Discover your TV program of the week in ten nuggets!
Sunday:
The Last Emperor
Directed by Bernardo BERTOLUCCI
With John Lone, Peter O'Toole
Biopic, historical / France, China / 1987 / 2h25
20h50 on Gulli
Synopsis: The evocation, almost on the dimensions of China, of the life of the last emperor Pu Yi. From 1908, when he ascended to three years on the imperial throne to 1967, the end of his life when he became gardener of the Beijing Botanical Park, through the Chinese revolution during which he was re-educated.
Apart from a few lengths on the first part of the film, which presents the life of the emperor in his forbidden city, difficult to avoid because of a monotonous existence, the feature film is of incomparable quality. Not to mention the historical, cultural and political interest, Le Dernier Empereur is of breathtaking technical quality: magnificent photography, sumptuous sets and costumes, direction of countless actors and extras perfect and above all music in perfect harmony with the theme. Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Set Design, Best Costumes, Best Sound, Best Editing, and Best Music.
Monday:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Directed by David FINCHER
With Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
Drama, fantasy, romance / USA / 2009 / 2h35
8:55pm on France 3
Synopsis: "Curious fate that mine… " Thus begins the strange story of Benjamin Button, this man who was born at the age of 80 and lived his life upside down, without being able to stop the course of time. Set in New Orleans and adapted from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film follows his tribulations from 1918 to the present day. The strange story of Benjamin Button: the story of an extraordinary man. His encounters and discoveries, his loves, his joys and his dramas. And what will always survive the grip of time…
Far from being considered David Fincher's best film (Seven, Fight Club, Gone Girl), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button offers an unexpected prism, staging the rejuvenation of a man over time. Fincher reverses the course of existence, grants old age and learning, then youth and experience, he imagines, once the course of existence is reversed, what would happen in the time of a lifetime. Many existential questions about death, life, old age and love are put forward. Feelings, powerful states, magnified by the talent of filmmaker of a great director with stunning photography and aesthetics always very worked. Oscars for Best Set Design, Best Makeup and Best Special Effects.
58 Minutes to Live
Directed by Renny HARLIN
With Bruce Willis
Action / USA / 1990 / 2h03
20h55 on W9
Synopsis: Police Inspector McClane waits for his wife's plane to land at an international airport near Washington. Strange comings and goings attract his attention. It follows men who discreetly communicate with each other to the basement of the airport. There, unknown assailants shoot him and mercenaries take control of the airport, cutting off all communication with the outside. The passengers of the planes ready to land, including McClane's wife, have only fifty-eight minutes to live!
While John McTiernan abandons his role as director, this opus does not reach the level of the original, or even its sequel. John McClane changes his status: he abandons his image of unlucky anti-hero in the wrong place at the wrong time forced to fight body and soul to save his wife and incidentally the other hostages, and becomes here a hero with a big heart pure and simple. A transformation that had displeased McTiernan. The feature film still offers some entertaining action sequences despite a sometimes wobbly scenario and a finale, in addition to being unrealistic, quite boring.
Tuesday:
Alone in the World
Directed by Robert ZEMECKIS
With Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt
Drama / USA / 2001 / 2h23
8:55pm on France 4
Synopsis: Chuck leaves Los Angeles on a small plane. But over the Pacific Ocean, a thunderstorm breaks out and takes the crew by surprise. The crash is inevitable. Clinging to a life raft, Chuck runs aground on a desert island. Days pass and no help in sight.
The director of Back to the Future signs with Alone in the World a poignant drama honoring the talent of Tom Hanks alone in front of the camera in the vast majority of the feature film. The actor once again proves his acting skills, while Zemeckis signs a moving work highlighting the behavior of a human being alone with himself. The spectator follows the psychological, physical and sentimental evolution of the character in the dramatic condition in which he finds himself sad. Only in the World demonstrates before Flight the ability that Zemeckis possesses to film a plane crash while the film stages one of the most painful separations in the history of cinema with a certain Wilson.
And for a few dollars more
Directed by Sergio LEONE
With Clint Eastwood
Western / Italy / 1966 / 2h10
20h45 on ParisPremière
Synopsis: "The Indian", a cruel and crazy bandit, has escaped from prison. He prepares to attack the bank of El Paso, the best guarded in the West, with about fifteen other criminals. The Penguin and Colonel Douglas Mortimer, two competing bounty hunters, decide, after a tense confrontation, to finally team up to stop the bandits. But their motivations are not necessarily the same…
Sequel to For a Fistful of Dollars, Sergio Leone, Ennio Morricone and Clint Eastwood, the infernal trio, offer a successful western, in line with the first opus, completely mastered, carried by a hypnotic throbbing staging, a music with little onions and the taciturn acting of Eastwood. A notch below the last opus of the trilogy, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, this second episode remains no less a nugget of the genre and a timeless classic.
