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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 5/04/10

2:35 AM Sundance
Paradise Now (2005 PAL-FRA-GER-ISR): A pan and scan print of this Academy Award-nominated drama has been airing on Starz recently—but that print also committed the egregious crime of featuring horrendous English-language dubbing. Now we (hopefully) are getting a widescreen print of Paradise Now in its original Arabic. Shot on location in the Occupied Territories and Israel, the film tells the story of Said and Khaled (Kais Nashif and Ali Suliman), two working class friends sent to Tel Aviv on a suicide bombing mission. Disguised as Jewish settlers, the chums’ plan begins to go wrong almost immediately, and their separation at the border offers both of them time to reflect on what lies ahead. Will a bomb in the belly of the beast make a difference—or will it just perpetuate the cycle of violence? The source of considerable controversy during production—apparently some Israelis and Palestinians took exception to various (but no doubt different) aspects of the film—Paradise Now is a thoughtful and dispassionate attempt to make sense of an ongoing tragedy.

7:00 AM Sundance
Un Secret (2007 FRA): An excellent cast goes a long way in this French tale of family subterfuge. Directed by Claude Miller and divided into three acts, Un Secret begins in the immediate post-World War II years, and introduces us to the Grimbert family, French Jews who have changed their surname (from Grinberg) and are eager to forget their past. Easier said than done, of course, and when teenage Francois (Quentin Dubuis) asks Aunt Louise (Julie Depardieu) about the family heritage, skeletons rapidly begin to tumble from the closet. Although unlikely to appeal to those who favor action over dialogue, Un Secret is well worth a look for fine performances by Depardieu (who won the Cesar for her work here), Matthieu Amalric (as a grown-up Francois), and Ludivine Sagnier as Hannah, the mystery woman who won the heart of family patriarch Maxime (Patrick Bruel) back in the day.

4:05 PM IFC
Blow Out (1981 USA): Brian de Palma hadn’t quite jumped the Hitchcockian shark yet (that would come with 1984’s Body Double), but Fonzie and his water-skis were surely close at hand during the production of this derivative thriller. John Travolta, still a boxoffice stud in 1981, stars as Jack, a sound man working in the ‘B’ movie trenches of Philadelphia. Whilst recording owls late one night, Jack witnesses an auto accident and pulls victim Sally (Nancy Allen) from the wreckage. But Sally wasn’t alone in the car: her deceased companion was an important politician, and even more troubling, Jack’s convinced his equipment recorded a gunshot immediately prior to the ‘blow out’. Even if (like me) you have a visceral loathing for Travolta, you’ll enjoy putting the conspiracy pieces together with Jack, and good supporting turns by John Lithgow and Dennis Franz make the film all the more worthwhile.

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