TiVoPlex
By John Seal
November 9, 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 11/09/04
1am Showtime
Don’t Tempt Me (2001 ESP-ITA-FRA-MEX): Penélope Cruz (Gothika) is perfectly cast as the emissary of Satan in this metaphysical comedy about the struggle for the soul of a misogynistic boxer (Demian Bichir). She’s up against an angel from heaven (Victoria Abril) in the struggle for this admittedly vapid prize. Bolstered by appearances by Gabriel Garcia Bernal and Fanny Ardant, this occasionally funny international co-production also features an uncredited Javier Bardem in a rather unusual cameo role. Also airs at 4am, 11/11 on Showtime 2 at 10:15pm, and 11/14 on Showtime 2 at 9:30pm.
5am Sundance
Tom Dowd and the Language of Music (2003 USA): Tom Dowd's influence on American popular music can't be exaggerated. As the main recording engineer at Atlantic Records, he worked with a wide range of musicians in many different genres, including jazz, soul, rock, and blues. How much you enjoy this documentary may depend on how interested you are in the music of the late 20th century, though my disinterest in and dislike of the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band didn't dampen my enthusiasm for this film. There's some great footage of Aretha Franklin in the studio and some stunning excerpts from the Stax/Volt European tour of 1967, plus enlightening interviews with Atlantic execs Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the film is the amount of time spent on Dowd's teenage years spent working on the Manhattan Project, but director Mark Moormann manages to make it an integral and important part of this tribute to a wonderful and talented human being. Also airs on 11/15 at noon.
6:45am Black Starz!
The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967 FRA): Burdened though it is by director Melvin Van Peebles’ typical editing foibles, Story of a Three-Day Pass is nonetheless his greatest film, buoyed by superb performances by handsome Harry Baird, lovely doomed starlet Nicole Berger, and the unheralded Harold Brav as Baird's apoplectic commanding officer. A romantic comedy about love, racism and the United States Army, the film will raise you up only to drop you down, but it rarely resorts to cinematic cliché and will appeal to idealist and cynic alike. Beautifully shot by Michel Kelber, the film also features an absolutely top-notch score which deserves some sort of recognition and is instantly atop my list of “soundtrack most in need of a CD (re)issue". Strongly recommended for all.
10:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Chaser (1938 USA): This rarely-seen remake of 1933’s The Nuisance stars Dennis O’Keefe as Tom Brandon, an ambulance-chasing lawyer trying to stay one step ahead of the honest competition (Henry O’Neill). Love, in the shape of comely Ann Morriss, soon intervenes, shaping The Chaser into a predictable but well-cast morality play about tort reform. Reliable Nat Pendleton is on hand as one of O’Keefe’s co-conspirators, Floppy Phil, and dear old Lewis Stone plays an alcoholic doctor who needs a quick and easy infusion of cold, hard cash.
Wednesday 11/10/04
4am Encore Mystery
It’s Alive! (1968 USA): Not to be confused with Larry Cohen’s 1974 killer baby thriller - the one featuring a Bernard Herrmann score - this is an ever lower-budget horror film from much-maligned Texas filmmaker Larry Buchanan. Shot for a pittance and featuring the same monster costume utilized in Buchanan’s equally pathetic Creature of Destruction (1967), It’s Alive! is dreadful stuff about tourists imperilled by a mad farmer and his cave-bound pet monster. The film stars former Disney child actor Tommy Kirk - who specialized for years in appearing in other awful films, like Mars Needs Women, Mother Goose A-Go-Go, and Village of the Giants - as well as Buchanan regulars Bill Thurman and Annabelle Weenick. It’s Alive! hasn’t been on TV since TNT aired it on 100% Weird many years back, and it’s been an even longer wait for a commercial-free airing, earning it a dishonorable mention in this week’s column.
7:40am Encore Westerns
Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958 USA): Clint Eastwood fans may want to take a look at this otherwise run-of-the-mill western to catch an early speaking role by Ol’ Droopy Eyes. This film also features an appearance by Keith Richards. No, not that one.
5pm The Movie Channel
Beyond Hypothermia (1996 HK-ROK): This above-average Hong Kong crime flick makes its American television debut this afternoon. Wu Chin Lin plays a nameless female assassin, a Cambodian refugee who kills mobsters at the behest of her aunt (Shirley Wong). She’s being pursued in turn by another hired gun (Korean-born Han Sang Woo), looking to revenge the murder of his boss at the hands of our mysterious heroine. Directed by John Woo associate Patrick Leung, Beyond Hypothermia (which derives its title from its main character’s abnormally low body temperature) is, at times, surprisingly lyrical and romantic, with Wu’s character nervously establishing a platonic relationship with a friendly restaurateur (Wu Chien-Lien). If you enjoyed Wong Kar-Wai’s hard-to-pigeonhole Chungking Express (1994), you’ll probably enjoy Beyond Hypothermia. Also airs at 8pm.
Thursday 11/11/04
4:05pm Starz!
