Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[colinr0380]

If you want an idea of what happened last time the schedules were upended to such an extent Matthew Harris has an episode of his series showing how UK television responded to the death of Prince Philip last year, so once this is all over in about a month he might have a follow up episode on what is happening this time around.

And here's that episode. I totally approve of the notion of Royalty dying simply as the most expedient way of deplatforming Vanessa Feltz!

[colinr0380]

Fascinating stuff next week. The shift of Star Wars to Channel 4 is a real thing with The Force Awakens showing on Channel 4 at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday 1st, the first broadcast of a Star Wars film on any main channel outside of ITV. The film section reviewer James Mottram in his feature piece on the film on page 32 of the RadioTimes has also let slip some info in the sentence: "With Channel 4 showing the entire sequel trilogy across consecutive Saturdays...", which means that The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker premieres are imminent, although seemingly not Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Back to this week the next big piece of news is that it has finally happened: David DeCoteau reaches ten(!!) films premiered in a single year with the screening of Deceived By My Mother-in-Law on Channel 5 at 2:15 p.m. on Monday 3rd. Which is the only one of the films to not feature Vivica A. Fox in an acting role (Michael Paré is the well known name in the cast of this one), although of course she reached the double-digit mark a little while ago with her role in the non-DeCoteau film Arkansas, so it has balanced out again. I doubt we will see any other director or actor get anywhere close to their total for the year.

Also in terms of Channel 5 TV movies, Tuesday 4th brings a premiere of a Fred Olen Ray directed film, The Guesthouse Murder, aka The Killer In My Backyard (colour me surprised that the Fred Olen Ray trailer has more shirtless twinks in it than the David DeCoteau trailer!)

EDIT 4th October: Sadly neither the DeCoteau or Fred Olen Ray films aired, but fingers crossed that they do at some point!

Elsewhere, the Irish film The Last Right which was bumped from BBC1's schedule last Wednesday is re-scheduled to be shown at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday 2nd, although this unfortunately clashes with BBC2's premiere of Queen & Slim at 10:45 p.m. the same evening. I did not recognise it in last weeks note about the premieres this week of Harriet and The Photograph but it appears that the BBC is jumping full force into Black History Month - along with swiftly repeating The Photograph on BBC1 on Saturday 1st (which clashes with the rescheduled repeat of Sus on BBC2 and I Am Not Your Negro on BBC4 on the same evening), it appears that the BBC have wrestled the rights to Moonlight away from Channel 4 and and are showing it on Monday 3rd at 11:15 p.m. BBC2 is also showing The Color Purple at 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday 4th, and on Thursday 6th BBC4 is showing a double bill of Ali at 9 pm. and Moonlight again at 11:30 p.m. However along with Queen & Slim and The Photograph the other premiere of the week in this strand is again on BBC3 on Friday 7th at 9 p.m. with Waves (from the director of the similarly A24 distributed It Comes At Night). That's the one I'm most looking forward to, although I'm expecting it to swiftly get repeated the Saturday after on BBC1 without DOG-tags.

Film4 is relatively subdued on this trend next week, though they do have the premiere of the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me at 11:20 p.m. on Friday 7th. Film4 is where by far the most exciting news of the week takes place however as (as jlnight noted) they are doing a South Korean cinema season with the premiere of Beasts Clutching At Straws at 1:35 a.m. on Wednesday 5th and The Swordsman (which is apparently a Korean take on Zatoichi) at 11:40 p.m. on Thursday 6th.
___

Repeat-wise, Film4 is showing Rosemary's Baby at 11 p.m. on Saturday 1st, although the Film4 repeat that I am most excited about getting the chance to see is the second film directed by J. Lee Thompson (who would go on to Cape Fear), the 1953 film The Yellow Balloon, showing at 5 p.m. on Thursday 6th.

BBC4 devotes an evening to Glenda Jackson on Monday 3rd, with a half hour interview withe actress about her life at 9 p.m. followed by a repeat of the 2019 programme Elizabeth Is Missing at 9:30 p.m. and most excitingly the 1965 Wednesday Play Horror of Darkness at 11 p.m., which is an early role in which Jackson stars with Nicol Williamson.

BBC4's Storyville documentary strand continues with Midwives on Tuesday 4th at 9 p.m., followed by a repeat of the Oscar nominated Romanian film Colectiv at 10:35 p.m.

And BBC4's centenary season of classic repeats continues with Kenneth Branagh introducing at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 5th the first two films in the 1980s "Billy" series of Northern Ireland dramas with 1982's Too Late To Talk To Billy at 10:15 p.m. and 1983's A Matter of Choice For Billy at 11:40 p.m. (presumably 1984's A Coming To Terms For Billy will be showing next Wednesday)

___

Plus Cunk On Earth, Rick & Morty (and the third series of Harley Quinn), KaDeWe, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared and How To With John Wilson are all progressing apace. Phew! That's quite a packed week of stuff!

[colinr0380]

The YT shorts of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared are great. The songs are incredibly addictive - and now I know which colours aren't creative and which foods aren't good for my or-gans.

