The week’s best films
Help!
(Richard Lester, 1965) 7.50pm, BBC2This follow-up to A Hard Day’s Night has those four lovable mop-top Beatles boys embroiled in a zany comedy about the tussle for a sacred, far-eastern ring that lands up on Ringo’s finger - so he’s Frodo in Lads Of The Ring, then. A silly, joyful mix of laughs and of course, music, including the title song and Ticket To Ride.Elizabeth
(Shekhar Kapur, 1998) 9.05pm, Channel 4With Kapur’s sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age imminent, here’s his account of the young Elizabeth I’s rise to the throne. It may not be entirely accurate but it’s a convincing picture of a dangerous time, when courtly intrigue was conducted with whispers in dark, stony corridors, and the cold strike of the stiletto. Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth is a fiery monarch reminiscent of Bette Davis in her regal authority, but rather more engaging. This is history done with real dash.5×2
(Francois Ozon, 2004) 1.35am, Channel 4Initially the reverse chronology appears a trite cinematic device, but gradually it becomes a surprisingly powerful means of opening up the pain and poignancy of a marriage gone wrong. Val%26eacute;ria Bruni-Tedeschi and St%26eacute;phane Freiss are the unhappy couple, followed through five essential scenes, from their divorce to their first meeting at a seaside resort: an intense and moving drama.Sunday October 28Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
(George Lucas, 1977) 4.25pm, ITV1When it was released a long, long time ago we knew this first instalment of Lucas’s space saga simply as Star Wars; now we know the New Hope referred to the director’s dream of a world enslaved by his merchandising empire. Still, it was a terrific adventure, pitting Luke Skywalker (a fresh-faced Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and space maverick Han Solo (a little known Harrison Ford) against Darth Vader and the Empire.James And The Giant Peach
(Henry Selick, 1996) 5.15pm, FiveIt is a peach too, with Selick giving free rein to a typically macabre and marvellous Roald Dahl fantasy. It starts in “real life”, with little James (Paul Terry) given a bag of something magic by old Pete Postlethwaite; soon he’s tipped into an animated world where the giant peach is home to a wacky bug family.The Ninth Gate
(Roman Polanski, 1999) 9pm, FivePolanski once made one of the definitive modern horror movies in Rosemary’s Baby and this is an occult thriller in similarly rich-blooded vein. Johnny Depp stars as an antiquarian book dealer hired by Frank Langella to find the ancient tomes that will summon Satan: an intelligent gothic chiller.Sirens
(John Duigan, 1994) 11.20pm, BBC1Hugh Grant does his bumbling Englishman, an Oxford-%26eacute;migr%26eacute; vicar stumbling into a little local difficulty in his Outback parish. Artist Sam Neill wants to exhibit his erotic Crucified Venus at the church exhibition; Parson Grant and wife Tara Fitzgerald try to dissuade him, but fall under the spell of the sirens - the artist’s nude models (including Elle Macpherson and Arrested Development’s Portia De Rossi).Dor
(Nagesh Kukunoor, 2006) 1.30am, Channel 4This absorbing drama provides strong, contrasting roles for two talented young actresses: Gul Kirat Panag is a headstrong Muslim woman, courted in the mountains by dashing Rushad Rana; Ayesha Takia is a more traditional Hindu wife living in the desert. Their lives become linked by a fatal incident, but Kukunoor cleverly subverts the dictates of Bollywood convention.Monday October 29The Four Feathers
(Zoltan Korda, 1939) 1.15pm, Channel 4A rip-roaring adventure based on AEW Mason’s novel and showing that the Brits could swash a Technicolor buckle as well as Hollywood. John Clements is the young chap not at all tickled to receive four white feathers, the symbol of cowardice; he dashes off to the Sudanese war to prove himself a hero.Me And You And Everyone We Know
(Miranda July, 2005) 11.40pm, Channel 4July’s debut feature is an original and perceptive study of lonely LA lives led by shoe salesman John Hawkes who is struggling to raise two boys after his wife dumps him. July herself is the star turn, playing a struggling artist-cum-cab driver making tentative overtures towards him, in a funny, touching and melancholic account of the quest for love.The Diary Of A Chambermaid
(Jean Renoir, 1946) 1.25am, Channel 4It may lack the impact of Bunuel’s scabrous 1964 version, but this earlier adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s novel, made by Renoir during his Hollywood years, is nevertheless an acid comedy of social manners. A blonde Paulette Goddard stars as the 19th century chambermaid whose sharp tongue unsettles the aristocratic household.Tuesday October 30Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
