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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 10/17/06

6:00 PM IFC
Pandora's Box (1929 GER): Ah, the lovely Louise Brooks. Adored by many, vilified by some who thought her a poor actress but a great self-promoter, the divine Ms. B. remains one of the few silent film stars recognizable to 21st century movie mavens. Personally, I'm a fan. Not only was the fresh-faced Louise an unmatched beauty, her hyperactive screen personality and apparently boundless energy offer an easy entry point for folks who think they don't like silent cinema. Lillian Gish and Gloria Swanson may have been better actresses - though even that can be subject to debate - but they can't generate the same onscreen excitement as Our Miss Brooks. Which brings us to Pandora's Box, the first film she appeared in during her brief Hollywood-imposed European sojourn, and the film that ultimately sealed her reputation as an icon of the Jazz Age. Brooks plays the tragic floozy Lulu, whose ultimately unhappy dalliances with newspaper magnate Peter Schorn (Fritz Kortner), his son Alwa (Franz Lederer), and a female countess (Alice Roberts) cause her to flee Berlin for London, where she encounters the most famous Victorian of them all - and I'm not talking about Gordon of Khartoum or Florence Nightingale. Directed by G. W. Pabst, Pandora's Box is a heady blend of sex, sleaze, and glamor, with Brooks and her coal-black eyes at the center of it all, enticing and entrancing viewers of all ages, sexes and sexual orientations. It might not be quite as erotic as Hedy Lamarr's Ekstase, but it comes pretty darn close. Also airs at 11:10 PM and 10/18 at 11:15 AM.

Wednesday 10/18/06

4:45 AM HBO
Chernobyl Heart(2003 USA): This is an incredibly moving and disturbing look at the aftermath of the infamous 1986 nuclear meltdown in the Northern Ukraine. The film's title refers to a genetic condition found in hundreds, if not thousands, of Belarusian children born since the accident, the direct result of radiation poisoning that has left them with holes in their hearts which can only be repaired by expensive surgery well beyond the means of the average citizen. Chernobyl Heart also takes an unwavering look at many of the other victims of this catastrophe, including children with thyroid cancer, mental retardation, and birth defects of all varieties. It's a shocking and powerful film that I can't recommend highly enough. Also airs at 7:45 AM.

9:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Lady Killer (1933 USA): An above average pre-Code comedy, Lady Killer stars James Cagney as Dan, a movie usher turned two-bit gangster turned screen actor after a propitious post-prison casting call lands him a job as an extra. Determined to make it big in Hollywood, Dan starts writing himself fan mail, and soon his star is on the rise. When old accomplices Duke, Spade, and Myra (Leslie Fenton, Douglass Dumbrille, and the inimitable Mae Clarke, respectively) discover he's hit the big time in Tinsel Town, blackmail can't be far behind, and Dan once again finds himself entangled with the criminal underworld. Lady Killer deftly parodies Cagney's breakthrough as a movie tough guy, with Lillie Hayward's screenplay slyly referencing both the infamous grapefruit scene from 1931's The Public Enemy and the importance of New York City's Strand Theater to the actor's career.

3:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Alias A Gentleman (1948 USA): It wasn't his final feature, but Wallace Beery was clearly on his last legs when he appeared in this lightweight comedy about plug ugly ex-con turned oil man Jim Breedin (Beery) trying to keep ‘adopted' daughter Nora (Dorothy Patrick) from ending up in the arms of bad man Matt Enley (Leon Ames). Cut from the same cloth as Beery's successful ‘crotchety old fart with a heart of gold' features from the 1930s (The Champ, Tugboat Annie, and many more), Alias A Gentleman also features the delightful John Qualen as confidence man No End, who gives the socially ignorant Jim lessons in etiquette, as well as Sheldon Leonard, Morris Ankrum, and Jeff Corey in smaller roles.

6:50 PM Encore Action
Sin City (2005 USA): Though I'm not a huge fan of this stylized Robert Rodriguez tribute to film noir (nor of comic book adaptations in general), admirers of either should be aware it makes its widescreen television debut this evening. A triptych of sordid tales, the film features a boatload of big names, including Mickey Rourke as a hardcase seeking revenge for the death of a beautiful prostitute (prostitutes are always beautiful and hardly ever beat down or drug-ravaged in Hollywood), Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Carla Gugino, Alexis Bledel, Benicio del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Josh Hartnett, and Rutger Hauer. It's overly reliant on graphic violence but looks fabulous thanks to impressive rotoscoping effects and gorgeous black and white (and occasionally red or yellow) cinematography. Considering I saw Sin City on an airplane, it's probably time I saw it in its correct aspect ratio on a screen larger than an envelope, so I'll be giving it another look tonight.

Thursday 10/19/06

5:25 PM Showtime
After Innocence (2005 USA): According to Congress and the White House, we no longer need Habeas Corpus in these here United States, but this first rate Showtime original documentary suggests Americans might just want to be a little suspicious of that claim. Focussing on the stories of seven imprisoned men whose convictions were later overturned by DNA evidence, the film raises important and disturbing questions about the compromised nature of the American justice system - even when evidence DOES get presented at trial. Blunt and unfussy, the film simply and eloquently presents the men's stories, including that of one poor gentlemen who spent a further three years behind bars - AFTER being exonerated - thanks to the butt-covering efforts of embarrassed local law enforcement officials. Also airs at 8:25 PM and 10/20 at 4:15 PM.