I came to the realisation that as with the three characters in the We Bare Bears show expressing different aspects of personality that I feel much the same way about the three characters in Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: the red string guy is the laid back, disaffected and cynical person that I like to think I could be; the yellow dumb guy is probably who I actually am; and the annoyingly punctilious green duck is probably how I come across to others!

[jlnight]

They Who Dare, Sat 8th Oct, Talking Pictures. Also Mon 10th Oct.
Murder in Reverse, Sat 8th Oct, Talking Pictures. Also Thu 13th Oct.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sat 8th Oct, Channel 4. Or...
Boiling Point (1993), Sat 8th Oct, Legend.
Memories of Murder, Sat 8th Oct, Film4.

Sister Kenny, Sun 9th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff, Sun 9th Oct, Sky Arts.
Live Now - Pay Later, Sun 9th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Barking Dogs Never Bite, late Sun 9th Oct, Film4.

High Rise Donkey (CFF), Mon 10th Oct, London Live.
The Watermelon Woman, late Mon 10th Oct, Channel 4. (EDIT POST)

Action Stations, Wed 12th Oct, Talking Pictures.

The Man Standing Next, late Thu 13th Oct, Film4.

The Tingler + Mr. Sardonicus + The Hitch-Hiker, Fri 14th Oct, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
Winter of Our Dreams, Fri 14th Oct, London Live.


Little Shop of Horrors (Corman) replaces Homicidal on Fri 7th Oct, Cellar Club.

[colinr0380]

Really interesting next week. As jlnight has noted the premiere of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is happening on Channel 4 at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday 8th.

Film4's South Korean film season continues next week with a week devoted to Bong Joon-ho with a repeat of Memories of Murder at 11:20 p.m. on Saturday 8th, Parasite at 11:15 p.m. on Monday 10th and most notably the premiere of his first feature length pre-Memories of Murder film from 2000 starring Bae Doo-na Barking Dogs Never Bite at 12:50 a.m. in the early hours of Monday 8th.

The other South Korean film showing during the week is the premiere of The Man Standing Next at 1:45 a.m. on Friday 14th, which has not had a disc release in the UK but seems to be out on Blu-ray and DVD in the US.

(And according to the trailer on Film4 there is going to be a week of Park Chan-wook films with Sympathy For Mr Vengeance, Lady Vengeance and The Handmaiden, coming too - EDIT: This ended up not occurring)

Also on the freeview satellite channels, Woody Allen's A Rainy Day In New York is shyly hiding away on the "Great Movies" channel at 2:10 p.m. on Saturday 8th.

The only other new film showing is Beneath The Surface in BBC4's Storyville documentary series at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 11th

___

Repeat-wise, as speculated earlier, the third in the "Billy" series, A Coming To Terms For Billy is showing on BBC4 at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 12th followed by a repeat of a recent interview with Kenneth Branagh at 11:25 p.m.

The Hitchcock double bill of The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, which was bumped from the schedules in the days following the death of the Queen is turning up on BBC2 on the afternoon of Saturday 8th. On Friday 14th Channel 5 has a showing of the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got To Do With It? at Midnight and at the same time Film4 is showing for the first time in a few years the other notable entry in that "Hoodie Horror" subgenre (along with Ils and Eden Lake. Arguably even Harry Brown and Tower Block) that rather worryingly played on tabloid "based on a true story" fears about all those uncouth youths running homicidally rampant, F, at 11:40 p.m. - those were the kind of films that made something like Attack The Block feel like a bit of fresh air and a necessary balancing corrective to all of the negativity.

A number of films enter Film4's classic film rotation during the weekdays with The Rare Breed showing on Monday 10th at 11 a.m. and 3:10 p.m. on Friday 14th; and Michael Anderson's Yangtse Incident at 4:50 p.m. on Monday 10th and 11 a.m. on Friday 14th. Also the Alec Guinness film Malta Story at 12:55 p.m. on Monday 10th, The Long Memory at 3 p.m. on Monday 10th (that stars John Mills and is directed by Robert Hamer of Dead of Night and Kind Hearts and Coronets fame) and Hobson's Choice at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday 12th.

However the most interesting repeat of the week is a rare showing (I know it was first shown on Channel 4 in 1998 and then repeated in 2000, but I'm not sure if it has aired since then) of The Watermelon Woman on Channel 4 at 12:10 a.m. on Tuesday 11th.

[jlnight]

Hangman Waits, Sat 15th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Sweeney!, Sat 15th Oct, Legend.
The Nightingale, Sat 15th Oct, Film4.
Xanadu, Sat 15th Oct, BBC2.

Big Boy Rides Again (1935), Sun 16th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, Sun 16th Oct, Sky Arts.
Made in Italy, Sun 16th Oct, Film4.
Ghost Ship (1952), Sun 16th Oct, Talking Pictures. Also Fri 21st Oct.

The Fire Within, Mon 17th Oct, BBC4.

Climb Up the Wall, Wed 19th Oct, Talking Pictures.
The Other Love, Wed 19th Oct, Talking Pictures.
High Lonesome, Wed 19th Oct, Talking Pictures.

The Two Faces Of Dr Jekyll + Homicidal + Fear No More (1961), Fri 21st Oct, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)
Saint Maud + Deerskin, Fri 21st Oct, Film4.

