Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

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Mr. Deltoid
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#651 Post by Mr. Deltoid » Sun Jun 17, 2018 11:26 am

A couple more Stephen King related entries for this week.
Cat's Eye is on Friday night/Saturday morning on the Horror Channel, featuring adaptations of two stories (Quitters, inc. and The Ledge) from King's Night Shift collection. An undemanding, occasionally enjoyable bit of 80's horror if I remember rightly, featuring a twitchy James Woods and post-E.T. Drew Barrymore.
Then, Saturday night, 9 PM, we have Stephen King's Big Driver, which is seemingly a T.V. Movie adaptation of one of the stories from Full Dark, No Stars, another King anthology. I read this one a couple of years ago and although it's not the best story from that volume (for me that would be the haunting opener 1922, which I've only now seen has been adapted for Netflix!) it is a superior entry in the rape-revenge genre, so it'll be interesting to see how Lifetime Movies have ruined it!

Other than that, the film I'm mostly looking forward to is a showing of Simon Sheridan's documentary Respectable: The Mary Millington Story, which is being screened on Saturday night on a digital channel calling itself Together. I think this has been shown on London Live a few times, but peasants like me can't receive that!

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#652 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:01 pm

Creed is on ITV1 on Saturday 23rd. And Michael Mann's Blackhat is showing on Channel 5 on Sunday 24th at 9 p.m. (I wonder if it will be the original theatrical version or director's cut! Probably the original theatrical one with meltdown at the opening)

(Take this as pure speculation but I have the suspicion that since ITV1 have shown Rocky II and Rocky III around the premiere of Creed and are currently repeating the Mad Max films over the next Friday nights that potentially Mad Max: Fury Road may be upcoming on ITV at some point)

In addition to those two big premieres, the original John Carpenter version of Assault on Precinct 13 is showing on Film4 at 10.45 p.m. on Saturday 23rd (the first showing of the film in 18 years)

The other items of interest are that BBC4 has the documentary This Is Congo at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 27th and BBC2 is showing the first two episodes of the six part Australian series Romper Stomper at 11.05 p.m. on Friday 29th, which apparently is a continuation from the 1992 film (the film that helped make Russell Crowe a star)

jlnight
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#653 Post by jlnight » Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:55 am

Those Glory Glory Days, starts Fri 29th June, London Live.

Where Has Poor Mickey Gone?, Sat 30th June, Talking Pictures.
Vampires (Carpenter), Sat 30th June, Horror.
Green Room, Sat 30th June, Film4. Followed by Blue Ruin.
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, Sat 30th June, BBC2.

The Perfect Lady (Chaplin short), Sun 1st July, Talking Pictures.

Holiday (short), very late Mon 2nd July, Talking Pictures.

The Old Dark House (Castle), Tues 3rd July, Talking Pictures.
These are the Damned, Tues 3rd July, Talking Pictures.
Mental, late Tues 3rd July, Film4.

The Tall T, Wed 4th July, Film4.
Eden, late Wed 4th July, Film4.

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GaryC
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#654 Post by GaryC » Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:11 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Mon Jun 18, 2018 1:01 pm
BBC2 is showing the first two episodes of the six part Australian series Romper Stomper at 11.05 p.m. on Friday 29th, which apparently is a continuation from the 1992 film (the film that helped make Russell Crowe a star)
It's been on BBC 3 (i.e. BBC Iplayer) since last month, but the BBC2 showing should get a wider audience. Apparently this series takes place twenty-five years after the action of the film, with some of the original cast returning.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#655 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jun 26, 2018 4:12 pm

As jlnight mentions the premieres of Green Room (in a double bill with Blue Ruin from 10.45 p.m. on Saturday 30th) and French electronic music drama with a Daft Punk bio element Eden (at 00.45 on Thursday 5th July) on Film4 are the big films of next week, but I am perhaps most excited that the Horror Channel is premiering Sadako vs Kayako (aka The Ring vs The Grudge) at 2.30 a.m. (!) on Saturday 7th July, which does not appear to have had a disc release at all in either the UK or the US! (It is also the final film of a night of premieres that also include Dead Shack and Found Footage 3D)

jlnight
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#656 Post by jlnight » Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:48 am

Cash on Demand, Fri 6th July, Talking Pictures. Also on Sat 7th July.

The Snorkel, Sat 7th July, Talking Pictures. Alternatively...
Cujo, Sat 7th July, Horror.