9:15 PM Sundance
Long Distance (2005 USA): With casting by John Mabry and an actor named Michael Cuddire (when did he change the spelling?), one might think this was a baseball movie - but it's actually a low budget indie thriller. Hey guys - this is why you got a union and free agency, so you no longer had to spend the off-season working a second job! Dawson's Creek's Monica Keena stars as a young woman who misdials a phone call and ends up implicated in the misdeeds of a serial killer. It's not all that good and the twist ending isn't all that twisty, but the presence of character actor Kevin Chapman elevates the proceedings to watchable level. Play ball!

Friday 10/20/06

7:00 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Best of Youth (2003 ITA): I'm big on long term commitments. I've been married for almost 23 years (to the same woman, even), have had the same day job for 18, and have been writing this column for four. If you gave me the opportunity, I would plop down on the sofa for the full six and a half hours of Andy Warhol's legendary Empire (1964), a film consisting of a single shot of Manhattan's Empire State Building over the course of a night. So it should come as no surprise that I'm champing at the bit to check out this 400-minute long Italian drama detailing 34 years in the lives of two Roman brothers in the late 20th century. Now, I admit: I consciously decided not to see Best of Youth on the big screen - but with the ability to pause and rewind, I'm all over it.

8:25 AM IFC
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999 USA): Errol Morris' documentary about the banality of evil is a truly disturbing film about a man who allows his ego to subsume his ethics. Fred Leuchter is a designer of lethal injection machines for Death Rows across America. He's also an avid Holocaust denier who convinced himself that the Nazi gas chambers weren't actually used to execute anyone. Perhaps best viewed on a double bill with Bowling For Columbine (2002 USA).

9:00 PM Sundance
Vampyros Lesbos (1971 ): This is a defining moment in American television history: for the first time ever, a Jess Franco film is appearing, uncut and in its correct aspect ratio! Decades ago, the occasional Franco feature - usually 1970's Count Dracula - would pop up on local channels in thoroughly expurgated form, teasing viewers desperate to see what was missing from the crudely edited bowdlerizations of the day. The arrival of home video signalled the start of the a new age for Francophiles and –phobes (on any given day, I reside in either or both camps), an age that has come to full fruition in the DVD era and has, as of tonight, finally spread to premium channels. For those unfamiliar with Franco, the hyperactive director has a mind-boggling 187 credits to his name on IMDb - an average of almost four a year since his directorial career began in 1957 - the vast majority of which are erotic thrillers, though not in the comparatively mundane Skinemax sense. If you're already a fan, you're probably well acquainted with Vampyros Lesbos, one of the Spanish director's first - oh, but far from last - explorations of the intersection of sex and death (and also one of the first to make it to DVD). Starring the eerie Soledad Miranda as a bloodsucker who prefers the pleasures of female company to male, the film also features poor old Dennis Price as Dr. Seward (!), a gone to seed vampire hunter with a difference - he doesn't want to beat ‘em, he wants to join ‘em. Most normal folks will find this a tasteless shocker with gratuitous sex scenes - and they'd be right. Take care, however, because once you've entered the world of Franco, it's hard if not impossible to return to normalcy.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965 USA): Jess Franco and Russ Meyer on the same day? Has the world gone mad - or has it finally descended to my level of philistinism? Can a Doris Wishman film festival on IFC be far behind? This is, of course, the film that made the Oakland-born auteur an almost household name, and it is a truly unforgettable experience. The film stars Tura Satana, Haji, and cute Lori Williams as a trio of motorcycle-riding strippers raising holy hell in the California desert, where they terrify poor little beach bunny Linda (Sue Bernard) and her pals before meeting their match in a wheelchair-bound old man (the amazing Stuart Lancaster) and his retarded son The Vegetable (Dennis Busch). It's followed at 12:30 AM by the world television premiere of Meyers' Mudhoney, a somewhat more straightforward sexploitationer about the effects of the Great Depression on a small and somewhat twisted farm community. Neither film has had wide home video distribution - they were briefly available on laserdisc and can only be obtained on DVD in PAL or grey market format - so you won't want to miss this momentous evening of television.

Sunday 10/22/06

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Kwaidan (1964 JAP): I've frequently discussed the stunning composition work of ‘60s Japanese cinema, and here's another prime example. If you've ever had doubts about the artistic merits of the widescreen format, take a look at Kwaidan, an anthology of four ghost stories set in medieval Japan. The stories are hard for Western audiences unschooled in Japanese folklore and culture to grasp, but that drawback - still evident in movies as recent as Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away - shouldn't keep adventurous viewers from watching this beautiful film.

Monday 10/23/06

3:00 PM Sundance
Slut (2005 USA): Jane Curtin is nowhere to be seen, but this short documentary about the etymology of this unfortunate four letter word DOES feature Ron Jeremy, for some reason. Not that he's ever used the ‘s' word, of course.

6:00 PM Sundance
Language Does Not Lie (2003 USA): Oh, that is SUCH a lie! Ever since George Orwell wrote his legendary essay Politics and the English Language in 1946, we've been well aware of the infinite ways in which language can be subverted and perverted for political gain. This outstanding documentary examines the writings of a German Jew named Victor Klemperer (any relation to Werner?), who kept a journal during the Nazi era detailing the language used by Hitler and his pals to control thought and exercise authority. Thankfully, as we now safely reside in Francis Fukuyama's post-history period, we no longer need be concerned about such aberrations from the reality-based past, but it sure makes for an interesting look at the bad old days. Freedom fries, anyone?