[therewillbeblus]

Saint Maud + Deerskin, Fri 21st Oct, Film4.

Cool theme in delusions of grandeur related to a relationship with or being God!

[colinr0380]

Lots of interesting things next week, as noted by jlnight. The big premiere is of course Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker on Channel 4 at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday 15th, which is followed immediately at 11:20 p.m. on Film4 by the premiere of The Nightingale.

Film4 has Liam Neeson and his son starring in Made In Italy at 9 p.m. on Sunday 16th (which seems to be cannily scheduled to coincide with the end of an episode of the second series of Stanley Tucci's Searching For Italy series over on BBC2!). The most bizarre-looking film of the week is the home invasion horror The Owners at 11:25 p.m. on Monday 17th, for anyone who wanted to see actors more famous for their roles in Doctor Who and A Taste Of Honey in what seems to be a melding of the torture porn, hoodie horror and scary old people horror subgenres! And as noted above there is a double bill of premieres on Film4 on Friday 21st with Saint Maud at 10:45 p.m. and Quentin Dupieux's Deerskin at 12:30 a.m.

It is not all Film4's week though. BBC4 is showing a film version of Ralph Fiennes one-man show performing TS Eliot's The Four Quartets, filmed by his sister Sophie Fiennes at 8 p.m. on Sunday 16th, which is preceded by the documentary Return to TS Eliotland at 7 p.m. And as noted by jlinight, the Storyville documentary series continues with Werner Herzog's The Fire Within at 9 p.m. on Monday 17th.

And BBC2 is showing the hour long documentary Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Rebel at 9 p.m. on Sunday 16th.

Also Channel 5 is attempting to show the David DeCoteau film Deceived By My Mother-In-Law again on the afternoon of Monday 17th (now just retitled to "The Mother-In-Law") but also another premiere of the sequel to that film on Tuesday 18th titled Mommy's Deadly Con-Artist on imdb but given the shrieking retitle treatment as "You Killed My Husband!" in the RadioTimes listing, and which features Eric Roberts in the cast! On top of that there is yet another David DeCoteau premiere on Thursday 20th (with Vivica A. Fox back in the cast) of Charming But Deadly. Which is another in the "Wrong" series that is also known as The Wrong Prince Charming! Is Vivica A. Fox in the running to become the modern day Angela Lansbury?

If we are still counting by this point, and if all three premieres next week actually occur, that makes 12(!!!!) David DeCoteau films that have premiered on UK television in a single year!
____

Lots of interesting repeats as well. The big one is the tribute night to Olivia Newton-John on BBC2 on Saturday 15th which has a very rare repeat of Xanadu at 11:15 p.m. (when was the last time that was shown on television?) followed by the 1977 musical special Only Olivia at 12:50 a.m.

ITV4 is showing Predator 2 at 10 p.m. on Monday 17th.

BBC4's centenary celebration of classic television repeats continues on Wednesday 19th with the actor David Harewood at 10 p.m. introducing a screening of the 1956 film A Man From The Sun.

Though the biggest news of the week is on the radio: Radio 4 is broadcasting the rediscovered 1955 episode of Hancock's Half Hour, The Marriage Bureau, which features Peter Sellers in a dual role. That's at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday 18th.

[alacal2]

As with all his work Adam Curtis' new series TraumaZone which started on BBC IPlayer is absolutely essential. My flabber is well and truly gasted.

[jlnight]

Too Late (2015), Sat 22nd Oct, London Live.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Sun 23rd Oct, Sky Arts.
White Cradle Inn, Sun 23rd Oct, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 26th Oct.
After Love, Sun 23rd Oct, BBC2.

Madigan, Mon 24th Oct, Great Movies Action.
The Omen, Mon 24th Oct, BBC2. (on before)

The Rider (2017), Tue 25th Oct, Film4.
The Babadook, late Tue 25th Oct, BBC2. (on before)

The Shape Of Things To Come (1979), Wed 26th Oct, Legend.

The Mist, Thu 27th Oct, Film4.
American Gigolo, Thu 27th Oct, Film4. (ex-Moviedrome)

The Brotherhood of Satan + The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre + One Body Too Many, Fri 28th Oct, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Really interesting next week. According to the RadioTimes the premiere on BBC2 of After Love at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday 23rd, with a five minute introduction is going to be part of "a season of British movie premieres on the channel", which suggests it is a sequel to that previous season in association with the BFI that occurred at the end of 2020. Fingers crossed for Terence Davies' Benediction to turn up during it!

The BBC is gearing up for Halloween early with premieres of yet another adaptation of The Turn of the Screw with The Turning at 11:30 p.m. on BBC1 on Saturday 22nd and BBC3 showing the pandemic Zoom-call film (i.e. Unfriended for the 2020s) Host at 9:30 p.m. the same evening. And, um, the CBBC channel is showing the Australian CGI-movie 100% Wolf at 9 a.m. on Thursday 27th.

