Freeview Boxes : Classic or Dud?

"so for this episode we'll be needing a LIFE FORM OF PURE ENERGY"

... who is a prancing ninny, as in this morning's episode.

Saturday night: THE SWIMMER. Quite fascinating and ultimately troubling.

Sunday night: COLD MOUNTAIN. Marred by too many fake accents by non-Americans but probably underrated - in an older Western, the content of this one would be considered very interesting.

Tomorrow night:
https://www.radiotimes.com/film/k8vx9b/up-the-junction/

Not very keen on the cast, but worth seeing?

maureen lipman iirc. it's a good addition to the 60s kitchen sink thing.

Adrienne Posta too...

https://youtu.be/79nVTKeaRGs

She definitely seems strongly preferable to Maureen Lipman.

The Ladykillers followed by All That Heaven Allows, 12.50pm on Film4, a channel which generally never shows anything worth watching.

Can't watch today but thanks for the heads-up Tom D -- these reminders are useful.

Only problem I've got is that Channel 4 and Film4 don't work when it rains or is particularly overcast - come back analogue all is forgiven.

Sony Movies Classic is running through a bunch of good onld english films, mostly repeats and mentioned upthread, but icymi

09ish Loneliness of long distance runner
11ish Georgy Girl
15ish Admirable Crichton
17ish, er, Dad's Army
19ish Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
21ish Taste Of Honey
23ish The Knack and how to get it

some notable war films on film4 too
11 This Happy Breed
13 Millions Like Us
15 Two Thousand Women
17 Waterloo Road

and TPTV have been showing hammer films late on a friday, tonight's is Dracula, Prince Of Darkness

of those on film4 the first two are interesting - noel coward wrote the first, and both are very much about the families left behind during the war, and both filmed whilst the war was still happening.

Patricia Roc in Millions and Two Thousand Women as well.

RUNNER, SATURDAY NIGHT, TASTE OF HONEY were all screened on the same channel in the last month or two - I saw them then otherwise would watch.

i did say as much - "mostly repeats and mentioned upthread, but icymi"

TPTV 13:10 The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952)
BBC2 15:00 The Importance Of Being Earnest (2002)

Some films on today:

London Live
13.00 Brief Encounter
15.00 Victim

Film4
16.45 Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Talking Pictures
23.55 Shampoo

I remember to take this opportunity to report that I have been listening to music that I think features TOM D.

Specifically on vinyl the whole of Close Lobsters' 12-inch, 4-track 45: 'What Is There To Smile About?'

The lead track can be heard here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a50KwHUAXo

Sony Movies Classic has now been rebranded Sony Movies Christmas for all your festive TV movie needs, three months early.

But that prompted me to finally watch The Swimmer before it disappeared and that was great. Nice device, the way back story is gradually revealed, but never fully. And the ending... Odd film for such a big name.

Also taped Miss Jean Brodie and American Graffiti.

Legend of Hell House was on tptv at weekend. Dvd has been on my Amazon wish list for about a decade after learning about the Delia Derbyshire soundtrack.

What do people who aren't in London get on freeview channel 8? (Ie instead of London Live)

In Glasgow, 'That's TV Scotland', which mostly seems to show fuzzy music clips from the 70s and 80s. I hear from London friends that London Live shows some interesting films from time to time - definitely not the case with That's TV Scotland.

Just recently discovered that I can now get Sky Arts on Freeview.

(I was asking because Stuart maconie was saying that he wanted to see Deep End and it was on LL yesterday. There were 6 months when it would show a new Ealing B-movie every day. Then it went onto Norman wisdom movies... And in the evenings it's all London gangster movies)

i've just watched the whole of american graffiti without recognising harrison ford...

Ah, he was so young..

'73, so only 4 years before SW.

i keep forgetting about Sky Arts (ch 11?) but over the last week we've had

KT Tunstall on Ivor Cutler (including her singing Beautiful Cosmos to Phyllis)

Trailblazers: Two Tone (Noddy Holder narrated documentary, very Specials-centric, some good contributors like, surprisingly, Pete Waterman, who was DJ at the Locarno when the Coventry Automatics played there)

The Art Of Architecture on Battersea Power Station

er, Portrait Artist Of The Year

Punk Night tomorrow by the look

I thought 'Danny Dyer on Harold Pinter' on Sky Arts was some kind of pisstake, but apparently Dyer worked with Pinter and is a big fan, so fair dos.

I watched a thing about John Belushi which was quite poor (and had an odd, stilted, machine-translated-back-and-forth voiceover), and "Rankin's 2020", which obviously fulfilled my long-held wish for EXIF data to pop up onscreen when showing pro-grade photographs, but was still unsatisfying. Still, it beats Border Patrol on ch11.

