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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 3/30/10

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dersu Uzala (1974 JAP): Akira Kurosawa Month draws to an end with Dersu Uzala--not the director's last film, but arguably his last great one. The film also marks a departure from Kurosawa's usual theme—the internal machinations of the parochial Japanese—in favor of a wider pan-Asian palette. Set in Siberia (and partially funded by the Soviet government), the film stars Yuri Solomin as Vladimir Arseniev, a soldier leading an expedition into the vast and treacherous wastelands of the Russian Far East. When danger looms, Vladimir is rescued by local woodsman Dersu Uzala (Maksim Munzuk), and the two become fast friends. Years later, the Russian convinces his aging chum to live out his golden years in the big city of Khabarovsk, but Dersu is unable to adapt to an urban environment and returns to the forest to die. It doesn't sound like much, but it's a beautiful, deeply moving film that assumes a more epic scope than Kurosawa's more introspective work. Dersu Uzala makes its American widescreen television debut this afternoon, and is not to be missed.

7:00 PM Sundance
Blue Blood (2006 GB): Perhaps you're familiar with the annual Boat Race, in which competing rowing teams from Britain's premier universities, Oxford and Cambridge, face-off to claim the big prize: a 500 pound tub of clotted cream. No, I lie—the glory is all in the winning, but it really is called ‘The Boat Race'. Even if you have heard of it, however, you're probably not familiar with another annual donnybrook between the two schools: the Varsity Boxing Match, in which matriculating pugilists hit each other repeatedly with their dissertations whilst dressed in gowns and mortarboards. No, I lie again—they actually don gloves and protective head gear before whaling on each other. This film focuses on Oxford's 2005 team, and whilst they're not quite as absurd as the participants in Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year contest, they still could be fairly described as over-privileged silly asses. If your idea of good fun is watching toffs pound the bejesus out of each other, you'll love Blue Blood, which airs again 3/31 at 12:30 AM.

Wednesday 3/31/10

1:35 AM HBO 2
They Killed Sister Dorothy (2008 USA): If this documentary doesn't make you angry, you must be a rapacious Brazilian land owner. Or, perhaps, a talk radio host who preserves his or her righteous indignation for disabled children, homeless veterans, injured pets, or nuns who work for social justice. If you're neither, however, then tune in to They Killed Sister Dorothy, and learn how this generous, open-hearted, and deeply caring 73-year old woman was murdered by loggers anxious to clear-cut the jungle surrounding the village where she lived and worked. You have my guarantee that it will piss you off. Unless you're Glenn Beck.

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