Adam Bowen's TALKIE TALK - WEEK BEGINNING April 06, 2020

ON THE TELLY

Powell& Pressburger

Monday 4.30pm SBS World Movies: The Red Shoes (1948) is about a ballet troupe (including Australian dancer, Sir Robert Helpmann), run by the autocratic Lermantov (Anton Walbrook), who makes a star of Victoria - a hopeful young ballerina (Moira Shearer). Trouble is, Victoria is in love with a brilliant young composer. Lermontov doesn’t like that, and it gets very bumpy – especially when Victoria dances a ballet, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes. Compellingly directed by Michael Powell, beautifully (Technicolour) photographed by Jack Cardiff, plus an Oscar-winning score by Brian Easdale.

Monday7.30pm SBS World Movies: 99 Homes (2014)Unemployed dad, Dennis (Andrew Garfield), has his home foreclosed by Rick (Michael Shannon), a ruthless real estate broker. Dennis, desperate to reclaim his home, starts working for Rick, and begins to believe that honest hard work gets you nowhere.

ON THE RADIO(and online)

Monday 10pm – 12am JAZZ AT THE MOVIES*

Fine Music Sydney 102.5fm 

Stream it online: finemusicsydney.com

*Includes: The Cotton Club(1984) – Duke Ellington;The Strip(1951) – Louis Armstrong; Café Society (2016) – Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks; The Cincinnati Kid (1965); Bullit (1968) – Lalo Schifrin; Body Heat (1981); The Ipcress File(1965) – John Barry.

ON THE TELLY (continued)

Tuesday 5.40pm SBS World Movies: The Red Shoes (1948) – see above.

Wednesday 2.00 am SBS World Movies: 99 Homes (2014) – see above

Wednesday 7.30pm SBS World Movies: The Last Emperor (1987) – Lavish, long (nearly three hours) account of Pu-Yi, the Chinese emperor who preceded the revolution. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci (right).

Thursday 3.30 pmSBS World Movies: Mr Holmes (2015), a slight but engaging depiction of an ancient, retired Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen), who’s suffering from dementia, and is haunted by the memory of a mysterious woman. Also stars Laura Linney.

Thursday 9.30 pmSBS World Movies: The 12^thMan(2017) A compelling WW2 drama that recounts the true story of Jan Baalsrud (Thomas Gullestad), one of a team of twelve Norwegian saboteurs, whose raid is foiled by the Nazis. The Nazis kill eleven of Jan’s colleagues. Jan escapes, and is hunted down. If you think self-isolation tough, check out what Jan goes through. 

Friday1215 amSBS World Movies: The Last Emperor (1987) – see above

Friday 7.35pmSBS World Movies: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) – Julian Dennison is brilliant as an unruly Kiwi kid who gets lost in the bush with his foster uncle (Sam Neill), and sparks a national manhunt. Funny and charming; directed and written by Taika Waititi.

Friday 1015pmFox Classics: Easy Rider (1969) Two stoned bikies (Peter Fonda & Dennis Hooper) go looking for America and can’t find it anywhere. They do find Jack Nicholson, a sort of educated redneck, and get stoned again and again.

Saturday 11am 9Gem: Passport to Pimlico (1949) - the inhabitants of a down-at-heel district of London discover they are citizens of Burgundy. They decide to secede from Britain, its post-war regulations and rationing. A highly enjoyable Ealing Studios romp, written by T.E.B. Clarke, with a cast of British character actors, including Margaret Rutherford.

Alexander Mackendrick with Tony Curtis 

Saturday 1245pm 9Gem: Ealing Studios’ Whisky Galore(1949) During WW2, a cargo ship, carrying whisky is wrecked off a small Hebridean island. The locals conspire against Customs & Excise to salvage the grog.  Director Alexander Mackendrick takes us on a delightful, dark and bouncy ride. The excellent cast includes Joan Greenwood and Basil Radford. Not to be confused with the twee, 2016 remake.

Saturday 830pmFox Classics: Vintage 1942 weepie, Now, Voyager,stars Bette Davis as a dowdy mother-dominated spinster, who, after therapy from Claude Rains, glams up and has a doomed fling with Paul Henreid. Max Steiner underscores (and sometimes overscores) the emotional turmoil.

Sunday 1050amSBS World Movies: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) – see above

VALE

Italian actress Lucia Bosé, 89, recently succumbed the Corona Virus, in Segovia, Spain. Of humble, Milanese origins, Bosé became famous in art-house circles when she gave a compelling performances in Michelangelo Antonioni’s first feature film, Cronaca di un Amore(Story of a Love Affair, 1950), and in Juan Antonio Bardem’s Muerte de un Ciclista(Death of a Cyclist, 1955.) While making the latter, Bosé met and married Spain’s superstar bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominguín. The torero’s philandering, his ego and his friendliness with Franco (Spain’s former dictator), eventually led Bosé to divorce. In 1969 she appeared in Federico Fellini’s Satyricon, and continued to act in films and on TV – most notably in Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987).