Coming to a Small Screen Near You: @DJBogTrotter’s Films on TV Picks

Pick of the Week
Wes Anderson Triple Bill, Thursday 24th May, Film Four
The Fantastic Mr Fox, 9pm
The Darjeeling Limited, 10.45pm
Rushmore, 12.35am
To mark the release of his new film Moonrise Kingdom, Film Four is presenting a whole evening full of the idiosyncratic whimsy of Mr Wes Anderson.

The middle film, The Darjeeling Limited, is the weakest. Although it contains many of his usual elements – sibling rivalry, eccentric parents, self-conscious framing – it begins to feel like Anderson has gone to the well once too often with these ideas and this is just a retread of earlier work.

He managed to rediscover his mojo by venturing into new territory with the first film on offer, The Fantastic Mr Fox, a stop-motion animated adaption of the famous Roald Dahl story. He stays true to Dahl’s spirit by conjuring up a world menaced by mean people capable of doing terrible things. He also adds a dash of his own brio and the simple stop motion animation helps maintain a breezy feel despite the stories dark undertones.

But the best is saved for last – Anderson’s breakthrough film Rushmore. Depending on your outlook, it’s either an annoyingly contrived collection of stilted, self-involved characters who all speak like pretentious hipsters or an endearing tale about a geeky teenager which has a lot to say about the insanity of adolescence and of love in general. Obviously, I’m more inclined towards the latter camp. Jason Schwartzman has a spectacular debut as the teenage Max, capturing the mixture of infuriating arrogance and heartbreaking vulnerability that swirls at the centre of a certain type of adolescent. And Bill Murray reinvents himself in the role of Herman Blume, a successful but miserable middle-aged man whose life begins to fall apart. In the depth of his despairs, despite the fact that he’s already smoking one cigarette, he lights a second, absent-mindedly sticks it in his mouth and wanders off screen muttering, “Mmm, I’m a little bit lonely these days”. We’ve all been there.

The Classic
All That Heaven Allows, Wednesday 23rd May, 11.00am, Film Four
This film, which Todd Haynes recently remade as Far From Heaven, shows Douglas Sirk at his sweeping cinemascope best. The colours are as deep and as rich as the emotions on display. Jane Wyman plays a widowed upper class woman who, when she falls in love with her gardener (Rock Hudson), comes to realise that her privileged, cosseted life is not a luxury but a prison. So, if you’re in the mood, grab an extra-large box of Kleenex triple-ply and have a good wallow in one of the classiest weepies ever made.

Saving Private Ryan, Tuesday 22nd May, 9pm, Film Four
One of the films that introduced a new hyper-realistic, less-polished approach to the filming of war. The use of hand held cameras, grainy film stock and erratic focus gave the action an immediacy and authenticity usually only associated with documentaries (Paul Greengrass took this technique further in films like United 93 and the Bourne series). Here, we’re plunged instantly into the fray with a nightmarish sequence showing the D-Day landing of American troops at Omaha beach. The brutality of war and randomness of death is thrust upon us from the get go. Once ashore, Tom Hanks’ seargent is picked to lead a platoon to go behind enemy lines and relieve one soldier (Private Ryan) of duty, because all three of his brothers have died in action. This mission culminates in another harrowing sequence as the outnumbered platoon attempt to protect a vital bridge. Although Spielberg occasionally meanders into dull ‘triumph of the human spirit’ territory, he generally manages to keep this drama taut, lean and gripping. And, as usual with American war films, it would be easy to forget that the British were actually there too, but it is nonetheless a worthy addition to the WWII canon.