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15-12-2008, 10:43 AM
Film4 Listings for Monday 15th December
13:00
She Married Her Boss (Film)
Gregory LaCava's screwball comedy stars Claudette Colbert as Julia Scott, the efficient secretary to widower boss Richard Barclay. She's in love with him and they get married but she soon finds there's a world of difference between running an office and a home, particularly with an interfering sister-in-law as well as Annabel, Barclay's young daughter. However, love conquers all, but not without fast laughs along the way.
Director: Gregory La Cava
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas, Michael Bartlett, Raymond Walburn, Jean Dixon, Katharine Alexander
(Black and White, 1935, U, 3 Star)
14:45
Moulin Rouge (Film)
Jose Ferrer stars in John Huston's visually exquisite biopic of Toulouse-Lautrec as the crippled painter whose work perfectly captured the spirit of bohemian Paris in the naughty 1890s. The film overdoses on artistic licence in its romanticised portrayal of the artist as embittered loner, tormented by his doomed relationships with prostitute Marie Charlet and sympathetic model Myriamme. But it also evokes the period's lusty, can-can hedonism and absinthe-sodden despair with exuberant, painterly beauty.
Director: John Huston
Starring: José Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon, Claude Nollier
(Subtitles, 1952, PG, 3 Star)
17:05
The Iron Petticoat (Film)
Katharine Hepburn plays a humourless Russian, Captain Vinka Kovelenko, who defects from her home country. Major Chuck Lockwood is assigned to show her the bright lights of London while she tries to convince him of the superiority of communism. Naturally, the two opposites fall in love but then must contend with the KGB, who are not happy with the idea of one of their officers running around free in London.
Director: Ralph L. Thomas
Starring: Bob Hope, Katharine Hepburn, Noelle Middleton, James Robertson-Justice, Robert Helpmann, David Kossoff
(Subtitles, 1956, PG, 3 Star)
18:55
In Good Company (Film)
Not only does Dennis Quaid have a boss who's half his age, but the hotshot is dating his daughter (Scarlett Johansson). Smart comedy drama from the maker of About A Boy.
Director: Paul Weitz
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, Marg Helgenberger, David Paymer, Clark Gregg
(Widescreen, 2004, 15, 4 Star)
21:00
Failure To Launch (Film)
Tom Dey's romcom stars Matthew McConaughey as Trip, a 35-year-old professional layabout happy to stay at home where he's waited on hand and foot by his mum Sue. But she and her husband Al have had enough and decide that to get him to leave, they have to use subtle methods. So they hire Paula to use her feminine wiles to lever him out of the family home. There's just two problems: Trip is just too stuck in his ways and Paula breaches her first rule of operation and falls in love with him.
Director: Tom Dey
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Terry Bradshaw
(Premiere, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 2006, 12, 3 Star)
22:50
To Die For (Film)
Gus Van Sant's black comedy stars Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone, the cold-eyed career woman who will do whatever it takes to get where she wants to get, who schmoozes a television celebrity even while on her honeymoon with husband Larry. She wants that career and, back in Little Hope, New Hampshire, there's a cable station where, if being the lowly weather girl is the route to power, then so be it. Railroading a story onto air, she recruits three high school drop-outs who become her willing stooges as she schemes her way to the top but when Larry wants to start a family, she has the persuade them to remove the last obstacle in her path for stardom, even if that means a court appearance.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, Illeana Douglas, Alison Folland
(Subtitles, 1995, 15, 3 Star)
00:55
Ask The Dust (Film)
Robert Towne, who wrote the script of Chinatown, wrote and directed this drama once again set in 1930s LA. Colin Farrell plays Arturo Bandini, an impoverished Italian/American writer seeking fame and fortune in the City of Angels but finding nothing but poverty. Salma Hayek plays Camilla, a fiery Mexican beauty who, while working in a coffee shop, seeks a rich husband to fulfil her American dream. The unlikely pair hook up and, despite their different backgrounds, find love in this enjoyably tough, almost noirish film.
Director: Robert Towne
Starring: Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins, Idina Menzel, Justin Kirk
(Widescreen, 2006, 15, 2 Star)
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Film4 Listings for Tuesday 16th December
13:00
Waterloo Road (Film)
This lively, unpretentious wartime film sends AWOL squaddie Jim Colter back to his South London turf to save his wife Lillie from the advances of a philandering draft-dodger Ted Purvis. Pace, natural characterisation and warm humour elevate a simple story into an entertaining and humane drama that provides a finely-observed depiction of life during the Blitz.
