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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 2/28/12

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tristana (1970 ESP): The young Catherine Deneuve stars as a fresh-faced ingenue corrupted by an older man in this typically cheeky and sacrilegious Luis Bunuel feature. Deneuve plays the title character, an underage minor taken into care by guardian Don Lope (Bunuel regular Fernando Rey) after the death of her mother. The salacious Don Lope finagles his way into the orphan’s bed, but she rejects him and takes up with a handsome younger man (Franco Nero) until fate intervenes in the form of a tumorous leg — at which point Tristana finds herself back in Don Lope’s household, this time with the upper hand. As wicked a film as Bunuel ever made, Tristana was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1971 Oscars but lost to Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion.

11:45 AM Sundance
Summer Hours (2008 FRA): My assessment is that Olivier Assayas essayed this family drama of genteel upper middle-class decay. Say that three times fast! Set in the bucolic French countryside, Summer Hours relates the story of an uncomfortable family reunion, ostensibly the celebration of matriarch Helene’s (Eyes Without a Face’s Edith Scob) 75th birthday. With one child in France, one in China, and one in New York, Helene decides this will be the perfect opportunity to get the details of her last will and testament squared away. Sadly, however, her ungrateful offspring (including Juliette Binoche and Jeremie Renier) are uninterested in maintaining the family pile according to her wishes, and you can soon cut the foie gras with a knife. Though films about the trials and tribulations of the well-to-do tend to put me off a bit, Summer Hours provides the legendary Scob with a well-deserved showcase for her considerable talents.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Arabian Nights (1942 USA): It may not be quite as colorful and outrageous as Kenneth Anger’s favorite film of all time, Cobra Woman, but Arabian Nights remains a superior entry in Universal’s short-lived but much loved series of Technicolor fantasies. And what a cast it has! Jon Hall headlines as Haroun, rightful heir to the caliphate of Bagdad but usurped by wicked half-brother Kamar (Leif Erickson). Haroun takes up with exotic dancer Scheherazade (Maria Montez) and cheeky magician Ben Ali (Sabu), and together they plot his return to the throne. It’s as silly and orientalist as all get out, but was nominated for an impressive four Academy Awards (Art Direction, Cinematography, Music, and Sound) and includes the following amongst its supporting cast: Turhan Bey, John Qualen, Shemp Howard, Thomas Gomez, Edgar Barrier, and an uncredited Acquanetta. Phew!

Thursday 3/1/12

2:10 AM Encore Action
Nighthawks (1981 USA): I always get this film confused with 1978’s Nighthawks, a groundbreaking film about gay life in London. Sadly, 1981’s Nighthawks does not include scenes of stars Sly Stallone and Billy Dee Williams knocking boots (Stallone left sex films behind him - so to speak - after 1970’s Party at Kitty and Stud’s), but it is one of the taciturn one’s more enjoyable post-Rocky action flicks. Sly plays Deke DaSilva, a New York copper assigned with consensual partner Matthew Fox (Williams) to nail international terrorist Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer) before he can blow all of New York. I mean, blow up. There’s tons of hot, sweaty, muscle-y action and the cast also includes Joe Spinell, Nigel Davenport and...porn regular Jamie Gillis?!? Now my head is truly spinning. For the few heterosexual gents who’ve got this far, Persis Khambatta also shows up as Wulfgar’s colleague in terror.

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