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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 3/1/11

8:00 AM Encore Mystery
With a Friend Like Harry (2000 FRA): I’ve recommended this film on previous occasions, but it’s well worth watching more than once so bear with me (and it) one more time. With a Friend Like Harry (also known less euphoniously as Harry, He’s Here to Help) is a superior Hitchcock-ian thriller starring the always terrific Sergi Lopez as the unctuous high-school chum of Michel (Laurent Lucas), a happily married man living an idyllic existence in the French countryside. The two are reunited by happenstance, and Michel invites Harry home, where his old chum recites one of Michel’s old school poems and starts obsessing about his friend’s need for more creative downtime. Michel doesn’t have any interest in verse anymore, but Harry insistently starts to remove all the societal and familial barriers on behalf of his friend, resulting in some bloody deaths and one very unhappy ex-poet. Sacré bleu! Also airs at 3:00 PM.

8:30 AM Flix
Mandela (1996 SAF-USA): What can I say about Nelson Mandela that hasn’t already been said? The man spent decades in prison and then helped create a new multi-racial democracy whilst averting what seemed likely to be an incredibly bloody civil war. This Oscar-nominated documentary takes a look at the great man’s life, paying particular attention, naturally, to his days in the Robben Island penal colony and throughout his struggle against apartheid. It’s stirring stuff, albeit with an understandable hagiographic bent.

Wednesday 3/2/11

1:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964 ITA): Comedy anthologies were all the rage in mid-sixties Italian cinema, and here’s one of the best. Written by Stevie Wonder, Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday is one of the most memorable soul singles of ’69. Oh, wait—let me rephrase that. Directed by Vittorio de Sica, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is one of the most memorable anthologies of ’64. It relates three stories of contemporary Italian love and lust, each featuring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in different roles, and each focused on the amorous affairs of a different woman. The stories themselves are nothing to write home about—they’re slightly above average sex farce—but the film looks amazing thanks to Giuseppe Rotunno’s widescreen Technicolor cinematography, and there’s a wonderfully bright and lush score courtesy composer Armando Trovajoli. And, of course, fans of Loren will not be disappointed.

6:10 AM Flix
The Devil and Max Devlin (1981 USA): Just goes to show what terrible tricks one’s memory can sometimes play: I was sure Richard Pryor was the star of this rarely seen Disney live action comedy, which makes its widescreen television debut this morning. But no—it’s Mr. Jello Pudding himself, Bill Cosby, here essaying the role of Barney Satin, an associate fallen angel who lays claim to the soul of car crash victim Max Devlin (Elliott Gould) on behalf of Beelzebub. Seems Max has been a naughty boy in life and must now pay for his misdeeds in the afterlife, but Barney makes him an offer he can’t refuse: if Max can bring him the souls of three innocent people, he can have his own back. This one’s strictly for the kiddies or fans of the Cos, who eschews his normal, avuncular style here for something a touch more malevolent.

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