TiVoPlex
By John Seal
January 31, 2005
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 02/01/05
3am Turner Classic Movies
The Crowd (1928 USA): It's not King Vidor's greatest - that honor would probably be reserved for 1926's The Big Parade - but The Crowd is still one of the most memorable films of the silent era. It’s the story of a born-on-the-Fourth of July Everyman, Johnny Sims (James Murray), trying to adapt to the hustle and bustle of modern life circa the Roaring Twenties. The film avoids most of the dramatic clichés you might expect - it’s not the typical rise and fall story of a man driven to succeed - and features a subtle performance by Mrs. King Vidor, Eleanor Boardman, as Johnny’s wife. Bolstered by marvelously evocative location work in New York City, The Crowd garnered only two Oscar nominations, but has aged better than most of its contemporaries. Still mystifyingly unavailable on DVD, this is a worthy kick-off feature for TCM’s annual salute to the Academy Awards.
9pm More Max
The Dreamers (2003 ITA-FRA): A week or two ago I provided a Public Service Announcement regarding the cable premiere of Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions, noting I had not seen the film and encouraging readers to inform me if I was missing something special (The reaction indicated I was not). Here’s another film you should be aware of, even though I avoided it thanks to an appalling trailer and a boatload of generally bad reviews. I’ve never been a big fan of Bernardo Bertolucci - his films tend to bloat and he has some disturbing sexual fixations - but he has his admirers, and the NC-17-rated The Dreamers makes its television debut this evening. The trailer makes the film look like a chocolate box representation of the 1968 Paris riots, but please, if I’m wrong, let me know.
Wednesday 02/02/05
5pm Fox Movie Channel
Breaking Away (1979 USA): I haven’t seen Breaking Away since viewing it on the big screen in 1980, and my memories of it are a bit hazy, so if I get a detail or two wrong, please forgive me. The film is a slightly quirky and heart-warming comedy-drama about the final summer of freedom for four high school grads, including one played by Dennis Quaid (It’s hard to believe Quaid was EVER young enough to play an 18-year-old). The main character, though, is Dave (Dennis Christopher) who desperately wants to live the life of an Italian cycling champ, and will do anything - including learning a new language - to fulfil his fantasy. I do recall the film featuring a lot of well-shot cycling footage; perhaps not surprising, considering director Peter Yates helmed the groundbreaking car chase thriller Bullitt a decade earlier. Fox is airing a wide-screen print of Breaking Away this afternoon.
6pm Sundance
Battle of Algiers (1965 ALG-ITA): It’s been almost as long since I’ve seen Gillo Pontecorvo’s remarkable epic of the Algerian revolution, which is pretty sad considering its been available on DVD since October as part of the Criterion Collection. I saw this film at the University of California’s Pacific Film Archive in 1981 - a great place to catch ANY film, by the way - and it has remained close to the top of my list of all-time favorites ever since. There’s not a great deal I can say about this remarkable piece of cinema vérité that hasn’t been said many times before by more qualified critics, but let it be noted that this film came in for renewed scrutiny last year when Pentagon officials began studying it for clues about suppressing the Iraqi insurgency. Now how cool is that? Almost 40 years after making a semi-fictional film in black-and-white that features absolutely no stock or newsreel footage, Pontecorvo has seen his work elevated to the level of exalted text. I’ll add that the film also includes one of Ennio Morricone’s finest scores, but any Morricone score from the 1960s could be considered amongst his best. Nominated belatedly for three Academy Awards, Battle of Algiers was edged out for the Best Foreign Language Film prize by A Man and A Woman, a weightless French romance that has, in comparison, aged rather badly. Also airs 2/3 at 1am.
Thursday 02/03/05
6am Showtime 3
Play Dirty (1969 GB): A few years back, TCM aired a beautiful wide-screen print of this cynical World War II film, but sadly, Showtime is utilizing a pan-and-scan one this morning. I’ll still give Play Dirty a plug, as it’s one of my favorite war films that most people haven’t heard about. It features Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport as British army officers charged with carrying out a dangerous mission: to get behind German lines and destroy a critical oil depot in the North African desert. Crisply directed by one-eyed Andre de Toth, who does a superb job of maintaining tension, and featuring a surprising and powerful twist ending, Play Dirty will satisfy action buffs and Caine fans alike. And barring a TCM rebroadcast or a home video release - neither of which are imminent - you won’t get another chance to see it for a while. Also airs 2/7 at 8:15am.
