The week’s best films
Legend
(Ridley Scott, 1985) 3.10pm, BBC2His latest, American Gangster, may be set very much in the real world, but Ridley Scott is a master of fantastical, violent adventures, of which this is an early, less acclaimed example. It has toothsome young peasant Tom Cruise trying to foil lord of darkness Tim Curry’s plot to savage a sylvan earth by ensnaring the last unicorns: imaginative, but silly.The Naked Spur
(Anthony Mann, 1953) 3.40pm, FiveOne of the fine westerns Mann made with James Stewart, in which the physical action is matched by the hero’s inner conflict. Stewart plays a bounty hunter bringing Robert Ryan’s sneering villain to justice, but on the way he is forced to reassess his own motivations as Ryan plays mind games with him and his two helpers (Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell).Downfall
(Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004) 9pm, C4Hirschbiegel’s riveting account of the last days of the Nazis was criticised for humanising Hitler. It does; but Bruno Ganz’s intense, mesmeric performance portrays the Fuhrer as a grotesque failure, a charismatic leader who in private is a petulant child, dreaming of final victory to the last moment of utter defeat. Holed up in his bunker as the Russians devastate Berlin, he’s the epitome of deluded evil, rather than superhuman monster. Adapted mainly from the memoirs of young secretary Traudl Junge (played by Alexandra Maria Lara), it’s an extraordinary and harrowing film.Donnie Darko
(Richard Kelly, 2001)9.30pm, BBC2This tale of an angsty, smalltown youngster (Jake Gyllenhaal), a Harvey-like 6ft rabbit and a jet engine that crashes through the roof of the family home is a brilliantly innovative slice of sci-fi. Did the engine fall out of the sky, or through a space-time wormhole? Are Donnie’s visions - and the warning of approaching apocalypse - real, or hallucinations? It’s all a mystery in this fascinating, darkly funny comedy.Scenes Of A Sexual Nature
(Ed Blum, 2006) 10.50pm, BBC1Hampstead Heath, north London, one hot, sunny afternoon, and all sorts of Brit film stars are to be glimpsed banging on about sex, love and the eternal difficulties thereof. Among the ensemble cast in the short grass are Ewan MacGregor, Sophie Okonedo, Gina McKee and Adrian Lester, and although it all feels a little parochial, it’s a gently charming afternoon.Heaven
(Tom Tykwer, 2002) 12.10am, BBC2Directed by the maker of the exhilarating Run Lola Run and co-written by the great Krzysztof Kieslowski, this half-hearted revenge thriller comes as a disappointment. Cate Blanchett, aka Queen Elizabeth, plays an English woman teaching in Turin who tries to kill the drug lord who murdered her husband, with disastrous consequences.Ripley’s Game
(Liliana Cavani, 2002) 1.40am, C4In this stylish but silly adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel, the amoral antihero Tom Ripley (John Malkovich), somehow induces terminally ill craftshop owner Trevanny (Dougray Scott) to commit a murder for him. But when Ripley falls for Trevanny’s wife Sarah (Lena Headey) he is forced, against his nastier nature, to come to the rescue.Warm Water Under A Red Bridge
(Shohei Imamura, 2001) 2.35am, BBC2Imamura’s studiedly whimsical tale has a jobless salesman (Koji Yakusho) quitting Tokyo to travel to a remote region where, he has heard, a pot of gold awaits under a red bridge. There he meets fortune teller’s daughter Misa Shimizu, who, he soon discovers, gushes gallons of water during orgasm: a tide that contains magical qualities, in a comedy that’s sweetly life-affirming rather than erotic.Sunday November 18How To Murder Your Wife
(Richard Quine, 1964) 11.30am, BBC2This contrived but entertaining comedy has the late Jack Lemmon on firm comic ground as a cartoonist and committed bachelor who kills off a wife character in his comic strip, and is then suspected of murder when his own new wife (Virna Lisi) disappears. The end, of course, is never in doubt…A Passage To India
(David Lean, 1984) 2pm, FiveThis sub-Merchant/Ivory production of Forster’s Raj novel lacks the vibrancy of Lean’s early works and the memorable spectacle of, say, Lawrence Of Arabia. Nevertheless, it’s well crafted and intelligent, graced by fine performances from Judy Davis as the Englishwoman who claims to have been raped in the Marabar caves, Alec Guinness, and best of all, Peggy Ashcroft.Matilda
(Danny DeVito, 1996) 5pm, FiveA delicious adaptation of Roald Dahl’s vicious novel about ‘orrible adults, and how to punish them. Matilda (Mara Wilson) is a feisty freedom fighter with magical powers, leading oppressed schoolchildren against the sadistic Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris). DeVito and Rhea Perlman are Matilda’s parents from hell, Embeth Davidtz her sweet teacher, Miss Honey.Spider-Man