Most interestingly the BBC appear to have pilfered a ton of films that were previously in the Channel4/Film4 rotation: the original video nasty of the Sam Raimi Evil Dead film makes a BBC appearance at 1:15 a.m. on BBC2 on Sunday 23rd (and is repeated on BBC3 at 9:30 p.m. on Friday 28th), the original version of The Omen appears on BBC2 at 11:15 p.m, The Babadook is on at 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday 26th (I had been casually wondering why Film4 had not double billed it with last weekend's premiere of Jennifer Kent's follow up film The Nightingale, and had forgotten that it moved to BBC2 a while ago, so they probably lost the rights), the 2011 The Awakening is on BBC1 at 11:55 p.m. on Wednesday 26th and Don't Look Now is on BBC4 at Midnight on Thursday 27th. Plus Film4 has lost Coraline too, which is on BBC3 at 7 p.m. on Monday 24th!

But to get back to premieres, don't feel too bad for Film4 because they have the most interesting looking premieres of the week: after last week off the South Korean cinema season returns with Deliver Us From Evil at 1:15 a.m. on Sunday 23rd. Chloé Zhao's pre-Nomadland film The Rider is showing at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday 25th. Then the extremely belated premieres of late 2000s horror films begin with Juan Antonio Bayona's breakout film The Orphanage showing at 11:25 p.m. on Wednesday 26th, and the film I am most excited about finally getting the chance to see after so long, the Stephen King adaptation 1408 at 9 p.m. on Friday 28th (for added context, the second John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson team-up in a Stephen King adaptation, Cell, which came out nine years after 1408 was premiered on Film4 back in 2018 and has been repeated five times since, plus more on the Horror Channel)

And the Great Movies channel is showing Resident Evil: The Final Chapter at 9 p.m. on Friday 28th.
___

In terms of repeats Film4 is showing the Ryuhei Kitamura film No One Lives at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday 22nd (before Deliver Us From Evil), One Cut of the Dead is at 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday 25th, Went The Day Well? is showing at 3 p.m. on Tuesday 25th and as noted by jlnight there is a rare showing on Thursday 27th of The Mist at 9 p.m. followed by American Gigolo at 11:25 p.m. (plus the South Korean season continues with a repeat of Train To Busan after that at 1:45 a.m.)

And, in a counter-move to all those horror films moving from Film4 to the BBC next week, American Psycho is showing on Film4 at 11 p.m. on Friday 28th. Which is the first time that film has been shown outside of BBC2 and I think even then it has not aired in over a decade there! Plus Film4 have done a very cheeky thing and double billed it with the Michael Fassbender film Shame at 1:10 a.m., which might qualify as some kind of commentary?
___

TV-wise, BBC4 is devoting almost the entire week to celebrating the centenary of the BBC by showing single episodes of comedy series from the archives, many of which have not been aired in decades: Saturday 22nd has Alas Smith & Jones and the Alan Cumming catapulting into becoming a well known name The High Life (which now seems like a less camp and more down to earth version of that Pedro Almodovar film I'm So Excited!); Sunday 23rd has a real obscurity in the 1983 Just Good Friends, plus episodes of 'Allo 'Allo, The Young Ones, Red Dwarf, Steptoe & Son, Till Death Do Us Part and Hancock's Half Hour.

Monday 24th has episodes of Porridge, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Yes Minister before turning into a night devoted to Stephen Fry with a recent hour long interview with him at 9 p.m., a repeat of episodes from Blackadder II and Fry and Laurie before a repeat of the Wilde film at 11 p.m..

Tuesday 25th has Open All Hours, the 1970s series The Liver Birds, the 1980s series Bread, The Thick of It and Scottish series The Real McCoy. Wednesday 26th has the Judi Dench starring As Time Goes By, Last of the Summer Wine, a very rare repeat of an episode of Are You Being Served?, One Foot In The Grave, Goodness Gracious Me and Victoria Wood's DInnerladies. Thursday 27th has The Good Life, To The Manor Born, Dad's Army, Miranda, The Office, The Royle Family and The Kumars At No. 42, amongst others.

And over on BBC2 Louis Theroux begins his search for the next Neil and Christine Hamilton (or Jimmy Saville) in the first of a series of six interviews with celebrities at 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday 25th.

[MaxCastle]

Really interesting next week. According to the RadioTimes the premiere on BBC2 of After Love at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday 23rd, with a five minute introduction is going to be part of "a season of British movie premieres on the channel", which suggests it is a sequel to that previous season in association with the BFI that occurred at the end of 2020. Fingers crossed for Terence Davies' Benediction to turn up during it!

You're out of luck with Benediction, I'm afraid. The press release for the season is here; the films showing are: After Love, His House, Sweetheart, Here Before, Surge, Mogul Mowgli, and Cow.

[colinr0380]

It's probably still too recent as it only came out on disc a couple of months ago (flabbergastingly on DVD only!)

Maybe next year!

[Dr Amicus]

It's on Netflix - if that helps.

[jlnight]

The Exorcist, Sat 29th Oct, BBC2. (on before)

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Sun 30th Oct, Sky Arts.
First Man Into Space, Sun 30th Oct, Legend. Or...
North West Frontier, Sun 30th Oct, Talking Pictures. (also on London Live) Or...
Rocks, Sun 30th Oct, Channel 4. Or...
His House + Lizard (short), Sun 30th Oct, BBC2.

