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2:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
Sandcastles (1972 USA): Pretty boy Jan-Michael Vincent stars in this better-than-average made for television romantic fantasy. He plays Michael, a young man killed in an auto wreck whose ghost haunts a Southern California beach. He meets musical hippie chick Jenna (Bonnie Bedelia), who falls in love with him, but doesn’t realize he’s not of this Earth. Otherworldly complications ensue. Interesting footnote: according to TCM’s website, this was the first TV-movie made using a single camera videotape system. Believe it or not, TCM has more information about Sandcastles than Fox Movie Channel does! Also airs 3/6 at 1:00 AM.

6:00 PM Starz
The Last Station (2009 GER-RUS-GB): I missed this high falutin’ frock flick when it lit up arthouse screens in late 2009 and early 2010, but Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer earned themselves Academy Award nominations for their thespic turns as Mr. and Mrs. Tolstoy. We’ll all be the better for watching it, I’m sure. Also airs at 9:00 PM.

9:00 PM Sundance
Bunny and the Bull (2008 GB): I just wrote about this film when it popped up on Sundance late last year, but in case you missed it then, be sure to catch it now. I’ll simply repeat what I wrote on that occasion:

Not to be confused with the film Roger Ebert hated before he loved it (or at least liked it) — Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny — Bunny and the Bull is a comedic fantasia from Mighty Boosh creator Paul Ryan. Described by the director as a “comedy road movie set entirely in a flat," the film stars Edward Hogg as reclusive Stephen, a stay at home type who hasn’t left his apartment in months. When an infestation of mice upends his routine, Stephen’s sense of complacency is disrupted and he imagines himself back on last year’s European road trip with chum Bunny (Simon Farnaby). If you’re familiar with the surreal and non-sequitur-ish (is that a word?) nature of The Mighty Boosh, you know what to expect: if not, you’ll probably be puzzled beyond belief.

Also airs 3/6 at 2:25 AM.

Sunday 3/6/11

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Ginger and Fred (1986 ITA): Here’s a very late-period Federico Fellini flick that, while by no means up to the standards of La Strada or Juliet of the Spirits, is still worth a look. Marcello Mastroianni gets his second TiVoPlex shout-out of the week for his performance as vaudeville old-timer Pippo, whose old act with partner Amelia (Mrs. Fellini, Giulietta Masina, in her penultimate screen appearance)—impersonating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers—wowed ‘em back in the day. Now Pippo and Amelia have an opportunity to perform together one last time on a television variety show. Of course, this being a television variety show as imagined by Fellini, their co-stars are anything but normal: there’s a well-endowed cow, a monk who can float in the air, and (of course) assorted dwarves and transvestites. Yeah, you’ve seen it all before—but there’s a rosy nostalgic hue to Ginger and Fred that wasn’t so much in evidence in early Fellini.

Monday 3/7/11

5:20 PM Sundance
3Some (2009 ESP): Really, IFC Films? When you picked up the Spanish film Castillos de Carton for US distribution, you couldn’t think of a better English-language title than ‘3Some’? In Europe they called it, with good reason, Paper Castles. Earth to IFC Films: the Pussycat theatre chain went out of business years ago. Okay, so the film is about a love triangle, but c’mon. Also airs at 10:00 PM.

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