XIII Oceans

Several good films on this week and as is usually the case there are plenty that are on at unreasonable times of the day which I can never understand, especially when Lethal Weapon gets its millionth airing at 9pm on one of the lesser ITV channels. It’s like the quality of Film4. What a shit channel that’s turned into after promises of great films. There are plenty of good films on the channel but nine times out of ten they’ll be on late whilst some film gets its tenth repeat showing or we end up with Changing Lanes (Wednesday), Monster-in-Law (Thursday) and Heartbreak Ridge (Friday) at the prime time 9pm slot. That’s not to say that all three of those films are poor, they’re not although I haven’t seen Monster-in-Law. It’s just that of all the films to put on a peak time they’re all pretty mediocre.

Onto this week’s three choices. First up is on Wednesday morning when you can catch Howard Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings on BBC2 at 10.30am. “Thrilling As Love Born Amid A Thousand Fabulous Adventures!” it stars Cary Grant and the wonderful Jean Arthur in a story set in a small airport in South America. The script is great and a reminder of just how good Hollywood can be when it invests some time in its characters and a lot of credit for that is down to Hawks himself, a legendary director.

My second film choice of the week was a tough one. Charles Laughton stars in in Alexander Korda’s 1933 The Private Life Of Henry VIII but it’s on at 3.40am on Thursday morning so I doubt anybody will be up for watching that one. Likewise Jack Nicholson stars in Antonioni’s The Passenger at 1.05am on Friday morning. Two films that are definitely worth your attention but I’ve got with the more viewing friendly time of 11.00pm for Wednesday night on Film4 when Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies. It was only recently that I managed to watch this film and I was sorry that I’d left it so long. Telling the story of a woman who traces her birth mother it was nominated for the Best Picture award at the 1997 Oscars and won three BAFTAs including the Best British Picture award and best actress for Brenda Blethyn. Blethyn is tremendous in this with a wonderfully natural and moving piece of acting ably supported by a similarly excellent Timothy Spall.

Friday night allows the television viewing public to sample one of the most enjoyable British films of recent years. 11.40pm on BBC1 sees Paul Kaye take on role of DJ Frankie Wild in It’s All Gone Pete Tong. I was pleasantly surprised when I first watched this film due to not expecting much about it but by the end of the film, the mix of comedy, social commentary and soundtrack ahad delivered an entertaining film.   Visually the film hooks straight into its subject matter and whilst some might find the final third testing I think the film manages to pull it off.  A film that I think any music lover would enjoy.  My film of the week.