The Eyes (TV), Mon 31st Oct, Talking Pictures.

Life For Ruth, Tue 1st Nov, London Live.

A Reflection of Fear + Cry of the Werewolf + Private Property, Fri 4th Nov, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
The Man Who Liked Funerals, Fri 4th Nov, London Live. Or...
The Disappearance (1977), Fri 4th Nov, Legend. (been on London Live)

[therewillbeblus]

A Reflection of Fear is one of the best discoveries from Imprint’s catalog. Its tone is hypnotically agitating

[colinr0380]

Rather quiet in the second half of next week but lots of horror-themed films turn up over the Halloween weekend including in BBC2's BFI British Film season, with the horror-themed His House at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday 30th, which is immediately followed by the short film Lizard at 12:15 a.m. That film clashes with the premiere of Rocks over on Channel 4 at 10:15 p.m.

The scariest thing of the week though is that they're heeeere.... Channel 5's afternoon TV movies have started up with the Christmas-themed premieres. Only three over next week, but that is likely only the beginning of the unrelenting bauble-filled terror to come!

BBC4's Storyville season continues with A Story of Bones at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday 1st, which clashes with Louis Theroux interviewing Judi Dench at 9:15 p.m. over on BBC2.
___
The most exciting news of the week involves repeats however. The biggest news of the week is that the wonderful The Curse of the Cat People (more children's story and fairy tale than horror film sequel) is getting a rare showing on BBC2 at 1:55 a.m. on Saturday 29th, taking place during the 'lost hour' when the clocks go back (and in an amusing thematic double bill following a screening of The Exorcist!)

BBC4's classic television repeat strand offers two rare repeats. To presumably tie in with Halloween first on the evening of Saturday 29th is a repeat of the 1990 three part series of The Green Man from 10:30 p.m., which stars Albert Finney, Michael Hordern and also has the late Nicky Henson (from Psychomania!) in the cast. That is based on a Kinglsey Amis novel and presumably BBC2 have scheduled a repeat of Lucky Jim at 12 noon on Sunday 30th to tie in with that screening.

The second is continuing the usual Wednesday night classic television repeat slot on the 2nd November with the first three episodes (of six in total. The final three will probably be showing next Wednesday) of the 1975/6 Stanley Baker starring version of How Green Was My Valley, with a ten minute introduction from Siân Phillips at 10 p.m.

Film4-wise, there are no new films but there is a double bill of Nuns on the Run and Mona Lisa on Film4 from 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday 1st, showing as a tribute to Robbie Coltrane (though the real coup there would have been to show The Pope Must Die for the first time in over two decades!). And the Charlize Theron-starring Monster is getting a rare screening at 11:15 p.m. on Thursday 3rd, sandwiched between Atomic Blonde and Tully on either side of it!

[jlnight]

The Rainbow Jacket, Sat 5th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 9th Nov.
Radio On, Sat 5th Nov, London Live. (been on BBC2 and Sky Arts)

Pink String and Sealing Wax, Sun 6th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Tue 8th Nov. Or...
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sun 6th Nov, Sky Arts.
Johnny Nobody, Sun 6th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Fri 11th Nov. Or...
Sweetheart (2021) + Bulldozer (short), Sun 6th Nov, BBC2.
Shadow of a Doubt, Sun 6th Nov, Sky Arts.

Westbound (1959), Mon 7th Nov, 5Action.

The Angry Hills + The Big Trees, Tue 8th Nov, 5Action.
Them That Follow, Tue 8th Nov, Film4.

The Fabulous Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Wed 9th Nov, Legend.
Wild Indian, late Wed 9th Nov, Film4.

The English (ep1), Thu 10th Nov, BBC2.

Hannie Caulder, Fri 11th Nov, Legend. (been on London Live) Or...
976-EVIL + Night of the Demon + The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (Phantom Ship), Fri 11th Nov, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

The most exciting news of the week involves repeats however. The biggest news of the week is that the wonderful The Curse of the Cat People (more children's story and fairy tale than horror film sequel) is getting a rare showing on BBC2 at 1:55 a.m. on Saturday 29th, taking place during the 'lost hour' when the clocks go back (and in an amusing thematic double bill following a screening of The Exorcist!)

This double bill of The Exorcist and The Curse of the Cat People turned out to be an absolutely inspired one! Thematically in the form of children in some ways turning or 'being tempted' away from their somewhat brittle and on edge parents for more indulgent supernatural figures that may just be conjured up by their own minds, but also the pairing worked extremely well structurally too. What I mean by that, is that The Exorcist starts off with all that material about Father Karras and his mother before it gets sublimated and overwhelmed by the main plot of a young girl playing up and externalising her inner demons to maybe get her mother to focus on her problems; whilst in The Curse of the Cat People it is mostly about a young girl feeling demonised by her parents for having a vibrant inner life, until in the final stages it really turns into a story about that old woman and her adult daughter's tragic relationship to provide the emotional impact.

