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| Sydney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs and Rod Steiger as Police Chief Bill Gillespie - In The Heat Of The Night |
In the Heat of the Night, 11pm, BBC2, Monday and 11.15pm, BBC4, Thursday, August 14
Opening in US cinemas in the months before the assassination of Martin Luther King, Norman Jewison’s film was and still is a stinging exploration of racial tensions in the country wrapped around a satisfying murder-mystery. Sidney Poitier’s Philly cop Mr Virgil Tibbs finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as he is passing through Mississippi. Briefly arrested for murder, he ends up working alongside racist cop Chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger, who won an Oscar) in order to catch the real killer. Beyond the central performances, which spark off each other like flint off stone, Jewison creates an atmosphere that suggests a community whose problems run much deeper than a single murder.
Reservoir Dogs, 10pm, ITV4, Tuesday, August 12
The Sundance breakout hit that propelled Quentin Tarantino to stardom is a lean, mean crime thriller. Taking place in the wake of a heist gone bad, as the crooks hole up they become convinced one of them is a rat. Everything is carefully executed - from violence to script - and with a cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi, it's hard to fault. You might never be able to listen to Stuck In The Middle With You in quite the same way afterwards, mind you.
The Personal History of David Copperfield, 6:40pm, Film4 Wednesday, August 13
Dickens gets a snappy retelling in this adaptation from Armando Ianucci and Simon Blackwell. Ianucci also directs with verve as Copperfield's tale of childhood grief gives way to a life of eccentricity and goodheartedness. Dev Patel has always had an open-hearted acting style that works particularly well for him here. But as with most Dickens adaptations, half of the joy is in the character acting, with memorable turns here including Peter Capaldi as Mr Micawber, Hugh Grant as the delightfully dotty Mr Dick and Tilda Swinton as Copperfield's maiden aunt.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, 9pm, Film4, Thursday, August 14
The penultimate instalment of the spy franchise sees Cruise continuing to look preternaturally fresh as Ethan Hunt. He may still look sprightly but he brings an increasing world weariness to the role as the baggage of his character has loaded up down the years. Not that that gets in the way of great stunts, of course, with the hunt for a dangerous weapon leading to an incredible bike jump (more on which, here) not to mention a fight on a train which feels traditional and fresh simultaneously. If you missed the Final Reckoning in cinemas, now is a good time to catch up with the previous instalment ahead of its digital release on August 18.
Tenet,10:40pm, BBC1, Friday, August 15
Christopher Nolan’s tricksy thriller may be a mindbender but the plot boils down to a bloke - named simply the Protagonist (John David Washington) - trying to stop World War III breaking out. The film hinges on time inversion, a neat little trick that sees action flowing backwards, so that bullets can fly into guns and the like. For all its doglegs and pirouettes, this is a spy thriller at heart with the time inversion element used as much for its stunning visuals in the action scenes as anything else. "Don't try to understand it - just feel it," says someone early on. Good advice.
Hounds, 10.30pm, BBC4, Saturday
The night-time streets of Casablanca are filled with danger in Kamal Lazraq’s pacy noir that follows the misadventures of Hassan (Abdellatif Masstouri) and his son Issam (Ayoub Elaïd) after a kidnapping turns sour. The writer/director tracks the men over the course of a single, unforgiving night, finding tension not only in their predicament - which puts them in danger of the vengeance of a crime boss - but in the relationship between the men's different attitudes to the situation they're in. Raw, a feeling fuelled by the fact both stars are non-professionals, and laced with black comedy, Lazraq keeps the pedal to the metal from dusk till dawn.
Song of Summer: Frederick Delius, 9.45pm, BBC4, Sunday, August 17
Not long before he made an international splash with the four-time Oscar-nominated Women In Love, Ken Russell was busy making documentaries for the BBC arts strands Monitor and Omnibus. Among them is this film, which follows the last years of composer Frederick Delius and which Russell declared his best film on the commentary that accompanies the BFI DVD release of some years ago (and the disc is worth the purchase for his insights on the work). It considers Delius (Max Adrian) through the eyes of his assistant, would-be composer Eric Fenby (Christopher Gable). Russell manages to balance the tyrannical aspect of the sickly Delius, who inflicted his whims on the household, with an appreciation of his genius. The film also explores the tensions between Fenby's Catholicism and Delius' pagan beliefs. Beyond the content, this black and white film looks terrific. Russell's earlier film on Elgar is also worth keeping an eye out for.
This week's short selection is Jellyfish And Lobster, directed by Yasmin Afifi and you can read more about her work here.
