Lots of interesting stuff next week. jlnight has noted the big ones but I'll add trailers.
The biggest film of the week is the premiere of Park Chan-wook's
Decision To Leave on BBC4 at 9 p.m. on Saturday 13th. Which clashes against Channel 4 premiering
Jackass Forever at 10 p.m. which appears to be a cross between a Saw film and presumably what goes on behind closed doors at one of those WEF meetings in Davos.
Later on Saturday 13th Film4 are doing a Ben Wheatley double bill with the first showing of
In The Earth at 11:20 p.m. (A24 trailer-style nervy strings ahoy!) followed by a repeat of A Field In England at 1:30 a.m.
Two premieres on Film4 on Monday 15th with
French Exit at 9 p.m. and Taiwanese male gigolo film
Moneyboys at 1:15 a.m. (amusingly American Gigolo was aired in the exact same 1:10 a.m. timeslot this week! So maybe Film4 is doing a gigolo-themed season?)
ITV4 has an item of note, as it begins very belatedly to show the 2014
From Dusk Till Dawn series at 11 p.m. on Monday 15th (which unfortunately clashes against French Exit on Film4) and repeated at 11:35 p.m. on Tuesday 16th (which unfortunately clashes against the second part of the The American Buffalo over on BBC4). It is interesting to note that as well as Robert Rodriguez directing seven episodes of the series, there is one episode from Fede Alvarez (of the 2013 Evil Dead remake) and four by Eduardo Sanchez (i.e. one half of the director duo behind The Blair Witch Project!)
Tucked away on the "Great Movies" digital channel is the first showing of
Captive State at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 16th. With John Goodman and...uh... Jonathan Majors.
(it's a Rupert Wyatt week, as Film4 is also showing his 2014 remake of
The Gambler (also with John Goodman!) at 1:30 a.m. in the early hours of Monday 15th)
And then on Friday 19th Film4 is showing
@Zola (NSFW) at 10:55 p.m., in what must be an amusingly premeditated triple bill sandwiched in between Mean Girls on one side and Elle on the other!
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In terms of repeats jlnight has noted the really big one, with BBC4's 'archive television' strand showing the 1992 adaptation of the Muriel Spark novel
Memento Mori with Maggie Smith at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 17th. Notably it is also the final film directed by Jack Clayton (Room At The Top, The Innocents, Something Wicked This Way Comes) five years after The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, which also starred Maggie Smith.
BBC2 appears to be capitalising on the recent resurgence of interest in Stephen Hawking by scheduling The Theory of Everything on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 14th and repeating it on BBC3 at 10 p.m. on Wednesday 17th. And Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel is on Film4 at 11:20 p.m. on Thursday 18th, whilst The Hurt Locker is on BBC1 at 11:30 p.m. on Friday 19th.
But Film4 has the most exciting films rotating back into the schedules with lots of British films appearing: a couple of Ealing films appear throughout the week including the one non-comedy film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, 1952's
Mandy at 4:30 p.m. on Monday 15th (in a double bill following Mackendrick's previous film, 1951's
The Man In The White Suit at 2:55 p.m.), which is the film I'm most excited about seeing of the week. That is bookended with a screening of 1949's
The Blue Lamp at 5 p.m. on Friday 19th, which stars Jack Warner in his best known role as PC George Dixon, who went on to the TV series Dixon of Dock Green despite (spoiler)
being murdered by Dirk Bogarde in this film! (which I suppose makes the TV series an early example of a 'prequel' show?)
The real rarity of the week is a showing of
Payroll from 1961 at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday 16th, starring Billie Whitelaw. And Film4 caps off an excellent week by also showing the most obscure of the David Lean films
The Sound Barrier (from a Terence Rattigan screenplay) at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday 18th.