So whatever issues that the child may have, and are being buffeted around by as the fundamental innocent almost unable to comprehend why they feel the way they do, these films are perhaps even more powerful because they are using a child through which to filter very adult concerns about parentage, what loving a parent (or a child) really means, and issues around grief and loss that are still there no matter how old the child is when they lose their parent. The child loses their connection to an imaginary friend, but regain a second chance with their actual parents; the adults are having their actual parents die after being rejected by them, either through a dementia-style illness or just the parent not loving them, and are left drifting in a terrible limbo without the catharsis of knowing that they were able to fix their relationship.
____

I still have major issues with The Exorcist though, in the sense that whilst I think that the first half of the film when it mostly focuses on the more 'grounded' stuff is excellent (although I do find some of the attempts to portray Karras as a kind of working-Joe, blue collar, Rocky avant la lettre figure rather inadvertently comic! Though that provides the class contrast with the MacNeill family, I guess) that any ambiguity is thrown out of the window (literally!) once it becomes about pea soup vomiting, head spinning and bed bouncing. When the two priests are just reduced to shouting a single line over and over again for a minute straight, I think we have reached the terminal point of some kind of spectacle cinema there, where nobody knows where to go from there to move things forward, except to keep on repeating the same rote behaviours over and over again.

It is rather disappointing because there was a real opportunity, which is absolutely there as a subtext but completely smothered to death by the head-slappingly blunt literalism in the second half of the film, about Reagan being a character pushed to the margins of her single parent family by her harried and brittle mother who always seems distracted by functions and rehearsals than by listening to her daughter. And the implication seems to be that Burke Dennings, after behaving boorishly at the party, goes even further and it is implied at least attempts to sexually abuse Regan alone upstairs in her room with her, before he is thrown from the window with his neck twisted around by the Devil that has already laid claim to her body for its own evil whims. In some ways being possessed by the Devil, rather than her mother actually caring for her, was the thing that prevented her abuse from occurring! Or maybe it did occur and this triggered off her change in behaviour (to "that thing not being my daughter") into acting out in increasingly extreme ways, as if desperately trying to get her mother's attention without coming right out and saying why she was so troubled? (Although the notorious crucifix scene kind of acts as the blunt act of self-harm climax of all that! Which also conveniently destroys any evidence of an assault, if one had occurred)

A much more ambigious and careful film would perhaps have been able to balance those 'all in the mind or the actual Devil?' aspects much better than this film did. I think perhaps most telling of all is that when Max von Sydow's Father Merrin character comes into the picture, he immediately dismisses all of the surrounding context or meaning that we have built up (even Father Karras' mother issues that he is interjecting into the otherwise unrelated situation) to bluntly brings things down to a simple battle between the forces of Good against Evil. Maybe that is a comment about how once organisations, like the Catholic Church, get involved in specific cases that the people suffering inside those situations don't particularly matter as individuals any more, but more as exploitable symbols - that whatever brought them to the point of being possessed by "Evil", understanding and empathy is treated as irrelevant (even a liability) now that they are just in the hands of the organisation to perform their standard operating procedure. Maybe that is why there is so much conversation around the ethics of the confessional box rubbing up against real world ethics and practicalities earlier on in the film? And maybe that is why eventually Father Merrin fails and Father Karras (albeit sacrificially) succeeds, because whilst the standard tactics pushing 'in your face' reality of situations into abstract ritual and ignoring the suffering of the individual at the heart of the situation can get you so far in 'curing' them; only empathy for what that person is going through (even if it runs the risk of 'infecting' you as a consequence of getting too close) has the potential of resolving the trauma going on in the real world.

But... whilst I like thinking about the issues of the film (and have absolutely no problem with the wonderful performances by the cast. And of course Tubular Bells!) I still have issues with the over the top special effects which just throws me out of it every time they occur. It's painful to watch The Exorcist because of that potential for ambiguity that just gets lost. But, hey, that's what made the film so notorious and a big box office hit, so what do I know?

(And at least we later on had by far the best of the series, The Exorcist III, that walks that ambigious line far better)
____

Compared to The Exorcist however, The Curse of the Cat People is a masterclass in walking that tightrope between reality and fantasy. The parents of Amy are constantly portrayed as undermining and belittling their daughter's inner world, and in some ways this film is about celebrating Amy's resilience to still having an inner world in the face of ever more vocal prejudice against it, and demands that she renounce her faith in it. Her parents in some ways are still somewhat damaged and traumatised by the events of Cat People looming large in their own minds, and rather than this being an 'actual' supernatural film about the ghost of the first wife Irena coming back to torment the spawn of her husband's new marriage as a kind of revenge (which after some of Oliver and Alice's behaviour behind Irena's back in Cat People, I would argue that she might have been within her rights to do!), it is actually about how parents stuck with their thoughts in the past end up badly damaging their children. Amy's vibrant inner fantasy world (in which a carelessly left out picture of the beautiful Irena gets folded into her image of what her imaginary friend looks like), is shown throughout as perfectly healthy here (anyone who can be happy within themselves, is never truly lonely); it is particularly Oliver's issues with his first wife that are ironically tormenting him, influencing his behaviour and potentially causing issues with his new wife and especially in his far too blunt treatment of his daughter's pure (if occasionally dangerously naive, whether practically so in the bookending accidental ruining of the birthday party invitations at the opening, or more worryingly with the wonderfully humane moment of hugging the potential murderer ending!) approach to the world.