(Irwin Allen, 1961) 1pm, BBC2Global warming? Walter Pidgeon’s Admiral Nelson has the answer in this lively, colourful sci-fi adventure. As commander of the nuclear submarine Seaview (a $400,000 creation that went on to star in the TV series) he simply lobs a few missiles at the fiery Van Allen radiation belt that is threatening to fry Earth and, hey presto, problem solved.The China Syndrome
(James Bridges, 1979) 1.10pm, Channel 4Very convincing, deeply disturbing tale of near-meltdown at a nuclear power station, Jack Lemmon’s noble foreman called on to save the day. The affair is being hushed up by embarrassed and shaken authorities, but Jane Fonda’s TV reporter and her cameraman Michael Douglas (who also produced) are on to the story.Best Seller
(John Flynn, 1987) 11.55pm, BBC1This very serviceable thriller features two of America’s most watchable character actors - Brian Dennehy and James Woods - in crunchy, grudging cooperation, with Dennehy as an ex-cop turned novelist who teams up with hitman Woods to acquire the raw material for his next bestseller.Wednesday October 31Hollywood Homicide
(Ron Shelton, 2003) 10pm, FiveA lacklustre thriller from the director of fine sporting romances Tin Cup, Bull Durham and all. Veteran cop Harrison Ford and junior cop Josh Hartnett are buddies trying to solve the mystery of the murdered rappers, while one sells property on the side and the other practises yoga and pursues an acting career. It’s formulaic and predictable, and Shelton needs to get back to sports stories fast - ping-pong, tiddlywinks, anything.Halloween
(John Carpenter, 1978) 11.25pm, BBC1Made for half a million dollars and raking in $50m, Carpenter’s shock-horror is a cult classic, spoilt only by the endless feeble sequels. Jamie Lee Curtis is the high school kid pitted against a teenies-killer in an Illinois town on Halloween night; Donald Pleasence plays psychiatrist Loomis (”The evil is loose!”), aiming to return his escaped psychopathic charge to the asylum. Carpenter handles the suspense and terror like a young Hitchcock.Ju-on: The Grudge
(Takashi Shimizu, 2003) 2.45am, Channel 4Shimizu’s efficiently chilly tale, since remade for Hollywood, is based on The Shining-type premise that a building can absorb a spirit of evil when terrible acts are committed in it (in this case the murder of a mother and child) and make life horrible for subsequent occupants. Megumi Okina is the hapless careworker who arrives at the seemingly ordinary building and sees a ghostly youngster - the harbinger of a series of well orchestrated, jittery horror scenes.Thursday November 1Penny Serenade
(George Stevens, 1941) 1.10pm, Channel 4In less skilled hands than George Stevens’, and with smaller talents than Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, this might have been a horribly sentimental affair, but instead it’s a glorious drama, a weepie that actually makes you weep. Grant and Dunne are a married couple dealing with the death of a baby.Cop Land
(James Mangold, 1997) 11.35pm, BBC1Garrison, New Jersey is a small town inhabited almost exclusively by New York cops, and for the gone-to-seed sheriff Sylvester Stallone life is easy. But then a murder brings in Internal Affairs man Robert De Niro, who makes it clear that many of these cops have gone bad, Harvey Keitel’s top dog in particular.Friday November 2The Caine Mutiny
(Edward Dmytryk, 1954) 12.30pm, Channel 4Dmytryck’s naval drama changes course rapidly from spectacular action to stolid court-martial confrontation, but it’s a shipshape movie for all that. Adapted from Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel, it stars a visibly ailing Humphrey Bogart as the paranoid, deeply unlikable Captain Queeg, relieved of his command by his fellow officers.Drums Along The Mohawk
(John Ford, 1939) 1.30pm, BBC2A big year for Ford, 1939: he also made Stagecoach and Young Mr Lincoln. His first colour production, it’s set the American revolution and has wild country boy Henry Fonda introducing eastern bride Claudette Colbert to the fun of Injun’ fighting.The World Is Not Enough
(Michael Apted, 1999) 9pm, ITV1Pierce Brosnan’s third Bond mission. The megalomaniac of the day is Robert Carlyle, the Bond babes are Sophie Marceau’s oil heiress, Denise Richards’ nuclear physicist, and of course Judi Dench’s M - quite enough for even the most demanding 007 fans.
Tags: actress, carpenter, cate, cate blanchett, ford, george lucas, harrison ford, hero, hollywood, instalment, megalomania, pace, premise, rbi