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| Prince Of Darkness |
Prince Of Darkness, streaming on Talking Pictures TV Encore until June 19
Talking Pictures continues to be a great source of older cinema, but despite what you might think, not everything that it shows is in black and white. It's also worth checking out the channel's catch-up service, Encore, where this enjoyable John Carpenter horror flick - most vibrantly in colour - is currently available. Dark and ancient forces are at work as a group of grad students - plus a priest (Donald Pleasance) and a professor (Victor Wong) become embroiled with a sinister canister of devilment which, unnervingly, can only be opened from the inside. It may not be Carpenter's best work but there's plenty here to enjoy as religion mixes with something altogether more science-fiction based in an apocalyptic tale that also includes one of the most effective jumpscares in the business - even when you know where it happens.
Shiva Baby, 1am, Channel 4, Monday, June 12
Jennie Kermode writes: An exceptional young actor with a bright future ahead of her, Rachel Sennott shines in this shrewd, irreverent comedy about a shiva where people are keen to police one another's behaviour but everybody has a secret. Her character, Danielle, has two. There's the one her parents want her to keep: that she used to be in a relationship with another girl in attendance. And there's the one that she wants to keep: that he sugar daddy is there (along with his gentile wife and their shrill baby). She'd also like it if he didn't find out about what she's actually doing with her life, which is difficult when her mother wants to tell everybody everything about her as part of the process of finding her a nice young man. Meanwhile, her ex is frustrated by all the secrecy and questions whether she's serious about her sexuality, but it's clear that there's still something between them. There are plenty of stereotypes here, but they're deftly played, and the film entertains from start to finish.
Hobson's Choice, Film4, Thursday, June 15
The passing of more than six decades has done little to diminish the charms of this adaptation of Harold Brighouse's play about a domineering bootmaker whose daughter falls for his beleaguered employee (John Mills). Lean gets an opportunity to show his touch for comedy here, particularly in the boozy hallucinations of Hobson - played with suitable verve and bombastic screen presence by Charles Laughton. Featuring Prunella Scales in one of her earliest film roles, this adeptly skewers the class system but retains a sweet romance at its heart
Birds Of Passage, 1am, Film4, Wednesday, 14 June
Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra's decades-spanning tale of a crime clan is the sort of film you can sink into and and they put every single minute of its two hour running time to good use. The film charts one indigenous family's baby steps into the drugs trade before watching the decline of the clan as honour falls victim to profit. All the narco thriller elements are here but they are enhanced by the strong sense of the film's cultural setting and rub shoulders with the themes of colonialism and capitalism. Beautifully shot (by Gallego) this has a Shakesperean sweep that marries its drug war themes to an ethnographic lament in beguiling fashion.
The French Connection, 11.05pm, BBC3, Friday, June 16
William Friedkin's gritty 1971 thriller is as good as they get – and likely to make you mourn the fact that Gene Hackman retired from acting 16 years ago all over again. He stars as NYPD detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle alongside the equally reliable Roy Scheider as his partner Russo as they take on a narcotics ring while breaking every rule in the book. There's a docu-realism to the camerawork meaning you can almost taste the tang of the New York city streets and the subway train chase scene has also lost little of its impact down the years, even if Doyle's attitude is even more problematic by today's standards than it was back then.
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, 2.50pm, Film4, Saturday, June 17
If you fancy sitting down to a slice of traditional storytelling with the family this weekend, this seafaring adventure should do the trick. Young Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) and her brother Edmund (Skandar Keyes) are joined by their brat of a cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) in this sequel, which is concerned as much with the testing of the kids' inner strength as it is about the quest for magical swords they go on. Although this got a bit of a critical drubbing at the time - and ended up being the last instalment of CS Lewis' adventures that made it to film - it scores well in terms of swashbuckling even if it ends up being a bit heavy on message. Read what the cast, including Liam Neeson, said about the film here.
Thor: The Dark World, 8pm, BBC3, Sunday, June 18
I'm the first to admit that I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Marvel - which is why I'm here to tell you that it doesn't matter if you are considering catching this piece of escapism. Despite all the trappings and realms - nine of them, if you're counting - this is basically your regular tale of light versus dark that sees Chris Hemsworth's hammer-wielder take on ancient dark elf Malkeith (Christopher Eccleston enjoying a walk on the dark side). The film's main selling point, however, is the ongoing fraternal tensions between Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), which delivers the emotional goods that are rather lacking amid all the fluff elsewhere.
This week's short selection is Sauna Tango, Vera Lalyko's playful animation.
