TiVoPlex
By John Seal
April 25, 2005
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 04/26/05
7am IFC Jane Eyre (1996 GB): This satisfying screen adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic romance comes to IFC in wide-screen this morning. It’s generally held in disdain by hardcore fans of the novel, but Brontë neophytes such as myself will be reasonably pleased with the results. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, whose late ‘60s versions of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet had something of the chocolate box about them, Jane Eyre is a much gloomier affair, and benefits tremendously from a stellar performance by Charlotte Gainsbourg in the title role. Gainsbourg’s Jane is a dour and demure young lady whose upbringing as an orphan in a strict girls’ school has left her restrained and reserved, but things start to change when she is exposed to the mature charms of Mr. Rochester (a miscast William Hurt), who hires Jane to tutor his ward (Josephine Serre). Sticking closer to the source material than the 1944 Joan Fontaine version - though still, naturally, taking some cinematic liberties - Jane Eyre was moodily shot by David Watkin (Help!, Marat/Sade) and co-stars Joan Plowright, Anna Paquin, and Geraldine Chaplin. Also airs at 1pm.
9pm More Max
Urbania (2000 USA): This episodic and twisted tale of big-city life comes from actor and erstwhile director Jon Shear and features Dan Futterman as Charlie, a gay New Yorker searching for peace and happiness whilst in the grip of anger, confusion, and melancholia. Instead he finds homelessness, terminal illness, and, thanks to some barflies in a seedy hangout, a plethora of urban legends right out of a Jan Harold Brunvand book. Urbania is an entertaining and intriguing feature that updates some of the conventions of the “psychological noirs” of the late 1940s and even reminds me of the bizarre 1955 psycho-noir feature Daughter of Horror. This unique film, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2001, features Alan Cumming, Barbara Sukowa, and Lothaire Bluto in supporting roles.
Wednesday 04/27/05
1:45am Sundance
Images (1972 GB): Images is an atypical Robert Altman feature: shot in Ireland, it foregoes a large cast in favor of a grand total of six speaking parts! The film is reminiscent of Polanski’s Repulsion (1965), and its rural setting vaguely echoes (or is echoed by) other British films of the period, including Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971) and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973). Susannah York plays Cathryn, a children’s author who has recently resettled to a remote farmhouse with busy executive hubby Hugh (Rene Auberjonois, excellent in a rare non-comedy role). She’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown and identity crisis, and things get complicated in a hurry when old lovers Marcel (Hugh Millais) and Rene (Eurotrash veteran Marcel Bozzuffi) suddenly put in appearances. Marcel even brings his daughter Susannah (Cathryn Harrison, granddaughter of Rex) along on the trip. Featuring stunning cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond and a memorable score by John Williams (yes, that John Williams) in concert with electronica guru Stomu Yamash’ta, Images is one of Altman’s greatest accomplishments and deserves a much wider audience. If you enjoy a mind-bending puzzler à la Antonioni’s Blow-Up, you’ll love this film (Here’s a hint for those seriously interested in analyzing Images: take a look at the first names of the cast, compare them to the first names of the characters, and commence rumination).
9pm Fox Movie Channel
The Detective (1968 USA): Considered hot stuff in 1968 (it received the spicy M rating from the MPAA back in the day), The Detective now looks like a fairly average police procedural, albeit one with the then-novel twists of homosexuality and drug abuse tossed into the mix. Frank Sinatra stars as Joe Leland, a police detective who stumbles across police corruption whilst investigating the murder of a gay man. Scripted by bleeding heart Abby Mann, the film’s views on homosexuality now seem positively quaint, with its queer characters stereotypically prowling through New York’s docklands in search of fresh mincemeat. It’s worth a look for the interesting supporting cast (Lee Remick, Jack Klugman, Robert Duvall, and Ralph Meeker), Jerry Goldsmith’s score, and Joseph Biroc’s excellent wide-screen cinematography.
Thursday 04/28/05
5am IFC
Haiku Tunnel (2001 USA): Berkeley resident Josh Kornbluth stars in this gut-busting screen adaptation of his successful stage play. He plays Josh, a temporary worker in a law firm who gets the opportunity to “go perm” when his boss (the inscrutable Warren Keith) decides he likes him. His first task as a newly-hired perm: mail 17 incredibly important letters. Needless to say, Kornbluth is not up to this complex task, and things get more and more complicated as deadlines pass (and pass again) in this post-modern screwball comedy. The film’s first half-hour will leave you gasping for breath as it sets up our hero for his inevitable fall, and though Haiku Tunnel struggles to maintain its initial energy as the story continues, it’s still one of the funniest films you’ll ever see.
