television: January 2008 Archives
Here's our weekly list of the good, the bad and the ugly that's available on your television screen this coming week. With TV largely still on a summer holiday, the picking remain slim, but there is a classic documentary, the most famous mocumentary, two films from the accliamed Director Wong Kar Wai and a controvertial British drama series on the menu.
SATURDAY
This is Spinal Tap
8:30pm Comedy Channel Feature Film
Get personal with one of music's greatest heavy metal bands! Go behind the scenes with a band whose time has come and gone and come again. Does for rock and roll what "The Sound of Music" did for hills. This is one of the best known mocumentaries and a cult classic. The directing debut of former actor Rob Reiner who went on to direct well known films including 'The Sure Thing', 'When Harry Met Sally', 'The Princess Bride', 'Ghosts of Missispi' and 'Stand by Me'.
Shorts on Screen
00:05 SBS Short Films
Comme James Dean - Robert is going to an important audition... with his mother, who knows what's best for him. Doron - A strange kind of audition is taking place in which a director is asking the candidate for some very unusual skills... Carlitopolis - Carlito, a small laboratory mouse, suffers all kinds of experiments... The Last Words of Dutch Schulz - Arthur Flegenheimer, alias "Dutch Schultz", was an infamous New York gangster in the 1920s and '30s. On October 24, 1935, as he lay on his deathbed in the Newark City Hospital, his statements were recorded by P. J. Long, a clerk-stenographer with the Newark Police Department. The FBI noted these words in the hope that Schultz would betray his gangster colleagues.
Wonderland
1:20am Channel Seven Feature Film
Follow three generations of a family through one wintry November weekend during the city's traditional Bonfire Night celebration. They are all looking for the same thing - how to find contentment in life.
From Director Michael Winterbottom, whose other films include 'Butterfly Kiss', 'Go Now', 'Welcome to Sarajevo', 'Jude', '24 Hour Party People', 'Tristam Shandy A Cock and Bull Story' and 'Nine Songs' plus the recently released 'A Mighty Heart'.
SUNDAY
7 Up
7:30pm Biography Channel
7 Up is in fact one of television's first experiments in recording real people living their real lives. How do people change over the years? Can the adult already be found in the child of seven? These are the questions that have been explored in the Up series.
This film from 1964 is the first in the series that returns to the subjects ever 7 years of their life, '14 Up', '21 Up'... and most recently '49 Up'. The first film was directed by Paul Almond for the BBC, the additional films have been directed by Michael Apted, who was a researcher on the original film.
MONDAY
Days of Heaven
8:00pm Fox Classics Feature Film
After a young millhand is forced to flee a company town for killing his foreman in a minor dispute, he and his girlfriend hop a freight and become involved in the lives of a Texas sharecropper family.
From Director Terrance Malick comes this 1978 film staring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard. In a career that has spanned over four decades Malick has only made four films, 'Badlands', 'Days of Heaven', 'The Thin red Line', and 'The New World'. His fifth film 'The Tree of Life' is due to commence filming in 2008 and will star Sean Penn and Brad Pitt.
Read about Sam Shepard's recollections of making the film here.
Sex and the City
9:00pm ARENA Comedy Series
At a "thirtysomething" birthday party for Miranda, Carrie and her friends vow to start having sex like men.
When this show first began in 1998 it was groundbreaking for it's no holds barred approach to the topics it covers. ARENA are playing the show each night right from the beginning.
Skins
10:00pm SBS Drama Series
An group of teenagers with attitude and humour make up the broad range of characters in this cutting-edge youth drama. This urban mix of personalities - from the highly charismatic and beautiful, yet obsessive Tony, to the hopelessly sexually promiscuous, victim-in-the-making Cassie, the classical musician Jal, who tries to rise above it all, and the black sheep of his Muslim family, Anwar, who does everything his strict father tells him he shouldn't - are all trying to maintain their cool as they face the realities of life in the city. In the first episode, we meet Tony as a smart seventeen-year-old, who undermines his dad daily and effortlessly covers up for his little sister's secret escapades.
When shown in Britain this controvertial series also featured interactive collaboration with the audience and mobi-sodes that were released each week as well.
Read more in our Cross Media Blog entry from July 2007.
