TiVoPlex
By John Seal
February 27, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 2/28/12
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tristana (1970 ESP): The young Catherine Deneuve stars as a fresh-faced ingenue corrupted by an older man in this typically cheeky and sacrilegious Luis Bunuel feature. Deneuve plays the title character, an underage minor taken into care by guardian Don Lope (Bunuel regular Fernando Rey) after the death of her mother. The salacious Don Lope finagles his way into the orphan’s bed, but she rejects him and takes up with a handsome younger man (Franco Nero) until fate intervenes in the form of a tumorous leg — at which point Tristana finds herself back in Don Lope’s household, this time with the upper hand. As wicked a film as Bunuel ever made, Tristana was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1971 Oscars but lost to Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion.
11:45 AM Sundance
Summer Hours (2008 FRA): My assessment is that Olivier Assayas essayed this family drama of genteel upper middle-class decay. Say that three times fast! Set in the bucolic French countryside, Summer Hours relates the story of an uncomfortable family reunion, ostensibly the celebration of matriarch Helene’s (Eyes Without a Face’s Edith Scob) 75th birthday. With one child in France, one in China, and one in New York, Helene decides this will be the perfect opportunity to get the details of her last will and testament squared away. Sadly, however, her ungrateful offspring (including Juliette Binoche and Jeremie Renier) are uninterested in maintaining the family pile according to her wishes, and you can soon cut the foie gras with a knife. Though films about the trials and tribulations of the well-to-do tend to put me off a bit, Summer Hours provides the legendary Scob with a well-deserved showcase for her considerable talents.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Arabian Nights (1942 USA): It may not be quite as colorful and outrageous as Kenneth Anger’s favorite film of all time, Cobra Woman, but Arabian Nights remains a superior entry in Universal’s short-lived but much loved series of Technicolor fantasies. And what a cast it has! Jon Hall headlines as Haroun, rightful heir to the caliphate of Bagdad but usurped by wicked half-brother Kamar (Leif Erickson). Haroun takes up with exotic dancer Scheherazade (Maria Montez) and cheeky magician Ben Ali (Sabu), and together they plot his return to the throne. It’s as silly and orientalist as all get out, but was nominated for an impressive four Academy Awards (Art Direction, Cinematography, Music, and Sound) and includes the following amongst its supporting cast: Turhan Bey, John Qualen, Shemp Howard, Thomas Gomez, Edgar Barrier, and an uncredited Acquanetta. Phew!
Thursday 3/1/12
2:10 AM Encore Action
Nighthawks (1981 USA): I always get this film confused with 1978’s Nighthawks, a groundbreaking film about gay life in London. Sadly, 1981’s Nighthawks does not include scenes of stars Sly Stallone and Billy Dee Williams knocking boots (Stallone left sex films behind him - so to speak - after 1970’s Party at Kitty and Stud’s), but it is one of the taciturn one’s more enjoyable post-Rocky action flicks. Sly plays Deke DaSilva, a New York copper assigned with consensual partner Matthew Fox (Williams) to nail international terrorist Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer) before he can blow all of New York. I mean, blow up. There’s tons of hot, sweaty, muscle-y action and the cast also includes Joe Spinell, Nigel Davenport and...porn regular Jamie Gillis?!? Now my head is truly spinning. For the few heterosexual gents who’ve got this far, Persis Khambatta also shows up as Wulfgar’s colleague in terror.
6:00 PM Showtime
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010 GB): Directed by guerrilla artist Banksy, Exit Through the Gift Shop is, ostensibly, both a behind the scenes look at the reclusive Englishman’s creative process and a tribute to street art, as seen via video footage shot by an obsessive Frenchman named Thierry Guetta. Guetta, introduced to Banksy’s work by Andre the Giant iconographer (and Obama/Hope poster designer) Shepard Fairey, was entrusted with production of a documentary about the underground art movement. He promptly delivered a (supposedly) unwatchable 90-minute montage of hyper-kinetic cut-ups, here represented by brief excerpts that actually look pretty interesting.
Enter Banksy, who decides he’s the guy to memorialize the movement on film (the result, of course, being the mock/documentary you’re now reading about). He dismisses Guetta from the assignment (why Banksy has authority to do so isn’t made clear), and his former protégé promptly abandons film-making in favor of art installations and painting. Changing his name to Mr. Brainwash, Guetta begins a tireless effort to create a mountainous body of work which will take the art world by storm — and earn himself a pretty penny in the process.
About two-thirds of the way into Exit through the Gift Shop, one begins to get the definite impression that the whole thing is an enormous and elaborate prank. Guetta’s compulsive need to videotape his entire life seems reasonably believable — others do the same thing on YouTube every day — and his entrée into the world of street art isn’t too big a stretch. But when he abandons his camera and dumps his archive of raw video footage on Banksy and then hires a team of craftspeople to help him assemble a massive exhibit in a Los Angeles warehouse, credulity begins to stretch beyond the bounds of reason.
Banksy appears at odd moments throughout his film — in shadow and with voice distorted — while Guetta, complete with 19th-century facial hair and outrageous Franglais accent, shares center stage with Rhys Ifans’ wry narration. Footage of street artists at work, as well as many of Banksy’s most memorable creations — including boxes of counterfeit Sterling (with Princess Diana’s portrait replacing that of H.M. Queen Elizabeth), his infamous Disneyland and West Bank installations, and the elephant that outraged Southland animal rights’ activists — offer proof of the value and power of street art.