In that sense the old woman, Mrs Farris, in the Old Dark House treating her still present and living daughter as an ignorable ghost is the moral lesson end result of being far too in thrall to the ghosts of the past (with a tinge of Great Expectations to it). That may be a lesson that Oliver and Amy do not particularly take on board, but in some ways they don't need to (much as Regan doesn't need to understand her facilitator role for larger issues in The Exorcist), since they have been reunited and have another chance to mend the bonds of parent and child. Whilst the Curse of the Cat People is of course Amy's story primarily, and is driven by her actions througout, I love that really the emotional climax of the film is in that tragic relationship between Mrs Farris (who seems to maybe be a drinker? Or just withdrawing into dementia?) and her adult daughter. It may just have been because since the last time I watched this film I found myself placed in a very similar situation so can really empathise much more with the character of the adult daughter now, desperately trying to show affection but getting not just no response but active antagonism from the parent that they just want to acknowledge them, and finding themselves somewhat unwillingly pushed into the 'monster' role. To the extent that they maybe could have hurt the child who comes blundering in there concerned only with their own issues rather than those of others (though she is only six years old, so that is too much responsibility to place on her!) and oblivious both to their effect, the damage they have done and the danger they were in. That almost Coriolanus-like moment in Elizabeth Russell's performance where the potential to blind violence is in some ways tamed by being given a moment of affection long denied to her from her own, now dead, mother, was so wonderfully done that it brought me to tears. Tears for the tragedy of the loss, and that the adult daughter never got to say goodbye to her mother ("You took even this last moment away from me". Although the mother would likely have denied this to her even without the presence of an interceding third party anyway), but also for the end of a dreadfully prolonged era of that woman's life.

What will that woman move onto now that she is not under the thumb of her matriarch any more? Will she leave the Old Dark House, or transform it? There is a potential for a brighter future for that woman as an adult without her parent, as compared to the juvenile Amy being reconciled with her father. However I cannot help but see this ending through the lens of the other magnificent Elizabeth Russell supporting role in the Val Lewton production from just the year previous, the supremely dark The Seventh Victim, in which Russell's dying character is again on the margins of the story for the majority of the time but in her few brief appearances as the next door apartment owner of to the room that the hounded by Satanist cult older sister has rented for mysterious (insurance?) purposes, she provides an added spin on the fatalistic and death-obsessed storyline. In The Seventh Victim's incredibly dark ending:

Spoiler for The Seventh Victim

her dying character despite being scared of her imminent death through illness gets dressed up to go out 'one last time' to dance, passing by the older sister who herself has inevitably been drawn/forced back to that rented room next door that contains the chair and noose set up in it, long prepared for the inescapable suicide. Russell's otherwise uncredited and anonymous character gets the honour there of the final brief but incredibly powerful scene, and quotation of that film.

[colinr0380]

Pretty good next week. Channel 5 starts revving the motor on the Christmas TV movies, going up to seven premieres over next week. The one that most caught my attention from the title was "Random Acts of Christmas"(!) which appears to be some kind of melding of the Christmas theme with a mystery one as " a journalist decides to umask a secret Santa who is active in her town, and hooks up with another reporter who is also on their trail". However this week has already thrown out a pleasant surprise, with the appearance of Pam Grier amongst the cast in A Christmas Wish a couple of days ago!

It is relatively quiet outside of that with just the BFI/BBC British film season continuing with Sweetheart at 10:45 p.m. on Sunday 6th, followed by short film Bulldozer at 12:30 a.m.

BBC4's Storyville season did not show A Story of Bones yesterday evening, but the season continues next Tuesday 8th November at 9:30 p.m. with another Ukrainian documentary, this one about an orphanage, A House Made of Splinters. And the last three episodes of the 70s How Green Was My Valley series is showing from 10 p.m. on Wednesday 9th

Film4 comfortably wins the week however with Wild Indian (with Chaske Spencer in the cast, who serendipitiously as jlnight has noted is starring with Emily Blunt in the series The English, starting on BBC2 at 9 p.m. on Thursday 10th), showing at Midnight on Thursday 10th along with two films getting their very belated first screenings on UK television with Taika Waititi's first feature from 2007 Eagle vs Shark at 11 p.m. on Friday 11th and most excitingly the 2009 animation The Secret of Kells showing at 2:35 p.m. on Sunday 6th (the director's 2014 feature Song of the Sea has already been shown on Film4 a few times, and is showing again at 11 a.m. on Saturday 5th).

[colinr0380]

Channel 4 turned 40 years old yesterday, and celebrated with... nothing much other than a repeat of their launch week film P'Tang, Yang, Kipperbang at 1:25 a.m. this morning. However Matthew Harris comes to the rescue with his tribute to the network and the changing face of its idents.