TUESDAY
Days of Being Wild
11:25pm SBS Feature Film
Yuk, a handsome young man, meets So Lai-chun at a sports-club store. Lai-chun tries to resist Yuk's seduction, but fails. When a relationship develops, Lai-chun asks if Yuk would marry her, but Yuk plainly says no, and Lai-chun swears that she will never come back. After the break-up with Lai-chun, Yuk meets Mimi when he bashes his mother's young lover in Mimi's changing room. Mimi is a dancing girl working for a nightclub. Despite Mimi's wild and street-smart character, she is also conquered by Yuk's charm. Directed by Wong Kar Wai.
WEDNESDAY
In the Mood for Love
10:00pm SBS Feature Film
Set in Hong Kong, 1962, Chow Mo-Wan is a newspaper editor who moves into a new building with his wife. At approximately the same time, Su Li-zhen, a beautiful secretary and her executive husband also move in to the crowded building. With their spouses often away, Chow and Li-zhen spend most of their time together as friends. Received 30 awards and another 19 nominations including nomination for a BAFTA Award and received a British Independent Film Award and received Best Actor and Technical Grand Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Staring Tony Leung and Maggie Chen, this film is directed by Wong Kar Wai.
THURSDAY
Drive In Movie Memories
8:30pm ABC Documentary
Drive-In Movie Memories is a film celebration of the drive-in movie, an ingenious marriage of cars and movies which became America's greatest icon of youth, freedom and the automobile. The drive-in movie began as an auto parts owner's business venture to make some easy money and accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished.
Using photos and footage from the mid-1930s until today, a powerful original music score and lively interviews with movie actors and critics, Drive-In Movie Memories covers every aspect of the drive-in movie-going experience. The history of the drive-in wasn't smooth - owners struggled with early outdoor film projection and sound projection, and made virtually no profit from the films themselves.
To compensate they invented 'fast food' like popcorn, pizza and hamburgers to feed the audience and make an income. To attract the masses they built fun parks, play grounds and organised celebrity appearances, and when they lost their family audience to television they targeted teenagers with raunchy romance films.
Although drive-in movies originated in America, Australia soon picked up on the drive-in movie phenomenon and a burgeoning industry took off here as well. The drive-in movie almost died completely with the advent of the VCR, but a drive-in revival is taking place now that the novelty of staying home to watch movies has worn off. An Official Selection at both the Chicago International Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival, and a Gold Award winner at the Houston World Fest, Drive-In Movie Memories is a fascinating snapshot of movie history.
Last Week's highlights
SATURDAY
This is Spinal Tap
8:30pm Comedy Channel Feature Film
Get personal with one of music's greatest heavy metal bands! Go behind the scenes with a band whose time has come and gone and come again. Does for rock and roll what "The Sound of Music" did for hills. This is one of the best known mocumentaries and a cult classic. The directing debut of former actor Rob Reiner who went on to direct well known films including 'The Sure Thing', 'When Harry Met Sally', 'The Princess Bride', 'Ghosts of Missispi' and 'Stand by Me'.
Shorts on Screen
00:05 SBS Short Films
Comme James Dean - Robert is going to an important audition... with his mother, who knows what's best for him. Doron - A strange kind of audition is taking place in which a director is asking the candidate for some very unusual skills... Carlitopolis - Carlito, a small laboratory mouse, suffers all kinds of experiments... The Last Words of Dutch Schulz - Arthur Flegenheimer, alias "Dutch Schultz", was an infamous New York gangster in the 1920s and '30s. On October 24, 1935, as he lay on his deathbed in the Newark City Hospital, his statements were recorded by P. J. Long, a clerk-stenographer with the Newark Police Department. The FBI noted these words in the hope that Schultz would betray his gangster colleagues.
Wonderland
1:20am Channel Seven Feature Film
Follow three generations of a family through one wintry November weekend during the city's traditional Bonfire Night celebration. They are all looking for the same thing - how to find contentment in life.
From Director Michael Winterbottom, whose other films include 'Butterfly Kiss', 'Go Now', 'Welcome to Sarajevo', 'Jude', '24 Hour Party People', 'Tristam Shandy A Cock and Bull Story' and 'Nine Songs' plus the recently released 'A Mighty Heart'.
SUNDAY
7 Up
7:30pm Biography Channel
7 Up is in fact one of television's first experiments in recording real people living their real lives. How do people change over the years? Can the adult already be found in the child of seven? These are the questions that have been explored in the Up series.
