Pick of the week
Petite Maman
Another insightful drama from Céline Sciamma, the French director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Her new film harks back to her earlier work, delving sensitively into the inner life of a child. Eight-year old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) goes with her parents to her recently deceased grandmother’s rural house so they can clear it out. Her mother, Marion, is too distraught to stay, but then Nelly goes into the woods – in classic fairytale fashion – and meets a girl her age also called Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), who appears to live in the same house. From this ghostly premise comes a drama that is at heart a child’s-eye view of grief and loss, as Nelly learns more about herself – and her mother.
Thursday 23 November, 12.55am, Film4
***
Dark Victory
Here’s an afternoon double bill of five-star weepies starring the great Bette Davis. Now, Voyager from 1942 is preceded by this 1939 film, in which Davis’s vivacious socialite Judith is diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour that will kill her within a year. Her doctor Frederick (George Brent) decides not to tell her but, with him falling in love with her, struggles to keep the secret. As they get closer, both are forced to answer the question of what it is to die well, with Davis running the gamut from joy to despair as the reality of her situation becomes apparent.
Sunday 19 November, 12.45pm, BBC Two
***
Stamped from the Beginning
Based on the book by Prof Ibram X Kendi, this is a powerful and sickening history lesson about racism in America from Roger Ross Williams. Ideas such as the invention of “blackness” (and “whiteness”) and the myths of assimilation, Black hypersexuality and the Black criminal are exposed via a rich tapestry of images, music and words from academics and activists. From the first Portuguese slave ship to Black Lives Matter, it’s a sometimes controversial take on how African Americans got to where they are today.
Monday 20 November, Netflix
***
Colette
Early 20th-century writer and actor Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette may not be as well known in this country as her native France, but Wash Westmoreland’s biopic makes her seem vital and important. Keira Knightley is fantastic as Colette, who marries young to Dominic West’s Paris “literary entrepreneur” Willy and ends up ghost-writing his most popular novels. Their shifting power relationship as she strives for recognition – and her exploration of her sexuality – provides the drama as the film explores the changing status of women with the dawning of the new century.
Monday 20 November, 11.15pm, BBC Two
***
Wayne’s World
It can be a poisoned chalice when you revisit comedies from the late 20th century, as changing attitudes often make them unwatchable. Thankfully, Penelope Spheeris’s excellent 1992 film is still a keeper. The tale of public access TV presenters Wayne and Garth has its puerile moments (“schwing” etc), but leads Mike Myers and Dana Carvey remain likable as they lust after “babes”, crack jokes at the expense of corporate types and rock out to Bohemian Rhapsody.
Monday 20 November, 9am, Sky Cinema 80s Icons
***
The Tingler
B-movie producer William Castle was a master of the gimmick. Mr Sardonicus, which follows later, ends with Castle popping up to let the audience vote between two endings (the happy one was allegedly never shot). This horror – about a creature that appears on your spine when you’re afraid – featured, in some cinemas, electric buzzers on seats that gave a shock when the thing appeared. Vincent Price is the calm centre of a deeply silly film as the scientist who finds out that only screaming can stop the Tingler – not such good news for the deaf woman he meets …
Tuesday 21 November, 11pm, Talking Pictures TV
***
The Kill Room
Uma Thurman’s struggling art gallery owner Patrice finds a way out of her financial straits when drug dealer Gordon (Samuel L Jackson) offers to launder money through her business. That involves his in-house hitman Reggie (a nicely underplaying Joe Manganiello) producing art under the pseudonym “the Bagman” – Reggie’s murder weapon of choice. In Nicol Paone’s enjoyable art world satire, the venal world of collectors and gallerists bumps up against the cold-blooded hardline of the mob world, especially when Reggie proves a bit of a talent.
Friday 24 November, Prime Video
