TCM Look-Ahead - July 10
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies. For your viewing and recording pleasure.
It's Noir City month on TCM, chock full of the usual (can't miss) subjects.
Friday, July 10
08:00 p.m. PST They Live by Night (1948) Nick Ray's first film, an exquisite heartbreaking story of two young lovers on the lam, too innocent to survive. "Nicolas Ray is Cinema..." Jean-Luc Godard.
10:00 p.m. PST Gun Crazy (1950) Cannily paired, this is the, shall we say, psychotic flip side of They Live by Night. Joseph H. Lewis (last week's rec Cry of the Hunted) directs this odd romance between two gun nuts within every inch of his life, topped by the masterful oner bank robbery escape that has influenced generations.
Saturday, July 11
Midnight PST Night and the City (1950) Richard Widmark plays a sleazy con man looking to make a score in the professional wrestling racket. Somehow you end up rooting for him.
Noon PST Le Million (1931) There was a time when the Frenchman Rene Clair was the biggest deal in international cinema, and he ended up carving out a nice career in Hollywood. This was his follow up to iconic Sous les toits de Paris (1930), an absurd comedy/musical of manners about the impact of a lottery ticket on the lives of multiple Parisians (Paris locations are the star of the movie).
10:15 p.m PST The Killing (1956) For a long while considered lesser Kubrick, it now strikes me as the perfect crystallization of his style and themes. A robbery at a horse track involves several reprobates who, like Widmark in Night in the City, we find ourselves nevertheless rooting for, especially protagonist Sterling Hayden, despite knowing full well they are trapped in an existential Kubrickian nightmare. Strikingly shot with a bold, elliptical narrative approach that largely influenced Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
Sunday, July 12
Start the day off with a Sonny Chiba Street Fighter triple bill! All made in 1974 (Sonny and Toei Company did not fuck around). Incidentally, the first, The Street Fighter (01:45 a.m. PST) was the first film to ever receive an X rating in the United States solely based on violence. Also incidentally, this is the very triple bill that is playing when Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette meet cute in True Romance. All of these facts will not convert the non-believers into loving the films of Sonny Chiba, but if you love him and his ilk these are the ones.
Monday, July 13
02:00 a.m. PST Until the End of the World (1991) The full 5-hour director's cut of Wim Wenders follow up to the much-loved Wings of Desire. William Hurt is a doctor on the run, protecting against the confiscation of an invention by his father, which might save the world. Solveig Dommartin (Mrs. Wenders at the time) aids him and falls in love. Wenders is an annoying guy and this movie is equal parts ecstatic and ridiculous, but if you like that swoony romantic side of him, you will be enthralled. You may have owned the soundtrack at some point.
Tuesday, July 14
A That's Entertainment marathon (Parts 1 through 3) begins at 01:45 a.m. PST. Remember those? A set of self-congratulations from MGM studios these are, nevertheless, imminently irresistible. The world is a stage, the stage is a world of entertainment.
11:00 p.m. PST The Connection (1961) Shirley Clarke's semi-improvised, semi-experimental, semi-documentary adaptation an off-Broadway play was quite a unique filmic experience in the day. A disingenuous documentary film maker chronicles the lives of 8 junkies who wait, wait and wait in a sleazy New York apartment, waiting to score. The jazz soundtrack, composed by Freddie Redd and played by his quartet, featuring tenor sax by Jackie McLean (who knew a little something about waiting to score) is a highlight for Jazzbos.
Wednesday, July 15
08:00 p.m. PST Starting Over (1979) Is it just me, or is Non-Mustachioed Burt Reynolds always better than Mustachioed? Alan Pakula's expert hand guides this divorce-story with plenty of laughs (many provided by a great supporting performance by Candace Bergen) and sighs.
Thursday, July 16 and Friday, July 17
A nature strikes back marathon. I have previously recommended Them!, which plays at 11:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, but the film of the highest auteur interest (as Andrew Sarris always used to say) is The Wasp Woman, (1959) playing at 03:45 a.m. PST Friday. It is a micro-budgeted hoot, directed by the maestro, Roger Corman.
