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9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Bride Wore Black (1968 FRA): TCM goes full frontal Truffaut tonight, including amongst its offerings this Cornel Woolrich adaptation starring Jeanne Moreau as a widow out for revenge against a handful of men she holds responsible for the death of her husband, murdered on the church steps immediately following their marriage. It's stylish if atypical Truffaut, intended by its creator to serve as an homage to his idol, Alfred Hitchcock. I don't find The Bride Wore Black particularly Hitchcockian (perhaps not surprising considering the material — Woolrich was less concerned with MacGuffins than with the psycho-dramas resulting from the fickle finger of noir-era fate), but it's a very good thriller regardless. It's followed at 11:00 PM by Small Change (1976), one of Truffaut's many paeans to the magic and mischief of childhood.

Friday 06/19/09

1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Wild Child (1970 FRA): Truffaut made many great films, but for my money, this is the purest piece of art he ever created. Based on the life of "The Wild Boy of Aveyron", the film stars Truffaut himself as Dr. Jean Itard, an 18th century medico who takes charge of a feral boy (Jean-Pierre Cargol) found in the woods. The lad is buck naked, cannot speak, and scores less than zero in the social skills department, and becomes a scientific experiment for Itard, who is convinced that given time and patience, The Wild Child can be tamed and trained. Shot in black and white and a huge influence on David Lynch's The Elephant Man, it's a film I guarantee you'll never forget, though it probably won't settle that nature versus nurture debate you've been having with your significant other.

4:00 AM Sundance
Gretchen (2006 USA): Described with some accuracy as a female take on the Napoleon Dynamite meme, Gretchen features Courtney Davis as the title character, a less than socially adept high school student. Nerdy Gretchen has a crush on campus bad boy Ricky (John Merriman), but Mom (Becky Ann Baker) disapproves of the relationship and despatches her wayward progeny to the Shady Acres Center for Emotional Growth. Things go downhill from there, as our Gretch does a runner and searches out her estranged father — who she finds holding down a job at a burger joint. Gretchen is definitely cut from the same cloth as many other off-kilter indie character studies, but Davis is so good you'll forgive the film its genre flaws.

7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Carey Treatment (1972 USA): James Coburn is the primary reason to watch this otherwise so-so feature based on a Michael Crichton novel. Coburn plays Dr. Peter Carey, a Boston physician enmeshed in intrigue revolving around a botched abortion that leaves the daughter of hospital administrator Randall (Dan O'Herlihy) dead, and professional colleague Tao (James Hong) accused of medical malfeasance. Granted time off by supervisor Sanderson (Regis Toomey), Carey is soon stalking the hospital wards in search of clues that will exonerate his friend — and uncovers more than he anticipates. It's all overheated stuff of the operatic soap variety, but if you're a Coburn fan, you have to make an appointment with The Carey Treatment.

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