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Saturday 5/29/10

10:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Birdy (1985 USA): It no longer plays quite as well as it did when I was an impressionable stripling of 22, but Birdy remains a memorable film about the crippling psychological aftereffects of war and the power of enduring friendship. Nicolas Cage plays a (physically) wounded GI sent to a veterans’ hospital to try and help his shell-shocked compatriot, Matthew Modine, rendered speechless and uncommunicative after his own tour of duty in ‘Nam. Cage’s job is to re-establish contact with Modine’s suppressed human personality, and though the film veers into Hollywood clichés and sentimentality (especially during its flashback sequences), at its heart are the two brilliant performances of its leads, especially Modine’s. TCM is, of course, airing a wide-screen print this evening, so if you’ve never seen Birdy before, now’s the time.

Sunday 5/30/10

9:05 PM IFC
Days of Glory (2006 FRA): Released in its native France as Indigenes, Days of Glory tells the episodic tale of four colonial soldiers fighting for liberté, égalité, and fraternité during World War II. Directed by Rachid Bouchareb, the film focuses on a quartet of Moroccan recruits fighting their way from North Africa to the European mainland, with the promise of future self-determination and freedom as incentive. They soon learn that their white brothers-in-arms get better food, longer leaves, and rise through the ranks faster than they do. Thematically provocative but stylistically old-fashioned, Days of Glory made such an impression in its native land that surviving North African war vets won back the pensions previously denied to them for decades. Who says art can’t change the world? Also airs 5/31 at 1:00 PM.

Monday 5/31/10

2:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Nazty Nuisance (1943 USA): This World War II comedy is far better than it has any right to be. That’s almost entirely down to the performances of Bobby Watson and Joe Devlin as Hitler and Mussolini, as well as a badly outdated yellow face turn by Johnny Arthur as Japanese warmonger Suki Yaki. (I’m more inclined to overlook this sin than usual—after all, the depictions of Adolf and Benito are equally broad caricatures.) Call me easily amused, but it’s no mean feat when a 67-year old comedy can still make me laugh out loud.

3:35 AM Sundance
Story of Women (1988 FRA): Churned out by the ever busy Claude Chabrol, Story of Women is the tale of Marie (Isabelle Huppert), a working-class Frenchwoman living la vida terrible with her alcoholic husband and two snot-nosed kids during the early days of the German occupation of WWII. One day Marie assists a neighbor woman with an abortion, and decides that she’s finally found her calling. Yes, it’s a bit of a Gallic Vera Drake, but Marie is in it for the money, baby, and uses the proceeds to move on up to a nicer apartment and expand into the prostitution business. Needless to say, the Nazis don’t take kindly to such activity, and put her on trial. Based on a true story, Chabrol’s film doesn’t draw conclusions about the relative morality or immorality of Marie’s activity, instead emphasizing the abuses of state power to which she ultimately falls victim. Huppert is as excellent as ever and Francois Cluzet is also first-rate as crumb-bum hubby Paul. Also airs at 9:15 AM.

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dirty Harry (1971 USA): It’s Clint Eastwood’s 80th birthday, and TCM begins the celebration with Ol’ Squint-eyes’ groundbreaking badass cop thriller, Dirty Harry. In the unlikely event that you haven’t heard yet, Harry Callahan is a San Francisco (oh, the irony!) policeman who’s sick and tired of street scum getting off with a slap on the wrist or less. Baghdad by the Bay is being stalked by a serial killer called Scorpio, and Harry decides it’s time to tear up the rule book in order to get things done and bring him/her to justice. The film that launched a thousand vigilante knock-offs, Dirty Harry gets a very rare widescreen airing tonight, and is followed at 11:00 PM by its immediate sequel, 1973’s Magnum Force.

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