TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday February 24 2009 through Monday March 2 2009
By John Seal
February 23, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 02/24/09
3:10 AM Encore Love Stories
Starcrossed (1985 USA): A rarely seen ABC Movie-of-the-Week, this rather pallid sci-fi love story stars Belinda Bauer as Mary the Alien, a space fugitive who falls to Earth and promptly falls in love with helpful Boston Irishman Joey (James Spader), who does his level best to return the favor whilst helping her return home. Attitudes towards inter-galactic, interspecies sex being what they are, however, their relationship is, indeed, star-crossed, and the two realize they must remain light-years apart or risk the wrath of religious fundamentalists and genetic ethicists throughout the Solar System. This used to play a lot on the Lifetime channel, so rest assured there are no space battles, chest-bursting aliens, or invisible predators prowling around Starcrossed's sets. It doesn't add up to a whole bunch, and the special effects are lousy, but Bauer and Spader are decent enough to elevate this to tolerable time waster level.
7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Four Days of Naples (1962 ITA): I don't think I've seen this film since I was a teenager, and all I remember about it is that someone drives a jeep at some point. Not much to go on, I know, but hey — Four Days of Naples was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1963, so it's gotta be worth your while. Directed by Nanni Loy, this late example of neo-realism follows the exploits of the Neapolitan resistance movement as they battle the German occupiers circa 1944. Some of my favorite Euro stars of the '60s show up here, including legendary American expat thesp Frank Wolff as Salvatore, a Giuseppe Six-Pack locking and loading on behalf of the people, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly's Aldo Giuffre as an artilleryman, and Gian Maria Volonte as an army officer.
2:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Gervaise (1956 FRA): Director Rene Clement is revered — and rightly so — for films such as Forbidden Games (1952) and Purple Noon (1960). Here's one of his more obscure efforts, an adaptation of Emile Zola's 1877 novel L'Assomoir, and it's just as good as either of those classics. Lovely Maria Schell stars as the titular Parisian, a single mom laundress with two children and hard feelings for in-abstentia deadbeat dad Auguste (Armand Mestral). Gervaise finds love with zinc worker Coupeau (Francois Perier from Z and Le Cercle Rouge) and even manages to open her own business — but when Coupeau falls off a roof and then falls victim to demon rum and Auguste shows up again, things begin to slide downhill. A festival favorite that also earned an Academy Award nomination, Gervaise makes its TCM debut this afternoon.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Burmese Harp (1956 JAP): One of the greatest of all Japanese films, Kon Ichikawa's Burmese Harp makes a very rare American television appearance this evening. Shoji Yasui stars as foot soldier Private Mizushima, who entertains his fellow Imperial troops by playing the titular instrument whilst they wait out the end of World War II in the Burmese jungle. As his unit prepares to surrender to the British Army, Mizushima is sent on a special mission by Captain Inouye (Rentaro Mikuni): to tell his fellow soldiers on Triangle Mountain that the Emperor has surrendered, and that they should also lay down their arms. Mizushima fails in his mission and becomes an itinerant Buddhist priest, more by happenstance than conviction, and embarks upon a physical and spiritual journey across the corpse-strewn landscape. If you're an admirer of Ichikawa's 1959 war epic Fires on the Plain, you need to make time for The Burmese Harp, which features a suitably brooding score from the incomparable Akira Ifukube, who would go on to compose the unforgettable Gojira theme in 1956.
Wednesday 02/25/09
2:00 AM HBO Signature
Maldeamores (2007 PUR): Written and directed by Puerto Rican filmmaker Carlitos Ruiz Ruiz, Maldeamores (Lovesickness) is an anthology examining the various stages, shades, and styles of love. The film consists of three stories, beginning with a segment featuring Luis Guzman as a faithless husband, continuing with the tale of a man so besotted with a bus driver that he hijacks her vehicle, and concluding with the story of 70-something lovers entangled in a love triangle. Guzman is great as usual, and was clearly the box office draw, but the unfamiliar faces in the cast are uniformly fine, with septuagenarian Silvia Brito's performance being of particular note. Maldeamores opened wide in New York City, where there's a huge Puerto Rican diaspora, and drew some attention on the festival circuit, but gets its first widespread exposure this morning on HBO's commendable Signature channel.