Walk on the Wild Side, Sun 8th July, Talking Pictures.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#657 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 12:09 pm

I did not point this out as it has one of the most generic of generic TV movie titles, but gosh the outrageously campy thriller Killer Nurse (aka The Nurse) has just finished on Channel 5 and is a must see if it ever gets repeated. Despite being shown in the middle of the afternoon and so without some of the more salacious trappings of the genre, this ends up feeling really close to the wave of 90s erotic thrillers of the Hand That Rocked The Cradle (nanny going berserk with dark secrets about adulterous affairs and half-sisters being revealed) and Basic Instinct (including the attempt to climb on top of someone's bed and strangle them with a silk scarf!) ilk. I have been mentioning the strange relationship between recent TV movies seemingly becoming the stomping ground for horror directors of previous decades and this one is directed by Sam Irvin, who did an entry into the Elvira series (2001's Elvira's Haunted Hills) as well as a couple of 90s erotic thrillers! No wonder he seems to have an affinity with the material here, as events spiral into having the psychotic improbably buxom blonde nurse with impossible cleavage chasing people around a mansion with her patient's walking stick in the final scenes!

And it also has quite a cast: John Heard is in one of his final roles here as the bed-ridden patriarch after a stroke (or was it a stroke?). Costas Mandylor of the Saw series turns up to get drugged. And Jack Noseworthy (who I last saw travelling into a black hole portal in Event Horizon but who was instantly recognisable when he turned up here) is hilariously ineffectual as the 'good boyfriend' who gets a hefty incapacitating kick to the crotch and a few blows with the walking stick by the nurse (which I could see being a fetish for some people!) before the final showdown between the two women over who gets their father's estate!

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#658 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jul 04, 2018 1:25 pm

The big film premiere next week is tucked away on the Sony Movie Channel: Nicolas Winding Refn's re-team with Ryan Gosling after Drive, Only God Forgives (with its great Cliff Martinez score) is on Saturday 7th at 11.40 p.m.

Film4 have the belated premiere of David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche at 00.55 on Wednesday 11th and then Kill Zone 2 at 10.45 p.m. on Thursday 12th. Kill Zone 2 also features Jin Zhang in the cast, who played Ma San in Wong Kar-Wai's film The Grandmaster, which itself is getting a repeat at 2 a.m. (!) on Channel 4 on Tuesday 10th.

Other than that, I am slightly concerned by the idea that upcoming is the first of a six part new adaptation of Picnic At Hanging Rock, starting on BBC2 at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 11th.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#659 Post by jlnight » Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:02 am

Electric Dreams, Fri 13th July, Sony Movie Channel. (Together in electric dreeeeeeeeams!)

The Camp on Blood Island, Sat 14th July, Talking Pictures. Also on Fri 20th July.

The China Syndrome, Sun 15th July, Movies4Men.
Duffy, Sun 15th July, Talking Pictures. (Donald Cammell co-write)

Top of the Bill, Mon 16th July, Talking Pictures.

A Little of What You Fancy, Tues 17th July, Talking Pictures.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#660 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:41 pm

A few big films over next weekend: Channel 4 have the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness at 8 p.m. on Saturday 14th, immediately followed by Ma(i)ze Runner: The Scorch Trials at 10.35 p.m., but most notable is the premiere of Hell or High Water directed by David Mackenzie (Young Adam, Hallam Foe, Asylum, Perfect Sense, Starred Up) at 10.15 p.m. on Sunday 15th. Though of course this is all occurring on the DOG-tagged channel, so it will be more notable when Hell or High Water in particular hopefully gets a Film4 repeat.

While on the other side at 10.15 p.m. on Saturday 14th, BBC2 have the premiere of Mississippi Grind.

The only other notable item during the week itself is the beginning of Mark Kermode's Secret of Cinema series on BBC4 at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 17th. The first of five hour long episodes written with Kim Newman is on "The Romcom" and is followed at 10 p.m. by a rare primetime showing of the Doris Day film Move Over, Darling.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat Jul 14, 2018 7:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

jlnight
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#661 Post by jlnight » Sat Jul 14, 2018 4:45 am

Welcome to Sarajevo, starts Thu 19th July, London Live.

Interlude, Sat 21st July, Talking Pictures. Also on Sun 29th July.

Sinister Man (Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre), Sun 22nd July, Talking Pictures.
The Filth and the Fury, Sun 22nd July, London Live.

Nothing But the Best, Mon 23rd July, London Live.

The Scarlet Blade, Thu 26th July, London Live.
Terror of the Tongs, Thu 26th July, Talking Pictures. Also on Sat 28th July. Alternatively...
The War Zone, Thu 26th July, London Live.