Friday 04/29/05
3am Turner Classic Movies
The Girl Said No (1930 USA): One of the least likely comedy “teams” of the ‘20s and ‘30s came in the spectacular shape of hatchet-faced Marie Dressler and the decidedly sexier Polly Moran, who co-starred together in a dozen features beginning in 1927 with The Callahans and the Murphys. That film is now considered lost, but you can see four of their later sound efforts this morning, starting with The Girl Said No, starring closet-case William Haines as a handsome college lad forced to earn a crust when the death of his father leaves him penniless. Dressler appears only briefly as a matron who mistakes him for a doctor, and Moran is overshadowed by Leila Hyams as Haines’ love interest. It’s followed at 4:45am by Politics (1931), with Dressler playing a housewife running for mayor in an attempt to root out city hall corruption; at 6am by Reducing (1931), with Moran and Dressler as two very different sisters trying to run a big-city beauty parlor together and gaunt-faced comic vet Lucien Littlefield as Dressler’s hen-pecked husband; and at 7:30am by Prosperity (1932), with the two cast as feuding matriarchs in a small town. The last two films both co-star Anita Page - still with us today at the age of 95 - as Dressler’s daughter.
Saturday 04/30/05
12:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956 USA): Lousy title aside, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is actually one of the better science fiction films of the 1950s. It stars Hugh Marlowe - you know, the Beaver’s dad! - as the man in charge of Operation Skyhook, a government-funded space program that keeps losing its space probes. No, he doesn’t work for Halliburton or Enron; mysterious creatures from beyond are responsible for waylaying the probes, and now have their hearts set on conquering Earth itself. Narration is provided by the great Paul Frees, the special effects come courtesy Ray Harryhausen, and Morris Ankrum is on hand as - what else? - the general charged with defending Washington, DC from the interstellar onslaught.
5pm Encore Dramatic Stories
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time (2001 GER): This remarkable documentary about Scots sculptor Goldsworthy, who creates art out of the detritus of nature, arrives on American screens this morning. His delicate and ephemeral creations - which are made of ice, stone, and sand - are doomed to be undone by the same forces of nature that initially allowed him to sculpt them. Written and directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, Rivers and Tides won the Best Documentary awards at the German Film Awards and from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (the film made its American debut at the San Francisco International Film Festival). This is a beautiful and quietly stunning film about creation, destruction, rebirth, and the artistic process.
Sunday 05/01/05
5pm Showtime
Baadasssss! (2004 USA): That’s three As and five Ss, as in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, the film from which THIS film takes not only its title but also its tale. The original Baadasssss was directed by Melvin Van Peebles, and is considered a revolutionary work of art by some and a complete load of bollocks by others, including yours truly. Nonetheless, it remains a notorious and effective example of guerrilla filmmaking by the elder Van Peebles, who chose to forego studio amenities (and a budget) in favor of complete artistic freedom. This tribute to Sweetback and its prickly creator was written, produced, and directed by Van Peebles son, Mario, who also stars in the film playing who else but his dad. I’ve never been an admirer of Mario’s thespian skills, but he pulls it off here, and his film does a first-rate job of recreating the feverish atmosphere surrounding the early ‘70s production of Sweetback. Baadasssss! makes its television premiere in wide-screen this evening, and also airs at 8pm.
Monday 05/02/05
12:25am Flix
A Boy and His Dog (1975 USA): Here’s one I never expected to see on premium cable. That it’s being aired wide-screen is, of course, the icing on the cake. Based on a Harlan Ellison novel, A Boy and His Dog served as a prototype of sorts for all those really bad post-nuclear holocaust bleak-future films that feature long-haired men and buxom women in scanty clothing desperately trying to save the human race from extinction. Nice work if you can get it! It features a pre-Miami Vice Don Johnson as Vic, a young man who has a psychic connection with his dog, Blood, that allows the two of them to converse. They traverse the badlands of post-apocalyptic Arizona in search of food, shelter, and sex, the temptations of which lead Vic below ground and into the clutches of a heavily made-up Jason Robards, who, believe it or not, runs the sperm bank for the citizens of the underground city of Topeka. Directed by veteran character actor L. Q. Jones, A Boy and His Dog is certainly not for all tastes, but will appeal to those who thought Beneath the Planet of the Apes pulled its punches.
9:15pm Turner Classic Movies
The Secret of Monte Cristo (1961 GB): An intriguing pair of rare Rory Calhoun vehicles appear on TCM this evening, leading off with this British-made adventure tale of a soldier (Calhoun) searching for lost treasure. It’s a colorful wide-screen swashbuckler, shot in Dyaliscope and co-starring sword-and-sandal regular Gianna Maria Canale as Calhoun’s love interest. It’s followed at 11pm by a letterboxed airing of one of Calhoun’s continental epics, The Colossus of Rhodes (1961 ESP-ITA-FRA), one of the first films directed by Sergio Leone. The film doesn’t display much in the way of Leone’s signature but is an above-average entry in the then-ubiquitous pepla cycle.
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