Thursday 02/26/09
7:00 PM Sundance
Nothing But a Man (1964 USA): Ivan Dixon is best remembered today thanks to his recurring role as Kinch in Hogan's Heroes, but his resume includes work of much greater substance than that shallow if amusing sitcom. Dixon was one of the first African-American actors to get regular employment on television, and also starred in this superb independent drama about life in the Jim Crow south. He takes the lead as Duff Anderson, a railroad laborer who takes a liking to preacher's daughter Josie (lovely Abbey Lincoln) after the two meet at a church social. Josie's parents don't approve of the relationship, but the two are determined to overcome their opposition — until Duff gets cold feet thanks to the intervention of hard drinking, hard loving co-worker Jocko (Yaphet Kotto), who encourages him to set his sights a little lower on the social scale. Co-starring Julius Harris, Gloria Foster, and Esther Rolle, Nothing But a Man was forgotten for many years (I managed to catch it at the Pacific Film Archive in the early '80s), but thanks to DVD and Sundance, is finally beginning to get the attention it deserves. Interesting footnote: though cinematographer, producer, and screenwriter Robert Young would go on to direct such fine films as Short Eyes and Alambrista!, German-born director Michael Roemer has yet to make anything else of note.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Chinatown (1974 USA): The TiVoPlex archives indicate I've never written about Chinatown before. Color me sceptical, but we'll take the archives at their word and give this Roman Polanski historical drama a brief shout out this week. To me, it's worth watching for the Jack Nicholson nose-gouging scene alone (gouging courtesy Polanski himself) — others may find the presence of Faye Dunaway or Robert Towne's script of greater interest. Either way, Jack looks great in his white suit.
Friday 02/27/09
8:30 AM IFC
The Edukators (2004 OST): There must be something in that Austrian water. For those who enjoy the films of Michael Haneke, The Edukators provides similar edgy discomfort via its tale of three radical anti-globalization activists who engage in furniture rearranging in order to get their message across. Really. When their latest act of revolutionary interior design is interrupted by powerful industrialist Hardenburg (Burghart Klaussner), the trio panic and end up kidnapping him, causing unanticipated consequences and a considerable amount of intellectual navel-gazing. Starring Goodbye Lenin's Daniel Bruhl, this is an exceptional intellectual thriller that puts a post-modern twist on the radicalism of the late 1960s and 1970s.
9:00 PM Sundance
A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake (2002 HOL): All but ignored during his lifetime, English folk-rock singer Nick Drake began to transform into a legend during the '90s and is now considered one of the foremost practitioners of the style and an iconic source of inspiration for 21st century wyrd folkies. This brief (48 minute) Dutch documentary summarizes Drake's life and examines his brief three album output, and while it does what it does in fine fashion, it could really have been at least half an hour longer. Nonetheless, for anyone who's ever enjoyed (if that's the right word) one of Drake's poignant, frequently heartbreaking songs (my favorite is At the Chime of a City Clock), this is essential viewing.
5:25 AM IFC
Story of Women (1988 FRA): Isabelle Huppert stars as Marie, a Frenchwoman struggling to keep food on the table during the Nazi occupation, in this uncharacteristically serious Claude Chabrol drama. With husband Paul (Francois Cluzet) away and with no visible means of support, Marie begins to earn extra francs by supplying back alley abortions and renting her spare room to a prostitute (Marie Trintignant). Her standard of living rapidly improves, and she even gets a new boyfriend (Nils Tavernier) — but when Paul unexpectedly returns home, he doesn't take kindly to the changes and alerts the Vichy authorities to his wife's transgressions. This tragic tale, based on true events, is one of Chabrol's best, and airs again at 11:35 AM.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
It Happened Tomorrow (1944 USA): How have I gone all my life without previously seeing this Rene Clair-helmed fantasy? Produced in between two of the director's greatest films, I Married A Witch and And Then There Were None, It Happened Tomorrow stars Dick Powell as a newspaper editor who can foresee the future, including, presumably, this film's two Academy Award nominations (Best Music and Best Sound).