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Colpeper
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#662 Post by Colpeper » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:21 am

jlnight wrote:
Sat Jul 14, 2018 4:45 am
Interlude, Sat 21st July, Talking Pictures. Also on Sun 29th July.
Thanks jlnight.

According to the channel, that's the 1968 Interlude, directed by Kevin Billington, rather than Douglas Sirk's 1957 film, of which this is a loose and unoffical remake.

It's worth a watch, not least for the cast which includes cameos from a young John Cleese and broadcaster Humphrey Burton, as well as the swan song of Virginia Maskell (a beautiful and underused actress, who tragically commited suicide in the woods near here, a few months before the film's release).

Another thing that sticks in the mind, 20 years on from what may have been the last UK TV showing on Channel 4, is that it contains some gorgeous shots of the otherwise much maligned Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#663 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:05 pm

It is a big week next week: BBC2 has the premiere of Whit Stillman's Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship at 9 p.m. on Friday 27th. And the big world cinema film is the premiere of Arnaud Desplechin's My Golden Days at 2.05 a.m.(!) in the early hours of Monday 23rd on Channel 4. (My Golden Days is currently scheduled for a DVD only release in early October, so this is an early chance to see it)

Plus Film4 has the first showing of The Keeping Room at 11.20 p.m. on Monday 23rd. Whilst the M. Night Shyamalan resurgence film The Visit is on Channel 4 at 11.35 p.m. on Saturday 21st.

BBC4 has Insha'Allah Democracy about the difficulties of democratic elections in Pakistan at 10 p.m. on Monday 23rd. And also on BBC4 Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema series continues with an episode dedicated to Heist movies (I'm hoping that Quick Change appears somewhere!) at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 24th, followed by a screening of The Lavender Hill Mob.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#664 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:47 pm

The rom-com episode of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema was interesting, though it felt as if it had a few strange omissions. For example, a lot of stock was placed in both La La Land and The Shape of Water being a resurgence of romance at least in the eyes of Academy Awards voters; and then another section highlighted recent gay themed stories Love Is Strange and Love, Simon as beig big mainstream breakthroughs in showing gay relationships. Both of which sections seem to completely ignore the presence of Moonlight! Though I suppose that is not exactly a romantic comedy!

There also seems to be a strange gap in the historical record at one point, as whilst silents, Clara Bow, Chaplin, 30s Astaire and Rogers musicals and 40s screwball comedies are mentioned, there is then an enormous jump to the 1980s with Splash and The Fly. I guess Annie Hall just about counts as 1970s (and I don't entirely agree that Superman is a rom-com :P ) but there seemed little from the 50s-80s otherwise. No Doris Day films (which is noticeable since there is a Doris Day film playing straight after the programme!), no Affair To Remember apart from how it influenced Sleepless In Seattle. No Harold & Maude! Or New York, New York! Could there be a case made that perhaps the focus was more on romantic-drama in the 1970s and then things morphed into more escapist, wish fulfilment romantic-comedies in the 80s onward, and from there into pure fantasy?

And in the Richard Curtis section that highlights the low key relationship between Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott-Thomas's characters in Four Weddings and a Funeral, I would like to think in response to Kermode's rhetorical question that "It always leaves me wondering if Four Weddings would be just that little bit better if Charles ended up with Fiona", that we already kind of saw that a couple of years before in Polanski's Bitter Moon!

But there are some great parts too. I particularly liked the reading of Punch-Drunk Love as a kind of grounded superhero film with colour coded characters, and the moment of the embrace from behind (that features on Criterion's cover) being about Barry being draped in Lena's red colour looking like a kind of cape, completing him.
___

The one film that does not get mentioned at all in the episode that I would have perhaps added into this, and follows the rom-com structure of boy-meets-girl, loses girl, runs into obstacles and then they get together to an almost textbook extent is Upside Down. Maybe they are saving it for the science-fiction episode, although one of the problems of that film is if you approach it as sci-fi rather than a whimsical romance it does not really work at all! I have some issues with it but it deserves its place as one of the most striking recent romantic fantasy films. (But then you need to have also previously noted Pillow Talk to then see how that reference is moved forward to the split-screen moment in Upside Down!)

