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| The Levelling |
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, Netflix, streaming now
Leonard Cohen's seminal song gets the full treatment in this documentary, which comes at the musician from it's perspective. Although not offering as deep a profile of the artist himself, Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine do succeed in charting the full evolution of his best known track. The film explores Cohen's tightrope walk between holiness and hedonism, while also indicating how he felt about the song's resurgence. Footage of the man himself late in his career is a treat.
Phantom Thread, 11.15pm, BBC2, Monday, January 30
Jennie Kermode writes: Featuring the last film performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, who announced his retirement shortly before it was released in 2018, Paul Thomas Anderson’s sumptuously presented drama has echoes of Hitchcock’s Vertigo in its portrait of a romance which hinges on the reshaping of a woman (played by Vicky Krieps) into somebody else. Day-Lewis is a celebrated tailor, designer, at the peak of his powers; she is the waitress who becomes his model and surrenders herself to him, waiting to be created – but as she discovers herself, the threads begin to twist. The film is wonderfully detailed, with stunning costume design by Mark Bridges, and every detail tells a story. It’s a remarkable piece of craft.
Casa Susanna, 10pm, BBC4, Tuesday, January 31
Sebastian Lifshitz's emotionally resonant documentary focuses on a house in New York's Catskills that became a welcoming retreat for transgender women and cross-dressers in the Sixties. Katherine Cummings, in her eighties, is one of those who returns to the state to recall the huge impact Casa Susanna had in her. Also interviewed is Betsy Wolheim, who only discovered her sci-fi writer father's cross-dressing secret after his death and others who found affirmation among the community there. Vibrant first-person testimony makes the archive detail come movingly to life.
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, 11.45pm, BBC2, Tuesday, January 31
Celine Sciamma's award-winning 18th century drama is a sumptuous and passionate affair. Noémie Merlant stars as Marianne, an artist who has been hired to paint a secret portrait of headstrong young woman Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) - whose mother wants the painting to send to a prospective husband. Soon Marianne's study of Héloïse becomes much more intense than mere professional interest as Sciamma offers up a sensual exploration of artist and muse. Tension abounds, from Marianne's initial fear of having her secret project discovered to problems thrown up by forbidden love, but Sciamma always keeps the female gaze front and centre.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - 9pm, Film4, Thursday, February 2
Oddly, Richard Dreyfus was not among the film's Oscar nominees for Steven Spielberg's tale of allen first contact, although his co-star Melinda Dillon was. He plays Roy Neary, a man whose sighting of a UFO acts as a sort of epiphany - the irony being that he can communicate with aliens more easily than his family - and who encounters Jillian Guiller (Dillon), who is searching for her son. Somehow, Spielberg manages to retain Dreyfus’ everyman quality despite his obvious flaws, while also touching on one of the director's favourite themes, suburban anxiety in Middle America, from family breakdown to job loss. The visuals have stood the test of time and hover at the sweet spot between awe and horror. John Williams’ five note sequence has long passed into collective memory as a short-hand for spookiness
The Levelling, 1.15am, BBC2, Friday, February 3
Hope Dickson Leach's distinctive debut follows Clover (Ellie Kendrick), a young woman who returns to her father's farm after her brother commits suicide. Dickson Leach explores the everyday judgments people can make about their nearest and dearest with care and attention, as bottled up emotions begin to spill out. She also makes beautiful use of the countryside setting, showing that it's much less idyllic than townies might imagine and emphasising the pressures of farming life. Kendrick - who many will recognise from her role as Meera Reed in Game of Thrones - continues to impress in any setting and deserves more big-screen work.
Train To Busan, 1.30am, Film4, Saturday, February 4
Jennie Kermode writes: Yeon Sang-ho's action-packed spectacular sees a troubled father and his young daughter trapped aboard the Seoul to Busan express as its other passengers begin to turn into ravenous, bloodthirsty zombies. A lot of invention is needed – and delivered – to keep on surprising the viewer in this tightly restricted environment as authorities outside the train try to work out what to do about it – and about the rapidly spreading epidemic elsewhere. Great chemistry between the actors makes them easy to root for, with little Kim Su-an’s perfect comic timing an additional treat, and the special effects are spectacular. Going way beyond simply blood and gore, this is a film that sustains the pace and stays on track all the way to a destination that’s not quite what anyone expected.
