Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[colinr0380]

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Sat 17th Oct, BBC4. Or...

Excellent! The last time this film showed on UK television was on Channel 4 on 5th May 1996 (or rather early hours of Monday 6th May), so it has been over 30 years since it last screened on free to air television.

[colinr0380]

Strange lady-focused offerings next week. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found is on Channel 4 at Midnight of Sunday 18th/Monday 19th.

Channel 4's South Asian film season continues with Bangladeshi crime drama Priyo Maloti (Dear Maloti) at 2:15 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 20th. The imdb write up for this is: "Maloti, A housewife who is 7 months pregnant, falls into a void of uncertainty when her husband Polash dies during a massive mall blast at his workplace."; and Indian film Song of Forgotten Trees is showing at 3 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 21st. The RadioTimes write up for this is: "Actor and part-time sex worker Thooya sublets a bedroom to Shweta. Although they are from different worlds, friendship blooms".

BBC4's Storyville documentary series continues with A Want In Her at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 20th (apparently shown the day previously at 10:40 p.m. on BBC1 in Northern Ireland)

And Channel 4 is showing Icelandic-UK film Northern Comfort at 12:15 a.m. in the early hours of Saturday 24th, which appears to be giving off strong Triangle of Sadness-vibes from that trailer.
___

Repeat-wise, of course the main news is the first screening for over thirty years of Cleo From 5 to 7 on BBC4 at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday 17th. That is preceded by Celia Imrie at 9 p.m. introducing 45 minutes of clips in the "Talking Pictures" series of interviews with film luminaries from the BBC archives which is themed around "World Cinema" and according to the RadioTimes is "featuring directors Akira Kurosawa, Agnes Varda, Francois Truffaut, Luis Bunuel and Ingmar Bergman". So maybe there will be some rare interviews featured there.

Also the RadioTimes in its write up suggests that this is going to be a "TV season devoted to vintage foreign-language cinema". So keep an eye on the BBC4 Saturday schedules, I guess!

Not too much in terms of notable repeats on the major channels (though BBC4 repeats the 1978 BBC Shakespeare version of As You Like It at 10 p.m. on Sunday 18th), but the "Legend Xtra" channel has the most exciting things showing, with James Gray's The Yards at 9 p.m. on Saturday 17th. And a showing of the 1983 TV movie September Gun at 5 p.m. on Friday 23rd, which comes after the run of director Don Taylor's directorial features (the Burt Lancaster remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau; Damien - Omen II and the Kirk Douglas starring The Final Countdown), and the same year that Taylor directed the BBC Shakespeare adaptation of The Two Gentleman of Verona.


And it appears that Legend Xtra is getting away from The A-Team for a while and showing the original 1967 Larry Cohen created series of The Invaders every night at 8 p.m. starting from Wednesday 21st.

[jlnight]

Also the RadioTimes in its write up suggests that this is going to be a "TV season devoted to vintage foreign-language cinema". So keep an eye on the BBC4 Saturday schedules, I guess!

If the BBC4 site is to be believed then we are getting Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, The Bride Wore Black (I bought the Radiance disc from a branch of CeX), Ran, and Belle de Jour, and various editions of Omnibus and Arena connected to the filmmakers.

Prior to the 1996 screening of Cleo from 5 to 7, the film turned up on C4 as part of a French New Wave season in 1992 along with: Jules et Jim, Le Petit Soldat, Pierrot le Fou, Le Beau Serge, Les Bonnes Femmes, Les Amants, The 400 Blows, Lola, Une Femme est Une Femme, Les Cousins, Paris Nous Appartient, Shoot the Pianist, Le Peau Douce, Last Year at Marienbad and La Religieuse. Different broadcasting era!

[colinr0380]

The last time the BBC showed Ran in the BBC100 season in 1995, they also showed Chris Marker's A.K. as well, so potentially....

... although as you say we are in quite different times for screenings of arthouse material on television, that may make that beyond the ken of even a BBC4 channel now.

Belle de Jour last turned up in BBC2's big Bunuel season in 1996, when they showed The Exterminating Angel, SImon of the Desert, Tristana and The Milky Way - Viridiana and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie had turned up on BBC2 back in the BBC100 season in 1995. I think that is the last time Bunuel has appeared on any of the main channels

The Seventh Seal last appeared on BBC2 in the BBC100 season in 1995. There was a Bergman season on that channel a couple of years later in 1997, though those focused on the earlier films such as To Joy, So Close To Life, Summer Interlude, Summer With Monika up to the trilogy of Through A Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence. No Fanny and Alexander during that one! Bizarrely I think one of the last Bergman films to be shown on UK television to date was Film4's premiere of From The Life of the Marionettes that occurred in the late 2000s! Though I think that BBC4 (then "BBC Choice") showed Saraband back when it was a digital channel that did not cover half of the country, or at least not my area at all!

[jlnight]

The Dragon of Pendragon Castle (1950), Sat 24th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Our Man Flint (1966), Sat 24th Oct, Talking Pictures. Or...
The Seventh Seal, Sat 24th Oct, BBC4. (last on in 2019)
The Ghosts of Hanley House (1968), late Sat 24th Oct, Talking Pictures.

