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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 12/22/09

2:00 PM HBO Signature
Aparecidos (2007 ARG-SWE): I've written about quite a few Argentinian films over the years, but I'm fairly certain this is the first Argentinian horror film that's been featured in the TiVoPlex. Written and directed by Paco Cabezas, Aparecidos tells the tale of siblings Malena and Pablo and the spot of bother they encounter when they find a notebook detailing a series of unsolved murders. After reading the book, Malena and Pablo begin to experience visions of the events depicted therein, and surmise that the victims' ghosts have been recreating their violent deaths on a daily basis for more than twenty years. Titled The Appeared in English, Aparecidos echoes the fate of those who were disappeared by the Argentine military dictatorship of the early 1980s, rendering it one of the few overtly political horror films of recent vintage. If you enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth, or prefer your spook-shows chilly and clammy but not particularly gory, this will be right up your alley.

6:40 PM Encore Westerns
Five Savage Men (1970 USA): If you like really obscure westerns, they don't get much more obscure than Five Savage Men, produced and penned by J.D. actor Dick Bakalyan and unleashed on an suspecting world as The Animals in 1970. It's basically a rape/revenge thriller done Old West style, with helium-voiced Michelle Carey portraying victim Alice, who hooks up with equally pissed-off Native American Chatto (Henry Silva!) to dole out justice to the three guys who did the deed. And what a trio they are: there's escaped convict Pudge (Keenan Wynn), sleazebag Peyote (Joe Turkel), and scumbucket Jamie (Pepper Martin), all in good need of a thorough thrashing. It's not a very good movie, but if you like Pina Coladas and being caught in the rain, you should be excited about Five Savage Men's Rupert Holmes-penned soundtrack.

Thursday 12/24/09

10:45 AM IFC
The Last Metro (1980 FRA): Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu headline this Francois Truffaut drama set during the German occupation of France, circa 1942. Deneuve plays Marion, the gentile wife of Jewish theater owner Lucas (Heinz Bennent), who's gone into hiding and left his spouse in charge of operations. Marion is casting the company's next production, a play aptly titled Disappearance, and has selected Bernard Granger (Depardieu) as her leading man - without realizing that he is also a member of the resistance and will likely bring the theatre much unwanted attention. Will Lucas' basement hideaway be revealed thanks to Bernard's maquis moonlighting? A relatively mainstream effort by Truffaut, The Last Metro proved to be a critical and popular success in France and abroad, winning a whopping 11 Cesars as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film of 1981.

8:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Chicken Every Sunday (1949 USA): If you're a fan of such turn of the century comedy fare as Cheaper By the Dozen, you'll probably dig this gentle George Seaton-helmed laugher about an Arizona family's experiences in the boarding house business. Celeste Holm stars as Emily Hefferan, the long suffering wife of Jim (Dan Dailey), a kind but foolish soul whose monetary misadventures compel the family to take in more and more boarders beneath their Tucson roof. After decades of difficult lodgers, Emily has had her fill, and is determined to divorce Jim. This being a big studio production made within the parameters of the Production Code, you know that love, marriage, and tradition will ultimately triumph, but it's quite good fun anyway. Also in the cast: Natalie Wood as daughter Ruth, Bill Frawley and Whit Bissell as tenants, and Veda Ann Borg as a woman on the run from a rotten husband.

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