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| The Northman Photo: Universal |
The Northman, 9pm, Film4, Monday, March 17 and at the same time on Saturday, March 22
If there’s one thing about Robert Eggers, when it comes to style he never does things by halves. Here it’s the dominant feature of Viking Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård), who is bent on vengeance after his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) kills his father (Ethan Hawke). The women get short shrift, which is a bit of a shame given their strong presence in Icelandic saga, which you’d have thought co-writer Sjón might have been tempted to draw upon. This is big, masculine and decidedly unsubtle but there’s something enjoyable about watching a film so fully committed to gung-ho elemental action.
The Conversation , 9pm, BBC4, Thursday, March 20
This is a reasonably regular recommendation in the Stay-at-Home but I’m including it again because it’s one of my favourite Gene Hackman performances - although, in all honesty, how do you choose? More importantly it’s coupled with beautiful filmmaking from Francis Ford Coppola and his crew, from the groundbreaking sound design from Walter Murch to the elegant opening zoom in on San Francisco’s Union Square. A gripping psychological thriller and character study, it revolves around surveillance expert Harry Caul (Hackman), whose life starts to slowly unravel as he tries to piece together the conversation of the title. Terri Garr’s supporting turn and David Shire’s jazz-inflected score are the icing on the cake.
Aftersun, 9pm, BBC3, Friday, March 21
Time and place feel both concrete and, at times, slippery in this debut from British director Charlotte Wells. The firm sense of place is generated by a Turkish holiday resort in the Nineties, where young single dad Calum (Paul Mescal) is spending time with his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio). We see the problems Calum has that Sophie doesn't as she is more focused on the holiday emotions of childhood, like hanging out with new friends or a first kiss. Framed by the older Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) looking back at a holiday video shot on the trip, we see how interactions take on ambiguity through the passage of time. These uncertainties are also emphasised by strobe-filled moments of emotion that speak to the past, present and future all at once. This is an ambitious film that finds strength in its emotional texture and the pitch perfect performances of its two leads.
Beetlejuice, 11.40pm, BBC1, Friday, March 21
Three decades ago Tim Burton was a comparative unknown when this film put his name firmly on the map. It also turned the young Winona Ryder into a star, as she followed up with Heathers not long after. She plays Lydia Deetz, who befriends a dead couple (Adam Baldwin and Geena Davis) as they are attempting to haunt her. It turns out they're not much good at the scary stuff, so they enlist the help of Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice, whose full-on performance is reason alone to watch this. Irreverent, pretty gory and a lot of fun.
Playtime, MUBI, streaming now
This classic French comedy is one of five films from Jacques Tati that have arrived on the streamer and which also include Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon Oncle and Jour De Fete. For this the director created Tativille, a sprawling set covering more than 15,000 square metres and boasting its own power plant. That allows him a lot of freedom when it comes to shooting his tale of Monsieur Hulot’s latest adventures in Paris. Not everything works but when it does, Tati’s orchestrated mayhem, which plays around a lot with physical space and the depth of frame is riveting.
Unstoppable, 10.40pm, ITV, Saturday, March 22
Jennie Kermode writes: Tony Scott’s final film as a director takes the admittedly silly premise of a runaway train and goes completely off the rails. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine battle their way through one patently unfair crisis after another, and although it takes a while to get going, once the engine is fired up the action doesn’t stop. You’ll have to be prepared to suspend disbelief a bit – as in Snowpiercer, neither the body of the train itself nor the shape of the track quite conform to physics as we know it – but Scott was never one to worry about these things and the actors are more than capable of convincing us that they believe it. With dangerous chemicals on board (it’s never really clear why) and a town in peril, the runaway train has to be brought under control.
The Producers, 10.45pm, BBC2, Sunday, March 23
Mel Brooks hit the ground running with this, his debut movie - originally slated to have the name Springtime For Hitler. The always larger than life Zero Mostel teams up with Gene Wilder, in only his second film role, as a producer and accountant who plan to make millions – providing their show is a complete flop. Brooks cleverly builds on the yawning gap between Wilder's mousy Bloom and Mostel's rambunctious Bialystock, while the sight gags and one-liners keep coming. The writer/director's imagination knows no bounds, racing from tiny asides to big band numbers while barely pausing for breath - all while taking a sideswipe at the unlikely duo of Broadway and the Nazis.
This week’s short selection is Richard Lyford’s silent age science-fiction that wasn’t finished until 2019, As The Earth Turns
