Film4 - tv-guide

Here is the daily tv-listing for film4 - Tuesday

Time TV-show
11.00
Dragonwyck

This preposterous old tosh, a sort of Manderley-on-the-Hudson, marked distinguished film-maker Joseph L Mankiewicz's directorial debut, and though he does well by the material, the casting leaves much to be desired. Top-billed Gene Tierney is a lovely governess, but Vincent Price hams quite extraordinarily as a sadistic master of the estate, and Glenn Langan is truly hopeless as the local doctor. Of course, there's a great deal of pleasure to be had from watching these ludicrous performances on phoney sets, but you can't escape the feeling that once it was meant to be taken seriously.
13.05
The Spanish Gardener

Dirk Bogarde posted notice that he was much more than Rank's "Mr Charm" in this brooding drama adapted from the novel by AJ Cronin. Although it was supposed to be buried safely beneath the surface, the film's homosexual subtext is clearly detectable as diplomat Michael Hordern comes to resent his son's burgeoning relationship with his gardener Bogarde. Thanks to Christopher Challis's sultry cinematography, director Philip Leacock is able to convey the rising emotional temperature of the action, while also coaxing a creditable performance from young Jon Whiteley. However, it's Hordern's wonderful portrayal of repression that holds the piece together.
14.55
Blithe Spirit

In this polished adaptation of Noël Coward's comedy, Rex Harrison plays a widower happily remarried to Constance Cummings and visited by the ghost of his first wife, Kay Hammond (the ghost was modelled on Gertrude Lawrence who had left Coward's stock company for Broadway). The architect of this event is a dotty old medium, played by the unforgettable Margaret Rutherford. David Lean directed - Coward was away in America and the great British director was worried he was the wrong man for the job. According to Kevin Brownlow's monumental biography of Lean, Coward attended the first preview and was distinctly unimpressed with what he saw. The critics lapped it up, though, and the dainty special effects won an Oscar.
16.45
Scott Pilgrim Special

An inside look at Edgar Wright's latest film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, starring Michael Cera.
16.50
Black Narcissus

Winner of Oscars for art direction and cinematography, this adaptation of Rumer Godden's simmering novel by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is one of the most striking examples of studio-controlled artifice in film history. Jack Cardiff's incredibly lush colour images not only enhance the beauty of the stylised Himalayan scenery, but also bring a certain grandeur to the melodramatic events at a remote mountain mission where the visit of English agent David Farrar causes passions to run dangerously out of control among the nuns. Kathleen Byron's eye-rolling jealousy awakens the occasionally sleepy plot and her scene with Deborah Kerr on the bell tower is a true classic. Sabu as a wealthy local general and Jean Simmons as the nubile native girl who attracts his attention provide a little eastern spice.
18.50
The Flight of the Phoenix

This remake from Behind Enemy Lines director John Moore adds little to Robert Aldrich's 1965 original, save for some superior special effects, but it's a decent enough adventure yarn for those who haven't seen the first film. The plot remains much the same: the survivors of a plane crash in the desert (here the Gobi; it was the Sahara in the original) seek to escape by building a second craft from the wreckage of the first. Dennis Quaid assumes the role of the pilot originally played by James Stewart, while Giovanni Ribisi steps into Hardy Kruger's shoes to play the aircraft designer who conceives the idea of a new plane to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the old. The production values are good - the opening crash is especially well staged - and the tension builds nicely. Overall, it's a decent retread, though perhaps not a particularly necessary one.
21.00
The Italian Job

Taking this intrinsically British caper movie to Hollywood sounds like car-crash cinema in the worst possible sense. Yet, with a revised gold bullion robbery (now set in Venice and at the beginning of the film), a cast that glistens just as brightly, F Gary Gray's supercharged direction and a script that's smarter than it first appears, this is just as enjoyable a ride. Mark Wahlberg carries plenty of easy-going charm in the Michael Caine role, heading a criminal gang that's revved up for revenge after associate Edward Norton double-crosses them and absconds to Los Angeles with the booty. As the plan unfolds to burgle Norton's secure mansion, the story takes an unexpected detour, leading to a shrewd variation on its predecessor's traffic-jam manipulation. Norton's talents are wasted on such a sleazy, one-dimensional villain, but Charlize Theron is beguiling as a sassy safecracker and Seth Green has a ball as a paranoid hacker.
23.05
Date Movie

After spoofing teen slasher flicks with the Scary Movie franchise, writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer now turn their attention to romantic comedies. Alyson Hannigan (American Pie) dons the fat suit as the heroine whose parents disapprove of her relationship with a soppy Brit (unexciting newcomer Adam Campbell) because he's not of their Greek-African-American-Indian-Japanese heritage. Scenes poking fun at My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Meet the Parents and When Harry Met Sally ... are consistently overplayed and serve only to demonstrate the essential futility of trying to send up classic comedy. The odd, decent gag aside, Friedberg and Seltzer are too often content to go for the cheap laughs - a scene involving a diarrhoea-afflicted cat gives some indication of the level of wit and invention on display here.

Blogs about Film4

Here you can find the latest blogs about the channel Film4 and all the tv-shows broadcasted.

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