Stalag 17 (1953 115min.) [Film4 4.40pm &+1]
Director Billy Wilder's classic Second World War drama, starring William Holden, Don Taylor and Otto Preminger. When two American prisoners, attempting to escape from Stalag 17, run into a German ambush, it becomes clear that one of the men in Barrack 4 must be an informer. The obvious suspect is Sefton, who spends his time trading with the guards and organising gambling among the prisoners.
Terrific drama directed by Wilder with all of his usual skill, wit and invention. He creates a thoroughly believable claustrophobic world for his characters to live in and gets a terrific performance from William Holden in a role that is effectivly an anti-hero, a decade before such roles were to become a popular move for a big name Hollywood star.
Among the supporting cast film director Otto Preminger is a revelation as a thoroughly corrupt Nazi and Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck are wonderful among Holden's fellow inmates.
Uzak (2003 106min.) [Film4 1.30am tuesday &+1]
A photographer living in Istanbul slips into a mid-life crisis when his wife leaves him. However, he is shaken out of his misery by a visit from his eccentric, penniless cousin who has come to the city seeking new employment to support his ailing mother. Drama, starring Muzaffer Ozdemir and Emin Toprak.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan is a rather special film maker and Uzak is a beautifully constructed, photographed and acted study in isolation, disillusionment and the difficulties caused by a lack of communication, even between people sharing the same living space.
It's not an easy watch but it is a superbly controlled charcter study that is both moving and absorbing. The two leads shared the Cannes best actor prize for their superb realisation of charcters who are both facing their own (very different) personal crisis.
An extremely good film that probably won't be everyone's cup of tea but, if you buy into the world Ceylan and his actors create, a hugely rewarding one.
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