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| Sound Of Falling Photo: Fabian Gamper/Studio Zentral/Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
Those who like slow-burn, arthouse fare shouldn’t miss this cracker from Germany, which allows the lives of four women in four different eras to flow over one another in unexpected ways. Mascha Schilinski roves forwards and backwards through time through events unfolding in a single farmhouse, spanning from the early part of the 20th Century, through the War and GDR years right through the present, finding connections between these female experiences that offer commentary on resistance in the face of the enduring power of the patriarchy. It’s not a light watch but it is a rewarding one.
Holy Cow, 11.40pm, Film4, Monday, April 26
If, however, you are looking for lighter fare then this coming-of-ager from France is a total treat. Youth pumps through the veins of Louise Courvoisier’s debut, which follows Totone (Clément Favea), a hard-partying 18-year-old who finds himself pulled up abruptly short by a tragedy that leaves him in charge of his seven-year-old sister Claire (Luna Garret). As the teenager attempts to square the circle, he hatches on a plan with his mates to craft Comté cheese in a bid to win a prize – but achieving that might prove easier said than done. Courvoisier keeps it real, rooting her story firmly within rural France and imbuing it with teenage energy and even a spot of unlikely romance.
Odd Man Out, 9.10pm, Wednesday, April 29
Two years before Carol Reed made The Third Man, he made this gripping film noir about an injured Irish nationalist leader who is shot during a hold-up and goes on the run through an unnamed city. It is shot with a similar eye for light and shade that would win his cinematographer, Robert Krasker, an Oscar for his collaboration on the later film. Amid a cast of distinctive characters, James Mason puts in a typically compelling performance as Johnny McQueen, who is grappling with his conscience while slowly bleeding to death as the police net closes in.
The Night House, 1.25pm, Thursday, April 30
Grief is a ghostly presence in David Bruckner’s psychological horror, which is built around a typically strong performance from Rebecca Hall as teacher Beth. She lets her character’s emotions dart between longing and fear after spooky things start to happen in the lakeside house she shared with her husband Owen (Evan Jonigkeit), who took his own life. Are the bloody footprints Beth sees and other traces of the supernatural real or in her mind? It’s a classic set-up but explored with some delicacy that hinges on Beth’s haunting and haunted performance.
Donnie Brasco, 9pm, Legend Xtra, Saturday, May 1
Made in the same year as The Devil's Advocate – which I’d say is living proof that Al Pacino's quality control has been known to be somewhat fritzy – Mike Newell's film plunges the star back into the world of the Seventies as mobster Lefty, who is helping the younger Donnie (Johnny Depp) get a foothold in the wise-guy business unaware that he's actually an undercover cop. Tensions brew as Donnie finds himself having rather too much sympathy for the devil – and it's to Pacino and Newell's credit that they make sure we do too. Fading mobsters are always more fun than the newly minted ones and Pacino has a ball, sparking nicely off Depp, with the film thrumming with the threat posed to both men by Donnie's operation.
Beast, 9pm, Channel 4, Saturday, May 1
Baltasar Kormákur's safari thriller is, at heart, a beast of a B-movie, lifted by Idris Elba's central performance as Dr Nate Samuels. The good doc is on a trip to South Africa with his teen daughters Mere (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries). It's a homecoming of sorts, in that their mum was from the region, but it's also intended as a bonding jaunt since Nate and their mother were separated. It's the male of another pack they'll soon be concerned with – an injured lion who, in the way of this sort of film, is out for vengeance. It turns out Nate's mate Martin (Sharlto Copley) is on cuddling terms with a pair of lions he raised from cubs, but the film soon shows its teeth. Kormákur's direction is workmanlike, and the action sequences, once they start, do keep on coming, even if much of it is on the silly side. Not exactly a roaring success but a solid piece of undemanding cinema for a Saturday night.
The Worst Person In The World, 1am, Film4, Sunday, May 2
Anne-Katrin Titze writes: You will be able to think of a number of people much worse than anybody we encounter in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, co-written with longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt. The title expresses perfectly, though, a feeling of surfeit, in a not-yet-adult-at-any-age-and-aware-of-it kind of fashion. Julie, played by Renate Reinsve (Best Actress winner at Cannes) takes us on trips of reinvention attempts and new beginnings. A female narrator’s voice tells us in 12 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, the tale in a timeless, soothing tone, as if all will be well eventually. Overwhelmed by something in a relationship or beyond, the self or the other may feel like the worst to the best of us. When Julie, in her late twenties, meets Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), successful comic book author, the mutual attraction is palpable. The scenes with Julie’s father (Vidar Sandem), who remarried and has a teenage daughter, are revealing and poignant. Time speeds up, slows down, seemingly stands still and before you know it, the end announces itself with a grin.
You'll have to pop over to YouTube to watch this week's short selection. Lawrence Abu Hamdan's Rubber Coated Steel reflects on the killing of two Palestinian teenagers on the West Bank. You can read more about his work on his official site.
