TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday March 11 2008 through Monday March 17 2008
By John Seal
March 10, 2008
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 03/11/08
12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
King Lear (1971 GB): Academy Award winner Paul Scofield plays the beknighted title character in this muted Shakespearean adaptation helmed by legendary stage and screen director Peter Brook (The Mahabharata, Marat/Sade). True to form for Brook, the film doesn't hew to traditional interpretations of Lear, and is if anything even bleaker and grimmer than the source material requires, which is quite an accomplishment all things considered. If you're a purist, you may not appreciate this Lear, but those open to alternative takes on the canon will find much here to savour, including the presence of such fine supporting actors as Patrick Magee, Cyril Cusack, and Jack MacGowran. Brook's King Lear remains unavailable on home video, so if you're a fan of the Bard on film, you'll want to tune in for this rare airing.
8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Three Strangers (1946 USA): The penultimate teaming of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre (who made ten pictures together over the course of five years at Warner Bros.), Three Strangers is a thoroughly enjoyable shaggy dog tale about an ancient Chinese idol with mysterious powers. The film posits the existence of Kwan Yin, a goddess of good fortune who will grant three strangers a common wish if they make obeisance before her likeness at Chinese New Year's. Kwan Yin's statue is in the possession of Crystal Shackleford (Geraldine Fitzgerald), a Londoner of uncertain provenance who puts the legend to the test in the company of bent lawyer Jerome Arbutny (Greenstreet) and hard-drinking hoodlum Johnny West (Lorre). Naturally, their wish is granted - but things begin to unravel soon after, with the wish rapidly transforming into a deadly curse. Written for the screen by John Huston and Howard Koch and originally intended as a vehicle for Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, Three Strangers effectively blends elements from such disparate influences as The Maltese Falcon and The Monkey's Paw.
12:35 PM Starz
Death Proof (2007 USA): Regular readers will have long been inured to my rants about Quentin Tarantino, so I won't offer another one here. Let's just be nice and commend the wonderful Kurt Russell for making yet another successful comeback as Stuntman Mike in QT's latest, another of the director's salutes to the grade ‘Z' schlock of his imagined youth and the first half of last year's ill-fated Grindhouse double bill. Now split in two for home video purposes, both Grindhouse features (the other, of course, being Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror) are making their premium channel debuts this month, but only Death Proof is appearing in its original aspect ratio. That's as it should be, as Tarantino shot his film in 2.35:1 and Rodriguez in 1.85:1, but one is hard-pressed to recall many American '70s action flicks shot in true widescreen. Perhaps Quentin got his Sid Haig confused with his Sonny Chiba. Okay, I let a little snark in at the end. Sorry. Also airs at 3:35 PM, 8:10 PM, 11:10 PM and throughout the month.
Wednesday 03/12/08
4:00 AM Showtime 2
Elvis Meets Nixon (1997 USA): A holy grail of sorts for psychotronic movie mavens (who have long had to pay top dollar for this title on Ebay), Elvis Meets Nixon is a comedy that recreates that magic moment when a bored but opportunistic Tricky Dicky gifted the King with his very own DEA badge during a White House photo op. Elvis is portrayed by Rick Peters, who does a decent job but can't quite match previous silver screen Elvii such as Kurt Russell or Bruce Campbell, whilst Nixon is played by Bob Gunton (‘24'), whose five o'clock shadow is more convincing than either Anthony Hopkins or Dan Hedaya. Produced by Showtime (who have kept it in the vaults far too long) and directed by Allan Arkush (Rock ‘n' Roll High School), Elvis Meets Nixon is a wonderful little gem that belongs in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction files. Look for Curtis ‘Booger' Armstrong in a supporting role as one of the Memphis Mafia.
1:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Pickup Alley (1957 GB): A past-his-prime Victor Mature stars in this rarely seen thriller from director John Gilling. Originally released as Interpol in its native UK, the film was retitled for US consumers, who perhaps thought Interpol was a brand of toothpaste. "Get that great Interpol smile!" - I'm just guessing, but it sounds reasonable, right? Mature plays Charles Sturgis, a super secret agent out to break up the narcotics ring of evil dealer Frank McNally (Trevor Howard), who's placed a monkey on the back of Sturgis' sister and then overseen her murder. Our hero latches on to McNally's moll (Anita Ekberg), and he's soon hot on the villain's trail through the back alleys of Lisbon and Rome. An early effort from James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, Pickup Alley travels from New York to Europe and back again, establishing the template that would later serve 007 so well for so long. A superb supporting cast, including Sid James, Eric Pohlmann, Andre Morell, and Marne Maitland make this essential viewing for British cinema enthusiasts.
3:30 PM Cinemax
Billy the Kid (2007 USA): One of the best documentaries of 2007, Billy the Kid makes its American television premiere this afternoon. Billy Price is a Maine teenager with big dreams that far outstrip the possibilities offered by his small rural hometown. Director Jennifer Venditti met him at a casting call, and was so struck by the lad's singular vision that she decided to make a film about him. The result is this utterly absorbing look at an intelligent and artistic outcast who also happens to suffer from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism that burdens its sufferers with communication and behavioral challenges. A fascinating look at a youngster with style and self-awareness well beyond his years, Billy the Kid also airs at 6:30 PM.