The Boston Strangler (1968), Sun 25th Oct, Talking Pictures. (on before)

The Public Enemy (1931), Mon 26th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Victoria (2024), late Mon 26th Oct, Channel 4.

Night Nurse (1931), Tue 27th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, Tue 27th Oct, BBC4. Or...
I Came By (2022), Tue 27th Oct, Film4.

A Free Soul (1931), Wed 28th Oct, Talking Pictures.
The Monkey (2025), Wed 28th Oct, BBC1.

Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), Thu 29th Oct, Talking Pictures.
Broken Melody (1934), Thu 29th Oct, Talking Pictures. (Julius Hagen season)
Junoon (1978), late Thu 29th Oct, Channel 4.

Cellar Club Live, Fri 30th Oct, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)



Honor Among Thieves (Farewell Friend) replaced in the Together TV schedules.
Junoon (1978) was on C4 in 1988, Yorkshire TV in 1993 and the London Film Festival in 2016.

[GaryC]

As jlknight has posted above, Talking Pictures TV begin a Pre-Code season next week, Monday to Thursday with start times between 8 and 9am. The first four are: The Public Enemy, Night Nurse, A Free Soul and Dance, Fools, Dance. The following week has: Blonde Crazy, Five Star Final, Bad Sister and The Secret Six.

So far they are all from 1931, and apart from Bad Sister (Universal) all from Warner Bros, either their own productions or films they acquired from MGM. I saw Night Nurse and A Free Soul on DVDs in Forbidden Hollywood box sets which I reviewed for DVD Times as it then was. The Public Enemy I saw in 1980 as part of BBC2's gangster season and I haven't seen it since.

I'm wondering if some of these have not been on UK free-to-air TV before - a search for the first week's three other than The Public Enemy drew a blank.

[colinr0380]

It has been a while since The Public Enemy's last UK television screening as well, last shown on Channel 4 on 9th April 1998 (previously in Channel 4's Century of Cinema series on 4th June 1995 - the night after Goodfellas, for contrast! - and also on 29th December 1996). I have Night Nurse down as showing on Channel 4 on 27th March 1995, 29th November 1996 and 24th December 1997. Blonde Crazy (aka Larceny Lane) was on Channel 4 on 13th January 1995 and 23rd July 1996. No info on Bad Sister and The Secret Six though!

Five Star Final, with Edward G. Robinson, was last on Channel 4 on 29th April 1996 (Little Caesar was on Channel 4 on 2nd January 1997 and 4th April 1998)

Channel 4 also showed another Roy del Ruth directed, James Cagney starring film from 1931 during this period, Taxi! (the origin of the misquoted "You dirty rat!" phrase) on 11th September 1995, 6th November 1996 and 27th December 1997.

A lot of this kind of material that propped up the late night schedules disappeared completely from UK television in the 2000s, likely partially due to a disinterest/bias against black and white films by broadcasters, and a move towards other forms of more contemporary content taking up those slots instead.
___

Eclectic next week. No premieres at the weekend, but instead spaced out during the week instead.

Channel 4's South Asian film season continues with the premiere of Keralan film Victoria at 2:25 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 27th. The write up from imdb is: "Victoria, a small-town beautician, defies her Catholic family by fleeing with her Hindu boyfriend. Her life grows more complex when she receives a rooster meant for religious purposes from a neighbor." That film does not appear to have been classified by the BBFC as yet.

Two premieres clash on Tuesday 27th with BBC4's Storyville documentary season continuing with Black is Beautiful: the Kwame Braithwaite Story at 10 p.m., and I Came By on Film4 at 11:10 p.m.

The big film of the week is of course Osgood Perkin's Stephen King adaptation The Monkey on BBC1 at 10:40 p.m., which ties Perkins with Guy Ritchie for the director with the most number of premieres in a single year (i.e. : 2)
___

Repeat wise, BBC4's classic world cinema season continues with Bergman's The Seventh Seal at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday 24th, which is followed at 11 p.m. by the episode of the Marie Nyreröd documentary that focused on Bergman's Cinema from 2007.

Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 version of Much Ado About Nothing is showing again on BBC4 at 10:15 p.m. on Sunday 25th, preceeded by an interview with Derek Jacobi at 10 p.m.

Nicole Holofcener's 1996 film Walking and Talking on Film4 at 1:20 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday 27th

And with thanks to jlnight to noting it is not a premiere (as suggested in the RadioTimes), the other film in Channel 4's "South Asian" film season is Shyam Benegal's 1978 version of Junoon at 1:55 a.m. in the early hours of Friday 30th.

The most interesting film showing on the "Legend Xtra" channel next week is Tarsem's 2011 Greek myth film Immortals (which we discussed here back in the day) showing at 9 p.m. on Friday 30th. That would actually make for a great Arrow release if possible, as it was edited by the BBFC to receive a 15 certificate on original release, so the uncut version would be good to see make it to these shores at some point.