Friday 02/04/05
Noon Sundance
Missing Allen (2001 GER): The real-life mystery surrounding the disappearance of freelance cinematographer Allen Ross is the subject of this fascinating, if not entirely satisfying, documentary. Directed by German filmmaker Christian Bauer, who worked with Ross on numerous occasions, the film picks up in late 1995 when Ross initially dropped out of sight. At first, his friends and family think he may be playing a game, but as the years pass, attention is drawn to the Samaritans, a religious cult founded by Ross’s wife Linda, and an organization with ties to David Koresh’s Branch Davidians. Bauer follows the leads across the country, ultimately ending up in a basement in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the true story of his friend’s fate lies. Bauer’s bloodless narration is a frustration, as is the film’s tendency to shower Ross with flowery plaudits - the story is of sufficient interest that we don’t really need to know what a swell guy he was - but the film is never less than interesting and will keep your attention. Also airs 2/5 at 2:25am.
7pm Showtime Extreme
Kunoichi: Lady Ninja (1998 JAP): A dizzying hybrid of Hong Kong wire-fu and Japanese samurai swordplay, Kunoichi: Lady Ninja is actually the seventh in a series of films but the first to get widespread exposure in the United States. As long as you don’t let the occasionally complicated plot distract you (the film makes references to the features that have preceded it), this is low-budget action fun for those who like to watch scantily-clad women kick butt, and who amongst us doesn’t?
Saturday 02/05/05
5:35am Flix
Amityville 3-D (1983 USA):The Amityville Horror bandwagon continues to gather steam with the return to television of this Richard Fleischer-directed dud. Actually, it’s one of the better Amityville flicks, but that’s not saying much, especially as this will be a flat-screen presentation, rendering lifeless the various pointy objects being thrust at the camera. That’s a bit of a shame, because besides being a pretty good filmmaker, director Fleischer was actually familiar with the process, having helmed one of the first 3-D productions, Arena, in 1953.
The story involves a sceptical writer (Tony Roberts) who moves into the spooky house with those spooky window-eyes in order to debunk the Amityville legend. Guess who’s going to get taught a lesson? The film also features Candy Clark - in career descent after lighting up screens in Fat City and American Graffiti - and Meg Ryan, going in the opposite direction.
11pm Showtime Extreme
’R Xmas (2000 USA): Here’s a film that seems to have been shown on cable on an almost daily basis lately. I had resolutely ignored it because, frankly, the title sucks, but I’m contractually obliged to scope out any film directed by Abel Ferrara, so I recently took the time to watch it. And lo and behold, after the disastrous New Rose Hotel it’s a minor return to form for the iconoclastic Ferrara (Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant), notwithstanding the negative opinions of the vast majority of IMDb reviews. Those reviews complain about ‘R Xmas’ lack of story, character development, and action, but those are precisely the reasons I enjoyed this film, which - whilst not entirely bereft of violence - is one of Abel’s most contemplative features. Clocking in at a brief and effective 83 minutes, the film stars poker-faced Lillo Brancato as a Dominican drug dealer trying to keep his brassy wife (Assault on Precinct 13’s Drea de Matteo) in the luxury to which she’s accustomed whilst attempting to find an elusive Party Girl doll as a Christmas gift for his incredibly cute daughter (Lisa Valens). When mysterious kidnappers (including the always-watchable Ice-T) snatch Brancato and hold him for ransom, it’s up to De Matteo to spend her Christmas Day scrounging up dirty money with which to free her husband. ‘R Xmas presents itself as the first in a series of films about Brancato’s life, and features a coda implying that the film takes place just before the inauguration of New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, implying that any sequels will, no doubt, feature more of the hyper-violence we tend to associate with the work of Ferrara. For now, this is an unusual and extremely effective character study about people we shouldn’t like, but root for nonetheless.
