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7:00 PM Sundance
Fear Me Not (2008 DEN): The perils of pharmaceutical testing are examined in this outstanding thriller from Danish director Kristian Levring (The King Is Alive). Ulrich Thomsen (Brothers, Adam’s Apples) headlines as Mikael, a middle-aged man suffering from a serious case of ennui. Unable to hold down a job, he mopes around the house all day - until brother-in-law Frederik (Lars Brygmann) tells him about a clinical trial for a new anti-depressant. Perhaps the drug will provide the morose one the spark he needs to get off the sofa - or perhaps it will have some unintended and not at all pleasant side effects! Co-starring the wonderful Paprika Steen as Mikael’s spouse Sigrid, Fear Me Not was co-written by Levring and frequent collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen.

Friday 10/21/11

4:15 AM Showtime
Boundaries of the Heart (1988 AUS): We’re certainly getting more Antipodean films than usual this week - though two isn’t a lot, it’s on average two more than usual! Boundaries of the Heart stars two of Australia’s biggest stars, Wendy Hughes and John Hargreaves, and examines the mid-life crisis of Stella Marsden (Hughes), a strumpet who beds every man who passes her way in a remote Western Australia hamlet. One of her conquests is Andy (Hargreaves), a rodeo rider and periodic visitor who finds out to his displeasure that he’s not the only man in Stella’s life. While Andy wants to settle down, the object of his affection seems unwilling to cooperate - but will a soured dalliance with the local school teacher change her mind? Co-starring Norman Kaye as Stella’s pa, Boundaries of the Heart is a slow burner featuring outstanding performances and some first-rate outback cinematography. Also airs at 7:15 AM.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
She (1965 GB): Four British sci-fi and fantasy features are on tap this evening courtesy TCM, commencing with Hammer Film’s adaptation of H. Rider Haggard’s novel She. Directed by Robert Day (also responsible for this week’s Tarzan feature), the film stars Ursula Andress as Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed, wielder of absolute power in a remote African fiefdom. After visitors from the outside world drop by uninvited, Ayesha decides one of the travelers (John Richardson) is the reincarnation of her long lost love - and trouble brews when she discovers it ain’t necessarily so. Co-starring Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, Christopher Lee, and Andre Morell, this version of Haggard’s once wildly popular tale is inferior to its 1935 RKO predecessor, but offers considerable value to Hammer fans and admirers of Andress, Cushing, and Lee. It’s followed at 7:00 PM by the widescreen television debut of Prehistoric Women (1967), an absurd Hammer effort about warring tribes of blonde and brunette babes (way) back in the day; at 9:00 PM by The Viking Queen (1967), a rather dull tale of Viking and Roman fraternization in Ancient Britain; and at 11:00 PM by The Gamma People (1956), a wacky science-fiction outing in which a behind-the-Iron Curtain scientist (Walter Rilla) plots to create a race of Commie geniuses.

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