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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 12/16/08

1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Adam and Evelyne (1949 GB): Rumored to be in line for a Gus van Sant remake retitled Adam and Stevelyne, this Harold French-helmed rom-com features hunky Stewart Granger as Adam Black, a ne'e'r do well who lives comfortably off his gambling proceeds. As a favor to a deceased and moneyless friend, Adam masquerades as the biological father of his friend's orphan daughter — but when young Evelyne (Jean Simmons) turns out to be one hot mama, sparks fly and their new father-daughter relationship threatens to become something a little less paternal and a little more conjugal. Co-starring Wilfred Hyde-White and with blink and you'll miss them appearances by Irene Handl, Derek Llewellyn, and Mona Washbourne, Adam and Evelyne is predictable but pleasant fun, well shot by DoP Guy Green.

11:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
August Fires (1994 USA): This cop flick makes its widescreen television debut this evening on Fox. Yep, widescreen. Letterboxed. Original aspect ratio. Oh, you wanted some more info? Well, it's got Lou Gossett in it as the stereotypical shouty police captain, and Billy Zane as the police detective trying to solve the mystery of his partner's murder. What? You've heard this one before? Well maybe, but have you heard it in WIDESCREEN? With a cameo by Carrie-Anne Moss, even?

Wednesday 12/17/08

7:00 PM Sundance
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (2007 ROM): Arriving hot on the heels of the impressive if depressing Death of Mr. Lazarescu, some folks who should probably know better offered this film as additional proof of a purported "new wave" of Romanian cinema. Since then, the Eastern European cinematic tsunami seems to have receded (if in fact it was ever anything more than a Sight and Sound fever dream), but what it left behind is certainly worthwhile. Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu and set during the reign of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days relates the sorry tale of clueless Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), a pregnant young woman who hasn't the vaguest idea how she's going to cope with her condition. Enter wiser roommate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), who offers suggestions about how to get an illegal abortion and takes on the unenviable task of making the arrangements. Like poor old Mr. Lazarescu on his endless ambulance journey, Gabita and Otilia embark on a treacherous trip to meet abortionist Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), and once they meet him, things only get worse. It's all incredibly grim and makes your average Ken Loach feature look like a gauzy Ron Howard blockbuster in comparison.

Thursday 12/18/08

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Phaedra (1962 FRA-GRE-USA): There have been a fair few Jules Dassin flicks showing up on premium channels recently, and surprisingly enough, they haven't all been on TCM. Dassin, who only died earlier this year at the age of 96, was an underrated stylist whose body of work includes straight dramas, hardboiled noirs, and "art" films, but they're all good. Shot in Dassin's adopted homeland of Greece, Phaedra is an update of Euripides' Hippolytus and stars Mrs. Dassin, Melina Mercouri, as the title character, a beautiful woman married May-December style to aging shipping magnate Thanos (Raf Vallone). As a bonus, she also inherits stepson Alexi (Anthony Perkins) — and the two soon begin to cast smoldering looks at each other. Seems like incestuous adoptive relationships are the theme of the week in the TiVoPlex, but if you're choosing between this and the aforementioned Adam and Evelyne, there's really not much contest. Perkins is intense and moody, Mercouri a bundle of curves, and the jazzy score from Mikis Theodorakis the final icing on the cake.

8:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Model Shop (1969 FRA): I'm not much of a Jacques Demy fan, but this time out he wisely decided to forego having his cast sing all their dialogue. As a result, Model Shop is a candy-colored tribute to late '60s Los Angeles, which is never a bad thing, even when viewed without the lens of lysergic acid diethylamide. Anouk Aimee stars as Lola, a French émigré who rents cameras - and herself - at an "artists and models" shop, where she meets George Matthews (Gary Lockwood), an architect about to be shipped off to 'Nam. Together, they discover the truth behind the lies behind the billboards on Sunset Boulevard. The dialogue, written by Demy and translated into English by Adrien Joyce, is stodgy and very, very French, but the film itself is gorgeous. Interesting footnotes: the script supervisor was Edgar Ulmer's wife Shirley, and Fred Willard plays a gas station attendant.

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