Wednesday:
Match Point
Directed by Woody ALLEN
With Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson
Drama, romance / USA / 2005 / 2h03
8:55pm on France 4
Synopsis: A young tennis teacher from a modest background, Chris Wilton is hired in an upscale club in the beautiful districts of London. He soon sympathized with Tom Hewett, a young man of high society with whom he shared his passion for opera. Soon, Chris regularly frequents the Hewetts and seduces Chloe, Tom's sister. As he prepares to marry her and sees his social situation transform, he meets Tom's beautiful fiancée, Nola Rice, a young American who has come to try her luck as an actress in England…
One of the major works of the romantic, depressive and neurotic Woody Allen. Match Point is the perfect representation of the passion of human feelings, the madness that these can provoke in the minds of individuals. A powerful, ironic, theatrical and dramatic beauty is staged, which goes through a duo of physically beautiful actors and completely invested in their roles, by a fair and precise scenario and by the representation of love emotions very rightly transcribed. This dark and dramatic story offers the beauty of this feeling but also the other side of the coin in a stunning finale.
Thursday:
Arrest me if you can
Directed by Steven SPIELBERG
With Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, Jennifer Garner
Drama, comedy, thriller / USA / 2003 / 2h21
21h00 on C8
Synopsis: In the sixties, the young Frank Abagnale Jr. is a master at fraud, going so far as to embezzle $2.5 million and appear on FBI lists as one of the ten most wanted individuals in the United States. A true chameleon, Frank has identities as diverse as those of airline pilot, doctor, university professor or assistant prosecutor. Carl Hanratty, a strict-looking FBI agent, is hunting down Frank Abagnale Jr. its priority mission, but the latter remains elusive for a long time…
Without ever being Manichean, Spielberg offers with Catch me if you can his historical inclination, his vocation to tell true stories without artifice, tries to seduce and touch the viewer with facts, certainly sometimes magnified, but always inked in reality. He succeeds here perfectly well by retracing this hallucinatory story that relies heavily on the duo of actors and their ambiguous relationship. Sometimes punctuated by a few lengths, the feature film is an exciting story and well exploited from the cartoon credits.
Death in the Skin
Directed by Paul GREENGRASS
With Matt Damon, Brian Cox
Action / USA / 2004 / 1h49
20:55 on NT1
Synopsis: For two years, former CIA agent / hitman Jason Bourne and his companion Marie have managed to deceive their pursuers at the price of unfailing vigilance. This peaceful village in Goa should have been their last refuge. Vain hope. Two years earlier, Jason had vowed revenge on anyone who revived him. He will keep his word…
In 2004, Paul Greengrass continued the best pure action saga since James Bond initiated by Doug Liman. Directed by Matt Damon, Death in the Skin is a solid film, with impressive action and very physical, also supported by an effective and intelligently written script. Death in the Skin, and the other opuses, are effective and brilliant feature films while the latest adventure released this summer has disappointed many fans.
Schindler's List
Directed by Steven SPIELBERG
With Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
History / USA / 1994 / 3h15
20h55 on Chérie25
Synopsis: Evocation of the war years of Oskar Schindler, son of an industrialist of Austrian origin who returned to Krakow in 1939 with the German troops. Throughout the war, he protected Jews by making them work in his factory and in 1944 saved eight hundred men and three hundred women from the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
Despite an obvious departure from the reality of the historical facts put forward by historians, Schindler's List is an absolute masterpiece. Staging the horrors of the Holocaust, Steven Spielberg certainly signs here his best film succeeding, in the manner of Roman Polanski with The Pianist, to capture the horrors of this holocaust without leaving an undeniable fluidity and respect. With a Dantesque direction and actors at the top of their art, Ralph Fiennes in the lead, a true horror icon, the filmmaker certainly signs the best film of all time on this infamous genocide. Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Set Design, Best Editing and Best Music.
Bodyguard
Directed by Mick JACKSON
With Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston
Thriller, Romance / USA / 1992 / 2h09
20:55 on TMC
Synopsis: Frank Farmer, a former secret service agent, is a distinguished bodyguard who has put his talents at the disposal of two presidents and many internationally renowned financiers and politicians. One day the impresario Bill Devaney offers him an advantageous contract to ensure the protection of his client Rachel, actress and singer in full rise, threatened by an unknown fan.
Whether technically, artistically or writing, Bodyguard is nothing exceptional. But the duo formed by Costner and Houston emerges a powerful attachment and an unexpected tenderness. A classy and famous duo, the alchemy works, the viewer is caught, and formatted to be touched. Simple and effective, which has become cult over time for an entire generation.
