An American In Paris (1951 108min.) [Ch5 10.50pm &+1]
Musical starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Jerry, an American painter living in Paris, is loved by the rich and beautiful Milo. Perversely, he then fallsin love with a poor orphan who is engaged to somebody else.
Terrific example of the post-war MGM musical with Gene Kelly at the height of his powers ; the slight story doesn't matter one bit as director Vincente Minnelli creates a magical world on the screen and Kelly and the sublime Leslie Caron light up the screen.
Wonderful entertainment.
Spirited Away (2001 124min.) [Film4 11.00am &+1]
Oscar-winning animated fantasy adventure. On the way to their new suburban home, Chihiro and her parents stumble across what appears to be an abandoned theme park. But after eating in its deserted restaurant, mum and dad are transformed into pigs and the family is trapped in a spirit-filled fantasy world. Alone and frightened, Chihiro is helped by a mysterious young boy who gets her a job in a strange bathhouse, while she tries to work out how to save her parents and escape.
Terrific Hayao Miyazaki animation, produced the old-fashioned hand-drawn way, about a young girl who sets out to rescue her parents from a fantasy world ruled by twin witches where they have been turned into anthropomorphic pigs.
A wonderful (in both senses) film.
Bolt (2008 92min.) [BBC1 11.00am]
Animated comedy adventure featuring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus. Bolt is the canine star of his own Hollywood TV series, in which he plays a dashing superhero. But having lived his whole life on the show, he thinks his exploits are genuine. So when an accident lands him in Manhattan,Bolt has a rude awakening when he tries to get back to LA with only the usual complement of doggie powers at his disposal.
This may not be a stone-cold classic like Up, but is a lively enough action-adventure which doesn't insult the intelligence of either children or adults.
John Travolta provides the voice of the title character, a canine TV star who believes he actually does save his young mistress (voiced by Miley Cyrus) from villains on a weekly basis. Accidentally cast out into the real world, he has to make his way home from New York City to Hollywood with the help of a stray cat and a scene-stealing hamster.
It's a diverting variation on comedies like Tropic Thunder and Galaxy Quest, in which actors find themselves in genuine life-or-death situations, with our mutt having to face the fact that he doesn't really possess powers such as heat vision or a super-bark.
Anchors Aweigh (145 133min.) [Ch5 1.00pm]
Musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. Joe and Clarence are two sailors on shore leave in Hollywood. Joe plans to spend the time enhancing his reputation as the navy's champion "wolf", but then he and Clarence stumble across a small boy called Donald and his beautiful aunt, Susan. Life will never be the same again.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992 85min.) [Film4 3.05pm &+1]
The inimitable puppets are joined by Michael Caine for their own special interpretation of the classic Dickens Christmas tale in which miserly Scrooge is visited by ghosts to help him mend his selfish ways.
Genuinely funny retelling of the Dickens classic with the added bonuses of some great songs and Michael Caine as Scrooge.
High Society (1956 102min.) [Ch5 3.55pm &+1]
Romantic complications arise when a playboy composer sets out to win back his ex-wife. However, she is about to marry another man - and the situation becomes even more entangled when a cynical reporter enters the fray. Score by Cole Porter.
The musical remake of George Cukor's immortal 1940 film version of Philip Barry's play "The Philadelphia Story" has three things going for it :
1. The absurdly fantastic cast : Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Celeste Holm in the leads, able support from John Lund, Louis Calhern, Margalo Gillmore and Louis Armstrong.
2. The script . John Patrick's screenplay pops and fizzles and bubbles, ranging from loss, regret and remorse to acid put-downs and on the money one liners.
3. The songs. Cole Porter wrote some of the most vibrant and downright clever songs of the twentieth century and you get a whole slew of them here. "True Love" , "You're Sensational", "Well, Did You Evah? " (the Sinatra v Crosby freestyle head to head) and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? "
For shame the soundtrack album is currently out of print.The ninnies.
In amongst the light as feather satire, poking gentle fun at the foibles of the American upper middle class, there's the terrific two hander by Sinatra and Holm as the two reporters from the proto-"Hello" "Spy" magazine and the ice cold glamour of Grace Kelly. There's even a risque hint at extra-marital sex!
It'll have you grinning for the whole of it's two hour running time, it's a joyful thing and an undiminishing pleasure on repeated viewing.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011 100min.) [Film4 6.55pm &+1]
Sci-fi action adventure starring James Franco and Freida Pinto. When scientist Will Rodman's programme of drug experiments to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease is shut down he secretly takes an offspring from one of the chimpanzees he was using into his home and names him Caesar. Caesar has inherited the effects of the trial drug and begins to show remarkable intelligence, a development that will put him on a violent collision course withthe humans who have abused him.