(Sam Raimi, 2002) 9pm, FiveNerdy Tobey Maguire stars as Peter Parker who, bitten by an eight-legged genetic freak, develops amazing strength, agility, and the ability to shoot sticky web-like goo (no tittering!) from his wrists. Raimi adroitly mixes teenage angst, a sweet romance with Kirsten Dunst’s girl-next-door, and a superpowered struggle against an impressively malevolent arch-enemy, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin.21 Grams
(Alejandro Gonz%26aacute;lez I%26ntilde;%26aacute;rritu, 2003) 9pm, C4Another extraordinary, gut-wrenching drama from the Mexican director of Amores Perros. As in his debut film, a road accident links flawed lives: Benicio Del Toro’s Jack, an alcoholic ex-con responsible for the accident that kills an architect and his daughters; Sean Penn’s ailing teacher, who receives the architect’s heart, and starts an affair with the widow, Naomi Watts. A brilliantly crafted study of guilt and redemption.Jersey Girl
(Kevin Smith, 2004) 11.20pm, BBC1Ben Affleck stars as a high-flying New York PR man whose wife (Jennifer Lopez) dies in childbirth, leaving him with a daughter to raise. Moving back to the New Jersey home of his dad (George Carlin), he meets shop assistant Liv Tyler, who teaches him to live again… and yes, it really is that corny and sentimental.Swades
(Ashutosh Gowariker, 2004) 1.30am, C4Following his sprawling cricket epic Lagaan, Gowariker has a much quieter time here with a simple and low-key fable about love and social responsibility. Shahrukh Khan stars as a Nasa pointy-head returning to his poor Indian roots where beautiful teacher Gayatri Joshi tells him it’s not enough to passively blame the government for their village’s hardships - he must take action.Monday November 19Zatoichi
(Takeshi Kitano, 2003) 12.10am, C4This masterly samurai adventure takes for its hero the blind and wandering swordsman who was a cult hero in a score or so 1960s Japanese B-movies and a TV series. Here, director Kitano is Zatoichi, who appears to be a harmless masseuse, until he takes up his sword against rival clans in an oppressed village. The battles, even in the era of Crouching Tiger, Hero and the like, are exceptional - in that if you blink, you’ll miss them, so lethally quick is his blade; and Kitano, as director, actor and screenwriter, brings gentle humour and a touching sensibility to the tale.Tuesday November 20Dead Ringers
(David Cronenberg, 1988) 11.55pm, BBC1Eastern Promises director Cronenberg’s unsettling story has identical twins involved with the same woman (Genevi%26egrave;ve Bujold), without telling her that her lover is in fact two men. More disturbing still, the brothers are gynaecologists, and Cronenberg plays queasily with images of flesh and straps and surgical instruments. Jeremy Irons is excellent as the confused twins.Wednesday November 21Veronica Guerin
(Joel Schumacher, 2003) 11.10pm, BBC1The story of the crusading journalist who was shot dead in 1996 following her investigations into the Dublin drug barons had already been the subject of the decent, low-budget When The Sky Falls, but here it gets the full Jerry Bruckheimer treatment. So it errs towards the simplistic and bombastic, but nevertheless tells a rattling good yarn based firmly on the facts, with Cate Blanchett excellent in the title role.Thursday November 22The Rising
(Ketan Mehta, 2005) 1.05am, C4This sweeping historical epic about the Indian mutiny of 1857 focuses on the friendship between sepoy Mangal Pandey (Aamir Khan), who led the rebellion, and Toby Stephens’s fictional Captain Gordon, who speaks out against British army racism. It’s a rousing tale that suffers a bit from too much song and dance.Friday November 23Copycat
(Jon Amiel, 1995) 11.35pm, BBC1There’s a neat twist to Amiel’s serial-killer chiller: the bad guy imitates the modus operandi of earlier murderers, such as the Boston Strangler. Paired against him are criminal psychologist Sigourney Weaver, and smart cop Holly Hunter. A well acted, nastily effective tale.The Revengers’ Comedies
(Malcolm Mowbray, 1998) 12.40am, BBC2This comic updating of Hitchcock’s classic Strangers On A Train stars Sam Neill and Helena Bonham Carter as a suicidal couple who agree to bump off each other’s oppressors; the problem is, Neill falls for the woman he’s supposed to kill (Kristin Scott Thomas). The sparky cast - Rupert Graves, Martin Clunes and Steve Coogan - keep it entertaining.
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