TiVoPlex
By John Seal
July 4, 2006
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 07/04/06
5:15am IFC
The Empty Mirror (1996 USA): A fascinatingly flawed psychological study about the banality of evil, The Empty Mirror stars little-known British actor Norman Rodway as Adolf Hitler, 20th-century despot and all-around heel. Directed by Barry Hershey, the film is basically a monologue with stock footage, as Rodway's Führer fulminates at length about the stupidity of Stalin, the wretchedness of Roosevelt, and the power of his own personality, amongst many other topics. Rodway's Hitler is a distinctly Pythonesque creation and is a bit too jowly, and the balance of the casting is equally questionable: Joel Grey as Goebbels? Glenn Shadix as Goering? Nonetheless, the film is an ambitious failure that looks terrific thanks to Frederick Elmes' cinematography, which deftly blends contemporaneous scenes of life in the Führer bunker with oodles of wartime stock footage.
Wednesday 07/05/06
6pm Turner Classic Movies
Faces (1968 USA): It's John Cassavetes night on TCM, with the Method actor's second feature (the first was 1959's Shadows) kicking off the proceedings this evening. A dour dissertation on American middle-class ennui, the film stars John Marley and Lynn Carlin (formerly Robert Altman's secretary!) as Richard and Maria Forst, a couple whose marriage is foundering on the usual rocks of boredom, sexual frustration, and money problems. When things come to a head one night, Richard makes a date with a sexy call girl (Mrs. Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands) and Maria responds by opting for a one-night stand with Chet (Seymour Cassel), a swingin' dude she meets on the Sunset Strip. Much angst follows. Clocking in at over two hours (the director's original cut ran six!), Faces is a grueling trek through the lives of four deeply flawed characters you won't really like very much. Regardless, it's a quality picture that was a huge hit on the festival circuit and netted three Academy Award nominations. It's followed at 8:30pm by The Edge of Outside (2006), a new TCM original documenting the history of American cinema mavericks such as Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah, Orson Welles, and, of course, Cassavetes; and at 9:45pm by the man of the hour's most famous picture, the psychodrama A Woman Under the Influence (1974), which makes its wide-screen American television debut this evening.
10:30pm Flix
Murmur of the Heart (1971 FRA-ITA-BRD): There's been a bit of a Louis Malle film fest of late thanks to Flix, what with Black Moon and Au Revoir Les Enfants appearing in recent weeks. Now it's the turn of Malle's much-beloved, nostalgic coming-of-age comedy/drama, Murmur of the Heart. Set in 1950s Dijon, the film examines the May/December marriage of a wealthy doctor and his not-quite child bride, as well as the lives of the three sons the couple have been blessed with. Youngest son Laurent, a bookish nerd played to perfection by Benoît Ferreux, develops a heart ailment, and is prescribed a regimen of rest and relaxation by his physician father. He's dispatched with his mother (Lea Massari) to a posh resort, where the recuperative powers of smoking, drinking, and fornicating soon get put to the test in this paean to freewheeling adolescence. No one could capture the pains of growing up quite like Malle, and this semi-autobiographical feature is certainly one of his finest moments. Also airs 7/9 at 9pm.
Thursday 07/06/06
6pm Starz! Edge
Stealth (2005 USA): It's a quiet day in the "Plex, so we'll give a tip of the hat to Stealth, one of last summer's guiltiest pleasures. It's a supremely dumb techno-thriller about REALLY FAST airplanes and the plank-thick men and women of the US Air Force who get to pilot them to exotic locations like Tajikistan and Burma, where they proceed to bomb the hell out of all and sundry. If the dreadful acting, atrocious writing, and ridiculous-beyond-words plot don't put you off, you might enjoy the film, which makes its wide-screen television debut (2.35:1! YESSS!) this evening. Also airs 7/7 at 3:10am.
Friday 07/07/06
1:35am Starz! Edge
Raising Cain (1992 USA): It's been a while since this wacky Brian de Palma thriller showed up on the small screen. John Lithgow, always good at playing mild-mannered-but-mildly-deranged types, is featured as Carter Nix, the son of a child psychologist (also Lithgow) whose unethical nature-versus-nurture experiments include using his own son as a two-legged lab rat. When Dad decides it's time to bring his project to a satisfactory conclusion, he turns for help to his now mentally-imbalanced son and his multiple personalities, who include a leather-jacketed goon named Cain (Lithgow again). Meanwhile, wife Jenny (Lolita Davidovitch) senses something is wrong and fears for the safety of their daughter. Another in De Palma's long line of Hitchcock tributes - here with a dash of Michael Powell parental abuse stirred into the mix - Raising Cain is contrived fun that hearkens back to the director's earlier (but superior) Sisters. Also airs 7/10 at 9:20pm.
