TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday May 18 2010 through Monday May 24 2010
By John Seal
May 17, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 5/18/10
5:30 PM Sundance
Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare (2009 FRA): Waste not, want not…unless you’re keen to acquire the detritus left behind by France’s atomic reactors. Produced in a country that relies heavily on nuclear power, Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare asks uncomfortable questions, such as where do we put all the excess Plutonium generated by reactors, and is the production of more radioactive waste really the best way to tackle climate change? Most controversially, the film suggests that French nuclear waste is being exported to Siberia, where it’s being stored…in a parking lot. Also airs at 11:00 PM.
7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975 USA): It’s no exaggeration to say I’ve been waiting at least ten years for this film to air on TCM. Not sure why it’s taken them so long, but thanks to the channel’s Native American Images on Film series, the time is now at hand. For the few of you who don’t already know, Jack Nicholson earned an Academy Award for his performance as R.P. McMurphy, a troublemaker sequestered within a mental institution, where he knocks heads with crabby Nurse Ratched (fellow Oscar winner Louise Fletcher). Amongst his fellow patients are stoic indigenous person Chief (Will Sampson), stutterer Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif, in his first major role), wise guy Martini (Danny DeVito), and others played by Michael Berryman, Vincent Schiavelli, and Sydney Lassick. It’s a terrific film, and one I’m dying to get re-acquainted with.
Wednesday 5/19/10
12:20 AM Starz
Lorna’s Silence (2008 BEL): The Dardenne Brothers return with another slice of Belgian working-class life. Lorna’s Silence stars Alban Ukaj and doe-eyed Arta Dobroshi as Sokol and Lorna, Albanian immigrants trying to gain permanent residence status—and better jobs—in their adopted (low) country. Lorna plans to marry junkie Claudy (In Bruges’ Jeremie Renier) on a temporary basis, naturalize, and then leave him for Russian gangster Andrei (Anton Yakovlev), who will in turn acquire legal residence status through her.
This is all being orchestrated by Italian con artist Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione, previously seen in the Dardenne’s Rosetta), and Lorna believes she will ultimately be able to marry her true love, Sokol, and live happily ever after. When murder, smuggling, and drugs are involved, however, you can be sure things will go seriously awry. If you’re a fan of the Dardennes, Ken Loach, or good old-fashioned Italian neo-realism, you’ll definitely want to give Lorna’s Silence a look. Also airs at 3:20 AM.
1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Vanishing American (1925 USA): Richard Dix stars as Nophaie, a Navajo chief fighting to preserve his tribe’s dignity and property, in this surprisingly progressive silent feature from Famous Players-Lasky. Nophaie and his people live on a reservation administered by Booker (Noah Beery), a wicked white man with more interest in the tribe’s horses than in the Navajo themselves. With the arrival of World War I, sympathetic school teacher Marion Warner (Lois Wilson) convinces the Indians to sell their horses to the Army and support the war effort, holding out the promise of better treatment once peace returns. The war ends, but things don’t improve, and Nophaie realizes the white man only understands the language of violence. This refreshingly blunt assessment is, of course, gussied up with Hollywood schmaltz, but it’s good stuff nonetheless. Look for Gary Cooper, rumored to be here somewhere as a cowboy extra.
11:35 AM The Movie Channel
Lifeguard (1976 USA): Sam Elliott, only 32 but already brandishing an impressive moustache, stars in this worthwhile character study directed by Daniel Petrie. Elliott plays Rick, a typical Southern California surfer dude stuck in perpetual childhood. Rick is in his early 30s but still works as a lifeguard on Southland beaches. When he meets an old chum (now a high-flying car salesman) and an old flame (now a divorced single mom) Rick realizes it’s time to make a decision about the direction his life will take. Should he trade in his speedo for a three-piece suit and flog Porsches, or should he keep doing what makes him happiest? Co-starring Anne Archer as love interest Cathy, Lifeguard airs again at 2:35 PM.
2:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Code Two (1953 USA): A brisk bill-filler, Code Two stars Robert Horton, Ralph Meeker, and Jeff Richards as a trio of rookie cops beginning their career in the L.A.P.D. The three have just graduated from Police Academy (sadly, there’s no Bobcat Goldthwait in sight), but find their new assignments a bit boring and end up being transferred to the motorcycle division. Once they get something hot between their legs, work gets much more exciting—and when a routine traffic stop leads to murder, more exciting than they ever imagined possible. Code Two is a routine but enjoyable programmer enlivened by gravel-voiced Meeker and co-stars James Craig and Keenan Wynn, both suitably gruff as starchy superior officers.
6:30 PM IFC
Don’t Answer the Phone (1980 USA): This slasher ‘classic’ makes its widescreen television premiere on IFC tonight. Nicholas Worth headlines as balding shutterbug Kirk Smith, a Vietnam vet (of course) who spends most of his work hours strangling, raping, and brutalizing women to compensate for his lousy childhood. Smith develops a twisted relationship with radio personality Lindsay Gale (Floe Gerrish), and after taunting her on air decides she needs to die, too. Will Lindsay outsmart her stalker—or will police lieutenant McCabe (James Westmoreland) get to him first? Though considered by some a misogynistic video nasty, Don’t Answer the Phone is a bit too silly to really qualify, and Worth’s performance is actually quite good. If you’d prefer to avoid this sort of thing, however, Don’t Program the DVD Recorder! Also airs 5/20 at 1:30 AM.
Thursday 5/20/10
9:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Thunderheart (1991 USA): A top notch cast nudges this otherwise ordinary murder mystery into above average territory. Based very loosely on the battles fought between the FBI and the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, Thunderheart stars Val Kilmer as agent Levoi, a half-breed G-Man sent to investigate a homicide on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. Levoi isn’t too proud of his ancestry, but when elder Walter Crow Horse (Graham Greene) puts a bug in his ear, his latent Native American awakens and he begins to question the Bureau’s case. Co-starring Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, and future senator and Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, Thunderheart also looks great courtesy Roger Deakins’ outstanding cinematography.
Friday 5/21/10
6:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Private Lives (1931 USA): Based on a Noel Coward play, Private Lives is a comedy of errors about a couple that have as much trouble living with each other as without. The couple are Amanda Prynne (Norma Shearer) and Elyot Chase (Robert Montgomery), and they’ve both recently remarried—she to Victor (Reginald Denny), he to Sibyl (Una Merkel). Amanda and Elyot immediately come down with cases of buyer’s remorse (hey, you would too if your spouse were Denny or Merkel) and everyone ends up trying to drown their sorrows in a Swiss ski chalet. It’s arrant nonsense, but Shearer is radiant as ever, and reason enough to watch the film. It’s followed at 8:00 AM by Faithless (1932), a less elegant but similarly themed MGM melodrama starring Montgomery and Tallulah Bankhead.
12:35 PM Encore Love Stories
Siren of Atlantis (1948 USA): A real oddity by any standards (and certainly by the standards of Encore Love Stories!), Siren of Atlantis is an uneven blend of noir and exotica that still manages to work. Lovely Maria Montez stars as Antinea, Queen of an isolated desert city ‘discovered’ by two French Legionaires (Dennis O’Keefe and Jean-Pierre Aumont). Aumont (then married to Montez in real life) falls hard for the dishy dame, but courtier Blades (Henry Daniell, particularly ripe in this outing) has other ideas, and murder raises the temperature even higher. Shot in atmospheric, beautifully lit black and white by Oscar-winner Karl Struss, Siren of Atlantis was directed by Greek expatriate Gregg Tallas, who would helm the terrific James Bond rip-off Marc Mato, agente S. 077 in 1965.