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Starring: John Mills, Stewart Granger, Alastair Sim, Joy Shelton, Alison Leggatt, Beatrice Varley
(Black and White, Subtitles, 1944, PG, 4 Star)
14:30
Girls! Girls! Girls! (Film)
Elvis Presley stars in Norman Taurog's musical as Ross Carpenter, a tuna boat fisherman in Hawaii who has two girls after him, ***y singer Robin Gantner and heiress Laurel Dodge, who pretends to be poor to avoid embarrassing him. The plot device - can Ross raise enough money to buy his boat outright? - carries the King through 14 songs, including the now classic Return to Sender.
Director: Norman Taurog
Starring: Elvis Presley, Stella Stevens, Jeremy Slate, Laurel Goodwin, Benson Fong, Robert Strauss
(1962, PG, 3 Star)
16:30
All About Eve (Film)
Bette Davis stars in Joseph Mankiewicz's drama as Margo Channing, acid-tongued star of the stage who takes the young, innocent, mousey Eve Harrington under her wing only to find her protege quietly betraying her at every turn until she has climbed the dizzy heights once occupied by Margo. George Sanders stars as the acerbic critic Addison De Witt, with Hugh Marlowe as Margo's writer Lloyd Richards and Gary Merrill as her lover Bill Sampson. The film won six Oscars, including best picture and best director but ironically, Davis and Baxter were both nominated as best actress and the split vote saw neither win.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe
(Black and White, Subtitles, 1950, U, 4 Star)
19:10
The Beverly Hillbillies (Film)
Based on the classic TV series, Jim Varney heads up the Clampett family as Jed, who finds oil on his Arkansas farm. Deciding that his daughter Elly May needs to become a 'lady', the family move to Beverly Hills, where their boondock ways are forgiven on account of their wealth. But when widower Jed decides to re-marry, there's no shortage of candidates, as Jed's scheming bank manager Milburn Drysdale and his assistant, Miss Hathaway, try to make sure their own chosen candidate is selected. Penelope Spheeris's film, following her success with Wayne's World, continues in the same comic vein, and fans of the TV series should look out for a cameo role from Buddy Ebson, the original Jed Clampett.
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Starring: Jim Varney, Diedrich Bader, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, Lea Thompson
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1993, PG, 2 Star)
21:00
Chinatown (Film)
Roman Polanski's classic film, which was nominated for eleven Oscars, winning just one for the script, stars Jack Nicholson as J. J. 'Jake' Gittes, a private eye in 1940s Los Angeles. He's hired by Evelyn Mulwray, who wants evidence of her husband's adulterous affair. What appears to be an open-and-shut case thickens when the real Evelyn Mulwray turns up at his office and the errant husband is found drowned. As Gittes pursues his investigation, he becomes involved with Evelyn's father Noah Cross, a guilty family secret and a water/land-grab conspiracy so lucrative that murder is a small price to pay to protect it.
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, Darrell Zwerling
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1974, 18, 5 Star)
23:35
Days Of Thunder (Film)
Tom Cruise plays Cole Trickle, a young hot-shot stock car racer determined to make it as top gun if he can find the right cocktail of car and manager, who comes along in the guise of racing legend Harry Hogge, and make all the right moves. As the pair tour the circuits, the climax build up to Daytona and a showdown between Trickle and his arch-rival Russ Wheeler, who will stop at nothing to beat Trickle. Tony Scott's all action film captures the all-out excitement and speed of the sport while Nicole Kidman as Dr Claire Lewicki provides the love interest.
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, Michael Rooker
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1990, 12, 2 Star)
01:40
Eu, Tu, Eles (Film)
Based on a true story, Me You Them is a bittersweet Brazilian romantic comedy that explores the life and loves of Darlene, an independent-minded woman from north-east Brazil. Returning to her home town, Darlene finds that her mother has died and while in mourning she accepts a proposal of marriage. Not content with just one husband, however, in time she finds two other men who move into the house and can fulfil her in ways her first husband Osias is unable to. While life in the poor and arid village may be hard, comedy and romance are never far away as Darlene is forced to juggle the pride, desire, jealousy and tolerance of her three husbands. Directed by Andrucha Waddington.