Sunday 02/06/05
12:50am Flix
Amityville II: The Possession (1982 USA-MEX): The Amityville Horror bandwagon continues to gather steam…wait a minute, I already wrote that. But it’s amazing how a remake can increase the ancillary value of even the most wretched franchise, isn’t it? The second Amityville feature is also the bloodiest, making it eminently preferable to its predecessor, was directed by the occasionally brilliant Damiano Damiani, and features lumpy and lovable Burt Young in a lead role. It’s also getting a wide-screen airing on Flix this morning.
3:15am Turner Classic Movies
The Divine Lady (1929 USA): As if they were needed, kudos once again to TCM for not resting on their laurels. Every year I think their Oscar festival will feature the same features as last year, and every year they pull a few surprises out of their hat. Here’s one that earned an Academy Award for director Frank Lloyd, as well as nominations for cinematographer John Seitz and leading lady Corinne Griffith. It’s a historical romance about the love affair between Lady Hamilton (Griffith, recently seen on TCM in the nutty Garden of Eden) and Admiral Nelson (The Sea Hawk’s Victor Varconi). The film really isn’t all that special, being a late-in-the-day silent with a creaky Vitaphone soundtrack grafted on, but it’s a rarity that hardcore film buffs will want to take a look at.
5pm Sundance
Koyaanisqatsi (1983 USA): This really is the week for films I saw 20 years ago, and haven’t seen since. Koyaanisqatsi was a surprising box office hit when it came out in 1983, doubly surprising because it’s not only a documentary, but a documentary with no dialogue. Capturing amazing and frequently beautiful images of nature contrasted with the harsh creations of modern man’s industrial environment, the film will appeal to anyone who enjoys the works of Stan Brakhage. The film also includes a droning and once-heard, never-forgotten score by systems music composer Philip Glass, who in my opinion hasn’t done anything better since.
Monday 02/07/05
Midnight Playboy
Debbie Does Dallas (1978 USA): I never though I’d include Playboy Channel programming in this column, but this is probably one of the most famous X-rated features of the Golden Age of adult cinema, and it hasn’t been seen on cable in many moons. I’ve never seen it, and I only watch porno movies for the articles, so I can’t speak to the film’s quality or lack thereof. Needless to say, it’s reputation as a film that takes a deep, penetrating look at American sexuality precedes it.
6pm Sundance
The Origin of AIDS (2004 USA):This controversial documentary - which implies that AIDS was the accidental blowback from the use of an experimental polio vaccine in the 1950s - makes its television debut this evening. I haven’t seen it, but The Origin of AIDS won Europe’s most notable award for non-fiction film, the Prix Europa.
10:30pm Turner Classic Movies
JFK (1991 USA): JFK is undoubtedly Oliver Stone's best film, a powerful piece of political filmmaking that is unfortunately so wide of the mark that it is ultimately a tremendous failure. Stone buys into the theories of the two least credible conspiracists, the egotistical Jim Garrison and the starry-eyed Jim Marrs. There's no actor better suited to play Garrison than Kevin Costner, the man whose head seems to expand every time he's in front of a camera. Garrison also reflects the inflated ego of Stone himself, who seems to believe every half-baked idea proposed in On the Trail of the Assassins. Also on display is Stone's usual penchant for homophobia, as his limp-wristed villain Clay Shaw minces across the screen (Apparently it wasn't enough that this utterly innocent man had already suffered character assassination in Garrison's book). The lowest blow of all, of course, was the casting of Jim Garrison himself as Chief Justice Earl Warren. To impugn Warren's honesty - and his importance as one of the great liberal jurists of this century - is bad enough, but to have a charlatan who questioned the man's character play him is truly despicable. Terrific photography and outstanding bit parts by Gary Oldman (a memorable Lee Harvey Oswald), Donald Sutherland, and the always reliable Michael Rooker make JFK a must-see. It's on a par with Triumph of the Will or Olympiad 1936: truly one of the great propaganda pieces of the 20th century.
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