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Saturday 02/03/07

2:20 AM Starz In Black
Tsotsi (2005 SAF): Last year's Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film makes its small screen debut this morning. It's a familiar tale of sin and redemption, made fresh by its Johannesburg setting and powerful performances from Presley Chweneyagae as the titular hot-headed street punk - who would shoot you as soon as blink at you - and Terry Pheto as a nursing mother who establishes a strange bond with him. Based on a novel by Athol Fugard, the film has the kind of uplifting final reel that Academy voters love - but still remains true to its artistic vision, portraying the rough life of Tsotsi with unblinking and unvarnished honesty. Too bad it's airing in pan and scan, though. Also airs at 8:30 PM.

5:30 PM Sundance
Adam and Paul (2004 IRE): I don't like to repeat myself, especially when I've recommended something quite recently - but if you missed the October airings of this outstanding Irish feature, don't miss it tonight. Adam and Paul are a pair of junkies on the lookout for their next fix in an unlikely and rather bleak buddy movie, which stars the otherwise unheralded Tom Murphy and Mark O'Halloran (who also wrote the screenplay) as lovable losers barely surviving on the streets of Dublin. The film effortlessly turns the double trick of avoiding mawkish sentimentality and romanticizing drug addiction, and was a hit on the festival circuit, where it won the Audience Award at the 2004 Galway Film Fleadh. It's an impressive work that I can't recommend too highly.

6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Queen Bee (1955 USA): I don't think I can prove it, but I'd guess that Joan Crawford's post-stardom ‘bitch' reputation stemmed from her appearance in this aptly titled soap opera - in fact, daughter Christine claimed Crawford family home life wasn't too far from the life depicted here, so perhaps there's more than a grain of truth to this supposition. In Queen Bee, Joan plays Eva Phillips, a quintessential Southern belle who manipulates all those around her, including lousy husband Beauty (Barry Sullivan), sweet young secretary Jennifer (Lucy Marlow), and old flame Judson (John Ireland). Joan devours the scenery whilst dispensing arch dialogue by the bucket full, helping to establish the drag queen formula that informs the work of Charles Busch to this day, whilst unintentionally setting in stone the Mommie Dearest archetype that sadly remains her primary contribution to the collective memory of American pop culture. Oh, and for those who care about such minor things, the film was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards, too.

Sunday 02/04/07

1:00 AM Showtime 2
Pauly Shore is Dead (2003 USA): Thank you Jesus! Airs in widescreen, so you can watch him suffer in his correct aspect ratio.

1:00 AM Sundance
Riff-Raff (1991 GB): Director Ken Loach specialises in British working-class social realism - well, he did until he broadened his horizons with this year's historical drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley, finally due for an American release this Spring - and Riff-Raff is one of the finest examples of that style. Robert Carlyle stars as Scots brickie Steve, a working class oik roughing it in a squat whilst engaged in an unlikely romance with aspiring pop singer Sue (Emer McCourt). Steve shares his living space with a potpourri of fellow construction workers, a team engaged in renovating slum housing into expensive flats whilst expressing their disdain - if not hatred - for their bosses, who threat them like dirt whilst cutting corners to fatten the bottom line. Like most Loach films, there's a wry undercurrent of humor, and the script - written by Bill Jesse, himself a veteran of the building trades - is filled with the searing insight and wisdom we'd expect from the man who brought us Cathy Come Home on the BBC's Wednesday Play back in the day.

1:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Topper Returns (1941 USA): TCM repeated the Topper trilogy last month, and as I hadn't seen them in many years, it seemed as good a time as any to reacquaint myself with the films. Surprisingly, the third and final entry in the series was the one I enjoyed the most, and it airs again this afternoon as part of Turner's annual 30 Days of Oscar celebration. Why do I like this one the best? Quite simply, Roland Young gets lots of screen time, and there's no Cary Grant. Plus, it features an uproarious beach sequence, which I swear is the funniest physical comedy you'll see this side of a Buster Keaton film. Really.

9:00 PM Sundance
Wishing Stairs (2003 ROK): A fresh batch of Asian horrors commence on Sundance with this South Korean shocker, the third entry in the disparate Yeogo Goedam series, which also includes Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori. Sadly, this isn't one of the better recent Korean efforts, with a paper-thin plot about a haunted girls school cribbed from far better films like, well, Memento Mori and Dario Argento's ballet-themed Suspiria. If you're a hardcore admirer of these things, you'll want to climb the Wishing Stairs - but all others can safely step off.

Monday 02/05/07

1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Kapo (1959 POL): Only the survivors of the Holocaust can tell us what the concentration camp experience was really like, but Kapo is probably as close as cinema can get to recreating the numbing horrors of the camps - and that includes Schindler's List. Susan Strasberg is superb as Edith, a Jewish teenager who is saved by chance and then becomes a collaborator in order to survive. The film's greatest strength is its ability to make us comprehend the forces that compelled inmates to become kapos - the Nazi equivalent of prison trustees - and lmost (but not quite) makes us sympathize with them. Snatched from the jaws of the gas chamber only to have the power of life and death thrust upon them, the kapos did what they had to do in order to survive - and who amongst us would not take that same chance if thrust into the heart of Nazi darkness? This incredibly powerful film is filled with astonishing imagery, none more powerful than the scene of Edith/Nicole watching helplessly as her parents are forced to jog to their demise amidst a crowd of children and elderly inmates - people who are inessential to the Reich's war machine. This important film, long forgotten in the United States, gets its third airing this morning on TCM - and richly deserves a place in everyone's home video library.

10:30 AM Showtime
Pauline At the Beach (1983 FRA): I must say the heretical: I've never been an admirer of French auteur Eric Rohmer. Perhaps that's because I took in a few too many late nights at the local repertory house back in the ‘80s, and found his work banal beyond words and best prescribed as sleep aids for ADHD-stricken film fans. However, his features are far from being television staples, and when one pops up on the schedule, it's my solemn duty to report the sighting to you, my loyal reader. And you know what? It's been 20 years since I last took in a Rohmer film, so maybe I'll like this one. You never can tell. Also airs at 1:30 PM.

6:00 PM Sundance
Grace Lee Project (2005 USA): In an effort to come to terms with both the social stigma of racial stereotyping and the stifling ominpresence of her very common name, filmmaker Grace Lee took it upon herself to track down and interview as many women who share that name as possible. I was certain she would feature a good friend of mine (who for privacy reasons shall remain nameless), but sadly, that friend's showbiz career found her on the road when Grace came a-calling. The Grace Lee's she DID find, however, are an eclectic bunch, ranging from a 14-year-old guerrilla artist to an 88-year-old civil rights activist. The resulting film isn't the sort of documentary one usually associates with Sundance - like most of its subjects, it's generally polite and well-behaved - but there are worse ways to spend an hour in front of the boob tube. Even if you don't know any Grace Lees yourself.

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