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#665 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:34 pm

And Film4 have just trailed a week of zombie films from the 1st August that is going to include The Scout's Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse and Train To Busan.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#666 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jul 24, 2018 6:59 pm

I enjoyed the second episode of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, all about Heist films, a bit more than the first. I do have the same concern with the first episode though that the parameters of the topic have been defined a bit too narrowly, and it seems that Kermode ends up going beyond the purely defined boundaries of just the 'rom-com' or the 'heist movie' to show the breadth of romantic or criminal films. I would argue that the rom-com episode goes off into more romantic-fantastical films at the mid-way point (or even at the very beginning with Splash!), which are perhaps a subgenre worthy of separate classification in themselves, especially with the success of The Shape of Water, and I was a little concerned that the heist episode was on track to go the same way when the episode had to do a shift towards film noir femme fatales to compensate for the lack of female characters as more than just gangsters molls in many male-centric heist films. But then that brief shift was put to the interesting purpose of talking about how Bound (which came out near the end of that amazing run of 'neo-noir' films from 1981 through to 1996. That is a period worthy of a documentary in itself!) uses noir tropes in order to pull off its own heist plot, which I thought was a great piece of criticism. And then Kermode made a point to talk about the way that boundaries of genre were very fluid, which helped a bit to mitigate the way that this series seems less interested in the core that define the genre than the films that do weird and unorthodox things with those elements and become something else in the process.

It was good to also see the series focusing on lesser championed films such as Dead Presidents (which Criterion really needs to upgrade its Laserdisc edition of at some point) or the F. Gary Gray film Set It Off. And it was great to see Quick Change briefly mentioned. Though the treatment of Quick Change made me slightly suspicious of the way that films I was not as familiar with were used. Quick Change gets used as an example of 'the everyman pushed to the limits and pulling off a heist', which is sort of the plot, but that really shortchanges the way that, like Dog Day Afternoon (and there was a missed chance to make that comparison), the film is actually more of an existential film about the impossibility of escaping your past deeds, literalised in the form of the city throwing every possible obstacle at our trio of 'heroes' to make them really earn their money! (And that in itself is something which pushes the heist film into wider 'pulling off a job' thrillers like the terrorist antics of Carlos. Can the job be pulled off, or will the police successfully neutralise it? And will we end up feeling slightly sorry for the 'bad guys'?)

It was also a bit annoying to have time spent on Clooney in Ocean's 11 (though understandably for the purpose of drawing a throughline from The League of Gentleman to the Dean Martin 60s Ocean's 11 film to the present) without talking about Out of Sight at all! What about Jackie Brown? Or the tables turning heist film Panic Room, for that matter? And while it was great to see a primetime programme talk about and show clips from Rififi, I would have been even more impressed if mention was made of some of Jean Pierre-Melville's downbeat, almost masochistically revelling in failure of the best laid plan takes on the heist film with Bob le Flambeur and Le Deuxième Souffle.

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domino harvey
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#667 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:06 pm

I will say that out of every bank robbery movie I've ever seen, the solution of how to get away with it in Quick Change remains the cleverest in its simplicity-- which of course makes the subsequent hour and a half that much funnier for the complications that ensue!

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#668 Post by alacal2 » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:16 am

Really enjoying this series. An intelligent programme about cinema! On the the BBC! (even though it was on the 'graveyard of Scandi-noir' channel BBC 4) I understand Colin's points about the selective nature of the clips but I wonder whether that's to do with the costs of getting clips or partly to do with Kermode wanting to plug some of his favourites (no complaints there). However, my understanding of the series is that it's designed to show key characteristics of genres rather than "A History Of..." which might explain the choice of films too.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#669 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jul 25, 2018 3:19 am

Yes, I'm nitpicking a bit but as with the Mark Cousins series a few years back (which is denser and a 'deeper dive' into cinema but which I have many more qualms about, as that eventually seemed whether originally intended or not to be being pushed as an 'academic study aid' for students of film, which grated a bit against the more personal flights of fancy, and the interview material. Whereas this is more Mark Kermode doing a quick surface level introduction to the basic necessary elements for a film to be thought of as a rom-com or heist movie that filmmakers then play about with, as well as throwing in a few fun asides. (A bit like the way that Charlie Brooker in his GamesWipe series had to explain various genres of computer games for the uninitiated) I particularly like his wry "Avengers, assemble" aside after describing the way all of the members for a job get chosen for their particular skills, as a way of pushing core ideas of this subgenre into the currently fashionable comic book one!) it is just great to have film discussed seriously on the television rather than being relegated to the 11.30 p.m. Film 2018 slot, stuck only being able to briefly review the new releases in a spoiler conscious way that stifles discussion. The episode of the series that I am really looking forward to is going to be the one on horror, as that should be where Kermode and Kim Newman will be on much more stable ground (though of course as the forum's list project shows, even that genre itself explodes out into various subgenres that it would be difficult to do justice to in only an hour!)

