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| The Look Of Love |
The Look Of Love, 11.05pm, Film4, Monday, April 20
The rise of porn king Paul Raymond is charted in Michael Winterbottom’s stylish biopic, written by Matt Greenhalgh (Control). Steve Coogan is a natural chameleon and gets the look of Raymond spot on and the film is also notable for its excellent supporting turn from Imogen Poots (one of the best of her generation and who rarely gets enough credit), as his troubled daughter Debbie and Anna Friel as his feisty wife. Winterbottom starts in black and white and then follows Raymond through the sexual revolution of the Sixties and Seventies before washing up in the coke-fuelled excesses of the Eighties and early Nineties. More sympathetic than you might expect, this is a breezy watch, although the chorus of modern comedians in bit parts is a trifle distracting.
Four Weddings And A Funeral, 10.40pm, BBC1, Tuesday, April 21
Hugh Grant has become a bit of a national treasure on the quiet in recent years and broadened his range from romantic lead status he became synonymous with in the Nineties. It’s hard to think of anyone in the modern era, however, who was better at playing posh, slightly hapless charmers, and he’s at his bumbling best in Mike Newell's comedy drama. Four Weddings whips along at pace as romance rises and falls in the English upper middle-classes. It marked the first big-screen role for John Hannah – whose Stop All The Clocks Moments is pitch perfect – while those of us who grew up watching renegade schoolkid Marmalade Atkins on telly will remember it for the lovely supporting turn by Charlotte Coleman, who sadly died at just 33 back in 2001.
Widows, 10.55pm, Film4, Thursday, April 23
Steve McQueen transports Lynda La Plante's Eighties TV hit about women who decide to pull off their dead husband's heist, from Britain to Chicago. The result is a gritty thriller that underpins its genre elements with plenty of commentary on race, class and misogyny. McQueen balances the film's heist element with character driven narrative concerning the way the women – and, indeed, most of the city – are trapped by circumstance, asking whether they can change sufficiently to beat the odds. The emotional heft of the film is brought home by the water-tight cast, including Viola Davis and Elizabeth Debicki, though it's Cynthia Ervio's physical and intense performance that proves to be the highlight.
Don’t Look Now, 11.05pm, BBC2, Friday, April 24
Jennie Kermode writes: A riveting exploration of a couple’s attempts to hold onto themselves and one another after the death of their little girl, this is one of the finest works by the late, great Nicolas Roeg, and an absolute must-see for anyone who is serious about cinema. Donald Sutherland plays the architect who tries to find solace in restoring a church but becomes obsessed by the sight of a red hooded figure who recalls his lost child. Julie Christie is his wife, putting her faith in a pair of elderly sisters who might provide a link to the dead. Most of the action takes place in Venice, whose maze of twisting streets, narrow alleyways and canals reflects the mental trap in which the couple are caught. The air is perpetually saturated with moisture, the city never more beautiful. The chemistry between the leads is electric, their interaction tender, a weight of emotion captured in the smallest details.
Living, 9pm, Channel 4, Saturday, April 25 and 10pm, 4Seven, Sunday, April 26
Bill Nighy slips into the role of Mr Williams in writer Kazuo Ishiguro's reworking of Japanese classic Ikiru like a well ironed handkerchief into a breast pocket. He brings an earnest melancholy to the Fifties-set tale of a lonely lifetime civil servant, who upon realising time is running out, decides to make whatever time he has left count for something. He picks a project involving a children's playground, which is all the more poignant because of its ultimate simplicity. There's the pulse of regret and a whisper of the memory of a different life running just beneath the surface of Nighy's performance as the widower finds himself drawn to young employee Miss Harris (Aimee Lou Wood). Her decision to strike out away from his department for something new and her sunny side-up outlook – epitomised by her joy at encountering her first knickerbocker glory – seem to be looking ahead to the promise of the Sixties, rather than, like Williams, backwards to the loss of war and a life spent following the rules. Director Oliver Hermanus has a real feel for the spaces of the time period, you can virtually smell the furniture polish and document dust, and he finds contrast between the suited orderliness of the office and Kodachrome-style colours that are used elsewhere.
Afire, and other Christian Petzold films, streaming now on MUBI
If you’re not familiar with German auteur Christian Petzold, then you’re in for a treat as a batch of his films have just dropped on MUBI (it has a seven-day free trial). It’s an eclectic selection that includes psychological costume dramas Phoenix and Barbara, romantic fable Undine and thrillers Transit and Jerichow – although almost all Petzold’s films could be said to have a thriller element. Those looking for a lighter introduction to his work should check out Afire, an offbeat comedy, in the main, set in a sunlit summer that is smouldering with possibilities and starring Austrian Thomas Schubert alongside Paula Beer. You can read what Petzold told us about that here and here, plus read what Schubert told us about imposter syndrome and tonal ambiguity.
The Untouchables, 10pm, BBC2, Sunday, April 26
With its all-star cast, including Sean Connery, Kevin Costner (although he hadn’t really hit big-time at this point) and Robert De Niro, and a cleverly worked script by David Mamet, Brian De Palma's Thirties-set gangster tale is up there with the best. Costner plays Eliot Ness, a US Treasury Agent who is determined to end the lawless career of Chicago kingpin Al Capone (De Niro). Famous for its staircase nod to Battleship Potemkin, Palma's film is also packed with original set-pieces and offers an enjoyably mythic quality to some of the characters, including Connery's beat cop, which won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
When the latest tranche of Cannes titles were announced earlier this week, I was pleased to see British animator Elizabeth Hobbs will get to show her new work, The Daughters Of The Colonel, there. If you’re not familiar with her work, G-aaah is a great, bite-sized place to start. Inspired by record-breaking pilot Amy Johnson’s previous occupation as a secretary, it she uses an Underwood 315 typewriter to recreate Johnson’s flight from Croydon to Australia. Watch it on Vimeo. Read more about her work on her website.