Director: Andrucha Waddington
Starring: Regina Casé, Lima Duarte, Stênio Garcia, Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Nilda Spencer, Diogo Lopes
(Subtitles, Subtitled, In Portuguese with English Subtitles, Widescreen, 2000, PG, 4 Star)
13:00
She Married Her Boss (Film)
Gregory LaCava's screwball comedy stars Claudette Colbert as Julia Scott, the efficient secretary to widower boss Richard Barclay. She's in love with him and they get married but she soon finds there's a world of difference between running an office and a home, particularly with an interfering sister-in-law as well as Annabel, Barclay's young daughter. However, love conquers all, but not without fast laughs along the way.
Director: Gregory La Cava
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Melvyn Douglas, Michael Bartlett, Raymond Walburn, Jean Dixon, Katharine Alexander
(Black and White, 1935, U, 3 Star)
14:45
Moulin Rouge (Film)
Jose Ferrer stars in John Huston's visually exquisite biopic of Toulouse-Lautrec as the crippled painter whose work perfectly captured the spirit of bohemian Paris in the naughty 1890s. The film overdoses on artistic licence in its romanticised portrayal of the artist as embittered loner, tormented by his doomed relationships with prostitute Marie Charlet and sympathetic model Myriamme. But it also evokes the period's lusty, can-can hedonism and absinthe-sodden despair with exuberant, painterly beauty.
Director: John Huston
Starring: José Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon, Claude Nollier
(Subtitles, 1952, PG, 3 Star)
17:05
The Iron Petticoat (Film)
Katharine Hepburn plays a humourless Russian, Captain Vinka Kovelenko, who defects from her home country. Major Chuck Lockwood is assigned to show her the bright lights of London while she tries to convince him of the superiority of communism. Naturally, the two opposites fall in love but then must contend with the KGB, who are not happy with the idea of one of their officers running around free in London.
Director: Ralph L. Thomas
Starring: Bob Hope, Katharine Hepburn, Noelle Middleton, James Robertson-Justice, Robert Helpmann, David Kossoff
(Subtitles, 1956, PG, 3 Star)
18:55
In Good Company (Film)
Not only does Dennis Quaid have a boss who's half his age, but the hotshot is dating his daughter (Scarlett Johansson). Smart comedy drama from the maker of About A Boy.
Director: Paul Weitz
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, Marg Helgenberger, David Paymer, Clark Gregg
(Widescreen, 2004, 15, 4 Star)
21:00
Failure To Launch (Film)
Tom Dey's romcom stars Matthew McConaughey as Trip, a 35-year-old professional layabout happy to stay at home where he's waited on hand and foot by his mum Sue. But she and her husband Al have had enough and decide that to get him to leave, they have to use subtle methods. So they hire Paula to use her feminine wiles to lever him out of the family home. There's just two problems: Trip is just too stuck in his ways and Paula breaches her first rule of operation and falls in love with him.
Director: Tom Dey
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Terry Bradshaw
(Premiere, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 2006, 12, 3 Star)
22:50
To Die For (Film)
Gus Van Sant's black comedy stars Nicole Kidman as Suzanne Stone, the cold-eyed career woman who will do whatever it takes to get where she wants to get, who schmoozes a television celebrity even while on her honeymoon with husband Larry. She wants that career and, back in Little Hope, New Hampshire, there's a cable station where, if being the lowly weather girl is the route to power, then so be it. Railroading a story onto air, she recruits three high school drop-outs who become her willing stooges as she schemes her way to the top but when Larry wants to start a family, she has the persuade them to remove the last obstacle in her path for stardom, even if that means a court appearance.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, Illeana Douglas, Alison Folland
(Subtitles, 1995, 15, 3 Star)
00:55
Ask The Dust (Film)
Robert Towne, who wrote the script of Chinatown, wrote and directed this drama once again set in 1930s LA. Colin Farrell plays Arturo Bandini, an impoverished Italian/American writer seeking fame and fortune in the City of Angels but finding nothing but poverty. Salma Hayek plays Camilla, a fiery Mexican beauty who, while working in a coffee shop, seeks a rich husband to fulfil her American dream. The unlikely pair hook up and, despite their different backgrounds, find love in this enjoyably tough, almost noirish film.
Director: Robert Towne
Starring: Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins, Idina Menzel, Justin Kirk
(Widescreen, 2006, 15, 2 Star)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Film4 Listings for Tuesday 16th December
13:00
Waterloo Road (Film)
This lively, unpretentious wartime film sends AWOL squaddie Jim Colter back to his South London turf to save his wife Lillie from the advances of a philandering draft-dodger Ted Purvis. Pace, natural characterisation and warm humour elevate a simple story into an entertaining and humane drama that provides a finely-observed depiction of life during the Blitz.