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#670 Post by jlnight » Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:20 am

The Out-of-Towners, starts Sun 29th July, Paramount Network (Freeview 57).
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, starts Sun 29th July, London Live.

Blue Steel, Thu 2nd Aug, London Live.

Life at the Top, Sat 4th Aug, Talking Pictures.

There's a Girl in My Soup, Sun 5th Aug, Talking Pictures.

The latter two titles are apparently Columbia films. The channel has been showing quite a few of these recently: Walk On The Wild Side, Duffy, Interlude, (These Are) The Damned, The Old Dark House, The Mob, those Hammer films that were released by Indicator. The Chase and Night of the Demon are due to be scheduled for August.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#671 Post by alacal2 » Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:31 am

Yeah I'm looking forward to the horror slot although I expect it to be only clips of The Exorcist!

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#672 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:16 pm

Just a couple of things next week: Free State of Jones (breathlessly described in the Radio Times as "from the director of Ocean's 8!") is the big film of the week on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 29th. The Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema series continues with "Coming of Age" films on BBC4 at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 31st. And there is a new Fred Olen Ray directed Lifetime TV movie (his most recent) on Channel 5 at 3.15 p.m. on Wednesday 1st August: A Honeymoon To Die For (aka Fiancé Killer)

Film4's zombie season starts with Victor Frankenstein at 9 p.m. on Wednesdsay 1st (though a bit more interesting is ITV1 are currently showing the first season of The Frankenstein Chronices starring Sean Bean on Tuesday nights); and Train To Busan is at 10.55 p.m. on Friday 3rd.

In terms of repeats, Film4 have lots of Studio Ghibli films on now that the school holidays have started, including a rare showing of Isao Takahata's debut film Little Norse Prince at 2.20 a.m. in the early hours of Friday 3rd. BBC2 also actually have some films on during the week too, the most interesting being a rare showing of Tony Richardson's film of The Entertainer, starring Laurence Olivier at 12 noon on Monday 30th June, and The Seven Little Foys with Bob Hope and James Cagney at 12 noon on Wednesday 1st August. Also Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing at the same time on Tuesday.

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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#673 Post by jlnight » Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:38 am

Surprise Package, Sun 5th Aug, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 9th August.

Twelve Monkeys, Tues 7th Aug, BBC4. Follows Secrets of Cinema.

The Reckoning, Sat 11th Aug, Talking Pictures. Also on Mon 13th Aug.
Shampoo, Sat 11th Aug, Talking Pictures. Also on Fri 31st Aug.

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Sun 12th Aug, Talking Pictures. Also on Sat 18th Aug.
The Chase, Sun 12th Aug, Talking Pictures. Also on Sat 18th Aug.

Psyche 59 was on last night. That was another Columbia title. More to come it seems.

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colinr0380
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Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#674 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:29 pm

The third episode of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema, on Coming of Age films, was the best one so far. It is easy to overlook it for all of the Exorcist love, but Kermode is really strong on this area of cinema as well (as shown by his championing of Gregory's Girl and Bill Forsyth in general as much as William Friedkin), and this was the first episode where it felt as if the focus did not drift off into films that arguably might not be part of the genre at all. There's a dazzling range of films presented here from Rebel Without A Cause (of course!) through Kes and Quadrophenia, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, up to Fish Tank (and American Honey). Plus of course French cinema with the inevitable 400 Blows.

I should admit to being a little concerned when there was only mention made of the first film in the Antoine Doinel series before cutting away to another subject, but then there was a great return to the subject a couple of minutes later to show how Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Leaud traced the life of Antoine Doinel through multiple films, which also led into discussions of the Harry Potter films and Boyhood as featuring their own child development (This is something Kermode does not really talk about during the programme but my reason for concern is that tackling The 400 Blows in isolation would suggest a primacy of the adolescent 'coming of age' experience, but by tracing a life deep into adulthood, that implicitly suggests that 'coming of age' is something that is happening constantly throughout life, even if it is most apparent and 'acceptable' during adolescence. In the section of the programme where Kermode talks about the parental figures in films, one thing that I would add is that the best of the films in this genre are just as fascinating if you ignore the child or teen protagonist and focus on the changes that the adult characters are going through themselves. That is particularly applicable to Boyhood of course, where the ensemble cast ages along with the ostensible main character, but you can see it in the Laurie Metcalf character in Lady Bird or the flawed parental role models in Moonlight, all going through their own painful changes, and so on).