Thursday 03/13/08
Noon Sundance
Blind Flight (2003 GB): Ian Hart (Days and the Hours, Backbeat) stars in this sadly overlooked drama set in civil war-era Lebanon. He plays Brian Keenan, an Irish teacher kidnapped and held for ransom by a Beirut militia for almost five years in the company of English journalist John McCarthy (Linus Roache). As similar as cheese and chalk, the protagonists slowly come to terms with both their captors and each other, and the film plays like a less hysterical Midnight Express. Based on the real life experiences of Keenan and McCarthy, Blind Flight never received an American theatrical release, but comes strongly recommended for Hart's performance in particular, which won him the Best Actor honors at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.
Friday 03/14/08
3:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
John and Mary (1969 USA): Here's one I thought I'd recommended long ago, but the archives don't seem to bear me out. John and Mary is an intriguing if flawed examination of the social changes rapidly overtaking American society during the late 1960s, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow as a young couple who meet in a singles bar, share a night together, and then try and figure out what (if any) relationship they're going to have. It's talky - not always convincingly so - but I quite like it, even if John's mother IS played by Olympia Dukakis, an actress a mere six years older than Hoffman!
7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Bunny Lake is Missing (1965 GB): Before hitting the skids with such bad taste classics as Skidoo and Rosebud, director Otto Preminger had one more decent (if somewhat exploitative) film left in him, and this is it. Keir Dullea and Carol Lynley star opposite Laurence Olivier in a fairly suspenseful story about the search for a missing child. There's a nice supporting cast, including Finlay Currie as an elderly doll-maker, and terrific black-and-white cinematography by Denys Coop, as well as some great tunes from The Zombies.
11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Night of the Lepus (1972 USA): Everyone's favorite killer rabbit movie - well, second favorite if you count Monty Python and the Holy Grail - makes its Turner Classic Movies debut this evening. Set in the desert wastelands of Arizona, the film features Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh as Roy and Gerry Bennett, a pair of genetic scientists investigating the mysterious Case of the Marauding Bunnies, whose scorched earth policy has rendered farmland across the region barren, not a lettuce leaf in sight. After injecting one of the villainous vegetarians with some special hormones, the rabbit gets loose - and soon starts growing, mating, and acquiring a taste for long pig. Before long, huge slow motion bunnies are pounding the pavement across miniature sets and nibbling everything in hopping distance. Based on the novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit (really!), Night of the Lepus co-stars Rory Calhoun and DeForrest Kelley, both of whom take the material far too seriously. It's as absurd as it sounds, but you really don't want to miss it.
Saturday 03/15/08
4:00 AM Sundance
Sophie Scholl: The Last Days (2005 GER): Based on a true but little known story, this film examines the activities of Sophie Scholl, a resistance activist in Nazi Germany. Set during February 1943, when the war had already turned against Hitler at Stalingrad - and with the German people deep in a state of denial - the film portrays the efforts of The White Rose, a group of German students surreptitiously advocating against the Nazi regime. My gosh, how could they do that at a time when their country was at war? I mean, come on - with us or against us, people, with us or against us. The treasonous goings-on soon attract the attention of the Gestapo, who arrest Sophie (Julia Jentsch) and her rabble-rousing brother Hans (Fabian Henrichs), who have been distributing anti-war leaflets at the local university. Once again, I ask, is this any way for patriotic Germans to show their support for the troops? Shocking. Anyhoo, the two are soon subjected to intense interrogations, which inevitably lead to confessions and appointments with the guillotine. The film is a straightforward variant on the police procedural with the crucial difference, of course, being our complete and utter empathy for the 'criminals' - but Sophie Scholl also raises important issues of complicity and collective guilt that, if there be any justice in the world, Americans and Britons will be contending with for many years to come.
Sunday 03/16/08
4:00 PM Sundance
Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002 CHI-FRA): China's Cultural Revolution - in which the much-despised liberal bourgeoisie were sent to the furthest rural reaches of the country for re-education and calluses - lasted a mere three years, but the after-effects linger to this day. This film doesn't fully convey the horrors of those years - with China's so-called Communist Party still in power, how could it? - but it does offer a fine character study about two city boys and the seamstress they befriend in a remote village. Once exiled to the outback, young violinist Ma (Ye Liu, one of the princes in Curse of the Golden Flower) and dentist's son Luo (Kun Chen) must have their filthy decadent ways exorcised from them - but it's not an easy task, and soon the lads are corrupting Little Seamstress (Beijing Bicycle's Xun Zhou) with Balzac and Mozart. Based on the experiences of director Dai Sijie, the film deftly, carefully, and quietly makes a plea for a more liberal, open-minded cultural policy in the world's most populous nation.
9:00 PM Sundance
Witchboard: Bunshinsaba (2004 ROK): And to prove that cultural drift can indeed go in more than one direction, here's a Korean knockoff of the American Witchboard series. Betcha never saw that one coming. There's not a lot to recommend here, but if you have a fixation on the Ouija board's potential as a portal for evil spirits, you'll want to give it a look.
Monday 03/17/08
7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Look Back in Anger (1958 GB): If the spitting of on-screen venom is your thing, this Tony Richardson feature provides it in spades. Richard Burton stars as Jimmy Porter, a failed jazz musician and candy salesman who spends his spare time raging, raging against the dying of the light - or, if the light is otherwise engaged, his wife Alison (Mary Ure), his lover Helena (Claire Bloom), and his cook, er, fellow purveyor of sweetmeats, Cliff (Gary Raymond). It's an hour and a half of Grade A Burtonesque self-loathing, concluding with a hard to credit come to Jesus moment that supposedly makes everything better. Written for the screen by Nigel Kneale and based on John Osborne's hugely successful play of the same name, Look Back In Anger was one of the highlights of British realist cinema of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, and made Burton an international star.
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