Horror Channel is showing the old Universal monster films on monday lunchtimes. I'm guessing Dracula was on first, i caught Frankenstein (1931), missed The Mummy (1932). Wolfman (1941) is on tomorrow, and Creature from the Black Lagoon is on the 8th.

so, some years ago i turned the tv on after midnight and caught the middle of a film about an american soldier's night in britain - failed visit to prostitute, picked up in a pub and rolled by the woman's compatriots, falls (mutually) for (very shy) barmaid, gets chased by the military police. curious little film.

i caught it, again by accident, about two months later, but again not all of it.

last night i taped something on spec from Talking Pictures. "A sensitive story of two airmen. One with a terrible injury and one dealing with life" and it's the film i didn't know the name of. "During One Night" it's called, barmaid is Susan Hampshire.

(said terrible injury, the bit i'd missed before now, is losing his penis (probably more). whilst still a virgin (hence prompting the other one's visit to the prostitute). kills himself over it in the end)

This Caesar and Cleopatra on Talking Pictures at the moment is kinda terrible but the colours are lovely, totally unlike the kind of colours you'd get on modern film. some are a touch too subtle, some are more vivid than you'd expect.

clip here: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2847670553?playlistId=tt0038390&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi

failed visit to prostitute, picked up in a pub and rolled by the woman's compatriots, falls (mutually) for (very shy) barmaid, gets chased by the military police. curious little film.

this sounds a bit like the plot of saturday night and sunday morning

It does.

I've been watching a lot of Freeview films this week! I now buy TV CHOICE to tell me about them in advance!

some are a touch too subtle, some are more vivid than you'd expect

Three-strip Technicolour! Very slow film (needed intense lighting), and complex cameras. Jack Cardiff was one of the DoPs on that (script by George Bernard Shaw from his own play).

This week:

Tuesday: BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH better known as OUT OF THE PAST, on Sony Movies Classic

Wednesday: NOTORIOUS on Talking Pictures

Thursday: ANIMALS on Film4

and coming up Friday: IN THE LINE OF FIRE on Sony Movies

Tuesday: BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH better known as OUT OF THE PAST, on Sony Movies Classic

This is on all the time. "They Live By Night" is on a lot too. Freeview is definitely good for film noir!

The Innocents tonight, for creepy Henry James fun
The Man Who Fell To Earth
and The Rebel all on over the weekend on TP. try and spot Nanette Newman...

I missed all those, Koogs. I did watch OUT OF THE PAST. But I have never seen THEY LIVE BY NIGHT!

NOTORIOUS and ANIMALS were both really good in different ways.

This week has presented: THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, OUR MAN IN HAVANA, TRUE ROMANCE, ALL MY SONS. I'm afraid I didn't catch any of them.

What I *did* watch on Tuesday was TIGER BAY (1959) on Film4. Tremendous! So worth watching.

Tonight on Sky Arts is a documentary on THE WHO SELL OUT.

Sunday on 5Select at noon: WENT THE DAY WELL? Tucked away but apparently a good and important film, I will try to watch.

The Mind Benders on TP. never even heard of it before. Dirk Bogarde in a sensory deprivation tank, lovely shots of him just floating there in a wetsuit whilst he goes slowly mad.

Quite a few of Martin Scorsese's 50 Overlooked British Films (like the Mind Benders and Went the Day Well) turn up regularly on Talking Pictures.

If you'd told me that was Talking Pictures schedule for the next few months I'd have believed you, in fact "The Nanny" was on Talking Pictures last Saturday, the night after "The Innocents" was on. "The Pumpkin Eater" is on all the time, but not on Talking Pictures.

there was another geat british film list on twitter around the time of the baftas, but it was an image and the source link was broken so i never found out just what it was about. it was a fascinating mix of things i like and things i'd never heard of.

found it

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EyuAFK0WYAYQt3c?format=png&name=900x900

the white bus?
the whisperers?
keep you seats please?

"The White Bus" is that Lindsay Anderson 'free cinema' thing with Arthur Lowe et al?

Keep Your Seat please is george formby, so an acquired taste.

you're right about the white bus too, also: "Writer: Shelagh Delaney". don't recognise any of the shots though.

whisperers looks good too, nanette newman...

Super Cyclone (2012) on Sony Movies. terrible. looks like one of the tv movies they normally show on Horror during the day. only the first two people on screen were detective Martinez from NYPD Blue and Dr Chen from er (and later Agents of SHIELD)

Author of list very keen on films that start with the definite article. The Innocents is so good – saw it when it was reissued in cinemas a few years ago. Never heard of The White Bus or the other two you mention either, koogs.

I've also never heard of The Reckoning, or, closer to now, Paperhouse either.

Paperhouse is the horror-ish one with the girl who draws a house that becomes real. saw it at the time (whilst at uni?) but not since.

I would like to watch THE WHITE BUS!

This week:

Monday 9pm was THE CHAIN