I would sadly argue that the last twenty years have been nothing like as exciting and innovative as the first twenty years (and I am being generous here by putting my cut off point at 2003, entirely because of Channel 4's "Cinema Iran" season that no other channel would have ever broadcast. The last important thing before that was in 2000 with the Dogme 95 series, the Mondo Macabro season and the early Tony Gatlif Romany gypsy-themed films Latcho Drom and Gadjo Dilo). Aside from the stalwart Indian film season and the spin-off Film4 channel, this was the kind of programming that disappeared entirely once Big Brother (and its late night live streams of people sleeping) appeared in the summer of 2000 and came to dominate the ethos of the channel from that point onwards. Combined with the move to house buying and selling shows and general shock docs that Channel 5 ended up epitomising (still going on with the eye rolling "My Massive Cock" programme shown recently, which along with being tackily titled entirely missed the excitement of the Red Light Zone or EuroTrash era's nudge, nudge naughtiness in exchange for prudish moralist hand wringing about the ethics of being bullied for large genitals! When they managed to subdue Irish cheeky chappy porn star Andy Lee into having a complex of feeling self conscious of his, ahem, size - though I assume he was playing along with what they wanted - then I can safely say that they succeeded in their aims of making sex as unsexy as possible!), it was a big fall from grace.

But its still occasionally doing things that are worthwhile (that Don't Hug Me I'm Scared series most recently, Black Mirror and generally anything that may feature Kevin Eldon in the cast. And of course its Film4 production side to contrast against the BBC's production arm) that makes it still worrying whenever politicians threaten to sell what remains off. Presumably politicians feel that the channel fulfilled its remit long ago of bringing independent production companies in to create its programming rather than making it in-house, contrasting against the BBC's virtual monopoly over production at the time and so successful that the BBC now follows much the same independent production company commission policy to the majority of its programming. So now Channel 4 destroyed the old order, maybe it has long completed its political purpose?

[thirtyframesasecond]

The best thing about C4 is its news coverage, which is certainly the best around now - though Sky runs it close. Krishnan Guru-Murthy (possibly still suspended) recently summed up 'Hard Man of Brexit' Steve Baker in as succinct and accurate a description as possible.

[jlnight]

The Last Load (not CFF), Sat 12th Nov, Talking Pictures.
Wild Men (2021), Sat 12th Nov, BBC4. Or...
Air America, Sat 12th Nov, Legend.

It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow (1975 TVM), Sun 13th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Tue 15th Nov.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Cops, Sun 13th Nov, Sky Arts.
Innocent Sinners, Sun 13th Nov, Talking Pictures. Also Wed 16th Nov.
Black Torment, Sun 13th Nov, Legend. (been on TPTV)
Here Before + Know the Grass (short), Sun 13th Nov, BBC2.

Mr Horatio Knibbles (CFF), Mon 14th Nov, London Live. (been on TPTV)
Resistance (2020), Mon 14th Nov, Film4.

The Hill (1965), Tue 15th Nov, 5Action.

A Big Hand for the Little Lady + The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Wed 16th Nov, 5Action.
Krisha (2015), Wed 16th Nov, Film4.

Pulse (1988) + Dead Men Walk (1943) + Thomasine and Bushrod, Fri 18th Nov, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[therewillbeblus]

A Big Hand for the Little Lady is a real treat, clear your schedules for Wed evening

[colinr0380]

Not too bad next week. jlnight has noted the big films, though I'll try and add trailers where applicable.

The big blockbuster premiere of the week is Aquaman showing on ITV1 at 6:20 p.m. on Saturday 12th (Shazam! is scheduled to follow that on Saturday 19th). That neatly ends just as BBC4 begins to show Danish drama Wild Men at 9 p.m.

BBC2's BFI British film season continues with Andrea Riseborough in Here Before at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday 13th followed by the short Know The Grass at 11:50 p.m.

Film4's week includes Jesse Eisenberg as Marcel Marceau(!) in Resistance at 9 p.m. on Monday 14th, and the pre-It Comes At Night 2015 film directed by Trey Edward Shults, Krisha at 11:20 p.m. on Wednesday 16th (nobody is going to catch David DeCoteau for number of premieres this year but since Shults' most recent film Waves premiered a couple of months back, he is probably one of the main runners up for the year).

Channel 5's Christmas TV movies run to eight new films premiered next week (a triple bill on Sunday afternoon!)

And the big news is that after being unceremoniously cancelled due to the death of the Queen in September, The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs is getting its delayed television premiere on Channel 4 at 2:25 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 16th.
___

TV-wise, BBC4's centenary of television season shows all four episodes of the original 1990 House of Cards series on Wednesday 16th, starting at 10 p.m. with an introduction from the author of the novel on which the series was based, Michael Dobbs. And the classic Thora Hird starring episode of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series, Waiting For The Telegram, is showing at 9:25 p.m. on Sunday 13th.

Clashing with The English on BBC2 on Thursday 17th there is a rare item of note in Channel 5's schedule with the first of a two part series in which Brian Cox (the actor, not the astronomer) goes onto the streets of Dundee to learn "How The Other Half Live". And on Friday 18th BBC4 are showing the Country Music Awards from Nashville at 10:40 p.m., preceded by a Kenny Rogers concert at 9 p.m. and followed by a documentary about the singer at 11:40 p.m, with the rest of the night devoted to a re-showing of the first parts of Ken Burns' Country Music series.