Tivoplex
By John Seal
November 28, 2006
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Conqueror Worm (1968 GB): A legendary feature from British director Michael Reeves, The Conqueror Worm (original UK title: Witchfinder General) still hasn't had a legitimate Stateside DVD release. It'll be interesting to see if TCM will be airing the original UK cut, or the re-edited American version, but either way we're the winner, because the film rarely shows up on television anymore. Vincent Price stars as Matthew Hopkins, a freelance witchfinder who travels from village to village scaring up confessions from unsuspecting Norfolk wenches. When Hopkins accuses the niece of a local priest of consorting with Lucifer, he makes a powerful enemy in the form of fiancée Richard Marshall (Ian Ogilvy), and blood is sure to flow. A gruesome film in either cut, Conqueror Worm still has the power to shock, though the mayhem is softened somewhat by Paul Ferris' lush score.
Saturday 12/02/06
3:00 PM Showtime
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985 USA): It's hard to imagine a time when Madonna was actually hip and not the subject of well-earned ridicule, but this still fresh ‘punk' comedy caught her at just that moment. Her film career soon went into precipitous and irreversible decline, but Desperately Seeking Susan is proof positive that Madonna Louise Ciccone once showed some onscreen promise. She plays a New York free spirit who finds her fate inadvertently entwined with that of boring middle-class housewife Roberta (Rosanna Arquette, another actress who soon fell from grace). Director Susan Seidelman had the good sense to film on location with a boatload of Bowery denizens—including Richards Hell and Edson, Ann Magnuson, Rockets Redglare, Adele Bertei, Arto Lindsay, and John Lurie—as well as professional actors such as Victor Argo, John Turturro, and Shirley Stoler. The result is a lively musical comedy of errors cut from the same cloth as Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Desperately Seeking Susan makes its widescreen television debut this evening, and airs again at 6:00 PM and 12/3 on Showtime 2 at 5:15 PM.
7:00 PM Sundance
Breathless (1959 FRA): It's hard for me to put into words the effect Breathless had on me the first time I saw it. As a tender twenty-year old, I immediately fell in love with star Jean Seberg, who had already been dead for three years thanks to her FBI-inspired suicide. The story was incidental for me—and remains so to this day—but it involves Seberg's character falling for a cop killer (deliciously portrayed by the great Jean-Paul Belmondo). The two spend a few glorious days together in Paris, and then their brief relationship comes to a tragic end. Directed with style, energy, and jump cuts by Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless is both a heady tribute to the boundless invention of the innovative auteur and to the breathtaking beauty of Seberg. Like Louise Brooks, Seberg was an actress of limitless onscreen charisma and charm. Watch this film and let her luminous presence take your breath away.
Sunday 12/03/06
5:30 AM IFC
Fires On the Plain (1959 JAP): It occurs to me that this has been an exceptionally fine week for foreign film admirers—and especially for admirers of Japanese film. Folks, we ain't done yet. Here's an anti-war classic from director Kon Ichikawa set on the island of Leyte at the end of the Second World War, where tubercular soldier Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) is hoping to escape capture by the oncoming American army. Tamura and his compatriots are desperately fearful of falling into the hands of the enemy, and flee for the coast, where they hope to be rescued and transported to Cebu, a neighboring island still in Imperial hands. When their escape route is cut off, the remaining soldiers begin to turn on themselves, and the result is a grim and bloody Lord of the Flies-style finale that doesn't spare Tamura's highly refined sensibilities. Based on a novel by Shohei Ooka, Fires On the Plain also airs at 12:20 PM.
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