There are some brilliant parallels brought up between Boyz n The Hood and Stand By Me to suggest that "one child's dramatic loss of innocence can be another's everyday life" by showing violence and death near the beginning of John Singleton's film compared to the end of Stand By Me. And the final postscript telling the audience of the character's fates.

This is the episode that really works, and I would certainly recommend watching this if it ever turns up on YouTube as a great introduction to the genre, whilst I am a little bit more hesitant about the previous two, interesting as they were. Whilst there is not too much in depth focus on earlier decades (you could really say only one or two films per decade with Rebel Without A Cause representing the 50s, Kes the 60s, American Graffiti (with a dash of Saturday Night Fever) the 70s and The Breakfast Club (with a bit of Gregory's Girl) the 80s), which means that a number of films stand alone without being placed in a wider context (i.e. The Breakfast Club ends up having to represent all John Hughes), this episode certainly travels the world to show representative samples of a wide range of titles in coming of age genre in cinema since the turn of the century: Let The Right One In, Raw, This Is England, Your Name, Mustang, Persepolis and also the fantastic Girlhood, which I wrote up a while back here (at the very least Girlhood has the most iconic use of Rihanna in cinema in one scene. It is not available in one piece on YouTube but you can get the sense of it by playing this video immediately followed by this one). Although I would still argue that Girlhood could be placed in the gangster film subgenre too, as it could almost be (at least tonally) a kind of female remake of the 1983 Scarface film!

Though unfortunately We Are The Best! gets overlooked!

There was also an amusing veiled comment towards Dead Poets Society, which is a film that I get the impression that Kermode does not particularly like all that much when he says to: "Never forget that coming of age is about leaving school rather than standing on desks and sulking". And there is also a pointed comment that a part four of the Toy Story series is perhaps unnecessary when the third film achieved closure on its coming of age narrative by 'putting away (or passing along) childish things'.

(A couple of things that came to my mind whilst watching - there is some footage of Henry Thomas auditioning for the role in E.T. but otherwise Spielberg does not get mentioned too much. I would perhaps argue that Ready Player One is the 'coming of age film in the age of the internet'. And also that A.I. is the ultimate film about someone trapped in an arrested adolescence through no fault of their own, unable to grow as a human being. Throw in Catch Me If You Can as well for the rebellion against parents and society, or the traumatised child characters having their safe worlds obliterated in their rear view mirrors in War of the Worlds (with one even dreaming of going off to war to teach the aliens a lesson) and In that sense Spielberg has provided some of the most fascinating, searching and subversive recent twists on the genre)

As jlnight mentions above, next week is the episode on sci-fi followed by Twelve Monkeys (with La Jetée mentioned in the programme. I would expect nothing less!)

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

#675 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Aug 01, 2018 1:33 pm

Next week BBC1 have a rare big film premiere: following Mamma Mia! Meryl Streep tackles another exuberantly awful musical role in Florence Foster Jenkins at 8.15 p.m. on Sunday 5th

BBC2 has an hour long documentary about Angela Carter (of The Company of Wolves fame) at 9 p.m. on Saturday 4th

Horror director David DeCoteau has two TV movie premieres on Channel 5 next week - the suspiciously interchangably titled The Lodger: Evil Upstairs (aka The Wrong Roommate, with Eric Roberts!) at 3.15 p.m. on Monday 6th and Stepson: Evil In My House (aka The Wrong Child, with Gary Daniels!) at 3.20 p.m. on Thursday 9th. Vivica A. Fox stars in both.

Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse is on Film4 at 9 p.m. on Monday 6th.

In terms of repeats there are a lot of good films showing: Nightcrawler on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 5th, Jo Nesbo adaptation Jackpot on BBC2 at 1.35 a.m. on Sunday 5th; Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot is on Channel 4 at 00.15 on Monday 6th, immediately followed by a repeat of Greek drama Chevalier at 2.15 a.m.; My Neighbours The Yamadas on Film4 at 1.25 a.m. on Tuesday 6th; Twelve Monkeys of course; and On The Road on Film4 at 1.05 a.m. on Wednesday 8th. But the most interesting film (of the week really) is Waiting To Exhale, showing on Film4 at 10.55 p.m. on Thursday 9th. Waiting To Exhale is a repeat but has not been shown on UK television for at least 14 years!

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