TiVoPlex
By John Seal
September 6, 2004
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 09/07/04
5pm Turner Classic Movies
My Brother Talks to Horses (1947 USA): Before Mr. Ed - -even before Francis the Talking Mule - -came this MGM comedy about a young lad (Butch Jenkins) blessed with the gift of equine language. It’s an imperfect analogy, of course, because in THIS film, the boy does all the talking and the horses do all the listening, though they apparently answer back in a horsy tongue only Jenkins understands. Nonetheless, this film was definitely an important milestone in cinema’s transformation of gee gees from dumb animals you rode or worked with to anthropomorphized creatures you engaged in therapeutic conversation. It also marked the transition from B features to A-list productions for director Fred Zinnemann, whose next film would be the Montgomery Clift tearjerker The Search. Co-starring matinee idol Peter Lawford as Jenkin’s banker brother as well as Spring Byington, Edward Arnold, and Charlie Ruggles, My Brother Talks to Horses is engaging fluff that won’t put too much strain on your grey matter.
6pm Showtime
Year of the Bull (2003 USA): American football gets the Hoop Dreams treatment in Todd Lubin’s documentary about the gridiron antics of Miami Northwestern High School’s 2001 team of hot, sweaty jocks. Focusing on team captain and All-American linebacker Taurean Charles, Year of the Bull is a fascinating look at the pressure-cooker atmosphere of amateur athletics that also explores the overarching issues of class and race (Miami Northwestern is located in that city’s much-maligned Liberty City neighborhood). Shot over the course of two seasons, the film does a good job avoiding sports-movie clichés, and is an engaging look at a young man trying to live up to the expectations of playing for a school with a well-established reputation for developing professional players. Also airs at 9pm, on 9/11 at 9:35am and 12:35pm, and on 9/12 at 2am and 5am.
Wednesday 09/08/04
1:50am Encore Love Stories
The Talk of the Town (1942 USA): This first-rate, surprisingly adult Columbia comedy/drama stars Cary Grant as an anarchist (!) factory worker falsely accused of burning down his workplace. After being tried and convicted for trying to smash the system, Grant escapes to the home of an old school friend (Jean Arthur), where he assumes a new identity and meets right-wing law professor Ronald Colman. The two spend much of the film in verbal jousting, but Irwin Shaw and Sidney Buchman’s intelligent script is up to the task, and the film remains a tribute - albeit an idealistic one - to the American spirit of fair play and justice. Produced during the darkest days of World War II, the film’s expressed message - to quote Colman’s character, “(Grant’s) only crime was that he had the courage and spoke his mind...The law must be engraved into our hearts" - would soon be a distinctly unpopular one in the United States, and The Talk of the Town would certainly not be well-regarded in today’s White House. In addition to the headliners, the film is filled with familiar faces, including Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Clarence Muse, Rex Ingram, and a very young Lloyd Bridges.
6:35am Sundance
Alexei and the Spring (2002 JAP): In 1997, Japanese director Motohashi Seiichi went to Belarus and made a film, Nadya’s Village, about the after-effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the surrounding regions. This is a sequel of sorts to that film, focusing less on the disaster’s immediate impact and more on the post-meltdown return to “normalcy” in the tiny hamlet of Budische. Narrated by a 34-year-old village resident named Alexei, the film looks at the remaining handful of mostly elderly villagers who refused to relocate to urban public housing after the 1986 disaster. An elegiac Ryuichi Sakamoto score adds piquancy to the tale, which focuses on the miraculously uncontaminated titular spring that provides well water for the village. Filled with striking imagery by cinematographer Masafumi Ichinose, this is a love poem for the rapidly disappearing, slow-paced rhythms of life in rural Eurasia. Also airs 9/12 at 7am.
10:45pm Black Starz!
Madame Satã (2002 BRA): This biopic about a gay, black Brazilian transvestite who took his adopted name from the raunchy Cecil B. DeMille feature Madame Satan (1930) stars Lazaro Ramos - seen briefly on American screens in this year’s Carandiru - as the title character, a singing, dancing drag queen who spent years in jail following his conviction for the murder of an abusive bystander. Set in the Rio de Janeiro of the 1930s, Madame Satã is a less-than-heartwarming look at this complex character, who regularly beats his man-servant, lives with a (female) prostitute, and is generally not at a very nice person (though his fondness for Josephine Baker provides a softening touch). Nonetheless, the film does a terrific job of conveying the hothouse atmosphere of Satã’s life, and features sterling cinematography by Walter Carvalho (Central Station).
Thursday 09/09/04
6:45am Turner Classic Movies
The Squall (1929 USA): This intriguing if far from perfect early talkie features Myrna Loy as a gypsy servant girl whose erotic presence in a middle-class Hungarian household causes commotion and chaos.. Directed by Magyar émigré Alexander Korda during his brief stay in Hollywood and prior to his great successes in Britain, The Squall also features Zasu Pitts and 16-year-old Loretta Young as the fiancées of two of Loy’s boy-toys whom she lures out of the house for a literal roll in the hay. Not recommended for the general viewer, but of great interest to Loy fans and film historians interested in cinema’s tricky transition from silence to sound (this film basically destroyed silent actress Alice Joyce’s career).
