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| Delicatessen |
Delicatessen, MUBI, streaming from today
Cannibalism has rarely been as much fun as it is in Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's surreal feature debut. Former clown and excellent saw player Luison (Dominique Pinon) takes a job as an apartment block odd-job man for a butcher (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), little realising his new boss has a murderous sideline to help keep the residents fed. Caro and Jeunet construct a detailed world around this and the charming romance that develops between Louison and the butcher's daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac), filled with grotesques but with humour always to the fore. Although you can see echoes of the likes of Monty Python and Terry Gilliam here, this is a singular world that rattles along to an imaginative conclusion that, for all its outlandishness, retains an inherent sweetness. Jeunet is currently adapting the book Fresh Water For Flowers (Changer L’Eau Des Fleurs) starring Leïla Bekhti in the lead, so that's one to keep an eye out for.
Undergods, 1.25am, Film4, Tuesday, April 1
Another excellent example of world creation sees Spanish director Chino Moya invite you to slip down a series of rabbit holes into a nest of near-future dystopias linked together by a framed by a story of two men, K (Johann Myers) and Z (Géza Röhrig), driving around a post-Apocalyptic wasteland on the lookout for dead bodies. In one Ballardian section, a couple find themselves with an unexpected guest (Ned Dennehy), while in another a young girl hears a nightmarish fairy tale. In the third strand the troubled marriage of a couple (Adrian Rawlins and Kate Dickie) is about to snap sharply into focus. Although a little uneven, this is an ambitious debut with plenty to say about modern malaise. Moya told us: "I’m intrigued by humans, with all the technology and the all the knowledge that we have about sociology, technology, science, why we ended up living in environments like this, why we haven't created this actually real utopian environments".
Moon, 9pm, Film4, Tuesday, April 1
Duncan Jones' debut centres on Sam Bell - an astronaut at the end of a three-year solo mission to harvest Helium-3 energy from the Moon. He begins to think he may be losing it just as he is on the verge of being sent home to his family - but soon he becomes convinced that his paymasters may have a more sinister agenda. It is hard to talk too much about Rockwell's performance without spoiling a key element of the plot but it allows him to show the full extent of his range. The focus is on plot rather than special effects but the ones that are used are seamless. As Jones told us: "We found an approach that allowed Sam to be his improvisational best, while still making sure I got the technical discipline I needed." He's currently at work on animated adaptation Rogue Trooper.
Anna And The Apocalypse, 1.15am, Wednesday, April 2
Jennie Kermode writes: This exuberant little film about what happened the day the end of the world came to Greenock won the hearts of exactly those people who most expected to hate it when it was on the festival circuit. High school musicals are not normally a big hit with horror fans, and adding random zombies to otherwise tired film formulae has proven less popular than many filmmakers hoped, yet somehow this gutsy little production pulls it off. That's thanks in large part to an energetic young cast with a very Scottish sense of humour, forced to navigate the perils of teenage crushes and horrible headmasters while dealing with the undead at the same time. Smart, punchy, full of great songs and another entry in the list of genuinely fun Christmas films for when you're all Die Harded out.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, 2.10am, Film4, Friday, April 4
Documentarian Anna Hints has practically sung her way around screenings and awards ceremonies of the world, ever since her engrossing and intimate film about Estonian smoke saunas premiered at Sundance and took home the top prize in the World Documentary Competition. Her film, which puts a spotlight on the miraculous shifting and elemental nature of water, invites us to step into the steam confines of a cabin in the woods to share the secrets, hopes and traumas of the women who come together there. Beautifully shot and spiritually wholesome without ever feeling forced the end result feels both primal and a reflection of modern emotions.
Hobson's Choice, 3.35pm, Talking Pictures TV, Saturday, April 5
The passing of more than six decades has done little to diminish the charms of this adaptation of Harold Brighouse's play about a domineering bootmaker whose daughter falls for his beleaguered employee (John Mills). Lean gets an opportunity to show his touch for comedy here, particularly in the boozy hallucinations of Hobson - played with suitable verve and bombastic screen presence by Charles Laughton. Featuring Prunella Scales in one of her earliest film roles, this adeptly skewers the class system but retains a sweet romance at its heart.
Boiling Point, 10.55pm, Channel 4, Sunday, April 6
Stephen Graham has been making headlines with his intense performance in Adolescence. Like the Netflix drama, this debut from actor-turned-director Philip Barantini gets a lot of mileage from its single-take approach - perhaps Graham was even inspired by his role here to tackle his own drama this way. Graham plays Andy, a chef who is about to find things getting very hot in the kitchen. Even before he gets cooking, he's had a stressful conversation with his estranged wife and a visit from a hygiene inspector. As the situation worsens over the course of a night, the single-take approach adds enormously to the tension as we watch events unfold in the kitchen and at the tables. You're likely to find yourself admiring the choreography more and more after the event - once you've got your breath back.
You'll have to pop across to Vimeo and log in to watch this week's short - Take Your Partners, by Siri Rødnes. They recently completed feature Follow Me, starring Connie Nielsen and Stef Dawson for Catalyst Studios. Read more about Rødnes' work on their official site.
