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Friday 12/21/07

4pm Sundance
Persona (1966 SWE): With the passing of the legendary Ingmar Bergman this past summer, it's time for a retrospective look at the great man's morose output. Sundance avoids the obvious choices (Seventh Seal, Virgin Spring) in favor of Persona, one of the bleakest entries in the director's frequently very bleak filmography. It stars Bibi Andersson as Alma, a nurse caring for Elisabeth (Bergman's muse Liv Ullmann), an actress who has lost either the ability or the will to speak. Talkative Alma keeps chatting away to the non-responsive Elisabeth, and slowly but surely finds her own personality being subsumed by that of the stoic woman in her care. Persona also features some out-of-character cinematic touches by the sad Swede, including snippets of silent comedies, inappropriate music, intentionally damaged frames, and a brief glimpse of the film crew at work. This is truly Bergman's most Godardian film, playful and somber in equal measure, though its playfulness is definitely not of the laugh-out-loud variety. It's followed at 5:30pm by Cries and Whispers, an unbearably heavy 1973 effort starring Ullmann as a 19th-century caregiver keeping watch over her sister's sickbed, and at 7pm by the frothy romantic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (1955).

9pm IFC
Nightwatch (1998 USA): An underappreciated thriller and one of the better Hollywood remakes of recent vintage, Nightwatch features Ewan McGregor as Martin Bells, a law student who moonlights as a morgue night-watchman. Martin imagines his job will offer him plenty of study time as well as a wage, but finds himself being undone by his own paranoia and the morgue's disturbing secret stalker, a necrophile who sneaks in after hours to have his way with the customers. Based on a Danish film of the same title and written and directed by Ole Bornedal, this is an effectively creepy offering that benefits from an excellent supporting cast, including Nick Nolte, Josh Brolin, Brad Dourif, and Patricia Arquette. It makes its wide-screen American television premiere this evening and also airs 12/22 at midnight.

Saturday 12/22/07

5:30am Turner Classic Movies
Bush Christmas (1947 AUS): No, not BLUE Christmas, BUSH Christmas, and we ain't talking about our funky president, either. This holiday season, take a trip to the outback with quintessential Aussie thesp Chips Rafferty, here playing horse thief Long Bill, leader of a gang of miscreants who encounter a group of children and their gee-gees somewhere back of beyond. A huge hit in Australia and Britain, Bush Christmas is considered a holiday classic in those territories, but makes its American film debut this morning. It was remade in 1983 with Nicole Kidman (!), but the original is, of course, superior.

Sunday 12/23/07

1am Turner Classic Movies
Where It's At (1969 USA): David Janssen plays A. C. Smith, a Type A Las Vegas casino owner who tries to bring son Andy (Robert Drivas, in a low-key but effective performance) into the business. The uninterested Andy turns the tables on his father, leading to an unlikely-though-plausible family hug at the end of the picture. An interesting aspect of Garson Kanin's screenplay is its refusal to commit on Andy's sexuality; he's presented with willing female partners throughout the film (including the astonishing Edy Williams and cute-as-a-button Brenda Vaccaro) but never consummates the relationships, and doubt is repeatedly cast on his manhood. I don't know if Drivas was gay, but the fact that he died of AIDS at the age of 47 lends a bittersweet piquancy to his performance here. Shot on location at Caesar's Palace, this is a trip down memory lane for anyone who spent time in Sin City back in the ‘70s, and you'll see lots of big names in lights on marquees, though alas, Totie Fields is not amongst them. A fascinating period piece with that extra layer of sexual ambiguity to spice things up, Where It's At remains an unfairly overlooked oddity from director Kanin.

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