TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday August 24 2010 through Monday August 30 2010
By John Seal
August 23, 2010
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 8/24/10
1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
X, Y, and Zee (1972 GB): I always get this film confused with Unman, Wittering, and Zigo, another British drama from 1972, but other than the similar titles they’re fairly distinct creatures. In contrast to UWZ’s somewhat down at heel pedigree, X, Y, and Zee (known as Zee and Co. in the UK) stars Liz Taylor as the wife of successful architect Robert Blakeley (Michael Caine), whose currently engaged in an adulterous affair with younger woman Stella (Susannah York). It’s a brash, soapy affair that allows Taylor to vent in best Virginia Wolff style, whilst Caine and York are, predictably, a little more subtle and quite excellent. Making it’s American widescreen television debut, X Y and Zee co-stars Margaret Leighton, and was penned by Irish scribe Edna O’Brien (though Laurence Sterne remains distinctly out of sight).
9:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Desert Nights (1929 USA): The moment when John Gilbert’s life and career took a turn for the worse—unfairly, IMHO—arrived in the form of this William Nigh-helmed adventure from 1929. Set in the Kalahari Desert, the film features Gilbert as diamond mine manager Hugh Rand, who gets gulled by a pair of confidence artists (Ernest Torrence and Mary Nolan) posing as visiting aristocrats. Whilst the film itself is pretty average stuff, the problem, of course, was that it was also Gilbert’s first talking picture—and for whatever unfathomable reason, movie patrons were not impressed by his speaking voice. It was all downhill for the dashing Gilbert after Desert Nights, and he would succumb in 1936 to heart failure stemming from alcoholism at the ridiculously young age of 38. It’s followed at 10:45 AM by his fourth talkie, 1930’s Way of a Sailor, in which the faded matinee idol portrays a mariner doing battle with Wallace Beery for Leila Hyams’ heart (as if), and at 1:00 AM on 8/25 by 1934’s The Captain Hates the Sea, Gilbert’s unimpressive cinema swan-song.
Wednesday 8/25/10
2:10 AM Cinemax
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006 USA): Regular readers know I have a soft spot for films with unusual titles—even if I haven’t seen them yet. Whilst I wait patiently for an elusive TCM screening of Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, here’s another movie with a memorable moniker. IMDb says it’s an indie rom-com featuring former SNL regular Tim Kazurinsky, actor-director Paul Mazursky, and Homer Simpson himself, Dan Castellaneta, as well as Amy Sedaris and Sarah Silverman. In other words, there’s enough here to warrant a mention, sight unseen and title notwithstanding. Also airs at 5:10 AM.
8:00 PM Sundance
Tokyo! (2008 JAP-ROK-GER-FRA): Not to be confused with 2003’s Tokyo or 2009’s Tokyo, this Tokyo! is a somewhat over-baked but still very watchable anthology film compiling three tales set in Japan’s teeming capital city. Harking back to the movie anthologies of the 1960s, Tokyo! is a fully fledged international co-production, and features slightly surreal stories helmed by Joon Bo-Hong (The Host, Mother), Leos Carax (Pola X), and Michel Gondry (Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind). Your mileage will no doubt vary, but my favorite of the three is Gondry’s Interior Design, in which apartment hunting is revealed as a somewhat disturbing sport. Carax’s tale of a vengeful and rather unhinged sewer-dweller, Merde, runs a close second. Also airs 8/26 at 1:00 AM.
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