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Wednesday 06/03/09

4:00 PM HBO
Smile Pinki (2008 USA): I haven't seen Smile Pinki yet, but it won the Best Documentary (Short Subject) Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. The film documents the travails of the titular poverty stricken five-year-old, a child with a cleft lip who meets a social worker who arranges for an operation that will change her facial appearance and her life for the better. Also airs at 7:00 PM and 6/5 on HBO2 at 10:15 AM and 1:15 PM.

5:00 PM Showtime 3
Rescue Dawn (2006 USA): German bad boy Werner Herzog briefly dipped his toe into the mainstream with this exciting film about American prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict. Christian Bale stars as Dieter Dengler, a German immigrant who joins the US Air Force, only to get shot down whilst flying a combat mission over Laos. Imprisoned and tortured by the Viet Cong, Dieter meets fellow POWs Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), and though the three are desperate to escape, they disagree vehemently about how to do so. Filmed in lush jungle reminiscent of Herzog's Aguirre the Wrath of God and FItzcarraldo, Rescue Dawn is a fictional representation of the events depicted in the director's earlier documentary, Little Dieter Learns to Fly.

Thursday 06/04/09

9:15 PM Showtime 2
Y.P.F. (2007 CAN): It stands for ‘Young People Fucking'. I haven't seen it, and I probably won't watch it, but this is surely the best film title since 1994's S.F.W. Also airs 6/5 on Showtime 3 at 9:15 PM.

10:30 PM Sundance
Nights of Cabiria (1957 ITA): I run hot and cold on Federico Fellini, but his 1950s films are uniformly excellent, in part due to the frequent presence of pixie-ish leading lady and love of his life Giulietta Masina. In this film, Masina plays Cabiria, a lady of the night looking for true love whilst plying her trade on the streets of Rome. Her guard is always up, but when she meets kindly Oscar (Francois Perier), who plies her with flowers and sweet nothings, she begins to wonder if she has finally met the man who will take her away from it all. Featuring a marvellous Nino Rota score and an earthy screenplay from young Pier Paolo Pasolini (who would later explore similar territory in his own Mamma Roma), this was the Best Foreign Language Film at the 1958 Academy Awards.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Hour of the Wolf (1968 SWE): An evening of Ingmar Bergman flicks is highlighted by a rare airing of Hour of the Wolf, the closest the director ever came to making a horror film. Max von Sydow stars as artist Johan Borg, who lives with wife Alma (Liv Ullman) on a remote, windswept island in the Baltic Sea. Their neighbors are a perverse nobleman (Erland Josephson) and his hangers-on, and Johan spends his after hours seesawing between insomnia and nightmares. Much of the film takes place in the wee, wee hours of the morning, as Johan opens his soul to his wife in a failing effort to maintain his sanity, but — as in Bergman's earlier Persona — the effort fails, and he begins to experience terrifying hallucinations. Hour of the Wolf is followed at 12:45 AM by The Passion of Anna (1969), a lesser known Bergman effort featuring von Sydow, Ullman, Josephson, Bibi Andersson, and other members of the filmmaker's stock company.

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