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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 1/8/13

9:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Bob le Flambeur (1955 FRA):. Roger Duchesne (whose acting career was basically over by the mid ‘50s thanks to accusations of wartime collaboration with the Germans and a predilection for the bottle) stars in this Jean-Pierre Melville classic as the title character, a gone to seed con desperate for One Last Big Job that will leave him fat and happy in his golden years. He plots a casino heist that he hopes will net him and his friends a cool 800 million francs, but as is oft the case, things go awry when Bob's plan is discovered - and he finds himself sucked into the maw of the gambling tables. Filmed beautifully by the great cinematographer Henri Decae, Bob le Flambeur is generally considered to be the film that kicked off what became known as the French "New Wave", but it's also a great caper flick with tremendous appeal for anyone willing to read subtitles.

11:55 PM Showtime Extreme
Creep (2004 GB-GER): No, Radiohead’s alt rock classic is nowhere to be heard on the soundtrack of this low budget British horror flick - instead, music is provided by a slightly lesser known outfit called The Insects. Set in the London Underground, Creep features Franke Potente as Kate, a young woman who falls asleep on the Tube one night and awakens to a horror more terrifying than Boris Johnson’s haircut. There’s lots of running around through murky tunnels, a nasty killer stalking her, and precious few surprises, but the setting makes the film worth a look. If you enjoyed 1972’s Raw Meat or 2008’s Midnight Meat Train, you owe it to yourself to check out this London Transport video nasty.

Wednesday 1/9/13

1:30 AM HBO Signature
Goodbye Cruel World (2010 MEX): Carlos Alberto Orozco plays Angel, a down on his luck accountant, in this enjoyably goofy Mexican comedy. Despite his best efforts, Angel has recently lost his job, and in order to make ends meet falls in with a group of equally inept thieves who provide more in the way of comradeship than they do cold, hard cash. Pushed to the wall, Angel and friends conjure up the ultimate money making plot: stealing a lion from the city zoo and holding it for ransom! Directed by University of Texas grad Jack Zagha Kababie, Goodbye Cruel World drew apt critical comparisons to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, and won the Feature Film Award at the Austin Film Festival.

3:00 AM HBO 2
Jaws 2 (1978 USA): Get ready for a three night sharkathon courtesy HBO 2! First up is the initial sequel to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 monster box office smash, in which Roy Scheider reprises his role as Amity Police Chief Brody. Once again, Brody’s bucolic burg is threatened by an underwater menace, and it’s up to him to overcome the predictable objections of the town fathers and declare an emergency. Don’t those guys ever learn? Directed by television specialist Jeannot Swarc, Jaws 2 is definitely a lesser effort than its predecessor, but - as we’ll soon discover over the coming days – worse was to come!

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