There's justification for the revisiting of the classic Planet Of The Apes film series on the basis that new technology allows the film makers to use motion capture and CGI rather than people in suits to portray the apes.
Caesar, the ape at the centre of the story, is mostly a motion captured Andy Serkis while the team behind Avatar's special effects help to fill the screen with any number of virtual but believable primates.
In the original series Rise came after the Charlton Heston starring first film and it does make sense, if revisiting the series, to begin with the originsof...story.
And it's done rather well...some of the dialogue is a bit clunky and some of the human acting is a bit too knowing for the tone of the piece and themoral questions raised by the story are largely sidestepped.
But those quibbles aside director Rupert Wyatt delivers some great set-pieces and a touching story and the special effects are very, very good.
A well crafted big-budget Hollywood blockbuster that is extremely watchable.
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011 90min.) [BBC3 8.30pm]
Animated comedy adventure sequel with Jack Black as the voice of martial arts master Po. In order to stop the plot of evil peacock Lord Shen, Po must embark on a journey to discover the truth about his childhood.
Slightly disappointing sequel that essentialy rehases the good bits from the first film but without adding very much in the way of anything new.
Behind The Candelabra (2013 113min.)[BBC2 9.00pm]
Freeview premiere
Biographical drama starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Flamboyant pianist Liberace was already one of the most famous entertainers in the world when he was introduced to young Scott Thorson in 1977. Scott is at first seduced and then overpowered by the larger-than-life character and his opulent lifestyle. But their six-year relationship is volatile and is kept secret from Liberace's adoring fans.
Directed by indie darling Steven Soderburgh and with a host of big names in small supporting roles (including Rob Lowe and Debbie Reynolds, who are both very good) this is an affectionate portrait of one of the great American showmen that neatly balances the two aspects of its subjects life : the glittering live performances and the equally glittering but sequestered private life. It’s also very good on the lengths that Liberace and his friends have to go to in order to keep his personal life behind closed doors.
There’s a real warmth in Douglas’ wonderful portrayal of a man tortured by loneliness and loss and the whole film is as camp, endearing, glitzy and eccentric as the man himself.
Papillon (1973 144min.) [BBC4 11.00pm]
Drama based on a true story, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Henri Charrière, nicknamed Papillon, is sentenced to life imprisonment on the notorious Devil's Island, French Guiana, for a crime he did not commit. For 13 years, Papillon is subjected to savage punishment and hardships, but his resolve to escape to freedom remains.
McQueen is charismatic and enigmatic in the lead but Hoffman steals the film out from under him with an assured, quiet, thoughtful performance.
Worth watching this (overlong) film for these two greats of modern American cinema and their contrasting styles.
The Omen (1976 106min.) (Ch4 12.50am tuesday &+1]
Nicely put together supernatural thriller with Richard Donner's direction creating an unsettling atmosphere, an excellent script by David Seltzer and a top-notch cast that's led by Gregory Peck and (the wonderful) Lee Remick but superbly supported by David Warner, Billie Whitelaw and Patrick Troughton.
All manner of unpleasant shennanigans occur when Peck foolishly adopts a child abandoned at an Italian monastery.
One of the best horror films of it's decade and stands up surprisingly well to repeated watching, certainly more so than the bloodless 2006 remake or any of the sequels to the original film.
Terminator 2 : Judgment Day (1991 145mins.) [Film4 1.15am Tuesday &+1]
James Cameron's science-fiction action thriller sequel to The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. Tormented by the imminent threat of a nuclear holocaust from which intelligent machines will emerge to crush the last vestiges of human existence, Sarah Connor has been institutionalised and separated from her son. Informed of the future, she knows that young John Connor will survive and become leader of the human race. However, the machines of 2029 know it too, and once again they send a cyborg assassin back through time to terminate the potential saviour.
The China Syndrome (1979 116min.)[Ch4 2.45am Tuesday &+1]
Political drama starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas. Television reporter Kimberly Wells is working with freelance cameraman Richard Adams at a nuclear power plant when an accident nearly causes a meltdown. Adams films the near-catastrophe, but the owners want the incident covered up.
Jack Lemmon is outstanding in this very well constructed, taut and exciting “what if” thriller. Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas provide the support and both are exceedingly good.
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