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| Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born |
This fourth film iteration of the story of a fading star who strikes up a relationship with a talented newcomer and helps her find fame - leading to romance and tragedy, showed there's a reason why it is a perennial favourite. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga make the perfect pairing as the older star with addiction issues and nervous newcomer, and Cooper (who also co-wrote the screenplay) proves he's no slouch in the directorial department either, moving the story along at a fair pace. He hits the sweet spot of delivering the emotional goods without overdoing it, but, be warned, you're also likely to have the Oscar-winning tune Shallow stuck in your head for a week afterwards.
Thelma, 1.35am, Film4, Thursday, January 18
With its broody themes of adolescence and religion recalling Seventies classics like The Omen and Carrie, Joachim Trier's slowburn psychological chiller is a worthy descendant. Eili Harboe is magnetic in the lead role as a young woman from a strict religious background who finds herself struggling to control both her faith and her feelings for her new friend Anja (Kaya Wilkins) after going to university. Trier and his writing partner Eskil Vogt let ambiguity flow through the veins of the film as Thelma discovers she has telekinetic abilities and darker undercurrents come to the fore.
Citizen Kane, 8pm, BBC4, Thursday, January 18
Orson Welles' film regularly tops 'best loved' lists for a reason. If you haven't seen it before, now's your chance to see what all the fuss is about in Welles' superior tale, which sees a reporter (William Alland) piecing together the story of the life of a newspaper magnate (Welles) after his death. A masterclass in technique from cinematographer Gregg Toland, from the oppressive ceilings and deep focus that pulls you into its Dutch angles and chiaroscuro, it is matched by Welles' muscular performance at its heart. I'll leave you to mull over a marmalade sandwich if it deserves its oft touted 'best film ever' tag, but it's most certainly up there. The film is showing as part of a night dedicated to Orson Welles on BBC4 that also includes a screening of Deep South drama, The Long Hot Summer, co-starring Paul Newman.
Zola, 10.55pm, Film4, Friday, January 19
If you're looking for the opposite of romance then Zola is most certainly it. The sort of sleazy shaggy dog story Tarantino used to revel in, the film started life as a Twitter thread and Janicza Bravo's adaptation channels a similar energy. Waitress/stripper Zola (Taylour Paige, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), on a whim, hooks up with restaurant customer Stefani (Riley Keogh) and agrees to go on a pole dancing trip to Florida, driven by a mystery "roomate" (Coleman Domingo, the best thing in the film by a country mile and who has the energy and ability to switch mood of a young Samuel L Jackson). Accompanied by Stefani's Shaggy-esque boyfriend Derrek (Nicholas Braun), they head south and soon everything else does too although Zola just about stays one step ahead of the game.
Edie, 11.05pm BBC2, Friday, January 19
Not everything about this late-life drama works all of the time but it's well worth watching for the powerful central performance from Sheila Hancock. She plays Edie, who finds her life opening up for her after the death of her husband, for whom she has been caring. Deciding to take on a mountain climb, almost on a whim, her path crosses that of Johnny (Kevin Guthrie), a guide who also runs the local equipment shop. The result is a gently comic journey of rediscovery, which though leaning rather heavily into its chocolate box portrayal of the Scottish countryside, is lent weight by Hancock’s melancholy-tinged turn. Earlier in the evening on the same channel, you can see Amol Rajan interview the star about her life and work at 7pm.
Mary Poppins, BBC1, 3.15pm, Sunday, January 21
This slightly unseasonal showing for this superior musical is most likely in tribute to the late great Glynis Johns, who left us at the start of the year. She makes a memorable impact in the supporting role of suffragette Mrs Banks, who hires a nanny to look after her kids (Karen Dotrice and Michael Garber). Enjoyable and heartwarming now as it was back in 1964, Julie Andrews' magical nanny might sing about a spoonful of sugar but the film largely avoids sickly sentiment in favour of more intelligent ideas and emotions, particularly those surrounding the children and their workaholic father (David Tomlinson). With great musical numbers, including Chim Chim Chim Cher-ee and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, even Dick Van Dyke's terrible cock-er-ney accent only seems to grow sweeter with rewatching.
Schindler's List, BBC2, 10pm, Sunday, January 21
Steven Spielberg finally achieved Best Director Oscar-winning status with this harrowing, black and white recounting of the story of factory Oskar Schindler, who risked his own life to save others and is credited with rescuing more than 1,200 Jewish during the Holocaust. Liam Neeson plays Schindler with subtlety and reserve, further emphasised by the deliberately monstrous performance that Ralph Fiennes puts in as Nazi commandant Amon Goeth. Beyond bringing home its message with a punch, Spielberg also used the profits from the film to found the USC Shoah Foundation, which honours and memorialises the survivors of the Shoah by preserving their testimonies in order to make them “accessible for research, education, and outreach for the betterment of humankind in perpetuity”.
This week's short selection is Oscar short-listed short documentary The Last Repair Shop, by Ben Proudfoot and Chris Bowers, who previously made A Concerto Is A Conversation.