The Fog of War (2003 USA): Octogenarian Robert McNamara, the architect of President John F. Kennedy’s Vietnam War plans, finally comes (partially) clean in this award-winning documentary by director Errol Morris. McNamara, considered one of The Best and the Brightest of the Camelot generation, served as Secretary of Defense in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, where he gradually became disillusioned with a war for which he was in great measure responsible. This remarkable series of interviews - which neither admonishes nor exculpates their subject - is arranged as a series of 11 "talking points" that the Bush administration would do well to listen to (No.8: "Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning."). McNamara’s life has been a long and full one, stretching from World War II (where he also bears the onus of firebombing plans that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Japanese civilians) to stewardship at the eco-unfriendly World Bank during the 1970s. The Fog of War is an illuminating and disturbing analysis of the fraility, culpability, and hubris of not only McNamara, but all those in a position of making life-and-death decisions. Also airs at 7:05pm.
Friday 11/12/04
6am Sundance
Secret Honor (1984 USA): Some of Robert Altman’s best films are the ones most people haven’t heard about. Here’s one that definitely belongs in that category, a film adaptation of a one-man play about a post-resignation day in the life of President Richard M. Nixon. P. T. Anderson regular Philip Baker Hall - truly one of America’s least-known great actors - plays Tricky Dick, and his characterization is considerably deeper and richer than the one offered by Sir Anthony Hopkins in Oliver Stone’s bloated 1995 biopic Nixon. Secret Honor won the top prize at the 1985 Berlin International Film Festival but deserves a far wider audience than the one it reached on the festival circuit (the film never played theatrically in the United States). Also airs at 3:30pm.
2:15pm Showtime 2
Crime Spree (2003 CAN-GB): This week’s speculative pick features TiVoPlex whipping boy Gerard Depardieu in an action comedy about French gangsters trying to pull off a heist in Chicago (This being a Canadian co-production, Toronto fills in for the Windy City for most of the film). The balance of the cast, however, is filled with personal favorites, such as Harvey Keitel, Johnny Hallyday, and Said Taghmaoui, and the film garnered decent reviews on its release. Crime Spree is unlikely to be a lost classic, but sounds like a solid, entertaining time-waster. Also airs 11/14 on Showtime at 2:15pm and 5:15pm.
Saturday 11/13/04
11:05pm Encore Westerns
When the Redskins Rode (1951 USA): Included here purely and simply because of its outrageous title, When the Redskins Rode is actually not the standard frontier oater you might expect. Instead, it takes place in 18th century Delaware, where George Washington (B-movie stalwart James Seay) is trying to woo an Indian prince (dashing Jon Hall) over to the British side during the French and Indian War of 1754. I haven’t seen this film, but couldn’t overlook that title.
Sunday 11/14/04
7am Fox Movie Channel
Hello-Goodbye (1970 GB): This tame sex comedy features cheeky chappy Michael Crawford, who for once manages to keep his jolly-o-meter under control in a rare serious role as a car salesman out to bed the beautiful wife of aristocrat Curt Jurgens. Wifey’s played by the preposterously proportioned (and acting-impaired) Genevieve Gilles, whose frequent nude scenes must have pushed the limits of the GP rating when Hello-Goodbye was released in America in 1970. Francis Lai's score is breathtakingly beautiful, and it's a shame that Henri Decae's cinematography is compromised by the pan-and-scan print currently airing on the Fox Movie Channel. Approach with low expectations and you may enjoy Hello-Goodbye, though fans of late '60s pop psychedelic cinema will be more enthusiastic than others.
1pm HBO
Last Letters Home (2004 USA): Even if you hate Michael Moore and thought Fahrenheit 9/11 was a pack of lies (shocking disclaimer: I don’t), you were probably moved by the scene in the film featuring a bereaved mother reading the last letter home from her son, shortly before his death in Iraq. If, like me, that scene left you wrung out like a damp dishtowel, you’ll need a roll of super-absorbent Bounty to get you through this new HBO documentary. Featuring the final words and thoughts of ten dead American soldiers as read by their surviving family members, this promises to be a wrenching and hard-to-watch experience. If you’d like to see HBO commission a similar documentary featuring the last words and thoughts of ten Iraqi victims of this senseless and unnecessary war, please join me in writing and encouraging the network via this link: http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/lastlettershome/community/index.html. Last Letters Home also airs at 4pm.
7pm Turner Classic Movies
Treasures From American Film Archives: This program features 16 short films from the turn of the 20th century, excerpted from the essential DVD boxed set of the same title. If you haven’t anted up for the set and have any interest in learning more about the development of the cinematic arts, you owe it to yourself to take a look at these shorts. Amongst the selections are What Happened on 23rd Street, New York City (1901), Children Who Labor (1912), and the early sound experiment, Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925).
Monday 11/15/04
7pm
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003 USA-GB): Nick Broomfield’s sequel to his 1992 frightfest, Aileen: Portrait of a Serial Killer, makes its small-screen debut this evening. Whilst the earlier film held out a faint flicker of hope for the future of this seriously disturbed woman, the sequel – released in the aftermath of her execution and in the immediate wake of Charlize Theron’s well-deserved Academy Award portrayal as Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’ remarkable Monster - is a much more unsettling affair. In 1992, it was possible to catch fleeting glimpses of Wuornos’ humanity, but ten years later her final film interviews with Broomfield reveal an almost incoherent and clearly schizophrenic woman. Astonishingly, three psychiatrists gave her pre-execution mental health a big thumbs up, paving the way for yet another Bush family re-election victory party.
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