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| Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute/photo by Getty Images |
Our streaming selection this week is this sprightly documentary originally made for PBS's dependable American Masters series, which shines a light on the life and work of the West Side Story star. As charismatic as ever at age 87, when this film was made, she is a lively and engaging interviewee, something that director Mariem Pérez Riera turns to her advantage as she considers Rita's career. And what a career it is, starting at age six and still going strong. This is a straightforward documentary in terms of technique but it's packed with interesting content including the discrimination Puerto Rican stars like her faced at the hands of the industry. While it touches on dark subject matter, including rape, this is a celebration of a star who just keeps on shining.
Strange Days, 9pm, Talking Pictures TV (Freeview channel 82), Monday, May 15
Jennie Kermode writes: Overlooked in its time - before the public at large fully understood why the work of Kathryn Bigelow deserved attention - Strange Days may be set at the end of the last century but it stands out today for its prescience and its incisive exploration of issues which we have only just begun to deal with. It stars Ralph Fiennes as former cop Lenny, a dealer in black market recordings of sensory experiences, who has a talent for getting on the wrong side of everyone and just can't get over his ex-girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis). Since their break-up, she has become a singing star, with a wealthy and influential promoter boyfriend, and she's scheduled to perform at a big street party for the turn of the millennium, but with tensions running high in the city after the killing of a talented young rapper, there's a real risk of violence. With real visual flair, humour and some very dark themes, Bigelow takes us into the heart of a mystery which interweaves the personal and the political. There's a superb turn from Angela Bassett as the long suffering friend whom Lenny turns to for everything from mopping up his tears to serving as his bodyguard, but whose reason for sticking around he may not recognise until it's too late.
The American, 9pm, Great Movies, Monday, May 15
You might want to set the recorder - remember those! - in order to catch Strange Days along with this unusual thriller. Portrait photographer Anton Corbijn proved his move into film with Ian Curtis biopic Control was no flash in the pan with this follow-up about an assassin (George Clooney) who while searching for redemption finds himself on a collision course with his past. This pared-back tale sees the coolly ambiguous killer retreat to the mountains of Italy as those who want him dead begin closing in. Hinging on the intelligent and charismatic performance from Clooney in the central role, Corbijn crafts a stylish and moody meditation on loneliness and estrangement.
Carnival Of Souls - 11:05pm, Talking Pictures TV, Friday, May 19
Jennie Kermode writes: One of those seminal pieces of cinema which no-one with a serious interest in the medium can afford to go without, Carnival Of Souls feels familiar today in part because of the vast amount of other work that has drawn from it. Originally released in 1962, it stars Candace Hilligoss as a young woman whose life begins to go askew after she’s involved in a car crash (shown in a visceral pre-credits sequence unlike anything filmed before). As she tries to build a new life as a church organist in a small Utah town, fending off the advances of the local men, she starts to see people who look dead. Viewers share her disorientation by way of skewed camera angles and a soundtrack which breaks all the established rules. Nothing is quite right here, and as the film spirals down towards its awful conclusion it becomes ever more visually inventive.
The Mercy, 12.20am, BBC1, Saturday, May 20, then on iPlayer
Jennie Kermode writes: When you first start watching this film, you could be forgiven for thinking you've seen it before. It's the stuff of Blue Peter and OBEs and cheery little stories at the end of the news: affable middle-aged businessman Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth) plans to enter a competition to become the first person to sail solo round the world without stopping. He will have to build his own boat first, but he has sponsorship and a press agent and lots of good old English pluck. At least, that's how it seems on the surface. Behind the mask lie awful pressures, the risk of losing everything if he doesn't set out in a vessel he knows isn't ready, a worried wife (Rachel Weisz) and, when the dream comes to seem impossible, a desperate scheme. Some viewers will know the real story. It's better if you don't, but still enjoyable if you do. What actually happened on the boat itself remains a mystery, but the fictional version succeeds in troubling the popular narrative and asking important questions which you won't need an interest in sailing to appreciate.
By The Grace of God, 1.05am, BBC2, Sunday, May 21, then on iPlayer
Anne Katrin Titze writes: François Ozon's Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Grand Jury prize winner begins with Alexandre (Melvil Poupaud) living in Lyon. Happily married to Marie (Aurélia Petit), father of five, successful, he is the first to speak out about what happened to him as a boy at a church scout camp, after he discovers that the Catholic priest, Bernard Preynat (Bernard Verley) still works with children. Régine Maire (Martine Erhel) a volunteer assistant and psychologist mediates the first ill-advised meeting between the adult Alexandre and Preynat with chilling matter-of-factness, following a questionable by-the-book protocol that ends in a common prayer for the three of them. Following Alexandre's journey, are those of François (Denis Ménochet), who will eventually become the founder of the association La Parole libérée, and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud), the youngest and most vulnerable of the three, who because of the statute of limitations at the time, plays an important part in bringing justice to the case. Ozon does not smooth over the rough edges and the icy roads stay icy. Nor are the activists presented as saints.
Columnist, 1.45am, Film4, Monday, May 22
Jennie Kermode writes: Do you believe in freedom of speech, no matter what? Femke (Katja Herbers) does. Do you think people on the internet should be able to say whatever they like about you and your loved ones? Femke most certainly does not. After a light-hearted column about the joy of a soft boiled egg prompts a particularly nasty wave of misogynist comments, she decides she’s going to do something about it. Ivo van Aart’s deft black comedy chronicles her bloody revenge spree whilst making smart observations about power, class and hypocrisy.
Our short film selection this week is Voyager, directed by Kjersti Helen Rasmussen. It sees the Global Seed Vault get an unexpected visitor. The director has now moved into features, making horror film Nightmare last year.