1:35 PM IFC
Vera Drake (2004 GB): The feel-bad movie of 2004 makes its American widescreen television debut this evening. Vera Drake (the amazing Imelda Staunton) is a 1950s British working-class mum with a secret: she's an abortionist on the side, helping girls get out of trouble and accepting very little in return. When one of her wealthier customers confesses her sins to her own mother, the police are compelled to take action, and this desperately sad, modern Greek tragedy takes its inevitable course, with the weepy and confused Vera forced to take the stand and ultimately serve time. Directed by Mike Leigh, Vera Drake is an astonishing period piece, vividly recapturing life in the London backstreets circa 1955, and features some truly great performances: besides Staunton's tour de force, keep your eyes on Richard Graham, stalwart yet ashamed as Vera's husband, and Eddie Marsan, whose subtle performance as her young son-in-law may well be the film's unsung high point.
Saturday 5/22/10
7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Trouble Makers (1948 USA): Seems like I’ve been writing about the Bowery Boys for years now, but we’re not even close to the half way mark yet: here’s the series’ twelfth entry. This one’s enlivened by the presence of just-about-to-be-blacklisted Lionel Stander, here playing goombah Hatchet Moran, whose latest dastardly crime, wouldn’t you know it, has been witnessed by Slip and Sach. Will the police believe their story? I don’t think so.
6:00 PM The Movie Channel
I Sell the Dead (2008 USA): I’ve yet to see this horror comedy about grave robbers in 19th century Ireland, but it has a lot going for it. For starters, there’s Ron Perlman, Larry Fessenden, and Angus Scrimm in front of the camera and the assistant director (Gavin McQuaid) of Fessenden’s The Last Winter behind it. If that’s not enough, Richard Lopez’s cinematography was awarded the Vision Award at Slamdance 2009. Also airs at 9:00 PM.
Sunday 5/23/10
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
A Kid for Two Farthings (1955 GB): A truly remarkable ensemble cast is the main attraction offered by this winsome fantasy feature from Carol Reed. Seven-year old Jonathan Ashmore made his one and only film appearance as Joe, a fatherless London lad with a vivid imagination. Joe is regaled with stories of wish-granting unicorns by his mother’s employer, Jewish tailor Kadinsky (David Kossoff), and determines to find a unicorn of his very own. He acquires a scruffy one-horned goat and immediately begins making wishes—and lo and behold, some of them come true. A lovely little tale of faith, hope, and charity, A Kid for Two Farthings also features Celia Johnson (as Joe’s Mum), Diana Dors, Barbara Windsor, Brenda de Banzie, Sid James, Irene Handl, Sam Kydd, Alfie Bass, wrestler Primo Carnera, and Lou Jacobi.
11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Story of Adele H. (1975 FRA): Victor Hugo’s daughter assumes a secret identity and flees to Britain in search of true love in this Francois Truffaut tale of love and obsession. Adele H(ugo)(Isabelle Adjani) renames herself Adele Lewly, and arrives in Halifax, Yorkshire in search of Pinson (Withnail and I’s Bruce Robinson), the army lieutenant who won her heart whilst she and dad were exiled on Guernsey. At the time, Pinson nonchalantly proposed marriage; Adele took him seriously and is determined to tie the knot with the foolish lad. Believe it or not, the film is based on the diary of the real Adele Hugo, who wrote it in code which remained unbroken until 1955. Gorgeous photography by Nestor Almendros and a riveting Adjani performance make this a must-see.
Monday 5/24/10
11:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Strange Affair (1944 USA): TCM keeps rolling out forgotten Columbia programmers, and here’s another one I’ve never seen before (and judging from the lack of reviews on IMDb, neither has anyone else, at least in the last ten years or so). TCM’s plot synopsis simply says ‘a mystery writer and his wife investigate a murder at a charity benefit’. Presumably the couple are played by Allyn Joslyn and Evelyn Keyes, a pretty good couple to headline a second feature, and the film also features appearances by Marguerite Chapman, Edgar Buchanan, Nina Foch, Shemp Howard, and Hugo Haas. That’s bound to pique anyone’s interest! It’s followed at 12:30 PM by the equally obscure There’s Something About a Soldier (1943), starring Keyes and Tom Neal.