Friday 09/10/04
9:25pm More Max
La Quarantaine (1982 CAN) : I haven’t seen this French-Canadian drama, and its IMDb synopsis makes it sound like a Quebecois Big Chill, but its rarity definitely qualifies it for a mention in this week’s column. Directed by the well-regarded Anne Claire Poirier (none of whose other films I’ve seen, either), La Quarantaine reunites ten old friends for a day and night of reminiscence, remonstrance, and (presumably) heavy drinking. The only cast member I’m familiar with is Jacques Godin, the surly and uncooperative building supervisor of Harvey Hart’s The Pyx, here cast as someone called Tarzan.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Germania Anno Zero (1948 ITA-GER): This rarely seen Roberto Rossellini feature, an unflinching neo-realist look at life in Germany in the wake of World War II, tells the story of a young boy (Edmund Moeschke) forced to scavenge through a bombed-out Berlin in an effort to support his family, including his disabled father. Most cinema buffs are familiar with Rossellini’s Open City and Paisan, but this film - ostensibly the third and final entry in the director’s loose post-war "trilogy" - has proven much more elusive, and its appearance on TCM should be the cause of much rejoicing. Arguably the bleakest film of its genre, Germania Anno Zero packs a punch in its brief 71-minute running time, with the devastated city providing a bleak backdrop for the film’s story of starvation and desperation. Brother Renzo Rossellini’s spare, mournful score provides an extra dose of pathos in this unforgettable and essential film.
Saturday 09/11/04
11:40pm Encore Mystery
The Sentinel (1977 USA): One of those films I’m more fond of than I have any reason or right to be, The Sentinel features one of the most memorable images of any ‘70s horror film: that of star John Carradine guarding the gates of Hell. Carradine, by now firmly trapped in the Fred Olen Ray school of schlock cinema, plays a blind priest who lives alone in a creepy Brooklyn Heights apartment house. Alone, that is, until raven-haired beauty Cristina Raines moves in and slowly discovers that something very strange is afoot on the building’s top floor. A kitchen sink amalgam of all the popular horror trends of the decade, The Sentinel remains director Michael Winner’s only genre effort (unless you count his totally unscary Henry James’ adaptation, The Nightcomers) and features an amazing cast of has-beens, slumming stars, and character actors, including Eurotrash vets Arthur Kennedy, Eli Wallach, and Martin Balsam, Ava Gardner, Sylvia Miles, Christopher Walken, Jose Ferrer, and longtime TiVoPlex favorite William Hickey.
Sunday 09/12/04
5pm Sundance
The Last Detail (1973 USA): Based on a novel by Daryl Ponicsan (also responsible for the equally-fine Cinderella Liberty), The Last Detail is an underappreciated gem from director Hal Ashby and stars Jack Nicholson as an MP who decides to show his stockade-bound prisoner one last good time before delivering him to prison. Robert Towne's screenplay captures the playful nature of the source material perfectly, Nicholson is great as usual, and there's good supporting work by Randy Quaid, Clifton James, and Michael Moriarty. Look for Gilda Radner in a bit part as a cult member.
9pm Turner Classic Movies
The Parson’s Widow (1920 DEN): This bizarre Carl Theodor Dreyer feature has been virtually impossible to see for years, but has recently been announced for DVD release by the good folks at Kino On Video. If you’re not sure you want to invest in that item, though, you can audition the film this evening. The film stars Einar Röd as an aspiring young theologian trying to angle his way into a parsonage so that he can finally wed his beloved, whose father has old-fashioned ideas about young men and their ability to support a family. He gets the job, but with it comes a terrible and unexpected responsibility: the hand of the previous three parsons’ octogenarian widow (Hildur Carlburg). Röd weds her, but invites his true love (Greta Almroth) to live under the same roof whilst masquerading as his sister. This comedy of errors doesn’t sound like a typical Dreyer film, but its imagery bears his unmistakable mark. It’s followed at 10:30pm by his 1924 feature Michael, a daring German-made UFA production with a homosexual theme about an artist (Häxan’s Benjamin Christiansen) and his handsome model (Walter Slezak, in only his second film). Co-written by Mrs. Fritz Lang, Thea Von Harbou, and shot by the brilliant Karl Freund and Rudoplh Mate, Michael isn’t on the DVD schedule, and thus comes with my highest recommendation. Look for Freund in a small role as an art dealer.
Monday 09/13/04
3:15pm Sundance
Choropampa: The Price of Gold (2002 USA): This deeply affecting documentary records the devastating effects of a 1999 mercury spill in a small Peruvian mountain village. Exposed daily to heavy trucks delivering goods and equipment needed for operations conducted by multinational gold-mining companies, Choropampa’s people were rendered ill or worse by the careless handling of this extremely toxic chemical. The villagers’ fruitless efforts to get compensation from the responsible parties and justice from a government more interested in economic development than the health and welfare of its poorest citizens, as well as the bravery of the peons in the face of police threats and intimidation, make this a classic documentary about underdogs taking on the system. It also offers classic lessons in the machinations of capitalism, with the townsfolk ultimately divided and weakened by the manipulative tactics of big business.
11pm Showtime
Cahoots (2000 USA): This deeply-flawed drama about a drifter and the corrosive effect he has on his friends and family can’t decide if it’s a serious character study or a David Lynch-style exercise in excess. Luckily, the heart of the film resides in the performances of Keith Carradine as the ne’er-do-well and David Keith as his old chum, an easily-manipulated architect with a hankering for one final blowout with his chum. Cahoots is patently artificial, with Keith’s character in particular making some quite unbelievable decisions, but the two stars are tremendous fun to watch, as is Janet Gunn as his unhappy wife. Showtime is airing this wide-screen, and if you approach with low expectations, you may come away pleasantly surprised.
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