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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 07/25/06

7am Sundance
Gelato: An Endless Passion (2005 ITA): With sizzling temperatures frying eggs on sidewalks coast to coast and across the European continent, now would seem to be the perfect time to relax with a cool, refreshing dish of ice cream, or, as the Italians call it, gelato. Mooted to originally have been invented in either China or Austria, ice cream was ultimately mass-marketed to the world by savvy Italian businessmen, and this film tells their story (and it doesn't have much to do with organ grinders in striped shirts). Covering everything from those disputed origins to its present position as an appropriately rich gourmet status symbol, Gelato is a refreshing, creamy way to start your TiVoPlex week.

1pm Sundance
Rosetta (1999 BEL): Wistful beauty Émilie Dequenne plays the title character in this remarkable neo-realist drama about a resilient young woman making the best of her hard-knock life in rural Belgium. The winner of the Palme d'Or at 1999's Cannes Festival, the film details the life of the titular 17-year-old, who lives with her alcoholic mother in a caravan whilst surviving on the proceeds of jumble sales and eating rotting food fished out of a nearby stream. She befriends local Belgian waffle maker (yes, really) Riquet (Fabrizio Rongioni), and the two make beautiful batter together until he falls into the aforementioned river one day, and her greed and ambition get the better of her. Though we're clearly supposed to sympathize with Rosetta, she's no Dickensian heroine, downtrodden one day and uplifted the next; she's a flesh-and-blood human, complete with foibles, flaws, and a dangerous temper that finds her negotiating through near-noir territory by the final reel. Filmed vérité style with handheld cameras, this low-budget stunner also netted a Cannes Best Actress award for the up-and-coming Dequenne, seen most recently by a hardy few in 2004's abortive The Bridge of San Luis Rey remake. Also airs 7/26 at 1am.

4:40pm Encore Love Stories
Man of the Century (1999 USA): I've recommended this one in the past, and I do hate to repeat myself, but I absolutely love this film and I wouldn't feel right if I didn't give it all the support it needs in its ancillary afterlife. Man of the Century may not have been the best film of 1999, but it was my favorite film that year, and while it's lightweight fluff, this fish-out-of-water story firms, lifts, and supports my spirits every time I watch it. Gibson Frazier stars as Johnny Twennies, a reporter on a struggling New York newspaper who's trying to get the big scoop and save his job and the paper's independence. Set in contemporary New York, Twennies lives and breathes 1928, refraining from profanity, pre-marital sex, or unnecessary violence. What's delightful about the film is the way he fits in the Big Apple, a city with enough room for every race, creed, color, sexual orientation, or chronologic preference. Though people consider him a little odd, no one rejects him out-of-hand, and the film's raucous and hilarious finale brings everyone together in a heart-warming affirmation of love's power to trump all. If you don't crack a smile during this film, you're dead.

Wednesday 07/26/06

11:45am Turner Classic Movies
Hold On! (1965 USA): Produced by MGM to cash in on the teenybopper success of Herman's Hermits - hugely popular in the States, far less so in their home stomping grounds of Manchester, England - Hold On! is a typically goofy musical comedy based on the Hard Day's Night template. Of course, it lacks the brilliant screenplay, beautiful black-and-white photography, great cast, and brilliant music of The Beatles' first flick, but other than that, they're pretty much the same movie. In their first big-screen adventure, the Hermits (infamously, none of whom were actually named Herman) are touring America, and for some inexplicable reason get a spacecraft named after them. Co-starring Sue Ann Langdon and the ubiquitous Shelley Fabares as love interest, Hold On! features one of the best Hermits' tracks (the title song) and also one of the worst (their woeful take on George Formby's Leaning on a Lamp Post). It still hasn't shown up on DVD, making this letterboxed airing a rare opportunity to see the film in all its wide-screen glory. It's followed at 1:15pm by 1968's far worse Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter, which features the fab five unsuccessfully trying to extend their career into the psychedelic era.