7:30pm The Movie Channel
Grave of the Vampire (1974 USA): A long-time staple of late-night television and a film about which I have very fond memories, Grave of the Vampire hasn't been seen on TV in years. William Smith, usually cast as extremely threatening heavies, here gets to play a good guy for once. He's James Eastman, the bastard offspring of a woman raped by a vampire one night after a midnight petting party in the local graveyard goes bad. Eastman dabbles in a little blood-drinking himself, but is determined to get revenge on the creature who manhandled his mother, an erstwhile history teacher (!) played by Michael Pataki. Atmospherically filmed on a shoestring budget and blessed with a decent screenplay by director John Hayes, Grave of the Vampire is available on a pan-and-scan DVD, but The Movie Channel is pulling out the stops and airing a print in its correct aspect ratio. Horror fans won't want to miss it. Also airs at 10:30pm.
9pm Sundance
Dune (1984 USA): It's a dud no matter how you look at it, but fans of David Lynch are advised to make time for this adaptation of Frank Herbert's near-incomprehensible novel of the same name, which makes its wide-screen American television premiere tonight. Set in a galaxy far, far away, where a rare spice called Melange is roughly the equivalent of petroleum (but for, erm, spaceships), Dune is a large-scale epic about the political machinations of bad guy Baron Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan) and good guy Duke Leto (Jürgen Prochnow), engaged in a struggle to control the titular planet which houses the galaxy's supply of that oh-so-precious commodity. It's kinda like a Theodore Dreiser novel in space, but not as good and twice as confusing. Still, the top-notch supporting cast is worth a look - Brad Dourif, Jose Ferrer, Linda Hunt, Freddie Jones, Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Jack Nance, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Dean Stockwell, and Max Von Sydow are all on hand (though on the debit side, so is Sean Young) - and the film looks great in Todd-AO.
Saturday 07/08/06
7:45am Sundance
A Life Without Pain (2004 USA): Without giving it a second thought, most of us would probably opt for a pain-free existence: one bereft of stinging paper cuts, bilious stomach disorders, and nagging toothaches. In reality, of course, we need those signals to tell us that something's wrong with our body. For a tiny number of people (approximately 100 worldwide!) who "suffer" from a disease known as CIPA - Congenital Insensitivity to Pain - a lack of pain poses unique challenges and makes life extremely complicated. This documentary takes a look at three children - one American, one Norwegian, and one German - who suffer from CIPA and the endless care and attention they need to stay safe. After watching A Life Without Pain, you'll be grateful the next time you stub your toe.
5:45pm Showtime 3
The Passion of the Christ (2005 USA): I avoided it like a Biblical plague during its theatrical run, but now that Mel Gibson's bloody epic is coming to the small screen, it's time for me to get acquainted with good ol' J. C. and hear all about the sacrifice He made for us miserable sinners, yadda yadda blah. Talk about A Life Without Pain; this is the exact opposite, squared. The Passion of the Christ makes its American television debut this afternoon, in wide-screen and in its original Aramaic. Praise the Lord and pass the crucifixion!
10:40pm Showtime Extreme
Brotherhood of Death (1976 USA): Now here's the type of film that I can really get myself worked into a lather about. It's a late-period black action flick about six African-American Vietnam vets who take on the Ku Klux Klan in a backwoods Southern town. Shot on location somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, Brotherhood of Death features half-a-dozen NFL players (none of whom I've heard of, but then I never liked football) as the righteous dudes who collectively stick a boot up the white man's ass. A low-budget regional delight with unintentional hints of cinema vérité, Brotherhood of Death is extremely elusive on home video and is quite possibly making its premium channel debut this evening. Also airs 7/10 at 8:30pm.
Monday 07/10/06
6pm Sundance
Air Guitar in Oulo(2003 CAN): Most men have done it at least once in their life: stood in front of a mirror and "played" along to their favorite guitar riff at full volume. I have no idea regarding the historical provenance of air guitar, but it was a well-established convention during my teenage years in the ‘70s, and was adaptable enough to suit my punk rock predilections, which consisted of pretending to know the chord progressions featured in The Damned's Neat Neat Neat and The Stooges TV Eye. Of course, it's not just the chords you need; you also need the facial expressions and the body language, which can vary from simple jumping around to an intricately choreographed dance involving your hair, your hands, and your cardboard axe. If you've ever enjoyed the amphetamine rush of pretending you were Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, or Steve Jones, this film - which details one man's journey to the annual World Air Guitar Championship in Oulo, Finland - is for you.
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