad. Though the film takes some liberties with actual events, it's still head and shoulders above the majority of period dramas and is suffused with an angry political radicalism not often seen in American films. Directed by Washington and co-starring Forest Whitaker, The Great Debaters also airs at 6:45 PM and 2/8 on Showtime 3 at 1:00 PM.
4:00 PM Encore
Dr. No (1962 GB): Encore first aired most of the James Bond films in widescreen back in early 2007; they then reverted to pan and scan prints for the entirety of 2008. Now they're airing an impressive 16 Bonds in a row (some more than once), including such essential series' entries as Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Never Say Never Again. Okay, maybe that last one isn't essential, but it is amusing to watch Sean Connery in a hairpiece. I'm not going to list them all, so you'll need to point and click your way towards Encore's online schedule for the full details.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Seven Days to Noon (1950 GB): This odd Boulting Brothers thriller can't help but seem anachronistic these days, but it still has much to recommend it. The story revolves around nuclear scientist John Willingdon (Barry Jones), whose work on the bomb has led him to a dreadful conclusion: he can't live with the results of his work, and feels compelled to set off a nuclear explosion in the heart of London to convince everyone else of the futility of atomic weaponry. Such as unusual thesis certainly wouldn't have been front and center in an American film of the period; what moves the film into anachronistic territory, however, are the credulity-stretching scenes of London being evacuated in extremely orderly fashion once the threat is known. On further reflection, however, those scenes probably made perfect sense at the time: from my 21st century perch, it's near impossible to imagine Londoners patiently queuing for a bus to the country, but in 1950 memories of wartime evacuation would still have been fresh in the minds of the filmmakers and the audience. In this respect, Seven Days to Noon is as much World War II film as apocalypse movie. Screenwriters Roy Boulting and Frank Harvey won 1951's Academy Award for Best Writing, a bit surprising considering the film's political undertones, but well deserved.
Saturday 02/07/09
12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Atomic City (1952 USA): War of the Worlds' Gene Barry stars in this forgotten "nuclear noir" from Paramount. He plays scientist Frank Addison, whose son Tommy (Lee Aaker) is kidnapped by nefarious foreign agents determined to squeeze some hydrogen bomb secrets out of Dad as ransom for his tow-headed offspring. It's up to the jut-jawed men of the FBI to put the kibosh on the commies and rescue poor little Tommy. Though the film is basically a police procedural in atomic age drag, it benefits from good New Mexico location footage and a decent Academy Award nominated screenplay by Sydney Boehm.
7:40 PM Encore Love Stories
Nine 1/2 Weeks (1985 USA): Airing on television for the first time in widescreen, Nine 1/2 Weeks made stars of Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger and featured what were considered to be, in 1985 at least, some very frank and revealing sex scenes. Personally, I think it's pretty bad, but Showgirls bad, which means it's actually really good for a laugh. Some folks like to watch paint dry; I prefer to watch ice cubes melt.
Sunday 02/08/09
6:45 AM IFC
Cousin Cousine (1975 FRA): Long unseen over US airwaves, arthouse hit Cousin Cousine makes a rare appearance this morning on IFC. It stars Marie-Christine Barrault (niece of Jean-Louis) and Victor Lanoux as middle-aged lovers Marthe and Ludovic. She's married to a serial adulterer; he's unable to hold down a job for more than a week or two. Together, they make utterly charming music, engaging in a lengthy platonic affair before getting down to the real nitty-gritty late in the proceedings. Director Jean Charles Tacchella's screenplay was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award (are we detecting a theme?) and the film went on to be a huge success in the mid '70s, when American audiences were open-minded enough to read subtitles.
8:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Mission to Moscow (1943 USA): One of the films later accused of being too nice to our (then) Soviet allies, Mission to Moscow stars Walter Huston as Ambassador Joseph Davies, whose autobiography supplied the basis for Howard Koch's screenplay (which WASN'T nominated for an Academy Award, you'll be relieved to know). Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film is too long and is, indeed, quite generous in its assessment of Stalin and his pals — understandable indiscretions in 1943 that later came to the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee and led to the blacklist, which counted Koch amongst its victims. As a film, Mission to Moscow is pretty boring — even for me, there's a limit to the effectiveness of endless speechifying by Huston — and now is little more than a curate's egg. As social document and propaganda, however, it's priceless.
Monday 02/09/09
1:00 AM Starz
The Counterfeiters (2007 OST): A Holocaust film unlike any other, The Counterfeiters tells the true story of labor camp inmates with a very special assignment: helping produce enough counterfeit Allied currency to bring down the West's financial system and bring glorious victory to the dear old Fatherland! Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, whose earlier film The Inheritors cast a cheeky eye upon Austrian land disputes, the film features Karl Markovics as Salomon Sorowitsch, a highly skilled Jewish counterfeiter sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and assigned to super secret Operation Bernhard. Last year's surprise winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, The Counterfeiters also airs at 4:00 AM.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Angry Silence (1960 GB): Hey, guess which Academy Award The Angry Silence was nominated for? No prizes for a correct answer, I'm afraid. Directed by Guy Green and written by Bryan Forbes, the film features Richard Attenborough as Tom Curtis, a working man less than willing to go along to get along. When his union calls a wildcat strike — and bashes a few heads to keep the awkward squad in line — Tom refuses to cooperate and crosses the picket line. Trouble down at mill ensues. Produced at a time when unions were powerful enough to bring down British governments, The Angry Silence is the serious flipside of Peter Seller's acerbic anti-union comedy I'm All Right, Jack, which had been released a year earlier. It remains uncomfortable viewing for those of us who support the labo(u)r movement, but that aside, Forbes and Attenborough are adept at depicting the damage wrought upon Curtis' family by his steadfast bloody-mindedness.