Thursday 07/27/06

3:30am Encore Dramatic Stories
Dracula's Last Rites (1979 USA): One of the worst vampire films ever made, Dracula's Last Rites is also one of the rarest. Set in Anytown, USA, the film at least offers a somewhat unique take on the bloodsucking mythos, with the town fathers - including sheriff, doctor, and funeral director - bloodsuckers one and all. In a blatant abuse of power, the mucky-mucks arrange a series of accidents in order to satisfy their unholy cravings, but when one their victims gets away, their conspiracy threatens to unravel. See folks, THIS is why we need sunshine laws and transparency in local government. The film is loaded with editing gaffes, bad acting, and worse writing, lending it a dinner-theatre charm that will appeal to true fans of awful cinema. In fact, for most of the cast this remains their one and only screen credit, underscoring the low-budget regional roots of this bizarre oddity.

9:15pm Sundance
The Public Eye (1992 USA): The life of cult street photographer WeeGee was celebrated in this excellent, semi-autobiographical 1940s period piece starring Joe Pesci as an ambulance-chasing shutterbug named Benzy who dreams of fame and fortune via the pages of Big Apple tabloids. The film brilliantly depicts Manhattan's seedy underbelly of goons, gangsters, and molls, and provides Pesci with one of his best roles. Though still a bit of a wise guy, he's not completely out of control here, and the restraint enables him to deliver a believable portrait of an obsessive artist who never sleeps...or if he does, sleeps with the police radio scanner still on. Barbara Hershey is also of very good use as Kay, a society gal with working-class roots, and Stanley Tucci puts in a brief appearance as a gangster named Sal. Keep your fingers crossed and hope that Sundance is giving this one the wide-screen treatment.

Friday 07/28/06

11pm Turner Classic Movies
Spirit of the Beehive (1974 ESP): For years, the title of this film intrigued and excited me. After all, what kind of spirit could a beehive have? It's a bit like wondering how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, only more...mysterious. The film occasionally popped up on PBS back in the late 1970s, and every now and then I'd catch a brief snippet, which - along with that exotic, sensuous title - fired my imagination even further. When I eventually saw Spirit of the Beehive in its entirety a few years later, I was, of course, let down tremendously. Directed by Víctor Erice, it's the story of a pair of pouty moppets who, deeply affected by a road-show screening of James Whales' Frankenstein, go in search of the "real" monster, but find something else altogether. What had seemed enigmatic in the clips I'd seen now seemed ponderous; the Frankenstein's Monster connection now seemed secondary to the story of two annoying youngsters wandering the countryside. To that point, I don't think I'd ever been more disappointed with a film (Pulp Fiction still lay in the future). Nevertheless, it's possible I just wasn't in the right frame of mind that night, or was simply too young to "get it'. Spirit of the Beehive is back on TCM tonight for the first time in a while, and I'm already getting excited all over again. It won't let me down a SECOND time, will it? Roll on revelatory experience!

Sunday 07/30/06

7pm Showtime Extreme
The Package (1989 USA): The titular package is actually a prisoner (Tommy Lee Jones, having the time of his life) being escorted to trial by down-on-his-luck MP Johnny Gallagher (Gene Hackman). Gallagher dropped the ball during his last gig - helping protect an important US/Soviet arms summit - and has been demoted to what seems to be a routine Stateside delivery via West Germany. Unfortunately, Gallagher's luck hasn't changed, and when he loses his "package" in a bizarre restroom incident, he's forced to turn for help to his wife (Joanna Cassidy) - a career officer who now outranks her husband - and soon finds out he is actually a pawn in a complex espionage plot. Co-starring Pam Grier, Dennis Franz, and John Heard - and with a brief appearance by TiVoPlex favorite Harry Lennix - The Package makes its wide-screen boob tube debut this evening.

9pm Turner Classic Movies
Sunny Side (1919 USA): A trio of Charlie Chaplin two-reelers are on offer this evening, kicking off with Sunny Side, featuring the Little Tramp as a farmhand competing for the hand of a beautiful farmer's daughter (Edna Purviance). It's followed at 9:30pm by A Day's Pleasure (1919), in which family man Charlie's plans to treat his family to a day out are stymied by his recalcitrant automobile; and at 10pm by Payday (1922), wherein husband and wife Charlie and Edna clash over Charlie's after-work carousing. Like last week's Buster Keaton shorts, none of these qualify as rarities these days, but they're good fun nonetheless.