 |
| The Girl And The Spider Photo: Beauvoir Films |
We featured this when it was available on MUBI last year, but now you can watch it without subscription on Channel 4’s free streaming service. Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher have a distinctive style that's all of their own, making tensions spring up from what have previously appeared to be the most benign of environments. Their follow up to their equally quirky The Strange Little Cat centres on Lisa (Liliane Amuat) who is preparing to move from the place she shares with Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Markus (Ivan Georgiev) and into a new one where she will live alone. A real spider will make its presence felt across this web of relationships but the mood is dominated by the desire for connections that ebbs and flows over the course of a couple of days. Read what the brothers told us about the film.
Timbuktu, ITVX, available to stream now
Anne-Katrin Titze writes: Abderrahmane Sissako opens up his unflinching, harrowing look at the occupation of Timbuktu and the state of the world with two carefully chosen symbolic acts. A gazelle galloping through the dust is chased by armed militants in a car. We hear shots and the command "don't kill it - tire it!" The shots continue into the next image of ancestral clay figures, local artifacts, set up to form a shooting gallery for target practice. Smoke emanates from a statue's mouth - a picture terribly appropriate and foretelling of things to come. Timbuktu is woven together by two strands of stories - country life and city life. In the dunes outside lives cattle herder Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed, aka Pino) with his wife Satima (Toulou Kiki), his daughter Toya (Layla Walet Mohamed), and 12-year-old Issan (Mehdi Ag Mohamed), their adopted son and shepherd. The city, meanwhile, is bombarded by endless, multi-lingual announcements from transported loudspeakers, informing the population of the new rules. Music, tobacco and soccer are forbidden and women must wear socks and gloves. Was the well-being of the population ever even a concern? Michel Foucault on a historical type of society fits the bill in Timbuktu too: "Power in this instance was essentially a right of seizure: of things, time, bodies, and ultimately life itself; it culminated in the privilege to seize hold of life in order to suppress it."
Summer Of Sam, 9pm, Great Movies, Monday, June 26
Jennie Kermode writes: Ostensibly about the serial killer Son of Sam who stalked New York City during the long, hot summer of 1977, the real focus of Spike Lee’s film is on the social impact of the media sensation surrounding him, as it follows a group of friends which is gradually torn apart by prejudice and suspicion. These are the dying days of disco; punk is struggling to be born, and everywhere there are signs of decay as the city begins to reckon with a legacy of neglect. John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino play the cool couple who suddenly find themselves adrift and there’s a great early performance from Adrien Brody as the misfit who finds himself in danger.
The Manchurian Candidate, 11.35pm, 5 Star, Wednesday, June 28
While this reimagining of John Frankenheimer’s film is nowhere as good as the original, Jonathan Demme’s update - which focuses on Gulf War veterans - is still worth a look. Denzel Washington plays Major Bennett Marco, who has been plagued by nightmares since returning home. He begins to suspect Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) may not be quite the full-on hero he seems as Shaw makes a vice-presidential run. Demme turns the screw as capitalism rather than Communism proves to be the villain of the piece. Alongside Schreiber, Meryl Streep puts in a characteristically dynamite turn as his domineering senator mum.
The Producers, 9pm, BBC Four, Thursday, June 29
Mel Brooks hit the ground running with this, his debut movie - originally slated to have the name Springtime For Hitler. The always larger than life Zero Mostel teams up with Gene Wilder, in only his second role, as a producer and an accountant who plan to make millions - providing their show is a complete flop. Brooks cleverly builds on the yawning gap between Wilder's mousy Bloom and Mostel's rambunctious Bialystock, while the sight gags and one-liners keep coming. Brooks' imagination knows no bounds, racing from tiny asides to big band numbers while barely pausing for breath - all while taking a sideswipe at Broadway and the Nazis. Unusually for a comedy, it also took home the Oscar for best screenplay, beating out heavy hitters, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Battle Of Algiers.
Good Vibrations, 12,20am, BBC1, Sunday, July 2, then on iPlayer
This is an appropriately energetic biopic of Ulster’s “Godfather of punk” Terri Hooley that captures the sheer anarchic will of a man who opened up a record shop in Belfast during The Troubles. His intention of bringing young people together with music was in stark contrast to the separatism that dominated much of the city at the time. Hooley is embodied with a joyous and infectious verve by Richard Dormer, but Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson’s script don’t shy away from his flaws either. You really feel those good vibrations throbbing out from a film, which also shows how Hooley came to introduce John Peel to his favourite tune. A perfect punk-spirited pick-me-up.
Finding Dory, 3.15pm, BBC1, Sunday, July 2
Pixar’s films have been quite high concept lately - with emotions, souls and the elements all getting a look in. This little slice of undersea adventure is made from more familiar stuff, centring on friendships and families that young children will easily be able to relate to. The story hinges on forgetful Dory's sudden realisation that she lost her parents years ago, which sends her on a quest to find them along with Nemo and a surfer dude turtle. Inevitably things don't go to plan and, with the party split up, a whole new band of characters come into play including territorial sealions Fluke and Rudder - who shriek, “Off! Off!” every time someone encroaches on their rock - and a group of seagulls whose rallying call is "Mine! Mine! Mine!". The story offers gentle insight for children into what it is like to live with a disability and is also likely to prompt adults to consider the way they treat older people who suffer with memory loss. With a fine voice, including Ellen DeGeneres, Idris Elba, Diane Keaton and Andrew Stanton, plus an upbeat finale, this is the sort of film its easy to dive into over and over again.
This week’s short is the amusing Terminal Communication, by Michael Fortune, who gets a fair bit of mileage from bad signage.