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Starring: John Mills, Stewart Granger, Alastair Sim, Joy Shelton, Alison Leggatt, Beatrice Varley
(Black and White, Subtitles, 1944, PG, 4 Star)
14:30
Girls! Girls! Girls! (Film)
Elvis Presley stars in Norman Taurog's musical as Ross Carpenter, a tuna boat fisherman in Hawaii who has two girls after him, ***y singer Robin Gantner and heiress Laurel Dodge, who pretends to be poor to avoid embarrassing him. The plot device - can Ross raise enough money to buy his boat outright? - carries the King through 14 songs, including the now classic Return to Sender.
Director: Norman Taurog
Starring: Elvis Presley, Stella Stevens, Jeremy Slate, Laurel Goodwin, Benson Fong, Robert Strauss
(1962, PG, 3 Star)
16:30
All About Eve (Film)
Bette Davis stars in Joseph Mankiewicz's drama as Margo Channing, acid-tongued star of the stage who takes the young, innocent, mousey Eve Harrington under her wing only to find her protege quietly betraying her at every turn until she has climbed the dizzy heights once occupied by Margo. George Sanders stars as the acerbic critic Addison De Witt, with Hugh Marlowe as Margo's writer Lloyd Richards and Gary Merrill as her lover Bill Sampson. The film won six Oscars, including best picture and best director but ironically, Davis and Baxter were both nominated as best actress and the split vote saw neither win.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe
(Black and White, Subtitles, 1950, U, 4 Star)
19:10
The Beverly Hillbillies (Film)
Based on the classic TV series, Jim Varney heads up the Clampett family as Jed, who finds oil on his Arkansas farm. Deciding that his daughter Elly May needs to become a 'lady', the family move to Beverly Hills, where their boondock ways are forgiven on account of their wealth. But when widower Jed decides to re-marry, there's no shortage of candidates, as Jed's scheming bank manager Milburn Drysdale and his assistant, Miss Hathaway, try to make sure their own chosen candidate is selected. Penelope Spheeris's film, following her success with Wayne's World, continues in the same comic vein, and fans of the TV series should look out for a cameo role from Buddy Ebson, the original Jed Clampett.
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Starring: Jim Varney, Diedrich Bader, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, Lea Thompson
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1993, PG, 2 Star)
21:00
Chinatown (Film)
Roman Polanski's classic film, which was nominated for eleven Oscars, winning just one for the script, stars Jack Nicholson as J. J. 'Jake' Gittes, a private eye in 1940s Los Angeles. He's hired by Evelyn Mulwray, who wants evidence of her husband's adulterous affair. What appears to be an open-and-shut case thickens when the real Evelyn Mulwray turns up at his office and the errant husband is found drowned. As Gittes pursues his investigation, he becomes involved with Evelyn's father Noah Cross, a guilty family secret and a water/land-grab conspiracy so lucrative that murder is a small price to pay to protect it.
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, Darrell Zwerling
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1974, 18, 5 Star)
23:35
Days Of Thunder (Film)
Tom Cruise plays Cole Trickle, a young hot-shot stock car racer determined to make it as top gun if he can find the right cocktail of car and manager, who comes along in the guise of racing legend Harry Hogge, and make all the right moves. As the pair tour the circuits, the climax build up to Daytona and a showdown between Trickle and his arch-rival Russ Wheeler, who will stop at nothing to beat Trickle. Tony Scott's all action film captures the all-out excitement and speed of the sport while Nicole Kidman as Dr Claire Lewicki provides the love interest.
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Nicole Kidman, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, Michael Rooker
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1990, 12, 2 Star)
01:40
Eu, Tu, Eles (Film)
Based on a true story, Me You Them is a bittersweet Brazilian romantic comedy that explores the life and loves of Darlene, an independent-minded woman from north-east Brazil. Returning to her home town, Darlene finds that her mother has died and while in mourning she accepts a proposal of marriage. Not content with just one husband, however, in time she finds two other men who move into the house and can fulfil her in ways her first husband Osias is unable to. While life in the poor and arid village may be hard, comedy and romance are never far away as Darlene is forced to juggle the pride, desire, jealousy and tolerance of her three husbands. Directed by Andrucha Waddington.
Director: Andrucha Waddington
Starring: Regina Casé, Lima Duarte, Stênio Garcia, Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Nilda Spencer, Diogo Lopes
(Subtitles, Subtitled, In Portuguese with English Subtitles, Widescreen, 2000, PG, 4 Star)