Ultimately, however, the film feels like a complete put-on — a two-finger salute to the craven poseurs of the "art world." Hence the film’s title: before leaving the gallery, be sure to spend your hard-earned dosh on the latest objets d’art churned out factory-style by the latest hip discovery — no matter how unoriginal and derivative they may be.
Is Thierry Guetta a real person and a real artist? Based on the evidence presented in Exit through the Gift Shop, I seriously doubt it. The fact that we never see Thierry do anything remotely creative is, perhaps, the (unpainted) elephant in the room, whilst his apparently limitless supply of cash — allowing him to jet around the world on short notice and invest huge sums in blank videotape and art supplies — is of questionable provenance. Does the man have a job, or did he inherit a fortune? We’re never told.
So is the film a Banksy put-on? The film’s truthfulness is, ultimately, neither here nor there: Banksy has made a very good film, and it’s up to the viewer to decide whether or not it’s fact or fiction. Also airs at 9:00 PM.
10:35 PM HBO Signature
Solo Quiero Caminar (2009 ESP-MEX): Or as I prefer to think of it, Savage Sisters - Central American Style. Straddling the line between exploitation and straight crime drama, Solo Quiero Caminar (Just Walking) tells the story of a group of four Mexico City women scheming to get revenge against a scummy drug dealer. The film is a little too long and features a few too many subplots, but it’s extremely well-acted and never boring.
Friday 3/2/12
1:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Up the River (1930 USA): Creaky as it is, this John Ford-helmed prison comedy-drama still has enough juice to warrant a look. Up the River also marked the onscreen debut of not one, but two, significant new acting talents: Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart! The two play cons St Louis and Steve, the former a hard bitten criminal veteran; the latter, a poor little rich boy wrongfully sent up for manslaughter. There’s a jail break, an unrequited love affair, a baseball subplot for fans of America’s pastime, and Ward Bond getting punched in the nose — always a good thing in my book.
Saturday 3/3/12
4:45 AM HBO Signature
Good Hair (2008 USA): Chris Rock’s amiable but pointed documentary about black women’s hair — and the hair care products that help make it possible — returns to the small screen this evening. Good Hair manages the difficult act of avoiding both poker-faced political correctness and unwitting endorsement of the use of straighteners and "relaxers" that, inadvertently or otherwise, help African-American women adjust their hair to conform with "cultural norms." Wryly amusing and intelligently presented, Good Hair won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2009.
6:05 AM Sundance
Amreeka (2009 USA): I approached this family drama with low expectations, but ended up loving it. The story of a Palestinian mother (the marvelous Nisreen Faour) who moves herself and her teenage son (Melkar Muallem) to suburban Illinois to escape the dangers of intifada and occupation, Amreeka is a wry, touching, and insightful look at the immigrant experience. Though the film can’t avoid politics entirely, that’s not the focus here, so even if you’re not favorably inclined towards the Palestinian cause you’ll still enjoy the film immensely. In addition to the leads, kudos to supporting cast members Hiam Abbass and Joseph Ziegler (playing, respectively, mom’s sister and mom’s love interest), and to writer-director Cherien Dabis’ wonderful screenplay. One of the nicest surprises of 2009.
9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Golden Idol (1954 USA): With 31 Days of Oscar safely in the rear view mirror, it’s time for TCM to return to our regularly scheduled Saturday morning Bomba-fest! This time our hero does battle with an evil Arab chieftain (Paul Guilfoyle, previously cast as an evil Arab chieftain in 1950’s Bomba and the Hidden City), who’s eager to get his hands on the titular treasure. You can imagine how it all plays out, and look....there’s Smoki Whitfield, once again doing his thing as an African with an American accent!
Sunday 3/4/12
1:45 AM Fox Movie Channel
Music Is Magic (1935 USA): I haven’t seen this Fox musical, and I’m not terribly keen on musicals period, but this one is obscure enough to pique my interest. Alice Faye plays a laundry worker who lucks into an understudy gig for movie star Bebe Daniels and doesn’t look back. (Strangely enough, Daniels never made another film in Hollywood after this one.) Familiar faces Luis Alberni and Hattie McDaniel round out the cast.
Monday 3/5/12
1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Illustrated Man (1969 USA): This isn’t a very good film, but it’s woven a spell over me ever since I first saw it on television back when I was an impressionable stripling. Perhaps it’s the sight of Rod Steiger’s tattooed torso that keeps me coming back, hoping to find more in The Illustrated Man than there is to find. Adapted from Ray Bradbury’s novel of the same name, the film is actually an excuse for an anthology of vaguely creepy but hardly terrifying tales of dystopian future days. Directed by Jack Smight and narrated by Claire Bloom, this is a surprisingly bloodless (as in unemotional) feature that Bradbury himself apparently hates. Can’t say I really blame him, but Steiger’s back tats continue to exert a relentless hypnotic influence over me, so I’ll be watching once again this morning.
7:00 PM Sundance
The Possession of David O’Reilly (2010 GB): Not to be confused with The Possession of Joel Delaney or The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, this is a muddled but interesting British horror flick in a Blair Witch vein. Giles Anderson headlines as the title character, a regular fellow who spoils friends Kate and Alex’s weekend with ridiculous tales of unexplained and embarrassing photographs. Invited to stay the night by the gullible couple, David is soon wreaking all kinds of demonic havoc in their flat — all of it conveniently caught on tape by Alex’s elaborate camera set up. It’s unoriginal, but watchable nonetheless.