This film from 1964 is the first in the series that returns to the subjects ever 7 years of their life, '14 Up', '21 Up'... and most recently '49 Up'. The first film was directed by Paul Almond for the BBC, the additional films have been directed by Michael Apted, who was a researcher on the original film.
MONDAY
Days of Heaven
8:00pm Fox Classics Feature Film
After a young millhand is forced to flee a company town for killing his foreman in a minor dispute, he and his girlfriend hop a freight and become involved in the lives of a Texas sharecropper family.
From Director Terrance Malick comes this 1978 film staring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard. In a career that has spanned over four decades Malick has only made four films, 'Badlands', 'Days of Heaven', 'The Thin red Line', and 'The New World'. His fifth film 'The Tree of Life' is due to commence filming in 2008 and will star Sean Penn and Brad Pitt.
Read about Sam Shepard's recollections of making the film here.
Sex and the City
9:00pm ARENA Comedy Series
At a "thirtysomething" birthday party for Miranda, Carrie and her friends vow to start having sex like men.
When this show first began in 1998 it was groundbreaking for it's no holds barred approach to the topics it covers. ARENA are playing the show each night right from the beginning.
Skins
10:00pm SBS Drama Series
An group of teenagers with attitude and humour make up the broad range of characters in this cutting-edge youth drama. This urban mix of personalities - from the highly charismatic and beautiful, yet obsessive Tony, to the hopelessly sexually promiscuous, victim-in-the-making Cassie, the classical musician Jal, who tries to rise above it all, and the black sheep of his Muslim family, Anwar, who does everything his strict father tells him he shouldn't - are all trying to maintain their cool as they face the realities of life in the city. In the first episode, we meet Tony as a smart seventeen-year-old, who undermines his dad daily and effortlessly covers up for his little sister's secret escapades.
When shown in Britain this controvertial series also featured interactive collaboration with the audience and mobi-sodes that were released each week as well.
Read more in our Cross Media Blog entry from July 2007.
TUESDAY
Days of Being Wild
11:25pm SBS Feature Film
Yuk, a handsome young man, meets So Lai-chun at a sports-club store. Lai-chun tries to resist Yuk's seduction, but fails. When a relationship develops, Lai-chun asks if Yuk would marry her, but Yuk plainly says no, and Lai-chun swears that she will never come back. After the break-up with Lai-chun, Yuk meets Mimi when he bashes his mother's young lover in Mimi's changing room. Mimi is a dancing girl working for a nightclub. Despite Mimi's wild and street-smart character, she is also conquered by Yuk's charm. Directed by Wong Kar Wai.
WEDNESDAY
In the Mood for Love
10:00pm SBS Feature Film
Set in Hong Kong, 1962, Chow Mo-Wan is a newspaper editor who moves into a new building with his wife. At approximately the same time, Su Li-zhen, a beautiful secretary and her executive husband also move in to the crowded building. With their spouses often away, Chow and Li-zhen spend most of their time together as friends. Received 30 awards and another 19 nominations including nomination for a BAFTA Award and received a British Independent Film Award and received Best Actor and Technical Grand Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Staring Tony Leung and Maggie Chen, this film is directed by Wong Kar Wai.
THURSDAY
Drive In Movie Memories
8:30pm ABC Documentary
Drive-In Movie Memories is a film celebration of the drive-in movie, an ingenious marriage of cars and movies which became America's greatest icon of youth, freedom and the automobile. The drive-in movie began as an auto parts owner's business venture to make some easy money and accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished.
Using photos and footage from the mid-1930s until today, a powerful original music score and lively interviews with movie actors and critics, Drive-In Movie Memories covers every aspect of the drive-in movie-going experience. The history of the drive-in wasn't smooth - owners struggled with early outdoor film projection and sound projection, and made virtually no profit from the films themselves.
To compensate they invented 'fast food' like popcorn, pizza and hamburgers to feed the audience and make an income. To attract the masses they built fun parks, play grounds and organised celebrity appearances, and when they lost their family audience to television they targeted teenagers with raunchy romance films.
Although drive-in movies originated in America, Australia soon picked up on the drive-in movie phenomenon and a burgeoning industry took off here as well. The drive-in movie almost died completely with the advent of the VCR, but a drive-in revival is taking place now that the novelty of staying home to watch movies has worn off. An Official Selection at both the Chicago International Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival, and a Gold Award winner at the Houston World Fest, Drive-In Movie Memories is a fascinating snapshot of movie history.
Last Week's highlights
